Breakfast Scramble (Saturday)

An Obama Hate Machine, from David Corn, Politics Daily:

The OHM [Obama Hate Machine] — led by a wide-ranging collection of conservative media outfits, right-wing bloggers, and GOP partisans — has already effectively undermined Obama’s presidency by propagating lies about his administration’s major accomplishments. It tarred Obama’s health care reform initiative by falsely claiming it would establish “death panels.” It pushed the falsehood that his $787 stimulus package created no new jobs. (The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that legislation created or saved up to 3.5 million jobs.) And don’t forget the birthers, who are still yapping that Obama wasn’t born in the United States. One recent poll found that 23 percent of Americans believe this (and 20 percent said they didn’t know).

David my boy, hate is an emotion reserved for the competent.     It is derision which used to mock the incompetent.    It is not Dumbo, b/k/a Barack Obama, which so many Americans hate, it his polices.    Unemployment is near ten percent, with a like numb er who simply given up looking for work.   Gasoline prices or over three dollars a gallon,  and Dumbo is implementing drilling moratoriums.    Both the federal deficit and national debt are at record highs, and Dumbo and the missus are on their what sixth vacation this year.

I don’t know if Dumbo actually wants to destroy the nation he pledged to lead, but if he gets his way, he will.   Face the  truth,  Dumbo is in over his head.   Whatever it takes to president, Obama does not have.

It the policies stupid, from Nile Gardner, Telegraph (UK)

Ignore the revisionist hype in sections of the liberal media about President Obama staging a (mythical) political comeback – this is a presidency with an approval rating of 45 percent (according to the RealClear Politics poll of polls), that presides over a nation where just 27 percent of voters think the country is moving in the right direction, and which just 29 percent of Americans think will be returned to power in 2012.

If Dumbo want to sell the nation on his vision, he will first have to explain it.  Good luck with that TOTUS.

More, from Bridget Johnson, Hill:

Outgoing Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) said Thursday that a “credible conservative” movement that doesn’t focus on “hatred” of President Obama is needed.

Inglis was defeated in a landslide by Trey Gowdy in the June primary runoff. Gowdy, a staunch conservative and Tea Party favorite, went on to win the 4th District seat in November.

Inglis lamented on CNN that the current wave of populist conservatism is unlike that of Ronald Reagan.

[…]

“I don’t call him a socialist because he’s not,” he said. “I don’t doubt that he was born in Hawaii because he was. I don’t call him a Muslim because he says he’s a Christian. And I didn’t say anything about death panels because there weren’t any in that health care bill.”

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Congressman.   I don’t call Obama Dumbo because I hate him.  I call him Dumbo because he has big ears and is stupid.   I don’t come to bury Dumbo, but rather to mock him.

Yes Congressman,  Dumbo might not be a socialist, but he sure likes playing one on television.

Zander picks a fight with John Hindracker,  from Zander versus the Zander:

Look For The Union Scapegoat Label

Via Memeorandum I see that John Hindraker has declared war on public employee unions.

For the large majority of our history, public employee unions have been illegal. It is only since the 1960s and 1970s that they have been allowed. Currently, they are legal in roughly half the states. The United States has carried on a four-decade experiment in legalization, and the results are in: public employee unions are a cancer on our country.

I’d argue that Hindraker probably decided to forgo pluralizing “employee” and omitted the word “and” after it as an editorial change in that last sentence, because that’s what would really float his boat.

Now I would argue that John Hindracker, as lawyer, is being selective with his target.  That is Hindracker is  not taking on unions per se, but rather public employee labor unions, the  same public employee union left the streets of New York unplowed.

If Zander does not think public employee unions are the  problem,. he must not live in New York State,which is run by and for public employee unions.

Jennifer Rubin

It is that time of year again – time for the Bitsblog Snark of the Year:

Worst press conference — ever

I don’t mean just for Obama. I mean any president. Or head of state. When I wrote this morning that he doesn’t do well in defeat, you didn’t know how right I was, huh? Let’s count the ways.

Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post.

Hat tip: Pundit & Pundette.

Atheists crisis of faith, frmo Amanda Knief, Secular:

Atheists Excluded from Mayor-Elect Gray’s Inauguration Humanist Celebrant Denied Equal Time at Ecumenical Prayer Service Atheists, agnostics, humanists, and other nontheistic Washington, D.C. residents will have no representation at Mayor-Elect Vincent Gray’s first official inaugural event—an ecumenical prayer service entitled “One City … Praying Together” at 8 a.m. Sunday, January 2, 2011.  “We would prefer that a government function such as an inauguration not be entwined with religion,” said Amanda Knief, a Humanist Celebrant and government relations manager for the Secular Coalition for America (SCA). “However, we find it overtly discriminatory when we request to be part of an ecumenical prayer service that is supposed to unite the entire city and are told there is no place for nontheists.”

Grow a pair Amanda.  If  you truly believe that there is no god, and such is your right to so believe, why go you give a rat’s hindquarter who the mayor prays to or not.   After, if you are right, the mayor is merely wasting his time.   Personally, I’d rather have a mayor that wastes his time than one that wastes the taxpayers’ money.

More, Hemant Mehta, Friendly Atheist [sis]

Washington, D.C. Mayor-Elect Vincent Gray (a Democrat, if it matters to you) is having a prayer service as his first “official” event on January 2nd. It’s called “One City… Praying Together.”  That’s a nice way to begin a term as mayor: Raise a middle finger to all the non-theistic citizens in DC.  Gray could at least reach out to our community by inviting a Humanist Celebrant to the event to deliver a secular invocation.  The Secular Coalition for America suggested just that. But they were told there was no room for non-theists in the event.

Amusing, so atheists, or at least some atheists,  profess not to believe in a god,but still find the need for their version of  a priest, to wti human celebrant.  Wow!

(signed) agnostic in Gates.

The Day the Color Died, form A. G. Sulzberger,  New York Times:

PARSONS, Kan. — An unlikely pilgrimage is under way to Dwayne’s Photo, a small family business that has through luck and persistence become the last processor in the world of Kodachrome, the first successful color film and still the most beloved.

Dwayne’s Photo, in Parsons, Kan., will be processing the final rolls of it Thursday.
That celebrated 75-year run from mainstream to niche photography is scheduled to come to an end on Thursday when the last processing machine is shut down here to be sold for scrap

Over and Out, Victor Davis Hanson ends 2019 on the upbeat, from Real Clear Politics:

In short, a nation’s health is not gauged by bouts of recession and self-doubt, but by its time-honored political, economic, military and social foundations. A temporarily ill-seeming America is nevertheless still growing, stable, multiethnic, transparent, individualistic, self-critical and meritocratic; almost all of its apparently healthy rivals in fact are not.

See you in 2011.

Does anyone remember Valarie Plame?
Of course you do. You will recall the left was having kittens over the mere suggestion that someone might have leaked her name to the press.  There were calls for life imprisonment, etc., from the usual suspects.

Yet these same people treat Julian Assange, who leaked thousands of such names and a great deal more like a conquering hero, and pay large sums to keep him out of jail.

More recently, Christine O’Donnell has had a number of malfeasance charges spread around about her, and the left acts like her guilt is a done deal.  Yet, is this the same left that held it’s graveyard silence over Charlie Rangle, and William Jefferson?

Ain’t no free lunch, from Thomas Sowell, RCP:

Once you buy the idea that the government should be a sort of year-around Santa Claus, you have bought the kinds of consequences that follow.

The results are not pretty, as we can see on TV, in pictures of rioters in the streets, smashing and burning the property of innocent people, who had nothing to do with giving them unrealistic hopes of living off somebody else, or with the inevitable disappointing of those hopes with cutbacks on the giveaways.

Nothing is easier for politicians than to play Santa Claus by promising benefits, without mentioning the costs– or lying about the costs and leaving it to future governments to figure out what to do when the money runs out

Really! From John Stossel, Human Events:

Last year, Congress passed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act. It was supposed to really end the alleged abuses perpetrated by the credit card companies. The law forbids some penalties and interest-rate increases on existing balances.

[…]

How has it worked out?

Not so well. George Mason University Law Professor Todd Zywicki points out that the new restrictions hurt more consumers than they help.

Since the Card Act passed, mortgage and Treasury bill rates have dropped a little, but credit card interest went up — from 13 percent to nearly 15 percent. Some banks also stopped offering credit to some people. JPMorgan Chase cut off 15 percent of its customers

Throwing Dumbo a life line,  Tucker  Carlson weighs in on Dumbo, b/k/a Barack Obama’s Micheal Vick remarks, from Mediaite:

Carlson differentiated between Vick and others because Vick “killed dogs…in a heartless and cruel way.” This is true. But what Carlson believed to be the proper punishment for Vick is sure to get some attention:

“I think, personally, he should have been executed for that.”

Whoa. The conversation eventually turned to whether it was appropriate for Obama to weigh in on this matter at all (although, as the White House said, the primary focus of Obama’s discussion with Lurie was alternative energy) – golfer Ben Crenshaw, on the panel for some reason, came off as a Vick supporter but sounded unsure of whether the president should be discussing the matter. Republican strategist Leslie Sanchez voiced similar views, whereas Fox News contributor Doug Schoen didn’t see an issue with Obama’s comments.

Carlson’s re;marks were unfortunate.   Not because he dared to defy the Supreme Court’s theory on capital punishment, but because Carlson’s remark takes the attention away from Dumbo’s grandstanding.   It would have been better if Dumbo were the only person taking the heat for his ill considered Michael Vick remarks.   Drop and give me twenty Carlson.

Labeling Mayor No Labels, Micheal Bloomberg, Mayor No Labels, acquires a label, from Erin Einhorn andHelen Kennedy, New York Daily News:

A testy Mayor Bloomberg fended off criticism of the city’s failure to clear hundreds of snow-choked streets Tuesday as an avalanche of critics attacked his reputation as a supermanager.

[….]

“The whole world is laughing that the greatest city in the world cannot manage to clear the streets. New York today looks like a Third World country.”

Mayor No Labels is now Mayor Incompetent.

Mayor Incompetent, wants to run your life, but he can’t run his own city, from Charlotte Hayes, National Review:

The blizzard is definitely a force for conservatism, and not only because it has had the global-warming crowd scrambling for explanations.  The blizzard reveals something basic:  Liberals in government want to tell us what to eat, counsel us about how and when to die, and in general attempt to engineer our lives. But when reality knocks, they can’t do the basic stuff such as clearing the streets so that newborns don’t die in bloody apartment-building lobbies. Mayor Bloomberg may be receiving an unfair amount of criticism for his lackluster performance in coping with Mother Nature, given the almost unprecedented nature of the storm, but the unplowed city streets provide a metaphor for the nanny state: It can order us to do anything, but it can’t take care of the basic obligations of government.

Government, like people, needs to learn how to walk before it can run.  Government needs to manage is core requirement, public safety before they attempt to micromanage our personal lives.

Even WaPo notes Dumbo Care broken, Obama Care costs more but does less than advertised, from Amy Goldstein, Washington Post:

An early feature of the new health-care law that allows people who are already sick to get insurance to cover their medical costs isn’t attracting as many customers as expected.

Don’t mend it, end it.

Wussification, Ed Rendell vents, err fumes, at the National Football League’s weather cancellation of last Sunday Minnesota at Philadelphia game, from Washington Times‘.

First, to call off this game because of snow is further evidence of the “wussification” of America. We seem to have lost our boldness, our courage, our sense of adventure and that frontier spirit that made this country the greatest nation in the world. A little snow, a potential traffic tie-up, a long trip home caused us to cancel a football game? Will Bunch, a writer for the Philadelphia Daily News, said that if football were played in China, 60,000 Chinese would have walked through the snow to the stadium doing advanced calculus as they did so. He’s probably right, and it’s no secret why the Chinese are dominating on the world stage.

What would Western New Yorkers call a meaningful late season game played in Buffalo is the middle of a raging blizzard, especially against the beloved Miami Doplins?   A  dream game.   Should the league cancel such I game, I’d expect a riot.

Why the War on Barbour? From Alex Pareene, Slate:

Corpulent unreconstructed good ol’ boy Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour apparently has a “state plane” that he uses to fly to football games with corporate executives, Politco reports today. Barbour, a former tobacco lobbyist and deluded would-be presidential candidate, has taken the plane “to at least one boxing match,” according to Ben Smith and Byron Tau.

Mississippi has the highest poverty rate in the nation. According to a 2009 study, “a black male born in Mississippi today can expect a shorter life span than the average American in 1960

And from Matt DeLong, Washington Post:

Just a week after coming under fire for saying he didn’t remember the civil-rights era being that bad, Politico reports that Mississippi governor and potential 2012 presidential candidate Haley Barbour (R) has been flying lavishly on the taxpayer’s dime. According to records, Mississippi has spent $500,000 over the past three years on Barbour’s air travel in a private Cessna jet. He has used the plane “to go to fundraisers for himself and other Republican candidates and committees, to football games and to at least one boxing match,” Politico reports.

So Haley Barbour has has access to a state plane.  Barack Obama has access to serveral and 747 uses more fuel in an hour t hat Barbour has in three years.

Republican let the democrats pick their nominee last year and got stuck with the RINO John McCain.  Don’t let the liberal pick the next republican nominee

Hat tips photo, Michelle Malkin; photo shop, Doug Ross.

J-Nap’s Clown Posse,  from Politic:

National Intelligence Director James Clapper’s obliviousness to a string of terrorism arrests in Britain last week was primarily a public relations gaffe on his part, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in an interview aired Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Does it seem to you, as it does me, that every Obami failure is attributed to a messaging problem?

That damn racial gap,  Patrick J. Buchanan lauds the American education system, from, World Net Daily:

Asian-Americans outperform all Asian students except for Shanghai-Chinese. White Americans outperform students from all 37 predominantly white nations except Finns, and U.S. Hispanics outperformed the students of all eight Latin American countries that participated in the tests.

African-American kids would have outscored the students of any sub-Saharan African country that took the test (none did) and did outperform the only black country to participate, Trinidad and Tobago, by 25 points.

America’s public schools, then, are not abject failures.

They are educating immigrants and their descendants to outperform the kinfolk their parents or ancestors left behind when they came to America. America’s schools are improving the academic performance of all Americans above what it would have been had they not come to America.

For his good deed of lauding the American education system and the tax payers who foot the bill, Buchanan gets called a racist.

First up Brian, Right Wing Watch:

‘Buchanan Cites Racist Group in Education” Column

Brian is very generous with his use of labels,  ala white, conservative, until Brian gets to the Southern Poverty Law Center, when all of sudden he drops all use of labels.    Ironic that Brian is an anagram of brain, which appears to the only connection between the former and the latter.

Next up Alan Colmes, Liberaland:

Buchanan cites Robert Weissberg, who writes about how “unprepared black students…owe their diplomas to…deception.Weissberg, a former professor at the University of Illinois promotes the theory that blacks and Hispanics have lower IQ’s than whites and Asians.

Weissberg contends that 80 percent of a school’s success depends on two factors: the cognitive ability of the child and the disposition he brings to class – not on texts, teachers or classroom size.

If the brains and the will to learn are absent, no amount of spending on schools, teacher salaries, educational consultants or new texts will matter.

These statements, in a vacuum, are true; however, the pretext by Buchanan is that it’s blacks and Hispanics who lack the cognitive ability and disposition to do well.

It is not that Colmes, can or attempts,  to refute Buchanan, rather Colmes is offended.   Well ev have tried the offended and more spending approach for what fifty years.   To what end?

Cognitive ability and disposition might well be called dare I say,  nature and nurture.

Yet the racial achievement gap is not racist, per se.    It is perfectly politically correct to blame  black students failure to achieve on white society not delivering it to the blacks, from Sarah West, Daily Princetonian:

Education reform must consider the student perspective in order to be successful, panelists agreed in a discussion on quality education, “We the People,” held in McCormick 101 on Tuesday afternoon. Robert Moses and African American studies professor Imani Perry, authors of the book “Quality of Education as a Constitutional Right,” were joined by Lauren Veasey of the Young People’s Project, an education reform organization.

Moses, a former civil rights activist, highlighted the importance of closing the racial gap in education. The civil rights movement removed Jim Crow laws from many facets of American life, “but we didn’t get [Jim Crow] out of education,” Moses said.

It only when it is suggested, with some considerable evidence, that blacks and Hispanics have contributed to their lack of proportional academic success to libtards like Colmes have a cow, throw a hissy fit,and scream racism.

I suggest, if you pick any two demographic groups and any metric, than the chances that the two groups will be statistically equal as measured is near to zero.

Golden Snow Ball,  a record forty-six inches of snowfall in Rochester, fromJeffrey Blackwell and Meaghan McDermott, RocNow:

The snow this month has been slow but steady, boosting Rochester’s December snowfall total to a new high.

According to the National Weather Service in Buffalo, two-tenths of an inch fell at the Greater Rochester International Airport Sunday and set the record for the month at 46.4 inches of snow. The old record of 46.2 was set in 2008

Forty-six inches of snow this month, and I am skiing on an inch of  snow.

When the Fat Lady Sings, Fred Hiatt wonders how obesity became a partisan issue, from Washington Post:

That’s why obesity is not a Democratic or Republican issue. Obama has merely extended and amplified a campaign that began under President George W. Bush; Bush’s last acting surgeon general, Steven K. Galson, made obesity a signature issue, calling it “a national health crisis . . . [that] is driving up healthcare costs and crippling the fabric of our communities.”

The crisis won’t be solved in one presidential term, either. “We’re talking about changing habits that have been formed over generations,” Obama has said.

You’ll notice, if you watch the White House video, that Elmo never actually eats that red-pepper burrito, though he claims to be enticed. “Where’s the sour cream?” he may be thinking. “And no melted cheese?”

“It’s not going to be easy,” Michelle Obama says. She’s right – but also right to keep pushing.

Obesity became a partisan issue when the Fat Lady of the United States (FLOTUS) stuck her nose into it.   Fat people like Michelle Obama have no business lecturing anybody else about weight.

And, from Peter Wehner,  Commentary:

Michelle Obama has encouraged parents to make sure their children exercise and eat healthy and has emphasized more nutritious school lunches. Ms. Palin seems to view this as an attack by Leviathan against individual liberty and parental authority. “What [Mrs. Obama] is  telling us is she cannot trust parents to make decisions for their own children, for their own families in what we should eat,” according to Palin.

Pete should ask himself, if FLOTUS diet and exercise advise is so good, why doesn’t she take it>?   No more diet advise from fat people.

Dumbo lauds Vick’s second chance, mute on Rush being denied first chance, from Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk :

Peter King of NBC reported during Football Night in America that President Barack Obama recently called Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie to congratulate the team for giving quarterback Mike Vick a second chance.

President Obama explained that a level playing field rarely exists for prisoners who have completed their sentences.  Vick’s success gives all of them hope.

In our view, Obama’s gesture also provides Vick with the kind of positive reinforcement that will help keep him out of any trouble during the 2011 offseason, once he is left to his own devices.

So why Michael Vick, a convicted felon and sadist bastard, deserve a second chance in the National Football League, while Rush Limbaugh was denied his first opportunity?    Yes Vick is having an MVP type of season, but Limbaugh has MVP types of s

Hat tips photo, Michelle Malkin; photo shop, Doug Ross.

J-Nap’s Clown Posse, from Matt Schneider, Mediaite:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano appeared on CNN’s State of the Union and was eager to defend Director of National Intelligece James Clapper’s embarrassing ordeal of being unaware of the London arrests of 12 people as part of a potential holiday terror plot. Napolitano attempted to dismiss concern by explaining Clapper’s lack of knowledge due to the fact that he was so involved with other issues and did not haven time to squeeze in a briefing before the interview with Diane Sawyer

Golden Snow Ball Award, Mark Graczyk, Daily News Online (slow)

Buffalo stealing the media attention away? I’m a native Buffalonian and I’m used to potshots being thrown at my hometown (some richly deserved) but Buffalo isn’t stealing anything away.

DeCoursey’s quote seems to imply that Buffalo goes out of its way to hog all the publicity about its snowfalls. That’s a good one, Pat.

Buffalo sees its snowy image as a liability and runs away from it any chance it can get. The Buffalo Chamber of Commerce would love it if the Weather Channel went to Rochester or Syracuse or Watertown instead of Buffalo every time there was an upstate storm.

What you can not control, you call charm.

Sharp Tack pricks Juan, Clarice Feldman destroys Juan Williams, first Williams, from Aaron Blake,Washington Post:

Juan Williams: Palin not on same ‘intellectual stage’ as Obama

Fox News contributor Juan Williams said Sunday that Sarah Palin “can’t stand on the intellectual stage” with President Obama.

Williams, in his role as an analyst on Fox News Sunday, was breaking down the Republican presidential field, which he saw as weak.

“There’s nobody out there, except for Sarah Palin, who can absolutely dominate the stage, and she can’t stand on the intellectual stage with Obama,” Williams said.

Clarice Feldman, 27 July 2009, in reference to Dim Won b/k/a Barack Obama, from American Thinker:

I do not believe that someone with such a consistently weak understanding of economics, history, and the guiding legal document of our nation and its language merited admission to Columbia University or Harvard law school. Nor can I imagine how anyone could have merited graduation from these institutions (let alone edited the Harvard Law Review, the most prestigious legal publication of its kind) with these deficiencies

Better luck next time Juan.

Dumbo Care plans to kill off Granny from Tom Msguire, Just One Minute:

Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer… And Obama
Health reform has become stealth reform: Obama is back to finish the job and kill off granny, but this time he will be operating on the QT:

[…]

The decision was made in “early November” and goes into effect on Jan 1?  And we are hearing about it the day after Christmas?  Very slick.  How much more health care reform by way of stealth regulation should we expect from the most transparent Administration in history?

Face it, Dumbo, b/k/a Barack  Obama just all that into your grandmother, or parents.  After all, Obama’s parents are dead,  your’s might as well be too.

The ‘rate will argue that health care is not a commodity but rather an essential right.   Yet strangely while Obama Care is called a right, some supposed beneficiaries don’t have any right to it.

Plus, Sarah was right, from Conservatives for Palin:

Has any other potential Republican presidential candidate other than Palin been able to force the New York Times to concede that he or she put Obama on the defensive? Has any other potential Republican presidential candidate other than Palin destroyed a liberal policy to such an extent that the Democrat Party is afraid to publicize what it is doing and can only get it implemented through channels outside of the legislative arena?

Let any wannabe pub candidate for president act like a momma grizzly.

Doug’s Damn good list, from Doug Ross:

We’re pleased to announce the winners of the 2010 Fabulous 50 Blog Awards, the most prestigious new media awards anywhere. Or at least in the 993 area code.

These awards recognize a variety of blogs and websites operating in the conservative hemisphere of the Internet, all of which have worked tirelessly to protect America from Statism — some in very unique ways.

