Panic in Faculty Lounges

By Larry Thornberry

The Sequester is turning out worse than losing tenure. It’s always a knee-slapper when American university professors and administrators, representatives of one of the most extravagantly funded and unaccountable industries in the history of the world, complain they are being underfunded and that the world will suffer as a result. And you thought politicians were good at conflating their personal interests with those of the cosmos.

The sequester hustle out of the White House was such a transparent fraud, and such an intellectual flim-flam, it’s no surprise that the deep thinkers in faculty lounges have fallen for it. And have attempted to turn it to their advantage.

An Associated Press story over the weekend quotes poobahs from some of the nation’s better-known universities — MIT, Johns Hopkins, USC, UMass-Amherst, et al.) whining that the recent trifling cut in the rate at which the federal government metastasizes will bring the growth of knowledge in America to a standstill. Scientifically talented students will flee to other countries where intellectual opportunities are better (Venezuela perhaps? Guatemala?), they threaten. This could lead to a “brain drain,” they warn.

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Addressing Gun Violence One Bumper-Sticker Solution At A Time

Most anyone who has taken a statistics class has heard the example of the incidence of rape rising when sales of ice cream increase. Does that mean rape is more likely to occur as ice cream sales rise? The evidence says yes.

But would banning ice cream sales result in a reduction in the number of rapes? Almost certainly not. Why? Because the correlation does not demonstrate the causation. Looked at another way, they have a shared cause, but there is no correlation. The cause in both cases is hotter temperatures. That is, rape is more likely to occur in warmer months, just as ice cream sales shoot up during the hot summer season. Banning the sale of ice cream to reduce rape makes about as much sense as banning guns to reduce violence.

We get bombarded with stats, figures and polling data every day. Much of this, particularly the polling data, is next to useless. But it doesn’t stop the media from fixating on often-times meaningless numbers to tell a story Chris Ingram - Irreverent View - Click To Read More...

Budget Commitee Hearing Today Reveal True Cost Of Obamacare

WASHINGTON, February 26--At a Budget Committee hearing today, Ranking Member Sessions announced the results of a new Government Accountability Office report on the long-term deficit impact of the President's health law. The results are shocking: over the next 75 years, the law will add $6.2 trillion to the deficit in present value terms—not including the interest costs associated with the additional borrowing. This proves that President Obama's claim that he would "not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits—either now or in the future" were false.

This comes as no suprise. The question is what are we going to do about it?

Mass Release of Immigrants Is Tied to Impending Cuts

Federal immigration officials have released hundreds of detainees from detention centers around the country in recent days in a highly unusual effort to save money as automatic budget cuts loom in Washington, officials said Tuesday.

“It’s abhorrent that President Obama is releasing criminals into our communities to promote his political agenda on sequestration. By releasing criminal immigrants onto the streets, the administration is needlessly endangering American lives.”  said Mr. Goodlatte, chairman of the Judiciary Committee running the House hearings on immigration reform. New York Times - Click To Read Here...

In view Obama is the only one that has the ability to actually direct where these cuts can be made makes his decision to release criminals first an insult and threat to the American people.

The Sequester cuts can either be made intelligently, or in In Obama's universe done brashly as payback for not getting his way. This petulance will soon become more apparent. - DSMW

Jeb Bush: I Would Govern Like Lyndon Johnson As President.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said he would strive to be like Lyndon Johnson, the Democrat famous for expanding the U.S. welfare state through the "Great Society," if he were elected president.

According to the Miami Herald, Bush made those comments Wednesday night in San Antonio, Florida at Saint Leo University, while speaking about education, immigration, and energy policy.

Bush did not address Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty programs, about which Ronald Reagan once famously quipped, "We had a war on poverty, and poverty won. Breitbart - Click To Read More...

You actually CAN hear it here. Check Jeb out and you judge what he actually ment when he speaks of Lyndon Johnson term as president and how he feels about it. - DSMW

Jeb Bush On Education, Immigration & Economy

Jeb Bush spoke at Saint Leo University's 4th Annual International Business Conference a couple of nights ago. He detailed his vision of how to grow and revitalize the economy through education and immigration reform. The former Governor demonstrated to the audience why he is always mentioned as a potential Presidential candidate. He was able to articulate a sensible, partisan-free message in an almost conversational manner that no other "relevant" politician can today.

