Good Riddance, 2009

Let's just say I'm not sad to see 2009 end. It's not been a very good year, and here's hoping that 2010 is better for all of us.

Scary thought of the day: The 20th Century was 10 years ago. Yeah, it was 10 years ago tonight that all that crazy Y2K stuff was going on. I was singing in Glendora on New Year's Eve 1999, and don't tell anyone, but I had a gun in the bus with me that night. I wasn't taking any chances just in case some of the crazy predictions came true. Turns out I didn't need the gun, but I was tempted to shoot the bus when the linkage that controlled the reverse gear broke.

It'll be kind of a quiet night around here. We're going to go to dinner, rent a couple of movies, and hang out at home. I'll watch the movie and listen to the OC Fire Departments as they handle all the problems caused by the dummies out there.

Since I began in gospel music in 1974 I've done concerts 16 times on New Year's Eve, but nothing tonight. I used to enjoy those concert nights a lot despite having to drive home when the crazies were out. I was driving the bus back from Desert Hot Springs early on New Year's Day 2002 and was going a little too fast. A CHP cruiser sped up alongside me, flashed his spotlight at me and handsignaled "6" "5" to me to remind me what the speed limit was. I slowed down and he sped off with better things to do than give me a ticket. Thanks, guys!

In 1983 I did an event at Rose Drive Friends Church in Yorba Linda. They had the right idea for that one. Rather than keep everybody up until midnight and send us all back out on the roads with the drunks they decided to celebrate the New Year at the same time New York did - 9pm Pacific Time. We were all out of there by 10 and on our way home. I remember that night because I lived in Santa Ana at the time, I got home just as a high speed pursuit came sliding around the corner where my house was located. That was interesting.

And of course, later that night, probably from 11:45 pm to 12:15 am, it sounded like a firefight in Vietnam with all the weapons going off. I think I lay on the floor the whole time trying to make myself as small a target as possible. That part I don't miss.

Maybe I'll promote a concert one of my own next year. But we'll end early.

A Good Idea for Dealing With Gitmo

From Cliff May:

Step (1): Return all Gitmo detainees to Yemen.

Step (2): Use Predator missiles to strike the baggage-claim area 20 minutes after they arrive.

Just an idea.

Works for me.

And then there's this:

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of U.S. voters say waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques should be used to gain information from the terrorist who attempted to bomb an airliner on Christmas Day.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 30% oppose the use of such techniques, and another 12% are not sure.

Drip him, Dano.

Laugh of the Day

I followed a car with an Obama/Biden sticker on it (you don't see so many of those anymore, do you?) and it had this on the license plate frame:

My next license plate will be made by Bush and Cheney

Guess not, dummy. It's more likely a Democrat will be making your next plate than anyone from the Bush administration.

Funeral Scam Busted

I gotta give this guy an "A" for creativity:

A man has been arrested after a woman spotted a funeral donation box inside a Palmdale supermarket bearing pictures of her two daughters who are alive and well, sheriff's officials say.

Desiree Ramirez noticed the collection box while shopping at a Vallarta Supermarket along Palmdale Boulevard on Monday.

She told the store manager that the pictures on the box were that of her two daughters who were very much alive.

Ramirez was told a man identifying himself as Joel Perez asked permission to leave the boxes at the store in an effort to raise money for the funeral of his two nieces, according to Deputy Omar Chavez of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Supermarket employees arranged for the man to come pick up the donated money, which amounted to $437, Chavez said.

The suspect, Saul Lopez, of Palmdale, showed up and was arrested on Tuesday, according to Chavez.

Sheriff's officials say a second box had been set up at the nearby Mi Ranchito restaurant.

Lopez said he needed money and thought up the scam when he found a photo of the girls on the street.

I'll bet there's a lot more of that kind of stuff going on than we realize.

The Celestial Snow Globe

No, it's not the big crystal ball dropping in Times Square, but a composite shot from the Hubble Space Telescope of globular cluster M13 (h/t WUWT):

Kind of makes you feel insignificant, doesn't it?

No Rise in Atmospheric CO2 Fraction in 160 Years

Don Surber suggests this could be the final nail in the global warming coffin:

Most of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activity does not remain in the atmosphere, but is instead absorbed by the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems. In fact, only about 45 percent of emitted carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere.

However, some studies have suggested that the ability of oceans and plants to absorb carbon dioxide recently may have begun to decline and that the airborne fraction of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions is therefore beginning to increase.

Many climate models also assume that the airborne fraction will increase. Because understanding of the airborne fraction of carbon dioxide is important for predicting future climate change, it is essential to have accurate knowledge of whether that fraction is changing or will change as emissions increase.

To assess whether the airborne fraction is indeed increasing, Wolfgang Knorr of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol reanalyzed available atmospheric carbon dioxide and emissions data since 1850 and considers the uncertainties in the data.

In contradiction to some recent studies, he finds that the airborne fraction of carbon dioxide has not increased either during the past 150 years or during the most recent five decades.

Mother Gaia has a remarkably resilient system, able to respond to changes in conditions and pretty much shrugging off the effects of man.

And don't forget from the earlier post, CO2 is vital to all life on this planet.

Blizzard Cancels Global Warming Protest

Gotta love these stories:

A downtown protest of the climate change talks in Copenhagen became a victim of Wednesday's snowstorm.

"Not many people showed up because of the blizzard conditions," said organizer Clea Major, an international studies student at the University of Utah.

It didn't take long for the six friends to pack up a bullhorn and posters they'd planned to use for their "scream-in," an outlet for their frustration about the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks earlier this month to curb the pollution blamed for climate change.

Still, they chatted with a few passers-by during the commuter-hour protest near the Gateway, and explained that, blizzard aside, climate change is expected to bring chaos to the global climate, said Major.

She called Wednesday evening's effort a success and possibly the first in a series. As for the snow, it's not entirely new; a protest she attended last year in Washington, D.C., suffered a similar fate.

"There is always the irony element," Major said.

As I've said before, God just loves messing with these people's minds.

Making 2010 The Year of the Bible

I ran across some interesting advice from my friend Joe Carter at First Things. He has a suggestion on how to change your mind:

The beginning of a New Year—and a new decade—is an an excellent time to try something new. As you make your list of resolutions and goals I want to recommend adding a simply four step process that could transform your life by, quite literally, changing your mind.

After reading the entire post the vast majority of readers will snicker at such a hyperbolic claim and never implement the method I outline. A smaller number will consider the advice intriguing, my assertion only a slight exaggeration, but will also never implement the method. A tiny minority, however, will recognize the genius behind the process and apply it to their own life. This group will later say that my claim was an understatement.

This post is written for those people.

A few years ago I stumbled across a variation of the four steps in a blog post by my Evangel co-blogger Fred Sanders and implemented his recommendation that day. I later had the pleasure of meeting Sanders in person and telling him how his post had transformed my life. My hope is that at least one other person will follow this advice and experience the same transformative effect.

Before I reveal the four steps I want to reiterate that while the advice could transform your life, it likely will not. As with most life-altering advice, it is simple, easy to implement, and even easier to ignore. Statistically speaking, the odds are great that you’ll ignore this advice. But a handful of you will try it so for the one or two people who will find this useful, the four steps that will transform your worldview are:

1. Choose a book of the Bible.

2. Read it in its entirety.

3. Repeat step #2 twenty times.

4. Repeat this process for all books of the Bible.

Christians often talk about having a Biblical worldview yet most have only a rudimentary knowledge of the Bible. They attempt to build a framework without first gathering the lumber and cement needed to create a solid foundation. The benefits of following this process should therefore be obvious. By fully immersing yourself into the text you’ll come to truly know the text. You’ll deepen your understanding of each book and knowledge of the the Bible as a whole.

