Posts Tagged ‘Michael Totten’
Monday, April 2nd, 2012
…I do not think it means what you think it means.
The word, in this case, is “moderate,” which seems to be particularly tricky to define. Especially when it comes to Middle Eastern political parties. Since you can support Hamas and promise to wipe Israel off the map and still be considered “moderate”…
Tags:Hamas, Islam, Jihad, Michael Totten, Tunisia
Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad | No Comments »
Friday, March 30th, 2012
A few nuggets of insight before you head off for the weekend:
ObamaCare is bad already, but it’s going to get a lot worse.
Why ObamaCare can’t work: “It is a perverse but very real fact of life that the more complex and rich the system to be regulated, the less the ‘experts’ and the goo-goos have the political power to impose their vision on the regulatory process. The more carefully crafted a law needs to be, the more it is going to be full of lobby lollipops and sweat heart deals. A legislative body trying to write a health care law for a country like ours is like a neurosurgeon operating, drunk, with one hand holding a chainsaw and the other in a boxing glove.”
Reason notes that ObamaCare’s “limiting” principles sound a lot more like expansionary principles.
Is somehow ObamaCare survives to 2014, expect a raft of lawsuits over the elective abortion-premium mandate.
Paul Ryan endorses Mitt Romney. That’s a great pickup for him, and it eases, ever so slightly, my concerns that Romney will be a “big spending Republican” in the mode of Bush43 should he get elected.
Dwight notes a Hezbollah connection to the story of a chain of Austin bars that weren’t paying their employees what they were owed.
From Michael Totten comes word that the Islamists appear to have been defeated in Tunisia, which is good news indeed.
Will Azerbaijan help Israel hit Iran? If so, good for them. (Naturally, Obama is objecting.) (Hat tip: JihadWatch.)
So a Hispanic Democrat shoots someone who might or might not have been assaulting him, and suddenly Texas Democrats are ready to drag gun control back on the agenda. Thanks Rep. Garnet Coleman (Democrat, Houston)! I was a little worried that gun owners might be not be motivated to go to the polls in Texas in 2012 (what with the House, Senate, and Governor’s mansion all under Republican control), but your proposal to end the castle doctrine is just the tonic we need to get them to the voting booth!
Serial torturer killer Robert Ben Rhodes sentence to life in prison rather than the death penalty.
The King Street Patriots in Houston have a Democratic Judge rule against their tax-exempt status in a lawsuit brought by the Democratic Party. I wanted to point out the frivolous nature of this lawsuit, but Big Jolly already beat me to it.
Tags:abortion, Austin, Azerbaijan, death penalty, gun control, Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Jihad, LinkSwarm, Michael Totten, Mitt Romney, ObamaCare, Texas, Tunisia
Posted in Austin, Guns, Jihad, ObamaCare, Regulation, Supreme Court, Texas | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, March 13th, 2012
A bunch of news popping up, including some from the Middle East:
Here’s the actual Dewhurst denial of the Tony Podesta/Democratic fundraising story.
A left-wing Irish documentary maker sets out to make a documentary about the plight of the Palestinians, but gets waylayed by those annoying facts, and instead decides to tell both sides of the story. Guess what? His friends aren’t interested. “The problem began when I resolved to come back with a film that showed both sides of the coin. Actually there are many more than two. Which is why my film is called Forty Shades of Grey. But only one side was wanted back in Dublin. My peers expected me to come back with an attack on Israel. No grey areas were acceptable.”
Israel and Hamas declare a ceasefire after four days of fighting. Honestly, maybe because I was traveling, or because I no longer feel the need to consult MSM news sources on a daily basis, I was actually unaware that there was slightly more violence than usual in the Middle East. The fact that Hamas cried uncle after a mere four days, despite the fact that Israel set it off by giving Hamas leader Zuhair al-Qaissi an express ticket to paradise, tells you that they must really have been getting their asses kicked by the IDF. Maybe Zuhair al-Qaissi really was important, or possibly Iran and Syria have had their hands too full to dole out the Qassam rockets with their customary generosity.
Speaking of Syria, Michael Totten talks to Andrew Tabler about what it’s like under the Assad regime in Syria, as covered in Tabler’s new book In the Lion’s Den: An Eyewitness Account of Washington’s Battle with Syria.
That whole “force Catholics to pay for contraception” deal? Turns out it’s not working out so well for Obama.
Eric Holder seems desperate to let illegal aliens vote.
