San Diego Local Order of Bloggers

Barack Bombs in Berlin

6/19/2013 10:00:08 PM

By Proof Funny that the president's speech suggesting unilateral disarmament once again, should "bomb", in what the Telegraph described as :"... a weak, underwhelming address from a floundering president".In stark contrast to that of his presidential predecessors, Barack Obamas message on Wednesday was pure mush, another clichd citizens of the world polemic with little substance. This was a speech big on platitudes and hopeless idealism, while containing much that was counter-productive for the worlds superpower. Ultimately it was little more than a laundry list of Obamas favourite liberal pet causes, including cutting nuclear weapons, warning about climate change, putting an end to all wars, shutting Guantanamo, ending[...]

Privacy versus Security is the wrong debate

6/19/2013 8:43:02 AM

  By Dean LI'll make this relatively short.  President Obama said a while back that he welcomes the debate about how much investigative power and leeway the government has to combat terrorism.  On the face of it, that debate makes sense and in fact it is an important debate that goes all the way back to Ben Franklin's quote "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." That's a great quote but using it in this contexts overlooks one aspect of the situation that is a glaring problem.                    Government is full of inefficiencies and its actions always result in some form of unintended[...]

North Korea targets ‘human scum’ who revealed that Kim Jong Un gifted Hitler’s Mein Kampf to officials

mutnodjmet13
6/19/2013 8:42:04 PM

Because handing out a book by a dead fascist is the #1 problem North Korea is facingNorth Korea threatens to destroy ‘human scum' who revealed that Kim Jong Un handed out Hitler's Mein Kampf to officials: Pyongyang condemns leak as a ‘thrice-cursed crime' aimed at belittling Kim(Hat tip, Tammy Bruce)The magniloquent wrath of North Korea rained down on a group of ‘scum' defectors today after they published a report claiming copies of Hitler's ‘Mein Kampf' were handed to its officials as a leadership guide.The defectors claimed in the report that leader Kim Jong-un had handed out copies of the Nazi dictator's manifesto to top officials for inspiration.An unnamed source in China who claims to have seen[...]

Egyptian Program to Spread ‘Blood-Curdling Genocidal Fantasies’

mutnodjmet13
6/19/2013 8:31:03 PM

Egyptian Program to Spread ‘Blood-Curdling Genocidal Fantasies'  ZOA calls on Obama administration to pressure Egypt to cancel broadcast of viciously anti-Semitic television Ramadan series.        *************        Is there a better way to unwind after a day of pillaging ancient treasures????        The full story is below:    The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has called upon the Obama Administration to publicly pressure the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood-backed regime of Mohammed Morsi to cancel the broadcast of a viciously anti-Semitic television series that is due to air in July during Ramadan and to cancel its distribution in the Arab[...]

James Gandolfini dead at 51

W.C. Varones
6/19/2013 5:18:43 PM
Greatest series-ending scene ever:Best analysis of that scene here.

Get your rocks on

W.C. Varones
6/16/2013 7:23:49 PM

The Economist has a column Rocks for the Long Run that discusses a new research paper showing great long-term real returns to hard commodities (agricultural commodities, not so much).Besides having strong long-term returns, the article points out the very volatile price cycles.  This is a good thing for long-term investors, because every down cycle is an opportunity to load up at low prices, and positions can be trimmed in the up cycles.We were fortunate enough to sell a large position in the Pimco Commodity Real Return Fund (PCRIX) in mid-September near the QE3 announcement highs.  We've been very slowly value-cost-averaging in since then.  Once fully invested, we'll set up a semi-annual portfolio rebalancing[...]

Americans Are Such Losers

K T Cat
6/19/2013 8:28:00 AM
No, this is not a repeat. I'm just stealing from myself.Jeb Bush in support of the immigration bill:"Immigrants create far more businesses than native-born Americans over the last 20 years. Immigrants are more fertile, and they love families, and they have more intact families, and they bring a younger population. Immigrants create an engine of economic prosperity," Bush said at the annual Faith and Freedom conference in the nation's capital.And now, the logical inverse of his statement."Americans don't create enough businesses to maintain our standard of living. Americans have wrecked their families and are slaughtering their babies to the point where we can't maintain our population. Americans are slothful." Bush said[...]

