Author: Kevin

Obvious Penis Compensation Issues

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Obvious Penis Compensation Issues

(To steal a meme from SayUncle)

Harlem Store Owner Shoots 4 Robbers, Killing 2

They strode into the restaurant supply store in Harlem shortly after 3 p.m. on Thursday, four young men intent on robbery, one with a Glock 9-millimeter pistol, the police said. The place may have looked like an easy mark, a high-cash business with an owner in his 70s, known as a gentle, soft-spoken man.

But Charles Augusto Jr., the 72-year-old proprietor of the Kaplan Brothers Blue Flame Corporation, at 523 West 125th Street, near Amsterdam Avenue, had been robbed several times before, despite the fact that his shop is around the corner from the 26th Precinct station house on West 126th Street.

There were no customers in the store, only Mr. Augusto and two employees, a man and a woman. The police said the invaders announced a holdup, approached the two employees and tried to place plastic handcuffs on them. The male employee, a 35-year-old known in the community as J. B., struggled with the gunman, who then hit him on the head with the pistol.

Watching it happen, Mr. Augusto, whom neighborhood friends call Gus, rose from a chair 20 to 30 feet away and took out a loaded Winchester 12-gauge pump-action shotgun with a pistol-grip handle.

This would be an “evil assault weapon” in New Jersey, a weapon “manufactured for no other reason than to hunt man” that, according to Jersey City Police Chief Thomas Comey, should be banned.

The police said he bought it after a robbery 30 years ago.

Apparently they’re pretty effective for defending against criminals.

Mr. Augusto, who has never been in trouble with the law, fired three blasts in rapid succession, the police said,

Well of course. It’s a rapid-fire assault weapon after all!

although Vernon McKenzie, working at an Internet company next door, heard only two booms, loud enough to send him rushing to a window, where he heard someone shout: “You’re dead! You’re dead!”

The first shot took down the gunman at the front. He died almost immediately, according to the police, who said he was 29 and had been arrested for gun possession in Queens last year and was the nephew of a police officer.

I wonder if he had any problems acquiring the firearms he used in crime?

Mr. Augusto’s other two blasts hit all three accomplices, who stumbled out the door, bleeding.

One of them, a 21-year-old, staggered across 125th Street and collapsed in front of the General Grant Houses, a nine-building complex with 4,500 residents, one of the city’s biggest housing projects. Someone called 911, and an ambulance rushed him to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, where he was dead on arrival. The police said he had a record of arrests for weapons possession and robbery.

Another criminal with a long rap sheet. And Mr. Augusto? Clean as a whistle. But I do wonder if he jumped through all the hoops necessary to acquire and maintain a premises permit for his 12-gauge.

A law enforcement official said that the district attorney was considering a possible misdemeanor weapons charge against Mr. Augusto, indicating that he did not have a permit for the shotgun.

Apparently not.

Read the whole thing. As Instapundit said, “Surprisingly sympathetic treatment from the NYT.”

Quote of the Day

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Back to John Taylor Gatto’s The Underground History of American Education:

I lived through the great transformation which turned schools from often useful places (if never the essential ones school publicists claimed) into laboratories of state experimentation. When I began teaching in 1961, the social environment of Manhattan schools was a distant cousin of the western Pennsylvania schools I attended in the 1940s, as Darwin was a distant cousin of Malthus.

Discipline was the daily watchword on school corridors. A network of discipline referrals, graded into an elaborate catalogue of well-calibrated offenses, was etched into the classroom heart. At bottom, hard as it is to believe in today’s school climate, there was a common dedication to the intellectual part of the enterprise. I remember screaming (pompously) at an administrator who marked on my plan book that he would like to see evidence I was teaching “the whole child,” that I didn’t teach children at all, I taught the discipline of the English language! Priggish as that sounds, it reflects an attitude not uncommon among teachers who grew up in the 1940s and before. Even with much slippage in practice, Monongahela and Manhattan had a family relationship. About schooling at least. Then suddenly in 1965 everything changed.

Whatever the event is that I’m actually referring to—and its full dimensions are still only partially clear to me—it was a nationwide phenomenon simultaneously arriving in all big cities coast to coast, penetrating the hinterlands afterwards. Whatever it was, it arrived all at once, the way we see national testing and other remote-control school matters like School-to-Work legislation appear in every state today at the same time. A plan was being orchestrated, the nature of which is unmasked in the upcoming chapters.

Think of this thing for the moment as a course of discipline dictated by coaches outside the perimeter of the visible school world. It constituted psychological restructuring of the institution’s mission, but traveled under the guise of a public emergency which (the public was told) dictated increasing the intellectual content of the business! Except for its nightmare aspect, it could have been a scene from farce, a swipe directly from Orwell’s 1984 and its fictional telly announcements that the chocolate ration was being raised every time it was being lowered. This reorientation did not arise from any democratic debate, or from any public clamor for such a peculiar initiative; the public was not consulted or informed. Best of all, those engineering the makeover denied it was happening.

