Shortly before midnight the police the apartment where his mother lived with Breivik raided and searched the house. Breivik was however recently moved to the rural town of Rena.

Automatic weapons
The shooter at the shooting on the island Utoya used automatic weapons, police said. Whether he from his profession access to weapons, or in any other way he came out, is not yet known.

Breivik has no further known to the police. He has only some traffic to his name. Also, the man, unlike the regular service, no military background.

Faith of a person
It is clear that Breivik on July 17 left a message on Twitter: “Faith of a person is equal to the force of 100,000 others who have only interests”. The Tweet, a quote from the British philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill, was also the only message Breivik.

According to a friend Breivik, who calls himself a nationalist, he has in the past several controversial opinions put on Facebook. This account has been deactivated by Breivik. Later he made a new profile, which he just put links to music videos.

In online debates, including on the site Document.no, Breivik frequently aired his views on the Norwegian politics. He Kant it strongly against the multicultural society and promoted his conservative views.

“He Kant it strongly”. Immanuel Kant, the philosopher? Reason without Experience leads to Chaos ( illusions of theory )? - thus demanding universal multi-culti even though you have no idea what doing that will entail ... will destroy your society or culture? Actually, that sounds pretty reasonable to me. The dangers of the unknown, and the dangers of forcing some untested academic BS on society “for it’s own good” and then trying to ignore the unintended consequences? Oh yeah, that’s radical right wing stuff. As in dead obvious.

It is not impossible that the far right could spawn some violent extremists. The world is round, and if you go too far to the right you’ll wind up being on the far left, with the believers in pro-active Eugenics ... agreeing with their methods, except you’ll choose different targets ... and how else could you possibly rationalize the murder of perhaps 100 children of members of the Labour Party?

Posted by Drew458     on 07/22/2011 at 09:50 PM   
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my 2¢

The Norwegian government and the press are both turning it on full blast to deny that muzzies had anything at all to do with the bombing in Oslo today and the mass execution of one to three dozen schoolchildren at a summer camp on a nearby island. Looks like they’re going to push the Lone Gunman thesis if they can.

Yeah, I believe them. Because every crank with a grudge first bombs the crap out of a whole city block right by government offices in the the capital, then dresses up as a cop to go on a shooting spree killing children.

Must be Tim McVeigh’s Scandinavian cousin.

My ass. It’s jihad, and you know damn well it is.

More: the comment being heard around the world:

Fjordman on the Oslo blast today:
Posted on July 22, 2011 by Eeyore

“…And please keep in mind that the left-wing government of Jens Stoltenberg that was just bombed is the most dhimmi appeasing of all Western governments, to the extent that this is humanly possible. They even wanted to fund Hamas openly a while ago.”

“The most suicidal and cowardly government in a country with no colonial history was just attacked. How do you explain that as a response to Western “aggression”?

Fjordman

And the main concern of the Norwegian government will be their fear of backlash reprisals against the muzzies in their country. You know, the ones who are responsible for EVERY SINGLE RAPE in the country. EVERY SINGLE ONE. (See Atlas). Oh, and they hate the Jews there too. Those kids aren’t even allowed to play outside. Norway supports Hamas and boycotts Israel. How much more dhimmi could these pussies be?

And yet they get bombed.

Hmm, makes you wonder, don’t it?

Posted by Drew458     on 07/22/2011 at 04:57 PM   
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Terrorists Strike Norway

OSLO (Reuters)- A bomb ripped through Oslo’s central government district on Friday and a gunmen dressed as a policeman then opened fire at a youth camp on a nearby island, killing 17 people altogether, police said.

In the biggest such attack in western Europe since the London transport bombings in 2005, seven died when the bomb exploded on the Norwegian capital in mid-afternoon scattering glass, shattered masonry and twisted steel across the streets.

Shortly afterwards, a gunman opened fire at the youth camp of the ruling political party on Utoeya island, north-west of Oslo. Police said nine or 10 people were killed and they believed the two attacks were linked. The gunman was arrested.

The bomb, which shook the city center at around 3:30 p.m. (1330 GMT), blew out the windows of the Prime Minister’s building and damaged the finance and oil ministries.

“People ran in panic,” said bystander Kjersti Vedun.

With police advising people to evacuate central Oslo, apparently in fear of more attacks, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told Norwegian TV2 television in a phone call that the situation was “very serious.” He said that police had told him not to say where he was speaking from.

