WUI (Writing under the influence)

I would probably argue with some points in this piece, but Rove is more right than he is wrong. Bush indeed got the most important things right. Today's strike in Pakistan proves that Obama knows it. His executive orders to "close" Gitmo and to "stop" torture are simply "red" meat for the Kool-Aid drinking worshipers.

Incidentally, if Israel killed 5 terrorists and another 13 innocents in the process, the whole world would criticize it and "youth" in France would burn another synagogue. On PBS's Lehrer, the "conservative" Brooks, not to mention the liberal Shields, decided not to include this action in their review of the first 3 days of Obamarule. How convenient!

I think I've found a perfect bumper sticker for the next 4 years.

Obama's speech was something between communist manifesto and Bush bashing. Some conservatives want to give him the benefit of a doubt or some more time and so did I. Until, unfortunately I heard what he had to say this morning.

If he believes what he said, he is a worse communist than I thought he was. If he meant what he said about Bush he is deranged. If he didn't but wanted to give something to his Kool-Aid drinking supporters on the Soros left, he is a small, petty man.

I'm starting Obama watch list. I've been hearing for the last 8 years that dissent is patriotic so as a huge patriot that I am, I will document anything he says or, God forbid, does that is, in my opinion, bad for this country.

I will just say that all those references to Bush's policies, especially those Obama will continue as far as war against Islamists is concerned, were not necessary. We can argue about the economy but just as FDR screwed up the economy that didn't need any rescue after Hoover's presidency, so will Obama and he will blame Bush and the media will help him.

Our economy doesn't need rescuing. It needs to be set free. But just as FDR knew that doing something would buy him votes, so will Obama try to divide us even further in losers and winners and pin ones against the others.

I only hope that the talk radio and Fox News will be able to counter the propaganda that FDR got away with and by 2010 the American people will reelect Republicans to just as they did in 1994 to keep Democrats honest and our country free and prosperous.

I often wonder why the bigger a city the more liberal it is. I knew liberalism was a mental disease but I know where it comes from.

There is no difference between public TV/radio in the US and elsewhere. They are subjects to political manipulation. However, they tend to be more liberal because the profit motif has been removed.

Stupid Polak watch:
"From Paris to Poland, tens of thousands of protesters called for an end to the Israeli offensive. In the Muslim world, thousands marched in Beirut and in Ankara, Turkey, and Amman, Jordan."

There are no many Muslims in Poland so I have to assume they were just stupid Polaks.

Via Powerline.

You don't like the way you are treated in another country? Don't go there!!!

As long as corporate taxes in one country are higher than somewhere else and the unionized jobs will pay unjustifiably too much, companies will be moving those jobs somewhere else. Of course, the elites in countries losing those jobs will not take it easy.

Polaks seem more intelligent than Americans: they will build nuclear plants. This is very similar to what happens in Gaza. Israelis know first hand what terror looks like, just as Poles have learned recently how Russians can terrorize Poland by withholding energy. So almost all Israelis support their government action to kill as many Islamists just as almost all Poles support their government to become energy-independent. And both countries, mind you, are full of peaceniks and greenies. But the common sense seems to be prevailing.

BTW, a company from Sweden (oh, horrors, socialists are more intelligent then Americans too) will build those nuclear plants in Poland.

Question of the day:

"During the 1930s, New Deal lawmakers doubled federal spending — and unemployment remained above 20 percent until World War II. More recently, Japan responded to a 1990 recession by passing 10 "stimulus" bills over 8 years (building the largest national debt in the industrialized world) — and their economy remained stagnant. Why do lawmakers believe the same failed approach will succeed for the U.S. today?"

Via Corner.

Thank you. Yes, Mr. President, I’d like to thank you for having kept my country safe for the past 7 years. Thank you for having been so resolute in your actions and for having ignored and resisted your detractors who did everything in their power to derail your presidency.



We had our differences, of course. Tax cuts were good but why spend more money on public education? You tried to rein in Freddie and Fannie but they still managed to wreck our economy. You tried to fix that Ponzi scheme called Social Security but it still will go bust in such a spectacular way that even Madoff will be jealous. And let’s not even talk about Medicare and illegal immigration.



