Smile File

polifrog







Many more at FloppingAces


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Is There an Inalienable Right to Self Defense?

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A Bill Quick reduction...

If there is no right to defend life, there is no right to life itself.

And without that what good are those much discussed rights and for that matter all rights.




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Home Defense ... 14 Round 12 Gauge From Kel-Tec...

polifrog


Shooting Illustrated:

We found the gun quite manageable, and its compact size (owing to the bullpup configuration) makes it very maneuverable. Obviously, with 14 rounds on board, capacity is never going to be an issue. Those factors make it perhaps the best shotgun for home defense we’ve seen in a while.

My current 12 gauge is a bit long, the Seecamp's travel convenience leaves it a bit underpowered, the .357 Seville looks pretty, the CZ 52 over penetrates ...

but the wife likes the .38.



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Christie Lapses Into Global Warming Gibberish...

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Christie may have cornered the market in clearing the fog of Teacher 's Union influence in New Jersey and by example, the nation but I don't expect Chris Christie to be a point of clarity on all issues; he represents New Jersey, after all.

However ... AGW gibberish? Really?

Politico:

In vetoing a bill (S2946) that would have required New Jersey to stay in a regional program intended to curb greenhouse gases — a program Christie plans to leave by the end of the year — the governor said “climate change is real.”

He added that “human activity plays a role in these changes” and that climate change is “impacting our state.”

Global Warming is no more scientific than a teacher's union and like a teacher's union AGW represents not needs of those their representatives claim but rather the desires of statists.





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Allen West - Modern Day Harriet Tubman...

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Allen West last night:

So I’m here as the modern day Harriet Tubman to kinda lead people on the underground railroad away from that plantation into a sense of sensibility.”

The contrast between our leader and leadership is astounding.

Thanks to GatewayPundit
H/T MaggiesFarm



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Smile File ...

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Felonious Munk Debt Rant...

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My apologies for my lack of commentary and my reliance on quips and video but I am currently distracted by obligation. I will remain so through early next week.

Felonious (NSFW) Munk:






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Newt Last Night and a Reminder...

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For a man who can get so much so right:



he can get so much so wrong, as when he expressed support for a version of the individual mandate:



As I said then:

I like Newt, and believe he raises the bar of debate, but if he is unaware that supporting a "version" of the individual mandate is an untenable position in today's conservative party then he has no business in the race.

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Rep. Brad Miller (NC-13) Wants Hear From You...

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Just remember that on the second Tuesday of each month you too can speak with Brad Miller's.... constituent services representative.

After all, phones and e-mail can be so inconvenient.

LOCAL OFFICE HOURS FOR REP. MILLER: A constituent services representative from the office of U.S. Rep. Brad Miller will be available to hear concerns from local citizens on the second Tuesday of each month at the Rockingham County Governmental Center in Wentworth. Hours will be from 1:30 to 3 p.m. For more information, go to www.house.gov/bradmiller.

GoDanRiver





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Socialism's Marxist Class Struggle in England...

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Remember that silhouette jumping from the burning building in England?




She is not just a silhouette; she is person,


She was a productive member of society and fortunately still is, but is she proletariat or bourgeoisie?

It is interesting to note the parallels between the riots in England and Marx's proletariat/bourgeoisie conflict that supposedly would lead to capitalism's demise. First it didn't, at least not directly or under the same definitions for proletariat/bourgeoisie and second, it seems that before capitalism may enter a "Marxist" struggle it must first embrace a social state in which the proletariat become the unproductive and the bourgeoisie are the productive.

Socialism, the last step before equality of poverty.

Still mulling this over...

I don't know where I saw these quotes. so there are no links.

Give a man a fish and he will riot for more free fish.

and

These rioters have suffered from not nearly enough incoming fire.

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Rick Santelly - Wrong Track...

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A Non Objective Purr ...

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Bill Quick:

... I have to ask: How did “volatility” come to mean “the stock market is crashing into a bottomless hole?”

They never apply the term to the market rising. Then its “the markets are booming, surging, racing higher.”

But when what they really are collapsing, dumping, vomiting, going in the crapper, racing lower, and dropping like a stone,” well, that’s just “volatility.

Sometimes ratings isn't about the blood, but rather the soothing purr of telling folks what they want to hear.




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Cowboy Bill ...

polifrog




This guy asks some reasonable questions:

What year did the nation of Palestine come into existence?
What were its national boarders and what year did it cease to exist?
...

