Govern Your Self

"It is the proper business of every man, who is governed by laws, to study into the nature of those laws; and wherever he finds an error, point it out, in order for amendment."

-- A Countryman, 1765

Q2 GDP 2010 Revised Up To 1.7% From 1.6%

The story was reported here.

A second and final revision will follow.

Z Backscatter Vans Caused Snarled Truck Traffic in Atlanta This Week

According to this source, vehicles equipped with the same scanners now being deployed in airports to provide full body scans were tested by Homeland Security and the TSA in Atlanta this week at a weigh station on I-20.

More than 500 Z Backscatter Vans have been produced so far for use abroad by the military and at home by the regime, according to the report.

This story from September 28th did not identify the scanners as backscatter vans, nor does the photo provided in the story show a van which looks like the rolling surveillance unit depicted in this post.

Do you feel secure in your person, house, papers, and effects, against unreasonable search and seizure? Where is the probable cause, and where is the warrant issued by a judge, describing the particular place to be searched, and the particular person and the particular thing? Your Fourth Amendment rights are being shredded before your eyes.

Gridlock, Despite Democrat Control of Everything!

No budget, no tax bill, no jobs, no more!

Individual Charitable Giving Declines Nearly 5% Between 2008 and 2009

Caroline Baum reports some interesting figures for Bloomberg.com about the relatively puny contributions people have made to the US Bureau of the Public Debt:

Last year, the Treasury received more than $3 million in gifts, the biggest annual take since 1995’s $7.3 million. ...

Public Law 87-58, “Gifts to Reduce the Public Debt,” was passed on June 27, 1961, in response to a generous bequest of $20 million dollar from an estate. ... Since then the single largest gift was $3.5 million in 1992, also a bequest from an individual’s estate.

In the first 10 months of fiscal 2010, which ends today, Treasury received $2.7 million in gifts.

For all the handwringing that goes on about the growth of deficit spending, you'd think the numbers would show a little more civic-mindedness, but they don't. Compared with giving to private charities, this tells you all you need to know about where people think their money will do the most good, and it sure isn't the government.

Boston College's Center on Wealth and Philanthropy reports the latest numbers:

Individual charitable giving in 2009 amounted to $217.3 billion . . . $228.5 billion total in 2008. ...

The American people still believe there is a huge need out there which government spending through forced taxation is not meeting, and despite that taxation they open their wallets to address it. But what should disturb more people is the recent decline in giving due to the financial meltdown, a casualty of this country's war on the middle class:

[T]he total decline in inflation adjusted dollars [was] $25.3 billion between 2007 and 2009.

Follow the links for the stories.

On The Theory of Evolution

"There is no other explanation for the existence of the Democrat Party than descent from the apes."

-- Imam John

"The Economy Has Slowed . . . to Near-Stall Speed"

Rosie wonders here why the administration continues to propose more stimulus spending, why the Fed again is signaling it's ready for more quantitative easing, and why credit unions suddenly needed a government bailout last week if in fact the recession ended in 2009 and we are in a recovery.

Well yeah.

You Can Always Tell A Harvard Man, But You Can't Tell Him Much

Writing for The Providence Journal, Bruce Bartlett of Reagan administration fame relates an illuminating episode for the character of President George W. Bush, who intended from the beginning that his tax cuts sop up the Clinton surplus:

One morning in 2001, one of President Bush’s most senior economic advisers walked into the Oval Office for a meeting with the president. The day before, the adviser had learned that the president had decided to send out tax-rebate checks to stimulate the faltering economy. Concerned about deficits and the dubious stimulatory effect of such rebates, he had called the president’s chief of staff, Andy Card, to ask for the audience, and the meeting had been set.

As the man took his seat in the wing chair next to the president’s desk, he began to explain his problem with the president’s decision. The fact of the matter was that in this area of policy, this adviser was one of the experts, really top-drawer, and had been instrumental in devising some of the very language now used to discuss these concepts. He was convinced, he told Bush, that the president’s position would soon enough be seen as "bad policy." This, it seems, was the wrong thing to say to the president.

According to senior administration officials who learned of the encounter soon after it happened, President Bush looked at the man. "I don’t ever want to hear you use those words in my presence again," he said. "What words, Mr. President?"

"Bad policy," President Bush said. "If I decide to do it, by definition it’s good policy. I thought you got that." The adviser was dismissed. The meeting was over.

The rest should not be missed, here.

