Vintage Babe of the Week

Tonight's Vintage Babe* is Rebecca De Mornay!
(*a.k.a. Rule Five Thursday)

Like fine wines, the ladies improve with age!

NYC's Bloomberg Coming After Your Soda!

Cross-posted at the the Left Coast Rebel

Freedom-obstructing road block ahead - beware the totalitarian nanny state!

Writes the New York Times (emphasis mine):

New York City plans to enact a far-reaching ban on the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, movie theaters and street carts, in the most ambitious effort yet by the Bloomberg administration to combat rising obesity. The proposed ban would affect virtually the entire menu of popular sugary drinks found in delis, fast-food franchises and even sports arenas, from energy drinks to pre-sweetened iced teas. The sale of any cup or bottle of sweetened drink larger than 16 fluid ounces — about the size of a medium coffee, and smaller than a common soda bottle — would be prohibited under the first-in-the-nation plan, which could take effect as soon as next March.

I could go after every false assertion and misguided idiocy in this article (such as this being Bloomberg's effort to "combat obesity" or that even a ball-game soda will be illegal but beer won't!).

But I won't.

I'll just use this story as today's teachable moment in American Statism Gone Wild.

I'll start things with an honest statement: I don't drink sodas, sugary drinks, soft drinks, colas, root beer; in fact, save for a few spoonfuls in my morning coffee, I completely avoid sugar in toto as well.

I know, I know; I understand -- anything that deteriorates a penny in 24 hours can't be good for you. Soda rots your teeth, sugar in extreme amounts exacerbates diabetes and poor health.

But so what?

I will defend to my dying breath the freedom of my fellow American to drink as much soda as they wish. And shouldn't every American do the same?

When in the world did America go from our collective understanding and appreciation of, "that which doesn't interfere with my liberty or rights is none of my business," to, "hey look over there, a fat kid; it's time to ban soda!"

(Onion Image) If NYC's Mayor Bloomberg has his way, this guy could go to jail

Instead of becoming a freer society, America is heading in the precise opposite direction.

Instead of becoming more tolerant (real tolerance, not the mind-prison politically-correct kind), we are becoming more ready, able and willing to criminalize behavior that we don't like, or things, substances, behaviors et. al. that we think are damaging to our fellow citizens.

Instead of making societal judgement calls using individual liberty as our only guiding light, we castigate and legislate against those different than us. This has to stop. We have to regain the spirit of individual freedom and the freedom to fail or succeed that made America so great.


Nevertheless, if there is a silver lining to this story it is political for it demonstrates in Big Gulp-Red flying colors just what the progressive agenda is truly about.

In the 1920s, progressives gave us Prohibition and the mayhem that thus ensued. Among many other things, progressives then gave us the gift of failure that is the War on Drugs and the War on Poverty (both of which have done nothing to "solve" the problems they supposedly address, rather they have put into place multi-trillion dollar Industrial Complexes (untold incarceration costs, lost liberties and untold billions/trillions for the former and in excess of $9 trillion for the latter) that actually perpetuate a targeted issue. Dozens of additional government schemes fall into this category.

True conservatives abhor limiting individuals. It is the progressive left (and progressive Republican types) that wish to do so. In their sense of nannyism and elitism and I-know-better-than-you-ism they will stop short of nothing in taking away our once-cherished freedoms.

 Until we say enough is enough.

Quote du jour

“After just one term in office, French President Nicolas Sarkozy lost his re-election bid because he was unable to fix his nation’s economy. Or as Obama put it, ‘Uh-oh.’”

