This Election Just Keeps Getting Weirder

A dance off. Why not?

Obama’s Funny Money

Well, a former “community organizer” involved in organizing voter fraud certainly wouldn’t lose any sleep over donations from Della Ware of Far Far Away, DE. Later on he can just blame it on a software glitch. Hard to believe that John Galt is giving him money, though.

Update:

Perhaps they’ve been shamed into reinstating security checks. Meanwhile, an emailer in the credit card business writes:

So let’s lay out a hypothetical situation. You’re in a business that takes payments. You expect some level of outright credit card fraud. Those transactions will be charged back, and you will owe fees on them, unless you use AVS [Address Verification Service] to prevent them. You also have a substantial number of customers who for whatever reason wish to remain anonymous. Your anonymous customers won’t do business with you if you use AVS, but you’re confident that this set of customers will not dispute their charges. The calculus is simple. If the revenues you expect from anonymous customers exceeds the fees you expect to pay from cardholder disputes leading to chargebacks, then the smart business decision is to turn off AVS.

Now if it’s against the law for customers to do business with you anonymously, then facilitating anonymous transactions goes beyond just being a business decision. But if the consequences of looking the other way are no more than having to refund the money several months down the road, then maybe you’re happy to take the money as an interest free loan in the meantime.

Another Update:

Stop testing it! You’re just giving more money to the corrupt Chicago politician!

Changing World Views with Dr. Helen

We could use more women like her.

Dr. Helen Smith: Most of the complaints and emails I get from men have to do with their personal relationships with women. They are on the fence about getting married, getting too involved with women and are very concerned about the misandry that is rampant in our culture. They are afraid they will lose their livelihoods, their kids and their relationship if their marriage does not work out and the courts and society will be against them.

I think men’s biggest problem is not being willing to fight back against a female for any reason. It is in-bred through evolution and culture that men take whatever is dished out by a female and remain silent or give in. Just watch any show or take a look at the marriages around you to see that men acquiesce in relationships time and time again and are trained in our society to do so.

BC: It seems that males readily accept their own diminishment. Is this a product of chivalry?

Dr. Helen Smith: My colleague and friend, Richard Driscoll, has a new book out entitled, You Still Don’t Understand, in which he spends two chapters discussing chivalry. He states that it has been found that women berate men their husbands almost twice as often as men berate their wives. “Chivalrous standards,” he explains, “accept women who complain about being mistreated and oppressed, but it is extraordinarily foolish for a man to complain as he would reveal himself a loser and a weakling and would garner contempt or pity but no support.”

BC: Does chivalry serve any purpose anymore? Can the concept and practice of chivalry co-exist with the notion of equality?

Dr. Helen Smith: Chivalry initially was about survival of the species, in some sense. Men who protected women were more likely to mate with them, or were given rewards from the tribe for doing so whereas men who were cowards or scumbags were ostracized. Chivalry, according to Driscoll, seemed to have functioned over hundreds of thousands of years to keep families together, obligating men to support their wives and children and punishing men who failed to do so.

However, families have changed. Now chivalry acts to drive families apart. Family courts try to punish men for not supporting the woman and deny that fathers are important in order to protect mothers. The result is more fighting in the family and driving the man out of the lives of his kids. Boys are more likely to become delinquent, angry and emotionally disturbed and girls are more likely to be promiscuous and have emotional issues without their father present. With equality, we must reduce our tendency to side with women to the detriment of men, it is unfair, sexist, and results in tearing families apart.

Ayers on Ayers

Zombie gets the goods. And he uses Ayers’ own writing to prove that what the Obama campaign and the MSM (which is really the same thing) say about Ayers is a lie.

Among the highlights:

• Ayers was not protesting against the Vietnam War. He was agitating for a communist victory. In other words, he wanted us to lose.
• Even though he was not prosecuted, due to a technicality, Ayers was guilty of setting bombs.
• Ayers is just as politically radical now as he was back then.

My favorite detail: This revolutionary book which aims to tear down and destroy the United States of America – has a copyright notice.

Read the whole thing. And there’s more to come tomorrow.

