Gazizza.Net

Now there really is a WKRP in Cincinnati.

Hat Tip: Instapundit

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 6:23 PM | Permalink

I give thee thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing thy praise;

I bow down toward thy holy temple and give thanks to thy name for thy steadfast love and thy faithfulness; for thou hast exalted above everything thy name and thy word.
On the day I called, thou didst answer me, my strength of soul thou didst increase.
All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O LORD, for they have heard the words of thy mouth;
and they shall sing of the ways of the LORD, for great is the glory of the LORD. (Psalm 138:1-5, from the Responsorial Psalm for the daily Mass for Thanksgiving)

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 8:55 AM | Permalink

"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." That's got to be on the short list of greatest lines in TV history.

WKRP in Cincinnati

The entire episode is available on Hulu.

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 8:13 AM | Permalink

"Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have grown not only gray, but almost blind in the service of my country." --George Washington

"It's been my responsibility, my duty and very much my honor to serve as Commander in Chief of this nation's Armed Forces these past eight years. That is the most sacred, most important ask of the Presidency. Since our nation's founding, the primary obligation of the national government has been the common defense of these United States. But as I have sought to perform this sacred task as best I could, I have done so with the knowledge that my role in this day-to-day-to-day effort, from sunrise to sunrise, every moment of every hour of every day of every year, is a glancing one compared to yours. ... But it's not just your fellow Americans who owe you a debt. No, I believe many more do, for I believe that military service in the Armed Forces of the United States is a profound form of service to all humankind. You stand engaged in an effort to keep America safe at home, to protect our allies and interests abroad, to keep the seas and the skies free of threat. Just as America stands as an example to the world of the inestimable benefits of freedom and democracy, so too an America with the capacity to project her power for the purpose of protecting and expanding freedom and democracy abroad benefits the suffering people of the world." --Ronald Reagan

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it." --Thomas Paine

"To be sure, the American people have handed power over to the Democrats. But today there is a categorical difference between what Republicans stand for and the principles of individual freedom. Parties are all about getting people elected to political office; and the practice of politics too often takes the form of professional juvenile delinquency: short-sighted and self-centered. This was certainly true of the Bush presidency. Too often the policy agenda was determined by short-sighted political considerations and an abiding fear that the public simply would not understand limited government and expanded individual freedoms. How else do we explain 'compassionate conservatism,' No Child Left Behind, the Medicare drug benefit and the most dramatic growth in federal spending since LBJ's Great Society? ... Ronald Reagan, for example, held an unshakably positive vision of American capitalism. He didn't feel a need to qualify the meaning of his conservatism. He understood that big government was cruel and uncaring of individual aspirations. Small government conservatism was, by definition, compassionate -- offering every American a way up to self-determination and economic prosperity. Republicans lost control of Congress in 2006 because voters no longer saw Republicans as the party of limited government. They have since rejected virtually every opportunity to recapture this identity. But their failure to do so must not be misconstrued as a rejection of principles of individual liberty by the American people. The evidence suggests we are still a nation of pocketbook conservatives most happy when government has enough respect to leave us alone and to mind its own business. The worrisome question is whether either political party understands this." --former House Majority Leader Dick Armey

"Conservatism is not in trouble -- the Republican Party is. Too many of its leaders at the ballot box or in its conservative journals have lost sight of the blindingly obvious: Ronald Reagan was not just a winning personality whose time has come and gone. He was in fact the living embodiment of a set of timeless principles that are not only the gravity of this political world we live in but its oxygen as well. To borrow his once famous query: If not now, when? If not us, who?" --Jeffrey Lord

"There are 15 cabinet departments, nine of which control various aspects of the U.S. economy. They are the Departments of: Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Education, Energy, Labor, Agriculture, Commerce, and Interior. In addition, there is the alphabet soup cluster of federal agencies such as: the IRS, the FRB and FDIC, the EPA, FDA, SEC, CFTC, NLRB, FTC, FCC, FERC, FEMA, FAA, CAA, INS, OHSA, CPSC, NHTSA, EEOC, BATF, DEA, NIH, and NASA. Here's my question to you: Can one be sane and at the same time hold that ours is an unregulated laissez-faire economy? Better yet, tell me what a businessman, or for that matter you, can do that does not involve some kind of government regulation. A businessman must seek government approval for the minutest detail of his operation or face the wrath of some government agency, whether it's at the federal, state or local level. Just about everything we buy or use has some kind of government dictate involved whether it's package labeling, how many gallons of water to flush toilets or what pharmaceuticals can be prescribed. You say, 'Williams, there's a reason for this government control.' Yes, there's a reason for everything but that does not change the fact that there is massive government control over our economy." --Walter E. Williams

"There is no time to lick wounds, point fingers, and wallow in post-election mud. I'm getting a lot of moan-y, sad-face 'What do we do now, Michelle?' e-mails. What do we do now? We do what we've always done. We stand up for our principles, as we always have -- through Democrat administrations and Republican administrations, in bear markets or bull markets, in peacetime and wartime. We stay positive and focused. We keep the faith. We do not apologize for our beliefs. We do not re-brand them, re-form them, or relinquish them. We defend them. We pay respect to the office of the presidency. We count our blessings and recommit ourselves to our constitutional republic. We gird our loins, to borrow a phrase from our Vice President-elect. We lock and load our ideological ammunition. We fight." --Michelle Malkin

"[M]any of the indices for the GOP are dreadful, especially that they lost the vote of two-thirds of those aged 18 to 29. They lost a generation! If that continues in coming years, it will be a rolling wave of doom." --Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan

"Still, the Republican Party retains a remarkably strong pulse, considering that McCain's often chaotic campaign earned 46 percent of the popular vote while tacking into terrible winds." --Washington Post columnist George Will

"Obama will try to convert those temporary moderate and conservative votes of his into permanent liberal and moderate voters -- just as Reagan did in reverse between 1980 and 1984. If we conservatives can make our case, the election of 2008 will be a blip, just a kick-the-bums-out election. If Obama makes his case, he may have moved the center of political gravity to the left for a generation. Every conservative man and woman, to battle stations." --columnist Tony Blankley

"History does not entrust the care of freedom to the weak or timid." --Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Government price-fixing, once started, has alike no justice and no end. It is an economic folly from which this country has every right to be spared." --Calvin Coolidge

"Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views." --William F. Buckley Jr.