A Reuters witness saw soldiers taking up positions in Oslo.

The gunman, described by a police official as tall and blond, was reported by Norwegian media to have taken advantage of the confusion caused by the bombing to attack the summer camp of Stoltenberg’s Labour party youth section.
...
“This is a terror attack. It is the most violent event to strike Norway since World War Two,” said Geir Bekkevold, an opposition parliamentarian for the Christian Peoples Party.

NO CLUES YET FROM DETAINED MAN

Lilit Gevorgyan, analyst at IHS Global Insight, said the most likely suspects were al-Qaeda-linked or inspired groups, but added:

“As the news continues trickling in from Utoeya, however, right-wing extremist groups or even a lone perpetrator with army training or access to ammunition and weaponry could be behind the plot.”

Police have been on the alert for complex gun-and-bomb attacks on European cities since the assault by 10 gunmen on India’s financial capital Mumbai in November 2008 which killed 166 people. The Oslo attacks, though hitting two targets, were not simultaneous and the delay between them left open the possibility of a single perpetrator.
...
The Oslo district attacked is the very heart of power in Norway, with several other key administration buildings nearby. Nevertheless, security is not tight given the lack of violence in the past.

OSLO (Reuters) - A gunman killed nine or 10 people in a shooting at a meeting in Norway of the youth wing of the ruling Labor Party Friday, police said.

“The number is 10, possibly nine,” deputy Oslo police chief Sveining Sponheim told reporters when asked about the preliminary toll in a shooting on Utoeya island, north west of Oslo.

“That’s what we know so far,” he said. He said a man had been arrested and was being questioned by Oslo police, who believe he also has knowledge of a bomb blast in Oslo that killed seven people.

Although the source of the blast is unclear, Al-Jazeera TV notes that Norwegian prosecutors on Tuesday filed a terrorism charge against Mullah Krekar, founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam.

BBC news servers are being hammered with hits and are barely responding. It’s hard to get fresh info.

Some live reporting -
Key points

* A bomb has been detonated at government headquarters in Oslo
* Norwegian police say at least seven people have been killed and two are badly wounded
* Oslo police are advising residents to stay at home
* No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack
* At least nine people have been killed in a separate shooting at a Labour youth camp outside Oslo
* Unconfirmed reports say Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg had been due to attend the camp

a partial bottom-up timeline (GMT+1):

2145: The justice minister has just confirmed the suspect arrested today at the youth camp in Utoeya was Norwegian.
2143: “You will not destroy us. You will not destroy our democracy or our ideals for a better world,” Prime Minister Stolenberg adds.
2142: “No one will bomb us to silence. No one wil shoot us to silence. No one will ever scare us away from beign Norway,” Mr Stoltenberg says.
2124: A terrorism expert tells the BBC that Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami, or the Helpers of the Global Jihad, a terror group that claimed responsibility for the explosion in Oslo, was not behind the attack.
2056: The foreign minister has also confirmed that the man arrested following the shooting on the island is Caucasian.
1955: A doctor at Oslo University Hospital tells the BBC the facility has taken in 11 “heavily injured people” following the blast. He said hospital staff are treating injuries to people’s head, chest and abdomen.
1948: Eyewitness Andre Scheie told NRK: “There are very many dead by the shore… There are about 20-25 dead.” Mr Scheie also said he saw people dead in the water at the camp.
1811: Reuters reports state TV says one person has been arrested at the Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utoya.
2039: The New York Times is reporting that the terror group Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami, or the Helpers of the Global Jihad, is claiming responsibilty for the bombing in Oslo.

Posted by Drew458     on 07/22/2011 at 04:02 PM   
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UXB!

Royal Navy bomb disposal experts have destroyed a large German Second World War mine off the Essex coast, which had been picked up by a dredging vessel.

The 1 500-pound (680kg) Second World War device was dredged up last Friday by the vessel Congo River about seven miles (11km) off Walton-on-the-Naze, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said.

A team from the Royal Navy’s Southern Diving Unit 2 in Portsmouth was faced with an initially risky task of detaching the parachute mine from the vessel before laying it safely on the seabed.

“The mine was in excellent condition - in fact it was still shiny - but the dredger had pierced its skin so this was a delicate task for the team.”

Lieutenant Commander Nekrews praised Chief Petty Officer (Diver) Ian Fleming and Leading Diver Matt Baker for their efforts in safely detaching the mine from the vessel. “They were first on the scene and were faced with a challenging and precarious task but as usual they dealt with it in an extremely professional way,” Nekrews said.