I won’t even say: Missed by that much!

Tango in the snow, with Princeton socked by a blizzard, can Fausta tango in the snow?   Link:
Shall we dance

Brither from Honolulu:, Neil Abercrombie is a birther but with a twist.  Instead of merely asking for the  release of  Dumbo’s, b/k/a Barack Obama, birth certificate,  Abercrombie has characterized failure to release the records as an insult to Dumbo’s mother and father from Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times:

HONOLULU — Gov. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, who befriended President Obama’s parents when they were university students here, has been in office for less than three weeks. But he is so incensed over “birthers” — the conspiracy theorists who assert that Mr. Obama was born in Kenya and was thus not eligible to become president — that he is seeking ways to change state policy to allow him to release additional proof that the president was born in Honolulu in 1961.

Neil Abercrombie and his wife, Nancie Caraway before the inauguration ceremony on Dec. 6 in Honolulu.
“It’s an insult to his mother and to his father, and I knew his mother and father; they were my friends, and I have an emotional interest in that,” Governor Abercrombie said in a telephone interview late Thursday. “It’s an emotional insult. It is disrespectful to the president; it is disrespectful to the office.”

Tell you what Governor, you get your cojones up and actually release a true copy of  Dumbo’s birth certificate, we will make you an honorary Swamp Stomper.  In the mean time, don’t expect me to hold my breath.

Haley Barbour for president? Kyle-Anne Shiver Pajamas Media maybe posts after too many mint juleps:

I sincerely doubt that Haley Barbour holds any genuinely racist beliefs.  But he has made and continues to make comments –  in a most Southern, Southern drawl — that have made even this native Southerner cringe.  The most recent remarks by the governor were made in a formal interview with the Weekly Standard, which was published a couple of days ago.  Already Governor Barbour’s questionable take on his town’s “Citizens Council” has been pilloried from coast to coast in scores of publications.  In addition, past comments have been unearthed, one actually putting the words “watermelon” and “blacks” in the same sentence.  Enough said.

Not to endorse Barbour, however his racial comment be they far from desirable, do not disqualify Barbour in the  Post-Racial Era of Obama.   Barbour never sat in racist church for twenty years of his adult life.  Barbour did not launch his political career in the living room of two convicted terrorist   Barbour did not condone voter intimidation as the New Black Panther Party case, nor did Barbour perpetuate a race based swindle as in the second Pigford settlement.

If the ‘rats want to make an issue out of race, bring them on.

Dope from Hope, Mike Huckabee is either too stupid to know, or too dishonest to admit, he is essentially pro-life liberal, from David Harsanyi,RCP:

As for Huckabee, his history of intrusive legislation and alarmism over the crumbling salubriousness of the nation is obviously driven by his own experiences. And if you want to nag us or explain the ramifications of obesity, feel free. Certainly, potential presidents should have the ability to compromise, avoid ideological rigidity and be cognizant of national problems like obesity.

But foundational beliefs like an aversion to federal overreach into local decisions cannot be disposed of because kids happen to be part of the equation. And if Huckabee believes there’s nothing wrong with the federal government controlling local school lunches and instituting national smoking bans, how many issues will he believe are more important than federalism?

Now, Sarah Palin may not always be the most sophisticated spokesperson for conservative ideology, but she is right on the money here. In fact, with all the sneering about her comments, she may want to turn to one of her favorite authors, C.S. Lewis, who also understood that “moral busybodies” who “torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

Hat tips photos, Michelle Malkin; photo shop, Doug Ross.

More J-Nap’s Clown Posse, Jenet Naoolitano refuses to take her job seriously, from Fox News:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, leaving the funeral of a murdered Border Patrol agent Wednesday, scolded a reporter for asking her to address the victim’s family’s concerns that not enough is being done to secure the southern border.

The family of agent Brian Terry had complained that Napolitano had offered them “empty words” when she called to express her condolences. Terry’s father, Kent Terry, in an interview with ABC affiliate KGUN, said he told Napolitano to “wake your man up in the White House,” to which she replied that he’s done more in two years than any president.

Say good-bye Janet.

Editor’s note:
We’ve been reposting this at BitsBlog for over a decade, now, each Christmas.  It’s among the most popular and requested posts we’ve ever had. It’s become a site tradition.

A Bithead’s Christmas

I find myself wanting to take more seriously, the challenge of writing to the subject of Christmas, today, than I have in years past. It’s not clear in my mind as to why, but this isn’t unusual… I never really do have a firm grip on why I want to attack a subject in these spaces. In fact, the writing of a coulmn for me has becomes more an effort of exploring a subject; the codification of random thoughts. The act of putting those thoughts into words on a screen allows me to think about, and RE-think about the subject at hand. My thoughts on a given subject often do not fully take shape until such time as I’ve re-written them twice. Often, indeed… usually, the ideas are already there, waiting to be cast into words, but not fully defined until the act of sitting down and typing them out. I suppose this subject is no exception.
To this effort, some blogs, this time of year will quote the great Gospels of Christ’s arrival, and expound on that. And that’s worthy, and right. Some others will take the secular angle of the holiday and go off on that. That too, is fine, though frankly it’s always for me missed the core of the topic, a little.
But not me, for either of those tacks. Not this year. I’m going to go off the beaten path, for this post, at least in context of this blog, given it’s Christmas, and off the beaten path in terms of the Liturgical calendar, given it’s me. I’m going to stick with the meaning of Christmas, but to point it up, I’m going to turn to something a little later… about 30 years later… for my subject. I trust you’ll see why when I’m done.
This story is in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. We’ll use Luke’s version for the purpose.