Update:

He actually republished his book dedicated to Sirhan Sirhan – in 2006.

Obama and Odinga

I’ve also blogged about this before. If you think that Obama’s close association with an unrepentant domestic terrorist is untroubling, then you will probably also dismiss his ties to a violent, socialist “cousin” in Kenya.

Like other Obama connections — Ayers, Dohrn, Wright, and Mike Klonsky (about whom I have an article today) — Odinga is a socialist.  He was educated by Soviets in East Germany, he named his oldest son after Fidel Castro, and his father was the leader of Kenya’s Socialist opposition.

We Are All Joe

I blogged about this before. Nice to see the McCain camp finally have a go at it.

Puncturing the Acupuncture Myth

Harriet Hall takes out a needle and skewers a phony treatment.

To start with, this ancient Chinese treatment is not so ancient and may not even be Chinese! From studying the earliest documents, Chinese scholar Paul Unschuld suspects the idea may have originated with the Greek Hippocrates of Cos and later spread to China. There’s certainly no evidence that it’s 3000 years old. The earliest Chinese medical texts, from the 3rd century BC, don’t mention it. The earliest reference to “needling” is from 90 BC, but it refers to bloodletting and lancing abscesses with large needles or lancets. There is nothing in those documents to suggest anything like today’s acupuncture. We have the archaeological evidence of needles from that era – they are large; the technology for manufacturing thin steel needles appropriate for acupuncture didn’t exist until 400 years ago.

Read the whole thing. It’s a lot newer than 400 years.

Machosauce Rides Again

More clarity than in any dozen ten-minute questions from Joe Biden.

Speaking of Federal Agencies with No Constitutional Reason to Exist

The boys and girls at BATFE have added intellectual property theft to their list of accomplishments. I’m not going to bother writing to Bush, though. Have you ever seen a lamer duck?

Meanwhile, in the Climate

Global warming has cooled down.

The Case Against Obama

If you still need convincing, take a look at the comprehensive case against Obama assembled over at Hot Air.

If you call yourself an AA (African American) check this out.

My warning to all Americans both white and black (those AA’s who can overcome the vote black impulse) is that in Barack Obama, you are not getting Bill Cosby, you are getting a very well disguised version of Louis Farrakhan.

Perhaps you prefer bullet points.

8 YEARS OF AN OBAMA-PELOSI-ACORN ADMINISTRATION WOULD GIVE AMERICA:

• 8 YEARS OF SPREAD-THE-WEALTH SOCIALISM,
• 8 YEARS OF CHICAGO-STYLE CORRUPTION, &
• 8 YEARS OF UNITED NATIONS-STYLE FOREIGN POLICY

And if you like CW music, hit play on this:

I hope I’ve covered all the bases.

Update:

Of course I haven’t. There is so much we know about what’s not known about Obama that it’s crazy he’s this close to the presidency.

California Propositions

Once again, Tom McClintock is channeling me and making exactly the recommendations I would. Well, at least I think I’ll go along with him on Prop 6. His reasoning on each seems solid. Here he is, with my two cents in italics:

Prop. 1A High Speed Rail Bond.  NO: This is the most outrageously expensive boondoggle in California’s long history of outrageously expensive boondoggles.  The ultimate cost of this project could end up exceeding $90 billion – or $10,000 per family – all for a train that goes from Los Angeles to San Francisco in two hours longer than it takes to fly.  It’s brought to you by the same folks who botched Boston’s “Big Dig.”  (I’m one of the official opponents of this measure.)

Prop. 2 Farm Animals.  NO: Sorry, but farm animals are food, not friends.  Plan on somewhat happier cows and much higher grocery bills if this one passes.

Prop. 3 Hospital Bond. NO: Here’s a rather cynical measure that uses children as a front in order to lavish taxpayer funds on private hospital corporations.

Prop. 4 Parental Notification.  YES: Parents must give written consent before their teenage daughters use a tanning booth or get their ears pierced.  This measure simply requires them to be notified if their daughter is having an abortion.

Prop.5 Non-violent drug offenses.  NO: The fatal flaw in this otherwise decent measure would allow criminals to use their drug offense for leniency for other non-drug-related crimes.