Good evening, I’m Chevy Chase for Weekend Update. California is still screwed. So is New York. Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow.
Forget TVs and car radios: The hot item for thieves these days is bottles of Tide.
Tags:abortion, Border Controls, California, Crime, David Dewhurst, Eric Holder, Hamas, IDF, Israel, LinkSwarm, Michael Totten, New York, Syria, Texas, Tide, Tony Podesta
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »
Monday, January 30th, 2012
What the headlines says, although they were repulsed.
If President Hamlet was thinking about helping topple Assad, now would be a Real Good Time to jump off the fence.
Plus, unlike Libya and Egypt, not only would it be very hard for the next government to be worse than the current one. Plus it would be a blow to Iran and Hezbollah, and thus would dramatically improve the possibility of real peace and a stable government in Lebanon.
(Hat tip: Michael Totten)
Tags:Bashar Assad, Damascus, Foreign Policy, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Michael Totten, Middle East, Syria
Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad | No Comments »
Thursday, January 26th, 2012
LinkSwarm, or EuroDoom? LinkSwarm, or EuroDoom? Well, the first link has some of each, but with Davos just starting up, I imagine their will be a nice helping of EuroDoom ready to serve tomorrow, so let’s put up a LinkSwarm today:
Mark Steyn looks at the Costa Concordia sinking and smells a metaphor.
Myth: Newt Gingrich told his first wife he was divorcing her on her hospital deathbed. Fact: They had already agreed to a divorce, Newt was just visiting her, the tumor was benign, and Jackie Battley Gingrich is still alive. But who are you going to believe: Online liberal trolls, or the daughter who was actually in the hospital room at the time?
Borepatch says that Gingrich is particular effective at demolishing the Left’s Thought-terminating cliches.
Larry Elder lists all the things Gingrich can nail Obama and the media on.
Jonah Goldberg discusses Newtzilla, but his best barbs are reserved for his opponent: “Romney seems like a creature put on Earth to blend in with the humans and report back what he finds. He clearly likes earthlings, and they in turn find him pleasant enough and surprisingly lifelike.”
Maureen Dowd on on Obama’s cocoon of self-aggrandizing victimization. Like all Dowd’s columns, it focuses on the trivial minutia of the-personal-as-political…and is all the more devastating for it. “The man who came to Washington on a wave of euphoria has had a presidency with all the joy of a root canal…The Obamas, especially Michelle, have radiated the sense that Americans do not appreciate what they sacrifice by living in a gilded cage. They’ve forgotten Rule No. 1 of politics: No one sheds tears for anyone lucky enough to live at the White House. And after four or eight years of public service, you are assured membership in the 1 percent club.”
After 12 months, what has the Arab Spring wrought in Egypt? Cairo Winter: “The reality of the past twelve months, however, has undone whatever high hopes one might have held. Egypt is now headed for radical theocratic, rather than liberal democratic, rule. And a befuddled Obama administration has failed to do anything to stop the coming disaster.” (Hat tip: Michael Totten, who adds: “I know a few Egyptian intellectuals and activists who are authentic liberals, but they’re not remotely a majority. The percentage of Egyptians who genuinely support most or all the tenets of Western-style liberal democracy is in the high single digits at best.”)
An interesting quiz that ties in to Charles Murray’s new books asking how thick is your bubble?
A roundup of State of the Union reactions from the Texas congressional delegation.
Japan suffers its first trade deficit since 1980. Remember all those stories from the 1980s about how Japan was going to take over the world? They were very similar to the ones we were getting about China just a few years ago…
Hat tips: Ace, Insta, The Corner, and the usual suspects.
Tags:Arab, Charles Murray, Costa Concordia, Egypt, Jonah Goldberg, LinkSwarm, Mark Steyn, Maureen Dowd, Michael Totten, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, unrest
Posted in Democrats, Economics, Elections, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Republicans, Welfare State | No Comments »
Thursday, January 12th, 2012
I had a maid service come clean my house in advance of a family event I’m hosting this weekend. It’s amazing the difference between “Bachelor Clean” and “Clean Clean.” It’s almost as big as the difference between “Obama Smart” and “Actually Smart”…
Micheal Totten could use your help. He does good work, and I still need to review The Road to Fatima Gate. I donated, and so has insta.
Rick Perry tears into “Big Government Conservatism.”
Comptroller Susan Combs denies a wind farm subsidy. Personally I’d end all “green subsidies.” Let the market pick energy winners and losers, not government.
