I Love the Free Market

In the Better Mousetrap department today we have something to help you keep your valuables from being stolen by the TSA.

It’s a shame it even has to exist, but I hope it’s frustrated a few sticky-fingered whiteshirts.

The Bow

The whole row over The Messiah’s bow in Saudi Arabia is absurd.  Some critics look like they have ODS. Where were the Washington Times’ cries when George W. Bush committed the exact same “shocking display of fealty” to the exact same foreign potentate? In fact, there’s a lot of precedent for bowing presidents.  The bow just looked like a bumbling amateur trying to be polite. Why He was  more polite to some royalty than to other is a fair question, but get a grip, people.

Having said that, I’m getting a real kick out of the Clintonesque response from the White House.

“It wasn’t a bow. He grasped his hand with two hands, and he’s taller than King Abdullah,” said an Obama aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Clinton had the habit of lying even when the truth wouldn’t hurt him, like denying that he stopped for a cheeseburger when out jogging. The right response should have been, “Yeah, so what? I’m the president of the United States, and if I want a cheeseburger I’ll enjoy one.” Same situation here. The One could just say, “Hey, many presidents before me have made diplomatic bows. So what?”

But He would have to have a clue to do that, I guess.

As for me, I’d certainly give props to any president who refused to bow to anybody. But there’s a lot to criticize Him about without getting deranged.

Arguing with Barney Frank

Is like wrestling a greased octopus.

I think I’d rather wrestle the octopus.

Other Countries Love Us Now

As promised, now that The Messiah reigns, America and He are both respected around the globe. Especially in Turkey.

Nancy Pelosi Goes to Church

One Saturday afternoon, in Washington, D.C., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s aide visited the Bishop of St. Matthew’s Cathedral.

He informed the Bishop that Pelosi would be attending the next day’s mass, and asked if the Bishop would kindly point out Pelosi to the congregation and say a few words that would include calling Pelosi a saint.

The Bishop scoffed. “No. I don’t really like the woman, and there are issues of conflict with the Catholic Church over certain of Pelosi’s views.” The aide countered, “Look. I’ll write a check here and now for a donation of $100,000 to your Archdiocese if you’ll just tell the congregation you see Pelosi as a saint.”

The Bishop mulled it over and replied, “Well, the church can use the money. You have my word.”

Sure enough, Pelosi appeared for the Sunday mass and seated herself prominently along the main aisle.

During the sermon, as promised, the Bishop pointed out that House Speaker Pelosi was present.

The Bishop went on to explain to the congregation, “While Speaker Pelosi’s presence is doubtless an honor to some, she is far from being my favorite person. Some of her views are contrary to those of the church, and she tends to flip-flop on many other views. Nancy Pelosi is a petty, self-absorbed hypocrite, a thumb sucker, and a nit-wit.

“She has a reputation for shirking her Representative obligations both in Washington, and in California. She simply is not to be trusted.”

“Nancy Pelosi is a serial liar, a cheat, and a thief.”

“In sum, Nancy Pelosi is the worst example of a Catholic I have ever personally witnessed.”

“But,” he added, “when compared to Harry Reid, Pelosi is a saint.”

Updated and bumped:

But wait! There’s more!

REID, PELOSI AND THE DYING PRIEST

The old priest lay dying in the hospital. For years he had faithfully served the people of the nation’s capital. He motioned for his nurse to come near.

“Yes, Father?” said the nurse. “I would really like to see Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi before I die”, whispered the priest. “I’ll see what I can do, Father” replied the nurse.

The nurse sent the request to them and waited for a response. Soon the word arrived. Harry and Nancy would be delighted to visit the priest. As they went to the hospital, Harry commented to Nancy “I don’t know why he wants to see us, but it will certainly help our images.” Nancy couldn’t help but agree.

When they arrived at the priest’s room, the priest took Nancy’s hand in his right hand and Harry’s hand in his left. There was silence and a look of serenity on the old priest’s face.

Finally Nancy spoke. “Father, of all the people you could have chosen, why did you choose us to be with you as you near the end?”

The old priest slowly replied, “I have always tried to pattern my life after my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

The old priest continued…

“He died between two lying thieves. I would like to do the same.”

Too Stupid for Arby’s Strikes Again

Unfrickinbelievable.

This guy was smart not to answer the TSA goons’ questions. Every one of those knuckle draggers should be fired, if not charged.

Like that’s gonna happen.

I Can’t Keep Up

I’m having a devil of a time separating joke from reality when it comes to this misadministration.

