Remembering David Bowie (1947-2016)

Surprisingly I've only rated four!

This resonated with me.  I've taken such an oath.  Many of my friends and acquaintances have.  But as I reflect, many/most of the progressives I affilate with have not.  No military service.  Not admitted to the bar.  No law enforcement affiliation.  If you're a leftist and you HAVE taken it, it throws an extra step ... a wrench if you will .... into your knee jerk responses to things.  Must be tough.

Come On, Take It. “ If you don’t believe in the founding principles, you’re not an American. You’re at best a permanent resident who grew up here and behaves generally within the law. . . . Do I think it was a mistake of the founders to allow citizenship of birth in a nation of volition? You bet your beepy I do. They got so much right, though, and they were only human. They couldn’t believe anyone born here, enjoying the blessings of liberty could possibly wish to believe that a system where ‘ we belong to the government’ is better. . . . Take the oath. Then keep it.” 

SHOCKED, SHOCKED: Forty-Nine of 50 States Will See Premium Hikes in 2016.

February 2015: Walmart Raises Wages Above Minimum; January 2016: Walmart Closes 154 Stores.

Related: Coincidence? Wal-Mart did what progressives wanted, then this happened.

Unexpectedly.

QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED: “ Can D.C. afford a $15/hour minimum wage?” , the left-leaning Brookings Institute asked in July.

Yesterday’ s Washington Post article headlined “ District leaders furious Walmart breaking promise to build stores in poor neighborhoods”

I told The Boy this three months ago.  I explained my reasons.  I still believe it to be true.  Obama's successor will inherit an economy worse than the one he got.  A recession worse than 2008 is coming.  Hold on to the sides of the boat.  Between this and our foreign policy, the water is about to get very choppy.

since he's gaining traction .... AND as much fun to ridicule

GREAT MOMENTS IN MAGICAL THINKING:

Shot: Bernie Sanders: No, I won’t explain how I’ll pay for everything for everyone.

Chaser:

 I’ M SO OLD I CAN REMEMBER WHEN FAMILIES WERE SUPPOSED TO BE OFF-LIMITS: Hillary Appears To Take A Shot At Bernie Sanders’ Grandkids “Some People Talk About Extraordinary Grandchildren, I Actually Have One.”

The 10 Worst Lines in the State of the Union

KRAUTHAMMER: The State of the Presidency? Spent.

Is there a more hackneyed national-greatness cliché than the idea that “If we can walk on the moon . . . ”? Or a more hackneyed facsimile of vision than being “the nation that cures cancer”? Do Obama’s speechwriters not know that it was Richard Nixon who first declared a war on cancer — in 1971?

Given the ahistoric howlers that have previously emerged from this president and his speechwriters, that’ s not a rhetorical question.

I SENSE A SLIGHT TREND HERE: Last Year 99.6% of All Suicide Bombings In The World Were Carried Out By Radical Muslims

IT’ S IN THEIR NATURE: Iran will slap us again after Obama’s pathetic response to sailor incident.

Shot: American sailors told by Iranian captors to ‘ act happy’

Chaser: White House: Iran Footage of Kneeling U.S. Sailors No Reason ‘ for Anybody to Be Embarrassed.’

Hangover: White House: The ‘Only People Unhappy About’ Release of Navy Sailors Are ‘Republicans for Some Reason.’

As Allahpundit tweets, that last link is a “Nice example of what would be a five-alarm media outrage if the parties were reversed.”

AND IF I HIT MY HEAD ON THE DESK REALLY HARD I MIGHT UNDERSTAND IT: Obama’s Iran Policy, Explained.

Elite U.S. targeting force has arrived in Iraq to fight the Islamic State.

.

Artificially Sweetened: How Politics Massaged the Science in the New Dietary Guidelines

and then there'sMY plan: You’re better off ignoring Uncle Sam’s ever-changing diet advice.

and then there's THIS , more on it later: New York Times: ‘ Moonshot’ to Cure Cancer, to Be Led by Biden, Relies on Outmoded View of Disease. Meanwhile, in the actual moon-shot realm, Obama has enabled dramatic progress in space development by . . . keeping the federal government out of the picture. There’ s a lesson there, you know.

CHANGE: Discoveries of an Anti-Gunner: My Conversion to the Other Side.

ON NPR, no less,  Bob Cottrol on why many American blacks don’ t want to give up their guns.

THAT TIME WHEN ERIC HOLDER RECOMMENDED “ BRAINWASHING” STUDENTS ABOUT GUN CONTROL: MSM will say Ted Cruz was lying about Holder’ s brainwashing comment. Here’ s the video.

Haven't referenced this one lately but since non-black Kevin D Williamson kinda does as the gubmint chases itself down its own rabbit hole .... again

From Subprime to Sub-Subprime, as charted by Kevin D. Williamson:

Homeownership isn’t right for everybody. For one thing, enormous debt isn’t right for everybody, and homeownership without equity (3 percent, indeed) is nothing more than that. What’s more, as National Review’s Reihan Salam has shown, the social benefits associated with homeownership — stability, civic engagement, etc. — are present only when there is significant equity held. As Salam and co-author Christopher Papagianis put it: “The traits that enabled households to build up the savings necessary for significant down payments — hard work and the deferral of gratification — were misattributed to homeownership itself.”

Which sound very much like Reynold’ s Law:

The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class people have: If middle-class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we’ll have more middle-class people. But homeownership and college aren’t causes of middle-class status, they’re markers for possessing the kinds of traits — self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc. — that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class. Subsidizing the markers doesn’t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them.

And once again, the bureaucratic left will need to relearn that lesson yet again, likely the hard way — and possibly soon, when the financial crisis “ truly takes a village,” yet again.

Obama in 2010: 'We can’t afford' the Kinds of Results That Obama Ended up Producing From 2011-16

Obama to Congress: Please Authorize What I'm Already Doing

SAYS THE MAN WHO OBVIOUSLY DOESN’ T UNDERSTAND WHAT CANCER IS: ‘ America can cure cancer’ : Obama announces national effort to fight disease.  Also, Biden is supposed to head a new moon shot.  Seriously, who has slipped him the Onion and told him it’ s America’ s paper of record?

JONAH GOLDBERG: Did anyone else notice that Obama rhetorically conceded that immigrants reduce wages?

Nixonian:  President loathed by half the country, who made questionable foreign policy decisions, oversaw an unprecedented expansion of government powers, and threatened to sic the IRS on his enemies decides to soften his image by declaring a war on cancer…

… In 1971: Why The War On Cancer Hasn’ t Been Won.