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• The Fake Fact Checks

  07Oct
  Categories: Asides, Political Comments: 0

  James Taranto, in the headline piece of his Best of the Web Today in WSJ, competently reveals (in a well-sourced way) the farce that “fact checking” has become. It’s something that’s been bothering me for a while. I was excited when FactCheck.org came out because it was quite evenhanded at first. However, I’ve been seeing more and more blatant editorializing and insertion of opinion and subjective measures of “fact”. And it’s not just FactCheck.org.

  Tags: fact checking, factcheck.org

• Europe Day 10 – Switzerland Day 3 – Interlaken – Folklore Evening

  07Oct
  Categories: Personal, Photos Comments: 0

  
  Sun in the lamp

  
  The flower clock face

  
  One of the folklore people getting red in the face blowing the alp horn

  Read more »

  Tags: dietrich, europe, folklore, hans, hdr, heidi, interlaken, lois, marvin, pictures, switzerland

• Obama and the Terrorist

  07Oct
  Categories: Asides, Political Comments: 0

  It looks like our media overlords are finally acknowledging the extensive relationship between Obama and his patron terrorist:
  

  Tags: 2008 Presidential Race, annenberg challenge, ayers, obama, terrorism

• Pope gets it right

  06Oct
  Categories: Christianity Comments: 0

  AP:

  Pope Benedict XVI says the global financial crisis show the futility of money and ambition.

  Benedict says that “now with the collapse of big banks we see that money disappears, is nothing and all these things that appear real are in fact of secondary importance.” He urges those who build their lives “only on things that are visible, such as success, career, money” to keep that in mind.

  Benedict says “the only solid reality is the word of God.”

  Tags: catholic, economy, god, pope, subprime mortgage crisis

• Former FDIC Chairman on the Bailout Bill

  03Oct
  Categories: Asides, Political Comments: 0

  Forbes has a good analytical piece by William Isaac, the former head of the FDIC, on why the bailout bill is not only worthless, but harmful

  Tags: economy, subprime mortgage crisis

• Brits: Obama Aloof & Elitist, Dems Helped Cause Financial Crisis

  03Oct
  Categories: Asides, Political Comments: 0

  The Brits have figured out two things that our press seems to have trouble comprehending: Obama is “aloof” and elitist and the Dems helped cause the subprime mortgage crisis (And the former comes from the British Ambassador to the U.S. that is a fan of Obama)

  Tags: 2008 Presidential Race, british, England, obama

• Sarah Palin’s Gaffes

  03Oct
  Categories: Asides, Political Comments: 1

  Sarah Palin has had gaffe after gaffe that are quite embarrassing and show her utter unreadiness to be Vice President, much less President. Someone went to the trouble of listing them all.

  Tags: 2008 Presidential Race, biden, palin

• Piggy Pols in Hog Heaven with Pork-Packed Pact

  03Oct
  Categories: Political Comments: 0

  Don’t you just love the NY Post headlines? Try saying it ten times fast. Piggy Pols in Hog Heaven with Pork-Packed Pact:

  WASHINGTON – Here, little piggies!

  Congressional deal-brookers yesterday slopped a mess of pork into the $700 billion financial rescue bill passed by the Senate last night – including a tax break for makers of kids’ wooden arrows – in a bid to lure reluctant lawmakers into voting for the package

  Stuffed into the 451- page bill are more than $1.7 billion worth of targeted tax breaks to be doled out for a sty full of eyebrow-raising purposes over the next decade.

  If any congressperson who calls himself a conservative thinks that targeted tax cuts are good simply because they’re tax cuts, they’re wrong. This increased complication of the tax code will add to the tax preparers’ drag on the economy. Work that should not have to be done is wasted work.

  AP:

  GOP Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, said she was switching her “no” vote to a “yes” after the Senate added some $110 million in tax breaks and other sweeteners before approving the measure Wednesday night.

  “Monday what we had was a bailout for Wall Street firms and not much relief for taxpayers and hard-hit families. Now we have an economic rescue package,” Ros-Lehtinen told The Associated Press.

  [...]

  Republican Rep. Jim Ramstad of Minnesota also switched to “yes,” partly because the Senate attached the bailout to legislation he spearheaded to give people with mental illnesses better health insurance coverage.

  *sigh* Ros-Lehtinen (RINO-FL), I’m sure the “hard-hit families” of toy arrow makers, movie makers, rum producers, and race tracks will be very happy with this “economic rescue package”.

  Tags: economy, pork, rino, socialism, subprime mortgage crisis, tax cuts

• Typical Washington Compromise

  01Oct
  Categories: Asides, Political Comments: 1

  Typical Washington compromise typified by the Bush years: Dems (and fiscally liberal Repubs) get increased government spending/responsibility/insurance/nanny-state and Republicans (and fiscally conservative Democrats) get a tax cut. And so the deficit increases. What I’m trying to figure out is that if this gives us the worst of both worlds or simply is half as a good as it could be.

  Tags: compromise, economy, post-partisanship, subprime mortgage crisis