Get your Ovaries off my Rosaries?

The contraception debate is descending into farce.

Angela Morabito, a student at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service,writes:

Let’s talk priorities here. It costs over $23,000 for a year at Georgetown Law. Sandra, are you telling us that you can afford that but cannot afford your own contraception? Really? Math was never my strong suit, but something about Sandra’s accounting just doesn’t seem right.

No one forced Sandra to come to Georgetown. And now that she has, Sandra does not have to depend on the university health plan. She could walk down the street to CVS and get some contraception herself. Or, go to an off-campus, non-university doctor and pay for it out of pocket. (Or, you know . . . maybe not have so much sex that it puts her in financial peril?)

Funny how the same side that cries “Get your rosaries off my ovaries” is the same side saying, “on second thought . . . please pay for me to have all the sex I want!” The people who espouse “pro-choice” “values” are the same people who say religious institutions have no right to choose.

Imagine if someone else had asked the government to cover a different activity. Let’s say I want to go rock climbing. It’s my body and my choice and I want to climb all the cliffs I can! Imagine if I went to the government and asked it to pay for helmets and ropes and band-aids I’ll need to safely climb rocks every day of my life. What would everyone say?

“It’s your choice to do that — no one’s forcing you to scale cliffs. So, either quit it or pay for it yourself!”

This is the reaction we should have had to Sandra Fluke.

Sandra, I hope you take to heart our school’s motto of “Cura Personalis” — care of the whole person. You are so much more than your reproductive organs. Please, have some self-respect and take responsibility for your choices instead of having to beg the government for help. The government should not be able to force a religious institution — like the one we attend — to pay for the things they don’t believe in. That is pretty clear in the first amendment. But since you missed the ten commandments I can’t expect you to read the Bill of Rights either.

I believe in Georgetown. I love this school. And I know that we are so, so much better than what Sandra Fluke would make us out to be.

Chicago Liberalism, Obamacare and contraception

The key is to pay off the people who paid you off.  And the Obami learned their Chicago lessons well.

CONTRACEPTION MANDATE: Actually a payoff to Big Pharma? “Completely ignored is the more fundamental problem: this mandate is not only about the bedroom, it’s about the boardroom. You’ve heard of crony capitalism? Well this is America’s first example of crony contraceptives. Forget for a minute the religious question and look at who wins big here: Big Pharma. This mandate is not really about condoms or generic versions of ‘the pill,’ which are available free or cheap in lots of places. This is about brand-name birth control drugs and other devices that some consumers swear off because they are too expensive. The Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate requires health-insurance companies provide contraceptive coverage for all ‘FDA approved contraceptive methods.’ It does not insist on generics. And it does not offer any cost containment. . . . It’s important to point out that among President Obama’s biggest financial backers are precisely the Big Pharma companies who benefit from the mandate.”

Federal Statism: a bipartisan addiction

Congress is about to whoop through a massive expansion of EX-IM Bank lending authority.  So why do exporters need Federal loans to fund exports?  After all, there are many banks just dying to lend money to credit worthy borrowers.  Ah, that's the rub, isn't it?  Businesses want to sell products to customers who real banks won't touch with a ten foot pole.  And to do that they need a lender who is stupid.  Very stupid.  Enter Uncle Sugar, stage left.  This Federal bipartisan commitment to putting powerful interests ahead of the common interest is one more reason we need to break it up, break it all up.

WSJ: The Export Subsidy Boomerang. “If you thought Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Solyndra would teach Congress a lesson about politicized credit, think again. The federal Export-Import Bank is up for reauthorization, and the only question seems to be how much more taxpayer money Washington wants to put at risk. If the GOP wants to have a principled battle about fiscal waste and market distortions, this is a good one. . . . Business lobbies claim the country can’t afford to let the bank expire or—gasp—private banks like Citigroup and J.P. Morgan would have to do more trade financing. California Republican Gary Miller, supported by fellow Republican Spencer Bachus, Democrat Barney Frank and others, has a bill pending in the House to prolong the bank’s life through 2015 and raise its lending cap to $160 billion from $100 billion. The House Financial Services Committee waved the bill through in a voice vote last year and it’s likely to get a floor vote this month.”

Deeper and deeper and deeper

The problem with regulation is you just can never stop.  Regulations beget a response which requires more detailed regulation ad infinitum.  And in the end, the only ones who benefit are lawyers and other state minions.  And consumers?  We always lose.

