Tony Blankley, Burkean Conservative, Succumbs to Stomach Cancer, Aged 63

He had just phoned a good one in on the Acela under the influence of a Bloody Mary at 9 in the morning last November, and famously kept peacocks, sometimes appearing to dress like one by American standards. Of course "American standards" is an oxymoron, but he became one of us still after the war when his parents moved here from England.

He enjoyed himself, as a conservative should, as even the Good Book teaches:

Behold [that] which I have seen: [it is] good and comely [for one] to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it [is] his portion.


May he rest in peace.

Obituary here.

So Little To Say Today . . .

. . . and so much time to say it in.

And there it is!

Jackie on MLK, Jr.: CBS Reports Her View of Him as a "Phony", ABC? Not so much.

(Updated from Sept. 2011)

Stories here and here.

On Don Wade and Roma on wlsam.com, Diane Sawyer of ABC went out of her way, as have many others on the left as the story has come out, to say that Jackie was simply speaking under the awful spell of J. Edgar Hoover.

Uh huh.

Let's see, Diane Sawyer is married, since 1988, to Mike Nichols, grandson of the communist anarchist Gustav Landauer.


Liberalism in the defence of plagiarism knows no vice.

Unemployment Falls To 8.5 Percent in December, November Revised Up to 8.7 from 8.6

The data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics are reported here.

For 2011 through November the reported rate of unemployment has been revised higher four times and lower four times. As revised, unemployment has averaged 8.99 percent in 2011 through November:

If this were touted as an economic recovery by a George W. Bush administration, everyone would be laughing out loud and the Democrats would be calling for his head.

Obama and the Democrats have been utter failures. They should all resign.

Tea Party Takes To The Skies

Story and video here.

Carmen Tisch Arrested in Tush Attack on Abstract Expressionist Oil Painting

America's finest

Story here.

Sen. John McCain, Who Approved 'A Tale of Two Mitts' Then, Now Endorses Gov. Romney

“It’s with some nostalgia that I return to this place that I love so well. I’m really here for one reason and one reason only and that is to make sure we make Mitt Romney the next president of the United States of America. And New Hampshire, and New Hampshire is the state that will catapult him onto victory in a very short period of time. That’s why I’m here.”

See the video here.

I don't know what's worse, Mitt Romney's flip flops or John McCain's.

Here's a recounting of 61 of the latter's, and that's just through June 2008. In the 2010 Arizona Republican primary, it cost McCain $21 million to convince Arizona's Republicans to vote for him again, flip-flopping even more all the way if that were possible, as recounted here:

Moving sharply to the Right, the senator supported the controversial new immigration law in his home state that opponents said would discriminate against legal residents of Hispanic descent.

The move was in contrast to failed legislation he had drafted in 2006 that would have provided a path to citizenship for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants and had dismissed the effectiveness of building a fence on the US-Mexico border. This year he filmed an advertisement with a border sheriff which delivered a message to the federal government of: “Complete the danged fence.”

In a further bid to please the party’s Right-wingers, who tend to vote in party primaries, the senator also reversed his support for a repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on homosexuals in the military. He then distanced himself from a measure to cap carbon emissions that he had been developing with Sen Joe Lieberman, an independent Democrat.

“What McCain did was recognise he had a real race to run and move to the right,” said Martin Frost, a commentator who was formerly a Democratic congressman in Texas.


Americans have the lowest opinion ever of the US Congress not because of gridlock, partisan bickering, or even its fantastic personal wealth, but because of the utter faithlessness of the men and women who populate it.

And people don't like to be reminded too much how these chameleons represent them all too well.

Alas, we have the government we deserve. 

James Pethokoukis Trots Out His August 2010 Surprise as a January 2012 Surprise

Involving a supposed mass refinancing of GSE-backed mortgages.

