Open Thread

Out and About on a Sunday

Mark Noonan20 Comments

Sources say female troops were given special treatment to pass Ranger School. The thing is no enemy of the United States is going to cut us any slack. Any woman who wants to be in a combat unit should have to meet the exact same standards as the men – and no lowering of standards. In fact, I’d like to see the standards raised for all military services – perhaps even a smaller overall Army and Marines, but each soldier and Marine trained up to Special Forces quality. 250,000 such soldiers and Marines could make mincemeat of most global military forces.

Bill Clinton has identified the culprit in the Hillary e mail scandal: the Republicans.

Trump is claiming that his GOP rivals want to start World War Three over Syria. This is an exaggeration, of course – but that is Trump in a nutshell. But it must be kept in mind that unless we decide we want to back the Assad regime (and there is a case to be made for this – I’d set our price at the removal of Hezbollah from Lebanon), there is a risk of war with Iran and Russia, who are backing Assad (so, if we decide to fight Assad, they might decide to fight us). Careful thought is necessary in the Syrian mine field.

Hey, fellow Conservatives, just because it is a defense program doesn’t mean it isn’t a boondoggle. I’m pretty sure that about 1 in 3 dollars spent by Uncle Sam is waste, fraud or abuse. And that goes for military spending, as well. British Admiral Jacky Fisher in the early 20th century managed to reduce Naval spending while also providing Britain with a vastly more powerful Navy – big spending doesn’t necessarily translate into a strong military. I bet we can actually cut defense spending and get a more powerful military – and as we set about trying to get rid of regressive, anti-human social spending, we’ll need to find some military cuts so that our proposed reforms don’t come out as “cut welfare and spend on military”. Politics is an art – and you’ve got to play the game to win.

Corporations are selling each other corporate bonds in order to buy back their own stocks. I’m sure this will end well…

A lot of my fellow conservatives have taken strong issue with some statements by Pope Francis. Well, here’s something he said which will make you happy:

In this place which is symbolic of the American way, I would like to reflect with you on the right to religious freedom. It is a fundamental right which shapes the way we interact socially and personally with our neighbors whose religious views differ from our own. Religious freedom certainly means the right to worship God, individually and in community, as our consciences dictate. But religious liberty, by its nature, transcends places of worship and the private sphere of individuals and families.

In other words, liberals, religious liberty means we’re allowed to act upon our religious beliefs even in the public square.

Pope Francis Open Thread

Mark Noonan25 Comments

He does seem to be the subject of conversation, doesn’t he?

First off, Hillary is thrilled that the Pope is in town – it was the perfect time for her to announce her opposition to the Keystone pipeline. Document Dumps – they are a Clinton specialty.

Bernie Sanders is going to join a group of DC workers out on strike while the Pope is in town.

Democrats celebrate the arrival of the head of the Catholic Church in classic Democrat style – blocking a ban on late-term abortions.

Meanwhile, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz will join in various events surrounding the Papal visit.

Arguably the smartest man in the United States, Thomas Sowell, has a critique of Pope Francis:

…As distinguished economic historian David S. Landes put it, “The world has never been a level playing field.” But which has a better track record of helping the less fortunate — fighting for a bigger slice of the economic pie, or producing a bigger pie?

In 1900, only 3 percent of American homes had electric lights but more than 99 percent had them before the end of the century. Infant mortality rates were 165 per thousand in 1900 and 7 per thousand by 1997. By 2001, most Americans living below the official poverty line had central air conditioning, a motor vehicle, cable television with multiple TV sets, and other amenities.

A scholar specializing in the study of Latin America said that the official poverty level in the United States is the upper middle class in Mexico. The much criticized market economy of the United States has done far more for the poor than the ideology of the left.

Pope Francis’ own native Argentina was once among the leading economies of the world, before it was ruined by the kind of ideological notions he is now promoting around the world.