"As Congress gears up to pass another spending 'stimulus' bill, there's one political silver lining: Democrats are being forced to abandon the pretense of fiscal conservatism known as 'pay as you go' budgeting. Late last week the leader of the House Blue Dog Coalition, Tennessee Democrat Jim Cooper, announced that with Barack Obama about to enter the White House, 'I'm not sure the old rules are relevant anymore.' Why not? Because, Mr. Cooper said, 'It would be unfair to the new President to put him in a budget straitjacket.' Democrats ran on 'paygo' in 2006, promising to offset any new spending increases or tax cuts with comparable tax increases or spending cuts. Once in charge on Capitol Hill they quickly made exceptions, waiving paygo no fewer than 12 times to accommodate some $398 billion in new deficit spending -- not that the press corps bothered to notice. That didn't stop Majority Leader Steny Hoyer from announcing in May that 'We're absolutely committed to paygo. Speaker [Nancy Pelosi] is committed to paygo. I'm very committed to paygo. Our caucus is committed to paygo.' Yet now Mr. Cooper is delivering official last rites, as the Washington spending machinery powers up in earnest. Paygo was always a big con designed not to reduce spending but to stop tax cuts. It was invented to stop the GOP Congress and then a Republican President, but it is inconvenient when Democrats run the show. With the recession available as an excuse for just about anything, get ready for the first $1 trillion federal budget deficit. And don't expect any howling from the Blue Dogs." --The Wall Street Journal

"[I]t wasn't that limited-government conservatism was a bad product; it was that Bush and congressional Republicans operated it wrong. A Rolls Royce is, obviously, a great product. But if you're driving down the highway at 70 miles per house and suddenly shift from 'Drive' to 'Park,' you're in for a world of hurt. Of course, it wouldn't be because the product was bad; it would be because you tried to get it to do something it wasn't intended to do. That, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly the problem with 'big government conservatism'." --political consultant Chuck Muth

"Joe Biden was assigned the code name Celtic by the White House Secret Service detail Monday. It's critically important that he's protected. God gave America Joe Biden so that comedians would have something to do for the next [four] years." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"Of course, lots of sour news about the economy. The federal government has announced that due to the bad economy, it is going to have to lay off 40,000 postal workers. Yeah, 40,000 disgruntled postal workers. What could possibly go wrong?" --comedian Conan O'Brien

Jay Leno: President Bush and Barack Obama had their big meeting [Monday] at the White House. And they found that with all their differences, they have one thing in common: Neither trusts the Clintons. ... There's a new rumor that Hillary Clinton may end up being secretary of state. Which means she would have to spend the next four years traveling all around the world. To which Bill said, "Yes!" ... In the Senate, 90-year-old Robert Byrd will step down as Appropriations Committee chair. He'll be replaced by Hawaiian Sen. Daniel Inouye, who is 84. Finally, we're getting some young blood in there. ... As you know, President-elect Obama promised his daughters a puppy if they moved to the White House. He's already getting advice on what the best breed of dog to get. For example, Bill Clinton told him that the Oval Office is a great place for a husky female.

"I think all the world would gain by setting commerce at perfect liberty." --Thomas Jefferson
"Consider that in 1980, when Ronald Reagan won his first presidential election, the public was self-identified as 46 percent moderate, 28 percent conservative and 17 percent liberal. But by the 1984 Reagan re-election, the public had shifted to 42 percent moderate, 33 percent conservative and 16 percent liberal -- a statistically significant shift to the right. In those four years, Reagan had persuaded 5 percent of the electorate to move largely from moderate to conservative. And that 5 percent has stayed conservative for 24 years, right through the 2008 election. It is that 5 percent that has made America a center-right country rather than a centrist country -- allowing a fairly conservative Republican Party to win congressional and presidential elections most of the time. That is why it is so vital for both the Republican Party and a newly aroused conservative movement to work feverishly to make the case to the broadest possible public for our right-of-center views during the next four years." --columnist Tony Blankley

"As one liberal academic administrator said in justifying his Draconian action in suppressing a Christian viewpoint, 'We cannot tolerate the intolerable.' This self-blinding, superior mindset explains how liberals can accuse conservatives of racism for their legitimate political differences with Barack Obama while demeaning, with racist epithets, Condoleezza Rice or Clarence Thomas. It's how they can mock conservatives for being close-minded while unilaterally declaring the end to the debate on global warming because of a mythical consensus they have decreed. It's how they can demand every vote count and exclude military ballots. It's how they can glamorize Jimmy Carter for gallivanting to foreign countries to supervise 'fair elections' and pooh-pooh ACORN's serial voter fraud in their own country. It's how they can threaten the tax-exempt status of evangelical churches for preaching on values, even when the churches don't endorse candidates, but fully support a liberal church's direct electioneering for specific candidates. ... It's how they can oppose the death penalty for the guilty but protect the death penalty for the innocent unborn. ... If you believe the left is tolerant, open-minded and democratic, you're in for a rude awakening." --columnist David Limbaugh

"Barack and Michelle Obama are poised to commit a classic act of limousine-liberal hypocrisy -- in this case, turning their backs on tens of thousands of inner-city kids in Washington, D.C. Public schools, it seems, are good enough for poor and middle-class families, but not for rich families like the Obamas. In July, when he addressed the NAACP's annual convention, Sen. Barack Obama expressed his devotion to American public schools, vowing he would not 'walk away from them' by supporting school-choice programs like Sen. John McCain did. ... There were 59,616 students enrolled in the D.C. public schools in 2006, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. If McCain's plan to increase by 2,000 the number of vouchers available in the District were enacted, taxpayers would still be spending $15,798 per student per year to send more than 55,000 kids through a school system where about nine out of 10 students do not learn to read or do math at grade-level proficiency by the time they 'graduate' from elementary school. What is Obama's plan to deal with this? Spend $18 billion more in federal tax dollars on public education (as he promised in his campaign) -- and send his own kids to extremely expensive private schools. Currently, Obama's two daughters (ages 7 and 10) attend the University of Chicago Lab School, where tuition is $18,492 for grades 1-4 and $20,286 for grades 5-8. When Michelle Obama visited Washington this week, she toured only two prospective schools for her daughters: Sidwell Friends, where lower-school tuition is $28,442; and Georgetown Day, where tuition is $27,445 for grades 1-5." --columnist Terence Jeffrey

