Give War A Chance

Nick Kristof blasts our Nobel Peace Prize winner's passivity in Syria and Sudan:

Yet the president is taking prudence to the point of paralysis. I’m generally an admirer of Obama’s foreign policy, but his policies toward both Syria and Sudan increasingly seem lame, ineffective and contrary to American interests and values. Obama has shown himself comfortable projecting power — as in his tripling of American troops in Afghanistan. Yet now we have the spectacle of a Nobel Peace Prize winner in effect helping to protect two of the most odious regimes in the world.

If these polled well we would be at war tomorrow. What Mr. Kristof needs to do is outline a plan under which Obama can launch these wars, energize the anti-war left, transfer responsibility for the wars to the House Republicans, and then campaign as the candidate who will end these distracting foreign adventures and focus on rebuilding America.

Tricky.

Comments

[Rick Ballard]

"Yet now we have the spectacle of a Nobel Peace Prize winner...

making his own snuff films, using Predators like a kid addicted to Grand Theft Auto jabbing the buttons on his controller in order to slaughter anything which moves.

Oh well, it sure avoids the theoretical moral dilemma involved in utilizing enhanced interrogation techniques.

Has anyone heard how the weather has been down at Gitmo recently?

[Danube of Thought]

I don't just want him removed. I want him removed and marked forever as a catastrophic failure.

[Clarice]

Man , Rick, yu and DoT must be reading my mind (such as it is today).

[MarkO]

Marked, shunned, ridiculed, hounded, and driven before mine face.

[matt]

we have done so well in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya! So what are a couple more hell holes?

I am coming to believe through my reading of the incredible corruption of these peoples; the overarching insanity of our own reconstruction efforts, and the reports of sane individuals from in theater that we are accomplishing almost nothing except feeding the maw of our military- industrial complex at the end of the day.

In one of my current reads, a former State FSO comments that a GSA study of all spending in Iraq in '05-'06 noted:

27% - direct project costs
30% - security
12% insurance & int'l salaries
10% overhead
6% profit
15% graft in Iraq

The actual clean water pumped and sewage processed dropped in 2005 from 2002 by 30% despite our spending of billions of dollars.

There are no logistics and support infrastructures once they build these facilities either, so they grind them down until they fail and then abandon them and blame America.

In the meantime we repeatedly drop ourselves right in the middle of some of the worst tribal conflict on the planet. It makes the Last of the Mohicans look like Bambi.

I watched Hotel Rwanda the other night and realized that it is only through the inculcation of Western ideals that real progress is achieved. These places will always remain the same simply because they do not buy into the concept of civilized society.There are simply thin veneers of manners or mannerisms even, or especially at the top.

One can better understand the use of cruise missiles and Predators when one accepts that fact that the only way to put the villains down is through the assassination of the most evil miscreants at the top on a continuing basis.

The rationalization for strong men has always been order.But when they use mass violence to achieve that end, what then?

Economically and practically, we are at the end of the tether. The methods tried have been proven to be badly flawed.

What is weird is that back in the bad old days of a bipolar world order the Americans built an incredibly successful irrigation system in Afghanistan and the Russians built some pretty good roads. It lasted from the 1950's into the late 70's and only decrepitated because of the shattering of civil society.

I don't have any real answers, but at least I am gaining some understanding. So many of the issues boil down to those resolved by the Renaissance, the Reformation, and modern good governance practices.

[Clarice]

You know, Kristof was about when i entered this place..He was peddling the Wilson crock .

[Jane]

I'm beginning to think we should just dust off the nukes.

[Joan]

The problem with government spending growth is that we have more government workers, making larger salaries than those in the private sector who are paying the salaries of government workers with hard-earned private salaries taxed, taxed, taxed.