And note that George Soros is paying for the ads.

Prop. 6 Police and Law Enforcement Funding. YES: This is a tough call.  My favorite provision is prohibiting the release on bail of illegal aliens charged with violent crimes.  Its principal purpose is to lock up an increasing portion of the state budget for local law enforcement.  Law enforcement should be government’s top priority, but I don’t like auto-pilot spending or using state resources for local programs.  I also don’t like its weakening of the hearsay rule.  On balance I think it does more good than harm, but it’s a very mixed bag.

My usual default position is “when in doubt, vote No on everything.” I worry about the mixed bag.

Prop.7 Renewable Energy Subsidies.  NO: This will send electricity prices through the roof.  It requires the most expensive energy generation to comprise 20 percent of our electricity needs.  Government should get out of the way and let simple economics determine the mix of energy generation in this state.

Any time they want you to vote for something the market is supposed to do, vote No!

Prop. 8 Defense of Marriage Act. YES: Marriage is a unique institution in which a man and a woman summon a child into the world – creating a unique tapestry of responsibilities.  Our marriage laws are designed to support those responsibilities and are simply inapplicable to any other kind of relationship.  Lincoln asked, “If you call a tail a leg, how many legs has a dog?  The answer is four.  Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one.”  And calling a homosexual partnership a marriage doesn’t make it one.

The family is the basic unit of society. Marriage is something we’ve evolved with, just as much as any other part of society. It really is the bedrock of civilization. Don’t mess with it. And don’t open the door to dangerous substitutes like polygamy.

Prop. 9 Parole Reform. YES: This requires the victim to be considered when a suspect’s bail is being set or a criminal’s parole is being determined.  About bloody time.

Prop 10 Fuel Subsidies.  NO: This $5 billion bond will cost taxpayers $10 billion with interest to subsidize “alternative fuel vehicles” and “renewable energy.”  I’m all for alternative fuel vehicles and renewable energy as long as the consumers who want them pay for them.  But don’t reach into my pocket to pay for somebody else’s choice.

Again – this is the market’s job. Anything that can’t survive without subsidies should be strangled. This is nothing but socialism or, as it’s now called, “spreading the wealth around.”

Prop 11 Redistricting.  YES: This should be the all-time no brainer: voters should choose their politicians and not the other way around.  This measure takes redistricting out of the hands of the legislature, removing an obvious conflict of interest.

Oh, please let this pass.

Prop 12 Veterans Bond Act.  YES: This is a self-liquidating bond (meaning taxpayers aren’t on the hook) to assist veterans with home purchases.  The state has done this for many years and it has never cost taxpayers a dime.  I co-authored this one.

Update:

For some reason lots of folks are finding their way here after the election. I welcome you all and suggest you may want to see what silver linings I found in the results.

John Bolton vs. Alan Colmes

Sean Hannity should feel guilty for hiring that dummy whose job, apparently, is to make everyone else on the program look smart by comparison. What an unappealing oaf he is.

Anyway, enjoy a good spoonfull of smart from John Bolton on Joe Biden, the gift who keeps on giving.

I also love Palin’s line:

But I guess the looming crisis that most worries the Obama campaign right now is Joe Biden’s next speaking engagement.  Let’s call that crisis scenario number five.

Update:

“The answer is quite clear … Biden is a plant of the McCain campaign.”

–Charles Krauthammer

The Ayers Ad that McCain Won’t Make

Kos Kids Stay Classy

I won’t link to them, so I’ll link to this.

This list contains information about those who are big donors to the Yes on 8 campaign—donors to the tune of at least $1,000 dollars. And, as you can see, there are a lot of them.  It also indicates if they’re Mormon or not.

If you’re interested in defeating the religious right and preserving marriage equality, here’s how you can help:

Find us some ammo.

Now, it’s not like all Mormons are as pure as the driven snow (Harry Reid is one, remember) so they may indeed dig up something. On the other hand the Kos Kids may find it’s not as target-rich an environment as they think.