I thought the story about The Annointed One giving an iPod as a gift to Her Royal Highness was an April Fools joke. Surely after bungling his gifts to the PM so badly He wouldn’t do something as – tacky – as this.

Not only did he do it, some folks wonder if it was even legal.

Update:

Is it time to dust off the old generic Dan Quayle jokes?

Open-mindedness

A long-time Buttle’s World reader left a link to this video in the comments of a previous article. He thought I might enjoy it.

He was right.

Way to inspire the troops, Mayor

The Honeymoon is Officially Over

When even SNL can see the abuse of power, the tide has changed. As seems typical for SNL since, oh, Dan Aykroyd left, the sketch goes on well past the point of being funny. But check it out.

Hey, at least they loved The One in Turkey.

Reserved to Fight

This looks like it could be good, in spite of the gawshawful Flash-infested web site. Hint: Before you try to watch the trailer find the music player and make it stop or you’ll get an audio muddle.

The Question that Flummoxed the Great Orator

In The Guardian, no less, signs that they see the Emperor as underdressed.

We were seeing the same mismatch between the regulatory regimes that were in place and er … pause [I’VE LOST MY TRAIN OF THOUGHT AGAIN] … the highly integrated, er, global capital markets that have emerged … pause [I’M REALLY WINGING IT NOW]. So at this point, I’m less interested in … pause [YOU] … identifying blame than fixing the problem. I think we’ve taken some very aggressive steps in the United States to do so, not just responding to the immediate crisis, ensuring banks are adequately capitalised, er, dealing with the enormous, er … pause [WHY DIDN’T I QUIT WHILE I WAS AHEAD?] …

Mark Steyn theorizes on the motive behind this new clarity.

It makes an instructive contrast with the hopeychangey sob-sisters of the US media, and one that may not be unrelated to the latter’s impending rendezvous with destiny.

JournoList Chat

As only Iowahawk could bring you.

(Warning: Very funny, but they are potty-mouthed liberals.)

I sure feel like I’m being forked

Barack Obama, Suuuuper Geeeenius

The Power of Music

Let the pros show you how it’s done.

The Periodic Table of Videos

Chemistry has never been so fun.

Try Gallium (Ga) to get started.

When Is Green Good?

When it’s black.

“Our current operating costs are two cents per square foot compared to a traditional facility of 20 cents per square foot,” said Donovan, in mid-February.

I think that used to be called “efficiency” or “cost effectiveness”. Either way, saving green is where it’s at.

CARB: We’re Not Tyrants

“We wouldn’t do something so silly as to ban black paint,” says the friendly California Air Resources Board. Of course not. That would be tyrannical. All those dittoheads can just relax.

The California Air Resources Board said Friday that it has no plans “at this time” to regulate car paint as part of a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — and never intended to outlaw black cars in the first place.

“We are by no means interested in banning or restricting car colors,” CARB spokesman Stanley Young said.

There, don’t we all feel better?

Wait… What’s this?

CARB ultimately decided to ditch the paint scheme and move ahead with just the reflective glass mandate (which is not window tinting, by the way; it’s a reflective clear coat).

So CARB still thinks they can mandate a technology just because they like it. This is a proper function of government? The whole “cool cars” project is tyranny. If there are coatings or paints or goat-sacrifices which will make vehicles more efficient let the market find them. CARB is being just as tyrannical with this as banning black paint would have been, only tyrannical in a stealthier way.

I cannot undertake to lay my finger…

Anybody from the press corps reading this blog? Didn’t think so. But if someone were, I’d like to submit a question to be asked at The One’s next press conference:

Exactly where in the constitution are you authorized to fire anybody in the private sector? Or, for that matter, to tell any private citizen what to do?

New York Times Spiked Obama Donor Story

Well. You could knock me over with a feather.

A lawyer involved with legal action against Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) told a House Judiciary subcommittee on March 19 The New York Times had killed a story in October that would have shown a close link between ACORN, Project Vote and the Obama campaign because it would have been a “a game changer.”

and

“If this is true, it would not surprise me at all. The New York Times is a liberal newspaper. It is dedicated to furthering the Democratic Party,” said Dr. Paul Kengor, professor of Political Science at Grove City College. “People think The New York Times is an objective news source and it is not. It would not surprise me that if they had a news story that would have swayed the election into McCain’s favor they would not have used it.”

Ain’t It Grand to Have Experts?

‘Cause without them there experts we rubes wouldn’t know fancy stuff like this.

