“I just want to point out, you did not once in the 2008 campaign, not once did anybody in the elite media ask why Barack Obama voted in favor of legalizing infanticide. Okay? So let’s be clear here,” Gingrich said in response to a question about birth control. “If we’re going to have a debate about who the extremist is on these issues, it is President Obama who, as a state senator, voted to protect doctors who killed babies who survived the abortion. It is not the Republicans.”
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Romney's Dog Problem Looks Set To Dog His Campaign If He's The Candidate
From Margaret Carlson for Bloomberg, here:
Romney insists Seamus loved his crate and appreciated fresh air, even at 60 miles per hour. That hasn’t appeased Dogs Against Romney, a group whose human founder, Scott Crider, is trying to get word out to the country’s 43 million dog owners, who represent all political breeds. Dogs Against Romney, which had more than 1 million visitors to its website in its first 10 days, recently organized an anti-Romney protest at the Westminster dog show. It also awarded a congratulatory “woof” to Lanny Davis, a former special counsel to President Bill Clinton, who wrote in The Hill newspaper that a man who would insist his dog enjoyed such abuse is unfit to be president.
Think of it: 43 million dog owners. That's more people than all the adult Catholic voters.
Can't Criticize Mormonism? Sen. Santorum Opens Door By Trashing Protestants
"[L]ook at the shape of mainline Protestantism in this country and it is in shambles, it is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it."
There is nothing qualitatively different about that statement from Christian Evangelicals' charge that Mormonism is a cult, not Christian, or some leftists' view that Mormonism is too weird to abide. At least Obama ditched Rev. Wright. But Romney is proud of his heritage, and so is Santorum pledged to defend all his beliefs in the public square.
Santorum has just played into the hands of the left and handed them a huge opening.
Thanks a lot, pal.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
We Already Got The Change From Obama, And It Sucks
Obama can't run on change, or on economic achievements. So says a Vanderbilt political scientist in this report from The Associated Press:
"He can't run on change because he's the incumbent, and he can't paint too rosy a scenario because things aren't that rosy," said John Geer, professor of political science at Vanderbilt University. "He's got to come up with a theme that appeals to voters, especially middle-class voters, alleviates their fears and gives them reason to believe the future will be better."
In other words, we already got the change, and it sucks.
Georgia Boys Are In The Militia Whether They Know It Or Not
According to the state code, “the unorganized militia shall consist of all able-bodied male residents of the state between the ages of 17 and 45 who are not serving in any force of the organized militia or who are not on the state reserve list or the state retired list and who are, or who have declared their intention to become, citizens of the United States.” Thus, the vast majority of military-aged men in the state are in the unorganized militia, whether they realize it or not. ...
[T]he long-established expectation concerning volunteer organizations such as the State Defense Force and the unorganized militia is that they outfit and equip themselves. They traditionally have been expected to arm themselves and be ready to take action on behalf of the community should the need for such action arise. Given this fact, any contention that the Second Amendment prohibits the private possession of firearms would seem irreconcilably flawed.
Dutch Protest They Euthanize At Most 3.2 Percent Of Elderly, Not 10 Percent
Jawohl. And the Holocaust of Jews is just exaggerated by Zionists.
See, we're not such bad people . . . we don't kill anywhere near the number extremists claim we do.
Buzzfeed has the story, here:
Dutch sources estimate that legal euthanasia is the cause of what the Christian paper Nederlands Dagblad put at 3.2% of deaths at the most liberal estimate, and others put around 2%. Public statistics, which have been reported since the practice was legalized in 2002, cite 3,136 reports of euthanasia out of a total of 136,000 in the Netherlands in 2011, a bit more than 2%.
From the Wikipedia entry on the Jews in the Netherlands:
Another explanation is that vast majority of the nation accommodated itself to circumstances: "In their preparations for the extermination of the Jews living in The Netherlands, the Germans could count on the assistance of the greater part of the Dutch administrative infrastructure. The occupiers had to employ only a relatively limited number of their own. Dutch policemen rounded up the families to be sent to their deaths in Eastern Europe. Trains of the Dutch railways staffed by Dutch employees transported the Jews to camps in The Netherlands which were transit points to Auschwitz, Sobibor, and other death camps." With respect to Dutch collaboration, Eichmann quoted as saying 'The transports run so smoothly that it is a pleasure to see.'".
The Dutch are as morally hollow now as they were then.
