Voter Outreach

Michael Graham:

I’ve never understood the discomfort Massachusetts liberals have with public celebrations of Christmas. After all, it’s the season of believing, and let’s face it: Liberals will believe anything.

If you thought the “fire never melted steel” crowd was nuts, check out the new study from the bipartisan Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. They find that liberals and Democrats are far more likely to believe in ghosts, psychic powers and astrology than their conservative/Republican counterparts. About 50 percent more Democrats than Republicans say they have spoken to the dead.

Or as it’s known at Democratic Party headquarters, “voter outreach.”

Do read the whole piece. It is chock full of the increasingly outlandish beliefs of the left (not liberals, because those increasingly authoritarian folks on the left are anything but liberal in the true sense of the word).

From the bizarre belief that increasing Federal spending will somehow cut the deficit to the insanity that pushing people into an already bankrupt Medicare system will allow politicians to cut Medicare spending even further, the already nonsensical beliefs of the left are rapidly becoming pathological. Check that: They crossed that line some time ago.

The problem is that the Democrats are increasingly living in that cloud cuckoo land and dragging the rest of the nation into it.

The O-Plague

After a week of non-stop media stories, Obama administration “Public Health Emergencies” , moronic pronouncements by Joe “Pestilence” Biden and UN World Health Organization antics over H1N1 flu, the bumper crop of what they have sown is being harvested.

Hospital emergency rooms are groaning under the weight of people who think they might have the flu.

After a week of headlines about the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, many emergency rooms and hospitals are crammed with people, many of whom don’t need to be there.

The visits by the “worried well” have triggered concerns of overburdening the nation’s hospitals and emergency departments, several health care professionals told CNN.

This week, some hospitals saw record numbers of patients. A few emergency departments shut down to paramedics because of overcrowding.

“We have had a lot of nervous patients with minimal respiratory tract symptoms,” said Dr. Mark Bell, principal of Emergent Medical Associates, which operates 18 emergency departments in Southern California. “It has caused significant amount of delays in emergency care. They’re all walking well.”

“I haven’t seen such a panic among communities perhaps ever,” Bell said. “We are spending significant time in the emergency department, calming people down. Right now, people think if they have a cough or a cold, they’re going to die. That’s a scary, frightening place to be in. I wish that this hysteria had not occurred and that we had tempered a little bit of our opinions and thoughts and fears in the media. It just went haywire.”

In California, triage tents were set outside. Clinics doubled their traffic in major cities like Dallas, Texas, and Chicago, Illinois. In the Los Angeles area, some Emergent Medical Associates locations shut down their paramedic traffic.

Meanwhile, Mexico has, rather sheepishly (rather than swinishly) has cut the number of people it claimed had been killed by the H1N1 virus from 176 to 101.  

The last time the pandemic racket geared itself up to full tilt was for SARS.

Which killed 775 worldwide.

This time it appears to be 101 + 1 “American” death – who was from Mexico.

Diminishing returns.

The real problem with this officially sanctioned, orchestrated hysteria will be if a real pandemic emerges.

Read the Boy Who Cried Wolf if you don’t understand.

Goodbye To All That

Daniel Henninger on the complete disconnect between the Democrats and the private sector.

Barack Obama meets with a flock of nervous bankers at the White House tomorrow to reassure them he understands their interests. Good luck. There has always been tension between the Democratic Party and the private sector. That tension is over. With its vote in the House of Representatives to punish corporate bonus payments, the national Democratic Party has disconnected itself entirely from the private sector.

 The public bear-baiting of AIG’s Ed Liddy, and then passage of the bonus bill, gave the nation a good look at the modern Democratic Party freed of constraints.

The current version of the party has largely broken free of any understanding whatsoever of the private sector — how it works or what it needs to function.

True socialists at least think about markets so they can criticize them. The Democratic Party’s leadership doesn’t stir to even that level of engagement…..