In Luke 18 it reads:

15 Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 17 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

Now, all three versions add a little something to the story, and I suggest you read them yourself to get it all. Most times that Christians hear this text or read it, a child is being baptized. The apparently intended thrust of reading it in those situations is to make a loose connection with the Children being accepted by Christ. And, that’s a valid angle for the story. But, think about the story line, here, so you can get the flavor of what I’m going to describe to you. There’s a far bigger angle that many miss.
Christ has been playing “superstar” for a while, now. He’s been attracting flat out huge crowds wherever he goes. The disciples are starting to become concerned for the (human) well being of Christ. Children are, then as now, a source of some stress to adults already under stress, so the disciples decide, wordlessly to give the Lord a break. But Jesus says.. “Hey… No.. Let ’em come… It’s OK. ” Apparently, seeing some remaining resistance in their eyes, he reinforces the command with a statement that must have shaken them badly. “It’s to the likes of these as belongs the Kingdom of God.”
Now, It’s not hard for us to imagine what’s going on in the minds of the disciples…. They must have felt a little put back… While not saying so, they must have figured they had an inside track to Heaven. (Shrug) It’s human nature.
The passages don’t record if they said anything, but you just know what they’re thinking, here… “Comon, Jesus… We’re tryin’ to give you a break here! And you elevate these lowest of low, mere children, into the ownership of heaven? You raise a polite nothing to a path to heaven and eternity? What’s THAT about?”
And you know, Jesus knows it too. He knows full well what they’re thinking, because watch what he comes back with: “I’ll tell you the truth;”, he says, “Unless you change… Unless you transform, and accept the kingdom of heaven like a child, you’ll never enter it.”
But what does he mean, here? He’s talking, I’m afraid, about how you lose touch with happiness and the sense of wonder, as you become an adult. That loss prevents us from seeing the Kingdom of heaven as it is.
For most of us, the happiest times of our lives was when we were children. When we’re younger, we have less in the way of cares, and troubles. Let’s admit, too, that as we get older, we become aware of, and allow more and more sadness into our lives.
It’s true; It’s a hard world out there, and being adults we’ve come to understand this, in a way of understanding that only long exposure and experience… and lots of scar tissue, can bring.
It seems that every year we have more worries and concerns.

Oh, yeah, do we EVER worry. We worry about our health, and those concerns increase with advancing age. We worry about our jobs, about our investments, our savings, about the future in general. Retirement is a concern. Will we have enough? We’re too fat, we’re too skinny. We’re too tall, we’re too short, our once wavy hair is still waving… Only, it’s waving bye-bye. We worry about the future our kids will have and the normal growing up problems, but we also worry about the future that we’ve left our kids. We look at the news, and we wonder what kind of a world have we left them? We even worry if we worry too much.
We’ve seen marriages and relationships we thought would pass the test of time, pass away, instead. Things we had hoped would come to pass, didn’t, and those we’d not dreamed, in our wildest nightmares would happen, did. We see loved ones die. Jobs disappear. Hearts get broken.
And friends, those are just the hum-drum... The everyday worries that every generation has had, since Cain bopped his brother’s bean with a rock. Then you get into the problems particular to us and our times; AIDS, oil shortages, cancer, drugs, the way our own technology seems to be spiraling out of our control…And Islamofacists.

Ah, yes, there’s nothing at all, to my mind, like the specter of 3000 plus people dying on national television, in Washington, NY and Pennsylvania… while we watch, to remind us that we’re not in control.
And yes…. it’s all about control, if you think on it for long. All these things I’ve listed are worries about things we cannot control, try as we might.

The list of these reverses, these scars, gets longer as the years progress, and it starts eventually, to break down the positive outlook in every one of us… Each according to their ability to resist. Each step, each worry, each bit of emotional scar tissue, if you will, moves us farther away from the relative joy of our comparatively carefree childhood.
By now the sharper among you will notice where I’m going with this; This is where Christmas comes in. This is why Christmas holds a special place in our hearts, and our traditions.
You see, even for the not-so-religious, it is a time of renewal of our fragile human spirit. All of the hurts, small and large, become less pronounced, and fade under the soft glow of the lights, the candles, the fireplace, and the smile of the children.
Have you ever noticed that it’s the children, in fact, that do us the most healing? Christmas, it’s said, is for the children. Presidential speechwriter and WSJ columnist Peggy Noonan noted recently about some of the qualities of children:

“They are susceptible to wonder. A child can look at a red toy car in the red-green glow of Christmas tree lights and imagine an entire lifetime. A child can play with a new doll and smell good things being cooked and hear sweet music and it can make that child imagine that life is good, which gives her a template for good, a category for good; it helps her know good exists. This knowledge comes in handy in life; those who do not receive it, one way or another, are sadder than those who do.”

Of course, we move away from that ability as we grow older. Our long experience has hardened us to the realities of the world around us, and perhaps jaded our point of view. But here comes Christmas, which gives us, individually and collectively, the chance of looking at the world through the wonder-filled eyes of a child once again… Becoming childlike ourselves in the process, and becoming healed and renewed.
The experience is a far deeper one for those who have accepted the Christmas promise, and it’s meaning. Reacting to that promise includes allowing someone else to run the controls of our lives. Remember I said it was all about control? Well, I want you to think about the features of being a child. It was Randall Jarrell, I think, who once quipped:

“One of the most obvious facts about grownups to a child is that they have forgotten what it is like to be a child.”

Well, let’s remember.

You’re NOT in control of much of anything. Someone who knows better, and is by far more powerful than we, is running things. And looking back, I’m sure most of us would conclude that having that situation back would be of comfort to us. Haven’t we all wished to resign from the world of adulthood at times?

