Saturday, January 31, 2015

MVP Breaks 100,000 Hearts

Yup.  Great player, great guy, and 100,000 Wisconsin girls will cry themselves to sleep.

Marquette U. v. McAdams: What's Going On Here?

No less than three nationally-recognized entities have severely criticized Marquette University's action against Professor McAdams:  FIRE, Dr. D. Downs of UW-Madison, and AAUP.  In addition, Daniel Maguire (!!) of MU's faculty, joined in McAdams' defense.  Another MU-related attorney, Rick Esenberg, also wrote MU to defend McAdams--and, incidentally, (acting as McAdams' counsel) raised the bar a few feet with the threat of civil action for defamation.

All the documents can be found at McAdams' blogsite.

For its part, Marquette has clammed up after a few carefully-chosen words reported by local media.

So what's going on here? 

Is this a case where the newly-installed President of MU took some seriously flawed advice and pulled the trigger without checking with counsel?  Was he so busy carrying on with the Bucks and with Dwayne Wade that he just sorta nodded a vague approval of schmeissing McAdams without due diligence?

Or did the decision come from a lower-rung bureaucrat in the MU H.R. operation?  In that case, one should not go long on that individual's career prospects at MU--because, unless there's a smoking gun found in McAdams' hand and a dead body in the same locked room with him, Marquette is in deep, deep, doo-doo.

On the other hand, maybe MU's top dogs made the decision that they would "fire" McAdams and simply pay him off in a settlement with a "shut-up" clause.  IOW, they were willing to take the short-term hit in order to stifle McAdams, and they gambled that in the long run, this would go away.


Thursday, January 29, 2015

If At First You Miserably Fail....

Seems like the solons of Connecticut don't really get it.  With 80++% of its citizens simply ignoring the "register your guns" law, they're now proposing another "register your guns" law.

Ya'know, just in case that 80++% forgot about the first one.

Dead From "Flu"? Probably Not

Ticker always finds interesting little gems.


Yeah, but:


Oh, well.  500, 36,000, whassa diff?

The diff?  A helluvalot of flu-vaccine revenues.

Our WIERD Masters

This guy has nailed it.




Plenty more at the link.








As to the Boehner/McConnell cave-in on illegals:



Obama's Stasi: The Consumer Financial "Protection" Bureau

The Consumer Protection Financial Bureau was created under Dodd-Frank (by the Democrats and for the Democrats).  It is paid for by you--directly or indirectly--but does not answer to Congress for its budget or policies.

It is used to shut down businesses that the Democrats don't like.  Such as gun dealers.

And the Code of Omerta is part of its game.


Well, now.  Explaining CPFB to your customers?  That's blatantly illegal!!


So.  If they don't like you, you're out of business.  And no one can tell you WHY you're out of business.

I'm sure McConnell and Boehner will get right onto this.  Sensenbrenner and Ryan, too.

Yup. Boehner Is Chickens*&t




Oh, wait!  Maybe they'll de-fund Obozocare!

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

EPA Missed By Thaaaaaaat Much

We'll begin with the reference:

Note the resemblance of Maxwell Smart to the EPA gang?



Iran the Enemy?

While there's no doubt that Obozo is a national security problem, there IS doubt that Iran is a problem.  But as usual, it requires some knowledge of which players are doing what.

The Muslim world is not a monolith.  There are two major brands of Muslim:  the Shia, and the Sunni.  They don't get along at all.  So how does this play out in the Middle East? 

Iran is Shia.


Saudi Arabia, by the way, is Sunni.

So.  Who's really the Big Bad Wolf here?

For a longer exposition of this mess, see Peter's essay.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Best LIttle Methodist College in De Pere...

We're acquainted with a number of St Norbert's graduates.  All likeable (or lovable) folks.  But for about 20 years I've known that the college is really Methodist (or something not-Catholic).

Once again, St Norbert's does its best to prove it.

St. Norbert College has apparently decided to go ahead with hosting prominent abortion-rights advocate Gloria Steinem, despite the recent disapproval of Bishop David Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay. The College’s current trajectory is both offensive to its bishop and reflects a deeper misconception about its own Catholic identity,...


Yellow Flags Flying on Economy

We mentioned, a week or so ago, that copper prices were heading downward.  Ticker noticed a few other signals.

New orders for manufactured durable goods in December decreased $8.1 billion or 3.4 percent to $230.5 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. This decrease, down four of the last five months, followed a 2.1 percent November decrease. Excluding transportation, new orders decreased 0.8 percent. Excluding defense, new orders decreased 3.2 percent.

Transportation equipment, also down four of the last five months, led the decrease, $6.8 billion or 9.2 percent to $66.7 billion

He also mentions a 3-month downturn in computer orders and a 90-day downturn in machinery orders AND shipments.  You can ask Deere employees about that--or those at Rexnord's Falk operations.

And since Obozo has been actively destroying the economy for the last 6 years, the 'recovery' has been far less than robust, which begs a bit of speculation:  just how bad will the next downturn be?

Stay tuned.

Run Away, Tammy!!! Run Away!!!

Tammy Baldwin has made a career of doing absolutely nothing except being a 'nice' lesbian. 

Yah, she'd put her name on some legislation once in a while; she'd flounce around in all the right places.  But she never really DID anything.

