It’s Monday, January 12th, 2015…but before we begin, a little taste of what’s eventually coming to a town, city, county, state and country near you…just as soon as Progressives run out of other people’s money:
“Shoppers thronged grocery stores across Caracas today as deepening shortages led the government to put Venezuela’s food distribution under military protection. Long lines, some stretching for blocks, formed outside grocery stores in the South American country’s capital as residents search for scarce basic items such as detergent and chicken…”
Interior Minister Carmen Melendez said yesterday that security forces would be sent to food stores and distribution centers to protect shoppers. “Don’t fall into desperation — we have the capacity and products for everyone, with calmness and patience. The stores are full,” she said on state television.
Yeah, “the stores are full”:
Rrrrriiiight! Is there anyone reading this who CAN’T imagine Obama or Holder looking straight at a camera under similar circumstances and selling an identical lie without batting an eye…and the MSM verifying it?!?
Now, here’s The Gouge!
First up, the Washington Examiner summarizes our thoughts on the Charlie Hebdo massacre:
“…There is no need to glorify Charlie Hebdo to see how this attack tests the mettle of western liberal democracies. Are the people of the West serious about protecting free speech, or not? Whether they find the magazine content amusing or offensive, neither Americans nor Europeans should ever accept a precedent that lets violence and threats dictate what can and cannot be said in public…”
…For westerners to bow to the violent agents of theocracy who conducted the attack in Paris, or to anyone else hoping to dictate by force what others can and cannot say, is to place the freedom of speech at the mercy of the most sensitive and least mentally stable person in every room. All manner of opinion can be tolerated. Violence in answer to an argument or joke can never be tolerated.”
Neither should campus “speech” codes, shouting down invited speakers or racial demagogues of any stripe, political persuasion or…
…color!
In a related item, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper details the true nature of the greatest threat to Western civilization; and it’s NOT anthropogenic global warming:
In a similar but even more admirable fashion, because he’s quite literally risking his life by saying it, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah as-Sisi calls on Muslim imams for change:
“I am addressing the religious scholars and clerics. We must take a long, hard look at the current situation. I have talked about this several times in the past. We must take a long, hard look at the situation we are in. It is inconceivable that the ideology we sanctify should make our entire nation a source of concern, danger, killing, and destruction all over the world. It is inconceivable that this ideology. . . .
I am referring not to ‘religion,’ but to ‘ideology’—the body of ideas and texts that we have sanctified in the course of centuries, to the point that challenging them has become very difficult.
It has reached the point that [this ideology] is hostile to the entire world. Is it conceivable that 1.6 billion [Muslims] would kill the world’s population of seven billion, so that they could live [on their own]? This is inconceivable.
…Honorable Imam [the Grand Sheik of Al-Azhar], you bear responsibility before Allah. The world in its entirety awaits your words, because the Islamic nation is being torn apart, destroyed, and is heading to perdition. We ourselves are bringing it to perdition. Let me say it again: We need to revolutionize our religion.
Revolutionize Islam?!?
At least as-Sisi’s trying. Which is more than we can say for America’s Dynamic Duo:
Though in Paris, Holder didn’t seem to think participating in the largest protest March in French history worth his time. And The Dear Misleader had much more important matters which demanded his attention:
That’s right; despite having just returned from a three-week Hawaiian vacation (financed by the American taxpayer), Obama, undoubtedly needing some time off, spent the day watching football. Meanwhile, in Paris…
…a number of the world’s other heads-of-state found it necessary to work on the weekend. As the Daily News notes…
…the man and his entire Administration…
…is an utter embarrassment…along with his new bestest friend Tom Coburn.
Speaking of embarrassments, with all that’s going on in New York City, not to mention the world, THIS…
…is what The Big Apple’s first Communist mayor deems a praiseworthy policy pronouncement.
Since we’re on the subject of a Liberal elite completely divorced from reality, the Washington Examiner reports…
“…Records obtained by the Washington Examiner under the Freedom of Information Act show that HHS executives spent $31 million taking 7,000 first class and business class flights between 2009 and 2013, including 253 trips for which a one-way ticket cost more than $15,000.
Half the records listed the price of a coach ticket for comparison. For that portion alone, the upgrade boosted the cost by almost $14 million, from $4.9 million to $18.5 million. Federal employees are allowed to fly business or first class if the flight is longer than 14 hours, but only 1,400 of the 7,000 flights met that description…”
One thing you count on: like their immediate superior, Kathleen the Baby Slayer, everyone involved will either be retired with a full pension or promoted.
