Michelle Malkin – The Autoworkers Obama Left Behind
Two each from Townhall:
and the WSJ:
The Obama foreign policy–snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. And we’re about to do the same in Afghanistan.
[An open letter to my teenage kids.]
Dear Wade and Kandace,
As I rode in to work this morning, I came across one of the many popular but inane bumper stickers regarding closed minds. It set me to thinking of you two–not because your thought processes are deficient, but because you are fast approaching adulthood in a society which inundates you with foolishness cloaked as non-judgmentalism and rejects Biblical morality as quaint, archaic, and irrelevant. The moral relativism to which you are subjected on television, over the radio, and in the classroom has a tempting “feel good” quality to it that is hard to resist. But you should resist it, and for that effort the condition of your mind is paramount.
It may seem obvious that a “closed” mind is undesirable. A closed mind is incapable of growth or correction. Rejecting without serious consideration anything which conflicts with already-held notions, it can neither expand its domain nor examine and shore up its foundations. The closed mind is imprisoned–for better or worse–in stasis. Human nature being what it is, this is usually for worse.
Unfortunately, those who decry the “closed” mind far too often open theirs in the extreme. Like an uncapped bin behind the local Goodwill store, such an “open” mind accepts donations from whomever happens by. Occasionally the items are valuable, but usually they are not–and will be replaced at first opportunity by the next ones that drop in. Sadder still, the modern version of open-mindedness is open to absolutely everything except Biblical teaching.
Better than either is to have a guarded mind (Proverbs 4:23). Trite and overused as the term has become, being “teachable” is a necessary trait (Job 22:22 and throughout Proverbs). We all have gaps in our knowledge and understanding which can best be filled by paying attention to the wisdom and experience of others. The key is to exercise discernment in choosing sources. Examine everything you hear or read and consider it in light of what God tells us through scripture (1 Timothy 6:3-4 and 20-21). Sometimes you will even find it necessary to reject things you are taught in church or by leaders who claim to be teaching Biblical truth (Matthew 16:11-12). Remember that all of your instructors are human. Some may deliberately lead you astray; others may do so inadvertently because they, themselves, are not in line with God’s word. You will have a good head start toward a healthy, guarded mind if you, “Test everything. Hold on to the good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21)
You are both growing–all too quickly in your mom’s estimation–into incredible young adults. As you do, keep one bedrock truth firmly in your hearts: as much as your mom & I want the best for you, God desires it even more. His moral instruction will not saddle you with limitations, but rather will open up for you a life of the greatest freedom you could possibly know. My prayer for you is that you internalize Luke 11:9-13 and seek truth in Him. He promises it will be found.
I love you,
Dad
Larry Elder, Townhall – Actor Samuel L. Jackson — Vote Your Race
Bob Beauprez, Townhall Finance – ObamaCare “Expert-for-Hire” now says Law Will Increase Premiums
Daniel Henninger, WSJ – Obama’s Virtual Economy: It’s endless fun, fiddling with the dials on the real world.
Washington Times – Bonuses given after raises at Solyndra
Steps to make a pile of cash in today’s “green” economy:
Nice racket if you can get in.
Michelle Malkin – The high priests of eco-destruction
CBS San Francisco – Ignored 911 Call Turns Fatal In Berkeley; Police Busy With Occupy Protest
What’s not being mentioned is that this is a direct result of the city’s liberal government pandering to the OWS crowd instead of enforcing the law from day one.
Weekly Standard – Valerie Jarrett: ‘People Who Receive that Unemployment Check Go Out and Spend It and Help Stimulate the Economy’
The issue of income redistribution aside, how does it benefit the economy to let someone else spend my money rather than letting me spend it or invest it in a company to create jobs?
Townhall triple:
Dennis Prager, Townhall — If You’re Ever Murdered, Here’s an Idea
Brilliant thought experiment! Does anyone doubt there would be far more greens murdered than reds?
Thomas Sowell, IBD — Taxing The Rich More Doesn’t Make Society Fairer
Jeffrey Lord, American Spectator — Is Media Matters Obama’s Watergate?
WSJ — Concerned Scientists Reply on Global Warming
Award-winning AGW skeptic scientists fire back. Interestingly—to me, at least—they make one of the exact points I brought up with a friend recently: when you have to constantly change your models to match new data because the original models did not correctly predict the new data your modeling has no proven predictive value. Why in the world would we dismantle our world economy based on models with no demonstrable predictive value?
The Hill — Obama: Payroll tax cut extension will help with higher gas prices
Nonsense. That $40 was already being used in my budget last year—before you killed Keystone. It’s not going to help pay for your new gas hikes because it was already being spent to pay for last year’s gas hikes. Maybe you hadn’t noticed, but gas prices have roughly doubled since you took office. Or maybe I shouldn’t expect you to notice…since I’ve been paying both my gas bill and yours for the last three years.
David Harsanyi, Real Clear Politics — Aren’t High Gas Prices What Democrats Want?
Fox 5 Atlanta — Pizza Chain Clerk Dies From Shooting Wounds
From the pizza chain that has made news more than once for firing delivery drivers who have defended their lives with handguns. Yes, they really would rather have a dead unarmed driver than a live armed one.
We must band together and demand that the federal government ban all private ownership of cars! Cars kill!