As it turns out, "doing nothing" can get you some very nasty headlines.

So what does Tammy do?

Bribes an ex-assistant and runs away from the Press.

Run Away, Tammy!!  Run Away!!!

Monday, January 26, 2015

Another Look at Gun Control

Read this list and you will clearly see the required litmus-test for gun ownership.

See!  It's easy!!

Pantywaist v. Putin

Obozo--the very model of Pantywaist Pussy, is pushing the wrong people's buttons, according to this ex-counter-intel guy:

...To the shock and dismay of hopeful Westerners, including nearly all NATO leaders, the hard hit of sanctions has caused Russians to hate the West, not Putin. Most Russians view their war in Ukraine as a legitimate defense of Russians and Russian interests, certainly nothing like America’s aggressive wars of choice halfway around the world, and they are backing the Kremlin now.

Word of this defiance has even crept into The New York Times, which otherwise is a pitch-perfect expression of the WEIRD worldview. As Russian troops are advancing deeper into Ukraine, fresh from victory at Donetsk, NYT asked what on earth is going on here, why would Russians want more war now that the cost of it all to their economy is becoming obvious? The explanation was proffered by a Moscow economist: “The influence of economists as a whole has completely vanished,” he opined about the Kremlin: “The country is on a holy mission. It’s at war with the United States, so why would you bother about the small battleground, the economy?”

Once again, Westerners have imagined Putin is just like one of their leaders — cautious, timid even, obsessed with Wall Street and finely tuned to what big donors care about — when our Chekist-in-Charge is nothing of the sort. With perfect timing, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the powerful Russian Orthodox Church, addressed the Duma this week, for the very first time, delivering a speech long on social conservatism, including a plea to ban abortions to help Russian demographics, as well as a caution to ignore the West’s dangerous “pseudo-values.” Putin’s Russia is inching ever closer to Byzantine-style symphonia, and in the war against America and the West that is coming — and, according to many Russians, is already here — the Kremlin wants its people to be spiritually fortified for a long fight....

Russia is not the biggest foreign policy problem, of course; ISIS holds that spot, and will continue there as the entire Middle East goes into a bloodbath.  Think it's just Yemen?  Then check the health reports on the new King of Saud--and by the way, how's that Saudi Army doing?  Better, how will it do with around 30 crown princes vying for control of those oil revenues?

One advantage in electing the Pantywaist:  his Patriots-style deflateds will not support throwing US troops into that mess.  Given his strategic stupidity, it's better (for them AND us) that they stay home.

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Cloward-Piven Writ Largest

Hmmmm.  Kilpatrick theorizes, credibly, that one should assume the worst about Obozo & Co.

...Obama’s contribution to the Cloward-Piven strategy is to extend it to every area of life. In other words, if you can overload the local welfare system, why not overload local law enforcement? Why not overload the health care system? Why not overburden the immigration system by letting in hundreds of thousands of illegals? Then you can claim that all these systems are broken and have to be totally rebuilt—preferably in the image of some imaginary socialist utopia....

No question--assuming the worst fits the facts and circumstances best.

But why confine it to domestic issues?

...The worst possible assumption would be that the President and some of his key appointees don’t really like America: that they actually believe all the hype about America being the sum of all evil, and therefore want to weaken its power on the global stage. Once again, the worst assumption is the one that best fits the facts. Let’s start with the fact that the administration has been radically cutting back our military force at a time when world threats are on the rise. There are fewer troops, fewer tanks, fewer ships, and fewer planes than at any point in recent history....

Buy.  More.  Ammo.

Target Closes Canada, Declares BK There

Ye gods!

...Target Corp's abrupt decision to withdraw from Canada is troubling news for many mall owners, as the most obvious potential buyer of property assets - Wal-Mart - is expected to cherry-pick from Target's 133 locations. Minneapolis-based Target, the second-biggest U.S. discounter, obtained creditor protection for the Canadian unit and said on Thursday it will seek to sell real estate assets...

That will put 17,000 on the unemployment line; and there is the little matter of $5 BILLION in debt.

Lie. Cheat. Steal. Rinse. Repeat. DEMOCRATS!

Remember that mortgage collapse thing?  Remember that it's all the banks' fault?

Not really--although I will concede that SOME banks were rotten.  They were usually controlled by Democrat donors.

..."The FCIC majority misused its mandate for political purposes," Wallison writes, adding that the panel made sure its findings supported Democrat demands for a "new New Deal" that would put even more of the banking industry under federal control.


A corrupt investigation led to corrupt reforms.

We could ask what the new-majority Republicans intend to do about this, but you know damn well what the answer is.  Hint:  "We're powerless to act."  Translation:  "We have no balls. "

2014: Damn Cold Year!



"Feminization" of the Catholic LIturgy: Is Burke Right?

Discovered this while engaged in a discussion over Cdl. Burke's remarks.  Per the intro of the post, the Jesuit who wrote these observations is a liberal w/the usual laundry-list of demands for changes in the Church.  But as you'll see, he presents a very interesting thesis which actually underscores and affirms Cdl. Burke's commentary.

