Watermelon Crawl

I don't know if Dan has been drinking (or if he's a racist), but he's right ― Obama is one of the worst salesmen of all time:

Copenhagen I, Copenhagen II, Virginia, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Cap 'n' Tax, ObamaCare...

h/t: Left Coast Rebel, the newest Memeorandum superstar

Flashback: Watermelon Crawl

Separation of Church and Home

This blog isn't about science or religion, but sometimes science, politics and religion collide; and when all three of these intersect with elementary education, sparks will fly.

An article released by the Associated Press this weekend is a fine example of this explosive combination of issues. Although it probably doesn't qualify as a hit piece, Dylan Lovan does a pretty good job of portraying home-schoolers as anti-science wingnuts:

Two of the best-selling biology textbooks [for home-schoolers] stack the deck against evolution, said some science educators who reviewed sections of the books at the request of The Associated Press. "I feel fairly strongly about this. These books are promulgating lies to kids," said Jerry Coyne, an ecology and evolution professor at the University of Chicago.

Coyne is even more explicit about his antipathy toward home-schoolers in his personal blog:

As Lovan noted in his piece, “83 percent of home-schooling parents want to give their children ‘religious or moral instruction.’”

I weep for those children. For many of them are simply being brainwashed by their parents. Yes, that’s what it is—brainwashing...

How many budding biologists have been stifled by their parents’ willful ignorance of science, and on their insistence that the Bible is the real source of biological information?

Wow...sounds like the state should intervene, doesn't it? These poor kids probably should be taken from their parents. Forcing the kids to go to a government-run school would be a good start, but insufficient. Sure, you can get them on the right track at school, but what's going to happen when they go back home to their parents?

Reaction to Lovan's article on the left-wing spite sites has been even more paranoid. Robert Crook provides his very humble opinion:

Religiously brainwashing children, who are helpless because they depend entirely upon their parents, I asserted, is a form of child abuse.

Home-schooling, too, in most cases is done for the purpose of brainwashing, and therefore in most cases is child abuse.

Children home-schooled by “Christo” fascist parents are put at a huge disadvantage. Even children who are home-schooled for reasons other than religious indoctrination — children whose home-school curricula aren’t religious-based — are put at a disadvantage because they don’t get the same opportunities to socialize with children who come from different backgrounds as do their non-home-schooled peers.

For all the talk about the need for exposure to diverse views, Mr. Crook's ability to digest opposing opinions is surprisingly underdeveloped:

I Googled your e-mail address and found your blog, rightklik.net. On your blog you link to Michelle Malkin, RedState and The Heritage Foundation as “important websites,” for [expletive deleted] sake. You’re a wingnut. So I’ll consider the source. You are, after all, preparing your children for the End Times, which they don’t teach in our public schools.

Unfortunately, this notion that home schooling is some kind insidious abuse is not confined to personal blogs and left-wing hate sites. Serious scholarly publications have entertained the idea as well:

The right to unregulated homeschooling visits quite concrete harms on the homeschooled children themselves, the mothers who are teaching them, and the often rural and isolated communities in which they are raised and taught...

...[T]here are political harms. Fundamentalist Protestant adults who were homeschooled over the last thirty years are not politically disengaged, far from it. They vote in far higher percentages than the rest of the population. They mobilize readily. The “army” in which adult homeschooled citizens are soldiers has enormous clout: homeschoolers were called “Bush’s Army” in 2000 and 2004 for good reason...

They are as effective as they are, and as successful as they are, because they engage in politics in the same way that soldiers participate in combat. They don’t question authority, and they can’t go AWOL. With little education, few if any job skills, and scant resources, their power either to influence the lines of authority within their own sphere, or to leave that sphere, is virtually nil.

An army of stupid, conservative Rove-bots? This must be stopped! Here's the plan:

As the political philosopher and homeschool critic Robert Reich has persuasively argued, curricular review would give the state a way to ensure that the academic content is such as to protect the children’s interest in both acquiring the necessary skills for active, autonomous, and responsible citizenship in adulthood, and in being exposed to diverse and more liberal ways.

And now we see the real concern. The statists aren't losing sleep at night because little Johnny can't read ― if that were the case, they'd allow kids to escape our lousy public schools ― no, the statists are worried that Johnny is sneaking off to Tea Parties with his parents when he should be at a real school singing praises to Barack Hussein Obama! Better keep an eye on Johnny.

