Is The Cost of Freedom Too High? Totalitarian Socialism is Much Cheaper!

Is The Cost of Freedom Too High? Totalitarian Socialism is Much Cheaper!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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I’ve thought about it for a long while now and I have concluded that the US needs to recant its pledge not to be the first to use the atom bomb in a war/conflict. I mean, hey, we did it, already. Two of them, in fact! Perhaps you remember August 1945 and a place called Japan??? I do!
Look, we are allowing ourselvesSource: Faultline USA RSS Feed

Selected News For Oct 31 – Nov 6

This thread is for the busy bees of S&L to post articles that demonstrate the distortions and biases of our establishment media.

To make the articles as readable as possible, please stick to the format described here.

• Only post ‘hard news’ from establishment media outlets.
• Avoid editorials and ‘thought pieces,’ unless they are truly newsworthy.
• Eschew ‘major news’ items that most people will likely have seen elsewhere.
• ArticlesSource: Sweetness Light RSS Feed

the victory of the commons

Yesmagazine | The biggest roadblock standing in the way of many people’s recognition of the importance of the commons came tumbling down when Indiana University professor Elinor Ostrom won the Nobel Prize for Economics.
Over many decades, Ostrom has documented how various communities manage common resources – grazing lands, forests, irrigation waters, fisheries— equitably and sustainably over the long term. The Nobel Committee’s recognition of her work effectively debunks Source: subrealism RSS Feed

Pat Robertson denounces hate-crimes bill, falsely claims it doesn't cover religious bias

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[H/t Dave E/]

Yesterday, a genuinely historic moment passed with scarcely a blip of attention from the media: President Obama signed into law the nation's first genuine federal bias-crimes statute.

Everyone interested in advancing civil rights in America and defending the nation's minorities from the deprivation of their rights by terroristic thugs -- particularly their historic victims, from African Americans and AsianSource: Crooks and Liars RSS Feed

Bye, Hiram

From the NY Times:
With statewide elections a year away, the Queens Democratic Party will take the unusual step on Thursday of announcing its support for a primary challenger to embattled State Senator Hiram Monserrate, who was convicted of a misdemeanor assault charge two weeks ago.
José R. Peralta, 37, an assemblyman from Jackson Heights who is considered one of the party’s rising stars, said he would announce his decision to run for the seat whether or not Mr. Monserrate, aSource: Queens Crap RSS Feed

Afghanistan Poll: Good News For The White House, A Split Decision For McChrystal

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll today found that the public now supports sending more troops to Afghanistan...and not only that: a resounding 58 percent majority thinks it's best for President Obama to delay his final decision until after Afghanistan holds its presidential run-off election on November 7.
All this is good news for the White House: the American public supports Obama in exactly the two areas in which he faces political opposition. The left doesn't want more troops, whileSource: Marc Ambinder RSS Feed

Possible Philly transit strike looms over World Series

Game three of the World Series will be played in Philadelphia on Saturday night. The City of Brotherly Love is a hard-luck sports town, although the Phillies won their second world championship last year.
The Phils square off against the New York Yankees; the Fall Classic begins in the Bronx on Wednesday.
Philly fans, and New Yorkers who make the trip south on Interstate 95, might be in for some major league headaches on Halloween evening--workers for the local transit company,Source: Marathon Pundit RSS Feed

Let Them Eat Veal

Cappy actually stole the rest of theveal stuffoff ofthe table [source]

George Joyce

Immanuel Kant once observed that “he who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men.” I thought about Kant when I recently learned that the Obamas had graced their dog ‘Bo’ with a dog house shaped birthday cake made out of veal – that’s right, veal – the most expensive item on many a restaurant menu.

Winter is approaching and many American familiesSource: The Two Malcontents RSS Feed

Dems having a hard time recapturing the spirit of 2008

This is what happens when you get your man elected, after which he proceeds to disappoint everyone:

Some Democratic candidates running for local office around the country call the phenomenon the “Obama hangover.” It is proving tougher to recruit volunteers and get people to vote.

“It’s like the morning after the party,” Michael McGann, a Democrat running for clerk of courts in the Philadelphia suburbs, said in an interview. “The party was wonderful and exciting. TheSource: PoliGazette RSS Feed

Rumblers for the urban jungle

This is a story that needs to be told. On Sunday, the NYPD quietly announced that their fleet of patrol cars are being upgraded with "The Rumbler" a powerful siren that can be heard and felt. Here is now the news media is generally reporting it:
NYPD car sirens to vibrate
Here is what they are not reporting:
The vibrations can be heard and felt up to 200 feet away and can travel right through glass and solid objects. According to its manufacturer Federal Signal Corporation,Source: Queens Crap RSS Feed

Obama’s Chicago Way Stops at the Water’s Edge

Mark Steyn discusses the Obama-style of presidential leadership: Chicago tough on domestic media opponents, boot-licking to foreign adversaries.