A quote from Charles Tips says: "It is the four-fold growth of the public sector over the last fifty years that has brought the economy to a halt. Yes, our 30-million government and public-education workers pay taxes, but they pay it from tax revenues. In other words, earners in the private sectors had to first earn the money and pay their taxes for public-sector workers to receive their salaries, benefits and the money with which to pay their taxes; there's no net gain.
"And so it is that, while in 1960 there were 18 private workers for every public one, there are now four for each one. And in 1960 it took the taxes of two private workers to cover the cost of a public worker; now it takes three. Thus, in 1960, the taxes of 16 out of every 19 taxpayers, public or private, could go to programs and infrastructure. Now, the taxes of only one out of five go to programs and infrastructure, and there, in a nutshell, is why we are forced to borrow so much money with no chance to rein it in until we restore the size of government well back toward 1960 levels.
"If you follow the ramifications of this scenario, it means that out of every five tax dollars collected, we are spending four to administer the spending of the other ONE dollar, an insanely inefficient rate. Even borrowing almost three more dollars, which we should not have to be doing, we are still paying more than a dollar to administer the spending of a dollar.
"Back when I did business modeling, 40% was the outer limit for labor expenses for the most labor-intensive companies (as government would be). Though it's difficult to determine from the pie charts what part of our overall government spending covers labor, it appears to be on the order of 80%. Seems to me that to restore any sanity to government spending we need to scale it so that one dollar of labor covers at a minimum three dollars of program and other spending.
"You and anybody else who like this argument can feel free to steal it as your own. I find that the realization that public-sector workers don't truly pay taxes in any real sense when I explain it to my many progressive friends, once it slowly seeps in either shocks them or causes a fit of denial with obvious unease that there may be some truth to it, though I doubt we'll be able to nudge **** that far along."

Sorry for the long post quote, but this explained our dilemma, making it easy for me to understand, and does it in a much better way than I usually do. I'm usually so ticked off I find it hard to express myself.

[Jane]

Clarice,

What can we look forward to at 4:00AM?

[Jane]

Great post Joan!

[Clarice]

The Wintour of our Discontent, Jane.

[Clarice]

Joan, if you do this well "ticked off", I surely look forward to what you write when you are calm.

[Janet]

This is something - up at Instapundet.
Bozo the Jurist

"I was struck by the appalling performance of the presiding judge, one C. J. Vaughey. As is increasingly the way with our decaying justice system, there is no easily searchable court transcript, only an audio tape that a few individual bloggers have been painstakingly transcribing. Judge Vaughey comes across as a near parodic combination of bluster, ignorance and narcissism:..."

and this -

"THE COURT: Forget Bradenburg [sic]. Let’s go by Vaughey right now, and common sense out in the world. But you know, where I grew up in Brooklyn, when that stuff was pulled, it was settled real quickly."

[Strawman Cometh]

And so it is that, while in 1960 there were 18 private workers for every public one, there are now four for each one. And in 1960 it took the taxes of two private workers to cover the cost of a public worker; now it takes three.
These numbers don't seem right to me. I don't disagree with the trend, no doubt, the number of private workers needed to support a public worker has risen, given that private workers are making less and public are making more. But both numbers seem low to me.

[Ike]

Excellent posts, matt and joan! They detail what happens when our government operates on impulse, whim and expediency rather than on principle. Let the people in other nations work out their own problems and troubles. All America ever gets for getting into other people's business is a black eye and having to pay the butcher's bill.

[Joan]

Matt's post is excellent (as usual) and I have come to agree with him about all international hell holes we've spent so much blood and treasure in, so often to no avail. People in those countries, for the most part, aren't civilized and responsible, their societies are archaic. Only limiting their ability to enter the USA with their hatred and their bombs is the only way to deal with them.

As far as my post, when I read Mr. Sims' comment and he said it could be used, I decided to use it. I do get inarticulate with disgust and anger when listening to liberals, democrats, leftists, obama, and their ilk in the media.

