So let me get this straight: Former Hollywood Director Roman Polanski drugs and rapes a 13 year-old girl years ago, pleads guilty to the crime, and then flees the country before his sentencing, living abroad in high style for the next 32 years.

But now that he has been arrested and faces extradition to the United States, the elite in Hollywood think that he has suffered enough by being denied entry to the country that they all threaten to leave any time a Republican wins the White House.

Okay, got it.

I've just returned from an extended, nearly month-long, vacation, up to the northwest. I went into Vancouver, which was pleasant but as soon as I got in I noticed that the green traffic lights were flashing.

I figured out what that meant, but asked anyway. That means, "Proceed with caution." Most of the time they turn green and then start flashing. "Proceed with caution." Just how servile are these people?

This is the nanny state writ large, or at least writ in flashing green lights. I have not been so irritated since the scourge of the "Baby on Board" placards in the 80s, which meant that the driver had no intention of being responsible and was expecting you to be responsible for her.

I am a Texan, and have always been a Texan and will always be a Texan. You couldn't pry me out of the state. But I have to confess that once you get out of Texas and the surrounding states the driving gets a lot better. People simply don't act like the proctologists' delights that we find here.

Seattle was delightful and in every way. For the time I was gone there was one, just one, day of bad weather. I'm told that's unusual. I'm not complaining. The food was wonderful--lots of local produce that the chefs knew how to handle. I even had lunch at the top of the Space Needle and it was quite good, which was pleasant. Food at attractions normally is excused from an attempt at high quality.

The people were delightful too. And the drivers considerate. I could love it there. Except that it had the sense of being Shangra-la. I have friends in the area who tell me of the protests at military bases there. In Texas a military coffin nearly stops the airport with people standing in respect. Who is minding the store? People in Texas or people in the northwest? Because freedom is never a sure thing, nor a secure thing--it must be cherished, and fought for, and defended all of the time.

We are possessed, for now, of an amazing thing--a free and liberal (in the good sense of the word) democracy. A place unprecedented in history where freedom of action is not yet dead. (Although the next fight will be the battle between the mutually exclusive freedom of action and freedom of consequence, the leftist freedom.) And I could see living in Seattle, in that wonderful bubble, and thinking, "It won't happen here." Well, it always does.

Washington, Oregon--lovely, wonderful, enchanted places. But Texas? People here are paying attention.

Except when they're driving.

How to really do away with charges of racism, sexism, and, dare I say it, looks-ism. And put conservatives back in the front of the Republican Party. From Instapundit:

Yet, in the boonies where I live, I heard Condi Rice mentioned as a great candidate before I ever heard the name of Barak Obama. I always get the sense that Obama's speeches are to show how much smarter he is than us because they seldom say much. Rice, who is so much smarter than many of us, communicates content because she has nothing to prove about how smart she is.

Brilliant.

And here's something on Sarah Palin's speech in Hong Kong yesterday:

If you were looking for a real person with common sense views and practical ideas you left thinking, why couldn't we have more people like that in leadership positions. Hopefully we will.

Good stuff. Let's get the bumper stickers printed.

From Victor Davis Hanson:

If you are confused by the first nine months of the Obama administration, take solace that there is at least a pattern. The president, you see, thinks America is a university and that he is our campus president. Keep that in mind, and almost everything else makes sense.

Read the whole thing.

Sure, they call them "Cage Dancers." But, c'mon. Not that I have ever even seen any pole dancers.

The Onion News Network reports on America's latest assault on world peace: sending the Hillary Clinton to foreign nations:

U.S. Condemned For Pre-Emptive Use Of Hillary Clinton Against Pakistan

I know, I know. She's still fun to bash. She's evil, mean, nasty, and corrupt but compared to the rest of the crew in Washington she's a Girl Scout Leader.

Q: f you have less than $10 and can buy either the Sunday edition of The New York Times or one share of the New York Times Company, and you only have one fish to wrap, which do you choose?

A: It depends on which one doesn't have the name Paul Kurgman in it.

Even a dead fish can be picky about its associates.

This was seen at one of the tea parties and is a perfect foil to liberal condescension.

Throughout the ages there has been of course snobbery--and snobberies have had wonderful signal phrases. The one from M*A*S*H: "He bought his suits off the rack." Or, "She''s the sort who bought her silver." This all translates into, "Not our sort, dear," said with a slight sniff.

But those forms of snobbery were relatively harmless. During the Reagan years the left started to try to criminalize policy differences; this is a blatant attempt to stop debate entirely. The Obama administration continues in this vein, having promised not to, but the left has never been bound by honor. They consider themselves high minded, which to them excuses any behavior, but the end does not justify the means. Think ACORN, Teddy Kennedy, and Bill Ayers.