–Jimmy Fallon

Medal of Honor

Technical Sergeant Vernon McGarity

Citation:

He was painfully wounded in an artillery barrage that preceded the powerful counteroffensive launched by the Germans near Krinkelt, Belgium, on the morning of 16 December 1944. He made his way to an aid station, received treatment, and then refused to be evacuated, choosing to return to his hard-pressed men instead. The fury of the enemy's great Western Front offensive swirled about the position held by T/Sgt. McGarity's small force, but so tenaciously did these men fight on orders to stand firm at all costs that they could not be dislodged despite murderous enemy fire and the breakdown of their communications. During the day the heroic squad leader rescued 1 of his friends who had been wounded in a forward position, and throughout the night he exhorted his comrades to repulse the enemy's attempts at infiltration. When morning came and the Germans attacked with tanks and infantry, he braved heavy fire to run to an advantageous position where he immobilized the enemy's lead tank with a round from a rocket launcher. Fire from his squad drove the attacking infantrymen back, and 3 supporting tanks withdrew. He rescued, under heavy fire, another wounded American, and then directed devastating fire on a light cannon which had been brought up by the hostile troops to clear resistance from the area. When ammunition began to run low, T/Sgt. McGarity, remembering an old ammunition hole about 100 yards distant in the general direction of the enemy, braved a concentration of hostile fire to replenish his unit's supply. By circuitous route the enemy managed to emplace a machinegun to the rear and flank of the squad's position, cutting off the only escape route. Unhesitatingly, the gallant soldier took it upon himself to destroy this menace single-handedly. He left cover, and while under steady fire from the enemy, killed or wounded all the hostile gunners with deadly accurate rifle fire and prevented all attempts to reman the gun. Only when the squad's last round had been fired was the enemy able to advance and capture the intrepid leader and his men. The extraordinary bravery and extreme devotion to duty of T/Sgt. McGarity supported a remarkable delaying action which provided the time necessary for assembling reserves and forming a line against which the German striking power was shattered.

T/Sgt. McGarity: We humbly salute you and thank you for your service.



Hat tip Home of Heroes

There are fewer than a hundred living MoH recipients today. Their names and their stories should not be forgotten. My mission is to honor one of those heroes here each week, and salute them for their courage and sacrifice. In the words of John Fitzgerald Kennedy:

“A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces, but also by the men it honors; the men it remembers.”

Obama's Enron

What's the difference between Enron and the Obama Administration? Enron's accounting was more honest.

By now, some liberal, happy warrior has brought your attention to Ray Nutter's, er, Nutting's Market Watch piece about how Obama is Mr. Fiscal Conservative, and that

"under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s."

Seem too good to be true? That probably seems counter intuitive to what most of you know to be true, and it should, because there's some Enron style accounting going into those figures*. First of all, it includes a heaping helping of stimulus that wasn't in Bush's budget. But since it happened in 2009, when traditionally, the previous president is responsible for the spending, it was in Enron's, er Obama's benefit to count it as Bush's spending.

To make the bamboozling even worse, what most of us thought would be a one time stimulus, is now built into the baseline of the federal budget, so that, according to the plan, about an additional billion dollars is spent, before there is any "increase". That's how they figure the increase is lowest since Eisenhower. It is a shell game. Obama is spending money faster than a drunken Congressman. And like Obama's phoney claim to have cut millions from the budget, Obama, should he be re-elected, would spend more every year he is in office. He's told us that we would. Now if only his willing accomplices in the media would expose this charlatan, this bamboozler of the gullible, for the big spender he really is, we can send him packing back to Chicago. Or Hawaii. Or Kenya. Or wherever he wants to go. Just go.

*When White House press secretary Jay Carney starts quoting them, it becomes a part of the administration's spin machine

Update : In his own words...



Cross posted at LCR.

Quote du jour

The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry.

-William F. Buckley, Jr.

Sex in Advertising

For all you connoisseurs of advertising...






I may not be sure exactly what she's selling, but, I'm pretty sure I'm in the market!

Quote du jour

War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.

-Karl von Clausewitz

"As Memorial Day Nears, a Single Image That Continues to Haunt"

"Taken by the photographer Todd Heisler from his 2005 award-winning series for The Rocky Mountain News, “Jim Comes Home” — which documents the return and burial of Second Lt. Jim Cathey of the Marines, who lost his life in Iraq — the photo shows his pregnant widow, Katherine, lying on an air mattress in front of his coffin. She’s staring at her laptop, listening to songs that remind her of Jim. Her expression is vacant, her grief almost palpable."

Read the rest here. It is reminiscent of another photo almost too painful to look upon.



Remember those who have given all in the defense of their country, and remember, too, those they have left behind.

Remember Memorial Day

...because it ain't about mattress sales!

Quote du jour

We are responsible for 43 percent of the planet’s military spending. But if you spend on that scale without any strategic clarity or hardheaded calculation of your national interest it is ultimately as decadent and useless as throwing money at Solyndra or Obamacare or any of the other domestic follies. A post-prosperity America will mean perforce a shrunken presence on the global stage. And we will not like the world we leave behind.

-Mark Steyn

Themes Like Old Times

Barnaby Jones

Senators Move to Make Bison "National Mammal"

Observe south end of bison heading north for glimpse of big, steaming pile of Congress

I think I know now what they mean when they say ignorance is bliss. Ever since I heard this, my head started hurting!

There's a push in the U.S. Senate to make the bison, which is commonly known as the American buffalo, the official national mammal.

Wait! The Senate hasn't passed a budget in over three years, but more than one of them thinks we should be focusing on an appropriate national mammal?? Exactly how many years has the Republic survived without a "national mammal"? When was the last time you stood in a grocery store or unemployment office line and overheard someone bemoaning the fact the the US didn't designate a national mammal?

Is there some new bison crisis we haven't heard about? What exactly would this designation do for the bison?

The National Bison Legacy Act introduced in the Senate is backed by lawmakers from Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota and Rhode Island.

The largely symbolic measure would provide no added protections for the estimated 20,000 wild bison in North America. And the bald eagle would still hold a somewhat loftier role as the national emblem, as declared by the Second Continental Congress in 1782.

But supporters said the bison legacy bill would afford overdue recognition to a species that has sweeping cultural and ecological significance. Bison — North America's largest land animal — already appear on two state flags and the official seal of the U.S. Department of Interior.

(Emphasis mine)

So, instead of focusing on unemployment, or the Constitutional required budget, or energy self sufficiency, Guantanamo, the War of Terror or any of the other problems pressing our nation today, the Senate wants to waste time on a symbolic gesture, designed to bolster the bison's self esteem?????

It won't make two hoots in Hades 100 years from now whether or not we had a national mammal. It might make a difference 100 years from now, whether or not we still have a country, not passing a national budget.

Priorities, people! Do the heavy lifting first, then sit around in your comfortable chairs as to how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, or how many pin heads it takes to pass a national bison legacy.

Update : Maybe they could just name a street after them. It worked for Pelosi!

UpdateII : A commenter inspired me to look. In California we have a:
State Animal
State Bird
State Color
State Dance
State Fife and Drum Corps
State Fish
State Flag
State Flower
State Folk Dance
State Fossil*
State Gemstone
State Gold Rush Ghost Town
State Grass
State Historical Society
State Insect
State Marine Fish
State Marine Mammal
State Military Museum
State Mineral
State Motto
State Nickname
State Prehistoric Artifact
State Quarter
State Reptile
State Rock
State Seal
State Silver Rush Ghost Town
State Soil
State Song
State Tall Ship
State Tartan
State Theater
State Tree

Because California is solvent and has no troubles whatsoever of importance to deal with!

*May or may not be Jerry Brown!

Cross posted at LCR, Say Anything.

Quote du jour

"Amazing how many conservatives like NASCAR, since they are constantly turning left!"