Obama The Lazy: No Intellectual Curiosity

Ulsterman for NewsFlavor.com claims to have the following from a White House insider, there from the beginning but recently out:


Obama the tireless, hard working candidate became a very tepid personality to us. And the few news stories that did come out against him were the only things he seemed to care about. He absolutely obsesses over Fox News. For being so successful, Barack Obama is incredibly thin-skinned. He takes everything very personally. ...

I’ll tell you this – if you want to see President Obama get excited about a conversation, turn it to sports.  That gets him interested. You start talking about Congress, or some policy, and he just kinda turns off.  It’s really very strange. I mean, we were all led to believe that this guy was some kind of intellectual giant, right? Ivy League and all that. Well, that is not what I saw. Barack Obama doesn’t have a whole lot of intellectual curiosity. When he is off script, he is what I call a real “slow talker”. Lots of ummms, and lots of time in between answers where you can almost see the little wheel in his head turning very slowly. I am not going to say the president is a dumb man, because he is not, but yeah, there was a definite let down when you actually hear him talking without the script. ...

Bill Clinton is a smart guy – he would run intellectual circles around Barack Obama. ...

When you take away the crowds, Obama gets noticeably smaller. He shrinks up inside of himself. He just doesn’t seem to have the confidence to do the job of President, and it’s getting worse and worse. Case in point – just a few days before I left, I saw first hand the President of the United States yelling at a member of his staff. He was yelling like a spoiled child. And then he pouted for several moments after. I wish I was kidding, or exaggerating, but I am not. The President of the United States threw a temper tantrum. The jobs reports are always setting him off, and he is getting increasingly conspiratorial over the unemployment numbers. ...

Obama is not up to the job of being president. He simply doesn’t seem to care about the work involved.  You want to know what? Obama is lazy. He really is. And it is getting worse and worse. Would another four years of Obama be the best thing for America? No it would not. What this country needs is a president who is focused on the job more than on themselves. Obama is not that individual. I actually hope he doesn’t run again. ...

Much more here.

Foreclosure Crisis Not Even Half Over

Based on Richard Suttmeier's take on the data here:

About 2.5 million homes have been lost to foreclosure since “The Great Credit Crunch” began in March 2007, and another 3.3 million homes could be lost to foreclosure or distressed sale before “The Great Credit Crunch” comes to an end.

Wal-Mart Moms Think Obama is Overwhelmed by the Presidency

Pretty stupid when you consider that he's finally having the time of his life. Golf every Sunday. Parties every Wednesday. The world is his oyster.

Call it female projection syndrome. They are the ones who are overwhelmed, so he must be too.

They don't know the truth, don't see it, don't have time for it, don't have the money to find out about it, nor the inclination. And if the truth breaks through occasionally, they think "If it could only be me."

And that is precisely what the Democrats continue to count on. The effeminate party is an easily distracted party.

The story is here, in USA Away. 

Congress Votes to Purge Phrase "Mental Retardation"

According to this report:

Disabilities advocates are applauding Congress for passing legislation that eliminates the term "mental retardation" from federal laws.

The phrase can still be used on this blog according to the editor, especially as a synonym for "member of Congress," as in "A congressman who thinks an island can tip over if it gets too populated on one side of it is a mental retard."

Decline in Household Debt Due to Defaults, Not Deleveraging

So concludes Mark Whitehouse for The Wall Street Journal, here. Of a decline of $610 billion in debt, only $22 billion is due to deleveraging. The vast majority of the decline is due to default, over a half trillion dollars.

Michael Pento here apparently hasn't gotten the message, but points out that whatever else may be said about consumers not adding to their debt profile, the government has picked up the slack, and stratospherically so. For that reason he abjures all talk of debt deflation.

A.A.R.P.: Armed And Really Pissed

Up Yours, Obama, You Marxist Jackass

"Cool" (as in Deceiver)

An adjective of Dutch derivation,

signifying:

neither zealous, nor ardent;

neither angry, nor fond;

in short without passion,

a deceiver.

-- Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

THE ONE

What is a communist? The One who has yearnings
For equal division of unequal earnings.
Idler, or bungler, or both, he is willing
To fork over his penny and pocket your shilling.

- Ebenezer Elliott, son of "Devil Elliott", adapted

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Liberty or Slavery? Which Will It Be?

"And whenever their constituents neglect to call [their representatives] to account for such their neglect and breach of trust, they are not worthy the name of the SONS OF LIBERTY, the name of slave is more suitable, for slaves they really are, and are fit for nothing else."

-- A Countryman, 1765

Fried Fruit Cocktail

"Politics is like a cookbook where the recipe for everything is to fry it."


-- PJ O'Rourke, here