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So Much To Do, So Little Time…

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Still working 10-12 hour days.  Lots going on out in the real world, and no time to analyze and write about any of it. 

Nobody shows for a “Climate Change Rally” in  Washington.  The snark and schadenfreude just ache to be written.

Obamacare’s implementation of a 30-hour “full time” workweek has spawned an “unintended consequence” – hour cuts to avoid having to provide health care.  “Unintended” my ass.  Everyone who saw that provision KNEW what the result would be.  But the White House says there’s no there, there.  In other Obamacare news, first there was the delay of planned Medicare cuts, then delay of the “employer mandate” for companies with 50 or more employees, and now the cap on out-of-pocket expenses has been delayed by proclamation.  And they’re still telling us that our premiums will go down.

A rodeo clown gets “lifetime ban” for un-PC political speech, and calls for “federal involvement” are raised. 

Jesse Jackson, Jr. and his wife get jail sentences, and CBS doesn’t find his party affiliation newsworthy.  (Hey, the New York Times put it in the first SENTENCE of their story.)

The Federal Government is still running at a loss, but the National Debt has remained at $16,699,396,000,000 since last month.  Truly, if a private business was run like the .gov, it would be shut down in thirty seconds and every officer would be sitting in prison alongside Rep. Jackson, Jr.  And the regular media has nothing to say about this accounting sleight-of-hand, I guess because “the right people” are in charge.

In other money news, apparently while the Fed can create money electronically with ease, the Mint can’t actually PRINT money worth a damn.

Egypt is coming apart at the seams.  Syria isn’t doing any better.  Or Iraq.  That “smart diplomacy” sure is working wonders, no?

Still no motion from the media on IRS-Gate, Bengazi-Gate, or any of the other myriad Obama scandals.  Of course not!  He’s not George W. Bush!

Yeesh.  Maybe I should be happy that I’ve got three more weeks of  busting my ass at work, and at least another month when I get back from Reno.

Please enjoy yourself in the comments and the archives, and a BIG thank you to reader John Hardin who has been making MASSIVE efforts to make available the old JS-Kit/Echo comment threads for a lot of the older posts, like this one.  Thank you, John.  It’s much appreciated, and if I’m ever in your neck of the woods, I owe you a beer or twelve.

Quote of the Day: What Obama Hath Wrought Edition

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Bryan Preston at The PJ Tatler – Matt Damon and Charles Krauthammer Agree: Obama is No Good:

Obama is leading. He just isn’t leading in any traditionally American way, through the constitutional process and within the bounds of our historic political discourse. But he is leading, and it’s a grave mistake to believe otherwise.

Kevin Williamson warns where Obama is leading.

Barack Obama’s administration is unmoored from the institutions that have long kept the imperial tendencies of the American presidency in check. That is partly the fault of Congress, which has punted too many of its legislative responsibilities to the president’s army of faceless regulators, but it is in no small part the result of an intentional strategy on the part of the administration. He has spent the past five years methodically testing the limits of what he can get away with, like one of those crafty velociraptors testing the electric fence in Jurassic Park. Barack Obama is a Harvard Law graduate, and he knows that he cannot make recess appointments when Congress is not in recess. He knows that his HHS is promulgating regulations that conflict with federal statutes. He knows that he is not constitutionally empowered to pick and choose which laws will be enforced. This is a might-makes-right presidency, and if Barack Obama has been from time to time muddled and contradictory, he has been clear on the point that he has no intention of being limited by something so trivial as the law.

Or what used to be our common language. Obama doesn’t believe in either one.

And here we are, living in what was a constitutional republic being rapidly transformed into a surveillance state.

And this is why, as much as I respect him, I find Victor Davis Hanson’s analysis of the Obama presidency unconvincing.

Discuss.

Light Blogging Alert

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I woke up at 03:30 this morning thinking about a work-related problem.  Looks like for the next several weeks (excepting my trip to Gun Blogger Rendezvous VIII), I’m going to be BURIED at work, so don’t expect to see much here except for random snippets.  Certainly no Überposts.  Sorry about that.  Read the archives, or go outside and get a tan or something.

Privilege

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I have stated on more than one occasion that the purpose of government throughout history (with apologies to Thomas Jefferson) has not been the protection of individual rights, but the protection and expansion of the privileges and power of the privileged and powerful.  In fact the definition of the word privilege is:

a special benefit, exemption from a duty, or immunity from penalty, given to a particular person, a group or a class of people

The latin roots of the word mean “private law.”

So you can imagine my (lack of) shock when I read about California Public Employees’ Magical Immunity to Traffic Tickets (h/t: Instapundit):

“They’ve exempted themselves from the rules they’re enforcing,” said Chad Dornsife, director of the Best Highway Safety Practices Institute. “They know it, is what’s really sick about this. This isn’t some surprise that when the camera comes out they don’t have to worry about it.”…

“It’s a courtesy, law enforcement to law enforcement,” San Francisco Police Sgt. Tom Lee said. “We let it go.”

Want to avoid traffic tickets?  Get a special license plate only issued to .gov employees.  Don’t like Obamacare? Beg your lawmaker for a waiver. If you’re a lawmaker, give yourself an exemption.  “Exempt(ing) themselves from the rules they’re enforcing” is SOP for the powerful and privileged.  I don’t understand why anyone would be surprised.  Why should the law apply to them?  They have private law.

Who NEEDS an “Assault Rifle” with a “High-Capacity Magazine Clip”?

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This guy.

Alaska man kills charging bear with assault rifle

A trail south of Anchorage has been closed after a man killed a brown bear that charged him.

Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist Jessy Coltrane tells the Anchorage Daily News that an unidentified man came across the bear Sunday morning while hiking alone. He told Coltrane the bear charged him, and he fired 13 rounds from an AK-74 assault rifle he was carrying on his hike.

Chugach State Park Ranger Tom Crockett said the bear ran off, but later died.

Anybody want to bet that he’s going to up-gun to something in a .30 caliber?

Holy Crap!

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Reader Phil B., expatriate Brit now living in New Zedland, sent me a link to a Salon.com op-ed with the note:

This is why trying to reason with left wing, right on, politically correct groupthinkers is a bit like trying to wallpaper fog.  And, incidentally, why I firmly believe we are deep within an era of anti-Renaissance where such idiocy is published and taken seriously.

Billy Beck calls it “The Endarkenment.”  And I am fully in agreement with Phil on his “wallpapering fog” assessment.

This thing is so full of WTF? that I can’t even fisk it.  My brain boggles.

If you’ve got a few brain cells you’re not too happy with and are willing, nay eager to sacrifice, go read Why the Right Hates Detroit, written by the biggest case of white-guilt I think I’ve ever seen.

I’m amazed this man hasn’t offed himself due to his own self-loathing.  I guess he’s found a way to project it onto anyone to the political right of Mao.

At least the commenters appear sane, though I didn’t read many of those.  I  have to wonder about Salon’s editors.