Blogs For Victory

Here we are, in the fourth Sunday of Advent, already. Got all your shopping done? During Mass the priest advised that if you have any left to do, give it a miss. Time to start concentrating on what this is all about:

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.

When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,

but before they lived together,

she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.

Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,

yet unwilling to expose her to shame,

decided to divorce her quietly.

Such was his intention when, behold,

the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,

“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.

For it is through the Holy Spirit

that this child has been conceived in her.

She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,

because he will save his people from their sins.”

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall name him Emmanuel,

which means “God is with us.”

When Joseph awoke,

he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him

and took his wife into his home. – Matthew 1:18-24

The DREAM Act – actually, a nightmare of amnesty – has failed in its cloture vote:

Senate Republicans have blocked a bill to grant hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children a chance to gain legal status if they enroll in college or join the military.

Sponsors of what they call the Dream Act needed 60 Senate votes for it, but fell five short…

Which means, of course, that the MSM is lying as usual…if it were just GOPers voting against it would have been 58/42…as the vote was 55/41, it wasn’t a party-line vote. But, no matter…

Meanwhile, over at DADT Repeal-land, a different outcome:

In a landmark vote for gay rights, the Senate on Saturday voted to advance legislation that would overturn the military ban on openly gay troops known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

The 63-33 test vote all but guarantees the legislation will pass the Senate, possibly by day’s end, and reach the president’s desk before the new year…

So, it was Republicans who blocked the DREAM act, but it was the Senate which advanced the DADT repeal…though, of course, with only 33 voting against cloture, there must have been some Republicans voting in favor of cloture on DADT. We can’t win for losing it would seem.

Be that as it may, it is a delight that the DREAM Act failed, not even remotely worth our attention at the moment that DADT advances and our real concern now is that the Senate might end up ratifying the absurd START II treaty…a treaty made with a dying power which will do nothing worthwhile for us while hamstringing us in our efforts to deal with the growing nuclear threats to our nation.

UPDATE: Colorado Patriot (Nick) over at Gay Patriot reflects on the DADT repeal:

…I cannot express how grateful I am that this didn’t happen at the rap of a judge’s gavel. Nothing could have been more destructive than had our military been forced to make this change not because our commanders had been directed to do so by our elected civilian leaders, but by judicial fiat. Simply put, the judicial branch is not (despite this Administration’s obsession with trying our enemies in civilian courts) charged with, nor does it have the temperament for, taking on the responsibility of national security…

You can’t say fairer than that – regardless of what one wishes to say on the merits of homosexuals openly serving, it is right and proper that such a change only come about via the legislative process. Service in our military is not a right and thus it was absurd – from the get-go – to try and force this through the courts as a Constitutional issue. A person may be privileged to serve in the military if they meet certain, strict requirements – it is the ultimate privilege a patriot may obtain, and not all are able to fulfill this sublime duty.

I’ve long believed that the military can act effectively with openly gay members. Provided our soldiers are properly disciplined, whether or not a person is gay or straight is irrelevant. No service member should be having sex with another service member – gay or straight; that is where the poison comes in. Our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are the best of our nation – they come from all walks of life and only wish to do one thing: serve our nation. Provided they can serve with honor and courage, I’ve got no other questions to ask them.

A few days ago, Michael Moore, in his own way of posturing, posted bail for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

This act has a new sense of irony, as it has now been revealed, via WikiLeaks, that “Cuba banned Michael Moore’s 2007 documentary, Sicko, because it painted such a ‘mythically’ favourable picture of Cuba’s healthcare system that the authorities feared it could lead to a ‘popular backlash’, according to US diplomats in Havana.”

The revelation, contained in a confidential US embassy cable released by WikiLeaks , is surprising, given that the film attempted to discredit the US healthcare system by highlighting what it claimed was the excellence of the Cuban system.

But the memo reveals that when the film was shown to a group of Cuban doctors, some became so “disturbed at the blatant misrepresentation of healthcare in Cuba that they left the room”.

Castro’s government apparently went on to ban the film because, the leaked cable claims, it “knows the film is a myth and does not want to risk a popular backlash by showing to Cubans facilities that are clearly not available to the vast majority of them.”

Sicko investigated healthcare in the US by comparing the for-profit, non-universal US system with the non-profit universal health care systems of other countries, including Cuba, France and the UK.

It was nominated for an Oscar for best documentary feature but was also castigated for being naive and tendentious.

Oh, the irony.

