Links on a Sunday - great timewasters

And great testimonials to the power of the internet:

"Disorientation at Yale" -- I'm glad my freshman son is not going there. We need more professors stepping forward to lead, like these two at the University of Michigan. We need strong people willing to stand up in opposition to suppression of discourse and free inquiry by political correctness. Tenured professors are in a better position to do this than are incoming freshmen students.

For all the nonsense propagated on college campuses these days, there are plenty of real thinkers producing amazing things--like high speed robotic hands. How long before these little gizmos can be running around picking our pockets (and otherwise kicking our butts) without our even knowing what just happened?

From Uncle Kelly, a hilarious animated short of about a cat...just like our cat. My daughter and I were shrieking with laughter. This artist Simon really nails it.

Speaking of cats, the famous online phenom, Nora the piano-playing cat, now has had her own concerto composed just for her. I even kinda like it as music. I really like it as a cat show! Good kitty!

A Japanese Buddha sculpture made from dead insects (we loved the soundtrack background). We still want to go to Japan someday!

A doll/action figure that looks just like...you? Narcissistic much?

Twelve stunning rooftop gardens (I would like to visit them all.)

"How Different Groups of Americans Spend Their Day" - from The American Time Use survey. This clever graphic chart is especially intriguing for how it interacts when you move the cursor around.

How about an online Translation Party? Only works in Japanese, tho. Can you stump it? I did.

A Russian advertisement/video: How to hide from your customers if you are an unreliable company! Made me laugh. Of course, the Russians have had generations of practice at being both unreliable and non-customer-friendly, but I like the way they make a joke of it here.

Second-largest aquarium tank in the world. Pretty.

Design ideas daily at dorknob.com

"The Power of the Poor" narrated by Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto, explores the worldwide economy of entrepreneurs around the globe near the poverty line, and how they are helping themselves; it will air nationwide on PBS October 8, 10 PM Eastern time. Here's a preview.

Hear all the words in the world pronounced at forvo.com. Very helpful for my daughter, who's now learning French, and for my son, who's tackling German. They even have Welsh here. Lots of fun for linguaphiles.

Explore Manhattan circa 1609 at The Mannahatta Project. They didn't have that when I was a kid learning history!

And we still go around calling it Woden's Day (a webpage devoted to why we call the days of the week what we call them).

(Thanks to Breakaway Barge.)

Obama's kabuki theater on the road...

in Denver...

and in Raleigh (both via Instapundit).

Earlier this week I wrote about Obama's kabuki theater on the road in Belgrade, Montana as being the dress rehearsal for more manufactured "support" of Obama's universal health care vision (for the "benefit" of the media and to provide cover for Washington Democrat politcians). It's true, and it's here now, soon to be bussed in to a town near yours.

I especially noted the way the Obamacare forces were collecting signatures of "support"--

“I just returned from a rally for health care reform held at North High School in Denver. As Erin and I were entering the staging area we were approached by people carrying clipboards. We were told we could not enter without signing our name and address on the form. I asked why they needed this information and was told they must know who was entering the area.This was a tax payer supported high school property hosting public speakers and I was being denied entry unless the clipboard form was completed. I was very uncomfortable with this request and remained outside the chain link fence to listen to the speakers. The first speaker was my very own repesentative, Ed Permutter who thanked all who had signed the clipboard form and stated that all these signatures would go on to to Washington showing support of the Obama Health Care Plan. I could not believe what I heard. Never was it stated that this form was a support of the health care plan. I just wonder how many people were dooped into signing this when they do not support the bill or do not know enough about it to make a decision.People carrying signs supporting the bill were permitted entry with their signs, those opposing had to remain outside.

Whether you support this bill or not please ask yourself……do I live in a free country where all are welcome to a public forum without restriction? Can a petition obtained with deception go onto Washington in support of a bill that no one can understand? Do our elected officials respect the wants of the people or are they ramming their agenda down our throats?”