Frankly, I have been stunned at the sheer level of stupidity coming out of the Democrats in Washington these past two months or so. They, from Barry O. right down to the greenest Democrat in Congress collectively do not get what the private sector needs to thrive.

They also do not appear to understand – at all – that government only exists because of that same private sector that the Democrats so loathe. (Unless they can extort money from that sector, that is.)

Once the golden goose that makes their jobs possible is quite dead, they will be left with nothing whatsoever.

As will the rest of us.

Still hoping for that change, America? Be very careful what you wish for.

The Brokest Generation

Mark Steyn tries to warn the youth of this country that they are the ones getting stuck with the Obama administration’s tab. All these massive spending programs will, inevitably, have to be paid for out of their pockets.

This is the biggest generational transfer of wealth in the history of the world. If you’re an 18-year-old middle-class hopeychanger, look at the way your parents and grandparents live: It’s not going to be like that for you. You’re going to have a smaller house, and a smaller car – if not a basement flat and a bus ticket. You didn’t get us into this catastrophe. But you’re going to be stuck with the tab, just like the Germans got stuck with paying reparations for the catastrophe of the First World War. True, the Germans were actually in the war, whereas in the current crisis you guys were just goofing around at school, dozing through Diversity Studies and hoping to ace Anger Management class. But tough. That’s the way it goes.

I had the pleasure of talking to the students of Hillsdale College last week, and I endeavored to explain what it is they’re being lined up for in a 21st century America of more government, more regulation, less opportunity and less prosperity: When you come to take your seat at the American table (to use another phrase politicians are fond of), you’ll find the geezers, boomers and X-ers have all gone to the men’s room, and you’re the only one sitting there when the waiter presents the check. That’s you: Generation Checks.

This is a reversal of the Reagan complaint about the “Tax and and Spend” liberals. Obama’s spending spree is a “Spend and Tax” plan. Because the deficits that are already running at record levels will not go away anytime soon. China warned this week that they are nervous about all the US Treasury notes they hold. That should be a gigantic warning sign that something is not adding up in the grandiose Obama plan to turn the US into a Redistributionist Utopia.

Someone will have to pay for all of this eventually. The tab has been left for future generations. Go read the whole piece.

Stimulus?

We are assured by Barack Obama that “Because of what” they did, our economy will rebound.

We are fed the news that Barack Obama will present a budget plan that will “slash” the Federal deficit despite a massive “stimulus” plan that increased government spending by a significant amount.

We are promised that the great, wise leaders in Washington will now unilaterally declare carbon dioxide a dangerous pollutant without benefit of Congressional action on that.

The last two items appear to effectively kill the first one.

To slash the deficit you must increase government revenues or slash the Federal spending. Given the nature of what Congress has just done in passing the “stimulus” we can effectively rule out cutting spending. That leaves raising revenues via tax increases. The choices are to raise taxes on individuals or on corporations.

The “stimulus” plan includes a provision for “buy American” that will likely trigger a trade war. That is most likely to damage American corporations and decrease tax revenues from that source. Leaving individuals to pay the taxes.

The regulation of carbon will, by any measure, greatly increase the cost of energy for individuals. Taxpayers are about to get hit with “sticker shock” over the cost of their energy consumption. Individuals will get hit with rising energy prices, rising taxes and a falling economy – all at once.

Stimulus?

Change You Can – Er – Believe In?

Well, Obama’s supporters on the left are having to deal with the fact that Obama’s administration is looking an awful lot like the Clinton administration. Which is amusing. What is somewhat less amusing is the fact that there appear to be at least two former Clintonistas – now Obamanistas – who are slightly less than in touch with reality.

When he was the White House chief of staff under Bill Clinton, Mr Podesta led a project to declassify 800 million pages of intelligence documents. In a press conference, still available to watch on the YouTube website, Mr Podesta said: “It is time for the government to declassify records that are more than 25 years old and to provide scientists with data that will assist in determining the real nature of this phenomenon.”