For many years liturgists felt that highly formalized worship services bored people and turned them off; "creative" liturgies were proposed as the solution. Unfortunately, the resulting Butterfly, Banner, and Balloon Extravaganzas severely alienated many men. The most saccharine outbreaks of forced liturgical excitement featured fluttering dancers floating down the aisles like wood-nymphs, goofy pseudo-rites forced on the congregation with almost fascist authoritarianism, and a host of silly schticks usually accompanied by inane music. It was exciting all right; any men felt exciting enough to rise from their pews and walk right out the door. What was their problem? It seems that most men are instantly turned off by surprise spontaneity in ritual circumstances; moreover, ceremonies that are entirely nice, sweet, and happy usually strike men as phoney and completely unconnected with the harsh world they experience every day. ...

We know that 'the most saccharine' stuff is at the margins, rarely done any more.  That said, he builds on that "spontaneity" stuff:

Men need a certain regularity and consistency in their worship; spontaneity has its appeal for men, but not in the midst of ritual. The highly popular masculine traditions of Judaism and Islam, for example, encourage set times, places, and formulae for daily prayer and worship, and men respond to these demands very well. Ritually, men like to know exactly what is expected of them and what the rules are; religion helps men when it challenges them to clear, reasonable, and achievable goals, whether liturgically or devotionally. ...

I think those observations are defensible.

But here is the strongest line of argument:

...Even more central to masculine worship is the notion of the Transcendent. In deemphasizing in recent generations a concern with absolutes and ultimates, heaven and hell, and eternity and infinity, modern Christianity has taken a decisive turn towards feminine religion, which is typically interested in the immanent and the incarnational, in finding God in the small things, the everyday, and the mundane. These are genuine Christian qualities and mark the beautiful spirituality of a Therese of Lisieux or a Mother Teresa of Calcutta; without doubt, men also need such grounding emphases. These traits are not, however, essentially masculine in nature. As liberal religion stresses increasingly the immanent and "horizontal" dimension of faith to the exclusion of the transcendent and "vertical" reality, it inadvertently ignores the voracious appetite of men for the Great, the Wholly Other, and the Eternal.

A liturgy or a sermon that truly speaks to men will tend to "pitch" men outside themselves, confront them with the Absolute, and offer them an eschatological viewpoint on life. Admittedly, this is hard to do in the Mass or eucharistic liturgy, which is structured around the domestic motif of the dining table. Yet a service that simply emphasizes the sacredness and eternity of the eucharistic actions, the infinite value of the ceremony, and the worldwide solidarity of the prayer is already on the way to capturing the male imagination....

That term, "horizontal" has been used as a descriptor of the Ordinary Form Mass for at least a decade by "conservatives" AND "liberals."  To the former, it's a derogatory adjective.  Note that the author concedes that men 'need such grounding', too; IOW, some is good.  

Also worth noting:  he correctly observes that 'it is difficult to do in a dining-table-based structure,' which recalls a complaint of the "conservatives."  It is not just "a dining table"--it is also an altar of self-sacrifice, certainly an "eschatological" sign.  Downplaying the latter in favor of the former, whether by image or textual reference--is "feminization."

There is a formulaic (conservative) expression which comes into play here, usually stated thus:   the Mass is conducted in "sacred space," at a "sacred time," using a "sacred language" and "sacred music."  That formula is clearly in evidence in Eastern Orthodox rites and Islamic rites.  It is also clear in "high-church" Episcopalian rites which use the King James sacral-English translation as well as "smells and bells." 

(We could spend a bit more time and pixels addressing the music issue, by the way, but we won't here.)

So.  Was Burke correct?  As to the question of "feminization," he most certainly was.  Did he call for total elimination of women from Church ministry?  No.  Is he chary of "altar girls"?  Yes--but he did not call for them to be eliminated, either--he specifically talked about age-levels in his interview.

There.  That should set the liberals into a tizzy.

(By the way, Burke speaks of the need for the Church to address masculine "self-sacrifice" for the sake of the family.  Think that the theme of "American Sniper" might kinda-sorta have that?  No, I will not accept cheap-shot black/white argumentation on Kyle's first 5 years of marriage....)

Saturday, January 24, 2015

DOJ/ATF Abuse Coming to a City Near You?

Think that Big Gummint is your friend?

Think again.

The judge accused the government attorneys of perpetrating "a fraud on the court."

Dobyns' house was burned, and he argued it was arson, carried out by Hell's Angels, and successful because BATF had blown his cover and denied him protection. It turns out that a Justice Dept. attorney in his civil case told BATF not to reopen the investigation of the arson, lest its finding help Dobyns in his suit against BATF. That was concealed from the judge until the trial.

""An ATF agent who testified in this case may have been threatened by another witness during the trial." Justice Department attorneys ordered the agent not to report the threat to the court or he would face repercussions, [Judge] Allegra said."

When the judge entered his ruling, he ordered that the seven Justice attorneys who had handled the civil case were not to file any further documents in it -- essentially, they were banned from the court.

Dobyns' attorney complained that he had been under "extreme surveillance for the last sixty days, both fixed and moving..." and that his house and car had been broken into, although no property was taken.
A former BATF agent who testified for Dobyns attested that he, too, was followed after he left the attorney's office.

This is truly a BATF and DOJ Watergate... or worse. Attorneys and agency officials concealing evidence, secretly threatening witnesses, agency surveillance of attorneys and witnesses. All over a civil lawsuit -- can you imagine what they'd do over something big?...

