Lens

The left and it’s partners in the media see the world through a Marxist-leftist lens. An Afghan policewoman has “mental illness and was driven to suicidal despair by poverty” but an American criminal has ” hundreds of bullets for a military-style assault rifle and handguns”. Um, both shitheads had “military style” weapons. All weapons are “military style” in fact. Unions conspire to drive up prices and pass that on to consumers at the expense of jobs. Politicians, not wanting to appear heartless, give public sector unions whatever they want. The costs get passed on to us all.

Screw up, don’t get fired, get paid and go back to work, even if your screwups cost lives. Wave around a banned rifle magazine and act shocked when police investigate you for violating the ban. Of course gun deaths have been going down for years, but that violates the narrative.

Meanwhile, as the world burns, a Democratic congressman proposes raising taxes when challenged on the “fiscal cliff.”

The left thinks name calling and class warfare will rule the day. It’s not about “compromise”, it’s about compromising opposition to win. Marx viewed all of history as haves vs. have-nots. The 60′s left viewed America as the enemy and violent dissent the way to power. “Tea Party?” “NRA?” According to the left they are products of the 1% and fake.

Meanwhile the left resorts to name calling and dancing on graves to promote gun control.

Real Americans don’t live with bodyguards, or in McMansions. Most businesses are SMALL, most gun owners obey the law. Rich people give to charity in record numbers as opposed to the prius-driving “I kisses a dolphin” crowd that expect the government to pay their student loans.

And they wonder why they are losing.

Sandy Hook Part 2: the conversation

SO IF WE’RE GOING TO HAVE A “NATIONAL CONVERSATION ON GUNS,” HERE ARE SOME OPENERS:

Why do people who favor gun-control call people who disagree with them murderers or accomplices to murder? Is that constructive?

Would any of the various proposals have actually prevented the tragedy that is the supposed reason for them?

When you say you hope that this event will finally change the debate, do you really mean that you hope you can use emotionalism and blood-libel-bullying to get your way on political issues that were losers in the past?
– Instapundit

My thoughts:

Can we have a conversation without bulling? Without name calling?
Am I presumed innocent because I want a gun but haven’t done anything illegal?
Can I talk about the 2nd Amendment without being called an “insurrectionist?”

Can you on the left respect my rights to own a gun as I respect your right to scream at me?

Sandy Hook

On December 14, 2012, a gunman killed 20 children and 6 adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the Sandy Hook village of Newtown, Connecticut before committing suicide. It was the second-deadliest mass shooting in United States history, after the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.[8]
–
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Wikipedia

Some psyho woke up hating the world. He took many innocent lives before he turned the gun on himself. Michelle Malkin has a column up, with links on how to help.

Pray for the families, the survivors, the town, and the children.

And you, lefties, you need to SHUT UP.

Why is it that you want to take away the freedoms of those who have nothing to do with this? Nothing at all.

Every “discussion” about guns ends with the left calling for a police state. No guns, no freedom to disagree. Every discussion with the left seems to end with less freedom and the rest of us being labeled as racist/sexist/evil.

I chose to remember the victims and move on.

Via the New York Times:

And speaking of dopes…

“South Korean rapper PSY and the massive YouTube hit “Gangnam Style” seemingly came out of nowhere, but no one can say they didn’t see this coming. After a huge backlash following news that he had performed at an anti-American protest in 2004, PSY has issued an apology this afternoon.

“I’m deeply sorry for how these lyrics could be interpreted,” reads the statement. Huh”
– “PSY apologizes for anti-American lyrics, but do Americans accept? Yankees ‘interpret’ lyrics”, Twitchy.com

”

The wall plus the dome are enabling Israel’s leaders to abdicate their responsibility for thinking creatively about a resolution of its own majority-minority problem with the Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Really? I would have said that the fence itself is a creative solution to the majority-minority problem in the West Bank, in that it prevents the majority Arabs from sneaking into Israel proper to commit murder. And Iron Dome creatively protects Israel against rocket attacks from Gaza. Is Friedman seriously suggesting that terrorist attacks from Gaza were a good thing because they forced Israel to “think creatively” about the Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem? Common sense is not Friedman’s strong point”
–
“Iron Dope”: Powerline blog

