Road Sassy

…..worse than I thought in UK.

The Islamists launched their jihad against the West because they perceived it was so weak and confused it would not possess the wherewithal to defend itself. When it comes to Britain, they never spoke a truer word.
Melanie Philips.

There has been an interesting series on the seven colours of the rainbow in The National Post.

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We who are sensible down to earth people know that the Dhimmicrats have part of their brains missing, we know they are like little children who throw tantrums when they can’t get what they want, but do they have to be so unbelievably stupid that you wonder where the hell the party finds them all? From MoveOn’s General Betray-us, Pelosi sucking up to Assad, Kerry saluting and ‘Reporting for Duty’ after he slandered the Military, Clinton 1 on under the Oval Office desk with Monica, Clinton 2 and her willing suspension of disbelief, Obama, well where to start, where to finish!, Carter a one man bumbling disaster around the world, Murtha finding honourable brave American troops guilty of murder on the word of the enemy, you could go on all night. And now word is that Pelosi was in contact with the FARC terrorists while blocking a negotiated free trade deal with Columbia. They’re insane, all of them.

Update.
See this post at Powerline and ask why the execrable Pelosi shouldn’t be charged with conducting unauthorized and therefore illegal foreign policy.

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Slowly, slowly Global Warming is being seen for the lefty agenda that it is.

But mother nature has opinions of her own. NASA now begrudgingly confirms that the hottest year on record in the continental 48 was not 1998, as previously believed, but 1934, and that six of the 10 hottest years since 1880 antedate 1954. Data from 3,000 scientific robots in the world’s oceans show there has been slight cooling in the past five years, never mind that “80% to 90% of global warming involves heating up ocean waters,” according to a report by NPR’s Richard Harris.

In “The Varieties of Religious Experience,” William James distinguishes between healthy, life-affirming religion and the monastically inclined, “morbid-minded” religion of the sick-souled. Global warming is sick-souled religion.

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Another article on the Obamamessiah detailing the fascist aura emanating from his campaign and unlike the scatter gun use of the word fascist by the left, this is the genuine article.

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If you haven’t read Ligneus’s post on Adam Smith, do so. If men like that governed today in America, we wouldn’t have to deal with pompous pretenders like Obama or McCain. In the comments I remarked as follows:

“Must be the redneck in me, but i could never have conceived that so many would willingly throw down freedom”.

Indeed, it’s the fact that so many Americans are willing to allow the government to control their lives that has me flabbergasted. I have no answers for it, but “Just Another Richard” left an eloquent response, reproduced below.

Ah but zee, you fail to see the human capacity for self delusion, together with its ever faithful companion slothfulness. With a choice between a hard road and the easy way out, people will always rationalize the easy way…its so much simpler, after all, what’s to think about…be happy

The fact that, in the burdensome chores of struggle and endeavor, can be found our own redemption, where the sense of accomplishment can give meaning to existence, where the heavy load of actually thinking for yourself trains the mind to become self sufficient, to be an instrument of its own creation. To free the mind from the irrationality of conspiring minds and petty spiteful dogmas.

Now this does not always result in setting one’s self upon the right path, indeed, many an intellectual’s personal biography can attest to the wasted path to hedonism. But the mind, cautioned by reason and human dignity, aware of its own limitations in a cosmos of such vast and incomprehensible possibilities, does not flee from its own inconsequence, but embraces its own insignificance, for this in truth is what we are; to do otherwise is to rage against our very being, which as you can see, has such devastating and deleterious consequences, crushing aspiration and leaving shattered lives. Just look to those lost souls fleeing their very own lives in pursuit of a release by means of the excessive use of drink or drugs. There is nothing wrong in inconsequence, it is the natural state of being, IT IS LIFE. Those foolish ghosts, forever chasing the ephemeral illusion of fame, celebrity, fortune and power, are the natural born destroyers of what is most sacred in this earthly realm … LIFE.