Wish I could be as witty and incisive with all of my comments as the rest of you...and our host. :)

[narciso]

The Times reporter, who was captured by the Taliban, and was freed by the same private network his paper subsequently compromised,
in his memoir shows how I believe it was Paktia province went down hill in that interim period, in part because we took the world of the ISI's crisply starched and properly Anglophile but secretly Salafi,
chieftains like Hamid Gul and imposed thelikes of sir Haqquani, In Iraq the great wisdom was too embrace the Baathist micro fraction of the Tikritis, missing the lesson that Nasser had taught us, sooner
or later, they take the Soviet's direction
after our Danegeld, that's how in Egypt we
ended with two Frunze graduate, at the top
of the Egyptian political and intelligence
establishment, Mubarak and Suleiman,

[gus]

Kristof generally likes Obama's foreign policy and his nicely creased pants.

What the FUX is Obama's foreign policy?
Pissing off our allies and letting the Muslim Brotherhood take over the middle east, all while shitting on Israel??

Talk about an amateur. Obama hasn't a clue.

[narciso]

David Sanger's book, is often more worthy on what isn't publicized as was is, Apparently,
that fellow Amiri, was the major source for
the 2007 NIE, and not Ashgari, Sanger also upbraids us for not knowing about Fekrizadeh,
the one who proved to us, that they really meant business, but not surprising Pillar
was not interested in that tale, If someone was on the payroll of General Intelligence,
or the Vevak would they act any differently.

[narciso]

Klaidman's, by contrast is very pedestrian, it opens with Richard Clarke, meeting Obama,
so you know they are on the wrong foot.
Clarke is given room to vent on how Iraq ws the wrong war, we were just too mean, yada
yada, the notion that aggress9ve interrogation worked to any degree, perish
the thought. Of course, Klaidman is at pains to explain how Gitmo returnees miss
the art class, and go straight to the PETN and the RPG, so doesn't endeavor to try.
Every wakeup call, leaving out Ft. Hood, just happens by gosh.

Clarke who took the occasion in one of his books, of writing all too sympathetic takes on what Wahhabi revolutionaries in the new
Republic of Islamiya, would sound like, This
tale is still thankfully in development hell. This was roughly the same time he wrote that dystopian tale of the terror wave, that never
came, in part because they perished in the Sands of Iraq, and they lost

[narciso]

the initiative when we nabbed KSM, and Abu Faraj Al Libi, and a host of others,

[Ignatz]

I'm not sure why we should stop at Syria or the Sudan.
There are hundreds of conflicts causing untold loss of life around the world.
Since strategic importance seems to have little influence on where we intervene why put a limit on it?
Think of the stimulus for the economy. Krugman would wet himself. Pelosi Galore could pose for an updated Rosie the Riveter poster.

[Jane]

The Wintour of our Discontent

How fun!

Andy McCarthy (the turncoat) nails it:

ANDREW MCCARTHY: Latest in Leak Farce: the ‘Special Counsel’ Folly.

Looking out at the dreadful but lovable 1962 Mets, Casey Stengel used to wail, “Can’t anybody here play this game?” Were he here to watch today’s not so lovable Republican leadership in action, “the Ol’ Perfessor” would be making the same observation.

As reported by PJM’s Bridget Johnson, with Beltway fixtures John McCain and Lindsey Graham pointing the way, the GOP has loudly demanded that Attorney General Eric Holder name a “special counsel” to investigate Obama administration leaks of national defense information to the New York Times. Seeing his opportunity to bury this embarrassing episode until after the November election, Holder is naturally accommodating them — or at least doing enough to appear to accommodate them that the media will applaud as the story goes dark.

The whole thing is a farce. You don’t need a special prosecutor to know who talked to the Times. All you need to do is read the two stories — the first on Obama’s assassination list and the follow-up on cyber-warfare. The Times tells you who its sources are.

[narciso]

Peter Benchley, whose stint as a White House reporter during the Johnson years, prepared him to deal with the water born scoundrels in Jaws, wrote a sort of roman a clef, Q Clearance that captured the absurdity of Washington,

[Clarice]

I knew you'd love the McCarthy piece--This time , of course, he's right. There's no hidden Armitage in this and it's a real leak.

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vjnjagvet]

The Einstein twins Graham and McCain are at it again. Andy McCarthy's final line says it all. Can't anyone play this game?