Dutch sources estimate that legal euthanasia is the cause of what the Christian paper Nederlands Dagblad put at 3.2% of deaths at the most liberal estimate, and others put around 2%. Public statistics, which have been reported since the practice was legalized in 2002, cite 3,136 reports of euthanasia out of a total of 136,000 in the Netherlands in 2011, a bit more than 2%.
From the Wikipedia entry on the Jews in the Netherlands:
Another explanation is that vast majority of the nation accommodated itself to circumstances: "In their preparations for the extermination of the Jews living in The Netherlands, the Germans could count on the assistance of the greater part of the Dutch administrative infrastructure. The occupiers had to employ only a relatively limited number of their own. Dutch policemen rounded up the families to be sent to their deaths in Eastern Europe. Trains of the Dutch railways staffed by Dutch employees transported the Jews to camps in The Netherlands which were transit points to Auschwitz, Sobibor, and other death camps." With respect to Dutch collaboration, Eichmann quoted as saying 'The transports run so smoothly that it is a pleasure to see.'".
The Dutch are as morally hollow now as they were then.
Monday, February 20, 2012
The Cost of Food Stamps? $75 Billion. 'Disability' Dwarfs That: $200 Billion Annually.
As of January, the federal government was mailing out disability checks to more than 10.5 million individuals, including 2 million to spouses and children of disabled workers, at a cost of record $200 billion a year, recent research from JPMorgan Chase shows.
The sputtering economy has fueled those ranks. Around 5.3 percent of the population between the ages of 25 and 64 is currently collecting federal disability payments, a jump from 4.5 percent since the economy slid into a recession.
Mental-illness claims, in particular, are surging.
During the recent economic boom, only 33 percent of applicants were claiming mental illness, but that figure has jumped to 43 percent, says Rutledge, citing preliminary results from his latest research.
The annual cost of the food stamp program is detailed here annually going back to 1969.
The annual cost of the food stamp program is detailed here annually going back to 1969.
More On Santorum's Weaselly 'My Wife Wrote It' Excuse: Isn't He Now An Admitted Plagiarist?
From Dan Amira at New York Magazine here:
George Stephanopoulos brought up a controversial passage from Santorum's 2005 book, It Takes a Family, in which Santorum contends, "The radical feminists succeeded in undermining the traditional family and convincing women that professional accomplishments are the key to happiness." Santorum insisted to Stephanopoulos that he isn't saying women shouldn't work, only that there's nothing wrong with being a stay-at-home mom, if that's what they choose. The explanation wasn't new; Santorum has been asked about that quote many times. What was new was that this time, Santorum added that, oh, by the way, "that section of the book was co-written, if you want to be honest about it, by my wife." ...
You also have to wonder why Santorum is only now bringing up his wife's co-authorship of that controversial passage. When the book initially came out, in 2005, Santorum was constantly on TV defending this very same "radical feminists" quote. But, curiously, he never mentioned that his wife helped to write it, according to a search of Nexis transcripts — not in a July 25 interview on Hannity and Colmes, or in a Today show interview that same morning, or a July 27 interview on Hardball, or a July 28 interview on CNN's American Morning, or a July 31 interview once with ABC's This Week (deja vu!), or an August 5 interview with Tucker Carlson on MSNBC.
More recently, Santorum was asked about this very same passage during a May 2011 Fox News presidential debate in South Carolina, and again, he neglected to credit his wife.
A failure to provide proper attribution for someone else's words in order to make them appear to be your own is called plagiarism.
Sen. Rick Santorum's Anti-Protestantism: They are 'Gone From Christianity'
"We all know that this country was founded on a Judeo-Christian ethic but the Judeo-Christian ethic was a Protestant Judeo-Christian ethic, sure the Catholics had some influence, but this was a Protestant country and the Protestant ethic, mainstream, mainline Protestantism, and of course we look at the shape of mainline Protestantism in this country and it is in shambles, it is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it."
A bunch of us Protestants think the same thing, but that's another story.
A bunch of us Protestants think the same thing, but that's another story.
Moochelle Obama's 16 Vacations in Three Years Fly in Face of Economy in Shambles
The president here a year ago obviously was talking about a different family cutting back, not his own:
Just like every family in America, the federal government has to do two things at once. It has to live within its means while still investing in the future. If you’re a family trying to cut back, you might skip going out to dinner, you might put off a vacation.
