“Providing for the Common Defense” is a fundamental obligation of government. Obama’s challenge is to pay for what the Pentagon needs in the face spiraling national debt and the growing explosion of entitlement spending (numbers that dwarf the defense budget and all the spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined). The speech suggests [...]
Archive for February, 2009
25 Feb
The NY Times Is Broke
The New York Times Company is committed to the creation of long-term shareholder value through investment and constancy of purpose. ~ Investor Relations The New York Times Company is in deep financial trouble. For fiscal-year 2008, The New York Times announced, on January 28, 2009, that it had generated a net loss of nearly $58 [...]
25 Feb
An Audacity Deficit
The budget deficit has already tripled to $1.2 trillion this year. So President Obama’s pledge to halve the budget deficit by 2013 is hardly ambitious. The end of the recession, phase-out of stimulus spending, and wind down of Iraq spending will halve the budget deficit on its own. Even though President’s budget assumes peace and [...]
25 Feb
Why We Don’t Celebrate ‘Historians Day’
Being gracious winners, this week, liberals howled with delight at George Bush for coming in seventh-to-last in a historians’ ranking of the presidents from best to worst. This was pretty shocking. Most liberals can’t even name seven U.S. presidents. Being ranked one of the worst presidents by “historians” is like being called “anti-American” by the [...]
25 Feb
Atlas Raged
Atlas is done with merely shrugging. Atlas is raging. The Ayn Rand novel, “Atlas Shrugged” is much in the news this week because of the absolutely fantastic rant on CNBC the other morning by on-air editor Rick Santelli. I happened to be watching CNBC when this all took place, although I suspect this may become [...]
25 Feb
And now for the important news …. (by Argus Hamilton)
Obama gives his State of the Union address tonight to Congress. In his first month the economy’s collapsed, Wall Street’s crashed and the debt’s tripled. Al-Qaeda just recalled all their sleeper cells in America saying their work is done here. The Academy Awards was a decidedly less lavish show in Hollywood Sunday. Everyone wanted to [...]
25 Feb
From Islamabad to Bradford
It is hard to understand this deal,” said Richard Holbrooke, President Obama’s special envoy. And, if the special envoy of the so-called smartest and most impressive administration in living memory can’t understand it, what chance do the rest of us have? Nevertheless, let’s try. In the Swat Valley, where a young Winston Churchill once served [...]
25 Feb
Short out-takes . . .
“[Britain's] Home Secretary, [Jacqui Smith], is best known for an inspired change of terminology: Last year she announced that henceforth Muslim terrorism (an unhelpful phrase) would be reclassified as ‘anti-Islamic activity.’ Seriously. The logic being that Muslims blowing stuff up tends not to do much for Islam’s reputation — i.e., it’s an ‘anti-Islamic activity’ in [...]
25 Feb
Village Idiots
[This week's "Quid Pro Homo" Awards]: “If Harvey [Milk] had not been taken from us 30 years ago, I think he would want me to say to all the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told they are less than by the churches, by the government, by their families, that you [...]
25 Feb
Newspulper Headlines:
[Maybe Better Spam Filters Should Be a TARP Precondition]: “Nigerian Accused in Scheme to Swindle Citibank” –The New York Times [Fortunately, the Stimulus Includes $15 Billion for Chum]: “Shark Attacks Drop; Expert Cites Ailing Economy” –MSNBC.com [That's Not the Only Thing He Should Have Better Regulated]: “Bill Clinton: I Should Have Better Regulated Derivatives” –CNN.com [...]