If you’re going to criticize the Pope, at least do it with the grace, wisdom and deep, historical knowledge of Thomas Sowell. That said, I will point out that George Soros is a capitalist. But even laying aside people like Soros (who pile up the cash while claiming to be for social justice), we do need to look at the whole picture, as I’m sure Mr. Sowell would agree. It is good that America’s poor are relatively rich, compared to past measures and, indeed, in comparison with the poor in other nations. But tens of millions of them don’t work: they live on government hand-outs. It is financially “good” that we can use sweated Chinese labor to produce I-crap so cheap that we can afford to give it to our poor…but I don’t believe this is morally good for our poor, the Chinese workers or any of us. We can do better, folks – and that is all Pope Francis is really saying on matters economic.

It isn’t just me – there are other conservative voices in favor of the Pope:

…Pope Francis has also drawn our attention to issues such as income inequality, the plight of immigrants, or the degradation of the environment. At times, he has gotten quite specific. But here is the clincher that people just don’t seem to get. When it comes to how to tackle these complex and difficult topics, the church steps back and leaves it to policymakers to debate and discuss. Even more important, Pope Francis, true to his Jesuit roots, is inviting debate, disagreement and — what was the word? — differences. Difference of opinion on these issues, termed by the church as prudential policy matters, is welcomed by the church and considered healthy and important by Pope Francis. Even when it means disagreeing with the pope…

The Pope will be driven around in a little Fiat. I think every aspirant to the White House should be asked why he or she should be driven around in anything upscale from that.

Weekend Open Thread

Mark Noonan13 Comments

The rumors are starting to fly thick and fast about a Biden run. My view: he’ll get in…but it might be a lot later than people think. Could even be after the New Hampshire primary. It has happened before – specifically, in 1968 when Bobby Kennedy entered the race after New Hampshire revealed the weakness of Johnson.

A few liberal fascists are urging Uncle Sam to bring RICO charges against global warming doubters – nothing says “science” like using the heavy club of government to stifle debate.

More and more people are coming to the understanding that our inaction in Syria is because we don’t want to upset our new friends in Tehran. The Syrian people are being thrown to the wolves in the name of this new policy – much as the Poles were thrown to Stalin in service to FDR’s idea that Stalin would be a nifty post-War partner for us. I suspect our Syrian policy will work out as well as our Polish policy did.

Turns out, The View sucks. But you already knew that.

No one at the EPA has been fired over the EPA’s poisoning of a river. Government is just a word for things we do together – and it’s ok that all of us dumped pollution. It’s only bad if a private company does it, you see?

Out and About on a Weekend

Mark Noonan8 Comments

The University of California has decided to make non-Progressive speech illegal on campus. Oh, they don’t say it like that – but the bottom line is that no centrist or conservative would ever complain about what someone says, so their new policy of banning words which are “hateful” will only work one way – precious snowflake SJW Progs will use the new rules to hound anyone non-Progressive into silence, or off campus, entirely. This is a taxpayer funded system, by the way…you know, in case anyone in the GOP leadership wants a campaign issue which will have 80% backing among the American people: we can threaten to cut off federal funds unless they cool it, ya see? I won’t hold my breath, of course, waiting for the GOP leadership to pick up on this…

We don’t have proof that the illegal aliens in “sanctuary cities” are causing high crime – but San Francisco, a sanctuary city, sure has seen a boom in violent crime since they became a sanctuary city.

The British Labour Party has decided that the Tories should win the next election in a landslide of epic proportions. Labour voters, by a huge margin, just made ultra-leftist Jeremy Corbyn their party leader. Seriously – this guy makes Tony Blair look like Margaret Thatcher. As far as I can tell, there isn’t a single fashionable Progressive position this guy isn’t enthusiastically in favor of. Think of a far out, way off base Progressive cause – it is almost a certainty he’s a “yes” on it. Prime Minister Cameron could not be reached for comment as he was laughing hysterically.

Dan Rather’s opinion on the new Redford flick about Rather: “fake but accurate”.

The Ruling Class in Europe – like the Ruling Class in the United States – likes mass immigration. The people of Europe, however, aren’t so pleased about the idea.