“These type of devices are not uncommon, particularly in that part of the world. There are still tens of thousands of unaccounted for pieces of ordnance from the Second World War scattered throughout northern Europe.”

On April 14 the Dutch minehunter HNLMS Willemstad detected and detonated an extremely heavy German influence mine off the coast of Scotland, which dated back to the Second World War.

On March 22 this year, BP discovered a 3.5 metre long unexploded World War II German mine near one of their pipelines in the North Sea. World War II explosives have been found in the region before – in 2009 the Royal Navy destroyed two WW II explosive charges there.

The Essex coast is north and east of London.  This is the northern end of the Channel; Walton-on-the-Naze is actually due west of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Walton-on-the-Naze is one of those wonderfully named English coastal villages, a suburb of another coastal town called Frinton And Walton; it’s out on a spit of land between the English Channel and a bay named Hamford Water which is east of Colchester. Walton-on-the-Naze is separated from that bay by Horsey Island and a small bend of water called The Twizzle.These names crack me up. Charming, quaint, but I think the Brits used to hold national competitions to see who could come up with the silliest names for places.

Posted by Drew458     on 07/22/2011 at 12:59 PM   
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Scorcher

I don’t know where the thermometer is for the weather gizmo over on the right sidebar. It must be underground to be getting a mere 92° reading. Weather Channel says it’s 101° here, with a heat index of 114. My outdoor thermometer is reading 98° on the afternoon side of the house. When the sun starts hitting that patio it will heat things up to 115° or more I’m sure. And of course this is New Jersey, so the humidity is right up there with the temperature. Which means it’s a sauna outside. Looks like a good day to go to Walmart and just push a cart around for a while in the A/C.
There has to be some good way to cool off ...

update: 102° !!

But gosh, it’s becoming a “dry heat” since the relative humidity is only 41%. Which is probably about a quart per cubic foot of air at this temperature. And we should be grateful it’s so cool here: in New York City it’s 103° and in Newark it’s currently 106°. Holy cow. How did Sante Fe New Mexico get moved to New Jersey?? Dame that Al Gore and his rotten Global Warming.

updated update: 108° in Newark NJ!!

The heat wave that has melted the tri-state for the past week has broken records in New York City and New Jersey, hitting 104 degrees in Central Park by early afternoon and a sultry 108 in Newark.

The heat index was greater than 110 degrees in both New York City and Newark; 108 degrees is the hottest ever on record in New Jersey’s largest city.

It’s the seventh day of the scorching summer heat wave, and the heat is not expected to retreat until Sunday.

The previous Central Park record was 101 degrees, set in 1957.

Crivens!

Posted by Drew458     on 07/22/2011 at 11:50 AM   
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   Thursday - July 21, 2011

not quite eye candy … but silvio doesn’t care

He’s the head guy in Italy and he seems really happy.

Wonder why. ???

Oh, right. 

Her name is Nicole Minetti.  Good Italian name. She’s another good friend of Mr. Berlusconi, seen smiling above. That sure is a big grin. Must be something funny happening.

Posted by peiper     on 07/21/2011 at 05:43 PM   
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a worthy read

Rich K. sent me something reported to be funny.  I guess in some ways it might be but frankly, I find it scary.  Scary because so many Americans actually buy into this, scary because I know for certain that kids here in the UK are being fed left wing obnoxious doctrine as a way of life and belief.

This really is a coincidence since I have had an article by one of my favorite conservatives, Melanie Phillips.  I’ve been very much occupied lately and have not been posting much for which I apologize.  Unfortunately, there will be a few more days when I won’t be here full time.

Well then … Here’s what I got from Rich and he got it by reading – gasp –
The San Francisco Chronicle. And in particular, a fellow named Deepak Choprta, whose article is entitled;

A critical moment: Why we need President Obama

One of the virtues of being on the liberal side of politics is that total obedience isn’t required. There are no hidden agendas. Ideology doesn’t lead to unreason.

the prevailing sanity of President Obama

Liberal politics is based on a non-regimented, all-inclusive approach to democracy. Freedom of thought is paramount.

progressive tradition has been severely undermined, dating back to Nixon’s “Southern strategy” (coddle the racists) and Ronald Reagan’s smiling reactionary agenda (AIDS victims deserve what they get), through the first President Bush’s Willie Horton strategy (another boost for racism)

(oh never mind that the killer/rapist was coddled by that silly looking jerk governor in a tank re. Horton. Being critical of that move is automatically race related.) (I have forgotten that govs name. ?)