Gov Richardson, a former presidential candidate and fellow UFO aficionado, has written a forward to a book on the so-called Roswell Incident in New Mexico, where campaigners believe an alien spacecraft crash landed near the town of Roswell in 1947 and that the corpses of humanoid aliens have been kept hidden under lock and key by the government.

He has called for full disclosure by the Pentagon of what really occurred and reiterated his belief that there had been a “cover-up” during a presidential debate last year.

The campaigners, who want the truth “out there”, believe that the British Government’s decision to declassify thousands of UFO sighting documents this year has made it untenable for the US to maintain its policy of non-disclosure.

Only last week a US Air Force pilot, Milton Torres, whose testimony was released from the British archives, appeared on US television explaining how he was ordered to shoot down a large UFO over the UK in 1957 and then silenced by military officials, who told him never to speak of the incident.

Stephen Bassett, Executive Director of the Extraterrestrial Phenomenon Political Action Committee, expects to have gathered 40,000 signatures via email and fax by Mr Obama’s inauguration day on Jan 20 in support of his calls for openness.

Well, that is a really substantial constituency in a country of 300 million or so. One can see the raw political power behind Bill Richardson.

For the rest of us 299,960,000 of us, we can have confidence that we are in the good hands of change we can believe in. We can now believe we have several whack-jobs in charge of the government. And be confident about that.

Unreal

Really, there is no way this could be true…but somehow it is. Winds Of Change point out that so-called journalist Nir Rosen used his press credentials to help the Taliban carry out an operation in Afghanistan.

The moral depravity of it is sickening.

The End Of Academic Freedom

Academics of the world unite!
Others we don’t particularly care for have nothing to lose
but their freedom!

I know this will shock some, but faculty at the University of Chicago are attempting to make economic liberals second class citizens.

The academic freedom of the University of Chicago’s new $200-million Milton Friedman Institute has been under attack for a few months by some faculty members who object to its existence, its namesake, its possible influence on policy, its influence on undergraduates, or all of the above and more.
…

The critics have their own right to criticize the Institute. But after their arguments were roundly criticized by persons on and off campus, some critics directly threatened the Institute’s academic freedom, not only by threatening its existence but also by calling for restrictions on its activities and communications. If these calls actually come to fruition, it will be a sad day for academic freedom at the university.

The critics have sounded the alarm, first, because the Institute is going to do research on policy —which is a very common thing for professors to do.

Second, the critics have argued that it would be improper for the Institute to reach undergraduates with its message —which is what practically every department does, outside the professional schools. The critics warn that “[a]mong the more worrisome details embedded in the proposal is [that] the MFI will also use its assets to recruit and mentor undergraduates”!

Third, the critics warn that donors are going to be allowed to visit with faculty and talk with them about their research. Any such restriction against this access would be a clear violation of freedom of expression.

Notice what is going on here. Some faculty at the university are demanding the right to define what is “acceptable” research and discourse. If you fail to live up to the ideologically determined “standards” you will be denied the ability to conduct research, teach undergraduates or interact with interested parties outside of the university. Talk about your red headed step-children!

Really, this is the sort of thing you would expect in an age of McCarthysim or a Stalin-era Soviet university. Evidently, being culturally ascendent at American colleges and universities is not enough for these “scholars.” Policies are to be enacted that will keep any other ideological perspectives from having a place on campuses.

It is an outrageous and totalitarian impulse that should shame anyone who calls themselves a liberal.

Unfortunately, we seem to be living in a post-shame society.

Still Want To Be Just Like Europe?

Powerline introduces us to the hip new Euro thing, “anti-Fascist Fascists“:

On October 7, Filip Dewinter, a prominent Flemish politician, was scheduled to participate in a debate at the University of Ghent. The issue was to be cooperation between Flanders and the Netherlands. Dewinter is a member of a party that favors the separation of Flanders from Belgium. Separation would be accomplished non-violently, as occurred when Czechoslovakia separated into two Republics.