"There are a great many God-fearing, dedicated, noble men and women in public life, present company included. And yes, we need your help to keep us ever-mindful of the ideas and the principles that brought us into the public arena in the first place. The basis of those ideals and principles is a commitment to freedom and personal liberty that, itself is grounded in the much deeper realization that freedom prospers only where the blessings of God are avidly sought and humbly accepted. The American experiment in democracy rests on this insight. Its discovery was the great triumph of our Founding Fathers, voiced by William Penn when he said: 'If we will not be governed by God, we must be governed by tyrants'." --Ronald Reagan

"Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men." --John Adams

"If an American is to amount to anything he must rely upon himself, and not upon the State; he must take pride in his own work, instead of sitting idle to envy the luck of others. He must face life with resolute courage, win victory if he can, and accept defeat if he must, without seeking to place on his fellow man a responsibility which is not theirs." --Theodore Roosevelt

"If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that, too." --W. Somerset Maugham

"He is a man of sense who does not grieve for what he has not, but rejoices in what he has." --Epictetus

"Now that distrust of markets is high, Americans are supposed to believe that the institution they trust least -- Congress -- will pony up $1 trillion and then passively recede, never putting its 10 thumbs, like a manic Jack Horner, into the pie? Surely Congress will direct the executive branch to show compassion for this, that and the other industry. And it will mandate 'socially responsible' spending -- an infinitely elastic term -- by the favored companies." --columnist George Will

"Yes, letting GM go into bankruptcy would be scary. But a GM bailout merely kicks GM's problems down the road while spreading the fear about where Uncle Sam's big feet will land next. Besides, bankruptcy isn't the end of the world. It's the means by which bad companies restructure to fix themselves. Bailouts are the means by which governments subsidize bad companies." --National Review editor Jonah Goldberg

"As usual, government's stumbling, bureaucratic 'solutions' exacerbate problems that free people, allowed to pursue their own self-interest, would address on their own. We'd still suffer some tough times -- it's painful when bubbles pop -- but recovery comes sooner when businesses must quickly fix their own mistakes -- or die." --John Stossel, co-anchor of ABC News' "20/20"

"Part of the problem is that we have enjoyed such unparalleled freedoms and prosperity that we have been lulled into the false notion that they will continue in perpetuity, even as we betray, to ever-greater extremes, our founding principles. But traditionalists understand that there is a tipping point beyond which this incessant socialist piggybacking on our capitalistic economic system and these ever-deepening encroachments on our scheme of government (for example, through judicial activism) will finally bring us to our knees." --columnist David Limbaugh

"Detroit is in nose dive, no doubt about that. So is a $50 billion government bailout the answer? President-elect Barack Obama thinks so, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi points in the same direction with her call for extending 'emergency and limited financial assistance' under the $700 billion bailout plan enacted last month. Democrats clearly want something big and something soon for the Big Three. We agree that the automakers can't go on much longer burning cash and piling up an Everest of debt. They're close to the breaking point. But there's a system in place for dealing with crises such as this, even at the scale of massive corporations. It's called bankruptcy, and it should not be written off as unthinkable. Filing for Chapter 11 protection under bankruptcy law is the normal way a company stays in business when facing an unmanageable financial situation. It keeps creditors at bay while the company reorganizes under court supervision and settles its debts. In recent years it has served as a refuge for major airlines (Delta and United) which, you may notice, continued to fly while in Chapter 11 and, post-bankruptcy, fly today. Bankruptcy protection also frees companies from union contracts. Could this be why it seems to have been taken off the table as an option, at least among Democrats? We can only surmise, but it's clear that a bankruptcy process would be rough going for the United Auto Workers." --Investor's Business Daily

"Statesmen ... may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand... The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a great Measure, than they have it now, They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty. ... Religion and virtue are the only foundations, not of republicanism and of all free government, but of social felicity under all government and in all the combinations of human society." --John Adams

"The original $700 billion bailout is TARP, for Troubled Asset Recovery Program. We should call the handout frenzy the Capital Assets Recovery Program. CRAP, for short." --Wesley Pruden, editor emeritus of The Washington Times

"The United Auto Workers said Saturday they won't make any concessions on wages or benefits to help the Big Three. First things first. Investors are just starting to realize that General Motors is a health care provider that makes cars on the side." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"We've managed to pick 42 Presidents before (43 if you count Grover Cleveland twice) without declaring any holidays before they even took office. Let's calm down." --columnist Michael Graham

"Barack Obama said that since he won the election he has slept in his own bed every night. After hearing this, Bill Clinton said, 'Man, this guy has a lot to learn'." --comedian Conan O'Brien

"Every time that we try to lift a problem from our own shoulders, and shift that problem to the hands of the government, to the same extent we are sacrificing the liberties of our people." --John F. Kennedy

"One of the main reasons there's all of this 'money on the sidelines' out there among private investors is that Wall Street doesn't know what the government will do next. Will it bail out the auto industry? The insurance companies? Which taxes will go up? How far will interest rates go down? How long will the federal government own stakes in the banks? Will more stimulus checks go out? If so, how big will the deficit get? Interventionists, bailout czars and 'bold experimenters' in all parties claim to be like firefighters; they can't stop what they're doing until the fire is out. But this analogy only works if you understand the nature of the fire. If it's a credit crisis, that's one thing. If it's uncertainty, it's quite another. And if the problem right now is uncertainty, then these aren't firefighters, they're arsonists. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told Congress he'd spend his kitty of tax dollars on bad mortgage-backed securities. Instead, in the spirit of bold experimentation, he's spent much of it to date buying banks. Obama insisted he had a specific plan for the economy -- but his plan seems to be to 'project confidence.' The problem with this 'In Obama We Trust' approach is that it makes private-sector decision-making very difficult. If your boss says he will lay off half his employees next month, but he doesn't know who yet, will you buy a new house this month? In a time of stability and growth, government can afford bold, persistent experimentation. But in a time of uncertainty, the last thing it needs is more uncertainty." --National Review Editor Jonah Goldberg

"I was always taught when growing up that when you reward bad behavior all you get is more bad behavior. From the mortgage meltdown to the automaker debacle to cities and states going under, it's all bad behavior. It should not be rewarded. The problem here is that our culture of debt -- both personal and corporate -- has created a culture of dependency. Everyone is calling out to our central government to give them money. And horrors of horrors, many are willing to let the federal government take ownership stakes in these entities and have a hand in their management. That is the road to socialism. The first step to ending the culture of dependency is to tell these corporations, cities and states they need to start taking responsibility for their actions by dealing with the consequences they have created for themselves. If not, then we could accumulate a national debt that even our grandchildren will never pay off." --columnist and former Mayor of Cincinnati Ken Blackwell