Lawrence Krauss opines that all scientists should be militant atheists. Since Father Georges Lemaitre, originator of the Big Bang Theory, could not be reached for comment, Kevin Williamson at NRO steps in.

Sunday Open Thread

Cluster13 Comments

I am looking forward to the Fall and the 2016 Campaign battle, and trust me, it will be a battle. The fascist Progressives who currently control the Democrat Party will lie, cheat, steal and personally attack anyone who threatens their hold on power and conservatives had better be prepared to be just as vicious. To hell with political correctness. Conservatives need to understand that we are not dealing with honorable people. This from the American Thinker:

We’re not fighting with honorable men but with people who believe they are better than the rest of us. We are in an ideological conflict with liberals who are at heart monarchists or oligarchists. Liberals reject the rule of law because they believe that they are right and that we should all be forced to live as liberals wish us to live.

Take for example Kim Davis in KY. Here is a city official who refused to uphold a federal law because it violated her conscience and as a result, a gay couple was unable to obtain a marriage license. However in SF, city officials refused to uphold federal law that violated their “collective” conscience, and as a result a young innocent woman was murdered. Guess which occurrence received the most outrage and media attention? I am one conservative who does support gay marriage but wish that the issue would have evolved through the political process and not through a tyrannical edict from Supreme beings. That is what fascism is, and that is who Democrats have become. Democrats are incapable of living in a messy democracy where people are free to be offended and held accountable for their actions, preferring instead to create “safety zones” and “welfare cocoons”. Democrats attack conservatives much more viciously than they attack ISIS, or Putin, or China and because of that, Democrats pose a much bigger threat to our country than any current outside threat. It is time to blow up the political class on both sides of the aisle, hold people accountable, call out the liars, call out the grifters, and tell people like Jorge Ramos to shut up and sit down.

A Rather Depressing Day

Mark Noonan16 Comments

Not for me, personally. I had a good day. While not a hunter, I have a friend of mine who was heading out to do some dove hunting and I decided to join him for the day…it was nice just being out there for a few hours, away from the idiocy which is the modern world. But, still, what a lot of depressing news out there:

McConnell says he doesn’t have the votes to de-fund Planned Parenthood. Yes, you do, Mitch. All you have to do is kill the filibuster. It’s not like any future Democrat Senate majority will keep it two seconds longer than it is useful to them. This is the modern world, Senator – the old, “dear colleague” rules don’t apply. They haven’t actually applied since the 1950’s, of course, when Democrats decided that power is more important than anything else. They’ve just played a game of it – and played the GOP for suckers. If you had an ounce of backbone, McConnell, you’d just kill the filibuster, pass the de-fund and send it on to Obama, so he can veto it and we’ll have yet another good issue to run on in 2016. Change the rules so we can pass whatever we want and then let Obama and the Democrats sit there in the fryer trying to explain why they oppose the will of the people.

The Dow shed nearly 3% today – so, we’ve tried printing money. We’ve tried lending it to rich people at zero percent. We tried boondoggle spending programs. The Chinese have added to this by first telling people not to sell, then using Chinese taxpayer money to buy stocks, then arresting people who comment negatively on the Chinese stock market. Nothing seems to work. I’m all out of ideas, guys – I don’t know how they keep this bubble afloat.

Canada, which mostly avoided the economic downturn of the past 7 years, has slipped into recession.

Another police officer shot.

Yet more worn out, has-been political hacks seek a comeback.

Some GOPers apparently believe that Mitt Romney is our best bet in 2016.

There. All depressed? Hope not, but if you are then I offer this:

“We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.” – C. S. Lewis

Out and About on a Thursday

Mark Noonan18 Comments

The Chinese government is buying stocks, so the economy is all better now – please resume your regular Kardashian news viewing.

Kasich viewed as a bigger threat to Bush than Trump is. Uh; well…ok. But being a threat to Bush is akin to being a threat to nothing…Bush hasn’t got a chance at being nominated.