I guess this would be a good place to slip in a parallel story. Consider the fictional person of Ebeneezer Scrooge. Think about how the story develops; He’s had some serious emotional setbacks in early life… and those have become a self-feeding, never ending circle by the time we meet him, 7 years after his best friend’s death.
All these setbacks have made him cold, and hard, and for all outward appearances, non-feeling. He’s covered with emotional scar tissue. Being hard, is his way of dealing with what he cannot control. Only after his overnight experience do all these cares get swept away, along with his anger of not being able to control his situation…. The realization comes to him that he never really WAS in control in the first place, so stop fretting about it all… Think about what are essentially the first words out of his mouth as he realizes that the weight of his worries.. Not unlike worries you and I have had, are gone; “I’m as light as a feather….” The weight of that scar tissue… And all the concerns they represent having been lifted off his shoulders…
“…and as giddy as a Schoolboy!”

Like.

A.

Child.

“I’ll tell you the truth”, he said, “Unless you change.. Unless you transform, and accept the kingdom of heaven like a child, you’ll never enter it.”

Amazing parallels, aren’t they?

I’m reliably informed that Charles Dickens was not as a rule what one would call very religious. Yet, in looking at the parallels in these two story lines, I must wonder in all honesty if he didn’t have some help with “A Christmas Carol”.
Now, you’ll notice I took some liberty with the way the Biblical text was quoted. Some liberty, I say, but not very much, really, since it’s long been pointed out by Bible scholars that the word that earlier versions of the text had as ‘change’ were really translated from the ancient Greek word for “transform”. This is a major point, because it demonstrates what the first step is, and whose it is… yours.

And no, change and transformation are not the same thing. The best description I’ve ever thought of to explain the difference between the two, runs along these lines:
If I take a rock, and in the other hand I take a large hammer, and I hit the rock with the hammer, and break it, I’ve changed that rock. If I take that same rock, and take a small hammer and chisel, and very carefully, perhaps over a period of decades, sculpt that rock into a flower, I’ve still merely changed that rock.
Transformation, on the other hand, is when the rock itself, as a matter of responding to it’s own will, becomes a flower. And of course that’s beyond the normal power of the rock, by any standard we know.

What Christ therefore is saying is, that we must become children, as of a matter of our own will. Which is, as I say, impossible by any standard we know…. Which in turn leads us to the source of all things, who teaches us how, and gives us the power to do it.

You see, the externalities I mentioned, the lights, the fire, the children…and that which Dickens writes of… the giving, the being open to what joys are around us, and so on, helps toward the goal of understanding the Christmas promise, but it’s not the whole deal.

At the core of it all… (and this is a connection that, alas, many people never make…) is that the one whose birth is being celebrated every December the 25th, is the one who takes over that long list of worries. But understand, here…THAT’S WHY WE CELEBRATE!!

With those worries removed, lives get changed, hearts mended, child-like perspectives restored in a way that the lights, carols and greenery can never do on their own. And the newly remade Children find that the authority and responsibility and all the ponderous weight connected with them, are taken away by the one who said “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”.

Now, I must warn you; There are those who will resist being told all of this… to the point of removing such joy as they find, wherever they may find it, often using the power of governments, and force of arms to have it removed from town squares and schools, mocking, persecuting and yes, even killing those responsible for the spreading of the news of this miracle.

It’s a sad truth, that a world used to darkness, you see, will continually fight to see the darkness continued. That warning given, however, I will say to you also, that it’s no accident, Christmas being called the season of light, and that Christ is called the light of the world.

If I have one wish for this Christmas, it is that you will be open to the light…. With the wondering eyes of a child.

As Time Goes By, a promise is just Dumbo’s mere words, from Investor Business Daily:

War On Terror: The Obama White House has absurdly called closing the Guantanamo Bay terrorist prison “a national security imperative.” The administration’s own analysis shows the opposite to be the case.

[…]

Less than a year ago, Obama declared: “Make no mistake. We will close Guantanamo prison, which has damaged our national security interests and become a tremendous recruiting tool for al-Qaida.”l…]
As the New York Times recognized even back in June, it is “unlikely that President Obama will fulfill his promise to close it before his term ends in 2013.”

Even the president himself obviously doesn’t believe his own left-friendly rhetoric about Gitmo being a jihadist recruitment tool.

The college education bubble, from Jerry Bowyer, Forbes:

Higher education shows every reasonable sign of having a completely unrealistic, astronomical price tag. Beyond that, the sacred cow psychology that commonly accompanies other mania is clearly present.

Over the past year I’ve invited some of the fiercest critics of higher education finance onto the radio to discuss the problems with college. Numerous authors have minutely detailed the dangers to college consumers: the price tag is too high; the lending is too lax; the product is too low-quality; the socialization process is too coarsening; the parents are kept too much in the dark; the earning advantages are too aggressively touted; the alternatives are too cheap

Jennifer Rubin

Rubin Cube, Jennifer Rubin on Dumbo, b/k/a Barrack Obama’s wining streak, from Washington Post:

And if the highlight of Obama’s term, according to outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was the “historic” ObamaCare legislation, then the highlight could soon be extinguished. Obama’s central domestic achievement is facing judicial scrutiny, a Republican onslaught to repeal, or at least defund, it, and a public that has never “learned” to love the bill.

Only inside the Beltway could the passage of an arms control treaty and repeal of DADT consume so many for so long and result in such exaggerated punditry. Would Republicans have traded wins on DADT and START for their wins on the DREAM act, the tax deal and the omnibus spending bill? Not in a million years.

Am I the only one that does not like the WaPo’s picture?

Rubin Cube II, Rubin on Snarlin’ Arlen Specter, from Washington Post:

The No Labels website links to the farewell speech by Sen. Arlen Specter (D/R/D-Pa.). I guess they must search for the word “civility,” but next time they should actually read the speech before offering it as a model of public decorum.

Specter, nicknamed Snarlin’ Arlen, lived up to his nickname. First, he insulted the Supreme Court

[,,,]

Well, there is one way in which Specter represents the spirit of No Labels. Never having a conviction greater than the desire for his own re-election, he distinguished himself in a body full of opportunists and managed to annoy and disappoint both sides of the aisle. Hey, he’s out of a job — maybe he can head up the No Labels group and help them preach about civility, but only for everyone else.

Merry Christmas Virginia, from Jamie Katz, Chicago Tribune:

It’s all right to say Merry Christmas. In fact, it’s lovely.

I happen to be Jewish. And I’ve lived most of my life in New York City, where, on the whole, contrary to rumor, people of every faith, language and hue do a pretty good job of getting along.

Not once, ever, publicly or privately, have I heard anyone — Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Cherokee, atheist or Aqua Buddhist — say he or she was insulted by a sincere holiday greeting that included the word Christmas.

And I happen to be very agnostic.  Merry Christmas to one and all.

Dope from Hope , from Jennifer Epstein, Poltico:

Potential GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says Sarah Palin’s wrong and Michelle Obama’s right, at least when it comes to the first lady’s push to combat childhood obesity.

“With all due respect to my colleague and friend Sarah Palin, I think she’s misunderstood what Michelle Obama is trying to do,” the former Arkansas governor said Tuesday on the “Curtis Sliwa Show.”

The Dope from Hope, Mike Huckabee, shares a few traits with the Fat Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, to wit both are liberal, stupid and too darn fat to lecture anybody as to diet.

Like I said to FLOTUS, I say to Huckabee, lose the weight,or zip the lip.

Hat tips photos, Michelle Malkin; photo shop, Doug Ross.

J-Nap’ national security clown, from Jake Tapper, Politico:

After initially suggesting that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s inability to answer a question from ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer about the arrests of 12 suspected terrorists in London was because her question was too “ambiguous,” the Obama administration acknowledged Wednesday morning that retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Clapper had not been briefed about the arrests at the time of the interview.

“Director Clapper had not yet been briefed on the arrests in the United Kingdom at the time of this interview taping,” said ODNI spokeswoman Jamie Smith in a statement.

WTF Over, from Adam Gabbatt, Guardian (UK):

The CIA has launched a taskforce to assess the impact of 250,000 leaked US diplomatic cables. Its name? WikiLeaks Task Force, or WTF for short.

The group will scour the released documents to survey damage caused by the disclosures. One of the most embarrassing revelations was that the US state department had drawn up a list of information it would like on key UN figures – it later emerged the CIA had asked for the information.

ISYN.

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out Arlen! Specter gives final Senate floor speech, from Shira Toeplitz, Politico:

Ever the prosecutor, Sen. Arlen Specter delivered a critical attack of partisan politics in his self-described “closing argument” Tuesday morning on the Senate floor.

The speech capped Specter’s 30-year career as the longest-serving senator from Pennsylvania. In his final words on the floor, Specter called for civility in the chamber and bemoaned the lack of moderate Republicans remaining in the world’s most deliberative body.

Good-bye and good riddance.   No more Scottish.  Arlen you were supposed to have been a United States senator and not a member of the House of Lords.  Too bad you  could not remember.

How much is a college diploma worth? From Robert Weissberg, American Thinker:

For more than a half-century, government has tried to close racial gaps in educational attainment.  Sad to say, those gaps have proven intractable.  Nevertheless, the impulse remains as heartfelt as ever (perhaps due to its financially lucrative character), but the emphasis is now shifting from actual learning to equality of graduation rates.  President Obama has spoken of adding 5 million graduates to the workforce by 2020, and credential-mania is now all the rage.  This shift is a disaster in the making; imparting knowledge is commendable, but just handing out diplomas is harmful deception.  A cynic might aver that the shift from knowledge to graduation rates is a tacit admission that the gap-closing

While I do not have a college diploma, I have worked on the same line with people who had college diplomas.   Y9u get a job not by flashing a college diploma, but rather by convincing a prospective employer that you offer a skil set which he needs.

From Jenice Armstrong, Philadelphia Daily News

I ASKED A 17-year-old I know what he thought about Kwanzaa and he said, “That Jewish holiday?”

Uh, no.

Clearly, his high school hasn’t embraced the multicultural thing and isn’t teaching students about the 44-year-old Afrocentric holiday. But I don’t knock his ignorance because the truth is that Kwanzaa has never caught on with the majority of black Americans. At the same time, though, it has grown in mainstream acceptance as evidenced by the Kwanzaa postal stamps and greeting cards.

Kwanzaa.  We will always have Festivus.

Leftard food fight, Julian Assange has the left beside itself, from Melaine Phillips, Guardian(UK):

Never mind that, for the Left, this liberal nirvana is normally the country which can do no wrong. This inconvenient contradiction troubled neither The Guardian nor its comrades, who dismissed the case against Assange as a ‘witch-hunt’.

The fact that Sweden — not the U.S. — wanted Assange extradited to investigate claims against him of offences committed in Sweden — not the U.S. — was nevertheless held up as further proof that America was behind these charges. Obviously!

For the whole world-view of the Left rests upon its iron-clad conviction that America is a global conspiracy of evil from which all bad things ultimately emanate.

Amanda Marcotte, Pandagon:

Few misogynist men are rapists, but those who aren’t rely on rapists as a threat to keep women in line, such as when RS McCain made it clear that he supports rapists as a vigilante force punishing women who are sexually liberated with men that aren’t RS McCain.

So nice of Mandy to concede that not all men are rapists.  I feel so relieved.    As for sexually liberated women, formerly and preferably called sluts, I have no desire to either punish them, or respect them.   Sluts really aren’t worth the effort to punish.  As to the Swedish Assange allegations, taking the reports at face value depicts Assange to be a jerk. He had unprotected sex with two women and left them scared to death they had contacted a sexually transmitted disease.  I will spare myself the nuances of Swedish rape law, and deem Assange to a cad As for the two Swedish women, apparently neither one made love to a man they trusted in their life.   As such they not to be punish or condemned, rather jsn’ t pitied

Hat tip:  RS McCain.