The British Mail estimated two million tea partiers came to Washington; I've seen the pictures and the crowds were vast. But admitting that these are people with the right to dissent hampers the left because it accords them a voice in the public discussion, and discussion must be stopped at all cost. Because the left cannot win the argument on its merits, only by ignoring dissent, making it illegal, if possible, or sniffing that dissenters are unenlightened Neanderthals.

And the deadliest insult is the charge of racism.

Continue reading Racism.

Yes, yes, it's a bit extreme but watch Matt Lauer and Katie Couric or CNN and say it's entirely out of bounds.

US Forces Japan to Declare War!!!

Planes lined up wing-to-wing at Wheeler Field calculated to encourage attack, psychologists say

Parking American battleships in Hawaii is "an act of aggression", claims centrist legislator

"We should've used the RESET button" claims time-travelling future American President

President May Issue Apology Tonight

Nov 22, 1963 (JFK Assassinated)

President Assassinated by Right Wing Extremists!

Violent Militarists, enraged by JFK's reluctance to destroy world during 1962 Missile Crisis, Finally Get Revenge

Police begin search for peaceful Marxist to use as scapegoat

Oct 29, 1929 (The Crash of '29)

Capitalism Fails as Predicted!

Thousands in streets of NY cheer as imperialist stock market collapses.

Equitable Humane Soviet Communist model will last forever!" - NY Times Editor

July 18, 1969 (Chappaquidick Incident)

Ted Kennedy Framed for Co-worker's Death!

Political enemies get Senator drunk, drive his car into pond with young lady trapped inside

Nixon vacationing in San Clemente at the time, so he says

Continue reading Headlines as told by the legacy media.

The President continues to tell us, louder with each speech, that "nothing in his health care plan would require you to change or give up your insurance. If you like your plan, then keep it."

I have a simple question: Let us say that President Obama's health care reforms have become law and that I have a health insurance plan with Company A. I see a competing plan from Company B that suits my needs better. Can I change from Company A to Company B? Or am I forced into the government plan should I leave Company A for any reason?

President Obama sure doesn't have the best luck with guys named Joe:

Joe "the Plumber" got him to admit he wanted to Spread the Wealth Around.

Joe "Clean and Articulate" Biden pointed out just how little foreign policy experience (and pretty much any other executive experience) he had.

Now, Rep. Joe "You Lie!" Wilson calls a spade a spade...ohh wait I can't say that, it's Racist.

This image and blurb appeared on Drudge today in advance of Emperor Noclothes' speech before the Congress tonight.

Sure, if we had leaders enlightened enough to run over some of these Tea Party or Town Hall protestors with some tanks we would be better off.

Our President, while chatting with students, flashing his pearly whites, was asked whom he's most like to dine with:

Gandhi. He's somebody I find a lot of inspiration in. He inspired Dr. (Martin Luther) King with his message of nonviolence. He ended up doing so much and changed the world just by the power of his ethics.

At another point, Obama told the students that "A lot of people are counting on me."

What a jackanapes.

At least now, after that tedious and utterly banal speech, children know what a pious bore Obama is.

When your day is awful and you think that your life just couldn't get worse, buck up.

Somewhere in the world there is a Mr. Pelosi.

All right, it's a cheap shot. But I'm owed lots of cheap shots after all the Darth Cheney rubbish.

It seems President Obama's speech to school children was supposed to be the lead in for this television event that aired on multiple cable channels tonight:

The White House may have toned down the speech, but revolutionary and radical fingerprints are all over this part of the campaign. I agree with what Michelle Malkin has to say about this:

[this] All sounds innocuous, just like Obama's speech today.

But the supporting website has the same activist, entitlement culture-nurturing bent of the White House education guides: "I want, I want, I want."

How about "I WANT TO MASTER CORE ACADEMIC SUBJECTS?"

As I've pointed out repeatedly over the last week, Obama/Ayers/Klonsky and company are not interested in imparting knowledge. They are interested in creating "social justice" activists.

Accordingly, Get Schooled features a "student bill of rights." (Hey, how about just learning the original Bill of Rights?)

If American school kids are such dolts, why does this campaign call upon them to "School the Government," "Make Demands of their Governors," and "track every dollar of the $100 billion in education stimulus spending" (a feat Joe Biden, the CBO and OMB can't even do)?

A lovely case of a Marine telling off one of our wannabe masters, Representative Brian Baird. From what I can tell he, unlike many politicians and nearly all Democrats, can sometimes be moved by facts. There are other politicians who deserve this barracking more, but still. He's a politician, and he's a Democrat.

