Friday, January 30, 2009

Sarah and Jesus



I just had to share this photo. This incredibly creepy mural is the first thing you see when you step out of the elevator on the maternity ward at the hospital in Hinsdale (where we were visiting Rudi and Stephanie's new baby).

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Stimulus?

The "stimulus" bill that passed the House is quite possibly the worst bill ever. To their credit, not a single Republican voted for the $953 billion spending spree. All this spending will do very little to stimulate the economy but will come back to bite us in the form of higher taxes (paid by us, our children, and probably their children) or inflation. 

Every employed person will get a $500 tax break. About 15% of this (based on statistics from the last round of stimulus checks) will probably be spent, the rest will be saved or used to pay down debt. The business tax cuts do not encourage employment of productivity, instead of, say cutting the payroll tax, which would actually encourage companies to hire people, they go to companies that have lost a lot of money in the past few years. They reward failure instead of encouraging success.

Those are the tax cuts. Then the spending: mostly pork projects (new sod for the Jefferson Memorial, $400 million for STD prevention, $150 million for honey bee insurance, etc.) that are unlikely to produce jobs in a cost-effective manner. Most of the infrastructure projects (even the ones worth doing) won't begin for a while and will do nothing for the economy until the recession is over. Only $170 billion of the total package will be spent this year, $356 billion in 2010, and the other 40% or so after that, when the recession will almost certainly be over. The plan calls for another 250,000 government employees. Don't we have enough bureaucrats sucking up our tax dollars?

Bottom line, huge waste of money - money we don't have. The only good news is that its failure will be another nail in the Keynesian coffin. We will likely run deficits of about 10% of GDP during the Obama administration - 10%! 

Obama claims all this spending will create (or save) 3 million jobs. Great! That comes to $275,000 per job. 

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Visitors


New post on Stuff White Christians Like: #10 Visitors.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed


Sarah and I watched the Ben Stein documentary, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" last night. It was a really interesting look at intelligent design and those promoting it within the world of academia. 

Stein chooses his fight carefully. Instead of taking on evolution directly, he points out that evolution does not explain how life began and argues that the idea of a designer is at least the equal of other theories on how life emerged from non-living things. No one knows how life came from non-life, but the scientific community has decreed that only non-intelligent design theories are worthy of discussion. Stein details the persecution of those in the scientific community that raise these points and argues that intelligent design deserves to be part of the debate.

The most fascinating part of the documentary is when Stein interviews Richard Dawkins, the prominent atheist and author of The God Delusion. According to Dawkins, there is little to no chance of God or a creator, but he believes that a plausible explanation for the beginning of life on earth was a visit from aliens billions of years ago. 

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Obama's Inaugural

A historic day, no doubt. I think we're in no danger of overlooking this. The media is behaving a little different than during Bush's, huh? There are 240 million people in this country who did not vote for Obama, including the 58 million who voted for John McCain. While it's great that we've reached a point as a country where we can elect an African-American, that doesn't mean it's good for the country to have Barack Obama as president, just as it would have been bad for the country to have Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton in the Oval Office. 

Obama's inaugural address was supposed to be soaring, words that would go down in history, words that would inspire a generation. I thought his speech was unmemorable and unfocused. I thought he was unfair to President Bush ("we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our boundaries" as if Bush's $15 billion in spending to fight HIV/AIDS was nothing). The most memorable part of the ceremony was the prayer at the end by Rev. Joseph Lowery: 
We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right.

Apparently a black president means nothing in the civil rights movement. The entire prayer was nothing but a political speech to God, punctuated with demeaning comments about whites and Asians.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Stop Digging


Politicians on both sides of the aisle have long criticized the billions in earmarks and pork that get sneaked in to legislation. For many politicians, bringing home the bacon to their district or state is their primary objective in Washington. The same type of projects usually regarded as waste are now being promoted as the way to save our economy. The only difference is that instead of spending millions or billions, we'll spend almost a trillion and instead of calling it pork we'll call it "stimulus." 

We're in a hole, and Obama is grabbing a shovel. More spending requires one of three things: higher taxes, more borrowing, or printing money. All three are bad - no one with a brain is calling for higher taxes right now, there is a limit on how much we can borrow from China and that money will have to be paid back by my generation and the generations after. Printing money steals from us all by causing inflation. 

The ingenuity and work ethic of the American people (some, anyway) will bring us out of this recession, not government. 

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Coffee-Themed Ministry


New post on Stuff White Christians Like: "Coffee Themed Ministry."

Friday, January 09, 2009

Obama Clears Obama

I was just made aware of this illustrative headline from the Politico: "Obama report clears Emanuel,  other aides." What a relief! Also, what a time saver for the busy journalist: just accept reports from the Obama administration about the Obama administration as fact. 

