Clipmarks | willhelm's Comments

Palin, aside from being a woman...

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:10:13 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: Obviously a lot has been said about the fact that McCain picked a woman as his VP. That is no doubt an interesting fact that can be interpreted in a few different ways. But putting that aside, i think the facts that matter most are those in this clip.

These come from a comment by debbyski and i think they represent the reasons people will or won't support her.

I would certainly be shocked if anyone who voted for Hillary would support Palin based on these specific differences in beliefs and policies.

Clip Source: clipmarks.com

is also anti-choice, pro-gun, pro big oil, opposes stem-cell research, wants to teach creationism in schools, also has ZERO FOREIGN POLICY EXPERTISE

Tags: sarah palin, mccain, vice president, politics

Palin Runs A State, Obama Runs His Mouth

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 07:15:42 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: www.redstate.com

Mr. Hope and Change, who picked a 35+ year veteran of the Senate to cover his own inexperience has the gall to attack Palin for inexperience.

I'd also point out that, in addition to being elected for five years before Obama was first elected to any office, Palin has been balancing local and state government budgets while Obama was relying on Tony Rezko to balance his budget.

Meet Barry Soetoro

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:52:39 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: What It Means

This AP photo is compelling evidence of the following assertions, which have been set forth on this blog:

1. Barack Obama had Indonesian citizenship

2. Barack Obama had the legal name Barry Soetoro

3. Barack Obama was a Muslim, despite his “fight the smears” claim that he never has been. (see new story that we just posted on this topic).

Clip Source: texasdarlin.wordpress.com

Breaking Photo Documents Barry Soetoro: Indonesian Citizen, Muslim Religion [Updated x 2]

We just received this photo of a school registration form, courtesy of reader “curious,” taken by Tatan Syuflana, an Indonesian AP reporter and photographer. ~~To my knowledge, the AP has not written a story about this~~. [revision: There was an AP story story in Jan. 2007, but it did not include this photo]. The photo has become relevant now in the context of other revelations reported on this blog. Here is the AP folder where Syuflana’s photo was found: www.daylife.com.

“This registration document, made available on Jan. 24, 2007, by the Fransiskus Assisi school in Jakarta, Indonesia, shows the registration of Barack Obama under the name Barry Soetoro into the Catholic school made by his step-father, Lolo Soetoro. The document lists Barry Soetoro as a Indonesian citizen, born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, and shows his Muslim step-father listed the boy’s religion as Islam.

Why Everyone Should Be in Favor of Reducing Taxes on the Rich

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:04:41 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: mises.org

Are the American people being primed to elect a home-grown version of Hugo Chavez, in the person of Barack Obama? This is a question one can come away with after reading "Obamanomics," the featured article in this last Sunday's (August 24, 2008) New York Times Magazine. Written by Times' columnist David Leonhardt, the article provides insight into Obama's thinking on economics and the economic policies he would be likely to pursue if he were elected President.

Obama's agenda, we are told in more detail, includes "a $500 cut in the payroll tax for most workers" and major middle- and lower-income tax credits, to the point of simply handing out government money to those for whom the tax credits more than eliminate the taxes they would otherwise have to pay. "These tax cuts," Leonhardt writes, "are really the essence of his market-oriented redistributionist philosophy (though he made it clear that he doesn't like the word 'redistributionist').

Warm Fuzzy Leftists

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:22:21 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: "The 'Welcoming Committee' is a criminal enterprise made up of 35 anarchists who are intent on committing criminal acts before and during the Republican National Convention,"

The statement said the items found in the searches included:
# materials to creating "sleeping dragons" (PVC pipe, chicken wire, duct tape), which is when protesters lock themselves together
# large amounts of urine, including three to five gallon buckets of urine
# wrist rockets
# a machete, hatchet and several throwing knives
# a gas mask and filter
# empty glass bottles
# rags
# flammable liquids
# homemade caltrops (devises used to disable buses in roads)
# metal pipes
# axes
# bolt cutters
# sledge hammers
# repelling equipment
# Kryptonite locks
# empty plastic buckets cut and made into shields
# material for protective padding
# an Army helmet.

Clip Source: www.twincities.com

Weapons and devices to disable buses - among other items - were found in searches in the Twin Cities last night and today by Ramsey County sheriff's deputies.

Authorities said the items came from "key members of the RNC Welcoming Committee," a self-described anarchist group.

Five people have been arrested and four properties have been searched, according to the sheriff's office.

