Author: Papa Giorgio
Some Rad (recent) Photos
This is with thanks to The Blaze – click on to enlarge:
An unexpected side-effect of the 2010 flooding in parts of Sindh, Pakistan, was that millions of spiders climbed up into the trees to escape the rising flood waters; because of the scale of the flooding and the fact that the water took so long to recede, many trees became cocooned in spiders webs.
Red State Job Engine
Via NewsBusters:
The establishment press will never tell their readers, listeners and viewers that the five best-performing states in job growth through the first eleven months of this year, as well as nine of the top eleven, have relatively conservative Republicans occupying their respective governors’ mansions. If these eleven star performers had only performed as well as the rest of the nation, over 300,000 fewer people would be working, and the unemployment rate would be at least 0.2% higher.
As will be seen after the jump, the list, based on date released today by Uncle Sam’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, includes several against which the Obama administration has undertaken significant job-killing or job-deferring actions (i.e., these states have outperformed despite the handicaps, and would have done much better without them):
I wanted to say something about Rachel Maddow’s “debunking” of Texas jobs,
and that is that she skews her stats on this a bit. Firstly however, minimum wage laws (which play a part in this waxing of the numbers) play a big roll in keeping people unemployed. This isn’t my main point however, here are some points made elswhere:
But there’s no escaping it. The number is real. Which means that if you care about putting people back to work at a time when nearly 14 million in this country are unemployed, maybe Texas has something to teach us.
Unfortunately, that’s not the posture many commentators have taken. Instead, when the data from Texas emerged — touted first by Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas — conservatives were quick to celebrate, embracing the jobs tally as powerful evidence of the superiority of Republican ideas as well as proof that Texas Gov. Rick Perry would make a good president. But that’s overly simplistic.
Meanwhile, those on the liberal end of the spectrum immediately set out to shoot the numbers down. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, for instance, held up a giant bologna and mocked the notion of a “Texas miracle.” That view, however, is too cavalier….
To be sure, Texas is not without lots of problems. And its remarkable employment growth is not without attendant concerns. But for those on the left to dismiss the state’s jobs story out of hand, just because Republicans have embraced it as a showpiece, is counterproductive and foolish.
(LA Times)
While the LA Times article struggled a bit, but ended up shining at the end, the following is what Maddow and the LA Times writer didn’t fully account for:
In her column for The Daily, Reason Foundation’s Shikha Dalmia delves into Gov. Rick Perry’s record and writes that Texas “has one of the lightest personal tax burdens in the country and a low cost of living, which are hugely attractive to out-of-work Americans. Their flocking to the state has bumped up Texas’ unemployment rate to 8 percent, prompting Rachel Maddow to jeer on the air that Perry’s jobs record is not a whole lot better than many other states. What she refuses to see is that while in those states high unemployment is due to anemic job growth, in Texas it is due to robust population growth. If anything, Texas offers proof that people prefer jobs, even low-paying ones, to lavish social benefits — repudiating the liberal tax-and-spend economic model.
Just wanted to include a quick rebuttal to Madcow’s many, many mistakes.
-And the Lie of the Year is (*drumb roll please*)
Via Gateway Pundit:
The left leaning Politifact released it’s “lie of the year” today. This year the group decided that, “Republicans voted to end Medicare,” was the biggest lie beating out Barack Obama’s laughable line, “We’re better off today than when I took over.” Democrats even made horrible dishonest ads showing Rep. Paul Ryan pushing grandma off a cliff over the lie.
Syrian Protestors are Missing Dubya
RAINBOW SIX (Occupy Wall Street the Terrorists)
Via HotAir:
No, just kidding. These guys aren’t OWS. For one thing, none of them takes a dump in public or on a cop car, and no one gets raped. Also, as Frank Fleming points out, they’re wearing suits and they’re racially diverse, which is pretty much smoking-gun proof that they’re not OWSers. What’s identical is the message: For the second straight day, the Occupiers’ class-warfare ethos gets a starring role in a sure-to-be-blockbuster piece of entertainment — and once again, they’re cast as the villains. No wonder liberals are upset. How annoying to be reminded that domestic terrorism isn’t solely the province of wingnuts by people who are supposed to be on your side.
Cabinet Level Throwin` of the Race Card (Eric Holder)
Radical Unions ~ SEIU Advertises for Occupiers
Indonesia a Moderate Muslim Country? Don`t Believe It!
Smaller or Larger Government? Equality or Prosperity?
For context:
The following comes from a discussion elsewhere on the Web, and should serve as a great reminder to the deleterious effects of larger (more regulatory) government vs. a smaller form of it:
Cal Watchdog adds to the idea with the most recent businesses leaving:
Other posts referencing these issue worth checking out: