Friday, May 29, 2009

Timeline of finiancial crisis

This video is from months ago. Makes you wonder how ANY of the mentioned democrats are now in charge of actually fixing this problem, since they were clearly complicit in creating it.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Unintended Consequences?

Treatment of enemy combatants (captured terrorists) has been in the headlines a lot lately, most notably with the battle of words between President Obama and former VP Dick Cheney. Of course, this debate has been going on for a long time. The reality is, that the changes being made by the Obama administration will create harsher treatment of captured enemy combatants. How is this possible, you ask? Well, I frequently cite the so-called "law of unintended consequences". It's very similar to the reality that increasing restrictions on CO2 emissions in the U.S. will drive much carbon producing manufacturing out of the country, to lands where pollution is not controlled at all. This makes the problem worse, not better. Increasing taxes to a punitive level DECREASES revenues to the treasury, rather than increases them.

By creating unrealistic restrictions on"Enhanced Interrogation Techniques", as well as the restriction of our ability to safely retain prisoners off of American soil, two things will occur. First of all, our soldiers are fully aware that released enemy combatants are usually found back on the battlegrounds shooting at them again. Knowing they are unlikely to be detained for long, the battlefield "capture" rates will decline, and the "kill" rates will rise.

Secondly, the U.S. will begin to "outsource" detainment and interrogation to other countries. These other countries are unlikely to have the humane and dignified approach we have used in Gitmo and around the world. This is already occurring, as we have seen a sharp rise in reliance on foreign (middle eastern) countries for detainment and interrogation of captured Al Qaeda combatants. Do we really believe this policy will result in better treatment of detainees? No, we have just washed our hands of it, and now the captured will know what REAL torture is like. They will long for the luxurious shores of Gitmo, where they were detained after their first capture.

The reality is that the United States has treated these enemy combatants with humaneness unequalled in the history of warfare. Our top leaders should be trumpeting that across the world, instead of acting like we have done something horrible. Shame on Obama and the Democrats for accepting the these false accusations of torture and not defending our great country. Thank God for Dick Cheney.

"95% will receive a tax-cut"

Obama's tax-cut promise was a tax cut for 95% of Americans. We all knew this was a lie from the beginning, since >40% of Americans didn't pay ANY taxes under Bush, and Obama's proposal didn't include a cut in a single marginal tax rate, for anyone.

Thursday, the House Energy & Commerce Committee passed the initial legislation for "Cap and Trade" laws to limit CO2 emissions. This is the first step in the Democrats' plans to raise taxes on 100% of Americans. Don't be fooled by the term "Cap and Trade". Many economists are calling this "Cap and Tax" for good reason, and the burden of this new TAX will hit poor American households the hardest.

The benefits are minimal too. Even if you accept that CO2 causes global warming (which I do not), estimated benefits to this policy is to prevent warming of 0.2 degrees C over 100 years. Even for the starkest global warming alarmist, the proposed benefit cannot justify the cost. This legislation will be destructive to the US economy and will hurt Americans. It must be stopped.

Monday, May 18, 2009

"A $50 Lesson"

I received this in an email today..........love it!
I recently asked my friends' little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, 'If you were President what would be the first thing you would do? '

She replied, 'I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people.'

Her parents beamed with pride.

' Wow...what a worthy goal.' I told her, 'But you don't have to wait until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds and sweep my yard, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house.'

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, ' Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50? '

I said, 'Welcome to the Republican Party.'

Her parents still aren't speaking to me.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Happy Prayer Day! (feat. the ACLU)

nice. another gem. This one's from Steven Crowder.

"Obama Man can"

Priceless. Kudos to Greg Morton for this gem.......

Saturday, May 2, 2009

I took the Myers-Briggs test again today

I always bounce between ESTP and less often ESFP. Today I'm ESTP.

ESTP - "Promotor". Action! When present, things begin to happen. Fiercely competitive. Entrepreneur. Often uses shock effect to get attention. Negotiator par excellence. 4.3% of total population.
Free Jung Personality Test (similar to Myers-Briggs/MBTI)


Here's the full profile:

http://www.personalitypage.com/ESTP.html

Friday, May 1, 2009

Swine Flu?

this swine flu thing is nuts. My gut tells me that it's just a gross overreaction driven by the media. First of all, it's Influenza A, strain H1N1. Influenza A. I've had Influenza A. It was not fun, but it was the flu. How many people have died from this? Not many. I heard that something like 35,000 people per year die from the flu. Is this different? I don't think so. The only thing that seems to be alarming is that it's not the season for the flu, and this strain isn't covered by the flu shot. So that's certainly cause for caution, but seriously....

There are school cancellations everywhere. Fort Worth ISD, Lewisville ISD, and many more. UIL sporting events in DFW are canceled, and now my daughter's volleyball tournament for tomorrow has been canceled. I can see the sporting events being canceled, but school? What's going to happen now? These kids will get swine flu at day care instead of at school? Come on. Kids that are sick should stay home, just like any other flu, right?

Maybe I'm being a little cavalier, I don't know. I know this stuff can be serious, so maybe it's better to overreact than to underreact. Maybe it's like Christian Slater said in True Romance: "I'd rather have a gun and not need one than need a gun and not have one."