Massacring Our Way To Immigration Reform

K T Cat
6/18/2013 8:19:00 AM

Jeb Bush in support of the immigration bill:"Immigrants create far more businesses than native-born Americans over the last 20 years. Immigrants are more fertile, and they love families, and they have more intact families, and they bring a younger population. Immigrants create an engine of economic prosperity," Bush said at the annual Faith and Freedom conference in the nation's capital.Um, no. Americans are plenty fertile. We just slaughter a huge percentage of our babies, offering them up as human sacrifices on the altar of hedonism. If you line 40% of your population against a wall and shoot them, you can't very well come back from that glorious event and say," Man, I wish we had us some more immigrants. We just don't have[...]

Immigration Reform Bill: Higher Unemployment, Higher Interest Rates, Lower Wages, Lower GNP

Doo Doo Econ
6/19/2013 8:27:21 AM

    There should be a congressional hearing on how the CBO was directed to lie to the American people about the "Immigration Reform" bill. Normally, we go soft on the CBO. Their job is to make estimates based upon narrow parameters. Their estimates do not include macroeconomic variables, only static analysis, and are limited to a 10-year time frame...until today.To save you time, the CBO report contains the following within their typical 10-year estimation window, the rest is just politically-motivated Doo Doo designed to push through amnesty:"S. 744 would lower per capita GNP by 0.7 percent in 2023""Slightly raise the unemployment rate through 2020""Average wages for the entire labor force would be 0.1 percent[...]

Video Of The Day: Elbert Guillory Switches to Republican 

Doo Doo Econ
6/18/2013 10:10:37 AM

            Elbert Guillory, a State Senator from Louisiana, has issued a video explanation on his switch to the Republican party. Elbert is a black Senator and faces tremendous criticism for switching from the Democrat party. It takes courage to stand up to these pressures and we salute him. Moreover, his explanation is moving and has gone viral. Well said sir.Here is the link. The video is also an enclosure in www.theSLOBs.org Windows 8 or Android app.Hat Tips to TheRightScoop and TheBlaze for promoting this video.

Video clip of the day

Dean
6/18/2013 5:40:22 PM
.Ahhhh.... the good ol' days. The good ol' days when it seemed our biggest concern as limited government, free-market types was loathe-some nanny state mayors on an endless quest to ban stuff.Alas, these days, we are possessors of a rogue government that snoops on its own citizens, harasses political organizations of particular political hues, investigates reporters and, now apparently even hacks into the computers of some of those reporters.So, in a nod to nostalgia, let's hit the way-back button and relish some of the good times of just a few months ago when Reason.com was naming their Nanny of the Month for April of 2013:"What sort of monster would ban Chipotle?"Indeed.

Funeral for a Friend?

Dean
6/17/2013 12:50:31 PM

    So, a buddy of ours was informed recently by his superiors at work that they were aware of his internet musings on politics and culture and let us just say for the sake of clarification that "aware of" was not made in the context of "Hey, we're big fans, where do we sign up?" Our jovially cantankerous moral scold was sufficiently freaked out about this to the point that he related that he may scale back his activity on the 'net while simultaneously seeking in-house legal counsel. Legal bubbas told him management had no grounds to interfere in any manner in any legal activity he chose to pursue outside of work. We weren't privy to the conversation but the foundation for this rationale was most likely deeply[...]

GLOBAL WARMING: MAN-MADE OR NATURAL?

barrycjacobsen
6/14/2013 1:27:28 PM
S. Fred Singer is professor emeritus of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia, a distinguished research professor at George Mason University, and president of the Science and Environmental Policy Project. He performed his undergraduate studies at Ohio State University and earned his Ph.D. in Physics from Princeton University. He was the founding dean of the School of Environmental and Planetary Sciences at the University of Miami, the founding director of the U.S. National Weather Satellite Service, and served for five years as vice chairman of the U.S. National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere. Dr. Singer has written or edited over a dozen books and mono-graphs, including, most recently, Unstoppable[...]