"Evil acts can be given an aura of moral legitimacy by noble-sounding socialistic expressions such as spreading the wealth, income redistribution or caring for the less fortunate. Let's think about socialism. Imagine there's an elderly widow down the street from you. She has neither the strength to mow her lawn nor enough money to hire someone to do it. Here's my question to you that I'm almost afraid for the answer: Would you support a government mandate that forces one of your neighbors to mow the lady's lawn each week? If he failed to follow the government orders, would you approve of some kind of punishment ranging from house arrest and fines to imprisonment? I'm hoping that the average American would condemn such a government mandate because it would be a form of slavery, the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another. Would there be the same condemnation if instead of the government forcing your neighbor to physically mow the widow's lawn, the government forced him to give the lady $40 of his weekly earnings? That way the widow could hire someone to mow her lawn. I'd say that there is little difference between the mandates. While the mandate's mechanism differs, it is nonetheless the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another. Probably most Americans would have a clearer conscience if all the neighbors were forced to put money in a government pot and a government agency would send the widow a weekly sum of $40 to hire someone to mow her lawn. This mechanism makes the particular victim invisible but it still boils down to one person being forcibly used to serve the purposes of another. Putting the money into a government pot makes palatable acts that would otherwise be deemed morally offensive. This is why socialism is evil. It employs evil means, coercion or taking the property of one person, to accomplish good ends, helping one's fellow man." --George Mason University economics professor Walter E. Williams

"My fellow Americans: Over 350 years ago, a small band of Pilgrims, after gathering in their first harvest at Plymouth Colony, invited their friends and neighbors, who were Indians, to join them in a feast of thanksgiving. Together they sat around their bountiful table and bowed their heads in gratitude to the Lord for all that He had bestowed upon them. This week, so many years later, we, too, will gather with family and friends and, after saying grace, carve up a turkey, pass around the cranberries and dressing, and later share slices of pumpkin pie. We Americans have so much for which to be thankful. ... We will give thanks for these and one thing more: our freedom. Yes, in America, freedom seems like the air around us: It's there; it's sweet, though we rarely give it a thought. Yet as the air fills our lungs, freedom fills our souls. It gives breath to our laughter and joy. It gives voice to our songs. It gives us strength as we race for our dreams. ... Yes, as we gather together this Thanksgiving to ask the Lord's blessings, as we of whatever faith we are give praises to His name, let us thank Him for our peace, prosperity, and freedom. Happy Thanksgiving!" --Ronald Reagan

"It's not just Americans and Iraqis and Afghans who owe a debt of thanks to the U.S. soldier but all the Europeans grown plump and prosperous in a globalized economy guaranteed by the most benign hegemon in history. That said, Thanksgiving isn't about the big geopolitical picture, but about the blessings closer to home. Last week, the state of Oklahoma celebrated its centennial, accompanied by rousing performances of Rodgers and Hammerstein's eponymous anthem: 'We know we belong to the land/And the land we belong to is grand!' Which isn't a bad theme song for the first Thanksgiving, either. Three hundred and eighty-six years ago, the Pilgrims thanked God because there was a place for them in this land, and it was indeed grand. The land is grander today, and that, too, is remarkable: France has lurched from Second Empires to Fifth Republics struggling to devise a lasting constitutional settlement for the same smallish chunk of real estate, but the principles that united a baker's dozen of East Coast colonies were resilient enough to expand across a continent and halfway around the globe to Hawaii. Americans should, as always, be thankful this Thanksgiving, but they should also understand just how rare in human history their blessings are." --columnist Mark Steyn

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 6:59 PM | Permalink

NYC Churches Ordered Not To Shelter Homeless

City officials have ordered 22 New York churches to stop providing beds to homeless people.

With temperatures well below freezing early Saturday, the churches must obey a city rule requiring faith-based shelters to be open at least five days a week -- or not at all.

Arnold Cohen, president of the Partnership for the Homeless, a nonprofit that serves as a link with the city, said he had to tell the churches they no longer qualify.

He said hundreds of people now won't have a place to sleep.

Amusingly, this is what the government official responsible for the homeless had to say:

"We really don't want people sleeping on the streets, on grates, on church steps. We want people sleeping in beds," said Homeless Commissioner Robert Hess.

Your actions put the lie to your words, Bob.

As Mark Shea said, "[Cardinal and Archbishop of NYC] Egan should tell Caesar to go to hell and keep the shelters open anyway."

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 6:48 PM | Permalink

1) It's still too early for Christmas music.
   1a) Except for Elvis' Christmas Album; that's so good it should be played year-round.

2) It's obscene that a few radio stations have already gone to full-time Christmas music.
   2a) Seriously, though, it's hard to find a song right now that isn't Christmas music. My frame of mind on this wasn't improved by listening to Christmas music for almost two hours in the barbershop. (I guess everyone else was getting their pre-Thanksgiving haircuts, while I was just in desperate need of one.)

3) The song "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" is just incorrect. How can it be the "Most Wonderful Time of the Year" when there's no baseball being played?

4) If I never hear "The Little Drummer Boy" again, I'll still be annoyed that I ever heard it. Just an awful song.

5) To end on a positive note, Christmas season (which we're still not in) is the second best season of the year, behind, of course, baseball season.

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 6:29 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

"It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage, and such only, as he believes to be acceptable to him. This duty is precedent both in order of time and degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society. Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe."
–James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance, 1785

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 9:00 AM | Permalink

Typealizer: ISTP - The Mechanics The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.

The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

The first three letters are right. (I test out normally as ISTJ.) But that last part about enjoying adventure and risk-taking is completely not me. I wonder where they got that idea from my posts. (Most likely from some of the quotes I've posted, I guess.)

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 3:56 PM | Permalink

"I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.' To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, not longer susceptible of any definition."

—Thomas Jefferson (Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank, 15 February 1791)

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 9:36 AM | Permalink

Read the whole article

FARAH PROVINCE, Afghanistan — In the city of Shewan, approximately 250 insurgents ambushed 30 Marines and paid a heavy price for it.

...
“The day started out with a 10-kilometer patrol with elements mounted and dismounted, so by the time we got to Shewan, we were pretty beat,” said a designated marksman who requested to remain unidentified. “Our vehicles came under a barrage of enemy RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) and machine gun fire. One of our ‘humvees’ was disabled from RPG fire, and the Marines inside dismounted and laid down suppression fire so they could evacuate a Marine who was knocked unconscious from the blast.”