UPDATE: Michael Moore is now claiming on his website that “Sicko” was not banned in Cuba. Say Anything Blog has a response to Moore’s claim.

Moore claims: “The entire nation of Cuba was shown the film on national television”

Unfortunately, The entire nation of Cuba does not own television sets. 75-80% of the population does not. I would imagine that the top 20-25% of income earners have both TVs and access to betterhealth care than the populace at large.

ownership tv-sets: 200 – 246 per 1000

http://www.populstat.info/Americas/cubag.htm

I’ll have to look into that statistic, and see if it is households with (a) TV set or just the number of TVs per capita. If it is the latter, then, anyone with multiple sets would mean an even smaller percentage of the populace would have access to anything broadcast.

Of course, anyone who would take Moore’s explanation at face value is quite gullible. Moore’s deceptive practices with his “documentaries” are no secret. But hey, if Moore actually believes Cuban health care is so much better than ours, he is perfectly welcome to go there for all of his medical treatment. He’s gotta burn all that evil money he’s made thanks to capitalism somehow.

So, what happened to that whole mantra that Obama would make our country more respected around the Globe?

President Obama and his wife Michelle will not be invited to Prince William’s wedding next year.

Because Prince William is not yet heir to the throne, his wedding to Kate Middleton is not classed as a ‘state occasion’ – and the couple feel under no pressure to fill the 2,000-strong guest list with heads of state, the Mail understands.

They are more eager to ask ordinary citizens and charity workers than foreign dignitaries and VIPs to what will be the first royal ‘people’s wedding’, courtiers suggested.

A handful of heads of state are likely to be invited in line with previous royal weddings, possibly including France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni.

But the decision to exclude the American premier and his wife Michelle from the celebrations marks a break from tradition.

Perhaps part of the issue is that Obama has insulted British heads of state and the Royal Family with some rather lame ass gifts.

I first took note of Herman Cain back in September over at Noonan for Nevada – but now what was just a blogger idea is becoming a bit more real. From Daily Caller:

Former Godfathers Pizza chief executive Herman Cain says he’s definitely forming an exploratory committee — likely within the next several weeks — to test the waters for a possible Republican presidential run in 2012.

Cain, a radio talk show host and favorite of the Tea Party movement, confirmed the news in an interview with The Daily Caller. He suggested that a presidential campaign is likely, but said he hasn’t made a final decision…

“Longshot” doesn’t begin to describe this – but, also, it doesn’t really matter. The American people are hungry for a renewed America; genuine reform which will put the people in the driver’s seat and secure for ourselves and our children a nation strong in every respect. Herman Cain may or may not end up being the person to lead us there – but he’s a darn sight better than what we’ve got right now.

He’s a man who rose on hard work and strong faith – you can go to the Draft Cain website to see plenty on his background and his views. I wish him the best of luck in his effort – and we’ll see if he really has the stuff in him to be President.

Megan McArdle wants to know:

An interesting question emerges from one of my comment threads on whether or not congress should be able to use the taxing power to get over limits on its enumerated powers.

1) Can Congress enact a $50,000 tax on second term abortions?

2) Can Congress enact a $50,000 tax increase, which is then rebated to anyone who does not have an abortion?…

Like McArdle I don’t want to hear in this thread any arguments on the morality of abortion or the merits of “choice”: I only want to hear someone argue for or against the power of the government to tax such things as abortions under the inter-state commerce clause…especially since, as McArdle also points out, people do cross State lines to obtain abortions while you can’t even buy health insurance across State lines.

If the government’s power to tax is unlimited, then we can tax out of existence anything we like and, of course, tax subsidize in to existence anything we prefer. As a conservative, I hold that there are strict limitations on the government’s power to tax – but what of you liberals? You seem to have no limit to what cannot be taxed and what cannot be subsidized in the tax code. And if we were to follow your apparent lead in this matter, then a GOP Congress allied with a GOP President could impose a $50,000 tax on abortions and, poof, only the very rich would be able to afford them…whammo!, abortion is illegal without any of that tedious bit about the Constitution.

What say you, liberals? Will you, even now, retreat from your position? Remember, if you don’t we can tax you out of existence…on the other hand, if you retreat, then things like ObamaCare will become impossible. So, think carefully – and let us know what you believe.