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The Final Sunday...

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martinra (dailypundit)

If all that were needed in order to sustain a permanent state of moderate growth and prosperity were a little bit of government and central bank tugging one way on booms and the other way on busts, then Keynesianism would work fine. Keynesianism fails in the long term because the corrections are not mathematical accidents, not merely lines on the graph, but necessary events to permit new growth. The tonic of failure, of bankruptcy, and of creative destruction is necessary to clear away error, drive out incompetence and deadwood, reallocate capital towards its more effective users, and permit growth to resume. Delay the pain and you delay the healing.

Here's to the Last Day Before the Healing Begins...



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Apologize, Obama!

polifrog

He's not going to be known as the first Black President. He's going to be known as the President who had a downgrade.

...

You want me to hire, you want me to take risk, you want me to go further in debt, you want me now to co-sign for stuff.

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The Snp Downgrade? It's all Laughs for Former Obama Economic Adviser Christina Romer ...

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NSFW:




This is how we got here folks...




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SnP Downgrade Thought Roundup...

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Bruce Krasting:

It would have been helpful if the S&P had provided some thinking on this critical issue. S&P was willing to take on the entire legislative part of government. But they didn't have the balls to take on the Fed. Interesting
....

We have just a few months before the next explosion. S&P has put the US on a negative alert. Meaning further downgrades are going to happen if the US fiscal house is not put in better order.

Folks, that CANNOT HAPPEN without substantial cuts in both Medicare and Social Security.

So over the next few months when Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi tell us that there will be no cuts to these mega programs, respond by immediately shorting the stock market. If Obama sticks in the mud and says, “We will not cut SS” the Dow will fall 500 points.

...

Face it Krugmans of the world. Keynesian economics has hit its limit. You can’t spend your way out of this problem. That door is now closed.

If there is a silver lining to the S&P action it is that mainstream economists on both coasts of the US (but not Chicago) have also been downgraded. The notion that Debt = Growth is now a dead concept. I couldn’t be happier.

:::::::::


David Freddoso:

The bond-rating houses kept saying all along that they weren't worried about the debt ceiling not being increased. Rather, they were worried about the long-term prospects of the U.S. government paying back $15-plus trillion, which is where our national debt (both publicly held and obligated to trust funds) will be shortly.

Because last weekend's deal didn't cut spending deeply enough, S&P has just downgraded us. We'll see just how disastrous this becomes -- some are arguing it's not such a big deal -- but consider this the market's revenge for TARP and the stimulus package. You run up the debt, Mr. President, you lose your good credit.

::::::::::::


LATimes, China said:

China, the largest creditor of the world's sole superpower, has every right now to demand the United States to address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China's dollar assets...

...

If no substantial cuts were made to the U.S. gigantic military expenditure and bloated social welfare costs, the downgrade would prove to be only a prelude to more devastating credit rating cuts, which will further roil the global financial markets all along the way...

China is dictating conditions.

::::::::::

Michelle Bachman requests the resignation of Tim Geithner:

Tonight’s decision by S&P to downgrade our credit rating to AA+ is a historically significant and serious event for the United States. The United States has had a AAA credit rating since 1917. That rating has endured the great depression, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the terrorist attacks on 9/11. This President has destroyed the credit rating of the United States through his failed economic policies and his inability to control government spending by raising the debt ceiling.

“We were warned by all of the credit agencies that a failure to deal with our debt would lead to a downgrade in our credit rating, but instead he submitted a budget that had a $1.5 trillion deficit and then requested a $2.4 trillion blank check. President Obama is destroying the foundations of the U.S. economy one beam at a time. I call on the President to seek the immediate resignation of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and to submit a plan with a list of cuts to balance the budget this year, turn our economy around and put Americans back to work.”

::::::::::

Harry Reid, The Hill:

The action by S&P reaffirms the need for... revenue-raising measures like closing taxpayer-funded giveaways to billionaires, oil companies and corporate jet owners.

Yeah, that will fix our 80 year dance with Keynes and resultant social state calamity. Just as raising the debt ceiling was a short-term fix that brought on a downgrade, so is raising taxes.

The only solution is cuts in Government spending with commensurate cuts in taxation. Government has proven itself not to be the solution.

Fire it.





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Bill Whittle - Rich Man, Poor Man

polifrog

If you hadn't been told differently by your moral betters in the main-stream media, a fellow could look at these numbers and come to the conclusion that the rich get richer and the poor, well, they get richer too.

