Fresh Tasty Ideas

Yahoo! Is running sappy story this Christmas morning about thugs in Compton turning in their guns for gifts. It is sure to give liberals warm fuzzies and make conservatives shudder. This gun drive won’t do anything to reduce crime in Compton - it’s not the guns that make that town a hell hole. It’s the people. So, in the long run, there will be little difference. Not to mention the tens of thousands of dollars the city will have to dole out as every little gun-toting gangsta wanna-be gets in line for his plasma TV.

Now, listen to the man who organized the drive:

The only reason you’d have these guns is to shoot at people.

Bravo, sir. That is the intelligence behind the “Gifts for Guns” program in Compton.

Compton, Gun Control, Guns for Gifts, Rotella

Iraq just elected a representative government a week ago, and already the news trail has gone cold. It’s back to relying on blogs to get useful information about Iraq’s new government. That is, unless there is an explosion, then I’m sure we’ll resume full coverage for a bit.

Seriously, this is an historic event, and the only coverage I have personally seen in the last three days is about the Sunni allegations of electoral fraud. We had been told for at least two years this day would never come, and now that is has, it looks like there are those who choose to ignore the accomplishment. JFK acknowledged that spreading liberty around the world should be a cornerstone of US foreign policy - and here we have a fledgling democracy springing from ashes of a tyrannical dictatorship. Yet the media can almost be seen in a collective yawn.

Iraq, Bias, Media

“Opinion I can handle; it’s biased narrative posing as objective reporting that really needs to stop.” - Jeff Goldstein

Bias, Pajamas Media, Jeff Goldstein

During the days leading up to Tookie’s execution, friends of his used the fact that he had written children’s books as an attempt to spare his life. Although writing books warning of the danger that gangs pose in no way atones for the four murders he was convicted of, they pressed on. Jesse Jackson told us that he is worth more alive than dead. Yet, I found out today that Tookie sold only 330 copies of his book Gangs and the Abuse of Power: Tookie Speaks Out Against Gang Violence. His next book Gangs and Wanting to Belong sold only two copies.

So there’s you’re alleged redemption - write books that reach less than 350 people total and you are no longer indebted to society. Why are there people who would bother to defend this scum? Now here’s single biggest reason to be in favor of the death penalty: there is a 0% chance of repeat offenses. That’s damn good.

Tookie, Gangs, Crips, Capital Punishment, Execution

UCLA has published a study which says what everyone knows anyways - the media is biased. What’s next? An article about America’s triumphant moon landing?

It’s funny how many excuses the left has invented to convince themselves there really isn’t a bias among the media. Is the media coverage of Iraq dominated by negative news such as American casualties? It’s shoddy journalism! And if I hear one more person use the hand-wavey “news outlets are owned by big corporations” copout, I can’t be held responsible for what I will do next. Billionaires such as Gates and Soros are liberal, not conservative, so there goes the all rich people are conservative stereotype. Secondly, liberals would rather point to evil businesses than examine the real issue under examination which is biased reporting. It’s as if pointing out that General Electric owns ABC means that no liberal bias could ever exist by virtue of corporate ownership.

A survey done in 1992 of Washington-area journalists and bureau chiefs showed that 91% voted for Bill Clinton and only 7% voted for George H. W. Bush. The New York Times hasn’t endorsed a Republican president since Eisenhower. The former chief editor of the NYT remarked before the 2004 election:

Does anyone in America doubt that Kerry has a higher IQ than Bush? I’m sure the candidates’ SATs and college transcripts would put Kerry far ahead.

Ironically, he turned out to be wrong - at least with regards to the transcripts. Kerry won’t release his SAT scores. Study after study shows that issues which conservatives champion (Iraq, gun ownership, Bush during election month, etc.) are given a negative light in the media, sometimes by 2:1 ratios. That is there will be two negative stories about an issue compared to only one positive story for it. That might be pure luck for one issue, but as the issues start to pile up the bias becomes crystal clear.

On a personal level, I’m am most disgusted with the people who honestly tell me they don’t think the media has any partiality and if there is bias it is unintentional. Whatever.

Bias, Lefties, Media

Morgan Freeman makes an excellent point about black history month - it’s stupid to single out one part of the population and give them one month in which we should learn about them. He says we should simply call each other people and not black or white - and everyone’s history is America’s history.