But I’m still grateful that notwithstanding barely a Republican majority in the Congress for just a few years, despite almost treasonous media and the deranged left, you did as much as you did. Special thanks for Roberts and Alito.



And lastly, I thank you, Mr. President, for having proven wrong those who predicted you would have taken us to another war or declared martial law or at least removed all Os from the White House keyboards to prevent a peaceful transition. How stupid must they feel seeing how gracious you are in your last few minutes as one of great US presidents as surely the history will judge you.

Because of global warming last month I had to stop building the tree house because it was snowing too much and it was really too cold. So I'm making slow progress but I hope to have the roof ready by the end of the week because the global warming (made by men, mind you) will bring cold, rainy weather.

So this is what I have so far.

If you are my friend, family or you think you are one, be warned: if you think that what Israel is doing is anything but defending its people from the islamist fascism, I don't want to talk to you.

We can talk about how much money Obama can print before we become a banana republic, but there is absolutely no discussion that what Israel is doing now and what the crusades tried to accomplish a few centuries ago is anything but just and justifed.

That's it. End of story.

You think I'm unreasonable because I don't want to compromise? You just prove my point.

Whenever a liberal says something I wonder if he doesn't mean the opposite or if he's projecting. When Obama talks about $300B in tax cuts he really talks about taxing people more and redistributing wealth. Most of these tax "cuts" will go to people who don't pay taxes or to businesses that lose money. In today's speech he said that hard work and responsibility had to be again rewarded. That's Orwellian! The housing bubble was caused by rewarding the exact opposite.

In any case, Obama will not raise taxes to pay for his tax "cuts" at first but because those "cuts" will not revive the economy, somebody will eventually have to pay for them. Oabama's is a genius plan. He will say in 2010, just before the mid-term elections, that tax "cuts" don't work as he has demonstrated and it's finally time to do what Democrats do best: raise taxes on the rich. In fact, that's what he said today: it's time to through away old ideas. No, he wasn't talking about taxing and spending as one of those ideas.

Of course, taxes will not work either but with complacent media he and the Democrats in the Congress will probably convince enough people (just as it happened for many years during the Great Depression) that it's not Democrats' fault and that they still have a lot of ideas to implement. So maybe Republicans will not be able to regain power in 2010.

On the other hand, if old media finally die by 2010 as I and many others hope, Democrats may not be as lucky as they were during FDR's rule.

Whatever Obama does it shouldn't be any of what FDR did if he really wants to help this country as opposed to keep Democrats in power at all costs.

And there is some hope that wiser heads will prevail.

The best thing to do is of course NOTHING. No, the best thing to do would be cut taxes and spending. But in absence of those two, the next best is NOTHING. Yeah, just like the Seinfeld show.

Even though I despise many government programs I still participate in them since my money is used to support them in the first place. For example, when I decide to buy energy-efficient appliances I ask for all applicable tax credits. I'd prefer if such programs didn't exist since they only raise prices for everybody and because it doesn't seem right for one person to pay for somebody else's stuff.

But there was one program so outrageous that I refused to participate in it: $40 rebates for digital TV boxes.

Fortunately, it seems I won't be tempted to change my mind since the money for the rebates is gone.

But I can make this prediction: if it turns out that so called poor who have not applied for the rebate yet are in large numbers, our local government will take care of them; and the usual excuse will be used to do so: "it's for the children."

Or, the switch to digital planed in February may not even happen.

Stupid Polak watch:
I see these losers often in convenience stores. The most annoying are the scratch-its purchasers who take long minutes to decide how they will waste their money today. On the other hand, we need those morons because in some states, like Oregon, that's the only way they pay taxes.

In any case, this guy should have spent the last 20 years learning english and wasting his money on the lottery.

How ugly guys get beautiful women.

So democrats want to punish the rich with high taxes on them and no taxes on almost 50% of people; the results, as usual, are disastrous:

"Revenues are projected to decline by $167 billion in 2009, to just 16.9% of GDP, the lowest since 1959. Individual income taxes are to be down $86 billion (-7.5%), corporate revenues are down $79 billion (-26.6%) but social insurance taxes are actually up $15 billion (+1.6%). Taxes from realized capital gains are expected to drop by $55 billion, more than 40%. (NOTE: These major swings in revenues illustrate the results of a highly progressive income tax that creates a small tax base. JCT indicates that tax filers with AGI’s over $100,000 were 16.9% of taxpayers but paid 85.8% of all individual income taxes. Note that wage based social insurance taxes are projected to rise by 1.6% even though the unemployment rate is projected to hit 8%.)"

