Losing your life, losing an election

To Obama, it's all the same.

If I read this correctly, our President compared soldiers losing their lives to an insane, fanatical Muslim to Democratic Representatives losing an election over their vote on the health care bill.

It doesn't get any more crass and asinine than that.

Leave it to the BBC

The BBC has finally run an article that identifies a benefit of gun control. This result if probably not generalizable, but the story is both ironic and funny. My annotated summary is below.

1. India forces residents of Kashmir to turn in their weapons.



"Following the outbreak of the insurgency, people had to hand in their weapons to police - which put a halt to poaching."



2. The bear population in Kashmir increases.



"Wildlife experts say the conflict in Kashmir has actually resulted in an increase in the population of bears and leopards."



3. A bear kills two terrorists that it discovers in it's den.
   

   "A bear killed two militants after discovering them in its den in Indian-administered Kashmir, police say."

You just can't make this stuff up. LOL!
Thanks to Ann Althouse.

Thank you, Congressman Frank

Congressman Barney Frank--in the odd position of trying to sound reasonable compared to Ralph Nadar--admits what he and the Obama Admininistration are trying to achieve as a result of the economic crisis.

Barney Frank's Fingernails

Update: One of the commenters points out correctly that Frank ostensibly is referring to financial regulation in his comment. But can anyone seriously doubt that his statement doesn't apply equally to economic and social policy as well?

The Logic of Collective Action

The Value of Everything returns to blogging with two posts--one on an old topic and one on a recent one.

This post is titled with all due respect to Mancur Olson. The attached video (as old as it is) does as much, if not more to delineate the force that collectivism holds over the human psyche as any I have seen. In case your time allocation doesn't permit spending eight minutes watching this video, below is a summary.

• A pride of young lions attacks and appears to subdue a calf that is part of a water buffalo herd and in the process drag the calf into a river in Kruger National Park.
• As the lions attempt to finish off their kill, a pair of alligators try to take the calf from the lions.
• The lions--collectively--save their prey from their rival predators.
• In the meantime, the water buffalo return to confront the lions with the apparent intention of rescuing--collectively--the calf.
• The water buffalo succeed in rescuing the calf and driving off the lions.

Dear Congressman Frank

Barney Frank is hysterically funny on CNBC this morning. Carl Quintinilla asked Congressman Frank (I'm paraphrasing) whether the government would a) allow inflation to become a problem or b) tighten too quickly and slow economic growth. I'm going to try to quote Rep. Frank exactly, but watch the video (first 30 seconds).

Well, it's interesting. I guess that's kinda' the media approach. Nobody says we might get it right.

With all due respect, Congressman Frank, if it were possible for the government to "get it right," we wouldn't be in this situation to begin with. Congressman, you were the one who said in Congressional hearings on the systemic risk posed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that you'd "like to roll the dice a little bit."

Well you rolled the dice, and Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke rolled the dice, and the mortgage originators rolled the dice and the investment banks rolled the dice--all at your prodding--and here we are. For you to now say that "we might get it right" doesn't pass the laugh test--literally. I laughed out loud at how hysterically preposterous your comment was. Why? Because you and your cohorts in Congress will not allow the Fed to get it right. At the first sign of monetary tightening, you will haul Ben Bernanke, whom you praised so highly in this video, before your committee to grill him on how he can condemn millions of Americans to the unemployement rolls.

You, sir, should be a stand-up comedian, because you are not a serious policy maker.

Spending Is The Tax

I could not improve on the title of this post by Jerry O'Driscoll. It's a short post, so read the whole thing.

See my (loosely) related post here.

UPDATE: I heard someone on CNBC today finally say what I've been saying for months regarding the stimulus package, to wit: the money has to come from somewhere.

Is the Obama administration as a RICO enterprise?

George Will has an article in the WaPo today entitled, "Tincture of Lawlessness: Obama's Overreaching Economic Policies". As the title suggests, Will puts forth the notion that Obama is willing to ignore the law. I want to go on record that Obama's actions go beyond "lawlessness."

The Obama administration is a RICO enterprise. Below is the operative sentence--in the Department of Justice's own language--about the scope of the RICO statute.

...the statute is sufficiently broad to encompass illegal activities relating to any enterprise affecting interstate or foreign commerce.

What could be more organized or illegal than circumventing the bankruptcy laws as Obama did in the Chrysler deal? What more corrupt organizations could Obama be involved with than the United Auto Workers union, not to mention the United States House of Representatives?

Finally, just look at the following comparisons between a well-known gangster--Al Capone--and a well-known Obama crony--Rahm Emanual. Both started their careers in Chicago. Both used profanity as a tool for manipulating their opponents. Both achieved diminutive statures.

If that doesn't prove the connection between the Mafia and Obama, what does?