Freeman, Black History Month

Liberals have never seen a regulation they didn’t like. But if we could save just one life…

Soccer, Helmets, Massachussetts

Michael Moore loves to drone on about how Bush and his administration are nothing but a bunch of lackees for Halliburton and big oil. Well, guess who was slated to become chairman of Russia’s biggest oil company?

Germany’s former chancellor Gerhard Schröder was yesterday at the centre of damaging allegations of sleaze over his decision to accept a lucrative job with Russia’s biggest company.

Opposition MPs joined forces to denounce Mr Schröder - who last week confirmed that he was to become chairman of state-controlled Russian giant Gazprom’s North European Gas Pipeline company. Mr Schröder was accused of bringing German politics into disrepute and of “cronyism” and “corruption”.

Mr Schröder signed the controversial pipeline deal for a $6bn (£3.4bn) gas link between Germany and Russia under the Baltic Sea with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, just two weeks before leaving office.

The Russian Federation (Russia) has a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, which it used to vote against the Iraq war. Of course, the payoff for the Ruskies was free Iraqi oil fields, which they lost when coalition forces invaded despite the tainted resolution. In the run up to the Iraq war, Schröder (then Chancellor) was very public about poo-poo’ing the US led effort.

Now, all the cards are on the table. The war in Iraq was going to cost Russia a lot of oil, a large portion of which likely belonged to Gazprom. It is possible Schröder had this sweet deal lined up back in 2002, knowing he wouldn’t last in office forever. So of course he opposed the US led war effort, he was just looking out for number one.

Even if it turns out Schröder wasn’t coordinating his anti-war efforts with Gazprom and Russia back in 2002, I still savor the delicious irony of this Schröder scandal. Here you have the one of the left’s anti-war champions, the Chancellor of Germany, who stood up to the Bush war machine by taking the ethical high road, and he turns around and signs with a gigantic Russian oil corporation.

I expect nothing short of furious indignation at Mr. Schröder from the same folks who routinely attend anti-war events with picket signs reading “No Blood for Oil.” Well, I won’t hold my breath.

Hat-tip: RightThinking.com

Russia, Schröder, Gazprom, Oil, UN

Ankle Biting Pundits posted about a New York Times article which describes the impending health care benefits financial crisis.

Basically, governments at the city and state level have been using a free health care package to lure in new employees and keep current ones. The terms are quite generous in many cases with coverage extending to spouses and children up to age 26. As with Y2K, this current problem was the result of trying to sweep another problem under the rug. As the years passed, governments payed only what was required at the time, and they used the current budget. Flash forward to December 2005 in Duluth, Minnesota. Someone actually calculates what the city actually owes in the next 30 years and the numbers are shocking:

The total came to about $178 million, or more than double the city’s operating budget. And the bill was growing.

The same realization is being reached slowly across the country - the bill is more than most towns can swallow. Bulldogpundit then makes an astute observation - this is a foreshadowing of the Social Security meltdown that is upcoming if we don’t make changes. So who is opposing making the necessary changes? Look at Alaska, where a similar defecit situation is unfolding:

Conservative lawmakers who supported scaling back traditional retiree health care and pension benefits squared off against union lobbyists, advocates for the elderly and the schools superintendent of Juneau, the state capital, who defended the current benefits.

Two of the most notoriously liberal figureheads - unions and the educational organizations. I don’t think they want to admit the cushy health care programs they fought for are the reason for the financial downfall. They will fight for their pride and un-sustainable benefit programs even if it runs towns and states into the ground. What a pity.

I wish to God that Bush had been able to push through his Social Security reform package. All those damn bleeding-heart egalitarians won - people are convinced that letting you invest your own earnings is selling out Social Security. If I ran the country, I would borrow to pay out the remaining debts owed under the current system, then abolish it. Granted, there would be candlelight vigils outside the White House in memory of a failed socialization experiment that was pulling the out the carpet from under my generation’s feet, but I wouldn’t give a damn. Here, you keep your money. If you want to blow it on coke and hookers, knock yourself out. If you want to invest it, more power to you. And here’s where a snot-nosed, whiney liberal bastard will complain that 0.01% of the people will lose money despite sound investing and careful money management. My answer? Does it look like the government is doing a better job? If you aren’t sure, REREAD the damn article.

Social Security, Health Care, Bush