Holland: Gas companies refuse to fuel Iranian FM's plane

Ag shame:

Holland: Gas companies refuse to fuel Iranian FM's plane: "Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki dropped his planned visit to the Netherlands on Tuesday because US sanctions meant his Iran Air plane might be refused fuel.

“Mr. Mottaki canceled his visit because the government of the Netherlands could not guarantee that his plane would be refueled by private fuel firms at Schiphol airport, which follow US sanctions,” Ward Bezemer, a spokesman for the Dutch Foreign Ministry, wrote The Jerusalem Post."

The Leavers: Young Doubters Exit the Church

This is disturbing and needs to be addressed by the Church:

The Leavers: Young Doubters Exit the Church | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction: "Some striking mile markers appear on the road through young adulthood: leaving for college, getting the first job and apartment, starting a career, getting married—and, for many people today, walking away from the Christian faith."

U.S. Army Unveils 'Revolutionary' XM25 Rifle in Afghanistan

Buck Rogers:

U.S. Army Unveils 'Revolutionary' XM25 Rifle in Afghanistan - FoxNews.com: "After years of development, the U.S. Army has unleashed a new weapon in Afghanistan -- the XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System, a high-tech rifle that can be programmed so that its 25-mm. ammunition does not necessarily explode on impact. Instead, it can be set to detonate either in front of or behind a target, meaning it literally will go through a wall before it explodes and kills the enemy.

It also has a range of roughly 2,300 feet -- nearly the length of eight football fields -- making it possible to fire at targets well past the range of the rifles and carbines that most soldiers carry today."

Mystery Surrounds Cyber Missile That Crippled Iran's Nuclear Weapons Ambitions

Fascinating:

FoxNews.com - Mystery Surrounds Cyber Missile That Crippled Iran's Nuclear Weapons Ambitions: "Intelligence agencies, computer security companies and the nuclear industry have been trying to analyze the worm since it was discovered in June by a Belarus-based company that was doing business in Iran. And what they've all found, says Sean McGurk, the Homeland Security Department's acting director of national cyber security and communications integration, is a “game changer.”

The construction of the worm was so advanced, it was “like the arrival of an F-35 into a World War I battlefield,” says Ralph Langner, the computer expert who was the first to sound the alarm about Stuxnet. Others have called it the first “weaponized” computer virus."

Latest Gallup poll: Barack Obama gets another shellacking from the Tea Party

Strength:

Latest Gallup poll: Barack Obama gets another shellacking from the Tea Party – Telegraph Blogs: "Just about as many Americans want Tea Party-backed members of Congress to take the lead in setting policy during the next year as choose President Obama, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.

In a survey taken Friday through Sunday, 28% say Obama should have the most influence on government policy next year while 27% say the Tea Party standard-bearers should. GOP congressional leaders are chosen by 23%, Democratic congressional leaders by 16%.

The results reflect the strength of the Tea Party movement as the GOP prepares to take control of the House of Representatives in January."

Vance, 3 other House Dems switch to GOP

This happened in Alabama:

Vance, 3 other House Dems switch to GOP | oanow.com: "State Rep. Lesley Vance of Phenix City and three other House Democrats switched parties Monday, saying they identified more with Republicans.

“We have been kidded over the years that y’all are more conservative than some of the Republicans,” Vance said.

The moves give the GOP 66 votes in the House, or a super-majority allowing them to pass legislation without support from Democrats.

House Democrats Mike Millican of Hamilton, Steve Hurst of Munford and Alan Boothe of Troy joined Vance to announce the switch at a news conference Monday in Montgomery. The four represent Republican-leaning, mostly white areas."

Constitutional Amendment proposal to streamline legislative repeals to hit Congress soon

Very interesting:

Constitutional Amendment proposal to streamline legislative repeals to hit Congress soon | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment: "The Repeal Amendment calls for allowing states to band together to repeal, or overturn, federal legislation. As it is written now, if approved and ratified, two-thirds of states’ legislatures would need to vote in favor of a repeal.

The proposed amendment reads: “Any provision of law or regulation of the United States may be repealed by the several states, and such repeal shall be effective when the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states approve resolutions for this purpose that particularly describe the same provision or provisions of law or regulation to be repealed.”"