There's more at the link including recommendations on how to approach this. I'd read that before deciding where to start.

It's an intriguing idea. Sounds pretty simple in theory, but probably much more difficult in practice as there are so many things that we allow to distract us.

I've read through the Bible cover-to-cover twice, but I don't recommend that for someone trying to develop a deeper understanding. You find yourself skimming through just to get the process done. And frankly, who can keep their attention focused when slogging through all the "begats" in the Old Testament. The genealogies are probably important, but boy are they boring.

Perhaps I'll give it a try.

Nine Big Stories the Mainstream Media Missed (or Ignored)

Fox News has a slideshow of the nine big 2009 news stories the mainstream media missed. The stories include Van Jones, the ACORN tapes, Science Czar John Holdren, ClimateGate, Politicizing the NEA, Chas Freeman, the Tea Party Protest, Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings, and the Democratic Stimulus. All of these stories were bad news for liberals which explains the mainstream media's reluctance to have anything to do with them.

You can review the details of each at the link.

TSA Goes After Bloggers

I bet they wouldn't dare try this with network or cable news reporters:

As the government reviews how an alleged terrorist was able to bring a bomb onto a U.S.-bound plane and try to blow it up on Christmas Day, the Transportation Security Administration is going after bloggers who wrote about a directive to increase security after the incident.

TSA special agents served subpoenas to travel bloggers Steve Frischling and Chris Elliott, demanding that they reveal who leaked the security directive to them. The government says the directive was not supposed to be disclosed to the public.

Frischling said he met with two TSA special agents Tuesday night at his Connecticut home for about three hours and again on Wednesday morning when he was forced to hand over his lap top computer. Frischling said the agents threatened to interfere with his contract to write a blog for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines if he didn't cooperate and provide the name of the person who leaked the memo.

"It literally showed up in my box," Frischling told The Associated Press. "I do not know who it came from." He said he provided the agents a signed statement to that effect.

In a Dec. 29 posting on his blog, Elliott said he had told the TSA agents at his house that he would call his lawyer and get back to them. Elliott said late Wednesday he could not comment until the legal issues had been resolved.

The TSA declined to say how many people were subpoenaed.

I think both of these guys, and anyone else who's being targeted, have legitimate first amendment claims to protect their sources and their personal property. You don't have to be a journalism school graduate or work for some alphabet network to be part of the press these days.

I think the TSA has badly overstepped their authority and will likely face a slap-down in court.

UPDATE: Fox News identifies the two as "journalists", not bloggers. Interesting.

UPDATE 2: TSA drops subpoena's. It was a bad idea from the start.

Letting Political Operatives Run National Security

The Prowler at American Spectator offers some insight as to the effect the pantybomber had on the Obama White House:

On December 26, two days after Nigerian Omar Abdulmutallab allegedly attempted to use underwear packed with plastic explosives to blow up the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight he was on, and as it became clear internally that the Administration had suffered perhaps its most embarrassing failure in the area of national security, senior Obama White House aides, including chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod and new White House counsel Robert Bauer, ordered staff to begin researching similar breakdowns -- if any -- from the Bush Administration.

"The idea was that we'd show that the Bush Administration had had far worse missteps than we ever could," says a staffer in the counsel's office. "We were told that classified material involving anything related to al Qaeda operating in Yemen or Nigeria was fair game and that we'd declassify it if necessary."

The White House, according to the source, is in full defensive spin mode. Other administration sources also say a flurry of memos were generated on December 26th, 27th, and 28th, which developed talking points about how Obama's decision to effectively shut down the Homeland Security Council (it was merged earlier this year into the National Security Council, run by National Security Adviser James Jones) had nothing to do with what Obama called a "catastrophic" failure on Christmas Day.

"This White House doesn't view the Northwest [Airlines] failure as one of national security, it's a political issue," says the White House source. "That's why Axelrod and Emanuel are driving the issue."

Axelrod, who has no foreign policy or national security experience beyond occasionally consulting with liberal or progressive candidates running for political office in foreign countries, has been actively participating in national security briefings from the beginning of the administration. He has also sat in on Obama's "war council" meetings, providing Obama with suggestions in both venues based on what he knows about polling and public opinion data, say several White House sources.

"[Axelrod] isn't sitting in the meetings telling the President, 'Do this because the polling shows that,'" says one source. "But we know that in less public settings, or on paper, David does provide guidance to the President that gives him added context to the recommendations and information our foreign policy and national security teams give him."

Axelrod's presence in the meetings has raised some eyebrows, as previous political advisers in the White House have typically not participated in such meetings. Bush Administration sources, for example, say that political adviser Karl Rove was not present at national security meetings.

I wish everybody would quit using the weasel word "allegedly" when referring to the pantybomber's attempted attack. There's nothing "alleged" about it - he did it. There's more than ample proof of that.

Setting that aside, it's clear that Axlerod and Emanuel are the true powers behind the throne. It's not their job to protect America, but their job to protect Obama and make sure he looks as good as possible.

They're failing.

The Night of Rush

I had a couple of uneasy hours last night when the news first broke that Rush Limbaugh had been taken to a hospital in Hawaii with chest pains. He was reported in serious condition, and then for a couple of hours there wasn't any word at all. The left was going crazy, with vitriol spewing from every pore, as they celebrated what they hoped would be his demise, and the right was offering prayers and hopes for his speedy recovery.

By about 11 pm PT last night rumors started to circulate that various organizations were reporting that he had died (one I saw said the report came from Chris Cuomo at ABC, another cited TMZ). Both could be easily checked and knocked down but that didn't stop the rumormongers. Frankly, I'm sure some of them spreading those stories were hoping they were true. (UPDATE: Wikipedia also pronounced him dead.)

Thankfully the King of Talk Radio was still with us and his own website finally issued a statement late last night.

There's no word this morning on the cause of the chest pains. From personal experience I can tell you there's lots of things that can do that, so we'll wait and see.

Mark Steyn offered some thoughts on Rush's impact on the radio world:

I was chit-chatting about this with Sean Hannity (whose first national audience was as a guest-host for Rush) off-air during a commercial break at Fox News a couple of months back. Sean pointed out that Rush's three-hour block is the anchor around which hundreds of talk stations build the schedule. Just so: Once you've got Rush, you figure out what to program before him and after him, and pretty soon you've filled up the day. But, without Rush, it's not clear whether many of these guys would even be in the political talk business at all: He's your audience base, and your advertising base - the man who sells enough airtime to protect you from an ill-advised gamble elsewhere in the roster.

Rush took a rotting abandoned hulk - AM radio - and reinvented it as a new conservative medium. Critics such as our former colleague David Frum miss the larger point: It's not just about his opinions on this or that policy issue or candidate, but about a strategic savvy few other folks on our side of the aisle can demonstrate.

I owe him a lot personally, and I hope he rests up for whatever time he needs, and then comes back and sticks it to the naysayers till mid-century.

Amen, brother.

There is only one talk radio host that I listen to regularly and that's Rush. He helped inspire this blog and any political activism in which I've participated. His loss to the conservative movement would be enormous because there simply isn't anyone out there who does conservative talk radio as well as he does, mixing information with biting humor and righteous outrage. I frankly can't listen to most other hosts because they spend too much time arguing with idiots.

They can't carry the show by themselves for hours at a time like Rush can.

Rush is at his best during his monologues. I wish he wouldn't take any calls at all because they seldom improve the show. They're usually the most uncomfortable moments in the broadcast for me, not only because some of them are idiots and others just can't seem to get their ideas out of their mouths, but because they impart little new information. Rush knows that and pretty much uses callers as springboards to topics he planned to cover anyway. I don't hear that happening with most other hosts.