-Proof

A Little Saturday Night Music

Jimmy Buffett: Cheeseburger in Paradise

Saturday Linkaround

Cartoon of the Day – NRO Home page

Krauthammer: Obama Claim Of Fiscal Discipline "Whopper Of The Year" -“an unbelievable distortion of the truth”

The Five Charts You MUST Show Every Undecided Voter You Know

Who Is Barack Obama? The Question that Won’t Go Away

Obama Campaign Responds to Breitbart 'Kenya' Booklet Story

Obama Once Again Shifting the Blame on Gas Prices

CHART: Many More Trying To Save Money By Renouncing Their Citizenship

Former CNN Anchor Rips Obama Over His Treatment of Women

Now Axelrod Is Fuming

Busted! Obama Headlined A Democrat Socialists Of America Event In 1996

The Ron Paul Machine vs. the Republican Establishment: 6 Steps Toward Unity

Rove SuperPAC Hammers '4th Greatest President'

Under Obama: 30 Worst Months of Employment Over The Past 25 Years…

53,000 Dead Voters Found in Florida

Van Jones admits he and the eco-facists stayed quiet on Gulf oil spill because Obama was president

Michigan Man Fired for Turning In Stolen Gun Found On the Job

Dennis Miller Hits Obama's 'Kardashian Presidency,' 'Great at Everything' Except 'Being President'

9th Circuit Takes Plush Maui Vacation At Taxpayer Expense, As Others Cut Back

Obama Had Lower SAT Scores Than Bush?

A modest proposal for those advocating an end to austerity measures in Europe

Tim McGraw to give 25 homes to members of military

Best Elizabeth Warren Parody Video Ever

A Marine and His Dog – a good read!

The Avengers - Why We Need Heroes

Vandal Extinguishes Australia’s Eternal Flame Memorial With Fire Extinguisher (Video)





Rule Five Roundup*:

American Perspective – Kate Upton Beach Bunny shoot -video

Belly Dancing Channel Banned -video

Camp of the Saints - The TCOTS Six Days Of Cheesecake

Classic Liberal – Rule 5

Bill Clinton Poses With Porn Stars

Lolo Jones

The Daley Gator – Daley Babes – Liz Hernandez

Fishnet Friday

Dustbury – Christie Brinkley

El Opinador Compulsivo – Seductive Motion, What do you relish with your hot dog?

Eye of Polyphemus – Alison Brie

Friday Night Babe – Lea Michelle

The Right Way -Miranda Kerr

Guns and Bikinis – Malibu Babe

Hookers and Booze

Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World – Friday Pinup

Kate Upton’s Beach Bunny Bikini Campaign

Pirates Cove - Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup, If All You See…, If All You See…, If All You See…, If All You See…, If All You See…, If All You See…

pitsnipesgripes – A small mental vacation

PostalDog - The letter A

Randy’s Roundtable – Thursday Nite Tart

Reaganite Republican – Kimberly Guilfoyle

Kitty and Boobs

Sex in Advertising

Soylent Green – Friday Corset

The Feral Irishman – Girls with Guns

The Last Tradition – Veronica Lake

Theo Spark –Bedtime Toddy , Jessica Rafalowski , Maxim Hotties

The Other McCain- Rule 5 Sunday

Three Beers Later – Alannah Miles

Vintage Babe of the Week – Brooke Shields




*By no means comprehensive.

Use the comments as an open thread on any of these topics. If you feel that I’ve neglected a link, news, commentary, humor or Rule Fivage, send a link to the contact email on the sidebar at Proof Positive. (All spambots must die!)

Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

“President Obama admitted this week that a former girlfriend that he wrote about in his autobiography was made up and not a real person . . . So Obama had an imaginary girlfriend. Big deal! He had an imaginary economic plan. It’s all the same.”