Envy in America:





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Buy Now Pay Later...

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S and P Downgrades US Debt From AAA to AA+...

polifrog



The Tea Party was right and the Democrats along with the GOP Gentry were wrong.

CBS:

Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's says it has downgraded the United States' credit rating for the first time in the history of the ratings.

The credit rating agency says that it is cutting the country's top AAA rating by one notch to AA-plus. The credit agency said late Friday that it is making the move because the deficit reduction plan passed by Congress on Tuesday did not go far enough to stabilize the country's debt situation.

Of course, the Obama Administration claims that S&P 's rating has "deep and fundamental flaws" because S&P doesn't understand credit.

This comes on the heels of the debt ceiling debate in which the left argued that US debt would be downgraded if the ceiling was not raised and that attempts to address the fundamental problem of overspending by "holding the debt ceiling hostage" would result in a downgrading of US debt. The left was wrong and the GOP Gentry was too soft.

This is yet another rebuke for the Obama Administration the left and the GOP Gentry and is a sad sad day for the nation.

Update:

Legal Insurrection:

Democrats own the downgrade. They fought Republicans and Tea Party supporters every step of they way, and forced a deal which was insufficient. They played class warfare and race politics against arguments that we needed to drastically change our spending habits.

This is Barack Obama and Harry Reid’s crowning achievement.

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Rockingham GOP Breakfast This Sat. Morning...

polifrog



Rockingham County NC Conservatives Meeting

August, 6 (Saturday Morning) 8:00 to eat; 9:00 to meet
Windy's Cafe and Catering Event Center

306 W. Main St.
Mayodan

Map

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Foundering on the Rocks of Keynesian Spending and History...

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IBD:

A day after purchasing managers reported an "unexpected" slump in manufacturing, another surprise report shows consumer spending falling for the first time in nearly two years. Double dip, anyone?

Despite the largest Keynesian spending splurge in the history of the planet, the economy continues to founder.

Yep, history repeats.

Perhaps, as Keynesians argue, what we needed for Keynes to have worked was more spending as in the case with WWII.

However, when being asked to believe that WWII represented a Keynesian success, we are being asked to believe that Keynesian solutions require us not only to raise national spending to well over 60% of GDP, but that we must also destroy the industrial capabilities of friend and foe alike, destroy their infrastructures, destroy their homes and cities, kill a large part of their workforce, have them kill a large portion of our workforce, and then have them pay for retooling our economy so that we may sell them goods, climb back from recession and give Keynes a pat on the back for a job well done.

Really? We have to do all this to make Keynesianism work?

Really?

If it takes rehashing WWII for Keynesianism to work, I want no part of it. And when Keynesians have only WWII to rely on as an example of a Keynesian success story, they have lost their argument.

69% Say It’s Likely Scientists Have Falsified Global Warming Research...

polifrog


Rasmussen:

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of American Adults shows that 69% say it’s at least somewhat likely that some scientists have falsified research data in order to support their own theories and beliefs, including 40% who say this is Very Likely. Twenty-two percent (22%) don’t think it’s likely some scientists have falsified global warming data, including just six percent (6%) say it’s Not At All Likely. Another 10% are undecided.

Those new Global Warming stories? Just "more cowbell".




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Obama's Keynesian Gamble...

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Krauthhammer:

He’s out of bullets. He’s out of arrows. He’s looking for stones on the seashore. … There’s nothing left in the cupboard. He did a huge Keynesian gamble, and it failed.

Keynes has never pulled the US from any recession. Never.

Keynesian Theory has lengthened 3 depressions. The first was the Great Depression, of course depressions aren't called depressions anymore. The current contraction in the US is referred to as the Great Recession while the other in Japan was called the 10 Year Recession but is now referred to as the more illuminating 20 Year Recession, as for 20 years Japan has seemed mired in a seemingly endless economic nightmare of stimulus spending from which the nation has been unable to awake.

What do the Great Depression, The Great Recession, and the 20 Year Recession have in common? The answer is that they have all employed the Keynesian gamble that is Keynesian Theory and failed.

Thieving from the future, while comforting today, yields a diminished tomorrow.

In the case of Japan that tomorrow came within a single economic contraction. Even now Japan continuous the feel good Keynesian stimulus that has resulted not in boom, but a full generation of economic stagnancy. In Japan we see firsthand the real loss that was transferred to the unborn when Japanese leaders chose Keynesian solutions.