It was such a relief to return to humane, non-ideological governance when President Obama won in 2008 that we underestimated the debasing effect that two generations of right-wing indoctrination has had.

I have obviously chopped up his editorial merely to give you an example.
You can read it all unedited HERE and I think you should.

No doubt the hacking scandal here is making some news in America since now we read that the wind bags in the senate are soon to initiate an investigation into possible illegal behavior in America, by the Murdoch group.
Again, this article has been edited. I have posted her rant against the left but the thrust of her editorial while anti-left is an attack on the BBC & the left leaning media.

Monopoly of the BBC and the Left-wing intelligentsia.

Melanie Phillips

Murdoch’s real crime in the eyes of the Left-wing intelligentsia is simply that he has stood in the way of their total capture of the culture.
The dominance of Left-wing ideas has been such that even among so-called conservatives, many of them have become accepted as mainstream. And one of the most powerful architects of that shift has been the BBC.

Even its own executives have sometimes been forced to admit that, far from the objectivity required by its public service remit, the BBC generally subscribes to a Left-wing ‘group-think’ which dictates the agenda both in its journalism and entertainment programmes.

With some honourable exceptions, whether in its drama, comedy, news reporting or current affairs, the BBC’s output rests upon certain articles of faith.
For example, traditional Christians are all fundamentalist bigots; the science of man-made global warming is settled; opponents of mass immigration are racist; Eurosceptics are swivel-eyed fanatics; and all who oppose these opinions and more are Right-wing extremists.

And then to add insult to injury, the BBC forces people to pay for the privilege of being told day in, day out that their own views are stupid or prejudiced.
What’s more, such is the enormous power and influence of the BBC through its reputation for trustworthiness and fairness that it has arguably moved the very centre of political gravity in Britain to the Left.

By contrast, Murdoch’s popular papers have tended mainly to follow public opinion once voters’ minds are made up. So they respond to and then amplify what people already think.
But for the Left that is anathema, because nothing can be allowed to disrupt the great project to tell people what to think and shut down all opinion to the contrary.

Murdoch’s empire has acted as at least a partial antidote to that agenda by defending America, Israel and the interests of the West.
Which is why he provokes near-apoplexy on the Left.

And which is why they are all slavering at the prospect of bringing down a media organisation which provided an element of competition to the true monopoly of the BBC and the Left-wing intelligentsia.

The great irony, of course, is that for all those years while this scandal was taking place, the Labour Party fawned over Murdoch and his lieutenants. While he was riding high, none of them saw fit to challenge the power they now purport to find so unacceptable.
Only now Murdoch is lying bleeding on the ropes does Miliband flex his puny muscles. And they call that leadership.

MELANIE PHILLIPS

And then there was the Telegraph’s Janet Daley who is an American expat married to a Brit and living here since 1965.
Again, she makes comments with regard to the liberal biased BBC but the following says it all. And again, I would encourage you read all of her.  She has lots to say about American news and cable TV and compares how news is presented in both countries.
She is on the money and you will get an education reading her.

JANET DALEY Comment on Janet Daley’s view at » telegraph.co.uk/janetdaley
The Left really thinks the Right is evil incarnate

Those of us on the Right are inclined to believe that our antagonists on the Left are simply wrong-headed – sometimes well-intentioned, sometimes malevolent but basically just mistaken. Whereas the Left believes that we are evil incarnate. Their demonic view of people who express even mildly Right-of-centre opinions (that lower taxes or less state control might be desirable, for example) would be risible if it were not so pernicious.

The Left does not want a debate or an open market in ideas. It wants to extirpate its opponents – to remove them from the field. It actually seems to believe that it is justified in snuffing out any possibility of our arguments reaching the impressionable masses – and bizarrely, it defends this stance in the name of fairness.

The problem is that Fox’s audience share is enormous, by far the largest of any cable news channel, whereas MSNBC’s is tiny, the smallest of any cable news channel. People are voting with their remotes for the kind of opinions they want to hear and the result is infuriating for the Left-liberal axis – and particularly for the Obama White House, which has made no secret of its desire to shut Fox News down.

