Balancing the budget

In this post from the Powerline boys the fault lines in the argument about how to get control of the budget are on display.  It is obvious that the dems want balance the budget by raising taxes on everyone, especially the wealthy, while the repubs want to cut spending.  Nothing will happen until the repubs get control of the spending machine in the Congress.

Ground Zero Mosque

There is much discussion about whether Imam Rauf and his co-sponsors of the GZM are sincere, moderate and well meaning muslims or sympathizers with the Islamists in Iran and elsewhere who want to bring down the West and establish a new caliphate here in the USA.  Here is evidence that every pro Rauf liberal should study and take to heart. While the Imam comes off as an urbane, sophisticated, nuanced promoter of world peace and harmony, a little digging like that done in this post suggests otherwise.  One is struck by the similarity between the communist and Islamist approach to politics and establishing their hegemony.  Both movements condone lying and deception as a legitimate means to the end of establishing their way of life and power.  In the Muslim tradition this is called al-Taqiyya.

Incomparable Mel Torme

Here is the incomparable Mel Torme introduced to me by Jay Durfee who was my music mentor and to whom I am endebted for all he taught me on this and certain other aspects of life.

The Nanny State

We can dance around the problem all we want but the end game is exactly like David Warren of the Ottowa Citizen outlines here.  We, the West, have to dismantle the egregious Nanny State that has evolved over time into a debilitating debt creation machine that is burying us alive.  As Warren points out, no one signed on to comprehensive daycare, which is where we are now.  Warren is right too, when he says the only ray of light on the horizon in terms of coming to grips with this problem is the Tea Party Movement.  This spontaneous uprising on the part of average, main street Americans, suggests the American people get it and are ready for a real change in the system, not just this dangerous game of piling on more debt and finding a new way, say a value added tax,  to cover the the ever growing shortfall.  One way or the other, the entitlement generation is in for difficult years ahead.

Enjoy

Unfortunately, the joke's on us.

Christie strikes again

Watch this for an entertaining 5 minutes of a politician speaking the truth to a government employee:

Another Indian-American politician of note

Bobby Jindal, Indian-American governor of Louisiana, has been a very successful GOP CEO of a southern state and is about to be joined by yet another Indian-American, Nikki Haley, poised to become the next governor of South Carolina.  What's happening here with these Republican "ethnic" politicians?  George Will in one of his more insightful articles provides the answer here,  Given history, it is most interesting that these "new" faces on the political scene are surfacing in southern states and even more interesting that they are surfacing in states that appear to be moving forward these days.  South Carolina, for example, has landed several major plants from Boeing and German car companies, as a result of lower taxes and an environment conducive to business interests.  California, Washington state and  some of the other blue states would do well to study these laboratories of capitalism to get themselves back on track.