Rush Limbaugh fell for it on his show today, but it's a recycled attempt at a story to which there was nothing when it first appeared a year and a half ago, and there's nothing to it now unless . . . Obama makes another very quick recess appointment, and a bunch of lenders agree to take huge hits.

Fat chance, I say.

Aside from the political toxicity of the former (even The New Republic thinks Obama's recent appointment was unconstitutional), I can't imagine how lenders are just going to agree to eat half of the losses associated with rewriting mortgages at today's lower interest rates, especially with the stiffer Basel III bank capital rules now taking effect: "[T]he plan would have an immediate fixed cost to the government of . . . $242 billion with half that cost split equally between the government and lenders." 

Linda Lowell at housingwire.com, among others, knew the story was malarkey way back when here.

For Pethokoukis' August 2010 version, see here. For the January 2012 version, now see here.

Remember the Much-Hyped Japanese Economic Threat to the US of the 1980s?

Nikkei 225 1970-2011

Refresh your memory a little bit here.

Four Week Moving Average of Initial Claims for Unemployment Falls Below 375,000 For First Time Under President Obama

To 373,250. The last time we had a number close to that was July 5, 2008: 373,000.

Break out the party hats!

The numbers are here.

The World's Richest 1 Percent

For the US in 2005, almost 10 percent of its people were among the richest in the world.

For Germany, almost 5 percent.

For France, under 5 percent.

For Italy, over 5 percent.

For Great Britain, 5 percent.

For Canada, over 6 percent.

For Korea, 4 percent.

For Japan, 1.5 percent.

For Brazil, 1 percent.

It Takes An Irritable Mental Gesture To Know One

Occupy Wall Street Doesn't Know How Good They've Got It

Occupy Wall Street doesn't know how good they've got it.

A new study using data up through 2005 puts the world's top 1 percent of earners starting at $34,000 of after tax income per person per year.

The world's median income is just $1,225 per person per year.

Half of the world's one percenters live in the USA, and "even the poorest 5 percent of Americans are better off financially than two thirds of the entire world."

Story here.

Does This Parachute Make My Butt Look Big?

In NDAA America Embraced Authoritarianism With Little More Than A Pause Between Drinks

So says liberal Jonathan Turley.

Read the whole stinging rebuke of Obama and both political parties, and of the American people, here.

You have the evil government you deserve.

"Your Excellency"? "Your Immensity" maybe, but not "Your Excellency".

Story and video here.

Thank Republican Justin Amash for Giving Planned Parenthood $487 Million to Abort 329K

The latest Planned Parenthood annual report is the subject of a news story here:

According to its latest annual report, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) received $487.4 million in tax dollars over a twelve-month period and performed 329,455 abortions.

Of course, these figures are for the fiscal year ended in 2010, but since funding and abortions continue to increase every year Amash's vote to continue funding of Planned Parenthood makes him a conservative only in the sense that he's maintained continuity with the past.

Consistent, unprincipled Libertarianism.

Sarah Palin's Republican Hotel Reserves a Room For Insane Libertarians

Yeah, and it's right across the hall from one marked "GOProud" and another marked "Log Cabin Republicans."

The Libertarians' room is easy to spot. Its sign says "Insane Asylum."

Video here:

"the GOP had better not marginalize Ron Paul and his supporters after tonight"

The Pig and The Communist

Story here and here.

"You are a pig" . . . "And you are a communist"

"Vote For Me and I'll Set You Free" Went The Song on Don and Roma This Morning

On wlsam.com.

Nothing epitomizes better what's wrong with America than that: "Vote for me and I'll set you free!"

People want a savior it seems, especially of the presidential sort. If Christianity has had just one baneful influence on the American psyche, this obsession with presidential politics is it. No wonder the executive is imperial. That's just the way the slaves of God want it.

A more original, more free and noble America would save itself. It would demand broader, deeper and better representation, and would not wring its hands over our corrupt plutocracy.

Instead it would wring their necks.

The truth dies another death as the mobs cry "Give us Barrabbas!"