Happy Birthday, Gettysburg Address

Happy Birthday, Gettysburg Address « Hot Air

Four-score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives, that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

These Are The 15 Housing Markets That Will Get Crushed The Hardest By 2012

I hope not:

These Are The 15 Housing Markets That Will Get Crushed The Hardest By 2012: "The firm that makes the Case Shiller Index has joined the consensus that 2011 will be a terrible year for housing.

2012 will be pretty bad too."

Charles Krauthammer - Don't touch my junk

Thus a new phrase enters the lexicon:

Charles Krauthammer - Don't touch my junk: "John Tyner, cleverly armed with an iPhone to give YouTube immortality to the encounter, took exception to the TSA guard about to give him the benefit of Homeland Security's newest brainstorm - the upgraded, full-palm, up the groin, all-body pat-down. In a stroke, the young man ascended to myth, or at least the next edition of Bartlett's, warning the agent not to 'touch my junk.'"

Pretty in Pink? Obama’s Dark Night of the Soul

Someone's having a very bad Presidency:

Pretty in Pink? Obama’s Dark Night of the Soul | Via Meadia: "Life keeps getting worse for President Obama. It is not just that the conservative press, which never liked him, has a new note of confidence and even joy as it pursues a quarry whose blood reporters think they can smell. It is not just that he lost control of Congress in the midterms. No: the mainstream, liberal press and the American left are deserting him now. The San Francisco Chronicle, the Washington Post, and even Michael Moore have turned on the Messiah. “Take off your pink tutu!” Moore commanded the President on Bill Maher. Jeremiah Wright must feel vindicated down under the bus; now the rest of the left increasingly sees Obama as weak, opportunistic, and unprincipled."

Westboro Baptist Protesters Get Tires Slashed Following Protest Saturday

What a bummer:

HotAirPundit: Westboro Baptist Protesters Get Tires Slashed Following Protest Saturday: "Members of a Kansas church that protests at military funerals may have found themselves in the wrong town Saturday.

Shortly after finishing their protest at the funeral of Army Sgt. Jason James McCluskey of McAlester, a half-dozen protesters from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., headed to their minivan, only to discover that its front and rear passenger-side tires had been slashed."

Secret Walmart Survey Shows Inflation Already Here

Anyone who shops has already noticed this:

CNBC's Fast Money: Secret Walmart Survey Shows Inflation Already Here - CNBC: "There might not have been a second round of quantitative easing, if Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke shopped at Walmart."

American Narcissus

This is very enlightening:

American Narcissus | The Weekly Standard: "People have been noticing Obama’s vanity for a long time. In 2008, one of his Harvard Law classmates, the entertainment lawyer Jackie Fuchs, explained what Obama was like during his school days: “One of our classmates once famously noted that you could judge just how pretentious someone’s remarks in class were by how high they ranked on the ‘Obamanometer,’ a term that lasted far longer than our time at law school. Obama didn’t just share in class—he pontificated. He knew better than everyone else in the room, including the teachers. ”"

A bad news week for AGW proponents | Watts Up With That?

Interesting:

A bad news week for AGW proponents | Watts Up With That?: "This is a collection of news story excerpts this past week. AGW proponents and environmentalists is general are taking hit after hit in the media this week."

Dems extol facts and science but act on ideology

For some emotions trump all:

Dems extol facts and science but act on ideology | Washington Examiner: "In the course of the Obama administration we have seen examples of Democrats in the White House, Congress and across the government pursuing ideological goals that are not only not based on facts and science and argument but actually fly in the face of facts and science and argument. Some examples:"

Obama's economic view is rejected on world stage

It's one thing after another...

Obama's economic view is rejected on world stage - San Jose Mercury News: "President Barack Obama's hopes of emerging from his Asia trip with the twin victories of a free-trade agreement with South Korea and a unified approach to spurring global economic growth ran into resistance on all fronts Thursday, putting Obama at odds with his key allies and largest trading partners.

The most concrete trophy expected to emerge from the trip eluded his grasp: a long-delayed free trade agreement with South Korea, first negotiated by the Bush administration and then reopened by Obama, to have greater protections for U.S. workers."

And as officials frenetically tried to paper over differences among the Group of 20 members with a vaguely worded communique to be issued today, there was no way to avoid discussion of the fundamental differences of economic strategy. After five largely harmonious meetings in the past two years to deal with the most severe downturn since the Great Depression, major disputes broke out between Washington and China, Britain, Germany and Brazil.