“A new Global Terrorism Index this week showed that terrorism went up from 2002 to 2007 – largely because of the conflicts in Afghanistan/Pakistan and Iraq — but has declined ever since.
…
In any event, it is a good idea that the United States find a way to conduct its anti-terrorism campaigns within a more normal legal framework, rather than rely on blanket wartime authority granted in a panic after Sept. 11.”
– Useful idiot Fareed Zakaria, via Hotair.com

The thing the people like PSY and Tom Freidman forget is that US troops have gone to bat for their freedom. PSY can dance his stupid horsey “Gangam Style” dance because US troops kept him and his parents from the North Korean Army. His “K-pop” sound comes from the music US troops brought over. If not for the US military, he’d be in a communist labor camp. Friedman is a jew-hating leftie. He liked it when the savages of Hamas could murder with impunity because that fit is Marxist narrative. Underdogs and all that rot. Now that Israel can defend itself, he’s all pouty. Fareed Zakaria is the typical leftie dumbass. He hates American “power”, but if he were to say anything critical of the foreign governments he supports, they’d toss him in jail.

PSY realizes that pissing off his biggest market is a bad move. When will Friedman and Zakaria realize that they’re sleeping with the enemy?

Brad hammers this point home with pictures.

Dopes on the ropes

It is a terrible thing, make someone dependent on something, so dependent that they need it. Then the thing is taken away. A real dick move right?

For decades, the left as sold college and the welfare state as a golden ticket. No worries, big Santa Government will pay for it all. Until the country goes broke:

1. “Their ideas don’t work and they know it, so now all they can do is try to make you think their failure is somehow a statement of principle” Dailycaller.com on the 150 to 200 square feet of living space “houses” appearing in Washington DC. (via Insty)
2. “Eleven states, including California, have more residents who draw money from the government—as employees, pensioners, or welfare recipients—than people employed in the private sector.“: Walter Russell Mead
3. “Welfare Spending Dwarfs Poverty” and “It’s Time To Stick It To the Blue States” both via Powerline
4. “Detroit CouncilPerson Puts Teh Onion Out of Business“: Patterico.com
5. “Hey, Fat Cat Unions: Pay Your “Fair Share””, Michelle Malkin
6. “UNPATRIOTIC MILLIONAIRES: Obama-Endorsing WaPo Rushes To Pay Dividends Before Obama Tax Increase Kicks In.” Instaundit alerts the 99%!!

The left loves socialism as long as other people pay for it. If you disagree, your a racist/sexist/member of the 1% and hate people.

I’ll tell the left who’s racist. Racism is telling people that they don’t have to work or earn a living. Racism is telling them to vote year after year and their problems will be solved by someone else. Racism is kicking the can forward, telling the people of today that their problems are someone else’s fault and if they just hate them enough and tax them enough their problems will be solved. And then they toss around blame and offer no solutions when it all goes south. When the money runs out they have nothing. And the people hurt the most are those who need that money they really have nothing.

“City Council member JoAnn Watson said Tuesday the citizens support of Obama in last month’s election was enough reason for the president to bailout the struggling the city. (Click the video player to listen)

“Our people in an overwhelming way supported the re-election of this president and there ought to be a quid pro quo and you ought to exercise leadership on that,” said Watson. “Of course, not just that, but why not?”
…
The White House has expressed no plans to bailout the cash-crunched city that some experts say could run out of money by the end of the year.

The federal government has bailed out cities in the past, however. In 1975, President Gerald Ford extended more than $2 billion in credit to New York City to help it avoid a financial collapse.”
–
Detroit councilwoman to Obama: We voted for you, now bail us out: By FOX 2 News Staff DETROIT

Heh, Gerald Ford. Republican Gerald Ford? The stumbling Chevy Chase character bailed out New York City? Yes he did.

This time there will be no bailouts for the blue states (and cities). Sure big labor, Wall Street and K Street got theirs, but the people who need the blue model to live will get screwed. They sowed a crop of class warfare, dreams and envy, they will reap red ink.