Free Pepper Spray for women being handed out in Austin. (Hat tip: Stuff From Hsoi)
Why it’s uneconomical to manufacture anything in the UK:
If we build the Raspberry Pi in Britain, we have to pay a lot more tax. If a British company imports components, it has to pay tax on those (and most components are not made in the UK). If, however, a completed device is made abroad and imported into the UK – with all of those components soldered onto it – it does not attract any import duty at all. This means that it’s really, really tax inefficient for an electronics company to do its manufacturing in Britain, and it’s one of the reasons that so much of our manufacturing goes overseas. Right now, the way things stand means that a company doing its manufacturing abroad, depriving the UK economy, gets a tax break. It’s an absolutely mad way for the Inland Revenue to be running things.
(Hat tip: Slashdot)
The difference between Obama’s vision of America and Republicans’.
After blowing over half a billion dollars in taxpayer funds, Obama’s green energy crony capitalism favorites are asking the bankruptcy judge to let them pay bonuses to remaining employees. And that’s on top of the hefty bonuses they paid executives right before declaring bankruptcy. Your tax dollars at work…
Obama is not so popular in Florida.
The New York Times, in its infinite genius, sends a vegetarian to review steakhouses and BBQ joints in Kansas City. That’s some mighty fine reporting there, Lou. (Hat tip: Dwight)
Tags:Energy Policy, Florida, Media Watch, Michael Totten, New York Times, Obama, Obama Scandals, Rick Perry, Solyndra, Susan Combs, Taxes, Texas, UK
Posted in Austin, Crime, Media Watch, Obama Scandals, Regulation, Texas | No Comments »
Sunday, November 13th, 2011
Maybe. News that the Arab league has suspended Syria indicates Bashar Assad may be on even shakier ground than previously thought. Getting suspended by the Arab League for oppressing your own people is only a couple of steps above getting kicked out of the Klu Klux Klan for being too racist.
And unlike Libya, even a hardline Islamist government would be a slight improvement on Assad, especially in Lebanon, if only because the Sunnis would break with Iran and cut off funding for the Shia Hezbollah.
But it’s hard to tell. When Syrian generals defected at the end of July, that looked like it might have been the final push, but wasn’t. never underestimate a cornered dictator willing to do anything to stay in power.
Frontline does a report from inside the Syrian uprising.
Here’s an interactive map.
Will Obama decide to roll out drone strikes in Syria? Maybe, but I wouldn’t count on it, as Obama hasn’t seemed terribly interested in Syria, even by the lax standards of his foreign policy engagement. Also, the geography is more daunting than in Libya; to be effective, they’d have to come in over Lebanon or Israel to hit targets in Damascus, each of which presents (different) political problems.
Stay tuned…
Tags:Bashar Assad, Foreign Policy, Hezbollah, Islam, Lebanon, Michael Totten, Middle East, Predator Drone, Syria
Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad, Military | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011
Texas’ economy under Perry kicks the ass of Massachusetts under Romney.
I was previously unaware of the Texanomics blog, but the blogger there (curiously anonymous; there’s nothing in the About Me page) is giving WILLisms a run for his money in charting the superiority of Texas over the other 49 states (or, if you’re Barack Obama, the other 56 states, including Wyomorado).
Thanks to Obama’s magic touch, 2012 is actually shaping up to be worse for Democrats than 2010.
Jonah Goldberg says that Obama has woken the bear of America’s natural conservative tendencies.
The Daily Caller interviews Michael Totten about his new book, In the Wake of the Surge. I’m reading his previous book on Lebanon, The Road to Fatima Gate intermittently (mixed up with the usual science fiction), and enjoying it a great deal.
Speaking of books, I suppose I should mention that Adam Winkler’s Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America is now out. Previous coverage of an excerpt from that book can be found here.
Well, here’s some cheerful news: “Moldovan authorities believe that 2.2 pounds of weapon-usable uranium is held by traffickers who have in the past sought to sell the material to North African buyer.” (Hat tip: Bruce Sterling’s Twitter feed.)
The open-minded liberals at the University of Wisconsin-Stout are threatening a professor because his poster quoted a line from Firefly. (Hat tip: Neil Gaiman’s Twitter feed.)
Tags:Adam Winkler, Gunfight, Guns, Iraq, Jonah Goldberg, LinkSwarm, Michael Totten, Mitt Romney, Obama, Rick Perry, Wisconsin
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Economics, Guns, Texas | No Comments »