But presidential experts from the right and left who spoke with The Hill said that if gaffes keep adding up, Obama may be damaged by incidents ranging from a foot in the mouth to a protocol faux pas.

“Gaffes do shape the public perception of the president because the mistakes that one makes reveal how you think and what you’re doing,” said Darrell M. West, vice president and director of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. “Ultimately, that can add up to an unfavorable public profile.”

Gee, Cletus. Ya think?

What on Earth is YouTube Up To Now?

They’ve suspended the account of the James Randi Educational Foundation. So apparently YouTube is quite comfortable hosting Jihadi filth, but one of the leading lights of rationalism is not permitted.

Morons.

To give them a piece of your mind go here.

• Scroll to the very bottom and click on “new issue”
• Select “suspended account” from the options and express your opinion.

If you’d like to mirror the video a copy is here. That’s what I did: Downloaded it, then uploaded it to my YouTube account and then embedded it above.

Perhaps because he did not understand the cow’s ways

TS Eliot rejected Animal Farm for publication. He certainly missed the point.

Eliot wrote: “After all, your pigs are far more intelligent than the other animals, and therefore the best qualified to run the farm – in fact there couldn’t have been an Animal Farm at all without them: so that what was needed (someone might argue) was not more communism but more public-spirited pigs.”

Crime and Punishment

As Mark Hemmingway puts it, “being stupid on camera is a crime that Christopher Hitchens will prosecute to the fullest extent.”

Don’t watch unless you can handle a battle of wits against an unarmed man.

President Doofus

So, apparently, The One is firing off letters to Italy without knowing who’s in charge over there.

He also sent a letter to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano (a member of the now defunct Communist Party), expressing confidence that the United States and Italy would work together “to overcome the current global political and economic hardships and build a safer world.”  The only problem with the letter was that the Italian president does not make policy; that power resides with the prime minister and his cabinet.  Perhaps the White House czars have issued an ukaz stipulating that the American president writes only to his peers, and thus instead of addressing himself to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, President Obama wrote to a man who holds an almost entirely ceremonial position.

Luckily for The Messiah His name isn’t Bush or the press would never let him live this down.

Don’t read the rest of the article or you’ll just see how Barry is fumbling Iran.

De-Baptism?

Remember those guys who put the wrong message on the busses in England? They, and others like them, are trying to get de-baptised from their churches.

I’m having a very hard time following the logic here. If the state of being baptised or not has meaning then that implies that the religion is valid. If the religion is a fantasy whether or not one is baptised carries no weight.

I suppose it means that just because someone has moved beyond faith doesn’t mean they’ve learned to think, or have reflected at all upon life.

I suggest these “rationalists” just move on and get a life.

We’re in the best of hands

Good thing nobody in the Messiah Administration would do something as provocatively stupid as tell a crazy enemy that they are free to flout international law and launch a missile. Because that, you know, would be insane.

Almost as insane as the president of the United States telling the CEO of a major corporation to resign. That would take weapons-grade hubris.

Homeless with a Cell Phone

Apparently some conservatives are using this to bash Michelle Obama.

I say “apparently” because the only references that showed up in a quick web search were left-wing sites complaining about “conservatives criticizing Michelle”. But there may be some.

Fooey. This is a perfectly appropriate sort of thing for a First Lady to be doing, and you won’t catch me complaining about anybody making mushroom risotto. That’s food of the gods as far as I’m concerned.

As was cleverly pointed out in the L.A. Times a “homeless” person probably isn’t going to have a mobile phone (why do people still call them cell phones when cell phones are all but extinct?) because you sort of need a billing address.

What this picture tells me is that a) there are probably Michelle Obama sycophants willing to pretend to be “poor and homeless” just for some risotto (and I can’t say I entirely blame them) and that b) there really is no such thing as poverty in this country.

I don’t think the soup lines of the previous depression served mushroom risotto.

The Messiah’s Shill Theatre

That on-line “town hall” (talk about a tortured metaphor) was, I’m shocked – shocked – to say, stacked with shills.

But while the online question portion of the White House town hall was open to any member of the public with an Internet connection, the five fully identified questioners called on randomly by the president in the East Room were anything but a diverse lot. They included: a member of the pro-Obama Service Employees International Union, a member of the Democratic National Committee who campaigned for Obama among Hispanics during the primary; a former Democratic candidate for Virginia state delegate who endorsed Obama last fall in an op-ed in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star; and a Virginia businessman who was a donor to Obama’s campaign in 2008.

The WP claims this was taking a page from the “Bush playbook”. That’s news to me. Anybody remember when Bush did something like this?