Like, for example, backing a (R) candidate for Governor in Wisconsin....?

This story will not appear in George Stanley's rag.

The Apple/Google/Adobe/Intel Plantation

We mentioned yesterday that certain high-tech companies were pushing the lie that 'there are not enough computer science grads' so it is necessary for Congress to allow importation of thousands of foreign workers.

It's called wage suppression.

But if THAT doesn't work, there are other means!!

Apple, Google, Adobe and Intel, whose politics are often to the far left, have agreed to pay $415 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit alleging they conspired as an illegal cartel to suppress tech workers’ wages through secret “non-poaching” agreements involving 64,000 employees.

Yah, the Civil War kinda settled that slavery question.  But maybe the modern day plantation bosses don't know history.

Friday, January 23, 2015

B-16's Regensburg Lecture and The Mohammedans

Nice summary of why Benedict XVI's Regensburg lecture is even more pertinent today:

...Benedict’s lecture is ever relevant because one of its central arguments is that a religion’s understanding of God’s nature has immense implications for its capacity to live peacefully with those who do not share the same faith or, for that matter, have no religious faith. A religion that regards God as sheer Will, operating above and beyond reason, cannot ultimately object to the notion that such a God may command its adherents to do unreasonable things. For if God is ultimately unreasonable and the Creator of the universe, then so too are the people created in His image. Hence, if such an unreasonable God commands equally unreasonable humans to do something utterly irrational — such as slaughter cartoonists, fly planes into buildings, axe to death Jews praying peacefully in a synagogue, behead Christian children in the Middle East, kill Nigerian as Boko Haram has done, the list is endless — not only can we not object on grounds that such actions are unreasonable and intrinsically evil, but we must simply submit to the irrational Deity’s desire for blood. In other words, whether we like it or not, there is a theological and religious dimension to what happened in Paris — and what is happening in Syria and Iraq, what occurred on 9/11, and what Islamic jihadists keep doing all around the world — and we ignore this at our own peril. That’s another reason why it is so embarrassing and self-defeating for people like President Obama, President Hollande, and Prime Minister David Cameron to go on repeating, mantra-like, that Islamic jihadism has nothing to do with Islam. Of course it has something to do with Islam. That’s why it’s called Islamic jihadism....

One of the great failings of the Bush (2) Administration was its total disregard of religion as a motivator and force.  It is far more significant and potent than money or Constitutions.  It is the reason that the Middle East has always been at war.  The mind of the US is simply not able to grasp this--which is why "emplacing democracy" failed so miserably.

And the religion which B-16 described is the problem.  The Prime Minister of Egypt gets this far better than Obozo and his cabal ever will.

Waiting for Belichick To Say....

Waiting for Belichick to say "I didn't know anything about it until I read it in the newspaper."

Decimation for Republicans!











Line 'em up!!

Black Lives Matter. So Do Other Ones.

One group has been saying that 'black lives matter' for 42 years.  But that group is not so discriminate in their respect for life--it's ALL lives to them.

Notice any MSM pix like this?

Didn't think so.

Supply, Demand, and Computer Science

As we all know, the Ruling Class is trying to demolish the middle class with its immigration policy.

One element of that policy deals with "highly educated" immigrants which--for practical purposes--means computer science graduates.  The Google/Facebook/Intel/Microsoft oligarchy has been inflating the campaign accounts of the Ruling Class with the purpose of deflating the price of CompSci graduates.

Except the price of CompSci grads has already taken a very significant dive, all by itself.

The 2014 mean starting salary for new CS bachelor’s degree grads was $67,300, according to NACE.  But the organization’s projection for 2015 is only $61,287.  If that projection holds, it will be a drop of 9%.

Silly things like the "supply-demand-price" curves don't mean much to Congress (or the President) because as everyone should know, they write laws, not God, and not The Economy.


Thursday, January 22, 2015

Levin: "I Don't Trust Ron Johnson"

Senator Ron Johnson got elected on one issue and one issue only:  he promised, time and time and time again that he would 'do everything possible' to repeal ObozoCare.

Time and time and time again, Johnson has NOT 'done everything possible.'

Finally, Mark Levin called him out.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Flim-Flam Boehner & The Sensenbrenner Shuffle

The flim-flam man a/k/a the "speaker of the house" has a new card-trick he wants you to see. 

And Part 2, the Sensenbrenner question!!


OK, so?


Ahhhhh..  SAFETY!!  That's the ticket!!



McCarthy points out that the FBI actually does "homeland security" and is part of the Justice Department, not DHS.

But the cake's been baked.  The Flim-Flam Man will do exactly what the Chamber of Commerce told them to do:  give Obozo whatever he wants.  Cheap labor, ya'know.

The only question remaining:  will Sensenbrenner be For It Before He's Against It, or Against It Before He's For It?

MU Wants Secret Faculty With Unlimited Powers

Well, this is an interesting turn of events.  Marquette University wants its TA 'faculty' names kept secret when that 'faculty' stifles speech on the pretext of PC.

Following is the operative graf from a nastygram sent to the kinda-sorta-maybe-ish "non-suspended" Professor McAdams:


At Marquette, the TA enjoys absolute power over the class.  They lecture, devise, administer, and grade exams, and are to be treated as if they were professor-status creatures.  That's justifiable, I suppose.  But that power, when abused, can draw a reaction.

