The Year's Best political Insight - by Jimmy Kimmel



Jimmy Kimmel

 ''Today, by the way, is our president, President Obama's, one-year anniversary in office. I looked it up. Traditionally on the first anniversary, you give paper, so, I got him his birth certificate.''

''John McCain said that there will be no cooperation from Republicans for the rest of the year. So that should be good for the country. What a shame to see all that cooperating end, you know? This is like the coyote announcing he's no longer cooperating with the road runner.''

''BP's company newsletter has an article that says most Gulf residents aren't upset with BP because their cleanup crews have boosted the local economy. BP taking credit for boosting the economy in the Gulf is like al Qaeda taking credit for creating jobs in airport security.''

''According to the New York Post, Tiger Woods has hired former President Bush's press secretary Ari Fleischer to help with his public relations campaign. Is George Bush's guy really the one you want in charge of your approval rating? If it was up to me, I'd hire Clinton's guy.''

''Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush traveled to Haiti this week to talk about the country's long-term recovery plan. It was a departure for President Bush. It's unusual for him to visit a disaster of this scope and magnitude that wasn't his fault.''

The Year's Best Political Insight - Conan O'Brien

Conan O'Brien

''Ukraine announced plans to open Chernobyl, their nuclear disaster site, to tourists. They say it's just like Disneyland, except the 6-foot mouse is real.''

"Today President Obama met with a group of top CEOs to discuss creating new jobs. They said they'd see what they could do and then all went back to China."

"Iran began holding talks with the six world powers. Participants were the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France, and Oprah."

"President Obama has set aside over 180 million acres of land for polar bears. When Sarah Palin heard about it, she said, 'Todd, get my gun.'"

"President Obama held a ceremony at the White House to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah. In response, Republicans said, 'It's even worse than we thought. He's a Jewish Muslim.'"

The Year's Best Political Insight - Jimmy Fallon

Jimmy Fallon

''The Supreme Court ruled that the government cannot stop corporations from spending money on political candidates. Which explains why Sarah Palin has accepted $1 million to change her name to Pizza Hut.''

"FedEx said that it shipped 16 million packages today on its busiest day of the year. That's right, they handled 16 million packages. Or as the TSA calls that, 'kind of a slow day.'"

"Joe Biden accidentally revealed the location of the Vice President's top secret bunker. The guy can't help it. But he did apologize. He said, 'I am so sorry for the mistake. The launch code is 85334. It will never happen again. It will never happen again. My Gmail password is robot23. What am I doing? The house key is under the plant near the doorstep.'"

"On his last show, Larry King told Bill Clinton they were both members of the Zipper Club because they both had open heart surgery. Clinton was, "Uh, yeah, that's why I'm a member of the Zipper Club..."

''During his acceptance speech, newly elected Senator Scott Brown told the crowd that his two daughters are both available. Man, so many great American speeches, right? 'Four score and seven years ago,' 'Ask not what your country can do for you,' 'I have a dream,' and now, 'My daughters are both available.'''

The Man Who 'Invented' Global Warming

by James Delingpole

Daily Telegraph

I’m in Ireland this week and am not yet sure how close I’ll be to the internet. So to tide you over just in case here is a fascinating essay from Ishmael2009 (not his real name) on Sir Crispin Tickell is one of the chief architects of Man Made Global Warming’s towering cathedral of half truths, exaggeration, hysteria and Neo-Malthusian lunacy. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, the mighty Ishmael2009…..

Our Man at the Climate Summit: Essay on Sir Crispin Tickell

Sir Crispin Charles Cervantes Tickell is one of the most influential people behind the idea of man-made global warming. Yet you could easily be forgiven for having never heard of him.