–Jay Leno

The Strange Case of Brett Kimberlin, Domestic Terrorist

There's a very strange story, series of stories, actually, going around the web about Brett Kimberlin. I hadn't really heard of him, or paid any attention to him if I did, until last Monday, when I got a message from a fellow blogger that Robert Stacy McCain had fled his house for an undisclosed location and took his family with him for their own safety. Wow. That's a bit drastic, no? So I started reading about this guy Kimberlin, and my first thought was, Why isn't this guy still in jail? And second, why are all those rich liberals giving him so much money? Convicted Terrorist Brett Kimberlin Received $70,000 From Tides Foundation, $10,000 From Streisand, $20,000 from John Kerry’s Wife

What is up with liberals, domestic terrorists and death? Bill Ayers made bombs. The lovely Bernadette Dohrn lauded the Manson family when they murdered the pregnant Sharon Tate. Mumia Abu-Jamal killed a police office and became a darling of the left, Brett Kimberlin, known as the "Speedway Bomber", terrorized a town in Indiana in the late seventies, left a trail of death and destruction in his wake, and liberals can't wait to give them their money? But, it gets worse.

It seems that Mr. Kimberlin has a problem with free speech. Not in general, but anyone who has the audacity to criticize him, or the temerity to bring up his somewhat sordid past, is subject to all manner of harassment. Matthew Vadum puts it succinctly:

Do the people at the Tides Foundation, Barbra Streisand Foundation, and Heinz Family Foundation know that they have given money to an organization run by a litigious, violent, radical felon who appears to delight in intimidating people whose views he disagrees with?

Some of the harassment had the potential to become fatal. Patterico tells of his experience of being SWATted: someone making a false police report, claiming that someone is armed and dangerous, giving the victim's home address and causing an armed SWAT team to storm the house. In a highly charged situation such as that, it would be very easy for an object to be mistaken for a gun and deadly force to be employed...all because someone didn't like what you were saying!

Convicted Bomber Brett Kimberlin, Neal Rauhauser, Ron Brynaert, and Their Campaign of Political Terrorism

The story is quite lengthy and convoluted. The Lonely Conservative has a good piece here: Speedway Bomber Brett Kimberlin Poked a Bees Nest

Stacy McCain has a number of updates, a few of them here: Domestic Terrorist Now Using ‘Lawfare’? Convicted Felon Kimberlin’s 501(c)3 Raised $1.8 Million in Six Years UPDATE: ‘Convicted of Perjury’

,Lying Felon Can’t Stop Lying,

and here KimberlinFiles.Org.

If you weren't familiar with this name before today, I suspect you will be soon. Many conservative bloggers have banded together to expose the malice and abuse of this individual and his fellow travelers. Who knows? Maybe even the MSM will deem to take notice? Nah. What was I thinking?

Friday Night Babes

Tonight's FNB* is Lea Michele! (*a.k.a. Rule Five Friday)

Quote du jour

... bin Laden was just a figurehead. The war on terror continues. Taking him out didn’t really change anything as far as the war on terror is concerned and using it as a political attack is a cheap shot.

-Chris Kyle, former Navy SEAL

Shadows of a Solar Eclipse

Nothing earth shattering here, but I have lived through a couple of near total solar eclipses, and I don't remember hearing about this until this last one. Did you know that the light passing through the leaves of trees acts just like a pinhole camera, projecting a reverse image of the sun? A couple of snapshots of the crescent sun projected through the trees:
Next eclipse, a couple of cajillion years from now, you'll know what to look for!

Vintage Babe of the Week

Tonight's Vintage Babe* is Brooke Shields!
(*a.k.a. Rule Five Thursday) Like fine wines, the ladies improve with age!

Quote du jour

Total federal subsidies in fiscal year 2007 were $24.34 per megawatt hour for solar-generated electricity and $23.37 per megawatt hour for wind, compared with $1.59 for nuclear, $0.67 for hydroelectric power, $0.44 for conventional coal, and $0.25 for natural gas and petroleum liquids.
In fiscal year 2010, the subsidies were even higher. For solar power, they were $775.64 per megawatt hour, for wind $56.29, for nuclear $3.14, for hydroelectric power $0.82, for coal $0.64 and for natural gas and petroleum liquids $0.64.