Get well, El Rushbo. 2010 will be a big year for the conservative movement and we need the Maha Rushie at the helm.

UPDATE: From Walter Williams on the Rush Limbaugh Show this morning: So far there hasn't been any confirmation of a heart attack. He'll have a full work-up today to try and sort everything out. Still resting comfortably in the Hawaiian hospital.

Recession Hits Megachurch

Even the one of the largest megachurches around can't escape the Obama economy:

Evangelical pastor Rick Warren is begging parishioners at his Southern California megachurch to cough up $900,000 before Jan. 1 to keep the parish out of the red.

In an urgent letter posted on the Saddleback Church Web site on Wednesday, Warren says expenses are up because parishioners are out of work and "the bottom dropped out" when year-end donations dropped dramatically.

He asks parishioners to donate before the new year to keep the Orange County church out of debt.

A spokeswoman for Warren said the church does not release financial details, so it's difficult to put the $900,000 shortfall in context.

Warren delivered the invocation at the inauguration of President Barack Obama and is the author of numerous books, including the best-selling "The Purpose Driven Life."

Giving normally picks up at year-end as people try to get their dollars on record before the end of the tax year. This year, there weren't any dollars.

UPDATE: Church members are responding. I fully expect the need will be met.

UPDATE2: Shortfall not a management issue, says Rick Warren. More of a timing issue, which I can certainly understand.

The "Dangerous Pollutant" That's Vital to Life on Earth

Richard Stegemeier writes in the OC Register about the dastardly CO2 that the EPA has declared a dangerous pollutant:

The air we breathe contains 20 percent oxygen, which is vital to the survival of all human and animal life. Without oxygen we would all die within minutes. Atmospheric carbon dioxide on the other hand, at less than 0.04 percent, is a seemingly insignificant gas unworthy of legislative concern. Yet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, without congressional direction or approval, declared this month that CO2 is a dangerous pollutant that endangers the health of every human on Earth and must be controlled by her bureaucracy.

Obviously, Administrator Jackson's declaration was meant to frighten the American public, not to enlighten them, and cannot be taken seriously. Researchers in the United Kingdom report that CO2 levels in classrooms often exceed concentrations 10 times higher than ambient air without producing any ill effects.

So what is this presumably poisonous gas that has suddenly become the No. 1 health hazard on the EPA's hit list? Every human exhales a little more than two pounds of CO2 every day, just to stay alive. The world's population of over 6.3 billion people exhales more than 2.5 billion tons of CO2 every year, only slightly less than America's total emissions from petroleum.

John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club, once said, "Man always and everywhere is a blight on the planet." Is this now the official line of the EPA?

Agronomists tell us that CO2, far from being a poison, is vital to all plant growth. If today's atmospheric CO2 concentration were to be cut in half, all vegetation would wither and die. Subsequently, without plant food all animal life would also perish within a short time. Agronomists also tell us that if CO2 levels were to double, plant growth could increase by as much as 40 percent without any effect on human health. In fact, rising CO2 levels caused by burning fossil fuels may be essential for food production necessary to sustain a world population expected to increase to 9 billion by 2050.

CO2 is little more than an aerosol fertilizer. Without it all that green stuff that feeds the world disappears, and all the stuff that eats that green stuff disappears.

It's really that simple.

The Fox News Decade

Take a look at this from The TVNewser:

If this was a fight it would have been stopped in 2003.

Rush Limbaugh Rushed to Hospital in Hawaii

UPDATE: Statement from RushLimbaugh.com:

ALERT: Rush was admitted to a Honolulu hospital today and is resting comfortably after suffering chest pains. Rush appreciates your prayers and well wishes. He will keep you updated via RushLimbaugh.com and on Thursday's radio program.

I don't like the sound of this:

Conservative radio talk host Rush Limbaugh was rushed to a Honolulu hospital on Wednesday afternoon with chest pains, sources told KITV.
Paramedics responded to the call at 2:41 p.m. at the Kahala Hotel and Resort.
Limbaugh suffered from chest pains, sources said. Paramedics treated him and took him to Queen's Medical Center in serious condition.

He was seen golfing at Waialae Country Club earlier this week. The country club is next to the Kahala Hotel and Resort.

The radio show host had been in the islands during the holidays. Coincidentally, his visit comes at a time when two of the nation's most powerful Democrats, President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, are also staying in Hawaii.

Get well, El Rushbo.

UPDATE - some additional info:

Limbaugh, 58, suffered from chest pains, sources said. Limbaugh was sitting in a chair in his ninth-floor hotel room at the Kahala when emergency crews arrived, sources said. He told medical crews that he was taking medication for a back problem, sources said.

Paramedics treated him and took him to Queen's Medical Center in serious condition. He will not be released from the hospital on Wednesday night, sources said.

Interesting that the people on the left who are hoping Rush dies are the same people who want to control your health care.

UPDATE from Breaking News:

Update: Limbaugh resting comfortably in Honolulu hospital, show staff say - AP

Good.

$5 Million Dollar San Francisco Visitor's Center Vital to National Defense

It must be - why else would it be in the Defense Appropriations Bill?

President Obama pledged in August to cut all pork barrel projects from defense spending, threatening to veto any swollen bills that came across his desk -- a pledge shattered by nearly 2,000 pet projects that have made their way into the defense budget.

"If a project doesn't support our troops, we will not fund it," he said to a meeting of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Phoenix. "If a system doesn't perform, we will terminate it. And if Congress sends me a defense bill loaded with that kind of pork, I will veto it. "

Just last week, Obama broke his promise as he signed into law the 2010 Defense Appropriations Bill -- a $636 billion behemoth loaded with $4.2 billion of pork.

"We should be concerned that we're getting ripped off," said Ryan Alexander, president of the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense.

"The earmarking process is the beginning of figuring out whether or not we're getting ripped off. Absolutely dollars are being directed, not based on the best decision making process."

In all, Congress added in 1,720 pet projects, including:

∙$5 million for a visitors center in San Francisco
∙$23 million for indigent health care in Hawaii
∙$18 million for the Edward Kennedy Policy Institute in Massachusetts
∙$1.6 million to computerize hospital records in Oakland
∙$47 million for anti-drug training centers around the country
∙$20 million for the World War II Museum in Louisiana
∙$3.9 million grant to develop an energy-efficient solar film for buildings
∙$800,000 for minority prostate cancer research
∙$3.6 million for marijuana eradication in Kentucky
∙$2.4 million for handicap access and a sprinkler system at a community club in New York

Lawmakers also added $5 billion for two destroyers, 10 C-17 cargo planes and to develop a jet engine the Pentagon neither wants nor needs. Critics call it classic pork -- projects that may save jobs, but not money.

"There is a reason they are added to the Defense appropriations bill, because everyone in Congress knows this is a must-pass piece of legislation", said Todd Harrison, a budget studies fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

You want to bet Nancy Pelosi added that visitor's center to the bill?

This administration, and especially the Democrats, have been all talk from the start with no intent whatsoever to follow up on their pledges to cut pork spending.

Delusional Press Release of the Day

From the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee:

Democratic strategists Wednesday asserted President Barack Obama "has been far more aggressive in fighting al Qaeda" than the previous administration .

Obama won't even admit we're in a war, let alone let our people fight it. It only took him something like 7 months to give our general in Afghanistan some of the additional troops he requested.

The DCCC has been smoking the funny stuff.

Health Care/Homeland Security Cartoon of the Day

Seen on Facebook:

Teaching Minnesota Kids to Hate America

It would be easy enough to believe that a lot of Minnesotans hate America. After all, a majority of them voted for Al Franken.