According to the latest news one person was killed and a few others injured when a BMW going 100mph plowed into a KFC restaurant.
CARS KILL! EVIL CARS!
I mean, really, who needs a car that can go that fast? There simply is no civilian purpose for a car of that caliber horsepower. We must ban private ownership of fast cars! I bet it was even a shiny black sedan with chrome mags and smoked windows like I see the bad guys drive on TV! You know they run over cops, and little kids with puppies, and sweet old ladies, and smelly liberal hippies nice concerned citizens with those monstrous things?
CARS KILL! BIG, FAST, EVIL CARS!
Seriously, who even needs to own a car? When you need to go somewhere you can always take a public train or bus, right? Or you can hire a taxi, eh? They’re always on time and available when you need them. (What? No? Then walk, you buffoon! Serves you right for living in the country instead of with us civilized types in the city.) No one has a right legitimate need to provide their own vehicular self-transportation!
CARS KILL! BIG, FAST, EVIL CARS! LITTLE CARS! ALL CARS!
I bet the driver wasn’t even from the same state! And he probably bought it from some shady guy at one of those car shows sponsored by the NHRA! It’s likely even one of those fast-shifting automatics! Who really needs to change gears that quickly?
NO CARS ACROSS STATE LINES! NO PRIVATE CAR SALES! NO AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSIONS! NOT EVEN PUSH-TO-SHIFT! CARS KILL! BIG, FAST, EVIL CARS! LITTLE CARS! ALL CARS!
We must ban cars, you see? They’re simply not safe. After all, it’s for the children.
[Hey Brady Campaign, Mayor Bloomberg, et al, do you see how moronic you sound?]
James Taranto, WSJ — Social Issues and the Santorum Surge
Michelle Malkin, Townhall — Taxing Medical Progress to Death
Townhall Triple
NY Times — Higher Crime, Fewer Charges on Indian Land
Which way do you want your pie served? Are Indian reservations autonomous nations—in which case they need to take responsibility for and clean up their own messes—or are they part of America—in which case they need to start paying taxes and participate in the responsibility for us cleaning up their messes. Either way it’s long past time for them to quit playing the victim game and step up to the plate.
Side note: those wonderful tribal native lands that have 2.5 times the violent crime rate of the rest of America? “Gun free” zones. It’s not a coincidence.
LA Times — Unmasking the Academy: Oscar voters overwhelmingly white, male
An L.A. Times study of Oscar voters finds that their demographics are much less diverse than the moviegoing public.
I’m flabbergasted. Really? Who knew?
Fox News — California counties get federally-funded teen mail-order condom program
It’d be best if teens didn’t have sex, but if they’re going to do it anyway, they need to protect themselves.
Gotta love that logic. So next we’re going to use federal tax dollars to buy teens booze and pot—because they’re just going to do it anyway?
Washington Times — Obama’s gas-price spike
Essam Abdallah, Israpundit — The State Dept has embraced the Islamist Agenda at home and abroad
Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal published an excerpt from Alain de Botton’s upcoming book “Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believers Guide to the Uses of Religion.” If this snippet is representative of the whole it should be an interesting read, particularly for those of us who are not atheists.
Botton recognizes the valuable contribution of religion to society and even acknowledges that secular attempts to replace it have fallen far short—all the while heading down a dead end in an attempt at such a replacement. Seeing the good that comes from some of the trappings of faith—such as a real sense of community and the breaking down of economic and racial divisions—he nevertheless makes the classic atheist mistake of confusing causation and correlation. The societal benefit of “religion” isn’t a result of shared ritual, important and valuable though that may be. It comes from the underlying acknowledgment of a power greater than we, to which we are commonly accountable and without which the ritual is meaningless.
Sadly, he misses the reason secular humanism has failed to replace faith. You can’t replace a personal relationship with God by community meals or any other human construct. The purpose of the Eucharist and Passover is not to create a sense of community, but to remind each of us what God has done for us. Botton’s “Agape Restaurant” tries to reproduce a side effect of the ritual while removing its very core ingredient. Without that direct connection the ritual he so admires is merely a sort of collective psychological masturbation. There may be some pleasure in it, but its benefit is entirely transitory and fleeting. It can never be a substitute for the real thing.
Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post — Overreach: Obamacare vs. the Constitution
WSJ — Birth-Control Mandate: Unconstitutional and Illegal
Victor Davis Hanson, IBD — White House No Longer Regards Illegal Immigration As A Crime
Forbes — Solyndras In the Classroom: How We Vastly Overrate Education
John Ransom, Townhall — If Al Gore Had a Change of Heart; It’s that Big
[Hat tip Hot Air]
Why is it that Democrats seem to see everything–at least everything done by a member of a minority group–through the myopic lens of race?
Senator Harry Reid thinks that his colleague, Marco Rubio of Florida, is a bad Hispanic because he doesn’t toe the line of the overlord party to which all real Hispanics should naturally belong.
So does Reid represent whites? Not this one, I can tell you! With any wisdom on the part of Nevadans, he won’t represent anyone at all after his next ballot appearance.
News flash for Mr. Reid: Rubio doesn’t represent Hispanics. As his office very fittingly responded,
Senator Rubio represents Florida.
The politics of division: classic Leftist tactic of which they never seem to tire.