Latest Analysis, Commentary and Opinion*
(The title of each article is linked to the complete article)

Friday, October 2, 2009

20 Percent Inflation Possible
   Economics piece by Offsite (10/2/09)

Tiger Management Chairman Julian Robertson says that if China and Japan stop buying our debt, inflation could hit 20 percent.

The Real Misery Index = 22.3(Prelim: October 2009)
   Economics piece by Malcolm T. Hedges (10/2/09)

The Misery Index = Unemployment rate + Inflation rate. The misery index is an economic indicator, created by economist Arthur Okun(1).

Terrorism Financier Pleads Guilty in New York Courtroom
   Terrorism piece by Jim Kouri (10/2/09)

Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of terrorism financing and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The plea was entered in Manhattan federal court before United States District Judge Alvin Hellerstein.

Nanny State Update: New York School Bans Kids From Riding Bikes to School
   Nanny State piece by Warner Todd Huston (10/2/09)

America’s kids are too fat. Right? Don’t we hear that all the time? Isn’t it a steady mantra from the left that America is suffering from an “epidemic” of obesity? So, shouldn’t we want to encourage kids to get outdoors? Wouldn’t it be a ‘good’ thing if kids rode a bicycle to school?

A Return To The Planet of the Apes
   Culture Wars piece by Guest: Paul A. Ibbetson (10/2/09)

“It’s a mad house, a mad house!“ These were the words shouted from the lips of Charlton Heston in the 1968 movie release, Planet of the Apes. Heston, who played the character of astronaut George Taylor, found himself in a future Earth where apes ruled the land and humans, and their past culture, were considered evil taboo. Ah, science fiction, such a wondrous escape from reality, right? What happens when fiction and reality begin to overlap? What happens when they become one and the same?

The “Sonic Assault” of TV Commercials on the American TV Viewer. ... and How To Stop It!
   MSM piece by J. D. Longstreet (10/2/09)

You are watching your favorite TV Drama. There is a tender, quiet, moment in the story line and the network chooses this touching scene to cut to commercial. There is a sudden explosion of sound causing your roof to lift a full three inches, your windows to bulge outward by one and three-quarters inches while at least two stress cracks suddenly appear in panes near the center of the window. There is the tinkle of broken glass as a wine glass vibrates from your chair side table and smashes to the oak floor below. Pictures suddenly slip sideways and swing dizzily from side to side, barely secured by the wire thread on their backsides. Photos of the grandchildren, which had been reigning majestically on the mantle board, suddenly leap from their oaken thrones and crash on the inlaid ceramic tile hearth below. In the kitchen, canned goods cascade from the wall cabinets and crash onto the granite counter tops below. The refrigerator’s icemaker suddenly spews ice like an inverted geyser onto the terracotta tile floor. In the bathrooms, the flapper valves of all three toilets snap upwards, just enough, to cause all three of the ceramic thrones to flush simultaneously. In the den the heirloom coo coo clock’s bird hangs lifeless, swinging slightly from side to side, it’s spring sprung. The air has a talc-like mist of gray dust suspended in the atmosphere of all the rooms as though undecided as to which way is down. You gasp for breath and struggle to hear above the awful, awful, roar deep down in your ears painfully vibrating the mastoid bones in your skull. Then your spouse, dashes to your rescue and while struggling valiantly, manages to reach the “mute” button on the remote and – there is pure, blessed, blessed, silence.

Respecting Religious Belief
   Global Warming piece by Thomas E. Brewton (10/2/09)

The belief in man-made global warming is a secular religious dogma, one which the rest of us should be allowed to respect without being compelled by the secular political state to suffer its disastrous consequences.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Little Fish, Big Problem
   GreeenIsm piece by FreeCongressFoundation: E. Ralph Hostetter (10/1/09)

An environmental battle is under way today in California between the farmers of the San Joaquin Valley and Delta areas and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  The issue at hand is the possibility of a future major drought in the area and the effect such a drought would have on the survival of an endangered species known as the Delta Smelt, a three and one-half inch minnow.

Demercrats Prepare To Pack The Federal Courts
   Judicial Activism piece by Malcolm T. Hedges (10/1/09)

The Demercrats are pushing to add 63 new Federal Court Judges(1) so they can pack them with left-leaning bodies.

Unofficial Susan Of Glendale Site
   Information piece by Editor (10/1/09)

MoveOff has put up a site with a partial transcript of the call and link to the full transcript and audio.

Hear “Sustainability” Think Socialism
   Progressivism piece by Malcolm T. Hedges (10/1/09)

It could also be disguised as “Sustainable” particularly in regards to county, local and state governments.

New book shows how to ensure universal education for the world’s poor
   EdukShun piece by GoldwaterInstitute: Dan Lips (10/1/09)

How can we ensure that even the world’s poorest children have a chance to go to school? University of New Castle professor James Tooley offers a surprising answer in his new book, “The Beautiful Tree.“

Iranian official charged with assault in NYC
   Law piece by Offsite (10/1/09)

The man who attacked a peaceful protester outside Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s hotel last weekend when the radical Islamic leader was in New York for the United Nation’s general assembly has been charged with assault and has a hearing scheduled in November, according to sources in the city.

The new, overdue and necessary 9-11 school curriculum
   History piece by Ari Kaufman (10/1/09)

A portion of my work duties consists of guiding groups around downtown Indianapolis’s Historic District, which is replete with war memorials and monuments honoring those who’ve perished while fighting to defend our freedom. While many of the groups are veterans themselves, the preponderance are schoolchildren. And as the years have gone by, I have noticed that when we heed attention to the 9/11 tributes and stories, fewer of them remember that horrific day that’s etched in our memories just as Pearl Harbor is to many our parents and grandparents.