In some third world countries this is a common union scam tactic. Invite workers to a meeting, sign a book at the door and they are trapped into the union without ever being asked if they wanted to join. When enough workers are signed in their employer is shoved aside and the union sets up shop. Very sneaky.

Clearly ordinary senior citizens, members of the middle class and of middle age, and anybody else who questions the government's role in taking over the health care and insurance and pharmaceutical industries need to start learning how to use text-messaging, Facebook and Twitter "for social change," so there can instantly be a "flash mob" of real people to protest the manufactured message and the paid-by-the-hour rent-a-bodies of the pro-government takeover crowds.

By the way, who is paying for the pro-Obamacare forces? I fear it is our taxpayer dollars. Where are the journalists who are supposed to "follow the money"?

At any rate, Bill Whittle is on to the powerful iconography of the Obama forces. There's a reason why they put that big OBAMA CIRCLE on the front of their buses. It has nothing to do with being an American, or a President as the other 42 previous Presidents served in and filled that office.

Scary stuff indeed, and sad for what it's all doing to our country. But manufactured photo ops and underhanded attempted coups are no contest for alert U.S. citizens of all parties. "Obama and the Democratic leadership will soon need to acknowledge that these persons with questions and fears about ObamaCare are their own recent supporters who have tired of Obama’s Marxist antics to turn the United States into a Third World nation."

R.I.P. to a champion of liberty and a great American

Rose Friedman has died.

She will be remembered both as a talented economist and an influential advocate of freedom. Her economic work helped to discredit the idea of government management of the economy, rolling back policies that were hindering wealth creation and thus helping extend the blessings of prosperity to millions around the world. And as a standard-bearer for human liberty, she contributed to the galvanizing of public opinion – especially in the 1980s – against the growing encroachments of intrusive government.

Two great books to re-read (as I did recently): Free to Choose and Two Lucky People. And why not make a contribution to the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice? Milton and Rose, among their many other achievements, have contributed greatly to the debate that is currently beginning to challenge the monopoly of government education of schoolchildren with more competition, freedom and individual choice (e.g. with their idea of school vouchers).

Rose and Milton together have made a huge impact on our lives and our nation that will only become completely apparent long after they are gone. And the debate still rages:




Via Instapundit and Ace.

Which is more embarrassing...

to be a follower of Ayn Rand or a follower of Karl Marx?

It was no contest which was more embarrassing when I went to school at the University of California in the early 1970s. The radicals on campus (including the socialists and communists and Che and Mao t-shirt wearing supporters in those days of rage and the Weather Underground and Patty Hearst) were cutting-edge and cool (and, I privately thought, insane, nasty, amoral, and scary). I didn't know any followers of Ayn Rand then, because they all kept their mouths shut while on campus in those days, as I did.

It was only after I graduated and ran into some libertarians and Reason magazine people in Santa Barbara that I realized Ayn Rand and her followers weren't quite as marginalized as I had been led to believe by campus life. (To my knowledge, Ayn Rand's followers have never yet killed anybody that I know of. Can't say that for Marx or Mao or Che.)

Then I became aware of Milton Friedman and many other economists and free-market thinkers, woke up to Ronald Reagan, Presidential candidate (as opposed to taking the reputation of Ronald Reagan the California governor vilified by rioting students and hippies for granted) and I never looked back.

There is still a high school teacher in my kids' school district who has featured a poster of Che on her history classroom wall (just because 'somebody gave it to her,' she said; no posters of American heroes to even pretend to balance the attempt to still keep the Marxist murderers "cool" icons in the eyes of the kids). The libertarian or right-wing teachers I hear rumors of keep their politics subtle so they are not called out, threatened, or vilified by their liberal co-workers. But I'm wondering if things are changing on campuses (elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and colleges) these days? Is the tide turning? Is it more "cool" to be free-market and pro-liberty and choice than to be a Marxist or socialist or collectivist these days?