-Steve Hayward

Medal of Honor

Technician 5th Grade Robert D. Maxwell

Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty on 7 September 1944, near Besancon, France. Technician 5th Grade Maxwell and 3 other soldiers, armed only with .45 caliber automatic pistols, defended the battalion observation post against an overwhelming onslaught by enemy infantrymen in approximately platoon strength, supported by 20mm. flak and machinegun fire, who had infiltrated through the battalion's forward companies and were attacking the observation post with machinegun, machine pistol, and grenade fire at ranges as close as 10 yards. Despite a hail of fire from automatic weapons and grenade launchers, Technician 5th Grade Maxwell aggressively fought off advancing enemy elements and, by his calmness, tenacity, and fortitude, inspired his fellows to continue the unequal struggle. When an enemy hand grenade was thrown in the midst of his squad, Technician 5th Grade Maxwell unhesitatingly hurled himself squarely upon it, using his blanket and his unprotected body to absorb the full force of the explosion. This act of instantaneous heroism permanently maimed Technician 5th Grade Maxwell, but saved the lives of his comrades in arms and facilitated maintenance of vital military communications during the temporary withdrawal of the battalion's forward headquarters.

Technician 5th Grade Maxwell: We humbly salute you and thank you for your service.



Hat tip Home of Heroes

There are fewer than a hundred living MoH recipients today. Their names and their stories should not be forgotten. My mission is to honor one of those heroes here each week, and salute them for their courage and sacrifice. In the words of John Fitzgerald Kennedy:

“A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces, but also by the men it honors; the men it remembers.”

Barack Obama - Mr. Popularity

Our soon to be favorite view of Obama...leaving

With 61 percent of precincts reporting in Arkansas, Obama took 60 percent to 40 percent for Wolfe. In Kentucky, with nearly all precincts reporting, 42.1 percent of Democratic primary voters opted for “uncommitted” rather than backing the president, who received 57.9 percent.

Two weeks before, Keith Judd, a convicted felon in a Texas hoosegow, won 41 percent of the vote in the West Virginia Democrat primary.

So, let's recap: 40% of Democrats in Arkansas don't like Obama. 42% of Democrats in Kentucky don't like Obama, and in West Virginia, apparently 41% of Democrats don't like Obama. And all of this is without facing an organized, well funded candidate or one with name recognition.

Hillary, call your office!

Quote du jour

"The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop."

- P.J. O'Rourke

Sex in Advertising

For all you connoisseurs of advertising...

I may not be sure exactly what she's selling, but, it ain't a football!

Quote du jour

Proof's Corollary to Godwin: Any liberal losing political discussions on Obama's policies will state: "It's because he's black, isn't it?"

-Proof

Quote du jour

"The days I stay home with my kids without going out, I start to get ill. My head starts to ache."

-Michelle Obama, Vogue 2007

Themes Like Old Times

Captain Kangaroo

Quote du jour

“There’s a term for President Obama. Probably not two terms.”

-Jimmy Kimmel

A Little Saturday Night Music

Mary Chapin Carpenter - Something of a Dreamer

Marines Get Replacement for M249 SAW

A little Saturday gun stuff...

The M27 IAR is less than half the weight of the M249 and allows the automatic rifleman to carry fewer rounds because of its improved accuracy. With a lighter load to carry, enemy combatants will now face a more lethal and mobile Marine with better firepower to boot, allowing the Marine to move faster and engage his enemy in record time. The Corps plans to purchase more than four thousand M27s – replacing nearly all the existing Squad Automatic Weapons. By the end of 2013, the Marine Corps intends to supply M27s to every infantry and light armored reconnaissance battalion in the Corps.

Marines: When it positively, absolutely has to be destroyed overnight.