Mmm, mmm, mmm!

More

Just for kicks, I recommend a visit to Dylan Lovan's Twitter feed. He links to this surprisingly religulous, unintentionally funny video from Symphony of Science:

...The sky calls to us

If we do not destroy ourselves

We will one day venture to the stars

A still more glorious dawn awaits

Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise

A morning filled with 400 billion suns

The rising of the milky way...

...as religious as anything I've ever seen or heard.

Discount Doctors?

Matthew Yglesias, whose literacy seems challenged, has banned me from commenting at his blog. So I'll make my comments here.

Today, Matt has been mindlessly echoing some tired old theories from the land of liberal dementia. He thinks that price controls on health care services would serve us well, and that we would be better off as a nation if we would act forcefully to reduce physicians' earning potential.

*Sigh*

Hello salary Nazis: Please tell me how much money physicians should be allowed to make. But before you answer, let's look at some salary numbers:

From USA Today via Hot Air.

Interesting numbers, yes? Do they look fair to you? I'm not convinced that the federal government is doing a good job of re-distributing the wealth.

For some perspective, please note that the the median salary of a family doctor is about $137,000.

So tell me, should we allow physicians to earn as much as the average federally employed Public Relations manager? More than a landscape architect, or less? How do we decide? Would the federal government do a good job making the call?

If somebody can figure out a way to lure an adequate supply of competent people who have above-room-temperature IQs into a field that demands four years of college plus four years of medical school and at least three years of residency training (folks who would then go on the earn whatever Matthew Y. thinks is appropriate for the privilege of making life-and-death decisions while working long hours, nights, weekends and holidays), then by all means, let's cut physician compensation down to the bone, baby!

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Is Matt Yglesias an idiot? (scroll down for the picture)

Doctors' salaries aren't a large enough chunk of health care spending in the United States to make a difference.

Governments have been trying to set maximum or minimum prices since ancient times.

Federal pay ahead of private industry

Will House Democrats Take the Bait?

"The White House may renege on passing fixes to the Senate's healthcare bill once the House has passed it, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) claimed Thursday.

"'They're using reconciliation to pass the great big bill,' Gregg said during an appearance on CNBC. 'Once they pass the great big bill, I wouldn't be surprised if the White House didn't care if reconciliation passed. I mean, why would they?'"

...

"Bait and switch, baby. It’s not like the unsuspecting and unprepared Democrats haven’t already seen plenty of that already.

"'The plan, as it comes from the Senate, hangs out every Democrat who’s running for office to dry...'"

...

"The focus on reconciliation in the past few days confuses things a bit. The question in the health-care debate at the moment is whether Nancy Pelosi can get enough of her members to vote for the version of Obamacare that passed the Senate late last year...

"Some liberal House Democrats have problems with that bill — especially with some of its tax provisions, though also a few other things...

"But that amending bill wouldn’t change the basic character of what would be enacted (and to the extent it would change it at the edges, it would be mostly for the worse): Either way, if the House passes the Senate bill then Obamacare would become law..."

...

"House members would be left holding the bag. Target squarely on their chests, they would now get to face their fuming constituents after having passed a $2.5 trillion bill that would allow public funding of abortion, would send $100 million to Nebraska, $300 million to Louisiana, $100 million to Connecticut, would exempt South Florida's Medicare Advantage enrollees from annual $2,100 cuts in Medicare Advantage benefits, would raise taxes, raise deficits, raise health costs, empower Washington, reduce liberty, politicize medicine, and jeopardize the quality of health care. Most of all, they would feel the citizenry's wrath for having voted to pass a bill that only 25 percent of Americans support.

"Right now, the House holds all the power over ObamaCare."

...

"It should be noted, the possibility remains the House could pass the Senate bill at any point this year including in a lame duck session between the midterms and the opening of a new Congress. The Senate bill remains live until this session closes in December so the possibility exists that the Senate bill could be signed into law at any point this year."

Is Obama Selling Judgeships for Health Care Votes?