At least I'm glad our country is now in a big, public debate about what the proper role and form of government should be. Between Obama and the Democrats versus the town hall and tea party protests, the important ideas are on display and being loudly contrasted in public. It is interesting to see how each side conducts itself, and what each side considers valid debate and argument. Who uses facts and persuasion; who uses thugs and stagecraft.

As a freeborn American I now believe in my middle age that it is never inappropriate to, rhetorically speaking, kick Marxists in the teeth when it comes to pointing out how their bloody, inhumane, downright stupid and unrealistic philosophy has done nothing but fail, enslave, and kill whenever and wherever it is tried. How anyone can still claim to be a Marxist with a straight face in these days escapes me.

It should be totally embarrassing to have to admit you are a Marxist. It means you are addicted to a cult, not much of a thinker, and that you don't understand economics or how the world really works. It means you are substituting thinking for feeling, and advocating force over persuasion, to support an end that invariably promotes harm. So, I now have a new goal in life: to help point this out.

UPDATE: It should be totally embarrassing for all Americans to admit we have a Marxist in the White House! I think we could use a few more Joe McCarthys right about now (because McCarthy was right). Or better yet, as many Glenn Becks and Victor Davis Hansons as we can muster.

Obama's kabuki theater on the road in Belgrade, Montana

Here's a report from a local with the behind-the-scenes story of Obama's health care town hall visit to Belgrade, Montana a few weeks back ("How Obama Organizes a Town Hall Meeting"). The anonymous reporter sums it up:

It was very obvious that it was meant to be totally controlled by the White House. Everything was orchestrated down to the last detail to make it appear that Montana is just crazy for Obama and government healthcare. Even those people that talked about their insurance woes………the White House called our local HRDC (Human Resource and Development Committee) and asked for names. Then the White House asked those folks to come. Smoke and mirrors…EVERYTHING was staged!!!!!!!!!! !

I am very dismayed about what I learned about our current White House. The amount of control and manipulation was unbelievable. I felt I was not living in the United States of America, more like the USSR!! I was physically nauseous. Bill and I have been around when Presidents or Heads of State visit. It has NEVER been like this. I am truly very frightened for our country. ...

Read the whole thing, including the stories of the disappearing tickets and the imported union thugs.

I have actually been in Belgrade, Montana, to fly in and out of the sleepy little airport. This anonymous report rings true to me--there is practically nothing there in this little burg whose airport services larger Bozeman. Just some beautiful mountains and prairie scenery, a grain elevator, a water tower, a gravel pit, a population under 6,000 focused on high school sports, a strip mall or two and a few gas stations and motels:

View from the Belgrade airport rental car parking lot

Turning around in another direction,
this is a view of the Belgrade airport terminal

Not much going on at the Belgrade airport
when the President is not in town

You've got to wonder why the White House is spending so much cash and goodwill 'bullying a small town' to sell its health care reform vision. What is the Obama administration afraid of, and whom do they think they are they fooling, while staging micro-managed media photo ops with our tax dollars like this?

UPDATE: I guess Belgrade was just the dress rehearsal for much more to come.

UPDATE: Why the unions are supporting Obamacare--what's in it for them. (Via Maggie's Farm)

Global warming skeptic Freeman Dyson speaks out

This interview of Freeman Dyson in Yale Environment 360 is pretty interesting. He explains why he doesn't think global warming is a big deal. He has been studying the problem for longer than the rest of us have been hearing about "global warming." He echoes my reservations: distrust of the motives, methods, and methodology of the global warming "experts" and other people who inflate the "crisis," and disbelief that humans can actually engineer or manage the "fix" that global warming proponents are aiming for (in my book that is called gross and wishfully unrealistic, anthropomorphic, human-centric hubris). Also, he likes change. Now that's what a real scientist sounds like. Are we raising any more like him these days?

Hat tip to my Dreamboat.