Prior to the debate, the Rector of the university announced that Geert Wilders, a member of the Dutch parliament who had also been invited, would not be allowed to participate. Wilders is a libertarian-conservative, a staunch defender of free speech, and a critic of Islam to the extent that it conflicts with freedom. Because of his criticism of Islam, he frequently receives death threats. The Rector said that Wilders would not be welcome because his safety could not be guaranteed.

Neither, it turned out, could Dewinter’s. Left-wing students (300 of them according to one estimate) calling themselves anti-fascists blocked his entrance. Dewinter refused to be intimidated and attempted to enter the building. A brawl ensued. The police eventually broke it up, but the debate was cancelled.

Just a case of the euphemistically named “heckler’s veto” going a touch too far?

Hardly.

Attempting to silence those you disagree with politically by shouting them down or denying them access to the traditional arenas of public discourse signals the death knell for any Democracy worthy of the name. The solution for political speech you do not like is more political speech, and not the adopting of a morally self-righteous attitude that justifies intimidation and violence.

You do not separate yourself from the Brownshirts of history by acting just like them. It’s as if they would be fine with a new Kristalnacht as long as it was leftist in inspiration.

I Cannot Believe This Is The Country Of John Locke

News from a weird but not-so-wonderful England: Gardener ordered to take down barbed wire fence ‘in case thieves hurt themselves on it’

A gardener has been ordered by council chiefs to remove three foot high barbed wire ringing his allotment – in case thieves scratch themselves climbing over it.

Bill Malcolm, 61, took the drastic step of installing the wire in a bid to prevent burglars raiding his tool shed and ransacking his vegetable plots.

Intruders have struck three times in four months, stealing more than £300 worth of hardware, including spades, forks and hoes as well as destroying his potato patch.

The fed-up gardener surrounded his 600 square yard site in Worcester with a single strand of barbed wire, which stood no more than waist high.

But his local council declared the security measure was a health and safety hazard and warned him they would forcibly remove it if he refused.

Bill said: ‘It’s an absolutely ridiculous situation, all I wanted was to protect my property but the wire had to go in case a thief scratched himself.

‘The council said they were unhappy about the precautions I had made but my response was to tell them that only someone climbing over on to my allotment could possibly hurt themselves.

‘They shouldn’t be trespassing in the first place but the council apologised and said they didn’t want to be sued by a wounded thief.

What?

Should we remove locks from our doors because thieves could injure themselves trying to force them open? What about “dangerous” glass windows which could cut thieves should they attempt to get through them? Basically, this boils down to the idea that any defense of private property is illegitimate.

The article even points out that the state will decide what is worthy of protection and what isn’t. Those things the state wishes to protect will be supplied with CCTV. Everything else? Well, sorry, you are SOL there.

This is too stupid for belief.

Moon (Bats) Over Denver

Or all over Denver, as the case may be. Zombie (with an assist from El Marco) has documented many of the opening ceremonies in the Mile High City. The ones that began even before the opening of the Democratic National Convention.

Somewhere, there are mothers weeping.

Are We, As A People, Really This Dumb?

I really hate the "cry baby" portion of America…I really do.  Case in point: 'Zero' chance lottery tickets stun some players

When Scott Hoover bought a $5 scratch-off ticket in Virginia called "Beginner's Luck" last summer, he carefully studied the odds. Even though he figured his chances of winning were a long shot, he felt the odds were reasonable.

Hoover, a business professor at Washington and Lee University in Virginia, wasn't surprised when his tickets didn't bring him the $75,000 grand prize, but he was shocked to learn the top prize had been awarded before he bought the ticket.

"I felt duped into buying these things," Hoover said.

He discovered the Virginia State Lottery was continuing to sell tickets for games in which the top prizes were no longer available. Public records showed that someone had already won the top prize one month before Hoover played. He is now suing the state of Virginia for breach of contract.