The rest of the world goes West when America prints more money - Telegraph

Not good:

The rest of the world goes West when America prints more money - Telegraph: "America is now isolated and the rest of the world is furious. The widespread use of capital controls and even a lurch into 1930s-style protectionism are both far more likely than just a few days ago.

The Federal Reserve's words may have been anodyne. 'We will adjust the programme as needed to best foster maximum employment and price stability,' said the US central bank's Open Market Committee. But by announcing another round of 'quantitative easing', America is rightfully incurring the wrath not only of the emerging giants of the East, but the eurozone too."

The Top Five Republican Rising Stars - Hotline On Call

Interesting:

The Top Five Republican Rising Stars - Hotline On Call

BBC News - Vatican warns of 'wayward' Opus Angelorum sect

Amazing the beliefs that some have. I'm glad the Vatican is sending out a warning:

BBC News - Vatican warns of 'wayward' Opus Angelorum sect: "The Vatican has warned Catholic bishops around the world to monitor carefully a secretive traditionalist sect which prays to angels to combat demons.

Opus Angelorum, which means 'the work of angels' in Latin, was founded by an Austrian housewife who died in 1978.

She claimed to have identified the angels and demons who were battling for the control of human beings."

Christian woman sentenced to death in Pakistan 'for blasphemy' - Telegraph

Scary:

Christian woman sentenced to death in Pakistan 'for blasphemy' - Telegraph: "A Christian woman has been sentenced to hang in Pakistan after being convicted of defaming the Prophet Mohammed."

A President At Bay

The crash to earth:

A President At Bay - Walter Russell Mead's Blog - The American Interest: "All pundits, including yours truly, get it wrong sometimes, and normally there would be little point in dwelling on past blunders. But it this case, it is worth exhuming these vaporous and embarrassing stupidities for a few moments. Many of our nation’s intellectual leaders wonder why the rest of the country isn’t more respectful of their claims to be guided by and speak for the cool voice of celestial reason. That so many of them gushed over Barack Obama with all of the profundity of reflection and intellectual distance of tweeners at a Justin Bieber concert should help them understand why their claims of superior wisdom are sometimes met with caustic cynicism."

Here Are The 10 Worst States For Businesses In America

Here Are The 10 Worst States For Businesses In America:

What, Exactly, Is The Federal Reserve Up To?

Hmm...

What, Exactly, Is The Federal Reserve Up To?: "Yesterday afternoon, the Federal Reserve announced its latest effort to try to inject some life into what has been a fairly stagnant economy:"

California Conundrum

They did it to themselves:

California Conundrum - By Kevin D. Williamson - The Corner - National Review Online: "This election means two things for California: 1. It is now more likely to end up needing a federal bailout, and 2. It is less likely to find Congress receptive to that idea."

Durban III Set for New York City in September 2011

Governmental antisemitism:

Durban III Set for New York City in September 2011 | The Weekly Standard: "The United Nations is planning to hold “Durban III” in New York City in September 2011, marking the tenth anniversary of the 2001 Durban conference, and the non-governmental forum which preceded it, held in Durban, South Africa in 2001."

Pfeifer-Zeliska .600 Nitro Express Handgun

I have no desire to shoot this.  HT: Ken

Pfeifer-Zeliska .600 Nitro Express Handgun "How much gun is TOO much gun?!"

I have seen little handguns and I have seen big handguns, but until now I have never seen too much handgun. This is TOO MUCH HANDGUN! Forget everything you've heard about magnum revolvers; this is the ultimate. Caliber .600 Nitro Magnum - Measured by muzzle energy, it is the most powerful in the world.

Confessions of a Price Controller

Interesting:

Confessions of a Price Controller — The American, A Magazine of Ideas: "The Wall Street Journal reports that Medicare pays too much for specialist services and too little for primary care—even though doctors themselves decide how the money should be divvied up. That drives up the cost of the program and intensifies the shortage of primary-care doctors needed to care for the 32 million people who will get health coverage over the next few years.

This is neither surprising nor new, at least to me. I oversaw the study that created Medicare’s physician payment mechanism during the 1980s; I oversaw the implementation of that mechanism during the early 1990s; I am currently an appointed member of a state commission that sets prices for hospitals—and for those 25 years, I have been arguing that price controls are the wrong way to go."