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre”

The Second Coming

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity”
–”The Second Coming“, William Butler Yeats

“The missile tests popping up all over Asia should be seen in this light. Everyone’s arming up, starting with Russia. As we speak, Moscow is rearming missile units with Russia’s most advanced ICBM, the Yars missile, which was first tested in 2007. The Topol-M missile, tested in 2004, is already deployed.”
–”Missiles, missiles everywhere” December 4, 2012 by J.E. Dyer, HotAir.com

Mr. Dyer goes on to list missile developments in Asia, including the Nork’s upcoming missile test. Oh, and “Nork” is not racist, btw.

US Army Patriot missile units are in the middle east, defending our allies in the Arabian Gulf. Egypt’s “moderate” president flees the presidential palace because Egyptians don’t like a dictator. India and China are flexing their muscles.

The left, when not plugging their fingers in their ears (that “norks is racist comment is based on a tweet by a leftie with the IQ of a tree stump), they spit on our country:

But will a film like Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty,” about a specific, recent event — the killing of Osama bin Laden — resonate in the same way that her previous, fictional movie about the Iraq war, “The Hurt Locker,” did with its fearless main character channeling our deepest fears about the price of that misbegotten war?

Oddly, my deepest fears about the war were that (a) the rules of engagement prevented victory, and (b) any gains made would be lost to politics. Both of those fears have been realized.
–”Yet more fear and loathing of American culture (and history) at the LA Times“,by Joel Engel (giving a “reason you suck speech” to the LAT’s Reed Johnson)

The left wants to pretend that the world loves and shares their Marxist worldview. The world is have vs. have not’s and not the real world of hate and power hungry haters.

Either we recognize that there is a bear in the woods or we let the bear attack.

“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”

We’ll find out soon enough.

RESIGN HOLDER

Eric Holder’s bright idea bears fruit (via Instapundit):

“Washington D.C. – According to credible ATF sources, officials heavily involved in Operation Fast and Furious and named as partially responsible for the program’s failure by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz and the House Oversight Committee have been stripped of their government security clearances while some have been fired, demoted, and transferred. Criminal charges are also reportedly pending.“
…
“former ATF Special Agent in Charge of Operations in the West Bill McMahon and former Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Division George Gillett have been fired…McMahon and ATF came under heavy fire just a few months ago after it was revealed McMahon had been receiving ATF paid leave while pulling a six figure salary from J.P. Morgan, the same bank that owns the bureau’s credit cards“
–
“Report: Security Clearances Revoked, Criminal Charges Pending For ATF Fast and Furious Officials” Katie Pavlich, Townhall.com.

What the hell? Conflicts of intrest, dead federal agents, many, many dead Mexicans and a country on the brink. Has the media and the administration no shame?

RESIGN HOLDER

Fiscal Cliff

So zerohedge.com published this:

“We realize that this is a painful topic in a country in which the issue of welfare benefits, and cutting (or not) the spending side of the fiscal cliff, have become the two most sensitive social topics. Alas, none of that changes the matrix of incentives for most Americans who find themselves in a comparable situation: either being on the left side of minimum US wage, and relying on benefits, or move to the right side at far greater personal investment of work, and energy, and… have the same disposable income at the end of the day. “

Check out the whole article at the link.

Given that the US of A is broke, what’s going on in politics? Naked protesters want more gov’ment cheese, the Democrats want to play chess and the GOP wants to play dumb and the GOP still wants to give lots of sugar subsidies. The Democrats are not the progressive party they are the stompy hooves party.

We need a fiscal deal.

We as a country can’t afford a military presence in Europe, a tank/APC that’s 80 tons, a welfare state that pays people to sit there and buy Iphones and the farm subsides need to go.

The problem is as old as time: people want to eat ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner but whine when their waistline expands.

As Insty says, if something can’t go on forever, it won’t.

Either we fix the budget and drive away from the fiscal cliff, or the Democrats will have ruined the economy and the country. They will own it. Bush is not in office, the military is shrinking (so much for the “permanent war economy”). The huge recession, the jobless rate? THEIR. FAULT.