[narciso]

It's like they've taken 'the Emperor's New Clothes' as their guidebook, Brennan burnt
the spy we may not find again in a generation,
and the first rule of 'Iranian fight club is you don't talk about Iranian fight club,' btw,
Sanger rather helpfully prints the maps of all the routes one would need to attack Iran,

[Rick Ballard]

Narciso,

Nothing captures the absurdity of Washington better than AxelPlouffe vetting the Nobel Assassin's Kill List to make sure donor's checks have cleared prior to them receiving their This Hellfire's For You award from the President.

Syria is a Mahometan problem to be resolved internally by use of time (and Allah) proven methods. If Syrian insurgents were emboldened by the belief the President had their back on the basis of his infamous speech in Cairo, they'll be wiser soon enough. His alligator mouth has written hundreds of checks which his tweety bird ass can't cash. They should have consulted Trumka before making their move.

[simply stupid]

Pretty soon they will throw Biden under the bus say he was the leak and replace him with Hillary.

[Captain Hate]

McRINO and Miss Lindsey at it again? The deuce you say!!

[Clarice]

look at the bright side, Rick. I'd bet my bottom dollar that in Syria and re Iran the Saudis and Israelis are working together.

[narciso]

Honestly I think I had the tenor of the thing, with that obscure Tom Hanks vehicle,
'The Man with One Red Shoe' although the Inlaws written by the fellow behind Blazing Saddles, also captured the zeitgeist.

[Sara]

Please do not lose track of the fact that we are dealing with a group who suffer from severe arrested development. Not one has a mental age over 17 and many not over the age of puberty.

Howard Dean likens Mitt Romney, GOP to Ahmadinejad during liberal ‘Netroots’ conference

[gus]

I'm sure Woodward and Bernstein are hard at work breaking down this Obamystery.

[Sara]

There is no attempt by the children of the left to come to any solutions, it is just one manufactured crisis after another. Anything that can get a reaction for a day or two.

[daddy]

Dumbledore:

"What happened down in the dungeons between you and Professor Quirrell is a complete secret Harry, so, naturally the whole school knows."

[Captain Hate]

Was that the same Netroots conference that the Occupy idiots were protesting?

[narciso]

'they have perfect 'the argument clinic' and professional idioting to a science

http://dailycaller.com/2012/06/08/barney-frank-has-a-minor-meltdown-on-fbn-over-fox-bias/

[daddy]

Rse,

The pushback regarding this bit of Educational Censorship is a positive development:

School’s snub goes national

[gus]

Sara, governing sometimes gets in the way of vacations and gold. Obama doesn't have the ability to govern. He isn't even the master of his own domain,, It's all about politics and ideology.

[narciso]

No, Woodstein, is too busy on the full Norma Desmond routine, the Ministry of Magic is a good metaphor;

[gus]

Not gold.....golf.

[Sara]

Gus: With the umpteen gazillion fundraisers The Once has been haunting, I think gold works as well as golf.

[gus]

Yes, he's focused like a "laser" on jobs.

[Carol Herman]

The Emperor's New Clothes? You mean Bill Clinton, with his pants around his ankles, didn't suffice?

Besides, the Saudi's are probably doing the killing in Syria. Because they know what leads on the news.

And, as with Mubarak down in Egypt, what follows Assad could be a lot worse. Unless he just keeps holding on.

In 1982 the Israelis learned the hard way of crossing over their northern border, in Lebanon. THEY'LL NEVER GO BACK!

For millennia, now, these arabs have been killing each other! Why? It's tribal. Whatever borders you think you see, they were drawn by Western diplomats after WW1. But some people never learn.

[narciso]

Btw, the Seal that wrote that memoir which came out around the time of the Bin Laden hit,
has a novel out, somewhat a similar premise to act of valor.

http://www.amazon.com/SEAL-Team-Outcasts-Howard-Wasdin/dp/1451675666/ref=la_B004IRT0XO_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1339299683&sr=1-2

[Rick Ballard]

Clarice,

Russia is the card that's difficult to read. We know they won't mind Iranian production being taken off line but we don't know how much of their support for Assad is contingent upon him causing trouble for the Israeli efforts to get their gas field production up to the level where they can sell into the EU. Russia also has the Polish gas fields to contend with as potential rivals. They just forced BP out and it's hard to find the rationale there as well.