Meanwhile, the anti-marriage forces have cranked up their spending. The Yes on 8 group has a very good ad here on a page where you can donate.

Hey, Colin!

You think Obama is “transformational”? You don’t know the half of it.

You must, must, read Roger Kimball.

I agree with Gen. Powell that Obama would be a “transformational figure.” But what sort of transformation are we talking about? The United States is the richest, freest, most powerful nation in history. What would it look like after Obama, abetted by a Pelosi-Reid Congress, got done with their transformation?

Yes, that’s right, Virginia, it would be poorer, markedly less free, and less powerful.

In my moments of despair I think this could be the end of the great American experiment. But Kimball is right: The moment for despair is after Obama wins. Until then we have to do everything we can to make sure he loses.

Glibness vs. Intelligence

Good point.

The meme that has arisen that Sarah Palin isn’t smart enough to be Vice-President (and potentially President) strikes me as quite implausible. Focusing on the big picture: she has been an extraordinarily successful governor with substantial policy accomplishments in a short time, she has an 85% approval rating, and she knocked off an incumbent and former governor to be elected. And, as I’ve previously discussed, based on my experience working with and in government, being governor of a state is an extremely difficult job, much more difficult than being a Senator (for instance). Sure there are some things that people are picking at, such as the trooper story or what really happened with the Bridge to Nowhere–but none of those things raise any doubt about her intellect or ability. With respect to the issues to which she has set herself to mastering and implementing, and the most important issues for Alaska, by all accounts she has an extremely strong understanding and mastery of the issues. It is simply not plausible to believe that she is dumb any more than it was credible that Ronald Reagan was dumb back when the establishment said the same thing about him.

The ACORN Doesn’t Fall Far from the Tree

Especially since that tree has no right branches.

More than this, we now have substantial evidence that Obama himself was in fact a New Party member. We even have a photograph of Obama appearing with other successful New Party candidates. Clearly, then, it is more than fair to identify Obama with the hard-left stance of the New Party and its ACORN backers. In her recent study of ACORN and the Gamaliel Foundation, the two groups of community organizers to which Obama was closest, Heidi Swarts describes their core ideology as “redistributionist.” Joe the Plumber take note. Whether formally socialist or not, Obama ties with ACORN and its New Party political arm show that spreading your wealth around has long been his ultimate goal.

All this means that Barack Obama is far from the post-partisan, post-ideological pragmatist he pretends to be. On the contrary, Obama’s ideological home is substantially to the left of the Democratic-party mainstream, so far to the left that he has one foot planted outside the party itself. And since the New Party Chicago was essentially an electoral arm of ACORN, Obama’s New Party tie, is yet another example of his deep links to the far-left militant organizers of that group. Obama’s account of his limited ties to ACORN in the third debate was clearly not truthful. Likewise, his earlier denials of ties to ACORN have fallen apart.

At what point will the press force Obama to own up to the full extent of his ties to ACORN? At what point will the press demand a full accounting of Obama’s ties to the New Party? At what point will the depth of Obama’s redistributionist economic stance be acknowledged? Barack Obama is hiding the truth about his political past, and the press is playing along.

A Supporter of “Gay Marriage”

says that the California Supreme Court decision was “an unfortunate exercise in judicial imperialism.”

First, the California court’s 121-page opinion was dishonest. This was most evident in its ritual denial of the fact that it was usurping legislative power: “Our task … is not to decide whether we believe, as a matter of policy, that the officially recognized relationship of a same-sex couple should be designated a marriage rather than a domestic partnership … but instead only to determine whether the difference in the official names of the relationships violates the California Constitution [emphasis in original].”

This was a deeply disingenuous dodge, if not a bald-faced lie, to conceal from gullible voters the fact that the decision was a raw exercise in judicial policy-making with no connection to the words or intent of the state constitution. It is inconceivable that anyone but a supporter of gay marriage “as a matter of policy” could have found in vague constitutional phrases such as “equal protection” a right to judicial invalidation of the marriage laws of every state and nation in the history of civilization.

Latest Attack on Obama

comes from Biden.