Hillary Clinton is viewed as being dishonest and untrustworthy. This surprises precisely no one. Meanwhile, Joe appears to be Biden is time before he jumps in…

Boehner reportedly calls Cruz a “jackass”…this will, I’m sure, make Cruz more than willing to work with Boehner, assuming Cruz becomes President. If this story is true, then it is time to get another Speaker.

Read that Rubio doesn’t think Trump will win the nomination because we’re not an angry nation. Which is true. We passed “angry” in 2010. By now, we’re a scorching furious nation.

Charges have been dropped against a man for playing the Star Spangled Banner on the Fourth of July. Yes, this is still officially the United States of America. Sorta.

There are 141 counties with more registered voters than living people. And that does appear to be more voters than living people – not more voters than adult citizens. So, voter fraud isn’t a problem.

Out and About on a Wednesday

Mark Noonan11 Comments

It appears that the Iran deal will allow Iran to inspect itself to determine if Iran is keeping its end of the bargain. As I said, the Iran deal wasn’t to prevent Iran from getting nukes – the Iran deal was to remove sanctions from Iran so that Iran can become our “partner” in the Middle East. Partner in what remains to be seen.

So, the Boycott Divest Sanction (BDS) movement wanted to a get a singer scheduled for a Spanish music fest to come out in favor of the BDS position. Singer refused. Singer was disinvited to perform. Usual bit of Progressive fascism for the most part – but the key to this one is that the singer in question was the only person asked to make the pro-BDS statement…and the singer is Jewish-American. In other words, the Jew was singled out for Special Handling. Anyone want to claim the left isn’t increasingly anti-Semitic? In the end, the disgusting nature of this forced the music fest to back down, apologize and re-invite the singer…but how many less famous Jews are getting ground up in this sort of thing? And how many of our Progressives even remotely realize that they are backing people who would massacre every Jew in Israel, if given the chance?

Once again – no, the e mail scandal will not force Hillary out of the race. In fact, it might even work to her advantage in 2016 with LIV. My bet is that by December or so the “investigation” will be complete and Hillary won’t be charged…this will work out in the MSM to Hillary being cleared of all wrong-doing and any GOP attempts to bring it up in 2016 will be “why are you re-hashing old news?”. Rely on it: Hillary will only be kept out of the White House by a great candidate running a great campaign. To be sure, this stuff does help a bit by attacking Hillary’s credibility in the overall public mind…but that was already a bit of a given. We have to beat her by beating her. Nothing else will do it for us.

Newest Planned Parenthood video indicates that PP may, from time to time, engage in a bit of infanticide if the child comes out alive. This has been a given in the abortion industry for a long time – you can’t be sure the kid is dead prior to extraction. Almost always, the child is dead – but there’s no way to be 100% certain about it, and so it appears that some children come out alive. The bottom line about abortion is that it is a nasty business where the end-product is a dead child and, very often, a poor woman struggling for years with the mental anguish (you’re “pro-choice” and don’t believe me about that last? Then go here and see. I dare you). Given that it is all about death-dealing, it is bound to be unpleasant in almost all respects. It has gotten a mental pass from the people because the use of euphemism has allowed people to turn aside and pretend they dont’ know what is happening. These videos end all that.

ISIS beheads 82 year old antiquities scholar – in case you forgot that these are savages who need to be defeated.

In better news, a bunch of Yazidi women have formed a military unit to kill ISIS goons. These women, by the way, risk death and worse if they are ever captured by ISIS. What saddens me is that we don’t want to fight ISIS as much as these women do.

They keep telling us that the economy in in great shape and that unemployment is dropping like a rock…but if this is so, why are wages flat? Two possible explanations:

1. There is no job growth and Uncle Sam is just faking the numbers

2. There is job growth but the importation of millions of illegals with Uncle Sam’s encouragement is keeping wages flat.

Take your pick, but either case is bad for the people.