Via Corner.

Similar story from NY. Because taxes are very progressive and the rich will get fewer bonuses this year, the state is in bug trouble.

Tax the poor!!!

Many say Bush is a complete failure. But what was one thing Carter did right? It seems that even the houses his Habitat for Humanity builds are failing. As with anything Democrats touch: it's only matter of time.

I hope all useful idiots eventually get their asses handed to them like Chavez did to Joe Kennedy.

Not everybody working for Google (including its founders) is a socialist. But it shows that even liberals like money and some of them even understand where they come from. Just for themselves. Not for others.

This is very close to how I feel about Palestinians and other "victims." There are some exceptions. But in general, your life sucks because your rulers chose it for you and you are incapable of anything. It's not our fault. It's yours. There are others who were in the same situation and they overcame it. My old country is only one and still imperfect example. There are others:

"[...] Hong Kong, a barren piece of rock with zero natural resources, under foreign occupation, chock-full of refugees from the Mao tyranny. The people there weren't lounging in UNRWA camps or making suicide runs at the governor's mansion. They were trading, building, speculating, manufacturing, working — with the result that Hong Kong is now a glittering modern city filled with well-dressed, well-educated, well-fed people, proud of what they have accomplished together, and with a higher standard of living than Britain herself. If, following the Oslo accords — or for that matter, in the 20 years of Jordanian occupation — the Palestinians had taken that route, had set aside their fantasies of revenge and massacre, and concentrated on building up something worth having, I might have respect for them. As it is, I don't."

And this should be a quote of the day:

"The only halfway sympathetic thing I can find to say about the Palestinians is that UNRWA has surely been part of the problem. If you go to the UNRWA website, you will see how proud they are of having fed, clothed, sheltered, educated and cared for the Palestinian refugees of 1948... and their children... and their grandchildren. The number of people UNRWA cares for has gone from 600,000 in 1948 to nearly four million today. Now, I understand that the prime impulse of bureaucracies, especially welfare bureaucracies, is the consolidation and expansion of their turf, and a steady increase in the number of their "clients"; but this is ridiculous. The good people of Hong Kong should go down on their knees every night and thank God that there was no UNRWA in the colony in 1949. So, come to think of it, should the German and East European refugees who flooded into Western Europe after WWII. (I have seen the number 14 million somewhere — the Sudeten Germans alone numbered three million. Where are the festering camps? Where are the suicide bombers?)"

And this is just priceless:

"When I say "the best option," I don't mean "best for the Palestinians". I don't think they have any good options. Being Arabs, they are incapable of constructing a rational polity, so their future is probably hopeless whatever happens. Their options are the ones I listed above: to be ruled by gangsters, or Israelis, or Jordanians, or welfare bureaucrats. Or to go live somewhere else, under the gentle rule of their brother Arabs. Would expulsion be hard on the Palestinians? I suppose it would. Would it be any harder than [other] options [...]? I doubt it. Do I really give a flying falafel one way or the other? No, not really."

Lastly, like man-made global warming that it isn't, we all know who caused the housing meltdown. But there is no harm in telling the story again.

Many people are surprised and even irked a little that Obama is silent and takes no position on what's happening between Israel and Hamas.

But it makes so much sense.

When adults were running the world, he was only criticizing. Now he will own it everything that will happen in the world. So he is trying to figure out on whose site he wants to be on.

This is the price we pay each time when a democrat (i.e., somebody with no principles) is elected.

Happy New Year!

Let Israel finish this war so we can have the peace.

I've canceled my Pottery Barn subscription because the latest PB Teen magazine has the peace sign on the front cover. The sign is offensive on many levels to a normal person but the best part was when the PB person on the phone asked me if I didn't want peace because I objected to the peace sign. This person apparently believed, as many lefties do, that a sign or a protest is enough to obtain peace.

I hope Israelis will show how peace is obtained: "we win and they lose" as Reagan used to say.