Like many another, I too struggled in this life to find my meaning, to find my place, and just like most others, I too struggled with my fears, my failings and my doubts. But it was only when I reflected back upon my own soul, that I was able to discover myself. No outside bauble or trinket could satiate my hunger. No greater accumulation of wealth (hah…funny), no position of power in a hierarchy, could gain anything more than fleeting moments of respite from the longing. Only when I came to terms with myself, I cast off the goals of a shallow society, and recognized myself for what I was…just a simple individual, living out this tiny span, did I learn to accept myself on my terms and NOT someone else’s.

The fact that Marxism is a cult of death and destruction is obscured by the illusion that tomorrow we will be one step closer to Utopia if only we believe, is now indisputable and is the most cruel lie humanity could embrace. But for the mind that has cast aside all belief in any greater meaning, or indeed, any meaning, what is there left to do, for when such a mind looks inward it can be filled with nothing but fear and loathing, for there is nothing of substance to be found within; but to join in with the pack to create Utopia upon the hill tomorrow, gives meaning to an empty shell, a meaningless, and soul crushing existence, where that ultimate fear, greater even than the fear of death, must never be faced…the fear of facing one’s self.

I would only add that men cannot make the spiritual journey that Richard describes in a Marxist or Islamic society. The West grants men the freedom to find their way, or lose their way. Sadly, too many Americans are lost.

Tags: Adam Smith, America, Freedom, marxism, socialism

Be ready America. If you elect Barack Obama you’ll find the reverse discrimination that goes on unabated now, formalized into law. Count on it. And to hell with the applicant actually being qualified. How many will die or suffer because of incompetent doctors, police and firemen hired in the name of “equality”. And forget about excellent service and well run businesses. All will be sacrificed so that the whining “minority” gets a job that they can’t get on their own merit.
I will repeat it until I choke on it. If you want a preview of life under Obama, read the blogs and news out of Great Britain, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands. We are following close on their heels.

How women will be more equal than men: Firms must reveal gender pay gap and CAN discriminate against men | Mail Online

Companies are to be encouraged to discriminate in favour of women and black job candidates.

The move is designed to thrust more female and ethnic minorities into senior posts.

Harriet Harman’s new Equality Bill will also force firms to reveal the salary gap between their male and female staff to highlight how women have slipped behind and shame employers into bringing them into line.

The Bill was hit by an immediate backlash from business leaders last night.

They are fiercely opposed to positive discrimination and they insist that pay differences are not down to prejudice but the result of women’s choice to put their career on hold for the sake of their children.

Tags: affirmative action, barack obama, england, Equality Bill, minorities, obama, quotas, reverse discrimination

That slurping noise in the background is the sound of one of history’s greatest civilizations flushing itself down the toilet.

I am going to send you to read Moonbat Priorities first. Reading the short post that the sentence above is attached to will numb you to the further outrage that the following excerpts will inspire.
Oh, as far as the next great civilization whose climbing into the same toilet? Well, God forgive us, that would be us.

The New “Flip-Flop”

I picked California specifically because they seem to enjoy the spotlight so much. They flaunt themselves as the “trend-setting” state in the Union. The toughest emission laws, the toughest environmental laws, the loosest immigration laws, the first with state-wide bans on smoking tobacco, the first to “legalize” marijuana, the highest taxes, and the lowest income-to-jobs ratio in the country… even with an artificially high minimum wage in place for more than 22 years.

Cut California off from the Federal welfare system. Stop all Federal dollars going to state highway funds. End subsidies to California power companies that cannot build new plants due to stringent State regulations (resulting in the now infamous “rolling blackouts” of the late ’90s). Then let California marry all the gays they want. Let them sell pot on the street corners. See how long California makes it as the 7th largest economy on the face of the earth WITHOUT the SUPPORT of the rest of this country, let alone the Feds.

Ireland Gives the EU the Finger

A Red C poll, on behalf of the Irish Sunday Business Post, has been released showing that simpler and more visceral matters were in the minds of the Irish on June 12. Although the pro-life warnings about abortion were dismissed by the Electoral Commission, 58 percent of those who voted against the treaty believed that it would make abortion more likely in Ireland, against 28 percent who disagreed. Of those who believed Lisbon made abortion more likely, a massive 74 percent voted No, the Sunday Business Post reported.

