Now they’re accusing Palin of making rape victims pay for their own rape kit.
At the link above, you can read all about it, and about what was omitted from the USA Today story that made the charge.
The USA Today story continues the pattern of the NYTimes, of quoting Palin enemies in Alaska, without counterbalancing perspectives, and leaving out essential facts.
Sep 17 2008
More Palin-phobia
Sep 11 2008
Presidential Forum lowlights
Tonight, in the Presidential Forum on Service, held at Columbia Univ in NYC, we heard John McCain’s service in Vietnam and in the Hanoi Hilton compared to Obama’s service as a “community organizer”, by one of the moderators.
Was I the only one who was disgusted with this particular comparison?
I could not help but notice the sullen audience response to McCain pointing out that many universities, including Columbia, do not allow ROTC recruiters to come to campus. A few, sadly few, applauded loudly… and the rest sat in stony silence and obvious disapproval.
The continuing hostility of the elite academic institutions to our military is a national disgrace.
Sep 04 2008
Universal lifestyle coverage
Bluntly, the huge majority of people who “can’t afford health insurance” of any kind at any level have simply made other choices. They need to:
1) turn off all the devices that don’t need to be on (save money on electricity),
2) drive less,
3) eat at home, simply, no fast food, don’t buy expensive prepared meals from the freezer section, buy basic foods and prepare meals to a menu,
4) turn in their cell phones back to the phone company and cancel the plan (paying the turn off fee if they must… they’ll still save money),
5) cancel satellite or cable tv plan (you can live without tv if your antenna doesn’t work… really),
6) cancel internet service (use the library for “research” and email, listen to the radio for news),
7) run the air conditioning in your home or apartment much less, or don’t use it at all, like the rest of humanity for all of human history,
8) give the expensive car back to the loan company, or better yet, don’t buy it to start with… drive a simple, reliable, middle aged car, and as little as possible,
9) knock off the “dollar here”, “dollar there” expenditures on soda, coffee, etc.
10) refuse to buy gadgets, trinkets, techno toys, designer clothes and shoes, etc.
11) review all the ways they spend money, and impose some budget discipline, not spending on anything that isn’t really essential.
12) maybe consider getting a job, if they don’t have one, and are able.
This sort of thing used to be taught in economics courses in high school, both “regular” economics and “home” economics.
Sep 03 2008
Change of heart on universal health care
I may have had a change of heart about universal health care, i.e., government funded health care for people who can’t afford it.
Herewith, my modest policy proposal:
In order to be fair to the taxpayers who are going to fund this health care program for the uninsured, we need to be sure that only people who have no other option are going to get healthcare on the public dime. For that reason, a simple means test will be employed, to make sure that people who want government funded health care are people who couldn’t possibly afford the coverage themselves, and who are not simply operating with other financial priorities that use the money they could have spent on health insurance.
As a simple assessment philosophy, I propose that to qualify a person must prove they can only afford to live at or below the common living standard of the middle class in 1948, with no excess cash left over for frills. No one in the middle class of the USA in 1948 was “poor” by any sane standard, nor should they be considered so now.
Aug 20 2008
Clarence, Barack, Clarence, Barack…. Clarence! part two
Continuing to point out the surpassing silliness of Obama criticizing Thomas’ preparation to be on the Supreme Court, the commentary swells.
Obama is such a rookie. Does he think about the responses that people are likely to make to his assertions? His ability to “look ahead” and consider possible objections, and employ some foresight in how he makes his points, seems severely restricted.
The Clarence Thomas comment is classic Obama. How could it not occur to him in advance that whatever accusations he makes of inexperience on Thomas’ part would also apply to Obama?
Answer: messiahs are always young, so normal standards don’t apply. I think he genuinely believes himself to be in a different category. He is captive to his own press releases and self-image, and it blinds him to the obvious until the words have already left his mouth.
Aug 16 2008
Rick Warren, Obama and McCain, reactions live
I just listened to the first hour, the hour of Obama and Warren. Live blogging from here out.
Obama was smooth, spoke better and stuttered less than he frequently does when speaking “off the cuff”.
Continue reading “Rick Warren, Obama and McCain, reactions live”
Aug 11 2008
Russia invades US ally, Georgia: what will we do?
Let’s not mince words. Russia has invaded the nation of Georgia. I’m glad we have a President Bush and not a President Kerry right now.
Despite the idiotic New York Times headline at the link above (when Hitler invaded Poland, would the NYTimes have reported “Polish fight continues”?… Hmm… maybe they DID), Russia is a completely untrustworthy actor in this, and completely unbelievable when it says that the action is only to “defend civilians from Georgian aggression”. Particularly since it continues to move deeper into Georgian territory, and has just taken a city, Gori, in the middle of Georgia. This is not a “border clash”.
Russia’s claims of distorted Western press coverage are risible…. this from the nation that murders troublesome journalists as state policy.
Russia is the third most deadly country for journalists, after Iraq and Algeria, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, which says Politkovskaya was at least the 43rd journalist killed for her work in Russia since 1993.
If the West does not act fast, it will be too late, and there will no longer BE a nation of Georgia. And Russia’s appetite will not be sated.
Think Obama is up to handling this kind of thing?
Shudder
UPDATE: Dick Morris on the parallels to Hitler’s 1938 invasion of Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia.