Government Meddling In Family Farms
Hunter Lewis writes at Against Crony Capitalism:

The Labor Department decided that children growing up on a family farm could only work there if wholly owned or operated by their parents ( no LLC's and family partnerships and the like). The Department has decided to reconsider this (see recent article in Washington Times weekly, 2/6/12, P 18), but clearly intends to narrow the "parental exemption." So even children doing farm chores is to be regulated by Washington. Based on how most of this is going, it wouldn't be surprising if you will be able to get an exemption by hiring a federally approved "consultant" to help you define the chores.

Mona Charen provides an example how the media echo chamber distorts the news

They won't even let dissenting opinions on the air.

In the spirit of Andrew Breitbart (may he rest in peace), I feel the need to expand on my experience with NBC Nightly News last night.

I had a good experience with NBC a couple of months ago, so when they asked me back, I agreed to come talk about what Rush Limbaugh had said yesterday about the Georgetown law student who testified before the Democrats on the contraceptive issue.

The producers culled a few unrepresentative words from my interview. So here’s what I said.

When the producer asked: “What do you make of Rush Limbaugh’s comments?” I said that his choice of words was crude but that I certainly understood and sympathized with the point he was making. A law student is now a hardship case? She needs the rest of us to provide her with free contraceptives?

Well, said the producer, “What about this contraceptive thing? Aren’t we past all of that?” I said that liberals and Democrats were distorting the issue. The issue is not “access” to contraceptives. With the exception of one stray, unwise remark from Rick Santorum (and he said nothing about denying women access, merely that he questioned whether they were altogether good for women) no one on our side is arguing about access to contraceptives. What the Obama Administration is requiring is that all women — no matter what their income — be provided with free contraceptives. And of course, all entities, even religious institutions with moral objections, are required to provide contraceptives and abortifacients for free as well.

So the Democrats come along and force insurance companies to provide for free something that 95 percent of people have been purchasing, and when we object, they scream that we want to “send women back” to someplace or other, and deny women access to contraceptives. It’s ludicrous and dishonest and manipulative.

But NBC had their template: women protest Rush’s awful words. And while I had thought that they were going to include at least one woman who didn’t see it their way, I was wrong.

But IQ can't buy you love....

But the real question is how many men would swap to get a woman with bigger boobs if it meant her having a lower IQ?

THE GOOD NEWS IS, YOU CAN BUY BOOBS BUT YOU CAN’T BUY IQ: Research: Third of young women would swap IQ for larger breasts. “The study, which has alarmed women’s groups, also found a quarter of those surveyed felt bigger breasts would make them feel ‘happier’. And almost 60 per cent of the respondents believed that men would be ‘more interested’ in them romantically if they had bigger breasts.”

You Can Not judge our souls

Goldberg on the similarities between Breitbart and Buckley.

One thing that he [Breitbart] and Bill [Buckley] shared was this basic contempt for the premise that the mainstream liberal elite institutions in the United States are in a position to judge and adjudicate the worth of conservatives. That they are in a position to judge our souls. That if we disagree with liberals, that proves that we are somehow wanting or lacking in compassion; lacking in humanity. That is a fundamental thing that enraged Andrew, this idea that if you disagreed about public policy, if you disagreed about how to organize society, that proved you were a racist. That proved you were a fascist. That proved you were a homophobe. It was the fundamental bad faith of the leading liberal institutions that controlled the commanding heights of this culture that infuriated him. And he refused, at the most basic level, to give them that authority over him or his ideas, and that is was fueled hisRighteous Indignation, as his book title called it.

TSA: Extra special creepy thugs make us less safe

Is there any part of our Federal monster that doesn't make things worse?  Anything?  Here's a list of the ways the TSA makes us less safe.  Way to go guys.

That the TSA fails in its stated goal of keeping prohibited items off airplanes is amply demonstrated by its 70% failure rate in testing, and the continuing presence of loaded handguns and box cutters on flights.And how does TSA make us less safe? Let me count the ways:
The TSA creates vulnerabilities by breaching the integrity of our closed and locked luggage. Hundreds of screeners have been arrested for stealing from passengers. Screener theft betrays a serious security vulnerability, because a dishonest person with access to take things out of your bags is a dishonest person who could be bribed to put something into your bags. In fact, this has already happened with the TSA's drug smuggling rings: how does the screener know whether it's meth or explosives in that sealed container?
The TSA concentrates people in enormous lines right outside the checkpoint, creating a target of opportunity for a bomber who wouldn't ever be screened.
...The TSA forces people with poor balance or in wheelchairs to walk without their walkers or canes, to totter through metal detectors and body scanners, so it's just a matter of time until a passenger breaks a hip trying to comply with these bullies.
The TSA trains children to be vulnerable to sexual predators by teaching children the lesson that anyone with a badge gets to reach inside their clothing and rub them on the body parts that their bathing suits cover.
Finally, the TSA's abusive searches of innocent people cause many of us to drive to our destinations instead of flying. Flying is by far the safest long-distance travel mode, and discouraging flying causes road deaths.