The vicious attack that left the humvee destroyed and several of the Marines pinned down in the kill zone sparked an intense eight-hour battle as the platoon desperately fought to recover their comrades. After recovering the Marines trapped in the kill zone, another platoon sergeant personally led numerous attacks on enemy fortified positions while the platoon fought house to house and trench to trench in order to clear through the enemy ambush site.

“The biggest thing to take from that day is what Marines can accomplish when they’re given the opportunity to fight,” the sniper said. “A small group of Marines met a numerically superior force and embarrassed them in their own backyard. The insurgents told the townspeople that they were stronger than the Americans, and that day we showed them they were wrong.”

During the battle, the designated marksman single handedly thwarted a company-sized enemy RPG and machinegun ambush by reportedly killing 20 enemy fighters with his devastatingly accurate precision fire. He selflessly exposed himself time and again to intense enemy fire during a critical point in the eight-hour battle for Shewan in order to kill any enemy combatants who attempted to engage or maneuver on the Marines in the kill zone. What made his actions even more impressive was the fact that he didn’t miss any shots, despite the enemies’ rounds impacting within a foot of his fighting position.

Keep stories like this in mind when people tell you Afghanistan is lost to the Taliban, and that we'll never suppress them. The Marines are on the job, and the Taliban's days are numbered. The headline I chose for this article comes from Power Line, where I first found it. But the truth is: every day's a good day for the Marines, and every day's a bad day to be an enemy of the Marines.

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 8:50 AM | Permalink

See how they welcome their master home after he spent 14 months in Iraq:

Let's see cats do that.

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 4:18 PM | Permalink

"The Hand of providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations."

—George Washington, letter to Thomas Nelson, August 20, 1778

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 7:21 AM | Permalink

Following up on Duffy's recent post:

A Dominican friar is taking an overnight train west to Minneapolis. He tells the conductor, "We get there at 5 a.m., and I am terrible at getting up early, so please give me a good shake and make sure I get up and off the train."

"Sure thing, Father," the conductor says.

"Thank you very much, and God bless you," says the friar, giving him a handsome tip. "I'll probably be too grouchy and tired to thank you properly at 5 a.m."

The friar finds a seat and zonks out. When he wakes up, the sun is shining and the train is stopped at a station. He notices the sign says "Fargo," and looks at his watch. It's a little after 9 a.m.

He jumps up and grabs his bags, all the while yelling and cursing the conductor, the train line, the transportation industry, and all mankind.

Naturally, this scandalizes the passengers who can't help but hear him as he storms off to get on a train headed back to Minneapolis. After he's gone, one of the passengers says, "I have never in my life seen a priest so angry."

A train conductor standing nearby said, "You should have seen the Norbertine I put off the train in Minneapolis this morning."

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 2:51 PM | Permalink

"The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained."

—George Washington, First Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 7:32 AM | Permalink

The season premiere of Scrubs will air Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 9 PM.

There is no reason to be doing anything else at that time.

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 10:01 PM | Permalink

Could miss a third of next season.

Of course he is. I just ordered an Utley jersey yesterday.

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 2:09 PM | Permalink

but this is priceless:

"I saw Frank Luntz," said McInturff, "who is a moron -- I want to make sure this is clearly on the record -- he was talking to Republican governors, making fun of John for not being able to use a BlackBerry. The man can't do it because he is much more disabled than people can imagine... I would like to take a hammer and start breaking bones in Frank's arms."

First, it's hilarious how blunt he is. (I have no opinion on Frank Luntz. I only know that he's a pollster.)

Second, you've got to love the fact that not only is he willing to put his name on the record (unlike those cowards anonymously attack Sarah Palin after the election), but that he goes out of his way to emphasize that he wants to be on the record.

Good show.

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 1:59 PM | Permalink

Carl Yazstremski's son is playing college baseball

And for those who don't know who Yaz is, shame on you.

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 7:38 PM | Permalink

1. When you buy a greetings card are the words or the picture more important to you?
Words.

2. What's your favourite kind of cake?
Free.

3. Do you ever make gifts for people, if so what, or do you buy them?
Buy.

4. What's your favourite holiday - i.e. Christmas?
Christmas.

5. Are you going on holiday this year? If so, where?
I'm going to Cleveland for a wedding later this year.

6. What was the best party you've ever been to?
Cousin Jeff's wedding.

7. If you are married, describe your wedding. If not, what would your ideal wedding be like?
Catholic.

8. What's the most romantic thing that's ever happened to you?
Sitting on a porch swing talking to a girl.

9. What's your favourite romantic song?
"Somewhere" by The Tymes

10. Which celebrity would you like a dream date with?
Anna Paquin! (But she needs to go back to brunette.)

11. Which female celebrity do you find beautiful?
Anne Hathaway.

12. Which male celebrity do you think is attractive?
Chase Utley. (But my opinion might be biased by his playing ability.)

13. If you could be a fictional character from a book who would you choose?
Hari Seldon.

14. If you could be in a television sit-com, which would you choose?
This is tough:

My first thought was "NewsRadio," but then I'd be living in New York
Then I thought "The Office," but I don't think I could take working for Michael Scott
Then I thought "How I met Your Mother," but then I remembered it's in New York, too
I figure I'll go with "Soap" since I enjoy flat-out lunacy

15. Which character would you like to be?
The Major. He always seemed to be having a good time.

16. What's your favourite girl's name?
Mary.

17. What's your favourite boy's name?
John. While "Paul Smith" is definitely a cool name, how much cooler would it be to be "John Smith."

18. What's your supermarket of choice?
Acme, because I can use RecycleBank coupons there.

19. What is your best character trait?
Loyalty.

20. What is your worst habit?
Laziness

Via Hube, again.

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 6:14 PM | Permalink

From Hube:

1. Who or what is on your computer's wallpaper?
Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima

2. Go through your DVD/pre-bought video collection. Which three actors or actresses feature the most in them?
Charles Bronson. Bruce Willis. Harrison Ford.

3. Go through your book shelves. Which three authors have written the majority of the books?
Isaac Asimov. Peggy Noonan. David Gerrold.

4. And what about CDs?
Elvis. Temptations. Four Tops.

5. Open up the picture folder(s) on your hard drive. Of which actor/actress/movie/tv series/musician do you have the most pictures?
Ronald Reagan, but not because of his acting.

6. And what about your Live Journal user pictures?
Don't have LiveJournal.

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 6:09 PM | Permalink

I saw this map and couldn't believe what it showed:

I travel to new England a couple of times a year to visit family and get annoyed at the 6% tax rate in Connecticut and 6.28 in Vermont. I was stunned to learn that those rates don't put either state in the top 15 states for sales tax rates. Better a sales tax than an income tax, of course, but still...

