Archive for July, 2008

How will the Fed handle it? The Wall Street Journal reports (U.S. to Ratchet Up Borrowing, July 31, 2008): With this fiscal year’s budget deficit expected to more than double from the previous year, the U.S. government plans to nearly quadruple its borrowing to $555 billion. The Federal Reserve’s dilemma is that opening the money-supply spigot enough... »

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that he will resign from his position as leader after his party’s leadership contest in September. This announcement comes after it was revealed that Olmert is facing involvement in a corruption investigation in Israel. “I was forced to defend myself against relentless attacks from self-appointed fighters for justice... »

A 40-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly stabbing and decapitating a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus near Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, Canada on Wednesday night. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have issued a statement confirming that a homicide took place aboard the bus. A suspect is in custody. Canadian Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day... »

The end of the Cold War meant a significant change in the nature of the foreign threats to US security. The principal worry of most Americans is no longer a devastating military offensive from abroad, but rather more insidious assaults which hit closer to home, threatening lives and property and creating a climate of... »

When Obamatons aren’t renting their shirts or tearing out their hair in sheer ecstasy over his total wonderfulness, they must occasionally speculate about what made their hero the hero he is. I mean, other than the “pot (that) had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow (cocaine) when you could afford it” that he... »

-By Warner Todd Huston Starting off with the often ridiculed 1998 hyperbole from writer Toni Morrison who decided that Bill Clinton was the nation’s first black president, “Asian Pop” writer,Jeff Yang of the San Francisco Chronicle, has decided that Barack Obama could be the first “Asian American president” if elected in November. Apparently Yang is... »

There is a striking parallel between the naivete of Senator Obama and President Woodrow Wilson in their expectation of imposing a liberal-progressive model of peace upon a fractious world. Senator Obama’s faith that his personal diplomacy with our sworn enemies will transform them into reasonable and peaceful partners is as old as American liberal-progressivism. ... »

As a discipline, archaeology examines the artistic and technological remains of various cultures in the attempt to learn more about them.  Often from these objects, students learn about more than the subject’s material nature but also insight into the beliefs and paradigms important to the human species at a particular time. Probably the most prominent... »

Product Review: Matusalem Gran Reserva Since moving to Hawaii, I’ve enjoyed sampling different rums mixed with local tropical fruit juices. It feels geographically appropriate and captures the essence of island living. I was excited to try MATUSALEM GRAN RESERVA. Initially I mixed it, like any other rum, with pineapple, mango, guava or passion fruit juice. It... »

After his visit to Iraq, Democrat Party presidential candidate Barack Obama all but admitted the success of what’s come to be called “the surge.” Obama claims he met with military leaders in Iraq and spoke with rank and file soldiers who’ve been fighting the Iraqi insurgents and members of Al-Qaeda who refuse to acknowledge... »

-By Warner Todd Huston How many Germans would vote for Barack Obama for our president? CNN claims to know. During the last weekend that Barack Obama was in Germany, CNN used a graphic on the Wolf Blitzer show that claimed that 72% of Germans preferred Obama with only a mere 11% who favored John McCain.... »

The domestic violence industry is one of the most corrupt and unaccountable enterprises in modern-day America. Every year it sucks over $1 billion from the federal treasury and ships the money to a variety of radical feminist organizations dedicated to revamping the family unit. Thanks to the generosity of the Violence Against Women Act, domestic... »

Turkish President Abdullah Gül said in a statement, "Nothing can be achieved by terror, violently claiming lives of the innocent. These attacks show the inhumanity and misery of the assailants." »

European socialists and Middle Eastern Muslims are wildly enthusiastic about Senator Obama, because he styles himself a citizen of the world who, like all liberal-progressive-socialists, aims for world government. American liberal-progressive-socialism, in the person of Senator Obama, is a carbon copy of European socialism, and Islamic jihadists recognize that socialism offers no opposition to their... »

-By Warner Todd Huston In yet another example of why the west might not beat the onslaught of radical Islamofascism, Minette Marrin of the Timesonline thinks she has found a solution to the clash of cultures. Marrin details the extremism evinced by too many Muslims in England and then posits a solution: ban all religion.... »

by Angry Harry In my last piece on MND I suggested that long-time MRAs would do better by focusing less on the outrages that men so often have to endure (family courts, misandry in advertising etc) and focusing more on stirring up fear in the public about the impending awfulness that is going to... »

Behavioral Finance: Anchoring (2008-07-21) by David John Marotta Rational analysis is essential to making smart investment decisions. Unfortunately, our first reaction to a complicated situation, usually instinctive, often does not serve our best interests. The field of behavioral finance studies how and why we make economic decisions. Researchers have identified dozens of mental shortcuts. One heuristic that... »

-By Warner Todd Huston ** Now With Update… A Soldier Speaks ** The New York Times is miffed. They aren’t happy that there has been a dearth of news photos showing dead American soldiers in the war in Iraq. The Times is lamenting that there have been “4,000 U.S. Combat Deaths, and Just a Handful of... »

Last week my column revealed the all-too-common mistreatment of children in abuse shelters around the country. The article highlighted two incidents involving a Florida shelter — a former director who was cited for contributing to the delinquency of minors, and the sexual assault of a 4-year-old girl. Following publication of that essay, several... »

The news from Turkey is terrible, and the US State Department thinks it is good news. Since the US is, for many reasons, committed to an alliance with Israel, our options in the Middle East are limited. Note I make no comment on the Israel Alliance: it is as much a fact... »