Like Europe, the Democrats promised free stuff and easy living. When it goes south, they will sling blame and attempt to “fix it” with taxes and b.s. economics. Some in the GOP will attempt to do the same. Porkbarrel politicians will still rob peter to pay paul, even in the face of doom.

If the GOP can’t stop them, we need a new GOP (or a new party entirely).

Hot Crew! : Carrie Fisher

Carrie Frances Fisher (born October 21, 1956) is an American actress, novelist, screenwriter, and performance artist. She is best known for her portrayal of Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy and for voicing Angela in Family Guy. She is also known for her bestselling novel Postcards from the Edge and screenplay for a film of the same name, and her autobiographical one-woman play, Wishful Drinking, and the non-fiction book she based on it.

Ah every geek remembers his first big nerd crush…

No, we are not Europe

“Sweden has the population of North Carolina, no real linguistic or religious diversity, no experience of chattel slavery or mass immigration (and the children of recent immigrants in Sweden, incidentally, tend to have much higher poverty rates than the native-born), and a culture of Lutheran thrift and prudence that endures even though Lutheranism itself is on life support. America is and always has been a country of much greater diversity and wider cultural extremes, “
–Can We Be Sweden?, Ross Douthat, New York Times.com. Via Insty

“Bush didn’t create the conditions that led to the crash; he inherited them from Bill Clinton, and a large cast of thousands all played their own parts. Republican policies had no role in the crash; and the Democrats’ policies would have had no role, either.”
– “Another place where Republicans keep failing”, Noemie Emery, Washingtonexaminer.com

Most of the US Federal Budget goes to that govm’ent cheese.

Even Sweden or Europe can’t afford to be the European Welfare state:

“But while austerity tears at the funeral industry — and some say the social fabric of the country — it has been a boon for science. Donating a body has become such a popular alternative to the cost of a funeral that some medical schools complain they do not have enough refrigerators to store all of them…”
–Economic Crisis Leaves Hard-Hit Spaniards Scrimping on Funerals, NYT.com

“According to Swedish Statistics, unemployment in May 2011 was 7.9% in the general population and 25.9% amongst 15-25 year olds.”–Wikipeida

U.S. unemployment is at 7.9 percent. What does it all mean?

It means that while some might blame the Cold War, Iraq War, the DoD, Regan, the Bush Presidents, it’s the quest for a socialist state and the welfare state that’s got this country in the shape it’s in. Both parties got Uncle Sam in the housing business. The result was good money was sent to bad loans. We knew this was coming: articles, teevee shows, talking heads talking about the end of cheap money.

We did nothing. George W. Bush tried, but the Congress stopped him.

It would be nice to give a house to everyone. It would be nice to have a guaranteed income. One of my college buddies liked to rant that “in Europe, you were guaranteed an income of $20K a year no matter what.” I wish I could see him now.

The US floated Europe during the Cold War. While American GI’s stood guard, Europeans partied, or in Sweden’s case, stayed neutral. Communism fell, pulling the rug out from under the socialist lie. We were promised a “peace dividend”, that went away with the conflict of the 90′s and 9/11.

But still the advocates of govm’ent cheeze pressed on. From LBJ and his War on Poverty to the Community Reinvestment Act of the Clinton-Era, politicians promised something for nothing. And in times of crisis the cry of “Free stuff!” gets louder. Our economic problems will only get worse as more people and special interests ask for more government money. With money comes power and with power comes attempts at control.

Sadly government control and government money distort the economy. High taxes drain the economy, backing loans mean more bad loans get made. Government steps in to “regulate” things and now we have the mess we are in. Government expanding to meet the needs of an expanding government.

Instapudit says that the answer is no, we can’t be Sweden. We can’t be France in the 70′s, Europe in the 90′s or Japan in the 80′s. No matter how much liberals try to turn the USA into Europe 2.0. All of those economies were founded on lies (and helped by American military and economic might). Some have recovered, others are spiraling downward.

We need to look to an American solution. If people want Sweden, they should move to Sweden.