Hat Tip: Club for Growth

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 6:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

George Will layeth the smacketh down:

The seepage of government into everywhere is, we are assured, to be temporary and nonpolitical. Well.

Probably as temporary as New York City's rent controls, which were born as emergency responses to the Second World War and are still distorting the city's housing market. The Depression, which FDR failed to end but which Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor did end, was the excuse for agriculture subsidies that have lived past three score years and 10.

The distribution of a trillion dollars by a political institution -- the federal government -- will be nonpolitical? How could it be? Either markets allocate resources, or government -- meaning politics -- allocates them. Now that distrust of markets is high, Americans are supposed to believe that the institution they trust least -- Congress -- will pony up $1 trillion and then passively recede, never putting its 10 thumbs, like a manic Jack Horner, into the pie? Surely Congress will direct the executive branch to show compassion for this, that and the other industry. And it will mandate "socially responsible" spending -- an infinitely elastic term -- by the favored companies.
...
In America, socialism is un-American. Instead, Americans merely do rent-seeking -- bending government for the benefit of private factions. The difference is in degree, including the degree of candor. The rehabilitation of conservatism cannot begin until conservatives are candid about their complicity in what government has become.

As for the president-elect, he promises to change Washington. He will, by making matters worse. He will intensify rent-seeking by finding new ways -- this will not be easy -- to expand, even more than the current administration has, government's influence on spreading the wealth around.

Will does a great job showing the failures of both parties in expanding socialism; Democrats (rightly) get more blame for it, but the GOP is far from innocent on this count.

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 8:38 AM | Permalink

I'll leave it up to Jeff the Baptist to let us know if this will help in the coming Zombie attacks.

The books you can as a package with it don't seen like a bad idea if Obama's tendency to restrict 2nd Amendment rights returns.

Hat Tip: InstaPundit

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 1:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I was originally going to post this for the discussion of the Pope's carbon footprint, which was hilarious, but the discussion of Jane Austen and Baseball was brilliant. The final part about the Marvel Comics presidential election was good, but not up to the standards set by the two items. Watch it; you'll laugh.

Hat Tip: Catholic Colbert

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families."

—Benjamin Rush, letter to His Fellow Countrymen: On Patriotism, October 20, 1773

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 7:47 AM | Permalink

Police in said they arrested a Connecticut man after he tried to steal communion wafers during a church service. The Martin County Sheriff's Office said 33-year-old John Samuel Ricci, of Canton, was cornered by fellow churchgoers when he grabbed a handful of wafers from the priest during communion services Saturday.

The Stuart News reported that Ricci was being held down by six or seven offended parishioners when deputies arrived at St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church in Jensen Beach. Police say two parishioners, ages 82 and 61, received minor injuries in the scuffle.

Ricci was charged with two counts of simple battery, theft and disruption of a religious assembly. He was being held Tuesday on $2,000 bond at the Martin County Jail.

You don't steal Jesus.

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 6:49 PM | Permalink

In your memoir, you describe an early meeting in the Oval Office with Reagan in which he quoted a couple of obscure 19th-century British free-trade advocates and some little-known modern Austrian economists. How underrated intellectually do you think Reagan was?

He was extremely underrated, particularly by the press. The press was very derisive. They were derisive of Eisenhower, too—they thought he was just another army officer—but the attacks on Reagan were harsher. He was portrayed as stupid, uneducated, out of his element. I think he was very well educated and understood a lot of things. He was also very flexible in his policies—too flexible for my taste.

How do you feel about Dick Cheney?

I think he’s the most forceful, effective vice president in history.

I like some of the things he’s done. I think he was instrumental in getting the tax cuts through, which I approve of. I’m at odds with his aggressive military policy, but he’s put a new dimension on the vice presidency that I don’t think will be continued and maybe shouldn’t be continued.

Read the whole thing

Hat Tip: The Club for Growth

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 6:43 PM | Permalink

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 7:40 AM | Permalink

Here's to 233 more years of killing America's enemies!

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 9:54 AM | Permalink

The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.
- George F. Will

"The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind."

—Thomas Jefferson, Letter to William Hunter, March 11, 1790

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 6:53 AM | Permalink

P.J. O'Rourke on the failures of the conservative movement.

Let us bend over and kiss our ass goodbye. Our 28-year conservative opportunity to fix the moral and practical boundaries of government is gone--gone with the bear market and the Bear Stearns and the bear that's headed off to do you-know-what in the woods on our philosophy.

An entire generation has been born, grown up, and had families of its own since Ronald Reagan was elected. And where is the world we promised these children of the Conservative Age? Where is this land of freedom and responsibility, knowledge, opportunity, accomplishment, honor, truth, trust, and one boring hour each week spent in itchy clothes at church, synagogue, or mosque? It lies in ruins at our feet, as well it might, since we ourselves kicked the shining city upon a hill into dust and rubble. The progeny of the Reagan Revolution will live instead in the universe that revolves around Hyde Park.
...
Where was the meum and the tuum in our shakedown of Washington lobbyists? It took a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives 40 years--from 1954 to 1994--to get that corrupt and arrogant. And we managed it in just 12. (Who says Republicans don't have much on the ball?)

Our attitude toward immigration has been repulsive. Are we not pro-life? Are not immigrants alive? Unfortunately, no, a lot of them aren't after attempting to cross our borders. Conservative immigration policies are as stupid as conservative attitudes are gross. Fence the border and give a huge boost to the Mexican ladder industry. Put the National Guard on the Rio Grande and know that U.S. troops are standing between you and yard care. George W. Bush, at his most beneficent, said if illegal immigrants wanted citizenship they would have to do three things: Pay taxes, learn English, and work in a meaningful job. Bush doesn't meet two out of three of those qualifications. And where would you rather eat? At a Vietnamese restaurant? Or in the Ayn Rand Café? Hey, waiter, are the burgers any good? Atlas shrugged. (We would, however, be able to have a smoke at the latter establishment.)
...
And now, to glue and screw the lid on our coffin, comes this financial crisis. For almost three decades we've been trying to teach average Americans to act like "stakeholders" in their economy. They learned. They're crying and whining for government bailouts just like the billionaire stakeholders in banks and investment houses. Aid, I can assure you, will be forthcoming from President Obama.
...
Anyway, it's no use blaming Wall Street. Blaming Wall Street for being greedy is like scolding defensive linemen for being big and aggressive. The people on Wall Street never claimed to be public servants. They took no oath of office. They're in it for the money. We pay them to be in it for the money. We don't want our retirement accounts to get a 2 percent return. (Although that sounds pretty good at the moment.)

