Bookworm Room

We had a discussion the other day about unions.  They were useful 100 years ago, in promoting child labor laws and the like.  But what are they up to today?  Here’s an example, from Michelle Malkin’s book, Culture of Corruption: “But the most glaring example of the Obama culture of corruption, and the clearest evidence [...]

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DQ here:  Check out the link, too, with some very interesting charts.   Now Sadie’s comment:   A visionary with rose colored glasses. Feh! April 2011 http://directorblue.blogspot.com/

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The Wall Street Journal, having reluctantly arrived at the same conclusions that we Bookwormroom groupies had already formulated, feels that Keynesianism has been totally, totally discredited by recent events “The economies of Europe and the United States have arrived at the moment when they no longer have any conceivable hope of being able to pay for [...]

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We spent the morning today in Palermo.  I wish I had more to say about it, but I just don’t. I can’t figure out if it wouldn’t have been my cup of tea under any circumstances, or if I’m just getting soured after more travel than I really like. I found Palermo hot, noisy, and [...]

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Old Buckeye posted the following comment:  “Aren’t ridicule and belittling supposed to be in the playbook of the ‘rules for radicals?’ I think I’m going to adopt a similar stance when speaking to people I know who voted for him the first time. Say things such as ‘I can’t believe that anyone who doesn’t have [...]

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Here are this week’s full results: Council Winners *First place with 3 1/3 votes! Joshuapundit–-The Most Dangerous Story In The News Today Second place *t*   with 2 votes – The Colossus of Rhodey -Think like a “progressive” Second place *t*   with 2 votes – Simply Jews-Understanding Israeli right and left, new dichotomy and the future [...]

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I’d been thinking about two topics for a post and then I realized they are interrelated. Topic 1 — After the market crashed today, I heard an interview with a financial analyst on the radio.  When asked what would turn things around he said one thing:  “Jobs, jobs, jobs.  We need job growth to get [...]

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This one is from Sadie and it demonstrates that Clinton is not the one who can get credit for the balanced budget on his watch.  Of course it also demonstrates that there is plenty of blame to go around for the unbalanced budgets before and since.  The overall point, that balanced budgets, in the rare [...]

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I had no expectations whatsoever about Tunisia. Going into it, I knew only three things:  it’s on the northeastern tip of Africa, very near Sicily; ancient Carthage was where Tunisia now is; and it had a revolution in January 2011 that lit the spark for the Arab Spring. I now know somewhat more about this [...]

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I’ve always wondered at the alliance between personally conservative union workers and untra liberal academics and government types.  It looks like Obama, with his leftist leanings and strong union support, bridges the gap. Sadie sends along this interesting story right from Chicago, that may reflect a bit of this: The lesson: if you are a union member, better [...]

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Coming to a town near you in the mid-west, starting August 15. He won’t throw you under the bus (unless you get too close).                                                     TOUR de FARCE Taxpayers Will Pay for Obama Bus Tour of Battleground States, Says White House (Greyhound buses get 6.5 miles to the gallon) http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/taxpayers-cover-obama-bus-tour-midwest-b For you flyover readers, who [...]

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I was reading this story about the FAA crisis when the following quote caught my eye:  “the country stands to lose more than $1 billion in revenue from uncollected airline ticket taxes during the shutdown if Congress leaves the problem hanging until lawmakers return in September.”  The country stands to lose?  How about the Federal [...]

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Apparently, using ground turkey in place of ground beef isn’t so much better for you after all.

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Don’t have a clue how Book posts these, but Sadie suggests I ought to, so here goes: Council Submissions   Joshuapundit-The Most Dangerous Story In The News Today The Noisy Room – The Conservative Stand New Zeal – Obama and Marxists March in Unison on Immigration Rhymes With Right – Reconstitute HUAC And Permanent Subcommittee [...]

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Sadie here:  Super Congress and the Committee of 12 (sounds like jury duty) and if there is a tie, who is the tie-breaker? The article, in spite of links to the Left, raises a few questions. Time to start asking them. Did the inner circle just kick the Tea Party out? Congressman Ron Paul warns [...]

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I read yesterday an assertion that Great Britain, with its stricter gun control has fewer murders but more rapes, burglaries, robberies, and other crimes than the U.S.  I don’t know if that’s true, but if it is true, it could be as much because of cultural differences as anything.  Comparing apples to oranges. But it [...]

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We anticipated that Barcelona would be one of the high points of this trip. After all, Barcelona is Gaudi’s town, famed for its knock-your-socks off architecture. EVERYBODY loves Barcelona. No wonder the cruise ship made it a 12.5 hour stop. Except we didn’t love Barcelona. It wasn’t just the punishing heat, the humidity, the periodic [...]

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Sadie sent this to me a few days ago, and I’m just getting around to using it.  I agree that Robin of Berkeley looks like a good read.   Here’s Sadie’s comment and link: Although, I haven’t gotten to the additional links (4) within the article, I think I counted no less than 16 of these [...]

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A few months ago I read a report about a school district that had banned all competitive games in the school yard, even games as innocent as freeze-tag.  That same day I read in Entertainment Weekly that the TV ratings for the past week were dominated by competitions.  American Idol and Dancing with the Stars [...]

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..or spineless? Strange lot, the Brits. Families of victims of the 2005 London transit bombings have abandoned a legal bid to force the government to hold a public inquiry into the terrorist attack. A lawyer for 25 families says a coroner’s inquest that ended in May had thoroughly investigated the role of the emergency services [...]

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DQ:  Feel free to add your own caption to this or, better yet, find your own picture and add your own caption to that.  Here’s Sadie’s to get us started: CAPTION THIS: 1. “I am this little”

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Sadie (thank you, Sadie) sends along the following: It’s not just Al Jeezera, it’s the ‘timing’ too. Ramadan begins today. Next month marks 10 years (September 11), Durban III NYC, P.A./Hamas urging for statehood (Hamas fired 26 rockets into Israel during the month of July), Madam Clinton said it’s “real news” and the NYT doesn’t find [...]

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Had an interesting discussion with my spouse-who-is-much-smarter-than-me this morning. A scientist turned teacher, she always has great insights into how and what our youth are thinking (or not).   We were discussing how so many kids in our neighborhood were encouraged to go to school to learn music, theater, physical training, art, athletics, dancing…educations, in [...]

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We left Italy yesterday and headed for Cannes. Rather than sticking around in what is basically just another beach town, we took a tour to Grasse, the heart of France’s perfume industry, and St. Paul de Vence, a nicely polished, walled medieval town. At the Grasse factory tour, there was little to see, but much [...]

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Now that we supposedly have a budget deal, this is an open thread for people to express their thoughts on the deal.  Does it accomplish anything?  Does it accomplish enough?  Where do we go from here?  What effects will this deal have for the 2012 elections?  What do you think?

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