Saturday Linkaround

Cartoon of the Day – NRO Home page

RE: The Striking Bias of the Washington Post

Wright: Obama Tried To Bribe Me To Keep Quiet in 2008

The Historic Obama – The Shameless Narcissism of Barack H. Obama

Obama by the Numbers

Mark Steyn: Eternally shifting sands of Obama's biography

Krauthammer: Eric Holder Is a ‘Political Hack’

Businessman Says He Lost Hundreds of Customers After Attacks by Obama Campaign

Obama's Budget Would Double the Interest Rate on Student Loans--After the Election

Occupy L.A. cost city about $4.7M

One Afternoon In a Garage in Reno, Nevada -Iowahawk

Lib Media Says Veterans Favor Barack Obama

Two Illegal Aliens Protected by Democrat "Sanctuary City" Policies Murdered Family and High-School Football Star

Tip for WaPo: Look Into Young Joe Biden

Is The President Being Honest About The “Student Loan Crisis?”

Biden Earned $21,000 Last Year From the Secret Service, Contributes less than 1.5% of his $379,000 salary to charity

LightSquared Goes Bankrupt After Network Plans Are Scrapped

Did Ron Paul Change the Republican Party?

Today On This Old Jet – our aging military fleet: What should we buy? New aircraft or another solar company?

Obama in his own words, compliments of the RNC

Regulatory Overreach: Obama Administration’s Case Against Gibson Guitar Drags On

Shame: White House politicizes Mother’s Day with ObamaCare pitch

Springtime for al Qaeda?

Obama's Literary Agent in 1991 Booklet: 'Born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii Krauthammer Slams Media’s ‘Appalling Double Standard’ on Teenage Romney v Obama’s Wright

Did Elizabeth Warren plagiarize her recipes, too?

Obama’s Historic Firsts -Day by Day





Rule Five Roundup*:

American Power- Doutzen Kroes, Maxim Hot 100

Camp of the Saints - Rule Five Saturday, The TCOTS Six Days Of Cheesecake : Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

Classic Liberal – Rule 5 – Luisana Lopilato

The Daley Gator – Daley Babes – Rachelle Leah, Sayaka Isoyama, Claudia Verela

Fishnet Friday

El Opinador Compulsivo – This woman could make you Mighty Thor, For Soccer Fans...

Eye of Polyphemus – Karen Gillan

Friday Night Babe – Carla Bruni

Full Metal Patriot – Eva Green

The Right Way -Friday Babe

Guns and Bikinis – Perspective

Hookers and Booze - Arianny Celeste

Jake Finnegan – Katherine Jenkins

Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World – Friday Pinup

Pirates Cove - Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup, If All You See…, If all you see...

pitsnipesgripes – Redheads

PostalDog - Anna Faris bikini

Randy’s Roundtable –Midweek Break, Thursday Nite Tart

Reaganite Republican – Michelle Fields

Sex in Advertising

Support your local Gunfighter – Bikini Hockey, Hot ball girl

Teresamerica – Rule 5 – Rebecca Romijn

The Feral Irishman – Fun at the Gun Range

The Last Tradition – Rita Hayworth, Courtney Stodden, Dorothy Dandridge

Theo Spark –Bedtime Toddy , Sunday Toddy,

The Other McCain- Rule 5 Tuesday

Vintage Babe of the Week – Senta Berger

Rule 5 Woodsterman Style : Happy ending



*By no means comprehensive.

Use the comments as an open thread on any of these topics. If you feel that I’ve neglected a link, news, commentary, humor or Rule Fivage, send a link to the contact email on the sidebar. (All spambots must die!)

Cross posted at Say Anything

Joe Biden, Son of a Welsh Coal Miner*, Spanked for Hypocrisy

The Right Scoop has this great little RNC ad exposing the hypocrisy and political opportunism of Joe Biden and Company.

Losing 4 out of 10 votes to a virtual nobody in the Democrat primary was a sobering experience, I'd guess.

*From a Neil Kinnock speech he once plagiarized.

John Stossel Interviews Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuno

Spend less than you take in...what a concept!