CHIVALRY IS DEAD, LADIES: AND IT’S (PARTIALLY) YOUR FAULT!

barrycjacobsen
5/30/2013 9:53:52 PM

As a paid-consultant on masculinity (yep, thats right: hired by the Coors Brewing Company to help them reach-out to todays masculine market) I consider myself something of an expert on men. I have, after all, been one most of my life. That aside, I have led what most would consider an enviablyactive and adventurous life; leading some of my friends to call me the REAL most interesting man in the world (forget that aging Latin lothario). So it is with some degree of authority and an even greater degree of disgust that I say: I am sickened by my fellowmen today.As a man raised by a WWII veteran with a strong sense of chivalry (particularly toward women), I am disgusted with what passes today for manhood. So many men are mere[...]

The Libertarian Case for Federal Employment

B-Daddy
6/11/2013 9:40:05 PM
The latest news only reinforces the belief that the Federal government has far exceeded its constitutional bounds.  I find the IRS targeting especially troubling, as it is touches the most Americans and yet appears to be unaccountable.  News of the NSA spying, as egregious as that is, has pushed the even more problematic spying on reporters and potentially the Congress off the front page.  And the death of Ambassador Stevens in Benghazi has yet to be adequately explained.  In spite of all this, the federal government is my employer.  How could I work for an employer of whom I am so critical, one might wonder. First, I work in a part of the federal government that more or less operates within its[...]

Weekend Music Chill

B-Daddy
6/8/2013 1:58:12 PM
I found a new artist on my "Gold on the Ceiling" Pandora station, so I am sharing.  Here is Patrick Sweany with "Them Shoes." And another decent tune, "Sleeping Bag." The second song reminds a little of the Rolling Stones' 60s sound.

CNN Brings Back Public Execution

Dawn Wildman
6/8/2013 2:39:55 PM

If you watch CNNs obsession with court trials today you have ask yourself how far from public executions are we? I dont know about any of you but during the Jodi Arias trial I was transfixed on the court proceedings. For me it started after getting sick and being in bed for a day with nothing to watch on TV until I found that CNN had gavel to gavel coverage of this trial happening in Arizona. It was mesmerizing; it had all things people look for in a murder trial, sex, lies, audio tapes and even a religious aspect to tie it all together. For those of you not watching, the case surrounded Jodi Arias who was on trial for murdering what most say was her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander. You had two beautiful young people caught up[...]

McDermott and Lewis Admit IRS Targeting is Policy Not “Bad Customer Service”

Dawn Wildman
6/4/2013 9:32:46 AM

As I watched the Ways and Means Committee hearing on the IRS targeting of conservative groups this morning I was stunned at the admission by Congressmen Lewis and McDermott that the IRS had been targeting groups on either side of the aisle for many years. I believe their assertion was to show that, what is good for the goose is good for the gander, that liberal groups had been targeted in prior years. And as they both wanted to draw everyones attention the fact that the person in charge was a President Bush appointee all they did was make sure we all know that they are not doing THEIR job in oversight in Congress.It is Congress that has the power and responsibility to investigate these types of abuses that crop up in[...]

Word of the Day: Winnie The Pooh

divinryan
3/29/2013 10:00:33 PM
  A weed is a flower, too, once you get to know it. ~ Winnie the Pooh 

Glenn Greenwald Laying Wood

divinryan
3/5/2013 6:10:42 PM
Here:In sum, Holders attempt to make this all seem normal and common should insult anyone with the most basic understanding of American law. As The New York Times put it when first confirming the assassination program in April, 2010:The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen. . . .It is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing, officials said. A former senior legal official in the administration of George W. Bush said he did not know of any American who was approved for targeted killing under the former president. To date, not a single such citizen has been identified.As always, the most important[...]

