Isaac Schrödinger

American Leftists

Right-Of-Center Bloggers Select Their Least Favorite People On The Left at Right Wing News.

Too Much Change!

I initially read the first part of this post as "Sex Change".

I was very confused.

The Age of The Big Zero

Victor Davis Hanson:

The difference between the 5th century BC and late 4th century BC at Athens is debt–and not caused just by military expenditures or war; the claims on Athenian entitlements grew by the 350s, even as forced liturgies on the productive classes increased, even as the treasury emptied. At Rome by the mid-3rd century AD the state was essentially bribing its own citizens to behave by expanding the bread and circuses dole, while tax avoidance became an art form, while the Roman state tried everything from price controls to inflating the coinage to meet services and pay public debts.

So much for change.

Obama Appeases Muslims

USA Today via Instapundit:

Around the world, free speech is being sacrificed on the altar of religion. Whether defined as hate speech, discrimination or simple blasphemy, governments are declaring unlimited free speech as the enemy of freedom of religion. This growing movement has reached the United Nations, where religiously conservative countries received a boost in their campaign to pass an international blasphemy law. It came from the most unlikely of places: the United States.

I didn't think Obama would take the US down to the level of Pakistan this quickly. What next? Perhaps, kicking out all Jews, Burqa Fridays Or Else or banning bacon?

For any Muslim reader, view it and detonate:

Prof. Barry?

John Hawkins on The One:

This is a man who seems far better suited to be yet another liberal college professor than the President of the United States.

He'd make a dynamite instructor. Though, I doubt he'd get many papers published.

The D-Word!

Joe Biden says the bad word. Though, this time, his words aren't foolish.

The Dumb One

Vox Popoli:

Intelligence is overrated anyhow. It's an important factor in accomplishment, but it is by no means the most important one. Focus, determination, connections, and ambition are all more important components of achievement and it's interesting to contemplate where Obama is probably most gifted considering his relative lack of intelligence.

In his case, none of the listed attributes made the biggest difference. The x-factor, throughout his life it seems, was his skin color. Hillary Clinton would be president otherwise.

For What?

While I was having lunch at work today, someone mentioned that Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize. I thought to myself, "Did you read that at the Onion?"

Of course, it's true.

A reader at Instapundit sends in this gem:

“It’s a peace prize, not a peace peace prize.”

Via Michelle Malkin comes this beauty:

The Narcissist-in-Chief

Vox Popoli:

What is going to do Obama in is not the fact that his political ideology is evil, though it is, or that his economic ideology is hopeless, though it is too. It's not the disinterest in all things martial. It's not even the widespread doubts about his legitimacy that most threaten him. The reason that the American people who previously adored him are beginning to turn on him is that the man has repeatedly shown himself to be a very unpresidential pretentious ass.

Alloy that lovely quality with his belittling of American exceptionalism and one gets a very surreal combo. You see, he's a great man leading a so-so nation.

Less Please

Well, capitalism did nothing for me… The system is not set up to help somebody from the working class make a movie like this and get the truth out there.

Click here to find out the name of the putrid source.

No He Didn't

Rush Limbaugh is quite animated when he talks about The One Who Couldn't.

Gates of Fire

Steven Pressfield, who wrote a most visceral novel about one of the greatest battles of Antiquity, was recently interviewed by Glenn Reynolds.

The Deflated One

Hit & Run:

As Katherine Mangu-Ward noted this morning, the president's attempts to narrow his pledge so that it does not include the taxes he ends up raising (such as the federal cigarette tax, raised a few weeks after he took office, or the proposed levies on Americans who fail to buy health insurance) recently prompted a testy exchange with George Stephanopoulos in which the ABC interviewer cited the dictionary definition of tax, which Obama saw as evidence that Stephanopoulos was "stretching a little bit."

It's obvious. Dictionaries are racist!

Elusive Peace

Will the Middle East ever have peace?

Who knows.

"The Utter Failure of Feminism"

So writes a reader of Vox Popoli.