The mind boggles. You really have to be an academic to not understand the concept of "scratch off" lottery games.  All you have to do is think about it for 10 seconds to realize even before the top prize has been awarded you can buy tickets that have "no chance."  For example, you may never visit the town the tickets is randomly shipped to, or you may never visit the particular store selling the top prize.  Therefore, all of the tickets you buy have "no chance" to win the top prize.

Somebody with a PhD in Business needs this explained to them?  Really?  (There goes Washington & Lee off the list of schools I'd willingly send my children.)

Of course I'd feel better if the story also contained a regular person style "voice of sanity" perspective.  No such luck.

In New Jersey, tickets for the "$1,000,000 Explosion" scratch-off game were still on sale last week, even though the million-dollar grand prize was already awarded.

Lottery ticket buyers outside a New Jersey convenience store were stunned to hear the news.

"Oh really? I didn't know that," one shopper told CNN. Another added, "That's just not right."

I forget….how many generations of imbeciles was enough?

More Vital Governmental Interests

Hot on the heels of the "Great Salt Debate" and the "Kiwi Conundrum" comes the "Swedish Snub"!

An eight-year-old boy has sparked an unlikely outcry in Sweden after failing to invite two of his classmates to his birthday party.

The boy's school says he has violated the children's rights and has complained to the Swedish Parliament.

The school, in Lund, southern Sweden, argues that if invitations are handed out on school premises then it must ensure there is no discrimination.

The boy's father has lodged a complaint with the parliamentary ombudsman.

He says the two children were left out because one did not invite his son to his own party and he had fallen out with the other one.

Meanwhile in Belgium, there are rumors that a man may have had a completely unauthorized bowel movement.

Interpol has been notified.

Canadian Lunacy

In yet another sign that Canada has completely lost it, a judge has overturned a father's decision to ground his twelve year-old daughter.

A Canadian court has lifted a 12-year-old girl's grounding, overturning her father's punishment for disobeying his orders to stay off the Internet, his lawyer said Wednesday.

The girl had taken her father to Quebec Superior Court after he refused to allow her to go on a school trip for chatting on websites he tried to block, and then posting "inappropriate" pictures of herself online using a friend's computer.

The father's lawyer Kim Beaudoin said the disciplinary measures were for the girl's "own protection" and is appealing the ruling.

Courts do not belong in the parent-child relationship in this manner. Period. One hopes that sanity will prevail in the appellate court. If not, parents in Canada are in serious trouble.

Two Modest Suggestions

Apparently, some of the less hinged protesters who are already planning their disruption of the Democratic National Convention are terribly afraid of a completely nonexistent weapon being used against them. Actually, they are afraid of two weapons. No, not the Nikon dragonfly. It is much messier than that…..

Political activists planning protest rallies at the upcoming Democratic Convention in Denver have their stomachs in knots over a rumor about a crowd control weapon – known as the “crap cannon” – that might be unleashed against them.

Also called “Brown Note,” it is believed to be an infrasound frequency that debilitates a person by making them defecate involuntarily.

Mark Cohen, co-founder of Re-create 68, an alliance of local activists working for the protection of first amendment rights, said he believes this could be deployed at the convention in August to subdue crowds.

“We know this weapon and weapons like it have been used at other large protests before,” he said.

Cohen, who described Brown Note as a “sonic weapon used to disrupt people’s equilibrium,” cited eyewitness accounts of its use during free-trade agreement protests in Miami in 2003.

“I think these weapons were mostly intended for military use and so their use for dealing with innocent protesters seems highly inappropriate,” he said. “The idea that they might be field testing them on people who are doing nothing more than exercising their first amendment rights is disturbing.”

As the article points out, there is no evidence – whatsoever – that such a thing exists. Mythbusters debunked it. Snopes has not at this point as far as I can tell. But hey, it's early yet.

Oh, as to the suggestions mentioned in the title to this post: Brown trousers or a cork. Have fun, kiddies.