Increasing violence in Iraq...am I the only one wondering

if the Democrats' and the Obama administration's ambitious agenda for an "exit strategy" (and the fact that an inexperienced U.S. Ambassador to Baghdad and the dubiously qualified Joe Biden are in charge) is behind the current surge in violence there? We need a transition that will not squander the progress that's been made in Iraq. Will we get it?

Or do Reid, Pelosi, and the rest of the Democrats still hate George Bush so much that they are willing to lose Iraq just to prove that "Bush's war" was unwinnable (in their hands)?

Iraq the Model claims that Iran is behind the bombings, meant to derail the political process in Iraq.

Lockerbie bomber released in a show of "compassion"

Rather misplaced compassion, though. Because he is suffering from prostate cancer, the Lockerbie bomber gets to go home to Libya. After having killed 270 people. And after having lived rather high on the hog in prison, at that. Is this uniquely Scottish compassion and justice? Or just brain-dead, heartless stupidity?

Perhaps the Scottish Justice Secretary who released this miscreant should've checked first with the people of Lockerbie on how they felt about this:

...Overnight the population of Lockerbie increased from 3,500 to 10,000 as the world's media descended on the small town. For days the residents of Lockerbie were asked to live with the bodies in their small streets and gardens, all tagged for forensic examination. Then relatives of the passengers came to identify their loved ones. Canteens were set up 24 hours a day to help feed them. Touchingly, the women of Lockerbie washed, dried and ironed every piece of clothing that was found once investigators had said it was not of forensic value.

In all 270 people from 21 countries died, 189 of them from America. Four hundred parents lost a child, 46 parents lost their only child, 65 women were widowed, 11 men lost their wives, 140 lost a parent and seven lost both parents. It was the deadliest attack on American civilians until the tragedy on 11 September 2001....

If the Scottish Justice Secretary didn't care for the feelings of the foreigners bereaved by the Lockerbie bomber, perhaps he could have at least learned from his own countrymen and women what justice is and who justice is supposed to stand up for and protect when it's being compassionate.

Wikipedia entry on Pan Am Flight 103.

UPDATE: Sickening. Video: Lockerbie bomber greeted as a hero in Libya.

Very disturbing: MSNBC distorts news video to incite racial fear and hatred

Okay, the disparity in mainstream media coverage of right vs. left has now gone beyond silliness and into the realm of the dangerous and the vile: MSNBC has been caught editing video coverage of a protest rally in Phoenix in order to claim that the crowds attending are hateful, dangerous racists, "hate groups rising up," angry at a black president.

This is the doctored and spun "coverage" on MSNBC. It took time and purpose to edit the head and arms off that scary-looking, gun-wearing protestor:



and this is the undoctored coverage, showing that the gun-toting angry racist was both a peaceful, principled protestor, and a black man--no doubt 'angry at a black President":




Via the invaluable Ace, who has some very passionate, unfamily-friendly things to say about the MSNBC anchorwoman who spun this doctored clip to make her incendiary and blatantly false point. He is right: some people should lose their jobs over this. I am not linking to Ace's blogpost because children read my blog. But his outrage is totally justified. The other two commentators in the MSNBC clip above also deserve blame for spinning their falsehoods against the ordinary American citizens who show up to lawfully protest Obama's policies.

If I ever watched MSNBC (I don't) I would stop doing so at this point, out of principle. They have not only proved themselves unreliable and sneaky and immoral--they are actually inciting violence by "bearing false witness." MSNBC has just totally and irrevocably disqualified itself from being mainstream media.

Additionally Hot Air points to this: Zombie posts a complete and devastating photo essay of how Bush protestors got away with inciting murder and the mainstream media never called out the "rising hate groups" of liberals and leftists. When does slant and spin become propaganda? You're seeing it now. It is no longer silly, funny, or inconsequential.