Those unborn are now young adults enduring the fiscal abuse metered out by elders who gambled on Keynesian solutions and failed.




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Keynesian Solutions at Work...

polifrog




The largest and longest dip in employment is the present economy.

Remember, a double dip is likely scenario at this point, the rise in the middle of a double dip being debt funded Keynesian solutions giving the impression of an expansion when the reality is much different.

Questionable government debt funded positive GDP numbers aside, we have been in a depression since 2008.

Enjoy the ride.


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-- a Depression...

polifrog

When does a recession become a depression?

Are we required to wait for black and white photos of white collar citizens in soup lines, gaunt families searching for work while living out of their overladen roofless Model Ts, the more fortunate huddled around their spiky farm implements or resting amid dust on the porch?

That won't come. Many of those photos that so define the depression are simply representative of the era, depression or not.

However, society's mental template of what a depression is, is changing; it's being modernized. Until that metamorphosis occurs or we have a conservative president immune from "unexpected" economic numbers what we are currently living through will not be called what it is, a depression.

::::

Some spooky charts via The Atlantic:





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TropherTV

My father always told me growing up that no matter what happened, I could always come home. When I was 15, I found out why. When he was a young adult, living on his own, he hit rough times - working only a few days a month at best, putting his entire paycheck towards debts and rent - barely scrapping by on venicen. one day, he heard a knock at the door, where he found his father, my grandfather, waiting for him. He said, "Grab your things, son, I've come to bring you home."

Commented in reference to Solsbury Hill.

My grandfather rode the rails as a teenager during the Great Depression; he had no home to retreat to in which he would not have been a burden. His father did not come for him. After he had grown and his own children were leaving home my grandfather made it clear to my father that he would always have a home to return to.

My father made the same clear to me.

Depressionary scars run through the depth of generations.









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Judge Napolitano Questions the Constitutionality of Debt Ceiling Super Congres...

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Gallows Humor from the Smile File...

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Budget Busting Baseline Budgeting ...

polifrog



Baseline budgeting was consummated with passage the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 in the immediate wake of the resignation of Nixon and assumes a fixed growth in the federal budget below which even budgetary growth is considered a "cut".

How does it work?

Lets say the current budget is $10 and under baseline budgeting next year's budget is assumed to be $15. But after a flurry of activity impossibly deep cuts are made in the next year's budget that brings it down from $15 to $14. Voila, budget cuts that result in an increase in the budget from $10 to $14.

Lets look at a chart of how often the debt limit has been raised since 1940:




Baseline budgeting seems to have been a mistake.

Rush:











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Rep. Brad Miller (NC-13) and His Buy Today - Pay Tomorrow Economy...

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Bloomberg:

Representative Brad Miller, a North Carolina Democrat, said the immediate spending cuts will contract the economy. The measure “is going to take money out of the economy, it is going to take money out of people’s pockets,” he said.

Of course, cuts in government which result in "taking money out of the economy" should be offset by cuts in taxes which would put that money back into the economy.

We are often asked to "sacrifice" to help pull our nation from the recession. Why can't government sacrifice? Why not cut government and return those savings to the citizenry in the form of tax cuts?

Lets face it. Government growth has afforded us a pool of revenue from which to draw from ... government itself.




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The Joe Biden and Bob Becker "Tea-terrorist" Meme an Indication of Stolkholm Syndrome...

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Vice President Joe Biden likens the Tea Party to terrorists and Bob Beckel on The Five derisively labels the Tea Party "Tea Terrorists".



They are not alone.

The idea that the economy was "held hostage" by "tea terrorists" is based on the statist's double assumption that our nation is not being held hostage to the restraints of debt and that our economy is driven by DC policy.

Freeing ourselves from buy-now-pay-later governance requires recognizing that both of those assumptions are fundamentally wrong, that it is the private sector that drives economic growth while policy hinders that growth and that those who support buying nice things via government with the intent to pay later are the real terrorists who hold the nation hostage with the debt they produce.

Consider the Volker approach of raising interests rates in the early 80's in a successful battle against stagflation. If such an approach were needed today we would not be able to afford it, as the cost of carrying our debt would become too high.

Just as labeling the SWAT team that dispatches with hostage takers as hostage takers is a symptom of Stolkholm syndrome for the abducted, so is labeling the Tea Party hostage takers for attempting to dispatch the nation of debt an indication of Joe Biden's and Bob Beckel's mental illness.

Their attachment to debt is a weakness.

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