he just plays one on TV

Sharpton: Republicans Can't 'Use Christianity' Then Vote Against Welfare

but there wasn't anything in it many of the left have been saying for YEARS!

For those folks who still don't understand how government meddling is responsible for the housing crisis, Investor's Business Daily recently posted a nice explanation:

At President Clinton's direction, no fewer than 10 federal agencies issued a chilling ultimatum to banks and mortgage lenders to ease credit for lower-income minorities or face investigations for lending discrimination and suffer the related adverse publicity. They also were threatened with denial of access to the all-important secondary mortgage market and stiff fines, along with other penalties.

This came into effect in 1994 through the "Policy Statement on Discrimination in Lending", spurred on by a Boston Fed study that claimed the discrepancies in the proportion of mortgages given to blacks, Hispanics, and whites was a result of "discrimination." But there is nothing wrong with"discriminating" between bad lending practices and good ones:

It took private analysts, as well as at least one FDIC economist, little time to determine the Boston Fed study was terminally flawed. In addition to finding embarrassing mistakes in the data, they concluded that more relevant measures of a borrower's credit history — such as past delinquencies and whether the borrower met lenders credit standards — explained the gap in lending between whites and blacks, who on average had poorer credit and higher defaults....

When these missing data were factored in, it became clear that the rejection rates were based on legitimate business decisions, not racism.

Still, the study was used to support a wholesale abandonment of traditional underwriting standards — the root cause of the mortgage crisis.

This outcome should have been obvious since about, well, 1994. But some people still don't get it. People like Attorney General Eric Holder who still thinks banks are racist for being simultaneously too tightfisted and too open-handed with minority borrowers.

"Fair lending isn't fair"

a roundup of juicy quotes from the last week:

From Obama's weekly radio address on Saturday:

“The truth is, we can no longer wait for Congress to do its job….So where Congress won’t act, I will.”

Appearing on Saturday's NBC Today, left-wing Washington Post opinion writer and MSNBC contributor Jonathan Capehart dismissed a congressional investigation into the Solyndra debacle as just "the GOP looking to scratch, trying to find a scandal in an administration that is remarkably free of scandal."

After co-host Lester Holt noted that "Republicans have seemed to caught a whiff of scandal" with Solyndra, Capehart argued: "...it's the only program that failed, Solyndra. And also, the other thing to keep in mind is that this is a program that was started – a process that was started under President George W. Bush."

As The Hill reported on Monday, a second company backed by an Energy Department loan, filed for bankruptcy. Beacon Hill Corp., an energy storage company, received $43 million in 2010.

and my FAVORITE!!!!!

President Obama invoked God on Wednesday as he criticized Congress for voting on commemorative coins and a resolution reaffirming “In God We Trust” as the national motto in all public buildings, public schools and other government institutions.

“That’s not putting people back to work,” Obama said. “I trust in God, but God wants to see us help ourselves by putting people to work.”

TRADERS TALK BACK to OccupyChicago. “Go ahead and continue to take us down, but you’re only going to hurt yourselves. What’s going to happen when we can’t find jobs on the Street anymore? Guess what: We’re going to take yours. We get up at 5am & work until 10pm or later. We’re used to not getting up to pee when we have a position. We don’t take an hour or more for a lunch break. We don’t demand a union. We don’t retire at 50 with a pension. We eat what we kill, and when the only thing left to eat is on your dinner plates, we’ll eat that.”

LOTS of violence on the left!

#Occupy Movement Is Unsafe for Women: Attacks and Threats Show Dangers of Anarchist Organizing

NOT MUCH LIKE THE TEA PARTY (CONT’D): Occupy Protesters Arrested in Texas, Oregon….

Lights on?  check

Music?  "Boris the Spider" currently.  check

Candy.  Four bags.  Thgree woulda been enough, but I pass out the crap first and hope there's good stuff left over.

Comfy chair?  As comfy as it get's 10/31 in central Ohio.  Chilly .... breezy .... low clouds scudding across the sky ... suitably creepy.

Little tykes?  Two that live nearest have already been here - a tiger and a pen-gue-win.  And four guys just barely below driving license age w/o costumes.  C'mon dudes at LEAST make an effort or it's one lousy Jolly Rancher apiece for you.  Little kiddles get three of the good stuff.

Almost forgot - warm beverage?  Some kinda white chocolate concoction.  It'll be joined by some Drambuie in about 45 minutes.

And here comes the last of the cul de sac locals.  A pirate.  A princess.   A Snow White. A Power Ranger (red) and a Speedy McQueen.  Very cute.  Suitably polite.  I could turn in now and the neighbors would be satisfied.  But there'd be WAY too much candy left.

Rain started at 6:18 ... about 20 minutes worth, dashing alot of spirits, but the flow continued.  Cute 7 - 8 year old sisters: black witch and white witch.  The barely teen girls, all giggles and elbows and legs, just having fun.  Last years gargoyle was back but the costume was a little snugger this year.

Major lull from about 7 to 7:30.  Walked across the street for the annual discussion with Adam and Declan about the State of  the Neighborhood and our fantasy football teams.  Then a big finish from 7:30 to 7:45. 

And it ends not with a bang but a whimper.  Memories made.  Memories recalled.  Time to button up against the evil spirits and the coming winter.

a short list

1.  Drive Angry.  No.  Really.  Give it a watch.

2.  Insidious. This is how BAD this list is.

3.  I've watched a few others but have nothing else I wanna put on this list.  Some folks might want to include Scream 4, Red State and the 3rd (?) remake of Fright Night.

Maybe Wisconsin needs more Catholics to combat those Hail Mary's.

1.  Alabama.  They beat LSU in a squeaker this weekend.

2.  Stanford.  Still.  Barely.  

3.  Boise State.  Un-Luck-y

4.  Oklahoma State.

Everybody else:  LSU, Oklahoma,  Oregon, that school up north.

Oh, and the Buckeye's should be back in the top 25.  Hopefully they can build off this win, top Joe Pa and find a way to beat the hideous monstrosity from Ann Arbor.

by the way, have you HEARD about the "Occupy Ann Arbor" movement?  It's like a ballet for skinny people.