Ms. Abbate apparently got some hate-mail as a result of her intemperate use of her power, and fled.

So MU now (in effect) accuses McAdams of endangering the safety of this poor snowflake by publishing her name?


Really? Unlimited powers in the classroom but "secret"?  Dzerzhinsky comes to mind.

(Read the rest of the link for Esenberg's response and escalation.  Then buy some popcorn.)

George Weigel v John Paul II



Yah, well.  Better fled than dead, I suppose.


No stone left unturned by the IslamoNazis.

So.  What about George Weigel and Robert Michael Novak?









Tuesday, January 20, 2015

The Chair of Peter is Not the Chair of Jay Leno

Good take on 'rabbits' yappaflappa from the Jesuit Pope.

Sanfelippo's "Dead School" Idea? Not Good


Rep. Sanfelippo provides an example!!



 So Joe:  cut off the money from the State.




Sunday, January 18, 2015

Ugh. What I Don't Get....(Packers)

OK.  Seattle scores, making it 22-14.  Green Bay gets the ball back with around 4 minutes in regulation time.

So the Packers call a running play with Lacy.  No gain.  Another running play, little/any gain.

Rodgers has been VERY successful with 5-yard passes over the middle up to this point.

So the Packers call another running play, no gain, punt?

Sorry.  I think the Pack decided to play "prevent offense."

The Origins of Feminism: Lenin

Stacy McCain finds a real gem.

The communist economy does away with the family. In the period of the dictatorship of the proletariat there is a transition to the single production plan and collective social consumption, and the family loses its significance as an economic unit. The external economic functions of the family disappear . . . In the period of the dictatorship of the proletariat the family economic unit should be recognised as being, from the point of view of the national economy, not only useless but harmful. The family economic unit involves (a) the uneconomic expenditure of products and fuel on the part of small domestic economies, and (b) unproductive labour, especially by women, in the home — and is therefore in conflict with the interest of the workers’ republic in a single economic plan and the expedient use of the labour force (including women).  --Kollontai, quoted at The Other McCain

Yah.  Note especially (b) above.

Who's "Kollontai"?

She was one of Lenin's bitches, elevated to "Kommissar" in the Party. 

"Feminism" was simply another name for 'class warfare', the Marx/Lenin prescription for war on Right Order.

Handy little factoid.

ObozoNomics: Still Sucking After All These Years




December retail sales were the worst in 12 months.






Friday, January 16, 2015

What Is It About Democrats and the 1930's?

There's something about the 1930's that makes Democrats weepy-nostalgic.

In Milwaukee, the (D) Mayor is pleading on bended knee for a trolley-car system which will not only be ridiculously expensive, but damn near useless in winter.  But it's '30's haute, you see.

In D.C., the Obozo-ites are going to body-slam the Internet with a 1930's regulatory scheme.

Since Obozo's election, the US has NOT "pulled out" of the 2008 recession in any meaningful sense, either.

So should we conclude that Depression, Regulation, and Trolleys are the new (D) gold standards of good?

Thursday, January 15, 2015

The Bankruptcy of AllahLibertarian

We remarked last night, following the lines of an essay on the topic, that Bill Donahue had exactly the correct position on the Hebdo massacre, and that Hewitt refused to follow Donahue's argument.  One suspects that Hewitt knew he would lose--or maybe not; Hewitt is not a deep thinker.

Anyhoo, AllahLibertarian weighs in on the same issue, and displays exactly the same mental vacuum as did Hewitt.  (And these people are "pundits" deserving of respect?)

Brief:  there are two kinds of laws, moral (natural) and positive.  Moral (natural) law is superior to and antecedes positive law.  Thus, what is legal is not necessarily moral.

Hebdo's "cartoons" are violations of the moral/natural law, but not of positive law.

So are abortions.

There is no justification for murder, period--whether by offended Muzzies or by abortionists.  And there is no justification for moronic, deliberately un-informed, pundits.

Copper Dives, Watch Out Below!

The Old Farts' economic signal, copper, dumped 8% yesterday.

That's not good news.

...Copper fell over 8 per cent today, after a 1.3 per cent fall yesterday hitting its lowest level in nearly five years on the back of an 18% decline last year....

...While copper has seen the most notable declines, other industrial metals are also faring poorly. According to Bloomberg, "A gauge of the six main industrial metals has declined 9.3 percent in the past 12 months to the lowest since June 7, 2010."...

This may have to do with the end of the ChiComs' manipulation of the price (upward) over the last several years.  Or it may be what it usually is:  a signal of an upcoming recession.

Keep your eyes on the ball.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Liberty, Donohue, Hebdo, and Hewitt

For several years I listened to the Hewitt show.  It was that or the nearly equivalent mindless rock'n'roll, and at least Hewitt had some news worth knowing from D.C. and some informed guests from the legal biz.   But when my commuting days ended, so, thankfully, did my days of hearing Hewitt.

Why such faint praise?  Hewitt was--and remains--a pompous hypocrite, yammering about Christianity while not really exploring what Christianity means.

And he proves it once again.  Here are a few excerpts from an essay on Hewitt's 'interview' of Bill Donohue (who was also reviled, in scatological terms, by Levin.  But then, Levin is not a Christian.)