What will destroy our country and us is not the financial crisis but the fact that liberals think the free market is some kind of sect or cult, which conservatives have asked Americans to take on faith. That's not what the free market is. The free market is just a measurement, a device to tell us what people are willing to pay for any given thing at any given moment. The free market is a bathroom scale. You may hate what you see when you step on the scale. "Jeeze, 230 pounds!" But you can't pass a law making yourself weigh 185. Liberals think you can. And voters--all the voters, right up to the tippy-top corner office of Goldman Sachs--think so too.

We, the conservatives, who do understand the free market, had the responsibility to--as it were--foreclose upon this mess. The market is a measurement, but that measuring does not work to the advantage of a nation or its citizens unless the assessments of volume, circumference, and weight are conducted with transparency and under the rule of law. We've had the rule of law largely in our hands since 1980. Where is the transparency? It's one more job we botched.

One flaw in his article is that (likely unknowingly) he's confusing libertarianism and conservatism. Many of the ideas he mocks conservatives for, I would support. (For example, I would gladly vote for a constitutional amendment defending marriage. No one's talking about illegalizing homosexual activity, despite how some misrepresent our stance, but redefining marriage is one thing that is truly beyond our pay grade.)

We had our chance, but after Reagan failed to nominate anyone who was a Conservative. George H.W. Bush. Come on. (I loved him at the time, but I was 13-14. I was too young to know any better.) Bob Freakin' Dole? I couldn't vote for him even holding my nose. I voted for W in 2000 because he was able to act conservative enough to convince us he might just be with us, and in 2004 because Kerry was a joke. But his use of the phrase "compassionate conservatism" should have been a red flag; many, myself included, took it for campaign rhetoric, but it should have served to warn us that he was not one of us. And we're paying the price now: even though W was never a conservative, he's taken us down with him. And then McCain; I hardly think I need to spend any time showing how he's not a conservative.

No, conservatives, in many ways, are victims of Reagan's success. Showing that America was (and still is, despite the denials of many on the Left) a center-right nation, Reagan showed that there were votes to be won on the Right. And many old-style Rockefeller Republicans have learned to mouth the platitudes of the Right, while staying in the center/left in their hearts. The first Bush ran as the heir to Reagan: he gave us the Americans with Disabilities Act, a tax hike, and a larger government. Bob Dole never really changed from the man who was once called the tax collector for the welfare state. Bush the Younger gave us two wars, national control over education, a prescription drug benefit that will bankrupt MediCare (or is it Medicaid? too lazy to look) even more quickly, among other sins. And McCain only made it due to the failure of conservatives to coalesce around a single candidate, and the fact the early states allow Independents and Democrats to decide who the nominee of the party they're not part of should be.

Anyway, the failure is ultimately ours: we allowed those who were not one of us to portray themselves as one of us. We even participated in it. Now, some are pushing Newt Gingrich as President for 2012. Are you kidding me? The man who started the downfall of the GOP in the 90s is not the man who will save us in the teens. (Besides, he's one of the ones I referred to above; he's a Rockefeller Republican at heart.)

We need to rebrand conservatism, remind people that government gets in the way. Outside its specific realm of competence, it doesn't solve problems, it creates them. After all, do we really want the people behind the Veterans' Administration to be in charge of all health care? Do we want the people who run the DMV's, Air Traffic Controls and Transportation Safety Administrations in charge of planning the economy? Not if we want to increase wealth.

I was talking to a fellow Republican today at Church and he asked me what we can do to start rebuilding. My first answer was "String Bush up ourselves." While said tongue-in-cheek, it's still something we need to accomplish rhetorically. Anyone who's paid attention knows Bush isn't conservative; we need to make that clear. I've been saying such for quite a while. (Here's a post from January 2004 where I defended conservatives breaking with Bush.) While conservatives, tending to be the loyal sort, admirably stuck by the President in war time, we no longer are bound by that. We need to make clear that the person responsible for the largest increase in government since the Great Society is not, and could not be, a conservative.

At the core, we need to push this simple message: the Left will give themselves control over your life, your money and your family; the Right will give you freedom to be yourself, and raise and care for your family as you see fit. It'll be a tough sell after our recent failures; but that's still the truth even if people can't see it.

Posted by Paul Smith Jr at 2:13 PM | Permalink

"We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times." --George Washington

"Obama ... talks less and less about bipartisanship, his calling card during his earlier messianic stage. He does not need to. [Obama now has] large Democratic majorities in both houses. And unlike Clinton in 1992, Obama is no centrist." --Charles Krauthammer

"'E Pluribus Unum' is no longer our national motto. These three words are: 'Do For Me.' As in: What will the government do for me?" --Michelle Malkin

"Politicians have immense power to do harm to the economy. But they have very little power to do good." --Walter Williams

"Most change in America doesn't come from politicians. It comes from people inventing things and creating. The telephone, the telegraph, the computer, all those things didn't come from government. Our world is going to get better and better, as long as we keep the politicians from screwing it up." --David Boaz

"Conservatism always has been and always will be a force to reckon with because it most closely approximates the reality of the human condition, based, as it is, on the cumulative judgment and experience of a people. It is the heir, not the apostate, to the accumulated wisdom, morality and faith of the people. ... Our challenge is not to retreat to the comfort of self-congratulatory exile but to sweat and bleed -- and be victorious -- in the arena of public opinion." --Tony Blankley

"Since our last meeting we have been through a disastrous election. It is easy for us to be discouraged, as pundits hail that election as a repudiation of our philosophy and even as a mandate of some kind or other. ... Bitter as it is to accept the results of the November election, we should have reason for some optimism. ...[I]t is possible we have been persuasive to a greater degree than we had ever realized. Few, if any, Democratic Party candidates in the last election ran as liberals. Listening to them I had the eerie feeling we were hearing reruns of [Barry] Goldwater speeches. I even thought I heard a few of my own." --Ronald Reagan

"Perhaps the biggest mystery of all is why anyone would want more money and more power in the hands of the federal government, which is really the basis of Obama's campaign." --Burt Prelutsky

"Barack Obama's staff pleaded for get-out-the-vote volunteers in Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania. The memo said not to come if they're expecting a vacation, they should only come if they want to work. Look, if they wanted to work they wouldn't be Democrats." --Argus Hamilton

"Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual -- or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country." --Samuel Adams

"The choice this year at the top of the ballot is crucial. Don't listen to the cynical pundits who tell you this election isn't about the issues. Oh, yes, it is. In fact, it's about more than the issues: It's about the direction this country's going to take over the next 4 years and beyond. It's about the kind of economy we want, the kind of defense we want, the kind of values we want. The choice is yours. But, yes, my fellow Americans, there is a choice, a very, very important choice." --Ronald Reagan

"I happen to know the person who found [the 2001 Obama redistribute the wealth audio]. It is an individual person, with no more resources than a desire to know everything that he or she can about who might be the next president of the United States and the most powerful man in the world. I know that this person does not have teams of highly paid professionals, does not work out of a corner office in a skyscraper in New York, does not have access to all of the subtle and hidden conduits of information ... who possesses no network television stations, owns no satellite time, does not receive billions in advertising dollars, and has a staff of exactly one. I do not blame Barack Obama for believing in wealth distribution. That's his right as an American. I do blame him for lying about what he believes. But his entire life has been applying for the next job at the expense of the current one. He's at the end of the line now. I do, however, blame the press for allowing an individual citizen to do the work that they employ standing armies of so-called professionals for. I know they are capable of this kind of investigative journalism: It only took them a day or two to damage Sarah Palin with wild accusations about her baby's paternity and less time than that to destroy a man who happened to be playing ball when the Messiah decided to roll up looking for a few more votes on the way to the inevitable coronation. We no longer have an independent, fair, investigative press. That is abundantly clear to everyone -- even the press. It is just another of the facts that they refuse to report, because it does not suit them." --columnist Bill Whittle

“It is an unquestionable truth, that the body of the people in every country desire sincerely its prosperity. But it is equally unquestionable that they do not possess the discernment and stability necessary for systematic government. To deny that they are frequently led into the grossest of errors, by misinformation and passion, would be a flattery which their own good sense must despise.” —Alexander Hamilton

“The power to tax is the power to destroy.” —Chief Justice John Marshall

“Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.” —Calvin Coolidge

“When it becomes dominated by a collectivist creed, democracy will inevitably destroy itself.” —Fredrich August von Hayek

“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.” —H. L. Mencken

“The United States of America—five percent of the world’s population—leads the world economically, militarily, scientifically, and culturally—and by a spectacular margin. Any one of these achievements, taken alone, would be cause for enormous pride. To dominate as we do in all four arenas has no historical precedent. That we have achieved so much in so many areas is due—due entirely—to the structure of our society as outlined in the Constitution of the United States.” —Bill Whittle

“Those who are receptive to Senator Barack Obama’s plan to increase taxes on ‘the rich’ seem not to understand that the issue is the nation’s loss of wealth. Today, wealth can leave the country when heavy taxes threaten it—instantly, in an age of electronic financial transfers—and create jobs and economic growth overseas, instead of at home.” —Thomas Sowell

“Obama says the Constitution charters ‘negative liberties.’ He wants government to do things to people, and he’s mad that the ‘flawed’ Constitution limits its role in our lives. He doesn’t like the idea of liberty, and wants to change it!” —Rush Limbaugh

Jay Leno: Just one week left to go until the election. To give you an idea of how long this whole thing has been going on, when John McCain started, he was just 47 years old. ... Colin Powell has endorsed Barack Obama. This is bad news for John McCain, because at his age, he has enough colon problems. ... Pundits say Colin Powell is the biggest political figure to endorse Barack Obama since Bill and Hillary. And the only one of those three who will actually vote for him. ... After his big speech in North Carolina [Monday], Senator Joe Biden said he was experiencing a sore throat and lost his voice. Boy, the good news doesn’t stop for Barack Obama. Just one lucky break after another. ... And Ralph Nader, God bless him, still out there campaigning. Ralph Nader said today he has set a record for the most campaign speeches given in one day. He gave 21 speeches in one day. Of course, we have to take his word for it, because there are no witnesses.

“Well, there’s something known as American conservatism, though it does not even call itself that. It’s been calling itself ‘voting Republican’ or ‘not liking the New Deal.’ But it is a very American approach to life, and it has to do with knowing that the government is not your master, that America is good, that freedom is good and must be defended, and communism is very, very bad.” —William F. Buckley Jr

“The most dangerous myth is the demagoguery that business can be made to pay a larger share, thus relieving the individual. Politicians preaching this are either deliberately dishonest, or economically illiterate, and either one should scare us. Business doesn’t pay taxes, and who better than business to make this message known? Only people pay taxes, and people pay as consumers every tax that is assessed against a business. Begin with the food and fiber raised in the farm, to the ore drilled in a mine, to the oil and gas from out of the ground, whatever it may be—through the processing, through the manufacturing, on out to the retailer’s license. If the tax cannot be included in the price of the product, no one along that line can stay in business.” —Ronald Reagan

“These are facts. This financial crisis was completely preventable. The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was... the Democratic Party. The party that tried to prevent it was... the Republican Party. Yet when Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration and Republican deregulation of causing the crisis, you in the press did not hold her to account for her lie. Instead, you criticized Republicans who took offense at this lie and refused to vote for the bailout! What? It’s not the liar, but the victims of the lie who are to blame? Now let’s follow the money... right to the presidential candidate who is the number-two recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae. And after Freddie Raines, the CEO of Fannie Mae who made $90 million while running it into the ground, was fired for his incompetence, one presidential candidate’s campaign actually consulted him for advice on housing. If that presidential candidate had been John McCain, you would have called it a major scandal and we would be getting stories in your paper every day about how incompetent and corrupt he was. But instead, that candidate was Barack Obama, and so you have buried this story, and when the McCain campaign dared to call Raines an ‘adviser’ to the Obama campaign—because that campaign had sought his advice—you actually let Obama’s people get away with accusing McCain of lying, merely because Raines wasn’t listed as an official adviser to the Obama campaign. You would never tolerate such weasely nit-picking from a Republican. If you who produce our local daily paper actually had any principles, you would be pounding this story, because the prosperity of all Americans was put at risk by the foolish, short-sighted, politically selfish, and possibly corrupt actions of leading Democrats, including Obama.” —Orson Scott Card

“A little noticed provision in the $700 billion Paulson plan requires Uncle Sam to embrace a sort of mark-to-market accounting for the bank investments Treasury Secretary Henry Pa