Friday, August 27, 2010

Employment Picture Grim for Least-Educated
   Employment/Jobs piece by Press Release: Steven Camarota (8/27/10)

WASHINGTON (August 27, 2010) - Less-educated, younger, and minority American workers face the worst job market in decades, far worse than their more educated counterparts. However, the situation for these workers was very difficult even before the current recession. A report from the Center for Immigration Studies examines their employment situation in the second quarters of both 2007 (before the recession) and 2010. Younger and less-educated workers are the most likely to be in competition with immigrants - legal and illegal.

Converting Photos To Paintings,etc
   Software piece by Malcolm T. Hedges (8/27/10)

Many ‘photo’ editors offer this feature under various names with varying success.

Expiration of Bush Tax Cuts Will Affect Everyone
   Taxes piece by Offsite (8/27/10)

A real debate on taxes is long overdue.

The myth of equality
   Socialism piece by Offsite (8/27/10)

In 21st-century America, institutional racism and sexism remain great twin evils to be eradicated on our long journey to the wonderful world where, at last, all are equal.

‘A bloody ending for the GOP?‘
   Republicrats piece by Offsite (8/27/10)

I was saddened, though not surprised, when former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said (in referring to tea-party candidates) in a recent interview with the Washington Post, “We don’t need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples. As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them.“ It stirred my greatest fears about the Republican Party.

Government wants your 401(k)
   Fascism piece by Offsite (8/27/10)

Hearings set on plan to require Treasuries in ‘automatic IRA’ - The Obama administration appears to be proceeding with a novel way of financing trillion-dollar budget deficits by forcing IRA and 401(k) holders to buy Treasury bonds by mandating the placement of government-structured annuities in their investment accounts.

‘Will The US Military Be Disenfranchised this November?‘
   Election 2010 piece by J. D. Longstreet (8/27/10)

Will Those Fighting To Protect The Right To Vote Not Have Their Votes Counted? - There is concern that Obama’s DOJ, under the leadership of Eric Holder, the US Attorney General, might not be enforcing the new Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act as vigorously as they should.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Death Threats Force FreedomWorks to Move
   Progressivism piece by Offsite (8/26/10)

The grass-roots conservative FreedomWorks organization has received so many death threats in the run-up to the midterm elections that the organization is moving its headquarters.

Ebay, Adobe, EA Games, Many Others Leaving California For Utah Over Confiscatory Tax Rate
   Business piece by Warner Todd Huston (8/26/10)

Computer software giant Adobe, computer game monster EA Games, and Internet auction king ebay are abandoning California to set up shop in Utah. Why? California’s horrid business climate and high taxes.

‘The November Election - Have Candidates Heard The Voters?‘
   Election 2010 piece by Thomas D. Segel (8/26/10)

Harlingen, Texas, August 26, 2010:  Those who have been following the various primary elections across the country must have noticed that nobody is safe.  Just being an incumbent places the candidate in a danger zone.  Having a Democrat or Republican name-tag will only garner a person a small following of voters.  Some observers feel that a candidate coming from “political nowhere” has a better chance of winning than anyone with a long track record in politics.

A Thatcher-Style Strategy to Reclaim the White House
   Election 2012 piece by Offsite (8/26/10)

We know we’re not happy with our current government. A Rasmussen poll released last week noted that 40 percent of voters are very angry, and 25 percent are somewhat angry ‘at the current policies of the federal government.‘

Third-Quarter US Growth to Be ‘Well Below’ 1 Percent
   Depression/Recession piece by Offsite (8/26/10)

Growth in the United States will fall “well below” 1 percent in the third quarter, said Nouriel Roubini, a New York University economist.

How I Learned to Love the Bomb
   National Security piece by Alan Caruba (8/26/10)

As a child in the 1950s, I learned how to “duck and cover” in order to protect myself from an atomic bomb explosion. Little did I know that the instruction should have been ‘Kiss your asterisk goodbye.‘

David Limbaugh’s ‘Crimes Against Liberty’
   Reading piece by Christopher Adamo (8/26/10)

It is rare in any age that a single book can so comprehensively document and analyze a historical movement as to be capable of defining it. In the aftermath of World War II, which shattered western civilization to a degree unprecedented in human history, it was William Shirer’s monumental “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” which cohesively linked the chain of events that led to the nightmare of Hitler’s Germany. Yet Shirer’s work came as a heartrending post-mortem of the European War, explaining to a yet unbelieving world how such an atrocity could have unfolded in its midst, among ostensibly “civilized” people.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

‘Double Dip Coming but Who Knows Why?‘
   Depression/Recession piece by Offsite (8/25/10)

Former Morgan Stanley Asia CEO and Yale economist Stephen Roach says a double-dip recession is coming but the trigger hasn’t yet been identified.

Feds moving to dismiss some deportation cases
   Immigration piece by Offsite (8/25/10)

Critics assail the plan as a bid to create a kind of backdoor ‘amnesty’ - The Department of Homeland Security is systematically reviewing thousands of pending immigration cases and moving to dismiss those filed against suspected illegal immigrants who have no serious criminal records, according to several sources familiar with the efforts.

