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Nightly Ramble: The Fire Dept Edition

Welcome, one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere: The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

ramble-fd21 [1]
This is the First Dept Edition

  • From our Dept of Intemperate Thoughts: So, now that Whalen has (wrongly, I think) apologized for ‘outting’ that Publius moron, when might we expect an apology for “outingouting” Jeff Gannon?  About the time that the nether-world’s refrigeration equipment gets repaired, I suppose. Aren’t double standards wonderful? You can’t begin to understand how pissed I am about Whalen backing down. He should
  • Honorable Mention: At OTB’s caption contest [2].
  • Chastity?  An odd name, given both the parentage and the circumstances.  I know David’s commented on this, but I can’t resist linking James here… [3] I ask him and his readers:(Slight edit for a context foul-up on the voice unit)

    I guess one aspect of this that we can discuss without being lined up in front of a firing squad, is the prevalence of these occurrences in what I will euphemistically refer to as “high achievement families”.What is the connection here? We know, for example, that children of parents who’ve been divorced are at least 50% more likely to become divorce themselves, statistically speaking.

    We certainly know that there is a certain level of pressure attached to stardom, either attaining it or having attained it, dealing with it.

    Is it that we hear more often about such incidents within these families because they are in the public eye? Or is there something unique about such families that causes the children of such families to become what they do?

    One of the regulars there suggests most “transgendered” people don’t come from star families, but I’ve no data to support that, and he offerers none. Even a higher incidence of such would seem to support the idea of a connection.

  • John Wayne:  Finally, I know I’ve linked James twice already, but this got by me yesterday, with all that happened to me yesterday and trying to write what became “Fathers” [4]  and frankly I’m annoyed with myself for missing it, particularly in that context. . James reminds us [5] that yesterday marked the 30th year since John Wayne’s passing. I find myself mildly amused. My Dad was no John Wayne, certainly, but I wonder what he’d have said had he understood the connection.
  • cellphtax [6]Let me tell you how it will be:  The IRS is reportedly considering forcing you to pay a tax on your work cell phone, says The Wall Street Journal [7].:

    The use of company-issued mobile phones could trigger new federal income taxes on millions of Americans as a “fringe benefit.”The Internal Revenue Service proposed employers assign 25% of an employee’s annual phone expenses as a taxable benefit. Under that scenario, a worker in the 28% tax bracket, whose wireless device costs the company $1,500 a year, could see $105 in additional federal income tax.

      All of this, of course in an attempt to pay for the huge spending going on from the Obama Administration.  [8] I suspect we’re going to find this is just an indicator of what’s to come.  And, it’s not like you weren’t warned. It’s not like nobody told you this stuff was coming if you put the Democrats in power. Are you ready to believe me now?

  •  Ummmm… we did this way, again?  So, they managed to fire Carrie Prejean quietly [9], after the furor had died down about her ‘controversial’ views on one man one woman equals marriage.  Well, of course that smells. But look at the new “Miss California” and her position on the matter, in a note from Joe Kovacs at WND:

    tamifarrell [10]Tami Farrell, the newly crowned beauty queen who is replacing the ousted Carrie Prejean as Miss California, apparently holds the same view as her predecessor, Carrie Prejean, and President Obama that marriage should be between a man and a woman.Fox News host Neil Cavuto asked Farrell, who is Christian, on his show today:

    “[Prejean] went out and said that a marriage is between a man and a woman. Do you share that view?”

    Farrell responded in the affirmative with a simple, “Uh huh.”

    “You do, OK,” said Cavuto.

    Farrell quickly added: “I don’t think that I have the right or anybody has a right to tell somebody who they can or can’t love. And I think that this is a civil rights issue. And I think that the right thing to do is let the voters decide.”

    Fly in the ointment is of course, that they have, in fact, so decided.  Twice, now.  “Perez Hilton” was unavailable for comment. Actually, that’s not true… I simply didn’t bother with the putz. Why does anyone else?

  • Slobbering Barney walks:  Even MSNBC’s softballs are too much for Barney Frank. He walked out on their interview [11] when being asked about his plans to limit executive compensation levels.  When your positions can’t even stand up to the softballs tossed by MSNBC, you’re in serious trouble. Boortz quips [12]:
    Boortz [13]

    Boortz

    He knows that he can’t rationally explain why the government should be able to set any type of guidelines or regulations on pay levels at private companies.So Barney Frank, the quintessential void surrounded by a sphincter muscle, throws a hissy fit and declares the interview to be over and rips out his earpiece. Haines’ response, “Fine, goodbye sir. We’ll manage without you.” Ain’t that the truth.