More from Christopher Elliott on the TSA's new "charm offensive," and their sickening bit of PR about screening cute baby otters. Loved this bit about what they find:

Jon Allen, a TSA spokesman in Nashville, "proudly" showed off an entire table of dangerous items at the agency's, "show and tell" last week. They included giant knives, a pepper spray dispenser, a 3-liter box of white wine, even fully-loaded handguns. Allen said the items were largely confiscated within the past five weeks.What's a terrorist going to do with a box of booze on a plane, except get really drunk and show the entire plane that he has extraordinarily bad taste in wine? Likewise, we have no evidence that the knives, the pepper spray and even the loaded guns would be used for anything related to terrorism. More likely, they were packed accidentally and would have been caught with a conventional magnetometer or X-ray machine, anyway.

Stagflation II

Same kind of people run the country this time.  Only now we're bankrupt.  Sigh.  Read the whole thing.

During the 1970s, the toxic combination of a weak dollar, high tax rates, and onerous regulations introduced a new word into America's economic vocabulary: stagflation. Reaganomics banished this word to the history books. Now, President Obama and Fed Chairman Bernanke are teaming up to give stagflation another try. It is not likely that Americans will like it any more this time around than they did 40 years ago.

CBS News: Government Lying about the real inflation rate

When even CBS News is off narrative....

CBS NEWS: INFLATION: NOT AS LOW AS YOU THINK. “Forget the modest 3.1 percent rise in the Consumer Price Index, the government’s widely used measure of inflation. Everyday prices are up some 8 percent over the past year, according to the American Institute for Economic Research.”

Chicago Liberalism is remarkably corrupting, isn't it?

Why do they hate us so? Lefties cheer Andrew Breitbart's death

I think it is because for some on the left, life is nothing but politics.  So to oppose their politics is to oppose life itself.  There is a reason there are very few devoutly religious on the left, it's because the state is their God.  And to them, chaps like Andrew Breitbart are the spawn of Satan.  Deep, pervasive, corrosive hate.  Astonishing.

As news broke this morning of the tragic death of Conservative journalist Andrew Breitbart, liberals celebrated the news on Twitter.

The most influential tweet came fromSlate's Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias), who tweeted: "Conventions around dead people are ridiculous. The world outlook is slightly improved with @AndrewBrietbart dead."

AlmightyBob ‏ @AlmightyBoob : @AndrewBreitbart haha youre dead and in hell being a gay with hitler

Jeff Glasse ‏ @jeffglasse : Andrew Breitbart now enjoying afternoon tea with Hitler #goodriddanceyouhack

@darrenfiorello: Andrew Breitbart died? Is it wrong that I'm happier about that than when they got bin Laden and Saddam?

Kellie Allen @thirtyseven : Breitbart helped destroy the career of someone I know. Good riddance, scumraker.

Scott On Da Rox  @ridinchillwaves : RT GOOD RIDDANCE..fascist prick @Gawker: Andrew Breitbart Dead? gawker.com/5889586/

Josh M ‏ @TheSocialest : Good riddance Breitbart. Hopefully they put James O'Keefe in your casket.

John Kapp ‏ @johnkapp : Andrew Breitbart was a racist, sexist, homophobe. Good riddance.

Gabriel ‏ @gabriel0923 : Andrew #Breitbart has died having been finally consumed by his revolting hatred! The world is better off without him!

Dufus ‏ @dufus : Did we cry when Hitler died? No.. #Breitbart see you in hell asshole

Natasha Yar-Routh ‏ @xiomberg : Andrew Breitbart is dead, good riddance to bad trash. He was a vile excuse for a human being

Dave Lartigue ‏ @daveexmachina : Andrew Breitbart has died. Honestly, good riddance. He helped poison the country where I live and we are better off without him.

Lalo Alcaraz ‏ @laloalcaraz RT @Mfusion66: RIP Breitbart? Nah, too good to be true

vtred ‏ @vtred1 : Good riddance to Andrew Breitbart - a McCarthyite nutcase.