If you’re going to attack the press, you need a lightness of touch, not a ham-fisted crowbar such as the White House wielded Thursday, attempting to ban Fox from the pool interviews with the “pay czar.” Another bit of venerable Disraelian insouciance, on the scribblers of Fleet Street: “Today they blacken your character,Source: Never Yet Melted RSS Feed

Sunday Classics: So why is this fellow William Tell so angry anyways?

With its singular geography, Lake Lucerne, known to German-speaking Swiss as the Vierwaldstättersee, the Lake of the Four Forest Cantons, links the three original cantons, Uri, Schwyz, and Unterhalden (which is now split, as shown on our map, into Obwalden and Nidwalden) as well as latecomer Luzern. The lake plays a vital role in Act II of William Tell.
by Ken
Other Europeans aren't overly fond of the Swiss, who are widely regarded as smug and complacent in the face of theirSource: DownWithTyranny! RSS Feed

Vulture Watches 'Antichrist' All the Way Through So That You Don't Have To

Curious about Lars von Trier's by-some-accounts-fascinating, by-all-accounts-nauseating film Antichrist, but unsure whether you can make it through the scenes of graphic genital mutilation? New York magazine's Vulture is here to help:

The squeamish will be happy to know that Antichrist's first hour is 100 percent mutilation-free. Sit back and relax! At the 65-minute point, though, you'll see Dafoe enter a shed and start flipping through some Polaroids of his dead son. This is your cue Source: The Plank RSS Feed

Morning Briefing for October 22, 2009

RedState Morning Briefing
For October 22, 2009 1. Remember the TARP Money? Yeah, It’s Gone.

2. Harry Reid Blames the AMA. Can’t Bring Himself to Blame RedState.

3. Charlie Crist Delenda Est

4. Pethokoukis: America’s Banana Republic Economy

———————————————————————- 1. Remember the TARP Money? Yeah, It’s Gone.

Via USA Today, TARP IG Neil Barofsky has some harsh words for the way the TARPSource: Red State RSS Feed

Obama to Skip Anniversary of the Fall of Communism ~ Guess He's In Mourning About It!

Obama to skip anniversary of the Fall of Communism

American Thinker

It is pretty clear why the president is refusing to accept the personal invitation of the German chancellor and attend festivities marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

It would smack of American triumphalism - our success in defeating perhaps the most odious of all the odious ideologies of the 20th century. Obama doesn't doSource: Theodore's World RSS Feed

AP: High Jobless Rate Is ‘New Normal’

From an utterly shameless Associated Press:

Higher jobless rates could be new normal

By Tom Raum, Associated Press Writer Mon Oct 19

WASHINGTON – Even with an economic revival, many U.S. jobs lost during the recession may be gone forever and a weak employment market could linger for years.

That could add up to a "new normal" of higher joblessness and lower standards of living for many Americans, some economists are suggesting.

The words "it’sSource: Sweetness Light RSS Feed

The President's Own

My daughter sent me a photo from a concert she attended last night in Santa Rosa featuring The President's Own, the U.S. Marine Corps Band which is touring the country right now (I'll bet they're glad to be away from the White House). I'm guessing she took this shot while they were playing "Stars and Stripes Forever" since it looks like the piccolos are out front.
I almost think she'd join if they'd guarantee her a spot in that band.

Source: HolyCoast.com RSS Feed

Reuters Publishes CAIR Press Release

From the erstwhile news outlet, Reuters:

CAIR Seeks Hate Crime Probe of Vandalism at Calif. Muslim Candidate’s Home

Fri Oct 16, 2009

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SFBA) today called on state and federal law enforcement authorities to investigate a possible bias motive for vandalism of the home of a Muslim woman who is running for elected office.

Source: Sweetness Light RSS Feed

Katrina Survivors Pay For Nagin’s Trips

From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

Mayor Ray Nagin’s trip to China and Australia cost city taxpayers more than $28,770

By Michelle Krupa, The Times-Picayune
October 18, 2009

As Mayor Ray Nagin and a gaggle of New Orleans officials headed to Cuba on Friday for a weeklong fact-finding trip about disaster preparedness, new details emerged about the mayor’s last international junket — chief among them that taxpayers largely wound up footing the bill for theSource: Sweetness Light RSS Feed

Somali Whip Women For Wearing Bras

From those supporters of the faith at Reuters:

Somali Islamists publicly whip women for wearing bras

Fri Oct 16, 2009

By Abdi Sheikh

MOGADISHU, Oct 16 (Reuters) – Somalia’s hardline Islamist group al Shabaab has publicly whipped women for wearing bras they say violate Islam by constituting a deception, north Mogadishu residents said on Friday.