There is, incidentally – contrary to the conjectures of some excitable commentators – no possibility of the “Murdoch empire” spawning a British version of Fox News. By law, broadcast news in Britain must be impartial. That is why all television news organisations in this country subscribe to pretty much the same soft-Left rendition of neutral reporting (in which Euroscepticism was, until very recently, treated as a lunatic fringe irrelevance, etc). And just the sort of liberal received opinion that now dominates television news.

JANET DALEY

Posted by peiper     on 07/21/2011 at 01:42 PM   
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just good manners

I think there might be something wrong with my puter or maybe the connection.

It seems to be running quickly today. Like, really quick.

JUST GOOD MANNERS
July 21, 11

I was raised, as I’m certain many of you were, to show respect to the elderly.

Whether or not they earn it never came into question.  You weren’t supposed to answer back to older people or be rude to them.  So generally I continue with that idea although as I’ve grown older myself, from time to time I have felt justified in telling another older person to buzz off.  As I’ve grown older, I have noticed that old didn’t mean nice in every case.  Some old folks really are just thoughtless people and were so no doubt as younger people.  I never held a door for someone just to hear them say thank you.  It has always been an automatic gesture.  I’m not in so big a hurry that I can’t let someone in line ahead of me when they have little and I may have much. Or, if they’re much older then I am.  Why not make it easier for an old person using a
cane or just looking tired and aged?  But I have to say, the other day when I let an old lady in front of me I thought, never again. Screw em.  It doesn’t pay to be nice.

Well of course I was wrong.  It was simply the thought of that moment and not all people are like the wrinkled old coffin dodger who tried to edge her way in front as though she had some kind of god given right to be there.

When I went for my knee X-ray Tues., I entered a corridor and had to move around some slower moving folks taking up the very center of the isle.  One person in a wheel chair and to his left a guy with a crutch.  I don’t know why it is, but it always seems like folks like the center. Have you ever noticed that ppl on bicycles do that as well?  Anyway, I walked around the bunch in the center and found myself behind a very old couple and she seeming to be the worst for wear of the two, and moved around them as well.

By the time I got to the check in counter there were two ahead of me, with the receptionist on the phone.  So the wait was about five minutes when another lady who was working on something behind the desk, took pity on the line and took the papers that had to be handed in.  Just about the time I was ready and at the desk, that old couple I mentioned caught up to the growing line, and the wrinkled old crone was working her way around my right side.  It was obvious she was trying to get her papers in first, and since she was old and was limping a bit, I didn’t think losing a few more minutes was any big deal.  So I stepped to one side and waved her on.

Wouldn’t you think she could have had the courtesy to say thank you?  Nope.
She went to the front like she owned the place without a glance back.

Chances are pretty damn good that in the same circumstances I’d move aside again.
Doesn’t take too much effort to be polite and anyway, where the hell else have I got to go?

-30-

Posted by peiper     on 07/21/2011 at 12:10 PM   
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An Apple A Day

Posted by Drew458     on 07/21/2011 at 11:30 AM   
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Tax Cuts For The Rich

Thomas Sowell writes a 7 page, 3 part essay on tax policy and makes his argument using actual facts and actual history. Amazing.

And what a non-surprise: the willfully blind left has been refusing to see reality on this for NINETY YEARS, because it goes against their Marxist, Collectivist beliefs. America, the land of opportunity? In their minds it is not an opportunity for you to get rich, but and opportunity for them to spread your wealth around.

Don’t follow the links if you aren’t bright enough to understand a bit of economics. The idea that cutting taxes on the people best able to invest in the economy leads those people to actually invest in the economy is difficult for some to grasp. Instead they absolutely cling to the erroneous slogan of “trickle down economics” and mouth the empty platitudes the media provides them. The reality is that real wealth creation is a bottom up endeavor: you can’t sell a product and make a profit until a whole slew of people have designed it, built it, shipped it, marketed it, mined or grown the raw materials for it and so on. And they all get paid, even if your product doesn’t sell. Selling that product for a decent profit makes money for the investor, but it also keeps everyone in the creation process employed. So before there is a “trickle down” there is a “gush up”; maybe “fountain economics” is a better term to describe the wealth creation cycle. But just like understanding that the carbon cycle is an actual cycle, alarmists with a pinko agenda will only see the one arc of the cycle and scream about it, because they only want to see that one side.

Oh, and to add even more to your non-amazement, “scholars” who are not economic realists have been pushing the leftist deliberate misunderstanding as fact in textbooks for decades. No surprise there, because that’s the same message that the MSM has been pushing for nearly a century.