Tickell, you see, is a diplomat and a scion of the British establishment, and as such works largely behind the scenes, like a real-life Sir Humphrey. His CV bulges with numerous honorary doctorates, chairmanships and directorships around the world, including the European arm of Pachauri’s TERI organization (1). After starting as a bright young thing with the civil service, he spent two years at Harvard, where he addressed himself to the up and coming subject of climate change, the result of which was his 1977 book Climactic Change and World Affairs, a work that detailed the threat posed to Western civilization by possible changes in the world climate. It made his name, and on his return Tickell was made Chef de Cabinet to the President of the European Commission and afterwards advisor to the Thatcher government, where he was instrumental in persuading leading politicians to put global warming on the political agenda (11).

Read the Reast of the Article

The Best and Worst of Joe Biden

Vice-President Joe Biden

On GOP complaints that the health care bill is 2,022 pages long: ''Put yourself in their spot. Just ask Sarah. That's a hell of a lot to write on the palm of your hand.''

''You all know St. Patrick is credited with banishing snakes from Ireland. But you guys know the truth, sometimes. There were never any snakes in Ireland. St. Patrick just made that up. Which explains why he's the patron saint of FOX News.''

On the recovery act: ''Republicans keep saying it hasn't created a single job. Well, tell that to Senator Scott Brown.''

"You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.... I'm not joking."

 "When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened."  Apparently unaware that FDR wasn't president when the stock market crashed in 1929 and that only experimental TV sets were in use at that time, interview with Katie Couric, Sept. 22, 2008

"Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. Quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me."

"This is a big f*&%$@g deal!" Caught on an open mic congratulating President Barack Obama during the health care signing ceremony, Washington, D.C., March 23, 2010

"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man." –Referring to Barack Obama at the beginning of the 2008 Democratic primary campaign, Jan. 31, 2007

"If we do everything right, if we do it with absolute certainty, there's still a 30% chance we're going to get it wrong."

A great campaign slogan

"Vote for the man who promises least; he'll be the least disappointing."

 Bernard Baruch

The Year's Best Political Insight - Craig Ferguson

Craig Ferguson

''There is a new bill in the Senate that is upsetting a lot of people. This bill would give the President the power to shut off the Internet. Al Gore is strongly opposed to it. Not because he invented the Internet. Because he did. But because he just signed up for Match.com.''

"Larry King has been married more times than Henry the Eighth. We used to have that rhyme to keep track of them. 'Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived.' With Larry I think it goes, 'Divorced, beheaded, divorced, escaped. Zombie, lesbian, disappeared, inflatable.'"

"Democrats are calling Christine O'Donnell 'the Sarah Palin of the East.' Really? She's a loud, emotionally unstable woman from Delaware. That's not Sarah Palin, that's Joe Biden."

The Year's Best Political Insight - by Jay Leno

Jay Leno

''I have been thinking about the healthcare problem and how to pay for healthcare. If you took all the money the Republicans have spent trying to stop healthcare and all the money Democrats have spent trying to get healthcare, we could afford healthcare.'' 
 

''Of course, a lot of right wingers are very upset about this because they believe this health care bill will cost a lot of money. You know what I think? Just pretend it's another unnecessary war. You'll feel better about it already.''

''Well, folks, Sarah Palin has admitted she tried marijuana several years ago, but she did not like it. She said it distorted her perceptions, impaired her thinking, and she's hoping that the effects will eventually wear off.''

''In Austin, Texas, President Obama told an audience, 'If you want to go forward you put your car in 'D.' If you want to go backward, you put your car in 'R.'' But you know something? Either way, the economy is still F'd.''

''On Monday, British Petroleum promised to pay all necessary cleanup costs for this oil spill. And they said they will do it, no matter how much they have to raise gas prices.''

''What a week in Washington. They passed health care, they're talking about immigration reform, it looks like they've ended 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' and they're legalizing marijuana. Let me tell you something, if you're a gay drug dealer from Mexico who snuck across the border for free health care so you could join the Navy, this is the greatest year of your life.''

The Obamacare Fraud

The law will penalize doctors to pay patients and penalize patients to pay doctors.