Out and About on a Sunday

Mark Noonan8 Comments

The Dominican Republic (73% racially mixed, 16% white, 11% black) is deporting illegal immigrants. Is there any way our Progressives can describe this as a racist act?

Once we get some rationality in our economic policies, manufacturing will expand in the United States and we’ll stop being so much of a service-sector, consumption-based economy. This may cause a lot of economic problems in China, which lives by exporting to the United States. Can’t say as I’m at all upset about this.

FBI is still looking into the Hillary e mail fracas. Some people are gloating that this will mean the end of Hillary. It won’t. They might find a few people to nail for it – and Hillary might throw a few of her own under the bus – but they won’t get Hillary. They can’t. It is Obama’s Justice Department and they simply won’t let this wind up at Hillary’s door with an indictable offense.

Alabama detective hesitated before defending himself against an attacker. Why did he hesitate? Because he was afraid that deadly force would get him accused of racism. He ended up beaten unconscious. One thing I really appreciate about the Obama years is all the racial healing.

Jeremy Corbyn – mentioned earlier as the possible next leader of Britain’s Labour Party – is pretty rock solid in the anti-Israel camp, as you might have expected.

The University of Georgia has banned hoop skirts. Yes, you read that correctly. Hoop skirts are racist. Trust me on this, we’ll never reach the bottom of liberal stupidity.

Out and About on a Tuesday

Mark Noonan

Biden to get in? He should. No Democrat should be on board a coronation of Hillary Clinton. It is un-American. One thing I have learned – I have some young relatives who are on the Progressive side and they despise Hillary…she’s going to have far more trouble than everyone expects.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is just soaring in the polls. I have to say that this is entirely unexpected by me. But when you look at it, you see why: the GOP base has been treated with utter contempt by the GOP Establishment. Trump is taking the base seriously and speaking to at least some of their real concerns. The GOP – if it doesn’t want Trump to hang around for quite a long time – had better figure out a way to out-Trump the Donald.

400 families are responsible for 50% of all campaign cash raised so far this year. This is what we’re ticked off about, GOP Establishment. I’m hoping that Walker or Jindal keys in on this sort of thing. Robert Reich notes the rising revolt against the Ruling Class from the Progressive point of view – pity there isn’t a Progressive out there who will actually fight the Ruling Class (no, Sanders isn’t fighting anything – all his programs call for more money and power to flow to the Ruling Class to be doled out to the good little Proles who do as they’re told…but he is talking the game of fighting, and that is why he’s drawing support away from Hillary…same way that Trump is drawing support away from Walker, Cruz and Jindal…especially Walker, who really has fought and beaten the Ruling Class). There is 65% of the vote just sitting there for any candidate who will really fight against those who are destroying this nation. We’ll see if anyone wants it.

Over at Ace, Maetenloch has a good article to read on the subject of hunting. Do keep in mind that lions, as such, are merely pests who eat cattle and, some times, humans. They have no economic value to the Africans who live near them and unless there is some economic value created for lions, the locals would probably exterminate them. Sure, tourism to go see the lions does help, but so does hunting to go kill the lions. Probably need both activities to keep the locals willing to tolerate the lions. To bring it closer to home, Nevada charges a bucket of money for the privilege of hunting a Big Horn sheep ($1,200.00 for non-residents, just for the tag!)…so few are the permits issued that if you manage to get one, it is a once-in-a-lifetime sort of thing. And if you fail to get a sheep in your hunt, you’re just out of luck. But the money raised by hunting has helped Nevada keep a large, healthy population of sheep in the wild.

Professor makes a post condemning the terrorist group Hamas – student fascists go after him, colleagues head for cover, professor is forced to flee campus. There are people on the left who will destroy all freedom of expression if they can…and for you Progressives out there thinking they won’t come after you, think again…when this sort of thing starts, it is those who hate the most and love oppressing the most who take the lead. You think because you’re a good, little Prog that you’re safe and only bad, old conservatives will feel the heat. Solzhenitsyn had some words for you – “you’ll never believe it until they hiss at you, ‘you’re under arrest!'”.