UPDATE: Powerline on the oil pipeline angle. The unbelievable part is that apparently the Russians missed when attempting to bomb the pipeline. But they’ll try again.
UPDATE: The question, will we do anything about it? h/t: Instapundit
UPDATE: Anti-war groups all over the USA organize to protest the Russian invasion of Georgia. NOT
Aug 10 2008
To young, Christian Obama supporters
Hugh Hewitt has written a pamphlet available online in either print or pdf form, called “Letter to a Young Obama Supporter“. It costs $6.00. If you’re a young Obama supporter, it likely contains information you’ve never heard, and should, if you really want to understand the issues.
In it, Hewitt focuses mainly on two issues, the economy and the Islamic terrorist threat. But first, he explains his understanding of why Obama is so attractive to young idealists, acknowledges Obama’s skill in delivering speeches, etc. He wants the twenty-somethings to understand that he “gets it”, the appeal of Obama and his “new kind of politician” image. Hewitt understands the excitement that millennials, perhaps the least racist generation in American history, have in seeing an African-American candidate get so far
He calculates, correctly, I think, that twenty-somethings who are already in Obama’s camp are probably not particulary concerned about abortion, gay marriage, Obama’s connections to black liberation theology, 1960s radical leftist American grown terrorists, corrupt local political fixers in the Chicago political machine, etc.
Not being quite as nice a person as Hewitt, I’ll just say that the young twenty-somethings are mostly ignorant of the association of black liberation theology with Communism (and the 100 million or so people murdered in Communism’s name in the 20th century). They are likely to know almost nothing about the phenomenon of radical leftist home-grown terrorists in the 1960s and 70s, and so won’t take seriously the fact that Obama associates with known conspirators to murder, assuming falsely that it is an exaggeration. (It is not.)
Aug 09 2008
Why The Twenty-Somethings Should Vote For Obama #2
Because the War on Islamic Extremism (the real meaning of “the war on terror”) is going to go on awhile. If Obama is elected, he will be likely to radically reduce the number of US troops recruited over the next 8 years (if he is a two-term president), meaning that my teenage son may be well into his twenties and established in a career before the president after Obama (or the one after that) finds it impossible to keep the USA out of war. Maybe my son can miss the war entirely. That’s good. I want grandchildren, and he has a disturbing sense of honor that might make him think he should volunteer, which won’t really be an option if Obama is just bombing from 30,000 feet like Clinton in Bosnia, or whacking tents and camel pens with Tomahawks, or whatever. Who cares if a couple of major US cities have serious terrorist attacks. I live in the boonies. All you urban twenty-somethings will just have to take what you get. Those of us with the good sense to live out of town aren’t too worried about bombs showing up in our PO Boxes.
Not so for the twenty-somethings, whose 5-10 year old children NOW are precisely the ones who are going to be fighting in the war that will inevitably follow 8 years of Obama “peace mongering” (that war will go on awhile, so that today’s 5 yr olds can enjoy it, too). My kids will be doing their part though, paying the taxes to fund the rifles and body armor for the children of the now twenty/thirty-somethings (but then thirty/forty-somethings). Your kids will have grown up seeing terrorist attacks getting feckless responses from THE ONE. They’ll be itching to volunteer when they come of age, and get some back, using all those skills gained playing Grand Theft Auto and Kill the Creeps on their WIIIIIs. Think how proud you’ll be.
I figure Obama will be the perfect Batman character (Dark Knight style, and no, that is not a racial comment…. don’t you go to movies?). He’ll refuse to run over the machine-gun-toting Joker when he has the chance (out of an excess of high moral feeling, even though the Joker has just murdered many innocents, and is threatening Batman), so that the Joker has a chance to murder dozens more… with the difference that it’ll be up to the next guy (Robin?) to go after the Joker and put an end to it (although Obama will spend lots of time talking about talking with the Joker before his presidency is over, and he will doubtless end his presidency feeling heroic and misunderstood, accepting salutes right and left from military officers glad to see him go).
The floor is open as to who President “Robin” will be. Certainly not Hillary. Or George Clooney. Maybe Bobby Jindal. Or Tim Pawlenty.
So: if you’re a twenty-something, a vote for Obama is a vote to keep my son out of war, and let your kids do it instead a few years later (they’re bound to have women carrying rifles by then…. hooray for equality). And anyway, I won’t need your kids to take care of me in old age… there will be plenty of nice, shiny new immigrants to do that (all legal, by then, of course). But cheer up: by then, the military are all going to have satellite computer connections in their helmets, so you should get lots of email from your kids, while mine will be visiting me most days in the old-muscians-home (extra luxurious), to make sure I have enough Doritos. I’ll bet live coverage of the wars will be incredible. Helmet cams for everyone.
Works for me. I like watching war movies on TV.
Aug 04 2008
Privatized Profit, Socialized Risk: the problem of public/private companies
Here is a really good creative capitalism idea. All Americans benefit from increases in home ownership because of the values like hard work, community, and respect for property that ownership instills. Families want desperately to own their own homes and accumulate equity. Yet it is very hard for conventional banks that borrow money over the short term to lend over the kind of 30-year horizons that best help families buy houses.
Continue reading “Privatized Profit, Socialized Risk: the problem of public/private companies”
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