Shikha Dalmia
December 31, 2010

There are a great many things wrong with Obamacare, but the biggest is perhaps one that neither party is paying any attention to: It is one huge entrapment scheme that will turn patients and providers into criminals.


The most blatant example of this is in the “doc fix” that Congress passed with major bipartisan support earlier this month, saving doctors from a nearly 23 percent cut in Medicare reimbursement that they would have otherwise faced this year. Congress has been passing this fix every year since 1997, but this time, in an effort to offset its $20 billion price tag, it has included a little twist to squeeze working families called “exchange recapture subsidy.” Under this provision, the government will go after low-wage families to return any excess subsidies they get under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.


When the government hands out subsidies, it will use a household’s income in the previous year as the basis for guessing what the household is qualified to get in the current year. But if the household’s income grows midyear, the subsidy recapture provision will require it to repay anywhere from $600 to $3,500, compared to the $450 that the law originally called for.


This will make it very hazardous for poor working families to get ahead. In the original law, the loss of subsidy with rising income already meant absurdly high effective marginal tax rates—the implicit tax on every additional dollar of income earned. How high? The Cato Institute’s Michael Cannon puts them at 229 percent for families of four who increase their earnings by an amount equal to 5 percent of the federal poverty level or $1,100. In other words, a family that added this amount to an income of $44,700 would actually see its total income fall by $1,419 due to the loss of subsidies.

Read the Rest at Reason

Social Security Is Not 'Insurance'

by Ron Paul



Congressman Ron Paul

 Perhaps the biggest media story of 2010 was the influence of Tea Party voters on the congressional landscape. The new congress comes to Capitol Hill with a mandate to end profligate spending and restore fiscal sanity, we are told. But when the House and Senate convene in January, the newly elected members will face tremendous pressure to maintain spending levels for entitlement programs. Even the most modest proposals to trim Social Security or Medicare spending will be met with howls of indignation and threats of voter revolt. Legislators who propose any kind of means testing or increased retirement ages can expect angry visits from senior citizen lobbyists ready to fund a candidate back home who supports the status quo.


But millions of Americans now realize that the status quo is an illusion that will not last even another 10 or 20 years. The federal government cannot continue to spend a trillion dollars more than it collects in revenue each year, because we are running out of creditors. Fiscal reality is setting in, and the consequences may be grim even if Congress finds the courage to take decisive action now.


Courage begins with a commitment to see things as they are, rather than how we wish they were. When it comes to Social Security, we must understand that the system does not represent an old age pension, an “insurance” program, or even a forced savings program. It simply represents an enormous transfer payment, with younger workers paying taxes to fund benefits. There is no Social Security trust fund, and you don’t have an “account.” Whether you win or lose the Social Security lottery is a function of when you happened to be born and how long you live to collect benefits. Of course young people today have every reason to believe they will never collect those benefits.

Yes, Virginia, There Is a Ron Paul

by Darren McPhilimy


Dear Editor: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Ron Paul. Papa says "If you see it in The Sun it's so." Please tell me the truth; is there a Ron Paul?



Virginia O'Hanlon.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Virginia,


Your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Ron Paul. He exists as certainly as peace and freedom and prosperity exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Ron Paul! We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which liberty fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Ron Paul! You might as well not believe in the Constitution! The media might hire polling firms that conceal Ron Paul's true level of support among the people, but what would that prove? Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

No Ron Paul! Thank God, he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the hearts of free men.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Perhaps the line above should read, "Papa says, 'If you see it at LRC it's so.'"


Regards,

Darren McPhilimy
Tarentum, PA


Darren McPhilimy [send him mail] began publishing on the Internet in 1996. His latest effort is the blog CrockettAlmanac.com.

Copyright © 2009 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.

Stumbling and Bumbling Toward Truth?

Musing About How I Found Libertarianism
by Wilton D. Alston

This essay originally appeared in the book, Why Liberty, compiled by Marc Guttman.