...Seeing the “whole” of the Charlie Hebdo issue requires Donohue’s message. Commenting on the ostensible goals of James Madison, the Father of our Constitution, poet Robert Frost once wrote: “Now I know—I think I know—what Madison’s dream was. It was just a dream of a new land to fulfill with people in self-control. That is all through his thinking … to fulfill this land—a new land—with people in self-control.”...

... Natural law is (and should be, if that matters) much more expansive than the positive, or human-made legislative, law. Thomas Aquinas wrote that “human laws do not by strict command prohibit every vicious action, just as they do not command every virtuous action.”

This means that we enjoy many more legal rights than moral rightswhich itself means that true liberty requires non-legislated self-restraint.
Yup.  While abortion is legal, it is certainly not moral.

...In brief, liberty—as understood by the scholastic tradition—describes a moral freedom oriented to the good; license or false freedom is an abuse of true liberty because it employs freedom for its own sake. And license’s false teleology renders it both amoral and indefensible, even while legal in certain cases. In the case of rightfully legal, yet licentious exercises of free speech—like Charlie Hebdo sodomy cartoons, according to Donohue—moral defensibility collapses, even as legal defensibility stands....

But Donohue's perfectly licit point was something Hewitt would not countenance.  Back to "hypocritical":  Hewitt knows full-well the 'natural'/'legal' distinction because he crusades a bit about abortion.

But I suppose Hewitt needed advertising dollars, or The Right Sort of Friends, or something.  What's more important, anyway?

Copper In The Dumper

Copper has established itself as an economic indicator.

So when copper slides off (as it has), things aren't as wunnerful as the Obozo-ites would have you believe.

Caveat emptor.

HT:  Mish

"Catholic" Charities Continues Its Suicide

The USCC's "Catholic" Charities organization is known for its grants to less-than-Catholic organizations, usually of the Alinsky-ite flavor, and often connected to pro-abortion gangs.

So what does "Catholic" Charities do about that?

Appoints another clandestine pro-abort as the New Leader.

Suicide used to be quick.  This bunch is dragging it out over decades.  After all, there's still some money in the place.

What's Walker Talking About?

Yup.  Walker's going to run for the Presidency.

That requires the (R) shot at Conservatives, of course--so here's the transcript:

"Some in Washington believe government should play a growing role in our lives and rarely question its expense," Walker said. "Others have such disdain for government that they attempt to keep it from working at all...."

What the hell does that mean, Scott?  

What it does mean, of course, is that Walker is just fine-and-dandy with setting up ludicrous straw-men and then knocking them down.

Not what I'd call 'leadership.'

Think of It!! ObozoCare for the Internet!!

Obozo's next foray into the demolition of the United States will be a Federal regulatory takeover of the Internet.

Bet you can't wait!  It'll be just like the Good Old Days when he lied like Hell about "less cost" and "more services" for EVERYONE!!  So now we have........ahhh........higher costs and LESS services.  (You shoulda read the bill, dumbasses.)

And you'll get to see, once again, the Feds' mastery of internet stuff, just like you did when ObozoCare's web-page was unveiled!!  It'll all be FREE!  And even BETTER!!


Who'll buy John Boehner on this one?

Does Grover Norquist Hate Americans?




How about some mathematical and econometric facts?



So Grover's "Master's degree" claim is hogwash.

As to anti-Americanism:



So what does Norquist have against Americans?

*Read the EPI paper linked in Matloff's post

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

MU Uses the Obama Pirouette in Dumping McAdams

A few days ago, Marquette University announced that Prof. McAdams' classes had been cancelled for the Spring '15 semester.

The University babbled something about 'safety of our students' (especially precious snowflake defenseless  TA's who squash free speech and thought in their classes.)

For a moment, leave aside the fact that the Marquette campus, as a whole, is a 'danger zone' for students who are concerned with such things as armed robbery, assault, and muggings.

Marquette is suddenly worried about the "safety" of its TA's.   Who knows?  Thousands of stifled but enraged 19- and 20-year-olds could rise up and utterly destroy.....Ahhh.  Never mind.  They'd have to leave The Avalanche to do that, and, ya'know....

Anyhow, one day later, the Obama Administration announced that Obama Himself, Lord Fauntelroy XXVIII, will be 'pushing back' on journalists who plan to run items disparaging jihadists.

The reason for this?

..."The president...will not now be shy about expressing a view or taking the steps that are necessary to try to advocate for the safety and security of our men and women in uniform" whenever journalists' work may provoke jihadist attacks, spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at the White House’s daily briefing....

Yah!!  The "safety of our troops", for crying out loud.  Seriously.  That's now Obozo's first and foremost Concern.  He might even start a hashtag thing for the troops, who only have M-4's, M-16A2's, and assorted tanks and howitzers available for defense.


Just a co-incidence, of course.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

It's SOME Islam, Not All

Interesting breakdown of Islamic 'sects' and the genesis thereof.

...Islam is similar to Judaism in the importance it gives to legal interpretation. ... Unlike Christianity in the West, where divisive debates often have focused on theological doctrines, in Islam the most important schools of thought reflect differences in jurisprudence. There are four main schools of law for Sunnis (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali schools) and one for Shi’ites (Ja‘fari). The main distinctions between these schools lie in divergent opinions about authoritative sources or roots of law. All accept the Qur’an and the sunnah (Muhammad’s example) as foundational but differ on the importance of consensus in collective scholarly reasoning (ijma) and individual analogical reasoning (qiyas). The most conservative school, Hanbali, tends to emphasize the Qur’an and sunna and is suspicious of ijma and qiyas, while the most liberal, Hanafi, tends to emphasize qiyas and individual opinion....