Sowell puts things very clearly. It’s a good 15 minute read for the whole thing. Part 1.  Part 2.  Part 3.

“Just as labor cannot be forced to work against its will, so it can be taken for granted that capital will not work unless the return is worthwhile. It will continue to retire into the shelter of tax-exempt bonds, which offer both security and immunity from the tax collector.”

The facts are unmistakably plain, for those who bother to check the facts. In 1921, when the tax rate on people making over $100,000 a year was 73%, the federal government collected a little over $700 million in income taxes, of which 30% was paid by those making over $100,000.

Revenue spiked as tax rates were slashed.

By 1929, after a series of tax-rate reductions had cut the tax rate to 24% on those making over $100,000, the federal government collected more than a billion dollars in income taxes, of which 65% was collected from those making over $100,000.

Empirical evidence on what happened to the economy in the wake of those tax cuts in four different administrations over a span of more than 80 years has also been largely ignored by those opposed to what they call “tax cuts for the rich.”
...
The very idea that profits “trickle down” to workers depicts the economic sequence of events in the opposite order from that in the real world. Workers must first be hired and paid before there is any output produced to sell for a profit, and independently of whether that output subsequently sells for a profit or at a loss.

With investments, whether they lead to a profit or a loss can often be determined only years later, and workers have to be paid in the meantime, rather than waiting for profits to “trickle down” to them.

The real effect of tax-rate reductions is to make the future prospects of profit look more favorable, leading to more current investments that generate more current economic activity and more jobs.

Implicit in the approach of both academic and media critics of what they call “tax cuts for the rich” and a “trickle-down theory” is a zero-sum conception of the economy, where the benefits of some come at the expense of others.
...
Even when empirical evidence substantiates the arguments made for cuts in tax rates, such facts are not treated as evidence relevant to testing a disputed hypothesis, but as isolated curiosities. Thus, when tax revenues rose in the wake of the tax-rate cuts made during the George W. Bush administration, the New York Times reported:

“An unexpectedly steep rise in tax revenues from corporations and the wealthy is driving down the projected budget deficit this year.”

The economy is not a zero-sum game. It grows and shrinks. When it grows, there is more money in it for everyone.

Understanding marginal tax rates is key. If you severely tax the people who already have the quantities of money needed to make significant investment in the economy, they will put their money in places where it can’t be taxed,even though it will earn them less overall. But if you tax those same people at a lesser rate, then they will invest their money in taxable ventures (ie business and jobs) that will earn them much more. The bottom line will be increased revenue for the government. This has been seen 4 times already by previous administrations: FDR, JFK, Reagan, and Bush, yet our Idiot In Chief still stands behind his teleprompter and wails on about “tax cuts for the rich”.

An investor has $10. She has 3 ways to invest it. One way earns her $20 and is no work at all, one way earns her $100 and is a little work, one way earns her $10,000 but is very hard. You are the government, so choose your tax plan wisely.

Tax plan 1:
A 0% tax rate on $20 gets you nothing. A 90% tax on $100 gets you $90. A 20% tax on $10,000 gets you $2000. Which is more: nothing, $90 or $2000? You know the answer.

Tax plan 2:
A 0% tax on $20 gets you nothing. A 10% tax on $100 gets you $10. A 99.5% tax on $10,000 gets you $9950. Which investment will the investor choose? You know the answer, but the media doesn’t.

It really is as simple as that, and Sowell shows that history has seen the truth time after time after time.

Posted by Drew458     on 07/21/2011 at 08:22 AM   
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Well Done

Ricky X threw a 300 game when his family team bowled against us last night. It was the third 300 he’d thrown in his entire life. He’s a pretty good bowler with a 209 average. He strokes the ball on an inside line, a smooth arc roll that goes out a little past the 3 arrow and comes back. He doesn’t throw a cannonball or a super revving ball that hooks like mad; he throws a mild roll that gets the job done.

By the 8th frame of that game everyone in the league was aware of what he was doing, and held up their bowling to watch him roll, and cheered him on. Strike in the 8th. Cheers. Strike in the 9th. Cheers. Two strikes in the 10th, more cheers, and when he rolled the last strike to hit 300 the whole league went wild.

I’m really proud of that. That’s how it’s supposed to be. Good people.