I really should have given this essay a better name. After all, it is about my journey toward libertarianism and therefore (hopefully) truth. It would have made sense to use something like "my journey toward the light" or something equally regal. Here’s the thing though. My journey toward libertarianism has been anything but smooth or regal. As a black person it seems to me that even though we have embraced any number of political/philosophical approaches, libertarianism is among the rarer. As such, my finding and embracing libertarian theory involves equal measures of luck and courage. Perhaps that is why I was asked to contribute this story! Either way, I feel honored and happy to do so. It is my firm belief that I am onto something that represents the best of logic, reason, and truth. However, I did not always think so.

Growing up in a small town in North Carolina, named Hallsboro, I had no contact with any people who called themselves "libertarians." As far back as I can remember, my folks and all my relatives voted Democratic, at least as far as I could tell. In fact, I don’t even remember when I first heard the term, "third-party candidate" but it was probably in college. In the portion of the South where I grew up, it seemed pretty clear which party was out to help you and which party was out to get you, particularly if you were a black person. Still though, certain things about my childhood – the fact that my paternal grandfather was a share cropper; the fact that my maternal grandfather owned a lot of land; and the fact that my father always seemed to be working – all had an effect on me. In retrospect, it was a combination of these effects that made me open to libertarianism even before I knew what it was.

Two instances in particular stand out in my mind as providing seeds of libertarianism that did not germinate until much later in life. The first such instance involved a phone survey that I answered while my parents were out. After all the normal demographic questions, the lady on the phone began to query me about my parent’s jobs and lifestyle. At some point she asked, "And what does your dad do for work?" At that exact moment my father was off on a job laying brick at some location. In fact, during almost any down time he could usually be found out doing something that would result in additional income for the family. To this very day he has at least two hustles that he uses to generate income. He was the original example of someone having multiple income streams in my eyes. So I said to her, "he’s a bricklayer."


Later, my folks and I were eating dinner and I recalled the story for them. When I got to the part about my dad being a bricklayer, my folks both laughed and corrected me. My dad, and my mom, were schoolteachers and had been so for years. I knew that, but somehow it escaped in that moment on the phone. My dad’s practice – always looking for an additional way to make money – rubbed off on me. To this day, I am always looking for a way to generate additional income. In fact, that point of view led me to experiences I will recount later – experiences that further forged my libertarian leanings.

Read the rest at Lew Rockwell

Less We Can

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." – Thomas Jefferson, to Archibald Stuart, 1791.







In this day and age we are seeing the effects of too much government. Governments that believe they must regulate every minute detail of our lives, our business transactions, what we can and cannot do on our properties, what we can eat or how it is made. It is simply staggering to see the amount of government intrusion into our basic freedoms.

The more we expand government powers and regulations, the more money it costs to run the government because they will need to hire more people to carry out and enforce the new regulations. All of these new expenses require money so the government will either raise taxes or borrow money so that the next generation will pay for it.

Or they will impose massive fees which will stifle economic growth and restrict the ability of the business community to effectively and efficiently serve the community.

The best and most effective way for government to serve, is to simply get out of the way. Less regulation, less taxes will create more prosperity and more opportunity. Less government will produce more liberty - both economically and personally. I adhere to the Jeffersonian view of government that "the government that governs least, governs best."

I say, Less We Can!

Muir Boda
Candidate for Salisbury City Council
www.boda4salisbury.com

Pearls of Wisdom from Vice-President Joe Biden

"Stand up, Chuck, let 'em see ya."

Vice-President of the United States of America - Joe Biden, to Missouri state Sen. Chuck Graham, who is in a wheelchair, Columbia, Missouri, Sept. 12, 2008.

Headlines .... Just In Time

Attorneys Issue CIA Cease And Desist Order Upon Creation Of The WikiLeaks Task Force Citing Ownership Of "WTF" Branding By Obama Administration.


Dems Propose New Don't Ask Don't Tell Policy That Allows Congress To Never Find Out What Is In Bills After Voting For Them.