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Nice to have that from a “Primary Source.”

It’s Not About Ownership, It’s about CONTROL

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It’s Not About Ownership, It’s about CONTROL

Since it appears to be “Spank Markadelphia” week here at TSM, I’d like to point out one of his sillier “gotcha!” points, one he is so proud of:

Currently, 20+ trillion dollars is in the hands of private organizations in this country. That’s 99.77 percent of our nation’s wealth. The other .23 percent is owned by the government.

—

Most bankds(sic) have paid back their loans and the government owns .23 percent of our wealth. The rest is in private hands. So…who has the power again?

I think he got his information from The Atlantic, since he used a graph from there in a post of his own, but that piece says 0.21%. I believe he’s mentioned this number here in other places, but my Google-fu is weak this evening.

So, for Markadelphia, possession of wealth is apparently the only marker of power that matters.

No wonder he apparently hates people with three vacation homes.

I found an interesting piece today from the Center for Fiscal Responsibility, which declared that yesterday, August 12, was “Cost of Government Day” – the day on which working people stopped earning money that would go to Federal, State, and Local governments, and finally start going into their pockets. It was the latest date this has ever happened. Per the piece, the date shift is almost entirely due to the recent massive increases in Federal spending – Bush’s TARP and Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, noting “. . . these spending bills set taxpayers up for a year when federal spending has reached a record 28.5 percent of GDP.

The GDP for the US, according to the CIA World Factbook was $14.33 trillion in 2008. As many are now aware, our annual expenditure for health care in 2007 was estimated at $2.4 trillion, about 1/7th of our GDP.

And now the government wants to control a bigger – much bigger – chunk of that.

So the Federal government controls about 28.5% of our GDP – that is, about $4.8 trillion dollars annually. To that they want to add a significant portion of an additional $2.4 trillion – and, if you happen to believe (as I do) that the plan is to eventually control it all, and with “normal government efficiency” that means more than the $2.4 trillion we spend now, while we get less for it.

The control of $4,800,000,000,000 annually isn’t power?

Then there’s this:


The ability to print money isn’t power?

And, finally, the Federal Government outright owns an estimated 28.8% of all land in the United States, and with the Kelo v. New London Supreme Court decision of 2005, pretty much any government entity can take any property they want for pretty much any reason. In addition, as of 2004, the Federal government outright owned a bit over 411,000 buildings, about 17.5% of which (and 20% of the square footage) provide housing to American citizens. (Source: GSA’s FEDERAL REAL PROPERTY PROFILE 2004 – PDF)

THIS isn’t POWER?

By comparison, at his peak Bill Gates was worth only $101 billion.

So, who has the power again?

Oh, and just who is it that controls the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, FBI, NSA, CIA, Secret Service . . .

Quote of the Day

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Quote of the Day

As a recent convert from liberalism to conservatism, I must say… you all are so much more fun and entertaining! I truly wish I could have come to my senses sooner!

But now I find myself in this very strange place of conversion. I still hold some of my more liberal thoughts, but now find myself reviewing them from a firmer stance in reality. As my dear friend Kevin would probably phrase it, “You must have gotten tired of sniffing the Unicorn Farts!”

With this newfound light to the world, I also have a new view of where this illustrious country of ours is headed… and frankly it scares the crap out of me. I used to blind myself by saying, “We can make it better, we just need to try harder and come up with better solutions.” Something that I now have found out is very closely related to the Democratic motto when a plan of theirs goes wrong, “The philosophy can’t be wrong, the idea is sound… we just have to do it again, only harder!” Ah… to be free of the shackles of delusion.

— Mr. Bill, Rants and Reviews, “Where are we going, and what are we doing in this handbasket?”

I’m not solely responsible, but I may have helped create a monster.

The rest of it is worth a read, too. He’s asking questions.

“You Don’t Trust Me?”

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Claire McCaskill asked that question of her constituents at a Town Hall meeting, insisting that a “single-payer” bill wouldn’t pass. The response was swift. I’m going to pick on Markadelphia some more, because he is such a stereotype that he lends himself to it.

We’ve been discussing the ChOsen One’s enthusiasm for rushing “Health Care Reform” through the Congress with as little delay, transparency, and discussion as possible, and just why that might be. As many here have objected (me included), it’s a plan that will lead to “single-payer” / “Socialized medicine.”

Markadelphia denies this. For example:

I don’t know for certain what system we will have. So why are you so certain that it will be a single payer system and be as bad as GB?