On my winter league nobody even noticed when I threw 9 in a row for a 10 strike game that got me 277. My own teammates didn’t say a word, before, during, or after. Maybe the quality of bowling is so much better on that league that such bowling is common. Maybe the level of competition is so sharp that congratulating your opponents is unheard of. And winter league is more than twice as long as summer league. IIRC there were 3 300 games on that league this past season, 2 of which were thrown by a guy who has thrown more than 100 of them. So high scores are no big deal to them. That’s a shame, really.

The X family won that game, but we won the other two. We really rallied in the 3rd game and won by more than 100, so we took the wood for the night and went 5-2 on the points. I threw a 600 for the night. The X family has Ricky as their star, and they win or lose by how he bowls. We have a team, and we won because we all bowled well. I’m really proud of that too. That’s how it’s supposed to be.

Posted by Drew458     on 07/21/2011 at 07:11 AM   
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   Wednesday - July 20, 2011

Little Johnny Again

That little scamp Johnny is at it again ...

The kids filed back into class Monday morning. They were very excited. Their weekend assignment was to sell something, then give a talk on productive salesmanship.



Little Sally led off: “I sold girl scout cookies and I made $30,” she said proudly, “My sales approach was to appeal to the customer’s civil spirit and I credit that approach for my obvious success.”

“Very good Sally,” said the teacher.



Little Mary was next: “I sold magazines,” she said, “I made $45 and I explained to everyone that magazines would keep them up on current events.”

“Very good, Mary” said the teacher.



Then it was Little Johnny’s turn. Oh no. The teacher held her breath. Little Johnny walked to the front of the classroom and dumped a box full of cash on the teacher’s desk. “$12,467,” he said.

“$12,467!” cried the teacher, “What in the world were you selling?”

“Toothbrushes,” said Little Johnny.

“Toothbrushes!” echoed the teacher, “How could you possibly sell enough tooth brushes to make that much money?”

“I found the busiest corner in town,” said Little Johnny. “I set up a Dip & Chip stand and gave everybody who walked by a free sample.”
They all said the same thing, “Hey, this tastes like dog crap!”
Then I would say,"It is dog crap. Wanna’ buy a toothbrush?”

“I used the Obama approach of giving you something shitty for free, and then making you pay to get the taste out of your mouth.”

Posted by Drew458     on 07/20/2011 at 10:42 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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   Tuesday - July 19, 2011

Painful Knee Produces Modern Art ….

July 19, 2011

I am pretty sure readers here will have heard at least once in their lifetime, someone exclaim that they were so tired they could hardly put one foot in front of the other.
Well, until the last couple of days I never had call to use that expression with regard to myself. But boy-oh-boy, I was so damn tired I could hardly …..

I’ve been working on a project at the house.  Not done but getting there.

Anyone who ever started a house project knows the frustration of one thing leading to an unexpected other thing.  What I thought would be just a matter of scrapping rust and painting has proved to be a bit more.  And then there’s the damn knee and foot problem, which I’ve mentioned in passing recently.

I don’t use the term ‘pain’ loosely and except as an expression as in a pain in the butt, don’t generally say I am feeling same unless it really is. Pain!  Of which I think I know a thing or two.  So while say a stubbed toe hurts like the dickens, I wouldn’t use the word pain too quickly with regard to myself. Reason being ….

Some years ago I had back surgery and that is an experience I never want to repeat. Now that was pain with a capital ‘P’ and no mistake about it.  Especially when I started to come to before I was supposed to.

And then there was a tumor.  Happily non malignant but, the process of treating it and the recovery is again, nothing I want to go through again.  I hope to never ever have a catheter put in me again. Ever!  Especially when it’s done while two attendants hold one down and the damn thing is put back in without any pain killer. None.

After the removal of said tumor, I was informed that I had to have a cystoscopy every few years.  Or maybe it was every five years, cos those things could come back.
I had one that was so painful the doctor had to quit because the pain deadener had no effect.  Another doctor a year later somehow managed it without hurting BUT, I ended up with a severe infection and damn near bought the farm.  I don’t know why I didn’t sue the bastard.  I was taken to a hospital in Riverside,Ca. and was there a week I believe. But before that, I was deathly ill at home for several days shivering and shaking and somewhat delirious.  My own doctor put me in hosp. but at first they didn’t know what I had and I was in isolation.  I was asked a million questions and when they learned I’d had a cystoscopy they decided that was the problem.
So … they duly notified the urologist who performed same.  He came to the hospital, stuck his head in the door and asked me how I was feeling. All of 30 seconds and the bastard had the nerve to then send us a bill for something like $120.00.  Now that I think about it, I wish we had sued.

