Archive for the 'Is this a great country, or what?' Category
7th December 2009
Steve Sailer is the gift that keeps on giving.
The Washington Post breaks the astonishing news that there’s actually a second generation of Latinos in the United States. Who could possibly have known that not all Mexican-Americans are immigrants? Nobody in Washington — or in New York, for that matter — ever noticed any Mexicans around before a few years ago. How could we in the East Coast media centers have foreseen that they would reproduce?
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26th November 2009
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A lesson you won’t hear from the dinosaur media.
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25th November 2009
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.
And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.
–President George Washington, 3 October 1789
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20th November 2009
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Military boffins in the US are now equipping a small fleet of armoured lorries with automatic defensive weapons which can detect incoming antitank rockets and shoot them down in mid-air before they strike, meanwhile retaliating upon the enemy gunmen with devastating firepower – all without human input.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on US monster-truck roboguns to blast enemies autonomously
17th November 2009
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Computer Class as Soulcraft
11th November 2009
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The Irish have been heroes every age.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Audie Murphy
11th November 2009
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Through all its difficulties, the military has kept its stride. That sense of balance comes partly from the fact that soldiers are anchored to the American bedrock. This includes the stereotypical small towns in the South and Midwest that have military service in their DNA. But it also counts plenty of hardworking, upwardly mobile Hispanic and African American families in urban America that produce some of the best soldiers I know.
One doesn’t often find good sense in the Washington Post so we need to treasure it when it happens.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Standing tall in harm’s way
9th November 2009
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This is just funny.
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2nd November 2009
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Wonder how much they’d charge for a simple pine box. Maybe you have to go to Target for that.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Come to Walmart for All Your Coffin Needs
2nd November 2009
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A specter is haunting the Republican Party — the specter of John Galt. In Ayn Rand’s libertarian epic “Atlas Shrugged,” Galt, an inventor disgusted by creeping American collectivism, leads the country’s capitalists on a retributive strike. “We have granted you everything you demanded of us, we who had always been the givers, but have only now understood it,” Galt lectures the “looters” and “moochers” who make up the populace. “We have no demands to present you, no terms to bargain about, no compromise to reach. You have nothing to offer us. We do not need you.”
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Ayn Rand’s Revenge
2nd November 2009
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Female only gun camps on rise in US
2nd November 2009
This Is Just Cool.
We don’t have life, so we can pass the savings on to you….
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Movie Narrative Charts
31st October 2009
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Green Berets get wearable combat smartphones
22nd October 2009
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I guess this is the next step beyond Susan Boyle….
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Emily Howell, a computer program that composes original classical music, has secured a record deal and is due to release her first album of original material next year.
21st October 2009
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The pastime, which has a small but passionate following in the southern and western United States, is largely self-explanatory: using gunpowder to fire an anvil up to 200 feet in the air. It is also known as anvil launching and anvil firing.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Anvil shooting: the world’s strangest sport?
20th October 2009
The Hog isn’t doing politics any more. Nope. Not a bit.
Some dogs, you can kick every day. They’ll keep coming back and licking your hand. Others eventually bite. Obama has been kicking the press for over a year. Scratch that. He’s been having his servants kick the press, which is even more degrading. Nobody wants to be bitten by Renfield or shot by Gabby Hayes. It’s okay to be defeated by Luthor, but nobody wants to be pimp-slapped by Otis. Even the liberal press has been hammered. Will the Fox feud wake them up? When your entire profession is being threatened, sooner or later, you have to notice. If the Obamites can mistreat the biggest name in cable news, they can definitely beat on little tykes like Olbermann and David Gregory.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow
19th October 2009
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That sounds about right.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on US nurse’s aide becomes Ugandan king
19th October 2009
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What’s it all mean, Mr Natural?
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | 2 Comments »
18th October 2009
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“I was a fervent anti-capitalist at the time, but I came to realise during my four years in Benin that government and NGOs were having little or no impact. It was businesses that were really changing lives “delivering technologies like mobile phones, computers and the internet”.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on $10 solar-powered lamp to help the poor
17th October 2009
Pandora unboxed.
The Pandora “music genome” project is one of the most intellectually exciting efforts (IMHO) going today.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on The Song Decoders
15th October 2009
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Alas, Rowley doesn’t appear to have taken out bear-inflicted damage insurance when she bought her iPhone, because her local Apple store allegedly refused to replace the damaged device for free, according to a report by website CIO.
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14th October 2009
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13th October 2009
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We have the technology.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | 1 Comment »
11th October 2009
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6th October 2009
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Consisting of a bacon cheeseburger with a buttered, grilled and glazed doughnut standing in for a bun, the Craz-E Burger puts such fatty delights as the deep-fried Mars bar in the shade.