However, Big Government has a report on the plans to institutionalize the hatred of America by teaching it as part of the school curriculum:

We couldn’t even begin to make something like this up.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, College of Education officials recently established the “Race, Culture, Class and Gender Task Group.” It’s charged with helping to devise a new system for training prospective K-12 teachers, because current teachers lack “cultural competence,” a factor officials believe contributes to the poor performance of minority students.

The task force has issued its final report, which the group Foundation for Individual Rights in Education brought to light, and officials from the College of Education are expected to review its recommendations in January.

What’s the task force’s main recommendation? That new teachers be immersed in a liberal political agenda that’s highly critical of American social norms, particularly the notion that all people can positively influence their own destiny through hard work and determination.

The task force “recommended that aspiring teachers must repudiate the notion of the ‘American Dream’ and instead “must embrace – and be prepared to teach our state’s kids – the task force’s own vision of America as an oppressive hellhole: racist, sexist and homophobic,” according to writer Katherine Kersten of the Star Tribune.

“The report advocates making race, class and gender politics the ‘overarching framework’ for all teaching courses at the university,” Kersten wrote. “It calls for evaluating future teachers in both coursework and practice teaching, based on their willingness to fall into intellectual lockstep.”

The task force recommends that prospective teachers begin by confessing their own bigotry. They would have to prepare a report “describing their own prejudices and stereotypes, questioning their ‘cultural motives’ for wishing to become teachers, and take a ‘cultural intelligence’ assessment designed to ferret out their latent racism, classism and other ‘isms,’” according to the newspaper.

More than anything, “future teachers must. . . recognize and denounce the fundamental injustices at the heart of American society,” the article said.

What about those prospective teachers who refuse to fall into “intellectual lockstep?” After all, there’s bound to be a stubborn conservative or two who think America’s a pretty decent place to live, work and raise a family.

For them, the university “must develop clear steps and procedures. . . including a remediation plan,” the report said.

We wonder if the university’s “remediation” program will prescribe years of hard labor, so the unenlightened will have plenty of time to ponder their foolishness.

If I might make a suggestion to Minnesota parents, why don't you request that the schools use this new history text from former Education Secretary William Bennett instead:

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt today announced an exclusive agreement with former U.S. Secretary of Education William J. Bennett to distribute America: The Last Best Hope, a three volume series and interactive website on United States history that will be available January 1, 2010 for grades 8-12.

“As students of this generation seek out unique methods of learning, this program meets them where they already are – in cyberspace.”
“Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is excited to partner with Secretary Bennett, and benefit from his unique experiences with education, by distributing this groundbreaking new series,” said Bethlam Forsa, Executive Vice President of Content Development & Publishing Operations, K-12 Publishers at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. “As students of this generation seek out unique methods of learning, this program meets them where they already are – in cyberspace.”

America: The Last Best Hope is told by eminent author and educator William J. Bennett, and curricular applications were developed by noted, award winning educators and American history experts. The books are available in e-reader versions as well as standard texts. In addition, Team HOPE (“History Opens Eyes”) has developed innovative and revolutionary online companion materials for students and teachers, called The Roadmap, to change the way American history is learned and taught.

Secretary Bennett stated: “History is our nation’s school children’s worst subject. And yet, the history of America is the greatest story of the modern era. It should not be boring, it should not be dumbed-down, and it should not be politicized. It is the story of a great experiment—what Abraham Lincoln called a ‘proposition.’ It is the story of many noble efforts to live up to that proposition, sometimes failing, more often, succeeding. This great adventure is told the best way I know how, chronologically, excitingly, honestly. ‘Once Upon A Time’ can still be an invitation to our youth and there is no greater ‘Once Upon A Time’ than ours. It is the dream of a lifetime for me to have a textbook in our nation’s schools explaining all of this—and with a most exciting curriculum to accompany it. And to do so with the leader in excellence in education publishing, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, is a special privilege.”

Much of the Country Will Be Hit With a Major Cold Snap

Get out your long undies because much of the country is going to get blasted with cold weather we haven't seen for quite awhile during the early days of 2010 (from Watts Up With That):

Yesterday, Senior AccuWeather meteorologist Joe Bastardi let loose with this stunning prediction on the AccuWeather premium web site via Brett Anderson’s Global warming blog:

What is facing the major population centers of the northern hemisphere is unlike anything that we have seen since the global warming debate got to the absurd level it is now, which essentially has been there is no doubt about all this. For cold of a variety not seen in over 25 years in a large scale is about to engulf the major energy consuming areas of the northern Hemisphere. The first 15 days of the opening of the New Year will be the coldest, population weighted, north of 30 north world wide in over 25 years in my opinion.

If it's any consolation those of us on the West Coast will enjoy rather nice weather during that same period. We have enough Hollywood environwackos out here to ensure that global warming continues on the Holy Coast.

How Conservatives Are Made

John J. Miller relates a story about his son:

"They Just Took My Money"

That's what my 8-year-old son said about the sales tax on the ride home from Borders a few minutes ago. He had a $10 gift card from Christmas, bought a Clone Wars book for $7.99, looked at the receipt, and wondered why he still didn't have a full $2.01 on it.

This is how conservatives are made.

My kids have in the last few months gotten their first real paychecks and have discovered the joys of income tax withholding, FICA, and other deductions. It's always a rude awakening.

Political Cartoon of the Day

h/t Don Surber:

Times Square Shut Down by Suspicious Van

Hmmm:

The NYPD has closed down part of Manhattan's Times Square in response to a report of a suspicious vehicle, CBS 2 HD has learned.

Police blocked off Broadway at 42nd Street just after 11 a.m. Wednesday to investigate a white 1992 Dodge van with tinted windows that has been parked at the location for two days.

The NYPD's emergency service unit and bomb squad have positioned themselves around the vehicle, which is parked on the west side of the street between 41st and 42nd.

The van has temporary plates and a tarp is covering the windows, police say.

Pedestrians in and around the Crossroads of the World are being told to keep it moving, according to CBS 2's Lou Young, who was live at the scene.

Probably nothing, but with New Year's Eve coming up tomorrow night and a crowd of a million people planning to be in that area you can't take too many precautions.

UPDATE: No threat. Nothing to see here.....move along....

Ben Nelson's Grovel-a-Thon

Sen. Ben Nelson has some begging to do:

As a fresh poll measured the political cost of Sen. Ben Nelson's health reform vote, he prepared Tuesday to take his case directly to Nebraskans during Wednesday night's Holiday Bowl game.

Nelson will air a new TV ad in which he attempts to debunk opposition claims that the Senate legislation represents a government takeover, and he makes the case for health care reform.

"With all the distortions about health care reform, I want you to hear directly from me," the Democratic senator says in the ad.

Nelson, dressed in an open-necked shirt and sweater, speaks directly into the camera during the 30-second ad.

The message will be launched during the Nebraska-Arizona football game and continue to air statewide for an undisclosed number of days.

The political damage Nelson may have incurred in providing the critical 60th vote that cleared the way for Senate passage of the health care reform bill showed up Tuesday in a poll released by Rasmussen Reports.

The telephone survey of 500 Nebraskans, conducted Monday, suggested Republican Gov. Dave Heineman would defeat Nelson in a potential 2012 Senate race by a 61-30 margin.

The poll showed Nelson with a 55 percent unfavorable rating and 64 percent disapproval for Democratic health care reform legislation.

Unless he comes out in this ad (which I already know he doesn't) and tell the people he'll vote against cloture on the final bill he won't be able to undo the damage he's already done to himself. It won't be enough to vote for cloture and then vote against the final bill when only 51 votes are needed for passage. That will be seen for what it is - a meaningless gesture designed to get him back in the good graces of Nebraska voters.