We apologize for the shakiness of the video.

Why It Worked For Lyndon Johnson

"In some ways, what was most noticeable about the speech was what wasn't in it: Nothing." Washington Post's Ezra Klein, an Obama admirer, comments after the State of the Union address.

Here's what has to be understood. It's all about him.

A State of the Union speech normally is about relating a president's public policies to conditions in the country. An Obama State of the Union speech is about one thing: the Obama project.

It would be unfair to say that everything and everyone else in a complex world are irrelevant. But let's be clear about the priorities: Congress, the Cabinet of courtiers, the press, the people and indeed the national problems described in that State of the Union speech—it's all brick and mortar in the future Obama monument. Daniel Henninger - Click To Read More...

After attending an address by Jeb Bush at Saint leo College last night, I was reminded of Henniger's remarks. Jeb spoke at some length, to a mixed crowd, about leadership in general and especially leadership in government and what it really is. His example was Lyndon Johnson. Johnson knew a thing or two about hard work, difficult miserable situations and yet still being able to move the ball forward to get what he wanted. His secret and the modus orperandi of politicians and presidents before him was earning the respect of the men and women you are asking the favors from. It worked well for the country and in spades for him. History might look on Obama more kindly if he learned this valuable lesson. - DSMW

What Heritage Thinks About Obama's State Of The Union Address

President Barack Obama laid out an ambitious agenda last night. Here are some highlights of our experts’ analysis of his claims, his plans, and his promises. The Heritage Foundation - Click to Read More...

The Heritage Foundation has and will continue to be your go-to source for conservative information on relevant events. Don't continue to accept information on face value when your gut is saying otherwise. Critical thinking is more important than ever in the next 18 months and the Heritage Foundation is the best think tank there is for you and your friends.  Whether it's gun control, immigration, Obamacare or what's happening to your paycheck, the folks at Heritage will plug you in. - DSMW

Don't Be A Cud Chewer In 2013

Negatives continue to abound. So why do I expect stocks to shine in 2013? Because I’m not a cow, I’m a bull. Let me explain: Most negatives you hear about are well known and widely discussed, digested and already priced into stocks.

If it’s widely known, it’s either wrong or will have little impact on stocks. Fear of Europe? We’ve fretted over it for three years while stocks rose. Another Obama term—fully four years of fretting under our belts! The debt crisis—we will be fretting about that forever. Ken Fisher - Forbes - Click to read more...

Fisher dislikes Obama, Bush, Bush 43 and Bernanke, but says the market is doing well. Personally, I like the idea of putting some money in Amazon. Ticket symbol AMZN. - DSMW

Just When You Thought Soviet Propaganda Was Dead

For many years, the American left has combed the past for history lessons that will aid their effort to move the United States toward European-style social democracy, if not a full-fledged socialist utopia. The most successful leftist intellectual in that enterprise was the late Howard Zinn, whose books—such as "A People's History of the United States," first published in 1980—have sold millions of copies and are still used by high schools and colleges nationwide. Zinn believed that by emphasizing the struggles of working people, women and people of color against their supposed oppressors, his work could mobilize a new generation to carry on the fight of yesterday's radical heroes.

That search for a usable past has been taken up in a new form by filmmaker Oliver Stone. Ronald Radosh - Wall Street Journal - Click To Read More...

It continues to amaze me the disregard of historical facts to press an agenda as unworkable and dangerous as leftist ideologies of all kinds.

Hollywood does it in the name of entertainment. It's more than a new twist on an old story for them. It dovetails nicely into what is being belched out of our University systems left vacant by real facts. ( You can thank the teacher's unions for this reality. ) It's like the cool Che Guevara tee shirt your high school daughter wears knowing nothing of the facts of his real mission in life. For her it's edgy and the graphics are good, not to mention the appeal of being counter culture. 

Leftist ideologies destabilize the hopes and dreams of countries all over the world. They erase whole years of historical continuity in places like Russia and Cambodia and leave in their paths what? In the case of Russia, millions and millions of unaccounted for deaths. Families there today are still looking for mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles brutilty murdered and dumped in unmarked graves around Moscow. Somehow this fact does not translate well into the front of wearing apparel.

Marxist philosophies and the like are the venus fly trap for the uneducated. Beware. - DSMW