Eliminating Bush Tax Cuts Is ‘Madness’
   Taxes piece by Offsite (8/25/10)

Author Thomas Sowell scoffs that the very idea of eliminating the Bush tax cuts to reduce the federal deficit is simple “madness.“

Gallup Ignoring Its Own Big Stories
   Politics piece by Bruce Walker (8/25/10)

The Gallup Poll is one of the oldest in polling organizations in history.  Its reputation ought to be important.  The articles which accompany its polls, however, seem calculated to hide the real story.  Consider an article last August, entitled “Political Ideology: ‘Conservative’ Label Prevails in the South.“(1)  That is not exactly earth shattering news.  Anyone who has even casual acquaintance with American politics knows that the South is the most conservative part of our country.

Dow to Plunge to 5,000 Amid Deflation, Double Dip
   Investments piece by Offsite (8/25/10)

U.S. stocks are likely to plunge about 50 percent during the next two to three years, says Charles Nenner, president of Charles Nenner Research.

This Is a Depression, Not a Recession
   Depression/Recession piece by Offsite (8/25/10)

Mildly hopeful economic signs like positive gross domestic product only hide the ugly truth that the United States has entered “a Depression, and not just some garden-variety recession,“ Gluskin Sheff economist David Rosenberg says.

Muni Market Massacre Is Coming
   Investments piece by Offsite (8/25/10)

Former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Arthur Levitt says there’s a massacre about to happen in the municipal bond market.

Global warming fix equals ‘smelly, dehydrated, unsanitary’ people
   Global Warming piece by Offsite (8/25/10)

Forget greenhouse gases. If people start heeding celebrity “planet-saving” tips like Prince Charles’ recent call for shorter showers and a ban on baths, the greatest threat to the earth’s atmosphere will be body odor, says the author of “Climategate.“

Atlanta Volunteers Change Lives
   Society piece by Guest: Rusty Wright (8/25/10)

My friend, Dan Hayes, reminds me of a guy on television who spins plates and bowls.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Obama Scrubs White House Website of Climate Change Promises, Media Mum
   ObamaNation piece by Warner Todd Huston (8/24/10)

Despite that President Obama made Cap and Trade and other green policy plans a focal point of his early days in office—not to mention his campaign for president—the White House has quietly scrubbed from its official website many of Obama’s promises and green initiatives. I guess the era of Obama really is “change you can believe in”?

‘Pelosi a Moderate?‘
   Progressivism piece by Offsite (8/24/10)

The presence of liberal bias and radical left-wing professors on America’s college campuses is as predictable as the rising and setting of the sun.  Whether it takes the form of inviting domestic terrorists to lecture on campus, requiring Marxist propaganda to be read for course completion, or offering the ever-popular “peace studies” program, radical leftism flourishes in the world of academia.  In fact, there are so many well-documented cases of it that pointing out examples of such educational malpractice is like shooting fish in the proverbial barrel.

UCLA’s Scientist Purge
   GreeenIsm piece by Offsite (8/24/10)

While it is the view of many scientists, including this one, that research behind the global warming scare has and continues to suffer from a lack of integrity, it is nonetheless true that think tanks, universities, and environmental groups continue to funnel dollars to scientists who will provide the desired conclusion rather than produce unbiased results. But, it’s not just in the sphere of climate change research that the scientific method has been undermined; environmental science in general suffers from the same condition. UCLA recently fired James Enstrom, an epidemiologist who has worked at the UCLA School of Public Health for 34 years, for daring to publish results that were not in step with the school’s official alarmist philosophy.

Medical-care facts and fables
   Health Care piece by Offsite (8/24/10)

There is so much political spin, and so many numbers games being played, when it comes to medical care, that we have to go back to square one and the simplest common sense to get some rational idea of what government-run medical care means. In particular, we need to examine the claim that the government can “bring down the cost of medical care.“

Obama Lacks Respect Among World Leaders
   Foreign Policy piece by J. D. Longstreet (8/24/10)

Americans like to be liked.  At least, that is what we have been told for decades.  And while it is true to an extent, it is not one hundred percent true.  In fact, the American people will take respect over likability when the occasion calls for it.  Actually, the American people’s desire for respect far exceeds that of their leaders who are, of course, politicians.  We all know that a politician’s political life depends upon his/her “likeability factor.“  It is far more important to them to be liked than to be respected.

The Ground Zero mosque tests our national character
   Islam piece by John David Powell (8/24/10)

The current debate over the proposed Park51 project, also known as Cordoba House, in the geographic and emotional shadows of the World Trade Center calls to mind the Kobayashi Maru test.  Star Trek aficionados know this as the no-win scenario that measures the character of future Starfleet captains.

They Were Giants
   Sports piece by Aaron Goldstein (8/24/10)

When Bobby Thomson, the man who hit the most famous homerun in the history of Major League Baseball, died last week it led me to do some thinking.  It led me to think about the circumstances that so improbably brought Thomson and the 1951 New York Giants a National League pennant.  It also led to me to think about how those circumstances affected my father, his family and his neighbors in the Bronx whom were transfixed by what was happening before them.