OK so far?  Good.  Here's more.

...Wahhabi and Salafi thought in their modern expression derive from Islamic jurist-theologians Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328) and Muhammad Abd ­al-­Wahhab (d. 1792). They are both renowned students and teachers of the Hanbali school of law. Salafi teaching upholds the first three generations of Muslim history (salaf) as sacrosanct alongside the prophetic example. Not all Salafis are Wahhabis. The latter brand any practice or teaching later than the third century of Islam (salaf) as satanic innovation (bida‘). Wahhabism is the most literalist and iconoclastic branch of Hanbalism, which itself is the most conservative of the four main schools. For instance, while other Muslims might urge abstention from alcohol, Wahhabis also prohibit stimulants, including tobacco. Not only is modest dress prescribed but also the type of clothing that should be worn, especially by women (a black abaya, covering all but the eyes and hands). Religious education includes training in the use of weapons. Wahhabism emphasizes the importance of avoiding non-Islamic cultural practices and non-Muslim fraternity on the grounds that the sunna and the central importance of Muhammad as exemplar forbid imitating non-Muslims. Wahhabi scholars have warned against taking non-Muslims as friends and against smiling at or even wishing them well on their holidays....

And, you guessed it, the Muzzie terrorists are Wahhabi.

Which also happens to be the inclination of Saudi Arabia as a whole.  That's why the money for these cretins flows from......ahhh.....oil revenues.

There's a lot more at the link, including a section which demonstrates that the terrorists are actually breaking even Wahhabi laws.

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Bp. Ricken's Excellent Question

The Bishop of Green Bay asks a very good question:

....why would St. Norbert, a Catholic college, invite someone who is such a high profile and well-known protagonist and activist of abortion rights to weigh in on the causes and contexts of a dramatic increase in domestic violence in the United States?...

Well, Excellency, it's because murdering children is not "violence," of course. Silly question.

I've often referred to St Norbert's as 'the best little Methodist college in the Midwest.'  But that might be a slander of the Methodists.

Friday, January 09, 2015

"Religion of Peace" Starts 2015 WIth a Lot of Bangs

Yah, yah, Paris.

How about Nigeria?  Does anyone really care about black lives?

The terrorist group Boko Haram has massacred at least 2,000 people in the Nigerian state of Borno, according to a Nigerian government official.  The town of Baga was destroyed, and 16 other villages and towns were also razed to the ground in two days of horrific violence.

Think Al Sharpton's going over there to bitch, moan, and pull some shakedowns?

(Well, maybe, if he gets a few hundred tabs of Viagra in payment.)

Thursday, January 08, 2015

It's the Republicans' Turn to Increase Taxes

Well, of course.  That's why the country voted (R), right?


Mr. Inhofe didn’t say he supports raising the gas tax, and he refutes referring to it as such. “It’s not a tax,” Mr. Inhofe said. “It’s a user fee.”...

Inhofe proves himself to be just another artful liar.  "User fee" implies that all gasoline (and diesel) is used for driving on Federal highways. 


Yes, there will be a tax increase.  Yes, the Feds will continue dictating ALL transport-related policies to the States. 

Yes, the Ruling Class is intact. 

The Confusion of Bishop-Speak

It is impossible to discern a meaning in the following:



Umnnnhhhh.  Huh?

Somewhere in that spaghetti-nest of verbosity the Bishop could have said 'admonish the sinner in charity.'  Ain'a?

"Consequence, Not Cause"

That's the phrase used to describe the rise of Front National in France, a political party which is opposed to  current French immigration policies.

...The French journalist and author Eric Zemmour told the BBC parties the Front National is “not a cause, it is a consequence.” He added, “People vote for the FN to say to their elites, ‘Stop doing what you are doing!’ But they never do.”...

Sounds kinda familiar.

“If Europe is getting more immigrants than its voters want,” Weekly Standard senior editor Christopher Caldwell wrote, “this is a good indication its democracy is malfunctioning.”...

Huh.  Who would have guessed?

Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Yup. EPA Wants to Kill the Upper Midwest Dead

You've been hearing about this for months.  BOHICA!!

The Environmental Protection Agency sent a message Wednesday to states that don't want to develop plans to reduce carbon emissions at power plants: If you don't come up with your own way to do this, we'll implement one for you.

EPA has issued a proposed regulation that would require electric utilities to reduce carbon emissions by 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. The agency will issue a final rule for existing power plants in mid-summer, according to Janet McCabe, acting assistant administrator for EPA's office of air and radiation. Rules for new and modified power plants will be issued at the same time....

For practical purposes, that will eliminate coal-fired plants, as there is no extant technology which will achieve these reductions for those installations, which are principally found in the Upper Midwest (the "Rust Belt").  It will also virtually eliminate coal mining--and thousands of jobs therein--in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Southern Illinois, and possibly Idaho and Montana.

And by the way, "carbon emissions" are what you exhale.  So another route for this asinine reg will be to simply slaughter the populations of the Upper Midwestern States.