SS is clearly an elite and exceptional example, but she is nevertheless describing the sad reality for far too many women of my generation. They are smart, educated, and successful, and yet, regardless of whether one looks at them from a traditional perspective or a secular evolutionary one, they are failures as women. Now, this is not to say that a woman should not be permitted to choose a path as an evolutionary dead end who primarily contributes to society by creating Powerpoint demonstrations, reading celebrity magazines, and raising felines. We all possess the inherent right to go to Hell - or if you prefer, Oblivion - in our own particular way.

So very true.

Update
In response to the comment below: I didn't mention nor imply that women should "turn off" their brain. Do you actually think that motherhood is synonymous with that? In addition, they don't "solely" have to be homemakers. The women who wrote in above has a degree in a hard science. She came to a realization that her education pales in comparison to her need for motherhood. Hopefully, her life won't "solely" revolve around her future child but it will certainly be more fulfilling.

The Idiocy of Bangalore Tom

Jonah Goldberg on Thomas Friedman:

If only America could drop its inefficient and antiquated system, designed in the age before globalization and modernity and, most damning of all, before the lantern of Thomas Friedman's intellect illuminated the land. If only enlightened experts could do the hard and necessary things that the new age requires, if only we could rely on these planners to set the ship of state right. Now, of course, there are "drawbacks" to such a system: crushing of dissidents with tanks, state control of reproduction, government control of the press and the internet. Omelets and broken eggs, as they say.

A great post. Read it all.

Jihad Against Jihad?

Tambi Dude sent me this link today:

In the fall of 2007, Islamists set up a stand at Toronto's annual Word on the Street book festival where they distributed a free booklet titled Towards Understanding Islam, written by Mr. Maudoodi. In the booklet, Mr. Maudoodi exhorts ordinary Muslims to launch jihad, as in armed struggle, against non-Muslims.

"Jihad is part of this overall defence of Islam," he writes. In case the reader is left with any doubt about the meaning of the word "jihad," Mr. Maudoodi clarifies: "In the language of the Divine Law, this word [jihad] is used specifically for the war that is waged solely in the name of God against those who perpetrate oppression as enemies of Islam. This supreme sacrifice is the responsibility of all Muslims."

One of the comments there:

To abandon jihad means to abandon Islam. Islam without Jihad is like tiger without its teeth. The only way to abandon jihad is to abandon islam, which is what I have done. I am sure Tarek must have also done the same, but since no muslim can say that in public without the risk of seeing his head on the floor, he is talking in coded languagge.

Can't argue with that. One finds clear and concise language here but only under the cloak of anonymity. 

Together!

Mark Steyn via Instapundit:

On Friday, Aug. 28, the principal of Eagle Bay Elementary School in Farmington, Utah — in the name of "education" — showed her young charges the "Obama Pledge" video released at the time of the inauguration, in which Ashton Kutcher and various other big-time celebrities, two or three of whom you might even recognize, "pledge to be a servant to our president and to all mankind because together we can, together we are, and together we will be the change that we seek."

Bwahahaha. Clowns can be so funny.

Oh and don't miss the reporting by the New York Times which Steyn describes in the beginning.

Mystery Solved

What does a Scotsman have under his kilt?

Click here to find out.

The Superpower

PJTV: Bill Maher, Barack Obama and the Truth About American Exceptionalism.

On Health Care

What the Right thinks about health care reform:

Right Wing News emailed more than 250 right-of-center bloggers and asked them several questions. The following 74 blogs responded

I find it comical when my 'name' is tough for the browser to display.

Is Abortion Murder?

Vox Popoli:

There is not a single pro-abortion argument that stands up to science and reason. Every single one is not only spurious, but easily demonstrated to be spurious. It is not necessary to bring religious arguments into the debate to conclusively settle the matter in favor of the pro-life position, in fact, the Bible-based arguments against abortion are, in my opinion, weaker than the rational and scientific arguments.

Meshugana

Andrew Klavan via Instapundit:

According to Ben Smith over at Politico, President Barack Obama gave some theological weight to his health care plan during a phone call to a group of Rabbis the other day.  Referring to the belief that God decides during the Jewish New Year “who shall live and who shall die,” Obama told the rebs, “We are God’s partners in matters of life and death.”

So, does this mean that Obama is going ahead with the death panels?