Reaching Students Through Book Reviews

Shane Atwell
1/22/2013 5:00:11 AM

This blog doesn't get a lot of traffic, so I pay attention to those posts that do. Most of the all-time favorites are ones that have been featured in other, higher-traffic blogs, like one on Walmart and the DHS that made it onto some kind of right-wing e-mail list and one on collective bargaining that was featured on Mish's site.     One post that has gotten consistent readership and strange little spikes (e.g. 260 pageviews this last month despite being two years old) is my review of Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt. The book is a defense of socialism and was recommended to me by a leftist college (biology) professor. He read it for his professors' book club. No doubt it's assigned reading in many classes around the[...]

In Search of Where We Went Wrong

Shane Atwell
1/16/2013 8:46:01 AM

First a big thanks to Leslie Eastman, the most link generous blogger I know, fellow SLOB and now frequent contributor to College and Legal Insurrection. She tells a good story and makes a big effort to pull together the thoughts and posts of other bloggers. She's been quoting my e-mails and throwing me links in her posts, which makes me remiss in not posting something new here.WARNING: this post has no conclusion. Its just a description of an intellectual journey half over. Call it a thematic compendium of book blurbs.    Where did we go wrong? This question has been bothering me for years. We started out with a near perfect system of government, as close as could have been achieved given the knowledge of the[...]

Suck It Up, Boys & Girls!

SarahB
11/7/2012 5:18:23 PM

      If I have to pull one more person off the ledge today Im going to start pushing. Honestly, people I thought we were all about strength and American Values...why is everyone acting like they got kicked in the balls?We, as Americans, collectively let Progressivism fester for over a century...and the chickens have come home to roost. Did anyone really think we would make up all that lost ground in four years? Wake-up call: its going to take generationsSo do what Progressives have done forever, get back on the damn horse and start infiltrating our schools, government, media and pop culture trends. Sidebar: you selfish isolationists who are home schooling because you dont want to have to deal with socialist[...]

Space Shuttle Endeavor In South Los Angeles

SarahB
10/14/2012 1:02:34 PM

      Its not every day a spaceship rolls down Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd in Southwest Los Angels.In fact, it only happens once in a lifetime.About 12:30pm yesterday I decided that my kids could not miss the one and only chance to see the Space Shuttle Endeavor travel through the streets of LA to its final home at the California Science Center in Exposition Park. Without my husband (who was working), I grabbed my 4 and 6 year-olds, printed a map of the route, turned on KFIAM 640 in Los Angeles and headed into the great unknown...as Ive never explored that region East of USC (I lived in Long Beach for 15 years before becoming a country girl). As we exited off the 110 onto Vernon to feel our way parallel to[...]

HRW: Campaign Restricts Tibetans' Freedom of Expression

(11:19 UTC) VOA: HRW: Campaign Restricts Tibetans' Freedom of Expression

Surveillance Campaign Restricts Tibetans' Freedom of Expression: Rights Group

(07:13 UTC) VOA: Surveillance Campaign Restricts Tibetans' Freedom of Expression: Rights Group

NCs education boss suggests new teacher perk: State income tax exemption

Leslie Eastman
If an education administrator's dreams become reality, North Carolina is poised to have the best student-to-teacher ratio in the country.North Carolina legislators probably wont act on a proposal by the elected supervisor of the states public school system to exempt teachers from the burden of personal income taxes.June Atkinson, North Carolinas superintendent of public instruction, recommended the unusual tax policy on Monday, reports The Charlotte Observer. The Democrat indicated that she would not have advocated such a teacher tax cut if teachers would instead receive a salary increase next year.North Carolinas Republican governor, Pat McCrory, had asked for a one-percent raise for teachers statewide. However, the budgets[...]

Another Day, Another Chicago Teacher Union Grievance

Leslie Eastman
We recently reported that the Chicago Public School system plans is closing nearly 50 elementary schools.A clue to why the school system's numbers are declining can be found in this story from The Daily Caller Education Editor Eric Owens:Well over 500 Chicago public school teachers were unceremoniously sacked Friday afternoon. A few hundred other school employees also received their walking papers.The dismissals come about three weeks after the Chicago Board of Education voted 6-0 to shutter nearly 50 elementary schools. All affected students will transfer once their schools close.The Chicago Teachers Union admitted that the firings were not surprising, reports CBS Chicago. Teachers union president Karen Lewisnevertheless[...]