Sean Paul Kelley ‏ @seanpaulkelley Andrew Breitbart has died: bigjournalism.com/lsolov/2012/03… If so, good riddance.

CpG ‏ @Crow1138 : I know it's wrong, but good riddance “@cnnbrk: Conservative blogger Andrew #Breitbart has died, attorney says. on.cnn.com/wkDt4g”

TahitiNut ‏ @TahitiNut : Forgive me, God, for I have sinned. I err on the side of being pleased with a death ... of Andrew Breitbart. Good riddance.

michael mayer ‏ @prisonforbush: Breitbart dead? D Good riddance. More republicans should follow his lead.

DAC ‏ @dac2527 : Satan calls Andrew Breitbart home... Good riddance!

Kate Witko ‏ @katewitko : Andrew Breitbart is dead at 43 from "natural causes". hrm yes I suppose wine is pretty natural. good riddance, asshole.

WeirdArchives ‏ @WeirdArchives : Looks like it's official. Andrew Breitbart is dead. Personally I don't like the guy, so good riddance to bad rubbish.

Scott On Da Rox ‏ @ridinchillwaves : RT GOOD RIDDANCE..fascist prick @Gawker: Andrew Breitbart Dead? gawker.com/5889586/

Mike Hightower ‏ @MikeHightower1 Good riddance andrew breitbart.

Nick Huinker ‏ @towndrinker good riddance to bad rubbish. no reason to mourn someone who made it their business to make this world a less pleasant place. #breitbart

Michael David ‏ @renmiked Good riddance Andrew #Breitbart.

@Sttbs73 It is very hard to have sympathy for an evil person like Andrew Breitbart! I am done being NICE.

@CleverTrousers: Andrew Breitbart died! Today looks like it's going to be a GREAT day. #deadgasbags

@crmlqt: Andrew Breitbart is dead....one less racist!!!!!

@jawillie: The saddest thing about Andrew Breitbart's death is that he died such a douchebag.

Inglorious Basterdz ‏ @TheLibertyLamp : Andrew Breitbart destroyed lives based on LIES, I will not be some phony liberal and pretend condolences. ROT IN HELL ANDREW U BASTARD!

The ANWR shuffle has been going on for almost 20 years

But many, many mosquitoes have been saved.

JAY LENO ON ANWR DRILLING: “Leno’s punchline: Democrats say drilling in ANWR wouldn’t produce any oil for 10 years ‘the same point they’ve been making for more than 10 years now.’ President Bill Clinton vetoed legislation in 1995 that would have opened ANWR to oil exploration.” It would be nice to have some extra oil coming on line about now.

Creating Demons for the Obami's Three Minutes Hate

These 'cats are very, very Orwellian.

THAT’S RICH CONSIDERING THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN DOESN’T EVEN RUN ADDRESS VERIFICATION ON CREDIT CARDS:Obama campaign manager to Koch brothers: Disclose your donors.

And isn’t there something kind of, I don’t know, tacky and third-world about this demonization of people who aren’t even running against them? Pathetic. And unAmerican.

Next fall the youth vote is going to be a protest vote

And, gee, I wonder who they are going to protest?  Young adults went in droves for Obama.  Call it the chump vote.  The capital strike grinds on and on and on and.....

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Only 54% Of Young Adults In America Have A Job. “When it comes to young adults (18-24) in the US, the employment rate is just barely above half, or 54%, which just happens to be the lowest in 64 years, and 7% worse than when Obama took office promising a whole lot of change 3 years ago.”

When is a job not a job? When it's a Green job.

Frederic Bastiat at work again...from Carpe Diem.  It's tragic when we must relearn history.  Again and again and again...

Matt Ridley masterfully applies Bastiat's "broken-window fallacy" to green energy jobs, writing last December in City AM, a UK financial newspaper:

"When is a job not a job? Answer: when it is a green job. Jobs in an industry that raises the price of energy effectively destroy jobs elsewhere; jobs in an industry that cuts the cost of energy create extra jobs elsewhere.

The entire argument for green jobs is a version of Frederic Bastiat’s broken-window fallacy. The great nineteenth century French economist pointed out that breaking a window may provide work for the glazier, but takes work from the tailor, because the window owner has to postpone ordering a new suit because he has to pay for the window.