Too late, Ben. That's toasty smell is what's left of your political career.

A Failing Grade in His Number One Job

Brit Toby Harnden who writes about all things American for the UK Telegraph doesn't mince words when talking about Obama's role in the pantybomber caper:

There is no more solemn duty for an American commander-in-chief than the martialling of “all elements of American power” – the phrase Obama himself used on Monday – to protect the people of the United States. In that key respect, Obama failed on Christmas Day, just as President George W. Bush failed on September 11th (though he succeeded in the seven years after that).

Yes, the buck stops in the Oval Office. Obama may have rather smugly given himself a “B+” for his 2008 performance but he gets an F for the events that led to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarding a Detroit-bound plane in Amsterdam with a PETN bomb sewn into his underpants. He said today that a “systemic failure has occurred”. Well, he’s in charge of that system.

Harnden goes on to list all the things that went wrong with this case. Read the whole thing here.

Cheney Hits Them Again

Dick Cheney continues to do the work other Republicans seem shy to do - calling out the president:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney accused President Barack Obama on Tuesday of “trying to pretend we are not at war” with terrorists, pointing to the White House response to the attempted sky bombing as reflecting a pattern that includes banishing the term “war on terror” and attempting to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center.

“[W]e are at war and when President Obama pretends we aren’t, it makes us less safe,” Cheney said in a statement to POLITICO. “Why doesn’t he want to admit we’re at war? It doesn’t fit with the view of the world he brought with him to the Oval Office. It doesn’t fit with what seems to be the goal of his presidency – social transformation—the restructuring of American society.”

Cheney was joining a chorus of Republicans who have criticized Obama following the Christmas Day attack, in which a Nigerian suspect is accused of trying to blow up a loaded airliner with a bomb stitched into his underwear.

A senior Democrat said in response: “It’s telling that in attacking the president and the administration, that Vice President Cheney did not condemn the attack against our nation on Christmas Day.”

Now how stupid is that last statement. Of course Cheney is condemning the attack - he does so by pointing out that this administration doesn't even want to admit there are people out there who want to kill us. It's a major swerve from their normal behavior for a Dem to even admit this was an attack. Gotta give them credit for that.

Cheney has a long track record of defending America - something the Dems can't match.

I'll bet a lot of Dems are secretly quite glad this incident happened. Nobody got hurt and it's taken everyone's mind off of the disaster that is the health care bill.

2009 in Review Part 2

Lots of year-end review articles these days. This one from Dave Barry certainly starts well:

It was a year of Hope -- at first in the sense of ``I feel hopeful!'' and later in the sense of ``I hope this year ends soon!''

It was also a year of Change, especially in Washington, where the tired old hacks of yesteryear finally yielded the reins of power to a group of fresh, young, idealistic, new-idea outsiders such as Nancy Pelosi. As a result Washington, rejecting ``business as usual,'' finally stopped trying to solve every problem by throwing billions of taxpayer dollars at it and instead started trying to solve every problem by throwing trillions of taxpayer dollars at it.

You can read the rest of it at the link.

2009 In Review

Done as only the guys at Jib Jab can do it:

Bush Adjusting to Life Outside the White House

This item from Washington Whispers:

George W. Bush is finally recovering from presidentialitis. Recent visitors tell us that the Decider has had difficulty adjusting to life outside of the White House. But now he's in great spirits, looking younger and wrapping up work on his autobiography. New on that front is his addition of how God; his dad, the former president; and his wife have influenced his life.

I'm sure it's a major adjustment to go from leader of the free world to just another citizen (albeit a citizen with Secret Service protection). And I'm also sure it's difficult to see Obama and the Dems make such a mess of everything and not be able to do anything about it.

He left on a rather bad note with the American people - pretty low approval numbers and the mocking of the Obama crowd. A year later his numbers have significantly improved and Obama has left many voters nostalgic for the Bush presidency.

No wonder he's feeling better these days.

A Mother and Child Saved on Christmas Eve

Some things are beyond human understanding:

Mike Hermanstorfer was clutching his pregnant wife's hand when her life slipped away in a Colorado hospital on Christmas Eve, and then he cradled his newborn son's limp body seconds after a medical team delivered the baby by Cesarean section.

Minutes later he saw his son come to life in his arms under the feverish attention of doctors, and soon he learned his wife had inexplicably come back to life.

"My legs went out from underneath me," Hermanstorfer said Tuesday. "I had everything in the world taken from me, and in an hour and a half I had everything given to me."

Hermanstorfer's wife, Tracy, went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing during labor on Thursday, said Dr. Stephanie Martin, a maternal fetal medicine specialist at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs, where the Hermanstorfers had gone for the birth of their son.

"She had no signs of life. No heartbeat, no blood pressure, she wasn't breathing," said Martin, who had rushed to Hermanstorfer's room to help. "The baby was, it was basically limp, with a very slow heart rate."

After their miraculous recovery, both mother and the baby, named Coltyn, appear healthy with no signs of problems, Martin said.

She said she cannot explain the mother's cardiac arrest or the recovery.

"We did a thorough evaluation and can't find anything that explains why this happened," she said.

Mike Hermanstorfer credits "the hand of God."

Exactly.

Dem Calls For Profiling

Of course, she doesn't want to call it profiling because that would be politically incorrect, but that's what it is:

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee organized a news conference on Sunday morning at Bush Intercontinental Airport where she demanded major changes in the way potential terrorists are tracked.

The demands came one day after federal authorities charged a Nigerian man with trying to detonate a device during a Detroit-bound flight.

Jackson-Lee called for a revision of the way federal investigators track potential terrorists. She recommended more intensive and creative uses of technology and behavioral monitoring.

"The assessment of behavioral tendencies, that is not profiling, but it is the same misstep that we made in Fort Hood," said Jackson Lee at the news conference.

Jackson- Lee believes there may very well be behavioral similarities between people who might otherwise be successful in committing deadly acts of terrorism, but many Nigerians in Houston worry the new approach could cast a shadow on all of them.

She doesn't get many things right, but she is correct that the approach that calls for treating everyone equally doesn't work. There are certain factors, be they race, religion, national origin, etc. that cause certain persons to warrant extra attention from the TSA people.

Stopping Terrorism With Art Therapy

Let's see how well it's worked:

Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Northwest bombing in a Monday statement that vowed more attacks on Americans.

American officials agreed to send the two terrorists from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an "art therapy rehabilitation program" and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials.

Guantanamo prisoner #333, Muhamad Attik al-Harbi, and prisoner #372, Said Ali Shari, were sent to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 9, 2007, according to the Defense Department log of detainees who were released from American custody. Al-Harbi has since changed his name to Muhamad al-Awfi.

Both Saudi nationals have since emerged in leadership roles in Yemen, according to U.S. officials and the men's own statements on al Qaeda propaganda tapes.

Both of the former Guantanamo detainees are described as military commanders and appear on a January, 2009 video along with the man described as the top leader of al Qaeda in Yemen, Abu Basir Naser al-Wahishi, formerly Osama bin Laden's personal secretary.

And the administration still wants to close Gitmo and transfer a bunch of these guys to Illinois.

The terrorists are laughing at us.

Want to Know Why California College Tuitions Are So High?

Perhaps it's because of nonsense like this:

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A group of California artists wants Mexicans and Central Americans to have more than just a few cans of tuna and a jug of water for their illegal trek through the harsh desert into the U.S.

Faculty at University of California, San Diego are developing a GPS-enabled cell phone that tells dehydrated migrants where to find water and pipes in poetry from phone speakers, regaling them on their journey much like Emma Lazarus' words did a century ago to the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" on Ellis Island.