I only wish the video were better so that I could watch the torment in his face.

I have never held politicians in very high esteem for I've always recognized that there is something second-hand about getting power over people through a ballot box. They need a plebiscite to be real people, which is sad. My biggest complaint about Washington now is that I am utterly and completely cynical about government. Italian politicians don't even bother to make promises for they know that they won't be believed. Is this a good thing?

This lot is so nakedly power mad, corrupt and irresponsible that whenever I see U. S. Capitol I no longer think of the time that I've spent there, surrounded by the ghosts of people who changed the world for the better. I think of Nancy Pelosi and others, snort and move on.

Today President Obama will address school children to, oh, hell, tell them to study or something. It's all really just a chance for him to present his mug to a camera. I had planned to write something about declaring Godwin's Law to be dead. It's the adage which states that if you call something Nazi in a dispute you lose. Events overtook Godwin's Law. After all, if there were Hitlerjugend there can be Obamajugend and both of them give electrifying speeches. I know, I know. They both breathe, or breathed, too.

But the remarks posted on the White House Website are not menacing. They are not as bad as asking you to inform on your neighbors by questioning Obamacare. They are merely utterly gaseous and banal, and more proof that this man is a completely empty suit, the product of preferential treatment who has only prettied his way up to the top and is of no substance.

I have a friend Karen who did a brilliant job of flensing this pot-o-crap:

The President: Hello everyone - how's everybody doing today? (Will he pause so everyone can chorus, "Great, Mr. President!") I'm here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we've got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I'm glad you all could join us today.

This reminds me of the end of every episode of Barney the Dinosaur, where he says, "Hello again, to all my friends! I'm glad you came to play. Our fun and learning never end. Let's see what we did today!"

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it's your first day in a new school, so it's understandable if you're a little nervous.

What strange new feelings you're having, and you must be so self-conscious about them! I'll bet each and every one of you feels like a dweeb!

Most middle and high school students would find this unbearably patronizing. Reminds me of those embarrassing old lectures about puberty: "Don't be alarmed if you wake up one morning (boys) or go to the bathroom (girls) to find . . ."

When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn't have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday - at 4:30 in the morning.

Oh my Lenin, she HOMESCHOOLED him? Why didn't she send him to the local public school, and demand bilingual teachers and programs to accommodate him?

Now I wasn't too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I'd fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I'd complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster."

I'd much rather listen to Bill Cosby's father ranting about how when he was a boy, he had to walk to school every day for 12 miles in a blinding snowstorm--oh, and it was uphill both ways.

So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I'm here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I'm here because I want to talk with you about your education and what's expected of all of you in this new school year.

Continue reading President 0Bama addresses school children.

I'm not a birther but this is funny:

This was written by a pastor's wife.

-----------

And it came to pass in the Age of Insanity that the people of the land called America, having lost their morals, their initiative, and their will to defend their liberties, chose as their Supreme Leader that person known as "The One."

He emerged from the vapors with a message that had no meaning; but He hypnotized the people telling them, "I am sent to save you."

"My lack of experience, my questionable ethics, my monstrous ego, and my association with evil doers are of no consequence. I shall save you with Hope and Change. Go, therefore, and proclaim throughout the land that he who preceded me is evil, that he has defiled the nation, and that all he has built must be destroyed."

And the people rejoiced, for even though they knew not what "The One" would do, he had promised that it was good; and they believed. And "The One" said, "We live in the greatest country in the world. Help me change everything about it!" And the people said, "Hallelujah! Change is good!"

Then He said, "We are going to tax the rich fat-cats." And the people said "Sock it to them!" "And redistribute their wealth." And the people said, "Show us the money!" And the he said, "Redistribution of wealth is good for everybody."

And Joe the plumber asked, "Are you kidding me? You're going to steal my money and give it to the deadbeats??" And "The One" ridiculed and taunted him, and Joe's personal records were hacked and publicized.

One lone reporter asked, "Isn't that Marxist policy?" And she was banished from the kingdom!

Then a citizen asked, "With no foreign relations experience and having zero military experience or knowledge, how will deal with radical terrorists?" And "The One" said, "Simple. I shall sit with them and talk with them and show them how nice we really are; and they will forget that they ever wanted to kill us all!" And the people said, "Hallelujah!! We are safe at last, and we can beat our weapons into free cars for the people!"

Then "The One" said "I shall give 95% of you lower taxes." And one, lone voice said, "But 40% of us don't pay ANY taxes." So "The One" said, "Then I shall give you some of the taxes the fat-cats pay!" And the people said, "Hallelujah! Show us the money!"

Continue reading Another parable.

From the internet:

OLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

Continue reading An updated parable.