Rose Goes To Milton

Remembering Rose Friedman:

Rose, who died Wednesday at the age of 98, was also an economist and no less radical than her husband in her support for free-market solutions and stressing of the importance of individual responsibility. The Rose and Milton Friedman Foundation for school vouchers came about at Rose's initiative. Together, she and her husband co-authored three major books that go beyond economic theory: They explain the political and personal philosophy behind free markets.

If you haven't seen Free to Choose, then you should. Its message is still valid.

Cartoons-That-Must-Not-Be-Seen

Christopher Hitchens:

A book called The Cartoons That Shook the World, by Danish-born Jytte Klausen, who is a professor of politics at Brandeis University, tells the story of the lurid and preplanned campaign of "protest" and boycott that was orchestrated in late 2005 after the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten ran a competition for cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

One can guess what happened.

Yale University Press announced last week that it would go ahead with the publication of the book, but it would remove from it the 12 caricatures that originated the controversy. Not content with this, it is also removing other historic illustrations of the likeness of the Prophet, including one by Gustave Doré of the passage in Dante's Inferno that shows Mohammed being disemboweled in hell.

Read the entire piece. Hitchens ends it eloquently and forcefully.

Here's the most potent image:

Western media showcased its cowardice when the cartoons came to light. For some time, thousands of people were visiting this blog to simply see what all the fuss was about. (They were looking around in Google Images.)

Big Brother

Tom's Guide:

The UK government this week announced that it will spend £400 million ($668 million) on the installation and monitoring of CCTV cameras citizens in their own homes. Aimed at problem or antisocial families, the cameras are there to make sure children go to bed on time, eat well balanced meals and do their homework.

A commenter there sums up my reaction: W. T. F.

Out of Touch

The newly minted Democrat Arlen Specter got a fiery response recently when he said that we have to pass the health care bill "fast".

Looks like 2010 will be a repeat of 1994.

It Fits So Well

The Return of Scipio: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly.

Never a Believer

Jonah Goldberg:

Oprah promised Obama would help us “evolve to a higher plane.” Deepak Chopra said Obama’s presidency represented “a quantum leap in American consciousness.” Last month, Newsweek editor Evan Thomas proclaimed that Obama stood “above the country, above — above the world, he’s sort of God.”

Well, now he’s the god who bleeds, and once you’re the god who bleeds, it’s hard to get the divinity back in the tube, as it were.

My heart bleeds.

Sellers of Darkness

Victor Davis Hanson:

these influential prophets of doom do not have lives remotely similar to the lesser folk they lecture. From time to time, Al Gore hops on a private jet — and purchases “carbon offsets” as penances for the privilege. His mansion not long ago consumed more energy in a month than the average American home does in a year. Friedman lives on a sprawling estate reminiscent of the grandees of the 18th-century English countryside.

There has always been a market for doom. Recently, we had the Y2K scare, soon we'll get 2012 and of course the global warming canard is ongoing. I don't understand why so many people accept this gloomy nonsense.

The Deflated One

An Obama voter sees the light:

“I supported him, I voted for him. I will not again.”

Good.

No Hope with Change

Vox Day:

The stated purpose of Obama's health care reform is to extend health care coverage to 50 million uninsured Americans while simultaneously reducing the total costs of the health care system. Despite the rationalizations of economists such as Paul Krugman, who claims that economic laws don't apply to health care, Adam Smith's law of supply and demand makes it very clear that Obamacare will inevitably lead to not only government rationing, but a reduction in the level of services presently provided to those in the system.

Don't miss the simple graph there that shows the effect of ObamaCare.

Dead Cold

Instapundit:

Remember: Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man, while under socialism it is exactly the reverse.

Well, at least, socialism is cooler! Or something similar.

The Right Stuff

John Hawkins: The Rightosphere Temperature Check For July: Palin, Franken, & Auditing the Fed.

I'm surprised by the numbers for Palin. I would have thought they'd be more positive.

The Audacity of Ignorance

Rex Murphy on Obama:

You will remember when the ravings of Mr. Wright finally got too much for the candidate, when the more pacific words of the “great speech” on race that he could “no more disown him than I can my white grandmother” were rendered inoperative by Mr. Wright's persistently obnoxious presence. Mr. Obama pushed him aside.