The insurgent group, which seeks to impose a strict form of sharia Islamic law throughout Somalia,Source: Sweetness Light RSS Feed

Jacqui Smith humiliated as Geert Wilders UK ban overturned

Radio Netherlands are reporting that the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in London has ruled that Dutch politician Geert Wilders should not have been refused entry to the United Kingdom in February.This is a humilation for Jacqui Smith, Gordon Brown and this tawdry Labour Government. Mr Wilders said he was ‘very happy’ about the ruling. He said the British government decision to bar him had been politically motivated and described today’s ruling as ‘not a victory for me, only aSource: British Blogs RSS Feed

shale and our water

NYTimes | New York State’s environmental regulators have proposed rules to govern drilling in the Marcellus Shale — a subterranean layer of rock curving northward from West Virginia through Ohio and Pennsylvania to New York’s southern tier. The shale contains enormous deposits of natural gas that could add to the region’s energy supplies and lift New York’s upstate economy. If done carefully — and in carefully selected places — drilling should cause minimal environmentalSource: subrealism RSS Feed

Public Sector Gets Most From Stimulus

From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

State public-sector jobs benefit most from stimulus

By Dave Umhoefer and Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel

Oct. 13, 2009

Madison — The first solid – if still incomplete – employment numbers for federal stimulus spending by Wisconsin state government show that retaining government positions was job one.

Three-fourths of 8,284 stimulus-related jobs accounted for so far were public-sector posts protected bySource: Sweetness Light RSS Feed

October Cold Snap Sets 82-Year Record With High Of 47 Tuesday -Al Gore MIA

How do all you proponents of Global Warming and Al Gore explain away that little stat, as I can explain it pretty easily.......
The WORLD IS NOT WARMING, REPEAT IS NOT WARMING!!!

Ask Al Gore for a refund is all I can tell you people...
cbs2chicago.com: "October in Chicago is usually equal parts balmy T-shirt weather and nippy light jacket temperatures, but if it's felt more like winter coat weather this year, it's not your imagination.
Chicago has spent the lastSource: Chicagoray RSS Feed

big iron

http://boston.craigslist.org/nos/tls/142…

Two Big Old Cast Iron Band Saws.

36″ ‘F.A. White’ all set up with a 3 HP single phase motor, $900.

The other is 40″ ‘W.W. Carey’ with no motor - beautiful wheel castings. $ 800.

I imagine that the bandsaws look something like this:

http://www.owwm.com/photoindex/detail.as…

Wow.

If I didn’t already have more bandsaw than I need, I might beSource: dispatches from TJICistan RSS Feed

Report: Democrat Health Plan to Cost NH Businesses Hundreds of Millions

STEWARD STUDY: HEALTH CARE OVERHAUL PLANS INCLUDE HIDDEN COSTS FOR NEW HAMPSHIRE’S BUSINESS COMMUNITY

Economists’ Report Tells Granite State Businesses to Brace for Hundreds of Millions in New Taxes

CONCORD, NH – New Hampshire businesses would have to pay as much as $229 million to comply with Democrat plans to overhaul America’s health care system, according to a report released today by Concord-based STEWARD of Prosperity. Additionally, the creation of three newSource: GraniteGrok RSS Feed

Jim Cramer: Geithner Made Everybody Feel That the Banking System was Safe

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Chris Matthews and Jim Cramer praise President Obama, Ben Bernanke and Tim Geithner for saving us from another Great Depression while failing to note a number of things. One, what caused the financial collapse in the first place that resulted in the need to rescue it. Two, that we still don't know where all of our tax dollars went. And three, that the system is still not safe and as Simon Johnson just pointed out on Bill Moyers Journal,Source: Crooks and Liars RSS Feed

Are we really all Mayans now?

The fact that is one of the top stories on “Politico click” right now makes me wonder if we’ll make it to 2012:

TMZ has a video of former Olympian and “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” reality star Bruce Jenner weighing in on President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize win.

And I say all of this as someone that was quite fond of the Bruce Jenner collection.

Source: Balloon Juice RSS Feed

Obama Didn't Deserve It, But He Got It. Now What He Should Do With It.