Gingrich Wants America Energy Independent: No More Presidential Bowing To Saudi King
See him say it at this link:
Remember this? Obama bowed to the Saudi King under the watchful eye of Sarkozy:
Remember this? Obama bowed to the Saudi King under the watchful eye of Sarkozy:
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Current Growth is Being Swallowed Up by Interest Payments on the Debt
Fiscal year 2011 interest payments on the federal debt (source: treasurydirect.gov):
Debt to the penny as of this moment (source: savingsbonds.gov):
Implied interest rate:
2.95 percent.
But the first report of Q4 GDP was only 2.8 percent.
So the current growth measure is being swallowed up by interest payments on the national debt. Growth is therefore slightly negative just by this measure, not factoring in inflation: minus .15 percent growth.
None dare call it depression.
Global Public Debt Clock: $44 Trillion and Counting
Message to the post-Christian West:
"Owe no man anything."
Sincerely,
St. Paul, Epistle to the Romans 13:8
Watch it here.
Massive Global Central Bank Balance Sheet Expansion Interferes With Interest Rates
So says the data compiled and illustrated by James Bianco in late January at The Big Picture here:
The combined size of [the world's largest] eight central banks’ balance sheets has almost tripled in the last six years from $5.42 trillion to more than $15 trillion and is still on the rise! ...
QE is an expanding of balance sheets via increasing bank reserves. The purpose of QE ... is to increase bank reserves through purchases of fixed income securities in order to lower interest rates. ...
[I]t is fair to compare the size of these balance sheets (now $15 trillion) to the capitalization of the world’s stock markets (now $48 trillion). ...
Prior to the 2008 financial crisis, the eight central bank balance sheets were less than 15% the size of world stock markets and falling. In the immediate aftermath of Lehman Brothers’ failure, these eight central bank balance sheets swelled to 37% the capitalization of the world stock market. But keep in mind that the late 2008/early 2009 peak was due to collapsing stock market values combined with balance sheet expansion via “lender of last resort” loans.
Recently, the eight central bank balance sheets have spiked back to 33% of world stock market capitalization. This has come about not by lender of last resort loans, but rather by QE expansion (buying bonds with “printed money“) even faster than world stock markets are rising.
Some people look at this information as evidence that the intent of the central banks is to boost asset prices to keep the illusion of growth going. But what if it's really just about buying time, attempting to secure lower roll over interest rates for refinancing massive debt loads which have become a giant millstone around the neck of the world?
The total public and private debt of the world's 35 most indebted nations alone tops $57 trillion, which is 95 percent of the $60 trillion in 2011 GDP of the world's 35 most productive nations. Of 27 of those most productive nations (not counting Greece whose 34.38 percent rate is an outlier) shown here, sovereign 10 year bond yields last week averaged 4.2 percent, implying world wide debt service payments of $2.4 trillion just to stay current.
The US alone spends nearly $0.5 trillion annually in debt service payments, and calls it a victory when $0.04 trillion in spending is cut. Meanwhile deficits and debt continue to build, here and abroad.
GDP growth averaging 3.5 percent per annum is the way out, but the debt burden eats up the progress.
This can't go on forever.
Some people look at this information as evidence that the intent of the central banks is to boost asset prices to keep the illusion of growth going. But what if it's really just about buying time, attempting to secure lower roll over interest rates for refinancing massive debt loads which have become a giant millstone around the neck of the world?
The total public and private debt of the world's 35 most indebted nations alone tops $57 trillion, which is 95 percent of the $60 trillion in 2011 GDP of the world's 35 most productive nations. Of 27 of those most productive nations (not counting Greece whose 34.38 percent rate is an outlier) shown here, sovereign 10 year bond yields last week averaged 4.2 percent, implying world wide debt service payments of $2.4 trillion just to stay current.
The US alone spends nearly $0.5 trillion annually in debt service payments, and calls it a victory when $0.04 trillion in spending is cut. Meanwhile deficits and debt continue to build, here and abroad.
GDP growth averaging 3.5 percent per annum is the way out, but the debt burden eats up the progress.
This can't go on forever.
Dodd-Frank is 848 Pages Long, Glass-Steagall was 37 Pages
Robert Lenzner reminds us here that the shorter one worked pretty well for a pretty long time, but the longer one which replaces it is already a disaster.
For The Economist article referred to by Lenzner, see here, including an important cost correction correcting billions to millions. (Oops).
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