It's time to do your homework, my fellow citizens. Keep up with how the world is changing around you even as you sleep--or sleepwalk, as the case may be. Just because it's on TV and looks like news coverage in America, that no longer means it's real.

People in the U.S. who have never attended a "tea party" and who only get their "news" from the mainstream media think these people are whackos, homocidal maniacs, and racists. Having attended two "tea parties" myself, nothing could be further from the truth. That means, these mainstream media liars are far from the truth. I mourn what that means for our nation.

Note to America: "Do not make the same mistakes"

Best video of the day (and best Winston Churchill joke of the day): Daniel Hannan gives a warning to America: look at Britain and "you see a grisly picture of your own future" --



At Synthstuff via Maggie's Farm.

Regular Folks United

My Grandma is an angry mob

"Welcome to the Information Age, where somebody's grandma is changing the world one Facebook update at a time" (via Instapundit).

This blogging dynamo born during the FDR administration beats me: I do have Twitter and Facebook accounts, but I don't use them much (yet). It's nice to know we're all out there helping spread the news when the mainstream media won't, though.

That's why I happen to think Mark Helprin's view of "Digital Barbarism" is entirely wrong about our modern technological society. The digital revolution speeds up, increases, and spreads knowledge exponentially, and with knowledge come power and freedom, and that is always beneficial to humans and other living things.

American individuals in action--We can do it. I love it.

More of same: March on Washington, September 12, 2009. More info here.

Tis the season to say "farewell" and start a new chapter

TaxProf talks about sending his son off to freshman year of college. (Via Instapundit.)

A lot of people are going through this right now, including me. Still can't believe this day has finally arrived (and how old does that make me feel?) It is a bittersweet time. But I am so proud of my son's accomplishments and prospects (not only the academic ones, but the ones of skill, character and heart). I am so excited for him, being on the threshold of so many opportunities. And I am so glad he's only 90 minutes away. I can jump in my car and go pester him in person if I decide to wake up one morning and act like a total maniac. Not that I will do that, but the thought is a comfort. More reasonably, there is Skype with webcams. They didn't have those when I went to college! It's a brave new world, and my son is very comfortable and capable in dealing with it.

The next generation of good kids with common sense emerging from the wings of American family life is the kind of change I can believe in.

Keep safe, my son. God be with you. As is our love, always.

"Who does he think he is?"

Once again, Rush Limbaugh clearly articulates my thoughts and feelings about the audacity of Obama and the Democrats' hope:



Via Maggie's Farm

I remain dumfounded that we ordinary Americans are waking up every morning finding ourselves in the nightmarish position of helplessly waiting, day by day, to see if Congress and our President, in their infinite wisdom, chutzpah, and hubris, in far-off Washington, D.C., will or won't choose to steal our future health care choices--perhaps our very lives--from us and our families. If they will or won't run our doctors out of the profession as they presume to hobble them as hostages, civil servants, and bureaucrats. If they will run the smaller insurance companies and independent salespeople out of business. If they will kill off medical innovation in our country, which has been the light and salvation of the world.

It is a potential hostile takeover of the most breathtaking scope. Who ever gave them the idea that they have this power to do such a heinous and destructive thing before our very eyes? Who are these people who believe they have this right of malignant encroachment on their fellow Americans?

UPDATE: While I'm on a rant, here's another good question somebody should answer: Why doesn't the government just buy insurance policies for the uninsured?

And why not just revamp the failed policies of Medicare and Medicaid instead of trying to turn the entire U.S. health care delivery system into bigger and badder versions of same? I suggest gradually privatizing them. Social Security, too. Personal tax-deductible savings accounts for insurance, health care, and retirement would be a great start. Dems didn't like it when George Bush tried to do it, and stood in the way. We could've already been on the road to reform by now. Instead we are now having to slog through this kind of fatuous and insincere verbal diarrhea dripping out of Congress, about to infect our country, maybe fatally. (Via The Corner)

Damn tootin' I'm mad. Like these folks. Not rude, mad. And once awakened to the threat, we're not going to shut up (via American Digest).