Is Obama trading judgeships for votes on his health care bill? Michele Bachmann is asking tough questions:

Video: h/t RightScoop

Background information from the Weekly Standard:

Tonight, Barack Obama will host ten House Democrats who voted against the health care bill in November at the White House; he's obviously trying to persuade them to switch their votes to yes. One of the ten is Jim Matheson of Utah. The White House just sent out a press release announcing that today President Obama nominated Matheson's brother Scott M. Matheson, Jr. to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

“Scott Matheson is a distinguished candidate for the Tenth Circuit court,” President Obama said. “Both his legal and academic credentials are impressive and his commitment to judicial integrity is unwavering. I am honored to nominate this lifelong Utahn to the federal bench.

...Scott Matheson appears to have the credentials to be a judge, but was his nomination used to buy off his brother's vote?

This certainly looks suspicious, but I don't know. Maybe this was just the coincidence of the day!

Discussion

More

Obama voter to Obama: You are driving cynicism to new heights.

Malkin: Incorrigibly corrupt or incorrigibly stupid. Take your pick.

On Tea Parties, Boob Bait & ObamaCare

RedState recently explored the question of why the Tea Parties mystify the folks of Democrat-Run Media. It’s an insightful exploration. Here are my thoughts…

The Tea Party movement confuses the Democrat-Run Media (DRM) because the DRM are populated by people who think tea partiers are no smarter than Peggy Joseph. (She’s the infamous O-bot who said of Obama’s rise to power, “I won’t have to worry about putting gas in my car. I won’t have to worry about paying my mortgage. You know. If I help [Obama], he’s gonna help me.”)

A chicken in every pot and a car in every driveway…boob bait for the Bubbas.

Peggy Joseph’s line of reasoning is the way all middle and lower income Americans are supposed to be thinking. Political experts like Roger Ebert have made it abundantly clear. Here’s one of Ebert’s tweets on the Tea Party phenomenon:

“I write about the TeePees because it’s so sad how they’ve been manipulated to oppose their own best interests.”

Poor dears. What’s the matter with Kansas?!

Media elitists refuse to acknowledge that middle America is thinking beyond the next mortgage payment and the next stop at the gas pump. They can’t understand why ordinary Americans would find it in their best interests to shun government redemption.

Whether the DRM choose to believe it or not, Americans aren’t as easily tempted by Moynihan’s “boob bait for the bubbas” as the current regime in Washington would like them to be. Americans know that the health care bait (and anything else the federal government wants to “offer” us) has to be paid for. No free lunch.

Because of the protracted health care debate, Americans are keenly and painfully aware of the racket that awaits them if the Democrats manage to thwart the will of the vocal majority. Here’s the essence of the grand ObamaCare scheme…

Your role:

• You earn the health care dollars.
• You hand that money over to the government.

The Government’s role:

• Big Brother spends the money.
• Big Brother calls the shots.
• Big Brother bankrupts your children and grandchildren (see Greece)

We know that that’s a recipe for helplessness, dependency and low-quality services. The DRM can’t believe that there are tens of millions of Americans who are smart enough to figure that out. The DRM can’t believe we don’t want to trade freedom for the illusion of security.

ObamaCare Strategery

The Dems are floating a potential schedule for passing ObamaCare in the next few weeks. It might not be realistic, but it is informative:

1. March 3: Obama lays out a package that will bridge the difference between the House and Senate health care bills.
2. March 4-19: A summary of Obama's proposal will be turned into legislative language. Congressional leaders will begin looking for votes.
3. March 19: The House passes the Senate’s health care bill. The bill then goes to the straight to Obama's desk for signature. ObamaCare becomes the law of the land. Senate Democrats will make some kind of promise to House leadership that they will pass a package of fixes through the reconciliation process.
4. March 21: The House amends the Senate bill with a reconciliation bill.
5. March 23: The Senate begins debate on the reconciliation bill.
6. Voting begins March 26, the first day of Easter recess, at which point Reid announces that the Senate will stay in session through recess to consider all amendments.
7. Before March 29: Vote on final passage follows consideration of the last amendment.

Important items to note:

• In this scheme, the House moves first. The Senate is not going to move unless forced to do so.
• The issue of Reconciliation only comes up after ObamaCare has already been signed into law.
• The third step in the sequence is the only one that matters. This is where you loose your health care freedom. Game over.
• The third step does not need to follow the first two steps. The third step does not require any subsequent steps.
• In this sequence, reconciliation is superfluous.