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Prop 8

I guess my discussion of Prop 8 a few weeks ago missed a key detail: a typo in the amendment to California's state constitution now defines marriage as between "one man and one wolfman."

My New Senator


Senate Democrats have now decided that they will seat Blago's choice to replace Obama, and apparent high bidder, Roland Burris. Here's a question: does Burris add to or detract from the character of the Democrats already in the Senate? 

Consider a few other fine individuals in the Senate:

  • Robert Byrd (D-WV) - current President pro tempore of the Senate, former Exalted Cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan

  • Ted Kennedy (D-MA) - committed manslaughter (never charged) by driving (drunk) into a channel with a young woman he was having an affair with - she drowned.  

  • Al Franken (D-MN) - tax cheat and all around disgusting human being. 

  • Patrick Leahy (D-VT) - forced to give up his vice-chairmanship of Senate Intelligence Committee after leaking classified information to a reporter about an operation against Egyptian sponsored terrorism - at least one operative died because of the reporter's story, earning the senator the nickname "Leaky Leahy." He later leaked classified information about a Reagan operation to topple Libyan dictator and terrorist Moamarr Gadhafi, causing the operation to be aborted. Not too much later, he allowed a reporter to view classified reports on Iran-Contra. But don't worry, he's a hero because he opposed the Iraq war. 

At least a huge abortion extremist who argued that you have the right to kill your new born baby if it survives an abortion is no longer in the Senate, but I guess having Barack Obama as president isn't an improvement. 

The good news is, Burris will probably be beaten by moderate Republican Congressman Mark Kirk during the next election. I also encourage NY Gov. Patterson to, you know, appoint Caroline Kennedy to Hillary Clinton's seat, because, you know, she'll also be easy to beat, you know. 

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Fleet Foxes



I love this video from Fleet Foxes. I highly recommend their new (self-titled) album.

Monday, January 05, 2009

Finish Hamas


Israel continues its military operations into Gaza as western elites wring their hands over the "disproportionate" response. It is amazing to me how people just refuse to take Hamas at their word. They can't be terrorists who will stop at nothing to destroy the nation of Israel and kill all the Israelis, surely they are just upset over variance grievances and can be placated if only Israel were nicer to them.

Take Hussein Massawi, former leader of Hamas, for example: “We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you.” Perhaps we should believe him and his ilk and stop pretending that we can come to some sort of compromise with these monsters. Israel gave them Gaza. Were they happy? Did they build resorts on the ocean? No, they used Gaza to fire rockets at innocent Israelis and continued to send their children into crowded restaurants with bombs strapped to their chests. Hamas uses homes, hospitals and schools to fire these rockets and store ammunition. If Israel bombs these places, Hamas bears all responsibility for civilian deaths.

The only difference between Hamas and al Qaeda is that Hamas was actually elected by the Palestinians (oh, and that they are a pawn of Iran). But they are a minority, says the left, and they are oppressed. Liberals also tend to believe that people are basically good, they only turn to violence in response to injustice. Israel, therefore, is causing the violence and needs to be more accommodating.

Iran, Hamas, and al-Qaeda share a similar goal: worldwide Islamic rule. They aim to destroy the west as we know it and replace our culture with Islamic culture, our law with Sharia law. We must defeat them. There will be peace in the middle east only when Israel has achieved victory over Hamas. The only alternative is a Hamas/Iranian victory over Israel.

I appreciate that Obama is not interfering and is waiting until he is president to comment on the conflict, but I am not confident that he has an appropriate appreciation for the Islamist threat.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Friday, January 02, 2009

Favorites from 2008


Books

  1. Liberal Fascism - Jonah Goldberg
  2. Capitalism and Freedom - Milton Freidman
  3. America Alone - Mark Steyn
  4. John Adams - David McCullough
  5. The Post-American World - Fareed Zakaria
  6. God and Man at Yale - William F. Buckley
  7. Who Really Cares - Arthur C. Brooks
  8. The Velvet Elvis - Rob Bell
  9. No Country For Old Men - Cormac McCarthy
  10. Vintage Jesus - Mark Driscoll
Movies

  1. The Dark Knight
  2. Once
  3. There Will Be Blood
  4. Juno
  5. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
  6. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
  7. Iron Man
  8. Gone Baby Gone
  9. 3:10 to Yuma
  10. Atonement
Music
  1. Kings of Leon - Only By the Night
  2. Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
  3. Once Soundtrack
  4. Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
  5. The Ranconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
  6. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Four NFL'ers Who Might Survive a Shark Attack


I saw this on Shutdown Corner, one of Yahoo's sports blogs. My favorite is Brett Favre: "He's like a little kid out here!"