UPDATE: Is ObamaCare unConstitutional? Seems clear to me.

How those other socialized medicine schemes are working out

Well, Canada's is "unsustainable" (via Drudge).

Meanwhile, the Swiss socialized medicine system is losing steam--with rationing, service cuts, higher taxes and fees, less quality, and the poor and the doctors being hit hardest. They are thinking of injecting a little of that free enterprise to fix things ("an idea so crazy it just might work!"). We are already trying the Swiss way, more or less, in Massachusetts, with the same bad results:

People in the US with health insurance generally get broader coverage for less. The exception is in Massachusetts where the 2006 health reform bill incorporated the mandatory insurance requirement and government controls that are the hallmark of the 1994 Swiss reforms. Like the Swiss, the Massachusetts reforms have resulted in high costs, growing waiting lists, and restrictions that make it difficult for patients to get medical care.

We should be smart enough to let these suckers (Great Britain, Canada, France, Switzerland, Massachusetts) be the canaries in the mine and back off from these demonstrably failed policies. Actually, the American people ARE smart enough; it's the politicians who are insulting our intelligence and counting on us to be stupid.

Miscellaneous Sunday links

Your government "stimulus" tax dollars at work--what those signs really say. I think of this every time I hear a politician tout the stimulus bill as being responsible for bringing us back out from the recession. It ain't over yet, buddy. And wait'll the inflation kicks in. We'll be so glad we sent all that money to Washington D.C. to have it cycled through Congress' friends' pockets and returned to some of us to build dogparks, Latino cultural centers, or install $99,600 worth of doorbells, for example. All things unsustainable by the lean, mean free market, made possible only by the taxpayers being fleeced at the point of a gun (i.e. threat of prison). Gee, a great legacy left behind for my grandkids when the country finally goes bust, too.

This agency is not hurting for money, evidenced by the thousands of cryptic billboards it has spread around the U.S. right now. The redundancy of them seen while driving along I-75 seems wasteful. Seventeen million dollars for outdoor advertising, funded by government grants...that's lots of advertising bucks making some media agencies happy! The Ready.gov website is markedly bland, simplistic, and a little sinister, for its oblique mentions of terrorist attacks--you wonder what they're not telling you. Their goal is

"to allow members of the public to take in the information at their own pace and to absorb the message that an attack is possible, but without panicking them, officials said. Ultimately, officials want Americans to outline family plans for emergencies and to feel comfortable turning to the U.S. government for advice."

Thanks, Big Brother.

Speaking of Big Brother, here's another gem found in the House bill for Obamacare: The IRS as the new Health Care Enforcer (via Instapundit). Does anyone really knowingly want to turn over that much power to the government? (Some people are appropriately wary. And so are some dogs.) You do know the Democrats in government want access to all of your banking information as well as your digitized medical records, don't you? It would then be basically a hostage situation: Do what we say, pay what we say, no protests or else no medicine for you/your kid/your mom.

As Linda Halderman, M.D. recently wrote:

Complaining about critics, the President scolded, "These folks need to stop scaring everybody, you know?"

He may be right. The President's plan is frightening enough on its own.

Here's an overview of the Democrats' plan (HR 3200), or at least, the sole bill that has emerged from Congress so far. And here's a shorter list of teh nasties. It is not inconceivable that when Congress reconvenes the Democrats will manage to push through and pass yet another omnibus bill for health care ruination as they did with the stimulus package.


A health care reform rally held in Atlanta, Georgia yesterday shows the schizophrenia of the media: the left-leaning Atlanta Journal-Constitution safely estimated attendance at "more than 3,000," published no photos, and mashed-up its coverage of the rally with a meeting held by U.S. Rep David Scott; the Atlanta Examiner quoted rally organizers who counted over 12,000 people in attendance. Videos here.