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6th October 2009
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Last night, for those of you who were on another planet, Favre (days before turning 40) led the arch-rival Vikings to a win over Packers, the team, of course, that cut him loose, sent him packing, told him he was too old, etc., etc.
Ordinarily we don’t do sports here, but this seemed like an appropriate exception.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Hey, is revenge a sin?
4th October 2009
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Boeing’s air-to-ground laser test a success, and we have the video to prove it
2nd October 2009
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The boy grabbed his junior-sized .410-gauge shotgun and fired at the creature which was 20 times his size and is one of the biggest ever seen in Texas.
He learned to shoot guns at the age of four and also knows how to drive all-terrain vehicles.
Well, Texans are like that.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on A five-year-old boy has shot dead a 12ft, 800-pound alligator in Texas.
1st October 2009
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Police May Not Even Temporarily Detain a Person Simply Because He’s Openly Carrying a Handgun
28th September 2009
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Stanford University was one of the first academic institutions to come out with an iPhone app last October. Now Stanford has debuted an upgrade, dubbed iStanford, which lets students search for courses, add or drop them and see their grades.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Registering for Class on the iPhone
21st September 2009
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This is from 2004, but I’m going to put it here, because I wasn’t aware of it, and since I try to be aware of stuff involving my favorite authors, I assume that others might not be aware of it, either — and Neal Stephenson is someone of whom you ought to be aware. He is, as we say, always worth reading.
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17th September 2009
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And about time, too.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on New gizmo means working electropulse rayguns at last
14th September 2009
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Massachusetts Institute of Technology rickrolled
13th September 2009
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We have the technology. It’s just a matter of getting past the sclerotic establishment gatekeepers that’s holding things up.
This doesn’t just mean a different way of learning: The funding of academic research, the culture of the academy and the institution of tenure are all threatened.
Pass the popcorn.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on The Disaggregated University
11th September 2009
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Of course we all know that this Star Wars stuff will never work. Just ask a Democrat.
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10th September 2009
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I am not making this up.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | 1 Comment »
3rd September 2009
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2nd September 2009
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Bumper Stickers
1st September 2009
The Other McCain is having fun.
By the way, this is probably a good time to express my appreciation to those readers — including generous folks in Albuquerque, N.M., Jacksonville, Fla., Depauville, N.Y., and Tequesta, Fla. — who have recently done their share to help me push the frontiers of rhetorical brutality against idiot liberals and RINO sellouts.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on URGENT: Dateline — Martha’s Vineyard
1st September 2009
Dvorak has a dream.
Having heard Bill Gates promote the tablet machines to no avail, and watched the birth of the Kindle, Steve Jobs has developed a clear vision of what a perfect tablet should be, I’m sure. And no matter what it will cost to build, Apple’s offering will go beyond what anyone expected, just so Steve can show up all those who tried before.
Speed the day.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Creating the Perfect Tablet Computer
26th August 2009
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It’s twue, it’s twue.
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19th August 2009
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Evidently Ecotopia hasn’t completely gone over the edge.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Seattle Voters Reject Bag Tax
14th August 2009
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After one of the primeval-scum robbers started pistol-whipping an employee of proprietor Charles Augusto, Jr., Mr. Augusto “rose from a chair 20 to 30 feet away and took out a loaded Winchester 12-gauge pump-action shotgun .. . and fired three blasts in rapid succession,” according to the New York Times. Mr. Augusto had bought the rifle after being robbed 30 years ago. “The first shot took down the gunman at the front,” who died almost immediately; the second two shots hit all three accomplices, who stumbled bleeding out of the store. One died after having been taken to a local hospital (at whose expense?); the other two were picked up on the basis of their blood trail and witness descriptions and also treated at the hospital.
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11th August 2009
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on TruFocals make steampunk glasses a functional, expensive reality
3rd August 2009
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Arlen Specter gets a taste of democracy
30th July 2009
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A “top ten” list to take with you on the road. Some cornerstones of American culture.
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29th July 2009
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Cambridge Police Profiling Still A Grim Reality for Harvard Faculty Assholes
28th July 2009
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Badass names for common household items
26th July 2009
Steve Sailer piles on that toddlin’ town.
Patrick Fitzgerald has a fun job. The chief federal prosecutor in Chicago enjoys a “target-rich environment.” Besides nailing two Illinois governors, Tony Rezko, Conrad Black (and even Scooter Libby on a sojourn in D.C.), there are the colorful local characters.
Most towns – and states – run by Democrats provide a similar source of amusement.
The Obama family knows all about waste in the health care industry. Back when Mr. Obama was merely the chairman of the Illinois Senate Health and Human Services committee, Mrs. Obama got paid $122,000 annually as the University of Chicago Hospitals community outrage coordinator. When he got promoted to U.S. Senator, she got a $195,000 raise. When she quit, her job turned out to so incredibly important that the position she filled was eliminated.
Nope, nothing suspicious about that at all.
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