President Barack Obama won that "it" I mention in the title above. Of course, "it" is the Nobel Peace Prize. Did he deserve it? Not in my view. He's new to the stage (only nine months into his presidency) and by the time all the nominations were in, he was only a couple of weeks into his presidency.

But I am not going to go into a tirade like conservatives and attack Obama for receiving an award he had no control over. This wasn't a presidential election. He did not campaign for this.Source: The Albany Project RSS Feed

Hearings and reports before hospitals close

From the Times Ledger:
A bevy of elected officials representing Queens at the city and state level gathered last week outside Jamaica’s Queens Hospital Center to call on Gov. David Paterson to sign a bill that would require the state to notify communities about hospital closings and plan more extensively for the fallout.
The bill, introduced by state Assemblyman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows), would force the state Health Department to hold public hearings in communities whereSource: Queens Crap RSS Feed

Green Diary Rescue & Open Thread: 350

A seven-member team at the Economics for Equity and Environment have concluded in The Economics of 350: The Benefits and Costs of Climate Stabilization that quickly reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere to 350 parts per million would have significant economic costs. But authors Frank Ackerman, Kristin Sheeran and Eban Goodstein say that these costs would, at worst, amount to foregoing less than one year’s normal growth of about 2.5%-3% of GDP. And they would beSource: Daily Kos RSS Feed

Thompson catching up to Bloomberg

From Bloomberg Watch:
The Thompson campaign forwarded over results from a SurveyUSA election poll sponsored by WABC-TV New York, which shows the Democratic mayoral challenger trailing Bloomberg by only eight percentage points. This shows much promise for Thompson since Bloomberg has spent a whopping $65 million in his run for a third term, compared to the $4 million Thompson has spent at this point.
"In an election for mayor of New York City 10/06/09, one month until votes areSource: Queens Crap RSS Feed

Chicago Loses, Conservatives Rejoice

Something has been bugging me all weekend.

I’ve never been to Chicago. From what friends and family have told me, The Windy City is indeed a great place. There is lots to see and do.

But you wouldn’t be told that if you asked any number of right-wing-talking-heads. To these folks, Chicago is a cesspool of corruption, filth and slime.

Michelle Malkin:

Goodbye, “Yes We Can.” Hello, “No, You Can’t.” Like Icarus, President Obama’s giddy egoSource: Donklephant RSS Feed

Knollenberg Spokesperson calls Animal Activist Campaign a "Distraction"

Nate Bailey, Joe Knollenberg's spokesperson seems to think Knollenberg's record on animal rights is just a distraction. What Nate and Joe apparently don't know is that the 9th District of Michigan has one of the highest concentrations of pet owners and members of the Humane Society in the country and Joe Knollenberg has one of the worst records on animal rights in the country. (Click here for Joe's Record.) Apparently Joe doesn't realize that there are even Republican voters that really careSource: Vote No on JOE RSS Feed

Slot cars!

These are two of my favorite cars.
40 years ago my brother and I would race 1/24 scale slot cars at home on a Marx track sold, at that time, at Sears. Now I have a collection of 55 1/32 scale cars and I'm in the process of building a track in the game room. I have actually found the Marx track on Ebay, but there are a number of brands that are available now. The cars are very detailed, fast and have braking action so you can drive hard to the corners, brake, then continue. Lots of fun. Source: Bay Area Houston RSS Feed

“Thou Shalt Not Covet!” A Commandment Against Socialism.

“Thou Shalt Not Covet!” A Commandment Against Socialism.
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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Let’s look at the definition of the word “covet.”
According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary the word “covet” means -- to desire (what belongs to another) inordinately or culpably -- or to feel inordinate desire for what belongs to another. Therein lie the roots of socialism -- toSource: Faultline USA RSS Feed

AGAIN Obama Bashed America This Time During His IOC Begging in Denmark

Obama can't help himself. Every time he crosses the border he has to bash this great nation. Yesterday he bashed America again during his plea with the IOC.

.

....check out the fascial expressions.......

WASHINGTON - OCTOBER 02: US President Barack Obama and his wife first lady Michelle Obama walk on the south lawn after arriving back at the White House on October 2, 2009 inSource: Theodore's World RSS Feed

Sketch of newborn’s alleged kidnapper

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Yair Anthony Carrillo, age four days, was abducted on Monday.

Gabriel Falcon
AC360° Writer

The Task Force investigating Tuesday’s abduction of a newborn baby in Nashville has released a composite sketch of the kidnapper. “The description was provided by the mother to a sketch artist from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation,” Kristin Helm, the bureau’s spokesperson, toldSource: AC360 RSS Feed