Some apt slogans

here for those contemplating what to put on their signs when attending tea party protests.

I especially like these:

Obama Care -- Call us when you are SHOVEL-READY

and

OBAMANOMICS: In your guts you know it's nuts

and

Obama is spending our grandkids' inheritance

and the ever-obvious

Socialism is un-American

To sum up:

If it's bad for America, I want it to fail

Heh!

UPDATE: An additional chuckle from a cartoon here.

These people do not represent me

In fact, they appall me:

A Secretary of State making false accusations against her own country.

A Senate Majority Leader who calls me, my family, neighbors, and friends "evil mongers" for voicing our opposition to proposed policy about to radically change our lives and curtail our choices against our will. Along with a House Speaker who implies we are Nazis paid to stage protests (i.e. "astrotufers," like these folks and these useful tools in Denver).

A President stumping for government takeover of health care who is so ignorant of medicine and medical practices as to be beyond an embarrassment. (And yet, of course, he's very smart. Smart enough to know, from his throne in Washington D.C., what's best for all the rest of us.)

The outright lying coming from the office once held so nobly and hopefully by George Washington is making me sick. We need a reform of the federal government's overreaching its Constitutional powers before we need anything else.

Who let these people in here, anyway?

Does anyone really want to stand up and admit these people represent them?

Recommended reading: Liberty and Tyranny.

UPDATE: The "mob" continues to ask questions and get no answers:

But to so many leftists, logic is optional. ...how can anyone believe that we should proceed with something as important and game-changing as taxpayer funded health care in the space of one month? It simply makes no sense. How can anyone believe that we can afford yet another multi-trillion dollar program when it is simply a FACT that we aren't able to pay for existing programs like Medicare and Social Security?...

The very nature of our country and freedom will change forever if this thing passes. Unfortunately, too many people on the other side are convinced that they must manage our health and wealth for us because we are too ignorant to know what is for our own good. I now realize that it would be foolish for us to hope that calm debate and discussion will save the day. These people mean business and it is clear that they do not let politeness, respect or even reason stand in the way of getting (or taking) what they want.

Sunday links

Fascinating photos of feral houses (via Maggie's Farm). That kudzu can outrun a grown man.

"Why would any Republican belong to AARP? They might just as well skip the middleman and send their money directly to Howard Dean and the DNC." As someone said, the AARP represents seniors in the same way that N.O.W. represents women.

Bill Clinton, private citizen, rescues convicted damsels from North Korea? I would sure love to hear the whole story and backstory on that mysterious and bizarre escapade, including the Al Gore connections--but evidently nobody's providing the details yet and we citizens will have to be content with being stonewalled by our betters. I wonder what the U.S. gave up in these "negotiations" with a terrorist hostage-taker who captured two of Al Gore's darlings (was this a staged adventure?). Where's the transparency and accountability?

Meanwhile, will President Obama denounce SEIU violence against lawful protests? The empty chairs for representatives of the ACLU and NAACP don't bode well. Perhaps President Obama will show more leadership. As The Anchoress wrote (via Bookworm):

You know who could put a stop to the bad feelings arising in this country? President Obama, who is supposed to be the leadership. Just as Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton backed off when they realized America was not into having their Healthcare taken over by the government, Obama could say, “you know, I’m moving kind of fast here, maybe we’ll shelve this for a while and concentrate more on putting people back to work, which is urgent.”

Such a move would be an instant assist to the nation Obama is supposed to be passionate about protecting, preserving and above-all SERVING. It would also mean instant restoration of his fast-fading credibility. Think he’ll do it?

Well, life's full of surprises for a nation watching its President learn on the job.

I am the mob, too

This photo essay cracked me up: but seriously, I am the mob, too. Little old me, an aging suburban soccer mom (although my kids don't play soccer, they are more like computer nerds and into anime and other esoteric delights). My 81-year-old mother is the mob. My friends are the mob. My neighbors are the mob.