For more on the subject of government fraud, waste and abuse, we turn to Conn Carroll writing at Townhall.com, who offers…
“Previewing yet another item on his 2015 State of the Union Friday, President Obama announced a new plan to make community college tuition “free.” “Today I’m announcing an ambitious new plan to bring down the cost of community college tuition in America,” Obama said. “I wanna bring it down to zero. I wanna make it free.”
Obama may have spoken for over half-an-hour in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he was joined by both Sens. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN), (WTF is it with Republicans appearing with this Communist clowns?!?) but he left out a few details about his new program:
1) It Isn’t Free
2) It Will Drown Community Colleges In Red Tape
3) Too Many High School Students Aren’t Prepared For Community College
4) Community College’s Have A Poor Track Record
5) “Free” Tuition Will Drive Up Costs
6) Government Spending Crowds Out Private Sector Solutions
We’ll leave it to former community college student Jennifer Kabbany, writing at the College Fix, to provide our perspective on what amounts to yet another unfundable government entitlement:
“I attended a community college. That was back in the 1990s, and it was ludicrously cheap. I recall I paid about $90 bucks a class at Santa Barbara City College. I checked my old college’s website Thursday night for a cost comparison, and the price hasn’t gone up too much—it stands at roughly $150 a class now.
My point is—community college is not expensive. It’s not out of reach for low- to middle-class families. Not by a long shot. I paid my way through community college waiting tables at local restaurants. It was one of the best times of my life. Yes, my parents chipped in to help make ends meet, but by no means did I enjoy a free ride.
The experience taught me how to work hard, take care of myself, and be responsible and independent. It was a rite of passage I cherish to this day. I gained discipline, and came to understand the value of hard work and the enjoyment and satisfaction of a job well done.
Perhaps that is why, when I heard of President Obama ’s new plan to make community college free, I immediately groaned. It’s a horrible idea.
…The last thing this country needs is another massive entitlement.
And who gets to pay for all this debt? The young people Obama is claiming to want to help. If he really wanted to help young people, he’d propose Social Security reform, or overhaul the student loan racket.“
That’s the point, folks; The Obamao doesn’t want to help people, young or old. He wants to enslave them in perpetual indentured servitude to, and dependence upon, Progressive policies and handouts.
And in the Environmental Moment, as The Economic Times of India details…
Two of three scientists at a session on climate change and society at the Indian Science Congress on Tuesday felt fears of man-made global warming were greatly exaggerated. Their presence at the conference was particularly significant in light of the current ‘development-versus-environment’ debates.
“While I agree that glaciers are melting because of global warming, if this is because of man, then what was the reason for the melting of the glaciers in the Gondwana period long before man arrived on the planet?” asked Dhruv Sen Singh, Centre of Advanced Study in Geology, University of Lucknow.
For that matter, what was the reason the glaciers melted at the end of the last Ice Age, a mere 12,000 years ago? Wooly mammoth…
…emissions?!?
In a related item, as the WSJ notes, Nebraska’s Supreme Court has brushed aside…
“…Nebraska’s top court on Friday upheld a state law giving the Governor authority to review and approve major pipeline projects. The ruling ended litigation brought by a trio of Nebraska landowners who claimed Governor Dave Heineman ’s 2013 approval of the Keystone route through his state was unconstitutional. The litigation was the latest reason the Administration had concocted—raising it in April—for again delaying a Keystone decision.
And we mean only the latest. TransCanada filed with the State Department for a cross-border permit while Mr. Obama was still running for President. Mr. Obama has since subjected the project to two separate State Department reviews, ignoring the positive findings of both. Even as the Nebraska court ruled, the White House on Friday was back with more delay, claiming the State Department now needs to review the court decision and ponder, ponder, ponder.
The only reason Mr. Obama hasn’t given for his opposition is the real one: His environmental supporters oppose the pipeline as a matter of climate-change religious faith. They include influential donors like billionaire Tom Steyer who have turned Keystone into a litmus test of environmental purity…”
As Michael Crichton, one of our favorite authors, noted in his remarks to the Commonwealth Club prior to his untimely death:
“…Today, one of the most powerful religions in the Western World is environmentalism. Environmentalism seems to be the religion of choice for urban atheists. Why do I say it’s a religion? Well, just look at the beliefs. If you look carefully, you see that environmentalism is in fact a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths…”
And it’s a religion almost as radical and intolerant as Islam!
On the Lighter Side…
Finally, we’ll call it a wrap with this forward from Carl Polizzi, which, as the Great One noted, was either a career-ending mistake, the biggest Freudian slip in history…
…or, as it turned out, an editing error.
Magoo
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