How about creating a fence they can't get through? I wouldn't mind tuition dollars going to that.

Too Cool to be Bothered by Terrorism

I'm reading the piece below and just shaking my head:

THE WHITE HOUSE CASE — "Obama, the Anti-Bush in Aftermath of Terror Bid," by AFP's Stephen Collinson, in Kaneohe: "President Barack Obama sought to show both calm and steel Monday in a first response to the Christmas Day airline attack that marked a sharp shift in tone from George W. Bush-style rhetoric. Blunt but restrained, Obama delivered the carefully calibrated response to the botched bid to bring down a Northwest Airlines jet bound for Detroit, as he broke away from a family vacation in his native Hawaii. ... Ex-president Bush, a proponent of 'from the gut' leadership, often hit a swaggering, bombastic tone in contrast to his successor's more cerebral, 'no-drama Obama' performance on Monday. ... Obama's performance revealed a little about how he sees himself as a leader, and the way he will respond to current, and future threats to the US homeland. In waiting three days since the thwarted bid by a 23-year-old Nigerian man to bring down the jet, the president apparently sought to deny its extremist foes the oxygen of publicity. There also seemed to be an attempt to avoid sparking panic and to keep political temperatures cool at home. Obama coolly went to the gym and played tennis with his wife Michelle before making his statement — then headed for the golf links afterwards."

Can you imagine any journalist writing something like that about President Bush had he waited for three days to respond to a terrorism attempt? He would have been vilified at the very least, and at most would have been declared hopelessly out-of-touch with the gravity of the situation.

Media Bias Video of the Day

The Media Research Center gives out some of its top awards for 2009:

CNN and MSNBC Can't Even Beat the Cartoon Network

The Live Feed has the year-end prime time cable ratings. Look how far down you have to go to find CNN and MSNBC:

USA 3.278 million average viewers +15%
DISNEY 2.534 +6%
ESPN 2.253 +9%
TNT 2.254 +2%
FOX NEWS 2.210 +7%
TBS 1.838 -7%
NICK AT NIGHT 1.734 +2%
A&E 1.467 +8%
ABC FAMILY 1.353 +4%
FX 1.369 +10%
CARTOON 1.302 -3%
SYFY 1.276 -0%
DISCOVERY 1.253 +4%
HISTORY 1.212 +3%
HGTV 1.202 +9%
LIFETIME 1.185 -20%
FOOD 1.119 +26%
HALLMARK 1.104 -18%
AMC 1.041 -6%
TLC 1.070 +18%
TRUTV 1.090 +0%
SPIKE 1.063 -17%
COMEDY CENTRAL 992 -10%
CNN 908 -30%
MSNBC 817 -12%

Meanwhile Fox News continues to pick up viewers. Gee, I wonder why?

Here's How to Kill the Airline Industry

Simply equip every airport with these full-body scanners:

Only 19 U.S. airports have received sophisticated imaging machines that can detect explosives hidden in clothing.

Security experts say the scanners may be the best defense in stopping attacks such as an attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound aircraft Christmas Day.

The Transportation Security Administration wants to install more of the devices, known as whole-body imaging scanners, but the agency has met resistance from civil liberties groups, passengers and some members of Congress.

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the nation's third busiest, has just two of the machines.

The scanners are able to detect weapons and explosives in places security screeners are not allowed to touch in physical pat-down searches, such as the groin area and even body cavities where items could be concealed....

Dallas-based aviation security consultant Clive Miskin said whole-body scanners may be the best technology to prevent the terrorists from personally carrying explosives onto planes.

"That's one piece of technology that can help and it will help apprehend bad people with bad intentions," said Miskin, managing director of International Security Defense Systems LLC.

Miskin's partner, Chaim Koppel, said recent events may push governments to install the machines at more airports.

"Slowly, we're going to see more them in the States, in Europe, in South America," he said.

The American Civil Liberties Union has opposed the imaging machines, arguing that the body images they produce are too revealing. And some members of Congress have supported legislation that would limit their use, allowing passengers to opt out and submit to a pat-down search instead.

In an effort to increase privacy, the TSA screeners who read the images are placed in a separate room so they are not able to see the passenger who is being shown on the imaging screen.

Take a look at the images shown at the link and tell me if you'd be comfortable having some stranger ogle you like that?

The problem with all of this stuff is they're almost sure to use it on the wrong people because they're so petrified at being accused of profiling some one. Of course, the terrorists who have been hijacking or blowing things up tend to be young, male, and of middle Eastern or African origin. The terrorist in the Detroit incident bought his ticket with cash and was traveling halfway around the world without any luggage. Just about every red flag in the book, and yet he was allowed on a flight in Amsterdam without even his passport.

If they want to subject airline passengers to these kinds of personal intrusions of the type represented by these scanners they better promise to put anybody who fits the profile through those things and leave the little old ladies alone.

You almost have to wonder if the ultimate goal in all this is a nationalized airline industry, because the restrictions on air travel will make it very difficult for airlines to be competitive and stay in business.

National GOP Blowing it In Massachusetts

The Boston Herald tells us today that the national GOP is lending almost no help to the GOP candidate in the special Senate election in Massachusetts to replace Ted Kennedy:

U.S. Senate candidate Scott Brown has been all but abandoned by the same national Republican committees that pumped hundreds of thousands in campaign cash to former governors Mitt Romney and William Weld during their long-shot bids for U.S. Senate.

The snub has outraged local Republicans who say national conservatives should be jumping at the chance to nab the first open Senate seat in decades despite Brown’s tough odds in the Jan. 19 special election.

“They need to give Scott a level playing field,” said former state GOP chairman Peter Torkildsen. “It’s one of those rare opportunities that a Republican has a good shot in Massachusetts.” …

Local operatives say the national GOP and the NRSC have donated voter lists, telephone systems and at least $50,000 to Brown’s effort.

But that support is barely a blip when compared to the intense GOP involvement in the unsuccessful but vigorous Romney and Weld Senate bids.

Writing off this race is a huge error by the GOP. Here is the perfect opportunity to test drive the anti-Obamacare campaign, especially since a GOP senator would be able to stop the whole thing in its tracks. If nothing else the party could see the effect an anti-Obamacare campaign would have on the vote totals and judge if that might be a good tactic for November.

They shouldn't be quitting on this race when there's so much voter opposition to the Dems agenda.

Ben Nelson's Self-Created Problems

Sen. Ben Nelson has dug himself quite a hole in his home state of Nebraska according to Rasmussen:

The good news for Senator Ben Nelson is that he doesn’t have to face Nebraska voters until 2012.

If Governor Dave Heineman challenges Nelson for the Senate job, a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows the Republican would get 61% of the vote while Nelson would get just 30%. Nelson was reelected to a second Senate term in 2006 with 64% of the vote.

Nelson's health care vote is clearly dragging his numbers down. Just 17% of Nebraska voters approve of the deal their senator made on Medicaid in exchange for his vote in support of the plan. Overall, 64% oppose the health care legislation, including 53% who are Strongly Opposed. In Nebraska, opposition is even stronger than it is nationally.

Fifty-six percent (56%) of voters in the state believe that passage of the legislation will hurt the quality of care, and 62% say it will raise costs.

Rasmussen also reported that if Nelson votes to stop final passage of the bill he gains back 21 points in his race for re-election.

He really ought to give that some serious thought.

Homeland Security Quote of the Day

From Barack Obama:

“As the plane made its final approach to Detroit Metropolitan Airport, a passenger allegedly tried to ignite an explosive device on his body, setting off a fire”

"Allegedly?" This is typical of the "terrorism is just another crime" approach that Obama has been trying to promote. Obama is not acting as president but as the District Attorney.