Putin is as ruthless and rapacious as any Russian ruler has been and I sure hope Governor Romney has time to review profiles of him prepared by other than Foggy Bottom Hillary hires.

[gus]

Rick, my brother works for the State Dept.currently in Iraq. Foggy bottom is Rodhams nickname.

[narciso]

Syria's is like the last item, that Russia has left to pawn, for a czar in all but crown,
he'll hold out to the last minute, like Le Chiffre's last hand, plus Obama's not going to do anything, Fredo's not worth the farthing.

[Jim,MtnView,Ca,USA]

Having posted this too many threads back, let me repeat it here, for the record we are trying for a "hat trick" in CA:
Along with San Diego and San Jose public emp pension votes, there was a statewide initiative on a new tax for tobacco.
Tax-and-spend lost on this issue too, though the margin was small. An ENORMOUS number of uncounted ballots exist still, 4 days later, what the hay? "This is a corrupt and Democrat state...but I repeat myself"
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2012/06/vote-count-on-tobacco-tax-in-tuesdays-primary-continues-to-narrow.html

[gus]

Narciso, imagine ANY competition between Putin and Obama. Putin is toying with Obama.

[Joan]

Narciso, Speaking of Seal memoirs, I just now read 'Lone Survivor, The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of Seal Team 10' by Marcus Luttrell and parts of it, especially the second half, made me weep.

So many good men lost. So much suffering. In stone age countries...that we'll never conquer or understand. May only great men lead our nation from now on and give them the wisdom to learn from history.

[Rick Ballard]

"Putin is toying with Obama."

Gus,

Why shouldn't he. Everybody else does. The UK, France and Italy got him to back their coup in Libya and are quite pleased with the outcome.

[gus]

What kills me the most about America's attitude towards Obama, is that his Grandparents, parents and all known associates are freaks and COMMIES.

Not kind of...sort of...COMMIES, but committed Marxists.

And it's still debatable????

All of Obama's actions, whether designed to destroy America or not, are actions seen thru the eyes of a Marxist.

[gus]

Rick, Obama went around the world apologizing for America, BEFORE he was elected.
The hard core bad dudes of this world, laughed their asses off at this man/child.
Obama is a College boy to them. And they are laughing.

[narciso]

The only thing that surprised me about Wintour's latest turn, is that judging from
'Devil Wears Prada' she used to be able to judge talent, but her latest moves are almost
unparodiable,

[henry]

Gus, the hard core badasses of the world were laughing then, but they can read polls as well as Rick B. Right now they're peeing their pants.

[narciso]

Well he got started over there, but as with everything strange in this world, he's our local boy, sheesh,

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/06/al-qaeda-new-number-two-brooklyn.html

[gus]

henry, you and I haven't talked this week. Walker won my brutha!! And he won BIG. I knew he would.
You and I, and every other normal productive Wisconsinite, had our best running shoes on, and we COULDN'T WAIT to vote.

[gus]

henry, the badasses must GET, while the GETTING is good. This is a dangerous time. I personally believe that Russia is fuxing with us, for the expressed purpose of fuxing with us. Syria, Egypt, Iran. Putin recognizes that Obama is a political pu$$y and nothing more. Nothing Obama has EVER DONE in foreign policy nor military policy has EVER included ANY RISK. He's a POLITICAL COWARD.

[henry]

Gus, right on! I finally had a chance to pop a champaign cork with the friends I went to the Tea Party with last Saturday. The gloat continues unabated. We agreed to double down our efforts for Nov. Frodo hasn't tossed the ring into the volcano yet, but we're getting there!

[gus]

henry, we are indeed getting there. The pundits don't want to believe that you and I are now "activists", but we are. And my friend, the TEA PARTY has NOTHING, that I disagree with.