At 8 a.m. today, the sheriff's office executed search warrants at three Minneapolis homes - 2301 23rd Ave. S., 3500 Harriet Ave. and 3240 17th Ave. S. They were assisted by the FBI, Minneapolis police and the Hennepin County sheriff's office.

No correlation between small gov't and economic growth

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 05:59:31 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Dozens of studies yield no consensus. Growth abounds - but unrelated to gov't size

Clip Source: trueconservative.typepad.com

Small-government conservatives’ most powerful economic argument—which progressives have failed to counter effectively in the minds of Americans—is that making government smaller results in faster economic growth. So, by this theory, small government makes all boats rise—rich and poor alike. It follows that progressives who argue for higher taxes and government spending are either foolish or churlish or both: they’re actually hurting poor people by denying them the benefits of economic growth.

Over the last century, half century, quarter century, economic growth has yielded just plain outright spectacular gains in prosperity

The actual flaw lies in the other part of the argument:

in developed countries like the U.S., the empirical data is quite clear: there’s little or no correlation between government size and growth. That conservative belief is rooted on faith and ideology, not facts.

dozens of studies

the correlations are small to tiny

Tags: politics, economics

How the East Was Lost

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:56:40 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: Outstanding article. Hard to find much with which to disagree here.

Clip Source: www.americanthinker.com

Today, China is a brash, tough power -- unfree, undemocratic, enthused with nationalistic self-importance, and hosting the Olympic Games with fake-smiles hiding feral teeth. Today, Russia is a cynical authoritarian state, rallying behind a former functionary of the KGB as its "leader" and pushing around smaller nations, like Georgia, to show who is boss. Today, Moslems believe overwhelmingly that America, the liberator of tens of millions of Moslems from godless Communism, is the "Great Satan." What happened?

World Opinion is Worthless

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 01:30:47 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: "The moment one recognizes "world opinion" for what it is — a statement of moral cowardice, one is longer enthralled by the term. That "world opinion" at this moment allegedly loathes America and Israel is a badge of honor to be worn proudly by those countries. It is when "world opinion" and its news media start liking you that you should wonder if you've lost your way. "

Clip Source: www.jewishworldreview.com

If you are ever morally confused about a major world issue, here is a rule that is almost never violated: Whenever you hear that "world opinion" holds a view, assume it is morally wrong.

And here is a related rule if your religious or national or ethnic group ever suffers horrific persecution: "World opinion" will never do a thing for you. Never.

"World opinion" has little or nothing to say about the world's greatest evils and regularly condemns those who fight evil.

The history of "world opinion" regarding the greatest mass murders and cruelties on the planet is one of relentless apathy.
Ask the 1.5 million Armenians massacred by the Ottoman Turks;

Ask any of these poor souls, or the hundreds of millions of others slaughtered, tortured, raped and enslaved in the last 100 years, if "world opinion" did anything for them.

Where are the witnesses?

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 07:30:55 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: www.ibdeditorials.com

Barack Obama is an immensely talented man whose talents have been largely devoted to crafting, and chronicling, his own life. Not things. Not ideas. Not institutions. But himself.

So where are the colleagues? The buddies? The political or spiritual soul mates? His most important spiritual adviser and mentor was Jeremiah Wright. But he's out. Then there's William Ayers, with whom he served on a board. He's out. Where are the others?

The oddity of this convention is that its central figure is the ultimate self-made man, a dazzling mysterious Gatsby. The palpable apprehension is that the anointed is a stranger — a deeply engaging, elegant, brilliant stranger with whom the Democrats had a torrid affair.

Having slowly woken up, they see the ring and wonder who exactly they married last night.

Inexperienced Republican vs. Inexperienced Democrat

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:38:42 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: So I've been having a lot of heated discussions on exactly how important it is for a candidate to be experienced. My view is: not at all. Knowledge matters. Belief matters. Judgment matters. But experience in Washington is a minus for me.

Hopefully, now, this will put the experience debate to bed. Shame on Barbra Boxer for making the same argument against Palin that she dismisses against Obama!

Both tickets are a good mix of experience and freshness. If Democrats want to take on Palin, they should have enough wherewithal to criticize her political positions, just like Republicans should stop whining about manufactured personal issues with Obama and get to the meat of why they don't like him: the issues.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Several of Mr. McCain’s outside advisers reacted with bewilderment to the selection of Ms. Palin, and one said that it would undercut one of Mr. McCain’s central criticisms of Senator Obama — that he is too inexperienced to be commander in chief.

Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, dismissed Ms. Palin’s appeal to female voters.

“The vice president is a heartbeat away from becoming President, so to choose someone with not one hour’s worth of experience on national issues is a dangerous choice,” she said in a statement.

“Governor Palin is a very bright leader who will bring a fresh perspective to a ticket that already has the experience and judgment necessary to lead our country from day one,” said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate Republican leader.

Tags: palin, obama, mccain, experience, democrat, republican, idiots, democracy, talking points

Human Brain Made for Counting

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:28:01 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Aug. 18, 2008 -- Answer this without counting: Are there more X's here XXXXXX, or here XXXXX? That's a problem facing people whose languages don't include words for more than one or two. Yet researchers say children who speak those languages are still able to compare quantities.

"We argue that humans possess an innate system for enumeration that doesn't rely on words," says Brian Butterworth of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London.

In an attempt to prove it, Butterworth compared the numerical skills of children from two indigenous Australian groups whose languages don't contain many number words with similar children who speak English.

All the groups performed equally well, his research team reports in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Tags: numbers, language, brain, neuroscience, science

Pre-RNC raids: so who hates freedom now?

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 04:50:01 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Doesn't look like any evidence has been uncovered thus far of intent to commit anything beyond non-violent protests. Kind of an unnerving story if you ask me, but, hey, it's a post-9/11 world, and the cops are just trying to keep us all safe, right? (It's funny, when I was a kid growing up in the eighties, there used to be after-school specials about how this kind of thing happened in apartheid South Africa.)

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Dozens Detained Ahead of Convention

ST. PAUL, Minn. — On the weekend before the Republican National Convention, law enforcement agencies detained dozens of people and issued a series of search warrants aimed at groups believed to be organizing demonstrations while delegates and Republican officials are in town.

Enlarge This Image

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

Police released one person at a time from a protest-planning headquarters where people were detained in St. Paul on Friday night.

On Friday night the Ramsey County sheriff's department, accompanied by the St. Paul police, detained people inside a building here that was being used as a headquarters to plan protests.

“They handcuffed all of us,” said Sonia Silbert, 28, from Washington. “They searched everyone.”

People who had been inside said teach-ins and legal training had been conducted there, and that the space was also a repository for such items as computers and bicycles.

Tags: news, politics, presidential_campaign_2008, police, crime, civil_rights, law

This Is What A Police State Looks Like

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 04:52:08 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Dissent is patriotic.

Clip Source: www.lewrockwell.com

In Denver, we're so afraid of unarmed civilians, we send 2 cops for each protestor.

Clip Source: www.denverpost.com

Police in riot gear surround protesters on 15th Street near Civic Center park in downtown Denver on Monday night. This is not America. This is what a police state looks like. You re worried about Beijing? This is repression, one activist shouted. (Jason Halley, Special to The Denver Post)

The Moog Guitar Showcase

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 23:37:45 GMT

clipped by: skwirlinator
clipper's remarks: A Few Videos so you can see what I mean when I say COOL!

Clip Source: www.moogmusic.com

Just a few of the many great videos on the Moog YouTube Channel...

Here's an extended cut of Fareed Haque and Garaj Mahal at The Moog Guitar Showcase...

[Video]

Tags: the moog guitar showcase, video, moog guitar

Paul Begala on McCain's VP pick...

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:44:57 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: Gotta think this is the message the democrats will be sticking to on this issue...hard to argue with it.

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

For a man who is 72 years old and has had four bouts with cancer to have chosen someone so completely unqualified to become president is shockingly irresponsible. Suddenly, McCain's age and health become central issues in the campaign, as does his judgment.

Tags: politics, mccain, palin, vice president

Clipmarks | willhelm's Comments

Palin, aside from being a woman...

Palin Runs A State, Obama Runs His Mouth

Meet Barry Soetoro

*Breaking* Photo Documents Barry Soetoro: Indonesian Citizen, Muslim Religion [Updated x 2]

Why Everyone Should Be in Favor of Reducing Taxes on the Rich

Warm Fuzzy Leftists

No correlation between small gov't and economic growth

How the East Was Lost

World Opinion is Worthless

Where are the witnesses?

Inexperienced Republican vs. Inexperienced Democrat

Human Brain Made for Counting

Pre-RNC raids: so who hates freedom now?

This Is What A Police State Looks Like

The Moog Guitar Showcase

Paul Begala on McCain's VP pick...

Breaking Photo Documents Barry Soetoro: Indonesian Citizen, Muslim Religion [Updated x 2]