You will hear claims from Chris Huhne, the U.K.'s anti-energy secretary [he was recently forced to resign and faces criminal charges], and the green-greed brigade that trousers his subsidies for their wind and solar farms, about how many jobs they are creating in renewable energy. But since every one of these jobs is subsidized by higher electricity bills and extra taxes, the creation of those jobs is a cost to the rest of us. The anti-carbon and renewable agenda is not only killing jobs by closing steel mills, aluminium smelters and power stations, but preventing the creation of new jobs at hairdressers, restaurants and electricians by putting up their costs and taking money from their customers’ pockets.

 Contrast that with news from the United States that, according to a report from IHS Global Insight, the cheap shale gas revolution now in full flow has created 148,000 jobs directly within the gas industry and – by making energy cheaper – has created at least another 450,000 jobs elsewhere in the economy. By 2015, the total impact of shale gas will be 870,000 new jobs, says the report.

Back in 1800, Britain was becoming the richest country in the world with the fastest economic growth and the fastest job creation – the China of its day. That was not because we had suddenly become cleverer than everybody else at inventing things. It was because we had stumbled upon limitless, dense and above all cheap energy in the form of coal, and harnessed it to mechanize industry, cheaply amplifying the labor productivity of each person so much that he could be paid high wages.

That lesson – that cheap energy is an employment multiplier, while costly energy is an employment divider – has been forgotten. Please let us recall it before the green jobs myth causes more unemployment."

Economist Magazine: Chicago: America's Capital of Corruption

And it's been imported to the Feds.  It's also interesting that the top 3 most corrupt states are perhaps the three most diverse 'progressive' states in the nation.  What is it about deep, pervasive government intervention that leads to high levels of corruption?  Actually, this ties in with public choice theory which posits that highly diverse polities with heavily interventionist governments will be less efficient and more corrupt because the goals of the various groups are so diverse.  By contrast, heavy state intervention works better (Minnesota, Denmark) in smaller places where everyone has the same culture - the socialized decisions meet a greater proportion of people's needs and therefore there is less conflict and graft.

It's all so progressive.

THE ECONOMIST ON CHICAGO: The Capital Of Corruption. “Although Chicago is the capital of corruption, the state of Illinois as a whole ranks only third in the country—after the much more populous states of New York and California. But the report documents a pattern of crime that has become synonymous with the Chicago or Illinois ‘way’ of doing things. All the corrupt governors and 26 of the aldermen had tried to extract bribes from builders, developers, business owners and those seeking to do business with the city or the state. Those who paid bribes either assumed, or were told, that payment was necessary for zoning changes, building permits or any other government action.”

You hear that Mr. Sulzberger? That's the sound of inevitability.

And about damned time.  The American daily newspaper has been a dishonest and destructive local monopoly since at least 1985.  I await its demise with keen anticipation.  Hat tip Carpe Diem

“Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State”

Mussolini's fascist Credo now applies to the American healthcare system.  Of course it serves the Catholic Hierarchy right, they've been enthusiastic promoters of more and more state power for generations.  But it's still fascism.  Who's going to stand up for you when there is nothing but you and the State?  Your Congressman?  Dream on, he'll own you.

Catholic Cardinal George of Chicago writes:

This year, the Catholic Church in the United States is being told she must “give up” her health care institutions, her universities and many of her social service organizations. This is not a voluntary sacrifice. It is the consequence of the already much discussed Department of Health and Human Services regulations now filed and promulgated for implementation beginning Aug. 1 of this year.
Why does a governmental administrative decision now mean the end of institutions that have been built up over several generations from small donations, often from immigrants, and through the services of religious women and men and others who wanted to be part of the church’s mission in healing and education? Catholic hospitals, universities and social services have an institutional conscience, a conscience shaped by Catholic moral and social teaching. The HHS regulations now before our society will make it impossible for Catholic institutions to follow their conscience.
…
 What will happen if the HHS regulations are not rescinded? A Catholic institution, so far as I can see right now, will have one of four choices: 1) secularize itself, breaking its connection to the church, her moral and social teachings and the oversight of its ministry by the local bishop. This is a form of theft. It means the church will not be permitted to have an institutional voice in public life. 2) Pay exorbitant annual fines to avoid paying for insurance policies that cover abortifacient drugs, artificial contraception and sterilization. This is not economically sustainable. 3) Sell the institution to a non-Catholic group or to a local government. 4) Close down.

Global 'Warming': Lies, Damned Lies and Computer Models

For scientists, these boys show touching religious faith don't they?  Below is the predictive record of the IPCC.  Perhaps they don't know what they're doing?  But they do know how to use a straight edge.  Of course they have lots of practice redrawing the lines.  Again and again and again....

Curves of (Economic) Death

We're going off the cliff.