H/T Common Cents

Michelle Obama's Food Police Curtail Fine Arts Programs at School

When you read a headline like that, doesn't it make you think you might be reading about a skit on SNL or something out of Monty Python? It's hard to parody modern liberals.

A Utah high school is learning the hard way that the government is serious about nudging students away from food it doesn’t want them to consume. Davis High School in the Salt Lake City area is having to fork over a whopping $15,000 in fines to the Feds because it accidentally sold soda through a vending machine during lunch.

Federal law requires the school to turn off its soda machines during the lunch period, which is 47 minutes a day. And Davis High school did turn off the machines in the lunch room. However, the school didn‘t realize that there was another machine in the school bookstore that wasn’t being turned off. And when the food police realized it, the school was hit with a $0.75 fine per student for the duration of the offense. Now the school is going to have to cut money to fine arts programs to make up the cost.

Fifteen thousand dollars taken away from educating the kids at Davis High School, not because they willfully defied federal law, but because they inadvertently violated federal law. And a pretty stupid law at that. These are high school kids. How many of them do you think are clever enough to know, that if they are having lunch at 12 and the soda machine shuts off at 11:59, that if they want to drink a soda with lunch, they just buy one a tiny bit earlier? Or across the street at an open store? Give me a break!

What business should the federal government have telling any local school district what they can and cannot serve on campus? What comes from the vending machine isn't technically being served by the school anyway! And speaking of intrusion into the lives of the students, remember that story not long ago about a state inspector examining the sack lunches that some preschool children were bringing from home, and rejecting them, according to USDA guidelines! These students were then forced to consume the oh, so nutritional chicken nuggets being served at the school cafeteria! This is the Nanny State on steroids! (And don't get me started on steroids, when Congress hasn't passed a budget in three years, yet can find time for hearings on whether or not athletes took performance enhancing drugs!)

Let's review. Each school has a principal. The school is likely part of a district. The district is under the auspices of a county board of education. The county board of education is subject to one of fifty state boards of education. So, with four layers of management, educational and nutritional expertise, in addition to parent teacher groups, why on God's green earth do we need a fifth, federal layer of bureaucracy? To soak up cash that could be going into the classroom to educate our children, all the while creating new regulations and one-size-fits-all restrictions and guidelines in order to justify their existence?

BTW, the superintendent of one admittedly large school district receives "an annual salary of $330,000, medical and retirement benefits, and a district car and driver." For comparison, in 2001, the annual salary of POTUS was increased to $400,000 per year, plus $50,000 for expenses. Know of any cities, states or federal governments

But this was apparently a federal law that was broken, so for the aforementioned Congress, who cannot even find the time to make good on their Constitutional mandate to produce a federal budget, I would suggest having the 10th Amendment to the Constitution branded on the forearms of every member of Congress, with the stipulation that they only be allowed to wear short sleeved shirts at work. Anyone who can find the penumbra of a shadow of a Constitutional prohibition on soda machines in city public schools may propose the next ordinance, but in the meantime, we need to get the federal government out of the business of trying to micromanage every aspect of our lives and make them focus on the duties they currently neglect that are clearly Constitutional.

Serious rant to follow.

Quote du jour

The more obvious explanation of the variable first line in the eternally shifting sands of Obama's biography is that, rather than pretending to have been born in Hawaii, he's spent much of his life pretending to have been born in Kenya.

-Mark Steyn

Friday Night Babe

Tonight's FNB* is Carla Bruni! (*a.k.a. Rule Five Friday)

Day One -New Romney Ad

Gosh...almost inspires hope...for change!
H/T Real Clear Politics

Quote du jour

There is an inverse relationship between reliance on the state and self-reliance.

-William F. Buckley Jr.

Vintage Babe of the Week

Tonight's Vintage Babe* is Senta Berger!
(*a.k.a. Rule Five Thursday) Like fine wines, the ladies improve with age!