From the Daily Mail:

Swathes of Britain skidded to a halt today as the big freeze returned – grounding flights, closing rail links and leaving traffic at a standstill…

…The Arctic conditions are set to last through the Christmas and New Year bank holidays and beyond and as temperatures plummeted to -10c (14f) the Met Office said this December was ‘almost certain’ to become the coldest since records began in 1910…

There’s this thing called weather, boys and girls, and it is the result of an absolutely stupendous set of variables. Indeed, human beings cannot begin to calculate all of the parameters which go in to make, say, a day of 23 degree weather in London and 71 degree weather in Algiers. With all the variables available, if you figure you are seeing either a steady rise in average temperatures, or a steady decline, the first thing you must do is realize that you know so little that it will be impossible for you to pin-point one, single item which is the primary cause of the observed change.

And that is what is wrong with global warming – it asserts that one thing, man-caused CO2 emissions, are the primary factor in what some people say they observed as a rise in temperatures even though they lack sufficient data to even be sure that temperatures were rising, at all. The global warming theory wasn’t science – not in the least; it was guess which was taken over by people who wanted to obtain power and wealth without working for it. It was an absurd idea from start to finish.

Now, these frigid temperatures are being heralded by some as the precursor to some sort of global cooling trend. This is as dumb as the people who assert global warming. No one knows – no one can know. We can make some educated guesses, but nothing which anyone should set policy by more than a week out. Next winter might be mild – or we might be in for a long series of frigid winters. It will be what it will be – and nothing we say or do can alter what the weather will be like…not now, not 100 years from now.

But Democrats aren’t – from Byron York over at the Washington Examiner:

…A new analysis by a group of federal-spending watchdogs shows a striking imbalance between the parties when it comes to earmark requests. Democrats remain raging spenders, while Republicans have made enormous strides in cleaning up their act. In the Senate, the GOP made only one-third as many earmark requests as Democrats for 2011, and in the House, Republicans have nearly given up earmarking altogether — while Democrats roll on…

York goes on to note how the Democrats refused to pass a budget before November 2nd – probably because of this continuing addiction to pork. They didn’t want it to show up in votes right before November – but now that November is over, all the pork was shoved in to the OmniWaste bill as Democrats tried to go on one, last binge of taxpayer dollars before they lose the House.

Now, the real battle will be keeping the GOP off the junk – addicts do have a problem with falling off the wagon, and we’ve got a couple of pork pushers in the GOP caucus (Cochran, we’re looking at you). But if we can keep the GOP on the straight and narrow, we’ll be doing what the people want, and we’ll reap the reward of public trust as we head in to 2012 – our grand chance to win full power, and thus reform America.

Just a great story for this time of year – and, indeed, for all times, from CBS Minnesota:

Christmas came early for a Twin Cities food bank struggling to keep up with the growing number of hungry families this holiday season.

The Emergency Foodshelf Network in New Hope stocks and serves more than 230 food pantries in Minnesota…

…Wednesday, a Christmas miracle arrived in a plain white envelope. Up front, administrative assistant Carol Deters opens up the mail. She just had a hunch.

“I said, I just love these mysterious envelopes because you never know what little goody you are going to find on the inside. And we opened it up and it was a check for $40,000,” Deters said…

God bless that generous person – remember, give what you can; even that extra dollar helps.

From SF Gate:

For the first time since 2008, inflation is hitting consumers in the stomach.

Grocery prices grew by more than 1 1/2 times the overall rate of inflation this year, outpaced only by costs of transportation and medical care, according to numbers released Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics…

And, meanwhile, vast swaths of US agricultural land lie fallow – because our tax and regulatory system makes it unprofitable to farm. And, remember, farming isn’t just growing food – it also entails vast amounts of manufacturing to support the growing and transportation of the food. We’re killing our economy at the base – and now we’re starting to pay higher prices for the food (yes, I realize that part of this jump is the Fed printing money like mad – but as food prices have risen, there has been little or no discernible increase in the amount of land being farmed…in other words, even higher prices for the stuff isn’t encouraging expansion of the industry…so badly screwed up are our economic policies).

I know I keep harping on this – I know its got to be getting boring by now; I’m sure I’m starting to sound like a crank over it. But until we start making, mining and growing more of our own stuff, we’ll never get out of this. We can expect increasing scarcity and higher prices until we unleash our economy by removing the tax and regulatory penalties on wealth creation. We really have to tell the banksters, bureaucrats and, especially, the environmentalists to get stuffed. We’ve got more important things to worry about than “too big to fail” banks, government pensions and fricking guppies in a California river.

We can get serious, or we can continue to collapse. The choice is ours.