[narciso]

One needs to know what the stakes of the game are;

http://theoptimisticconservative.wordpress.com/2012/06/08/reagan-1982-a-test-of-wills-and-ideas-a-trial-of-spiritual-resolve/#comments

[narciso]

An important site to consider as the going gets wierd and the wierd grow pro, in the LUN

[daddy]

Our State Republican Party appears to be in some sort of Wrestlemania match between the Ron Paulians, the Tea Partiers, and the 'Good Ol' Boy's network.

Narciso,

Perhaps you can make sense of this ADN story. Local news sez it is a residual fight to get Electoral Delegates to switch allegiance which the news sez is legal in this state. I know I don't know:

Worried that Ron Paul supporters would overtake the state Republican party convention Saturday, outgoing party boss Randy Ruedrich succeeded in ending the meeting before it could begin.

[Jane]

Spectacular Clarice!

[daddy]

Re: Clarice's Pieces:

Geez. I'd completely forgotten about The Coffee Party, that "grass roots answer to "The Tea Party". Ha! Why they were almost as legitimate as the "No Labels" movement to have Congress do bipartisan seating at the State Of The Union. Kumbayada,yada,yada!

Beautiful column, Clarice.

[Clarice]

Thanks..

[peter]

That Vaughey clod that Steyn wrote about is sadly, very typical of trial level judges, in my experience.

[pagar]

Clarice, this week's Pieces was one of your best.

[Clarice]

Thanks,pagar.
peter, trial judges in D.C. are fairly good for the most part, but in MD where they are elected my experience was that they were pretty bad.

[Clarice]

An excellent article by Krauthammer on the significance of what happened in Wisconsin:http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/302155/what-wisconsin-means-charles-krauthammer

[peter]

Two things:

Kristof's article is about a day late. Read the Belmont Club column of yesterday for the complete and final word on why the US cannot enter the Syrian conflict, and what that means for the world.

Secondly, at the LUN, the Slimes runs a piece on the evils of homosexuality.

[peter]

Clarice,
btw, excellent pieces, today.

Regarding judges, in New York, the trial judges are elected, but since the overwhelming majority of the electorate does not even know who is running, the nominees are picked in smoke filled back rooms, and are often hacks. In the five boroughs of New York City, the judges overwhelmingly are local Democratic club members who simply paid their dues. There are some exceptions, of course, but the ratio of hacks to legal scholars is very high.

[Jim Eagle]

Don't know if this has been posted but there is great new hash tag at Twitter in honor of the Belmont.

If you need a laugh or two to wake up go to Twitter and #Obamahorsenames.

[I Smell Climate Science Spirit.]

Alright, this came from a conversation with suyts, about Obama's distinction of public and private sector. The Alienator is making a class distinction.
==========

[Jim Eagle]

Another wonderfully satirical Sunday with Clarice.

I had not seen the Wintour ad before because I cannot stand that particular skank but she certainly lived up to her elitist credentials. I am surprised that she felt obliging to Obama and not the other way around.

[Jim Eagle]

Mark Steyn is "en fuego":

Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Diamond Jubilee a few days ago — that’s 60 years on the throne. Just to put it in perspective, she’s been queen since Harry S. Truman was president. At any rate, her jubilee has been a huge success, save for a few churlish republicans in various corners of Her Majesty’s realms from London to Toronto to Sydney pointing out how absurd it is for grown citizens to be fawning over a distant head of state who lives in a fabulous, glittering cocoon entirely disconnected from ordinary life.

Which brings us to President Obama.

Read the whole thing

/apologies if posted before

[Give that man some ice cream.]

c, don't sit by the base case.
===========

[Hiya, Peter.]

Oh, gee, 'bass case'.
========

[pagar]

"Give war a chance"

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/06/it-begins-obama-to-move-brigade-of-3000-us-soldiers-to-africa-to-battle-hunger/

Haven't we tried this before?
----------------------------------------
I believe comment #2 by DOT needs to be expanded to all members/supporters of the Obama Admin.