And:

I didn’t answer the question because the solutions that are out there don’t have the government as a single payer. What they have is the government as one option and private insurance as another.

And from his own blog:

And speaking of the single payer system, the final bill floating around DC is the United States National Health Care Act. This bill is a single payer system, similar to Canada’s health care system, that was put forth by John Conyers. Of the three bills that seek to overhaul health care in the United States, this is the one that is being taken the least seriously. Although, you wouldn’t know it by listening to hyper paranoid voices on the right.

In fact, virtually all single payer advocacy groups have been screaming at the top of their lungs that they are being excluded from the process…other than a pity meeting with Max Bachus. The fact is that this bill is never going to pass because our country, despite what the flat earthers will have you believe, is center right. Private industry will never be shut out of the process. It’s too integral to our economy and our future as a nation. This is very true when it comes to health care. I do agree that competition spurs innovation and with a single payer system, we would not have that.

And that’s why out of all three bills, I favor HR3200 out of all three. Primarily, it offers the best of both worlds and addresses the issue of how to pay for all of this. Wyden’s bill relies too heavily on the private sector and Conyers bill will, in all likelihood, break the bank. We need to strike a balance and that’s what this bill does. And this balance allows for traps and pitfalls that are going to occur along the way where the other two really don’t.

Yes, Markadelphia trusts the government to come up with a “third way” that will provide a “public option” without eliminating private insurance.

Neo-Neocon found a video I’ve been waiting for. I’ve seen all of these clips spread around, but someone took the time to compile them into a coherent whole:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ-6ebku3_E&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&w=640&h=505]
Why are we “so certain that it will be a single payer system and be as bad as GB?” Because they’ve told us what they’re doing. It’s not a Trojan Horse, it’s just right there!

Why should we trust them? “It is not a principled fight!” Indeed, it is not. The fact that they are confident enough to admit it publicly, proudly, should frighten you.

It does me.

Quote of the Day

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Quote of the Day

Another comment by reader “GrumpyOldFart” only this one’s all his:

Since Mark is making all these declarations about what the Republican base must obviously believe, let’s examine the actions of the Democrat base and see what they must obviously believe.

Let’s start with what they know. As always, the right will be held to a higher standard than the left, so I’ll limit myself to things that “I didn’t know _________!” on a given subject would be as absurd as saying, “I didn’t know professional wrestling was fake!”

1. They know that their party’s House Financial Services Committee Chairman, House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee Chairman, House Speaker, Senate Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Chairman, Senate Rules Committee Chairman, are all flat-out crooks, and make very little attempt to hide it.

2. They know that one of their primary fundraising organizations is wholly owned by a multibillionaire who makes no attempt to hide the fact that he manipulates the organization, and thus Democrat Party policy, for his own purposes.

3. They know that that one of their primary “activist” organizations is under indictment for voter registration fraud in a dozen states, and that this same organization is going to be given quite a bit of authority over the census, which determines what? Oh, just unimportant things like Congressional districting, electoral votes, stuff like that.

4. They know their party’s current leader chose someone as Attorney General who declines to prosecute people caught on video engaging in blatant voter intimidation. Whether it’s because the thugs in question were his same party or his same ethnicity is immaterial, it’s quite obvious that the AG has neither the desire nor any intention of impartially enforcing the law. They also know this same leader nominated a Supreme Court Justice who demanded a case be judged on the race of those involved rather than on its merits.

5. They know that nothing the aforementioned leader says can be taken at face value. Nothing. I was for Single Payer before I was against it, the stimulus was not intended as a stimulus, you can start blaming me for the economy right now but it’s your mess, there will be no lobbyists in my administration except for almost the entirety of my cabinet, it’s time to embrace science rather than superstition even though my “science czar” is a eugenicist, everything will be discussed on C-SPAN and there will be a full debate and five full days for the American people to see the bill cos it’s all about transparency (although the Republicans will be locked out of most of the process, I’ll refuse FOIA requests, and I’ll insist that the bills are too important to actually read them before I demand your unequivocal support), we must have a full and open debate on the issues while my senior advisor unleashes union thugs on my opponents, we have to get clear of the lies, disinformation, misinformation and distraction even though I’m pressuring the CBO to fudge their figures when they disagree with me….

…I could go on, but you see the point.

6. They know that this same leader produced more deficit in six months than every other President combined in the entire history of the Republic, all while preaching fiscal responsibility.

Okay, that’s the highlights of what the Democrat base pretty much cannot help but know. And yet what quality, more than any other single factor, defines the difference between Republicans and Democrats? It is this:

When Republicans find out one of their leaders is making no real attempt to “walk the walk” (Ted Stevens is a good example) the base calls for him to be thrown out.