On December 24, the Senate passed the best health care bill that it could come up with. Since then, the House has had almost 10 weeks to pass that bill and send it to Obama. If House Democrats had any intention of passing the Senate bill, wouldn't they have passed it already? Democrats know they don't have time to waste. This is an election year and the economy is in the dump. And ObamaCare isn't becoming more popular as time passes.

The schedule outlined above is insane. Even if ObamaCare 3.0 can be hastily translated into palatable legislative language in the next 17 days, it would then need to be analyzed by the CBO. Leery house Dems aren't going to move forward until they've seen a price tag.

Again, all this speculation is founded on the assumption that the House can somehow pass the Senate bill after having sat on it for 3 months...as if they've been waiting for a miracle all this time. What miracle? On cue, the left-wing Polyannas:

Obama, Reid and Pelosi are are feverishly working behind the scenes on a brilliant 'sidecar bill' for reconciliation [ObamaCare 3.0]. The sidecar bill will include the super-incredible public option and lots of other magically delicious stuff. If Obama dangles the sidecar bill in front of House Democrats like a carrot on a stick, Team Pelosi will step out in blind faith and pass Reid's abysmally unpopular bill.

Obviously, House Dems aren't gullible enough for that. They understand that Nancy Pelosi is prepared to sacrifice vulnerable Democrats in order to achieve her goals. In light of Nancy's indifference to their dilemma, House Dems know for sure that if they pass the Senate bill, the Senate will not feel obligated to change the bill in ways that will help the peons of the lower chamber.

If House Democrats pass the Senate's version of the health care bill, and if the Senate doesn't have the time, votes or inclination to return to its own vomit, House Dems would then be on the hook for all the bill's flaws, and there would be no guarantee that any of the flaws would get fixed before the November elections.

The Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, prison sentences for failure to comply with the individual mandate, tax dollars for abortion, loopholes for illegals, new taxes on union health care plans... There would be a lot of great material for some really sweet GOP campaign ads.

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Rep. Steny Hoyer proposed an alternative sequence today. Are we officially a banana republic now?

Reconciliation Math: The problem is in the House, not the Senate.

Keith Hennessy: Challenges of the Two Bill Strategy

Obama "open" to the idea of putting some lipstick on his pig

Republican Compares Obama To Snooki

Milton Friedman - Socialized Medicine

Left Coast Rebel: "Coffee Party" astroturfers exposed

Global Warming Extremists: Alarmed & Dangerous

The violent imagery and invective of the radial political left was once largely confined to Obama's speeches. But it is now spreading, and it has infected the lives of crazed leftists all over the globe. Unfortunately, all it takes is a few self-styled “martyrs” to sow widespread havoc:

A seven-month-old baby girl survived three days alone with a bullet in her chest beside the bodies of her parents and toddler brother.

Argentines Francisco Lotero, 56, and Miriam Coletti, 23, shot their children before killing themselves after making an apparent suicide pact over fears about global warming. Their son Francisco, two, died instantly after being hit in the back.

But their unnamed daughter cheated death after the bullet from her dad's handgun missed her vital organs...

Her parents said they feared the effects of global warming in a suicide note discovered by police.

It would be both glib and inaccurate to call Lotero and Coletti card-carrying Global Warming Marxists, but I won't be the least bit surprised if Joe Stack's confused Marxist followers create instant Facebook shrines to celebrate this family's martyrdom. And perhaps Frank Rich will write a glowing eulogy for the New York Times.

The left is loonier than ever before. Be careful out there.

More

Nickie Goomba: "I Am The Tea Party Leader!"

Poll: 1% say Congress is doing an excellent job!

The Photo That Could Doom the Democrats

Tea Partiers on 'Alert' as Dems Lay Groundwork for Health Care Passage

Warning: factual information often mingles with parody on this blog; read at your own risk.

Highlights from Obama's Physical Exam

Have you read Obama's first periodic physical exam as president? Here are the highlights:

• Eyes going bad
• Left hip is weak
• Bad left knee
• Prostate feels normal (no nodules)
• Needs to reduce cholesterol
• Still addicted to nicotine

More

How much is Obama drinking?

The guy's got a million reasons to drink.

Obama's Little Immoderation Situation

Doctors tell Barack to quit smoking

Physical Exam Shocker: The pResident Is Brainless!