The comments on this thread so far have been really especially the ones from Joan and Matt.

[Jane]

I entered that JIB, and it came up "no results".

[AliceH]

The Krauthammer column linked by Clarice gives me the excuse to post one of my favorite paintings.

Here's a close up of Icarus (from the lower-left of the painting):

[pagar]

My 08:45 should have the word Good between really and especially.

[GMax]

Dennis Miller

"I hear they just interviewed Al Libi in Hades and he is reported to have said that all things considered he would have taken the frat boy prank instead."

LOL

[Clarice]

"bass case"? Kim

Lovely painting, Alice..Yeah, appropriate, too.

[narciso]

Ah, forget it daddy, it's Anchorage, yes Ruedrich is harmless sheesh.

[Steve's near Tierra del Fuego. LUN for egergis behaviour.]

Try again, Jane; exc: 'overworked gigolo stggering punchily through the last mamba of the evening'. Come to the Dance @ Rio.

c, bigger than a viola, a rosa, play that numbah.

JiB, Obama, er, Osama couldn't have heard his own, but saw the muzzle flash. Presuming one immediately lethal round.
============

[GMax]

Joan

Stay ticked off. But channel it. Find a way to get 3 folks to the polls in November that may not have taken the time or effort otherwise. Even if they just do it to keep the ticked off one from going off on their sorry @sses, it will have been a productive use of the fury.

And yes, Lone Survivor brought a tear to my eye - when they told his mom he was alive. But the rules of engagement put down by politicians far from the fray need to change. We should not lose another young man to foolishness.

[narciso]

Great piece's Clarice, I know Tomasky is geting concerned, so even Shrum might not get on this Titanic, but never never.

[narciso]

Kim, you saw how they reinstated Gleick, for that scam, he pulled with the Heartland Institute.

[AliceH]

General Info: You don't need a twitter account to read tweets.

Here's a direct link to the tweets under hashtag #ObamaHorseNames

[centralcal]

Another beautiful Sunday morning, when I am able to start the day with a great big smile on my face, thanks to Clarice and the comments here.

[GMax]

Bob Shrum would be an improvement.

[Chubby]

Joan,

Another aggravating issue is that a lot of public sector workers don't have pension plans but they are forced to pay taxes to support the lavish pension plans enjoyed by public employees. That is wrong and unjust, and in the long run, not economically feasible.

[MarkO]

So good, Clarice.

[Captain Hate]

Mitch Daniels on FNS making some strong statements on the Wisconsin and California results. I've been outspokenly against the prospect of Daniels running for President but that doesn't mean that I don't think he's a very good governor and would probably be a sterling member of Romney's administration.

Now there are some public union humps on showing they've learned nothing from last week and are about as flexible as a crowbar. The dying gasps of extremely unsympathetic dinosaurs.

[Chubby]

oops...

((Another aggravating issue is that a lot of PRIVATE sector workers don't have pension plans ....))

[Janet]

Is he trying to look like a garden gnome?

[rse]

Thanks for the link daddy. Now the ads coming at me incessantly have to do with psychiatric and genetic services for teenagers. I am guessing that writing about social and emotional learning, bullying, and positive school climate has created a profile somewhere that I may have a family in crisis.

I am going to join matt & joan's fine points above. We are spending all that money we cannot afford and that doesn't count the pension and lifetime health current employees at ever expanding universities think they will get.

The point is that when the goal of education becomes "the merger of affect and reason" and limiting print literacy and substituting other forms of communication as equally valid and refusing to transmit the accumulated wisdom of the ages in anything other than basic concepts to interact with via group projects we REALLY have a problem. Many of those employees we cannot really afford are making and firing cultural bombs that take out the elements of individuality that make an economy work.

Citizens with little knowledge driven primarily by emotions may make them politically malleable but we will regress. I joke some about the degrowth conferences but apart from what is intentional in all this, these fools have no clue about the unattended consequences. They really do seem to believe all these changes won't affect the size of the pie they plan to redistribute.