The pastor had one last shot of his own about his onetime “son.” That was the line, “He's a politician; I'm a pastor. He's got to do what politicians do.” We know what he meant by “politician”: one who is “forced” to say one thing to get elected, and do another; a person who conceals an agenda under cloudy rhetoric, a person whose calling – politics – is implicitly, essentially, deceptive.

Link via Instapundit.

Is There Such a Thing as "Brown Trash"

Kate on Sarah Palin:

With one Friday afternoon announcement, she's brought the bulk of America's political chattering class to the brink of a psychotic break ...

Ain't it the truth:

I have no doubt I would feel very differently about Palin – whatever her perceived class – if she were a liberal politician. I would then probably find her “white trash” quirks adorable, so ridiculously grateful am I for liberal politicos.

Yeah, all women should be treated equally unless they're conservative, pro-life mothers.

When Palin was picked by McCain, the Apostate had another one of her classic rants / meltdowns. I blogged about it here.

O'Rourke Interview

The Reason Blog:

In June, Reason.tv's Ted Balaker sat down with O'Rourke at the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Topics include: bailouts, who ruined the U.S. auto industry, politicians' love affair with trains, how easy women made O'Rourke a youthful socialist and how getting a paycheck turned him into a libertarian.

The simple reasons for his dipping into socialism and his later turn to libertarianism are hilarious.

A Corrosive Policy

Affirmative action, aka a racial quota, is a horrible idea. Steve Sailer provides concrete reasons by using a real life (and death) example.

SAT Madness

Sine Qua Non:

Smoot-Hawley is to Waxman-Markey as ...

"Ishtar is to Heaven's Gate," is my personal favorite.

"Concerned"

Once upon a time:

...we had a POTUS who was packin' the gear.

A commenter there says:

I wondered pretty much the same thing about the english-language protest signs. They are reaching out, and B.O. is all "talk to the hand."

Not So Subtle

The Apostate would likely love this, er, "art":

The mosaic, which runs along the front of the school on Seventh Street, is presumably intended to advertise the values being cultivated inside. It’s the handiwork of children aged 13 and 14.

It's so cool!

Saying No to Slavery

The New York Times via Infidels Are Cool:

Speaking at the Palace of Versailles, Mr. Sarkozy confronted one of the most hotly debated social issues in France, saying there was no room in the republic for burqas, the garments that some Muslim women wear to cloak their bodies and faces.

“The issue of the burqa is not a religious issue. It is a question of freedom and of women’s dignity,” Mr. Sarkozy said. “The burqa is not a religious sign. It is a sign of the subjugation, of the submission, of women.”

To enthusiastic applause, he said, “I want to say solemnly that it will not be welcome on our territory.”

Good.

On the Edge

Pejman Yousefzadeh: Iran in Turmoil.

Breitbart:

Several foreign news organisations complained Sunday that Iranian authorities were blocking their reporters from covering protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election.

German public television channels ZDF and ARD said their reporters were not allowed to broadcast their reports, while the BBC said the signals of its Persian services were being jammed from Iran.

The Dubai-based Arab news channel Al-Arabiya in Tehran was forbidden from working for a week and Dutch broadcaster Nederland 2 said its journalist and cameraman were arrested and ordered to leave the country.

No Economic Reason

The New York Times:

Airbus executives warned over the weekend that output at their European factories could fall by as much as one-fourth over the next two years as the aircraft maker and its suppliers adjust to the sharp drop in air traffic and widening losses at the world’s airlines. But the company insisted that it could absorb those cuts without resorting to large-scale layoffs — at least for now.

Why does Airbus not layoff workers?

“Airbus will not countenance any large-scale layoffs for social and political reasons,” said Doug McVitie, managing director of Arran Aerospace in Dinan, France.

Good for Boeing.

Those Crazy Republicans!

One of the best lines in the video: "There's nothing we like more than watching Gaia get torn apart by the scourge of man."

Link via Instapundit.

Don't Wow Me, Bro

The Apostate:

I’m telling you – white skin is HUGELY loaded for so many brown and black people. It has tons of bad associations. I want “them” to feel comfortable with “us.” I want them to realize we are not so different, even if we do like sex and nudity, even if political realities make us oppressive to them. Obama’s skin color gives him more of an edge with the Muslim world than any amount of diplomatic talent. It makes him like them. It makes him approachable. It makes him personally not an oppressor. It makes him relatable. It makes him human.