Or you could freeze to death.  'S OK with EPA.

A Reflection on "Liturgy of the Word"

Kwasniewski is on to something here.

...When the “Liturgy of the Word” is vouchsafed a distinct existence as one of the two parts of the Mass, and particularly when this distinctiveness is enhanced by a gargantuan lectionary with often lengthy readings frequently detached from the other prayers and antiphons of the Mass, there arises the impression of a text that is free-floating and self-justifying, the reading and preaching of which can become the pastorally central arena, throwing the sacramental essence of the Mass into shadow. How often have we experienced the Liturgy of the Word ballooning to an overwhelming size, losing all proportion with the pulsing heart of the liturgy, the offering of the sacrifice and the ensuing communion? In many Masses I’ve attended over the years, the time used by the opening greeting, the readings, and the homily was some 45 minutes, while somehow everything from the presentation of the gifts onwards was crammed into 15 minutes. In the rush to be done (now that the gregarious and intellectually engaging business of readings and preaching is over), either Eucharistic Prayer II or III is chosen—prayers that are utterly dwarfed by the preceding textual cornucopia, seeming like a pious afterthought. The anaphora and its still point, the consecration, shrink and lose their centrality....

Yah.  And even moreso when the celebrant intrudes on the Canon with ad hoc obiter dicta motu proprio, as regularly happens at a church near me--which finally drove me out of the place.

Anyhoo, what Prof. K. objects to is the Protestant-ization; whereas the Prots (bless 'em) go all sola scriptura-with-sermon, for the Catholic the high points are the Consecration and Communion--intimacy with the Word which far surpasses just hearing it.

Killer Muslims? Or Killer French Law?






The Left's Control of Language

Hannan, a Brit, thus one who actually understands English, notes that the Left/Gramscians have successfully changed the meanings of words, which is effectively the same as picking one's battle-ground.  Of COURSE they can win arguments--so long as thinking is outlawed and language is perverted.  (I picked that word 'perverted' for a reason, of course.)

...Any discussion of the relationship between government and citizen is perforce conducted in loaded terms. You can still make the case for greater liberty, but not without sounding rather mean. A glossary will give some indication of how loaded the linguistics are against conservatives.

RIGHT-WING: Baddie. Vladimir Putin, a lifelong KGB man who regrets the break-up of the USSR, is invading neighboring countries. This is a bad thing, so he must be “right-wing.” The mullahs in Iran abolished the monarchy, nationalized industry, and drove most of the middle classes into exile. But they’re also nasty, so they, too, must be “right-wing.” A crazed gunman goes into a school and . . . oh, you get the picture....


INVESTMENT: Government spending. Any lingering trace of the original meaning—that is, of assets producing some kind of return—was obliterated by the spending splurge that preceded the 2008 crash....


Plenty more at the link!

The FBI, CIA, and.....the Post Office?

There is no question that Big Brother is watching you.  In the last 2 years or so, NSA's pervasive and all-encompassing surveillance schemes have been at least partially exposed; and if you think the FBI isn't part of that game, you're naive in the extreme.

All in the name of "terrorism," ya'know, because damn near every American can be a "terrorist."  Pro-life?  Terrorist.  Pro-Second Amendment?  Terrorist.  Don't like Obozo's policies?  Terrorist and RAAAAAACISSS, too!!

Use a computer, use a cellphone, use a land-line, mail a letter, you will be watched.  Go to the doctor?  We have the Obozo Mandate's computer records for that, fella.

Now it turns out that the Post Office--that lumbering bankrupt--does more than just scan your mail.

Sharyl Atkisson found out:

...The FBI often works in close conjunction with the postal service on computer cases, and there’s evidence implicating illegal or unauthorized connection into my system from a postal computer that’s not online or accessible by anybody in the public… A set of IP addresses implicate the post office in some of this or at least the use of their computer systems....

Laugh?  Or cry?

The Revenge of the Empire

Interesting little side-note in the Boehner Revenge story.

...The House Republican leadership is carefully reviewing the list of members who voted against the speaker and those who opposed a procedural motion in December on the so-called “crominibus,” the $1.1 trillion spending package to keep the government open through to September....

Cromnibus passed because a number of Republicans voted for "the Rule" which brought it to the floor.  The bill itself was so bad that Boehner had to get Democrats to vote for it.  The bill fully funds almost every Obozo program and department.  It stinks.

Republicans who bill themselves as "conservatives" then voted AGAINST Cromnibus.  It's the John F'n Kerry Gambit, but in this case they were for it before they were against it. Jim Sensenbrenner, who is long past his stale-date, is one of those people.

To them, the First Thing is to preserve themselves and The Empire.  The rest of us can take the hindmost.

Monday, January 05, 2015

OMG! A Stop-Loss of Four Thousand Five Hundred?

Usually when you hear squealing, it's from pigs.

In this case, it's from Elite Pigs.


Sunday, January 04, 2015

Burge for President

Since Romney, Bush, Huckabee, and various other Ruling Class creeps are intent on becoming President and ruining the remainder of America, this candidacy is very promising, indeed!

I promise to create an economic depression and confine it to a 40 mile radius of the US capitol.  --IowaHawk

Best promise I've heard from ANY candidate.  Bar none.

Saturday, January 03, 2015