The terrorist didn't "allegedly" do anything, he did it. It was witnessed by others and he has the burned underwear and nether regions to prove it happened. Dancing around reality doesn't get it.

This isn't Perry Mason, this is war and the president simply isn't serious about it.

GOP Should Run on Repealing Obamacare

That's been the recommendation for the Senate special election in Massachusetts, and some GOP activists are encouraging that approach in the 2010 midterms:

In an interview with me just now, Max Pappas, the Vice President for Public Policy of Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks, said that if the bill passes, politicians should call for a full repeal.

“This has an unusual ability to be repealed, and the public is on that side.” he said. “The Republicans are going to have to prove that they are worthy of their votes.”

He emphasized that all the different parts of the bill fit together, and that Congress would need to try to repeal the whole thing…

Newt Gingrich threw down the same gauntlet on “Meet the Press” yesterday when he said, “I suspect that every Republican in 2010 and 2012 will run on an absolute pledge to repeal this bill.”

Chances are whatever finally passes will be such a mess that there won't be much risk in running against it.

Remember When the World Was Going to Love Us Again?

How's that going?

In the realm of diplomacy with America's detractors, President Obama ends his first year in office much as George W. Bush ended his last -- unloved.

Obama appeared to "extend a hand," as he said he would do in his inauguration speech, but he didn't find many "willing to unclench (their) fist" in return.

Again and again, Obama made symbolic and concrete gestures toward some of the countries giving the United States the hardest time -- Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela.

Occasionally and briefly, recipients reciprocated. But while the intentions of these countries are shrouded and ultimately unclear, the year inarguably ended on a sour note.

Could be better. Looks like the world would prefer a president they can respect rather than one they can love.

The Harry Potter Economic Boom

We are in the midst of a Harry Potter film festival around our house right now. Early in December the first four films in the series were broadcast on ABC Family Channel and I had my TiVO grab them. We started watching them last week, movies that we saw in the theater when they were first released and more than once on tape since then.

It's good stuff. I enjoy them despite the rants of some of my Christian brethren who are convinced that watching Harry Potter will immediately result in devil worship (I've also read all seven books more than once and there's not a pentagram in sight in my house).

My wife went out today to rent movies 5 and 6 and we'll watch those in the next few days.

Author J.K. Rowling and her Harry Potter series have created a booming economy all of their own, as The Economist today reports. Some 800 people are employed just in the making of the movies, and thousands more benefit from the books and theatrical showings. It's interesting to see how this whole thing got going and the firms that made millions along the way.

You Shouldn't Take That Stuff on Airplanes

Like firecrackers:

A passenger who flew into LaGuardia Airport on Sunday night was questioned by FBI agents after allegedly boarding the flight with an explosive device in his possession, CBS 2 has learned.

Officials confirmed Monday that a crew member on board Piedmont Airlines flight 4126, originating from Baltimore Washington International Airport, was cleaning the plane after it landed in New York around 7:30 p.m. when he found a large firecracker-like device wedged between two seats. Port Authority officials contacted FBI agents, and the passenger from that seat location, identified as 67-year-old Thomas Ouelette, of Bonita Springs, Fla., was tracked down and taken into custody.

Ouelette was planning on taking a connecting flight to Fort Myers, Fla. from New York.

Authorities did not release details on the kind of device discovered other than saying it was a 4-inch-long, three-quarter-inch-wide explosive pyrotechnic.

A few years ago I flew to Texas for the annual Gospel Music Festival and was wearing a coat I hadn't used much. As we were walking through the Dallas airport on my way to my connecting flight I reached into the pocket and discovered a container of Mace. I hadn't realized it was in there, and it didn't set off the metal detectors in Orange County. It was legal to carry around back in Orange County, but not legal to carry on an airliner. I figured it was probably not a good idea to keep tempting fate with that in my pocket, so I dumped it in the next DFW trash can I came to.

These things can happen.

On Internet Radio at 5pm PT

I've been asked to be a guest on Silvio Canto's BlogTalkRadio show at 5pm PT this afternoon. If you'd like to listen in, or call in to the show, you can find it here.

UPDATE: The show is in the archives now and you can listen to it at the link above.

Richard M. Nixon Library

There are two presidential libraries in the greater Los Angeles area. In 2005 we drove up to Simi Valley and visited the Ronald Reagan Library, and today we headed up to Yorba Linda to visit the Richard M. Nixon Library. Even though it's barely a 30 minute drive away I've never been there and since they were having a model train display I figured it was a good time to visit.

Here are some photos from the trip:

They had two large display rooms with model railroad stuff. I won't bore you with lots of pictures, but this will give you an idea of the things they had running.

The had quite a bit of campaign memorabilia from Nixon's various campaigns. These buttons were from the 1960 presidential race.

These are from the 1968 presidential race. They also had displays from his House, Senate and Governor's races.

This room was kind of interesting. They have life-sized models of various world leaders who interacted with Nixon in his roles as Vice President and President. Included were Mao Tse Tung and Chou en-Lai of China, Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev of The Soviet Union, Golda Meir of Israel, Anwar Sadat of Egypt, Winston Churchill of Great Britain, Charles De Gaulle of France, Konrad Adenauer of Germany, and a Japanese Prime Minister whose name escapes me right now.

I decided to have my picture taken with the Russkies. That's Meir and Sadat in the background.

In the adjoining room are two more sculptures of Nixon greeting Chou en-Lai in China. My wife pointed to the sculpture and said "Nixon's not bowing". Good observation.

There are various gifts to the Nixons that are on display, including the original manuscript of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America".

I'm a sucker for presidential vehicles, and one of the limousines used by LBJ, Nixon, Ford and Carter is on display. I took photos of several more presidential limos during my summer visit to the Ford Museum in Michigan.

Nixon and his wife Pat are buried on the Museum grounds. In order to get around regulations concerning where legal burials can take place a small plot of land was deeded to the local Friends Church which in turn designated it as a graveyard, thus making it legal for the Nixons to be buried on the property.

Nixon's childhood home is located on the grounds. It's a very small house, built by his father, where Nixon was born in 1913.

One of the former Marine One presidential helicopters is located on the property. For some odd reason they won't let you photograph the interior, but they do let you walk through. I'm not sure if this is the exact same chopper as shown in the famous photo below of Nixon the day he resigned from the presidency in 1974.

It's an interesting place to visit, but certainly not something that's going to take more than a couple of hours to see. The Reagan Library was more interesting to me (for one thing they have Air Force One on display up there), but for someone my age who remembers the Nixon years there's a lot of memorable stuff to see.

I realized as we were wrapping up the visit that if you're under 40 years of age you probably have no personal recollection of the Nixon presidency. That's making me feel pretty old.

House Dems Caving on Public Option

I was pretty sure this was gonna happen:

Two House Democrats who favor a government insurance plan, a central element of health care legislation passed in their chamber, acknowledged Sunday it might have to be sacrificed as negotiators work out a final agreement with the Senate.

Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the No. 3 Democrat in the House and one who had appealed to President Barack Obama not to yield on the public plan, set out conditions for yielding himself.

Asked during rounds on the Sunday news shows whether he could vote for a final bill that does not embrace a public plan, Clyburn said: "Yes, sir, I can."

Clyburn added: "We want a public option to do basically three things: Create more choice for insurers, create more competition for insurance companies, and to contain costs. So if we can come up with a process by which these three things can be done, then I'm all for it. Whether or not we label it a public option or not is of no consequence."

While insisting "it's not dead," Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said he recognizes realities in the Senate, where Democrats had to scrape up every vote from their side even to pass a bill without a government plan to compete in the private insurance marketplace.