So anyway I’m talking about pain and can tell you that even though I was warned years ago to continue having these bladder exams or face the grim reaper, my attitude has been as follows.
After death there’s no pain and no taxes.  I haven’t had any of those exams since and do not intend doing so.  Which brings me to the last year or more specifically, the past two weeks.

Although the back gives me periodic fits from time to time, over the last year I’ve been having a serious knee problem, and a possibly related problem with the area of the ankle.  When it happens, it is PAIN like I can’t explain.  Last year while in CA. I had an episode and it was bad enough to send me to the docs where I was given steroids.  They seemed to do the trick and for about a year I was doing okay re. the knee.  But a couple of weeks ago, my knee lowered the boom on me for taking things for granted and I started to experience waves of pain.  I’d start the day fine and went to the market one Tues. with the wife, and after five minutes walking suddenly felt like my leg was being twisted around the wrong way.  Came home, put ice on it and took some useless pain killers but didn’t move much the rest of the day.  Could not even put feet up on a foot stool. That hurt even more.  By the following day, it was like nothing happened the previous day.  Go figure.

And then I started the project here at the house.  I find it next to impossible to take breaks and have to force myself to stop and eat, when involved in a project.  So I was pretty much on my feet all of the first day and into early evening.  By bedtime, I could hardly walk.  Then disaster struck the next day.

I had a couple of paint brushes in a small container of what the Brits call white spirits and we call turpentine. I think they’re the same.  Also, a small can of metal paint.
These were on the table I was using for whatever tools I had, scraper and cleaner and odd stuff when it happened.  As I leaned towards the cup with the soaking brushes, my knee gave out and I more or less over reached and knocked over the turpentine but unfortunately, and I still don’t know how, I also knocked over the can of metal paint.
So there I am on one foot with turpentine and paint everywhere, and not one person from the Tate museum of modern art to witness my unintended and painful creation.

Managed an appointment with my regular doctor Monday and was sent for a knee X-X-ray today.  Will have results next week I’m told. Meanwhile, doc thinks possibly something I can’t pronounce that produces some kind of fluid into the knee joint, may be blocked.  Anyway, the X-ray should tell us something and meanwhile I have something that is supposed to control it.  Ah well, I don’t exactly have it yet.  The pharmacy didn’t have it but expect to by tomorrow.  Happy to say tired but not hurting tra-la.

So ….. that’s where I’ve been.

Stay Tuned

Posted by peiper     on 07/19/2011 at 02:44 PM   
Filed Under: • Personal •  
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   Monday - July 18, 2011

Aspirin For Cancer

The Tea Party won the largest midterm election victory since 1938 on the theme that Obama’s rate of borrowing and debt-creation were unsustainable and made worse, not better, by massive new Obama health care and green initiatives. So Obama, now well below 50% in the polls, is to be reinvented as a reasoned budget cutter. Note the logic that suddenly after ObamaCare and green fiascos we pause in midstream, and talk of fiscal restraint and again more taxes. The thinking is analogous to this: the adolescent takes the chronically indebted family Master Charge card, maxes it out, has no more credit, and then asks his father and mother to take on additional jobs to find the money to pay off the debt, but while insisting that he keep all his previously charged junk — and the card as well. At some point in July 2011, all the money borrowed since 2009 was deemed absolutely essential. Nothing was wasted. There was no fraud. Instead, all that $5 trillion saved lives and the planet as well. Borrowing a trillion dollars for ObamaCare cannot be renegotiated.

Note well this pattern of suddenly turning to the neglected debt: Obama lectured for most of 2008 that “drill, baby, drill” was silly, given his belief that increased supply would only marginally affect then climbing prices, and his religion that high gas prices are good in that they make wind/solar subsidized energy more attractive, encourage less energy use and thus cool the planet, while favoring government mass transit rather than the mindless individual’s use of a private car. Then as reelection neared, he tapped the strategic petroleum reserve on the logic that while drilling more new oil does not lower prices, pumping previously drilled oil most surely does.

Note well that suddenly Obama called for withdrawal in Afghanistan, on the logic that, while a few months ago a surge, a new commander, and a sustainable commitment were vital to winning the “good war,” now, with reelection looming, it is time to start packing it in.

Preach it, brutha, preach it.

Posted by Drew458     on 07/18/2011 at 02:04 PM   
Filed Under: • Obama, The One •  
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