    Here’s hoping we get the chance… and soon. Please?  By the way, the WSJ has an article up on that you’ll want to read. [14]

  •   SITYS  again: You will perhaps recall from yesterday, my comments on the left trying to score political points  on the shootings yesterday in DC… [15]justifying both the DHS “report” slandering returning Iraq war vets as a terrorism threat and anti-gun legislation? true to form the New York Times chief resident fool, Paul Krugman steps up to the mike and spews [16], and gets cut off at the knees by Jonah Goldberg.

     Pretty much the entire media establishment is comfortable labeling von Brunn as a member of the “far right.” Putting aside other objections to that nomenclature, if von Brunn is a member of the far right, then it would be helpful and journalistically responsible if the press would start calling Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Sean Hannity, et al., moderates and centrists.

    goldbergj [17]

    Jonah Goldberg

    That won’t happen, because the whole point of these exercises is to paint the Right as an undifferentiated blob of evil. Never mind that von Brunn isn’t a member of the far right. Nor is he a member of the far left, as some on the right are claiming. He’s not a member of anything other than the crazy caucus. Von Brunn’s True North is conspiratorial anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. He’s not a member of the Christian Right. In fact, he denounces Christianity — just as Hitler did — as a Jewish plot against paganism and Western vigor. Nor is he a capitalist. Again, just as Hitler did, he hails socialism as the solution to the West’s problems.Still, if we are going to play this game where we take the words of politicians and pundits, compare them to the words of murderers and psychopaths, and then assign blame accordingly, then let’s blame the New York Times, Chris Matthews, left-wing blogs everywhere, and the academics who penned The Israel Lobby (which blames a fifth column of Israel loyalists for our troubles).

    Rand Simberg [18]looks at the facts and comes to the same conclusion, in a piece I wish I’d written, over at Pajamas Media.  And let me add to both of them and raise the question about Israel.

    If Jew Hating is the mark of the right, how is it that the most hostile president to Israel and their survival, currently resides in the White House, as a far-leftist Democrat, who sat in Jerry Wright’s Church of hate for 20 years? Did you see Wright’s comments the other day? Lots of folks covered this, but Fox’s Grapevine is handy… [19]

    President Obama’s former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, says White House officials will not allow his former church member to contact him. Wright tells the Chicago Tribune: “Them Jews ain’t going to let him talk to me. They will not allow him to talk to somebody — who calls a spade what it is.”

    Wright’s sermons blaming the US for 9/11, and charging that the government created the AIDS virus, caused an uproar last year and led Obama to leave his church. But Wright says he has no regrets: “Regret for what? That the media went back 5, 7, 10 years, and spent $4,000 buying 20 years worth of sermons?”

    Call a spade what it is? My, my… an unfortunate choice of words, isn’t it?

    Wright attempted to clarify his remarks during a radio interview today, saying he meant to use the word “Zionists” instead of “Jews.”

    Ah, OK. That makes it all go away, doesn’t it? And we’re supposed to think that Obama, who sat in the pew for 20 years in front of this guy, isn’t going to be affected in any way by this purveyor of hate? Or, laughably, that he’s controlled by the “Jewish lobby” (oops… Zionist Lobby) ?   Just let all of that roll around for a few minutes. Then go laugh into Paul Krugman’s voice mail.

  •  Miranda rights for Terrorists? This is without a doubt [20], one of the more downright stupid actions I’ve seen from a White House that’s become known for downright stupidity.  These are not criminals. They are combatants, and we are in a war. Obama’s still trying to convince us of the fantasy that because he’s in office, the war is over.  Stupid.
  • Back to Ba$ic$: Nice post from Doug Thorburn by way of Mike Shedlock. [21]  Doug points out that in spite of having the highest taxes in the nation, the state is broke. Some basic logic, then eminates from this… If their taxes are the highest in the nation, clearly the shortfall  isn’t not due to them not taxing enough…. (A point which would seem to be confirmed by the number of poeple leaving for lower tax states), then perhaps they’re spending too much, huh?  And why are they spending too much?  Because government has is too big. It’s gotten into every area of life in California.  It’s now to the point where there isn’t an action or inaction that occurrs without the government approving it (and taxing it) or disapporving of it, and spending huge sums of money to enforce it’s will on the point. And so California, so goes the nation, as the rush to adopt California Environmental standards shows us.
  • WHO, Again?  Seems the WHO has decided there’s a problem with Swine Flu [22].  Gee, we’ve had this in our headlines since January, and they’re just now declaring an alert? One more example of how you can’t slip anything by the UN. My guess is that their next discovery will involve a mutation of the the Swine flu involving the Avian flu that we dealt with a couple years ago. It’s be called the Flying Pig flu, for short. I predict they’ll hold several meetings on the topic at Turtle Bay on the issue, at which they will decide the US has to pay $167 million to halt the spread of the bug.