When Democrats find out one of their leaders is making no real attempt to “walk the walk” (Pelosi, Frank, Dodd, Murtha, Jackson, Rangel, Waters… sheesh, pick one) the base either defends him by demonizing his/her critics or says “So what?” and ignores it.

I’ll do links if you ask, but this is already very long and 5 seconds on google will provide you all you want.

What conclusions can we draw from this? There are really only two choices:
Either

a) The Democrat base fully shares the corrupt, “it’s all about my power, my perks, screw everybody who gets in the way, I don’t give a shit if it’s legal or not” mindset of the leaders they choose, or

b) The Democrat base considers ethics, honesty and the rule of law at best indifferent if not actually destructive to the process of good government.

Were there any justice in this world, that would leave a scar.

How much is it the insurance companies are paying you? Well deserved, sir! Well deserved!

Another Blast from the Past

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Another Blast from the Past

Recently, perpetual commentator (and personal “reactive target range”) Markadelphia has made noises about how the Left just isn’t as mean and nasty and violent as the Right.

Orly?

I invite you to read an op-ed printed in an “alternative” weekly immediately after Bush won re-election in 2004. (The link to the original piece is still good – I checked.) Remember: This is something they printed. What do you think they didn’t put in ink?

There’s this, too, but the link to the original is now broken.

And these are the people with their hands on the levers of power. Don’t doubt it.

Quote of the Day

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Quote of the Day

Hat tip to commenter GrumpyOldFart who found it in a comment thread at HotAir

It’s darkly amusing to watch them fumble across this new, less slanted landscape, shrieking the devil words they think will scare voters out of questioning them. If you look beyond the squalid little insinuations about swastikas and un-American fifth columns, even the less hysterical challenges to the legitimacy of their opponents are revealing. The accusation that people asking questions at town hall meetings are paid operatives of the insurance companies supposes the superior virtue of politicians to private industry. When Obama’s political staff sends out marching orders to supporters, along with scripts for how to look credible and concerned while advocating state-run health care, it is considered to be noble “community organizing.” If insurance companies were to assist with any kind of organized resistance to Obama’s agenda, it would be denounced as sleazy and sinister.

To appreciate this mindset, you must embrace the central tenet of socialism: the State is caring, compassionate, and wise, far beyond the vile and money-grubbing businessmen of the private sector. The insurance industry couldn’t possibly know anything useful about insuring people, could it? Of course not. Only their greed prevents them from showering Americans with cheap, universal coverage. The same dynamic is at play when liberals sneer at the idea of allowing energy companies to have any say in energy policy. It’s also why the Left loves to extol the virtues of “working Americans,” while offering only hatred to the business owners who employ them, and arrogant contempt for the consumerist culture that purchases the products they create. On any given topic, the only legitimate voices belong to politicians and their supporters. Businessmen are expected to sit quietly in their cells and await judgment. — “Doctor Zero”

And this seems an appropriate place to repeat a couple of quotes from Jonah Goldberg’s best-seller, Liberal Fascism:

Progressivism, liberalism, or whatever you want to call it has become an ideology of power. So long as liberals hold it, principles don’t matter. It also highlights the real fascist legacy of World War I and the New Deal: the notion that government action in the name of “good things” under the direction of “our people” is always and everywhere justified. Dissent by the right people is the highest form of patriotism. Dissent by the wrong people is troubling evidence of incipient fascism. The anti-dogmatism that progressives and fascists alike inherited from Pragmatism made the motives of the activist the only criteria for judging the legitimacy of action.

—

This has been the liberal enterprise ever since: to transform a democratic republic into an enormous tribal community, to give every member of society from Key West, Florida, to Fairbanks, Alaska, that same sense of belonging – “we’re all in it together!” – that we allegedly feel in a close-knit community. The yearning for community is deep and human and decent. But these yearnings are often misplaced when channeled through the federal government and imposed across a diverse nation with a republican constitution. This was the debate at the heart of the Constitutional Convention and one that the progressives sought to settle permanently in their favor. The government cannot love you, and any politics that works on a different assumption is destined for no good. And yet ever since the New Deal, liberals have been unable to shake this fundamental dogma that the state can be the instrument for a politics of meaning that transforms the entire nation into a village.

—

All public policy issues ultimately boil down to one thing: Locke versus Rousseau. The individual comes first, the government is merely an association protecting your interests, and it’s transactional, versus the general will, the collective, the group is more important than the individual. Everything boils down to that eventually. And the problem with “compassionate conservatism” is the same problem with social gospelism, with Progressivism and all the rest: it works on the assumption that the government can love you. The government can’t love you. The government is not your mommy and it’s not your daddy, and any system that is based on those assumptions will eventually lead to folly.