Is she strictly talking about the opinion of the Muslim world or is her opinion on this matter the same? It's unclear from the given paragraph.

An unfortunate clarity is achieved in a later post:

yesterday, we went to this Republican neighborhood to look at a couch. There were large American flags on almost every mansion’s front porch. Rich, white Republicans. We liked the couch but had to look at another one before we committed. Told the Republican we’d let him know within the hour. We did, saying we wanted their couch. We didn’t get a call back until later and then the Republican said he had other people interested and if we couldn’t pick it up right away, it was going to be a problem. We went back and forth on this for a while until I got fed up and said to Larry, “He probably doesn’t want to sell to us; I’m too brown and we’re too interracial for his white couch.”

Ah yes: your typical white, Christian, Republican keeping the brown woman down. Such statements reveal more about the Apostate than the fellow Christian. The rest of the post makes a mockery of her, ahem, "assumptions."

When I first read about the Apostate, I thought, here is a woman who left her support structure and a tyrannical society to start her life in a great land. If anyone were to appreciate and give the benefit of doubt to America and Americans (most of whom are white and Christian), then it'd be her.

Instead, I had my, er, assumptions shattered. The more she writes, the uglier she becomes.

A commenter there wrote:

Wow, it’s hard for me to believe you have never met a nice Republican or Christian before. There’s good and bad people in every walk of life.

A simple and innocent comment, one would think.

Here's the measured reply:

The next person who acts superior and says “Wow” gets fucking banned.

Why do my blog commenters frequently have such bad manners? I never go on other people’s personal blogs to sneer at them.

That's deliciously rich. A sexist/racist complaining about bad manners.

An Obama Flip Flop?

The Gateway Pundit has a brief post.

There, the first commenter doesn't think it's really a flip flop. He does seem convincing.

The New, New Math

This news is not from The Onion:

The path to high school graduation for Minnesota's next few graduating classes got significantly easier this month.

The Class of 2010 was going to be the first required to pass a new series of high-stakes state graduation tests before students were awarded their diplomas next spring.

But the Legislature recently decided that students no longer have to pass the 11th-grade math test -- many educators think it's too difficult -- and would have caused a precipitous drop in graduation rates next year.

I started studying in an American high school when I was in grade 11. The school had three levels of math for each grade: basic, accelerated and honors.

The school put me in a basic grade 10 course. After a few months, they bumped me up to accelerated grade 11. I wanted to take calculus in grade 12 but for that I needed honors grade 11 math -- basically pre-calculus. So, I studied it on my own in the summer. It's not like I had anything better to do in Saudi Arabia.

Not once did it ever occur to me to drop math. That's why it's amazing to see so many students who don't want to take math; who, in essence, want to get the least education as possible.

Back to the atrocity in Minnesota:

The solution passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, however, could raise a few eyebrows: Students either have to pass the test once, or fail it three times, to graduate.

The high school diplomas in that state are now worthless, assuming they weren't already.

Link via Vox Popoli.

Loved "Kind" Obama

Andrew Klavan on Why Are Conservatives So Mean?

Not me. I've always thought of myself as above mean.

Chasing Away the Goose

The Wall Street Journal via Glenn Reynolds:

Maryland couldn't balance its budget last year, so the state tried to close the shortfall by fleecing the wealthy. Politicians in Annapolis created a millionaire tax bracket, raising the top marginal income-tax rate to 6.25%.

Some cities had even higher rates.

Governor Martin O'Malley, a dedicated class warrior, declared that these richest 0.3% of filers were "willing and able to pay their fair share." The Baltimore Sun predicted the rich would "grin and bear it."

Grin and bear it? Nope. They "sighed and left."

In 2008 roughly 3,000 million-dollar income tax returns were filed by the end of April. This year there were 2,000, which the state comptroller's office concedes is a "substantial decline." On those missing returns, the government collects 6.25% of nothing. Instead of the state coffers gaining the extra $106 million the politicians predicted, millionaires paid $100 million less in taxes than they did last year -- even at higher rates.

Thank God for freedom of movement.