"Before the House was to give up the public option, we would want to be persuaded that there are other mechanisms in whatever bill comes out that will keep down premiums," said Van Hollen, appearing to sketch out a bottom line without a government plan necessarily included. "We've got to make sure that the final product is affordable."

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., underscored the divisions Democrats will need to bridge when negotiators from the House and Senate meet next month to reconcile the two bills. He said there will need to be more give on the House side than the Senate, which took weeks to find the 60 votes needed for passage.

"If we are going to have a final law, it will look a lot more like the Senate version than the House version," Menendez asserted.

At this point passing SOMETHING called health care reform is more important than what's in the actual bill. The bill can be, and is, a disaster, but as long as the Dems can claim a victory in getting a bill passed, that's all they think will count for 2010.

Of course, the only thing the voters will see in 2010 is higher taxes. None of the so-called benefits will appear for several years. This will backfire on the Dems big time.

A Cynic Wrapped in a Hypocrite Inside a Bully

Ed Lasky at American Thinker has some thoughts on Obama's first year:

Almost a year has passed since January 20, 2009 -- when the waters of the ocean no longer rose and America began to heal from the depredations of Republicans. Barack Obama has been our president for that long, and the people have started to wise up.

The light that shines on Barack Obama as president has reflected back an image that bears very little similarity to the iconic visage that floated above us all in 2008. Why has Barack Obama betrayed so many allies, broken so many promises, thrown so many pledges and people under the bus?

One simple aphorism (paraphrasing Winston Churchill) can explain it all. Barack Obama is no longer a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Much about his past remains murky, but faced with the need to govern, he has given the American people plenty of evidence of his nature...if only they will look.

Obama is a cynic wrapped in a hypocrite inside a bully.

This comes as a shock to many, who are dismayed to find that he is "just a politician," as Reverend Wright, Jr. (who knows him so well) called him back in 2008. But Wright was being all too kind and generous to his future former parishioner (Wright followed a long and ever-growing line of people trampled by Barack Obama's rise.)

But Barack Obama is far more than just a politician. We all swallow a lot from politicians; we know that many pander and narrowcast, changing their message to suit their audience. But Obama expressly campaigned as a man who would not do this. He was the candidate of hope and change -- he would bring a big broom to sweep clean the Augean Stables known as Washington, D.C. He called forth the better angels of our nature (hat tip: Honest Abe Lincoln, one of the truly honest politicians from Illinois) and tapped into a deep yearning for the rarest of the real things: an honest leader.

Read the whole thing. He pretty well has him nailed.

I Guess the System Didn't Work After All

It took 24 hours for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to figure out what everybody else knew on Christmas Day - the system didn't work well at all:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano conceded Monday that airline security failed in allowing a Nigerian on a terror watch list and allegedly armed with explosives onto a Detroit-bound flight, a turnaround from her declaration a day day earlier that "the system worked."

The secretary's comment Sunday was widely criticized, given that suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was foiled because his explosive mixture did not properly detonate and he was stopped in his tracks by vigilant passengers.

The suspect, who carried the explosive in his underwear, passed through security at two airports -- in Nigeria and Amsterdam, Netherlands. Plus he was not on any "no-fly" list, even though he was on a massive federal database of people with suspected ties to terrorists and his father apparently had warned U.S. embassy officials in Nigeria about his son.

"Here, clearly, something went awry. We want to fix that problem," Napolitano told Fox News on Monday.

She said officials are doing a complete review to determine what needs to change to prevent such a passenger from clearing security in the future.

"No secretary of homeland security would sit here and say that a system worked prior to this incident which allowed this individual to get on this plane," Napolitano said.

Her comments marked a change in tone from the day before, when she lauded security officials' handling of the affair.

"I think the important thing to recognize here is that once this incident occurred, everything happened that should have," she said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. "We trained for this. We planned for this."

On CNN's "State of the Union," she said: "One thing I'd like to point out is that the system worked."

Napolitano is fighting for her job right now. A number of high level people in Congress have called not only for an investigation but for her resignation for being so dense as to try and defend the indefensible.

I doubt she'll be tossed, but she clearly isn't suited for the job.

If the "System Worked", Why All the New Security Hassles?

Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security Secretary, assured the nation on the Sunday shows yesterday that "the system worked like clockwork", right after a Nigerian on the no-fly list boarded a U.S. bound flight with explosives taped to his leg. Some system.

Now, the system is working to ensure that flying becomes an even bigger hassle:

Beleaguered US air passengers faced a slew of new travel woes Sunday, as ramped up airport security following a thwarted Christmas Day terror attack compounded delays from back-to-back record-setting snowstorms.

Air travelers were told Sunday to check in four hours ahead of their scheduled departure times, while bomb-sniffing dogs were visible at airports across the country, US media reported, after a Nigerian man with possible ties to radical Islam was charged with attempting to blow up an airliner on final approach to Detroit Friday.

Once on board their flights, many passengers were told they would be unable to hold coats or blankets in their laps and would not be allowed to enter aircraft restrooms for the last hour of their flights, reports said.

Passengers also reportedly are being told to expect additional airport pat-downs and gate security checks.

The new measures follow the botched Christmas Day attack by terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, accused of trying to bring down a Northwest Airlines flight with 290 people on board by detonating explosive material sewn into his underwear.

The upgraded airport security measures coincides with the annual year-end holiday travel season that got underway the weekend before Christmas and lasts about two weeks, through the New Year holiday.

US Department of Homeland Security director Janet Napolitano said the additional screening measures covered all US airports and all domestic and international flights "to ensure the continued safety of the traveling public."

It won't be the threat of terror attacks that will kill the airline industry, it will be the federal government treating every passenger like a terrorist.

Bacchus or Baucus?

Bacchus was the Roman god of wine, Baucus is the Senator from Montana, but both seem to have something in common:

A speech by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on health care has been generating buzz on the Internet, as the Drudge Report and others are suggesting that Baucus was slurring his speech and possibly "intoxicated" during his remarks.

"DRUNK WITH POWER? TOP DEM SLURS ON SENATE FLOOR..." reads the Drudge Report headline.

Newsbusters.org writes: "How can one explain this incredibly bizarre performance by Max Baucus on the Senate floor? Was Baucus so intoxicated by the sound of his own voice that he went off the deep end? Or perhaps he was so drunk with power over shaping the Senate health care bill that it explains his strange rant."

On his Facebook page, former congressman Mark Foley commented on the video: "This is the senator that hired his staffer and then took her on trips...and divorced his wife....and they had me run out of town."

You can watch the video at the Drudge link and judge for yourself.

Bush Blamed for Panty Bomber

I guess this response from White House spokeshole Robert Gibbs is predictable:

Robert Gibbs and Secretary Napolitano made clear that we are pressing ahead with securing our nation against threats and our aggressive posture in the war with al Qaeda. We are winding down a war in Iraq that took our eye off of the terrorists that attacked us, and have dramatically increased our resources in Afghanistan and Pakistan where those terrorists are. We are putting the pressure on al Qaeda worldwide with all elements of American power, and key al Qaeda leaders have been taken out in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Gibbs also made clear the President refuses to play politics with these issues. As he said in West Point, we must put aside petty politics and recapture the unity that we had after 9/11.

How long can they keep playing this "blame Bush" card and expect to get away with it? That act went stale long ago. They've been in charge for nearly a year now, and they can't expect the public to buy the old "blame Bush" line any longer.

Janet Napolitano totally beclowned herself when she stated "the system worked" because a passenger stopped the bad guy with the bum detonator. You may not have realized that as an airline passenger you are now part of the "system".

If that's the case, why not let us carry our guns aboard. I could do a lot better job of protecting the plane if I was armed.