As opposed to this scary mob of union thugs.

But there are more of us than there will ever be of them. And we are not phonies. And we are not Nazis, we're Americans who don't appreciate being vilified, demonized, marginalized, and mocked by our government or our media.

The Dems' health care bill is an atrocity and they have to lie to try to get it passed. They expect us all to be uninformed and stupid. No wonder people are angry and protesting. They don't want a government health care machine crammed through Congress and into our lives like the unread emergency-action stimulus/porkulus bill was crammed through.

UPDATE: A fantastic photoessay (via Michelle Malkin) comparing grassroots protestors of the government machine to the Dem's hired guns and thugs sent out for Nancy Pelosi's visit to Denver--a must-see. A bone-chilling excerpt:

This is the first time in my life that I can recall a government in North America organizing protests of one group of citizens against another. This is standard operating procedure in countries with left-wing governments.

Unbelievable.

UPDATE: A word of advice on bringing class to protests (only conservatives would think of this!). This part is especially good to remember (and I endorse this message of what we are protesting FOR):

V ouchers for working poor
I ndividual tax breaks much like employers
C ross state lines to purchase insurance
T ort Reform
O wn health savings accounts
R emove excessive state-mandated treatments
Y es! We the People CAN!

And bring your cameras.

UPDATE: See the difference in how the media covers protesters on the left vs. coverage of the current protesters (of all political persuasions) objecting to what's coming out of Washington? As Ace says: "Breathtaking." No wonder people who know better are turning to the internet, Fox News, and talk radio for news coverage. Keep it up!

Some Americans are waking up (and growing up)

Today's lesson: "How I Became So Conservative So Fast" by a former Berkeley liberal therapist (via Bookworm).

It seems to be all about being willing to confront and explore cognitive dissonance instead of ignoring it. In other words, being willing to grow, and being capable of recognizing truth.

See or hear anything "fishy"?

How about this:

"Why so socialist?"

Report this ASAP to the White House!

Oh, you can also win prizes for turning in old, high-maintenance clunkers over 70!

Many hat tips to Ace and to Michelle Malkin, who is on a roll. And to Clavdivs, for improving on the caption of the Obama poster.

UPDATE: Iowahawk's (hilarious) "Know Your Town Hall Mob Agitators!" photoessay will help you tell the fishy from the unfishy! Report them all!

But seriously, there is something very sad and very wrong about the White House urging Americans to turn in their fellow citizens exercising their free speech in "casual conversation." Most people can't even believe this is really happening until confronted with the hard evidence that it is true.

Collecting a database of dissidants.

What country are we living in? To whom and what have we turned over the White House and our federal government?

John Stossel's 20/20 report

This 6-minute blurb by John Stossel on health care delivery in Canada needs no further comment from me! It is a must-see.

How can our politicians answer this?

They can't and they don't.

To hold their feet to the fire, let's try this.

UPDATE: 10 Questions for your Congressperson on health care. Will any answer?

Political "representatives" who don't want to listen

Diane Feinstein calls the cops on elderly constitutents with better ideas for health care reform.

"Not the sort of town halls they're used to" -- Betsy says:

Gee, the American people are fed up and they don't want to take it anymore. Instead of looking at the level of anger and readjusting their behavior, the tendency of these congressmen is to dismiss the protesters and cancel the meetings. While I don't approve of a mob blocking a speaker's right to speak, these groups represent a real anger that their representatives would do well to address. These elites may have found all the "tea bagging" jokes amusing when the Tea Party protests were held earlier this year, but the numbers and intensity involved have not dissipated. People are angry and they're taking advantage of their access to their representatives to make that emotion felt. They would do better meet with members of the protesters and answer their questions than to simply decide to shut down their meetings. That would be treating the symptom rather than the cause.

The only recourse with politicians who won't listen to you or respond to you is to vote them out of office.