“I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate,” Biden said, including the Middle East and Russia as possibilities, “and he’s gonna need help. And the kind of help he’s gonna need is, he’s gonna need you – not financially to help him – we’re gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right.”

Need any more reason not to vote for Obama?

Joe vs. the Hair Plugger

Mark Steyn has set up his own Fact Check service.

Anyway, our Fact Check Unit ran the numbers on the Obama tax-cut plan and the number is correct: “95.” It’s the words “per cent” immediately following that are wrong: that’s a typing error accidentally left in from the first draft. It should read: Under the Obama plan, 95 of the American people will get a tax cut.

Yet Another Pesky Transitional Fossil

Get the so-called Discovery Institute on the phone. They have to move the goalposts again.

Dr. Shubin said Tiktaalik was “still on the fish end of things, but it neatly fills a morphological gap and helps to resolve the relative timing of this complex transition.”

For example, fish have no neck but “we see a mobile neck developing for the first time in Tiktaalik,” Dr. Shubin said.

“When feeding, fish orient themselves by swimming, which is fine in deep water, but not for an animal whose body is relatively fixed, as on the bottom of shallow water or on land,” he added. “Then a flexible neck is important.”

Trying Hard to Look Like Stupid Socialist Jerks

And succeeding!

I Am Joe

One of my readers suggested a version of the “I am Spartacus” moment. Seems that great minds think alike.

Orson Scott Card Tilts at Windmills

Does he really think this will prick the conscience of any reporters or editors?

Isn’t there a story here?  Doesn’t journalism require that you who produce our daily paper tell the truth about who brought us to a position where the only way to keep confidence in our economy was a $700 billion bailout?  Aren’t you supposed to follow the money and see which politicians were benefiting personally from the deregulation of mortgage lending?

Card writes fantasy. Perhaps in his world reporters and editors have a conscience to prick.

Sarah on SNL

I agree with Charles that SNL hasn’t been funny in so long it shouldn’t matter, but I think Sarah turned the tables on them. In their narrow, New-York liberal way they think they’re mocking her. But they end up on the business end of her charm offensive.

And kudos to Alec Baldwin for playing along – to the point that he’s the one who comes off shallow.

Update:

Apparently Lorne Michaels agrees with me.

I think Palin will continue to be underestimated for a while. I watched the way she connected with people, and she’s powerful. Her politics aren’t my politics. But you can see that she’s a very powerful, very disciplined, incredibly gracious woman. This was her first time out and she’s had a huge impact. People connect to her.

Are we all clear now?

I guess it’s this kind of transformational thinking that led Colin Powell to make his treachery complete. Notice that he waited, like a coward, until now to do it instead of back when he could have made a difference.

Yes, Barry. A plumber.

Obama’s gargantuan snobbery on full display.

Update:

The plumber seems to be doing a better job than McCain.

Another Update:

Jim Treacher:

The whole “He’s not a licensed plumber!” non sequitur is really fantastic. So, if you happen to be standing in front of Obama when he publicly reveals his socialism, what does the media do? Demands to see your papers. That’s just delicious, is what that is.

One Last Update:
Context does matter.

CLARIFICATION: Over at Hot Air, they observe that this video is cut to take Obama’s words out of context. The full quote is “He’s trying to suggest that a plumber is the guy he’s fighting for.” Allahpundit notes, “They’re laughing at McCain for claiming to be a friend of the middle class, not at Wurzelbacher for being middle class” — which in context seems like a reasonable interpretation. So whatever issues you have with the Obama campaign and how they’re handling Joe the Plumber, this video is a bit unfair to Obama.
None of which takes away from Treacher’s point about demands to see papers.

Bad News for Kids in Texas

The liars at the “Discovery Institute” which, I remind you, has yet to discover a single thing, have planted some of their shills on the Texas State Board of Education. Why should you care? They chose Texas for a reason: Texas and California are the two biggest purchasers of text books. If you can get them to buy something, lots of other states have little choice but to follow along because their textbooks are just minor tweaks of the California and/or Texas editions.

So this really could be bad news for kids all over the country, not just Texas.

Read the fine print

Because there are always exceptions.