A Eurobarometer survey found that fears about the economy or unemployment were not mentioned, and just 1 per cent of survey responses showed the No vote was in response to immigration.

I’m outraged by Muslims who can’t shut the hell up and go back where they came from….

If your religion thinks dogs are unclean, your religion is fucking retarded.
And no, this is not a joke:

UK: “Muslim outrage at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman’s hat”

What? Affirmative Action Mortgages Now?

Some interesting news at the Washington Post, about a wonderful deal that Barack Obama received on his home loan: Obama Got Discount on Home Loan.

Muslims Behaving Like Barbarians, As Usual

A gang of Pakistani militants executed two alleged U.S. spies in front of thousands of cheering supporters Friday…

[...]

“Whoever, for the sake of money, for the sake of America, harms the interest of the Islamic world will meet the same fate,” he said.

Gunmen with daggers then pounced on one of the men — identified as Jan Wali, 36 — decapitated him and waved his bloody head to the cheering crowd.

The militants then argued over how to kill the other man because he may have been a teenager, before one lost patience and shot him with an assault rifle.

The crowd erupted in cheers of “God is great!” and gunmen fired in the air in jubilation. The celebratory gunfire killed two bystanders and wounded six, local official Fazal Rabbi said.

The recently elected Pakistani government has supported negotiations that would give local tribes and militants broad authority over some tribal areas. The U.S. says those deals will only give Taliban and Al Qaeda forces in the border region more freedom to attack Afghanistan.

European Parliament Bans Opposition

The European Union, the “free trade organization with a few added extras,” is officially turning into a pan-European dictatorship. The Daily Telegraph reports:

The European Union assembly’s political establishment is pushing through changes that will silence dissidents by changing the rules allowing Euro-MPs to form political groupings. Richard Corbett, a British Labour MEP, is leading the charge to cut the number of party political tendencies in the Parliament next year, a move that would dissolve UKIP’s pan-European Eurosceptic “Independence and Democracy” grouping. Under the rule change, the largest and most pro-EU groups would tighten their grip on the Parliament’s political agenda and keep control of lavish funding.

Mr. Obama: Don’t Betray My People

It looks like Mr. Obama may well be the next resident of the White House. It also looks like my people are going to be betrayed once again by a badly misguided American president. Jimmy Carter helped give birth to the virulent Shiite Islamism by forbidding the Shah of Iran to crush the bloodthirsty Ayatollah Khomeini and his band of rabid Islamists. Now, Mr. Obama intends to confer legitimacy on the illegitimate child, the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Jimmy Carter, the self-appointed touring ambassador of bad-mouthing America must be rejoicing in the prospect of Mr. Obama’s presidency. Mr. Obama holds the promise of not only carrying on the Carterian misguided policies, but taking them to their very ruinous end.

Tags: barack obama, beheading, californis, emission laws, european union, ireland, irish, jimmy carter, Pakistan, pakistani barbarians, terrorists

From….Flanders Fields

Americans can no longer trust their own government, because that government is not operating for the best and vital interests of America. The natural functions of our government have had it’s processes co opted by a coalition of internationalist forces which operate on behalf of private corporate interests. Those internationalist forces and the corporate leftists, which together make up most of the corporatist network, are intent upon establishing a socialized world accountable to their doctrinal command, and they are not of an American-loving, freedom-loving intent. They may have American faces, but they do not have American loyalties. Their loyalty is to themselves and to a leftist doctrine for controlling the peoples and resources of the world.
Continue reading...American Patriotism Internationally Applied

Tags: corporate leftists, corporate socialism, one-worlders, progressives, socialism, taxes, transnationalists

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I do not remember where I found this, but it always makes me laugh. I love this dude’s attitude.
“Wear your seatbelt, don’t run with scissors, drink your milk, have a nice day…”
Gotta love it.

Tags: humor, iraq, marine, video

From the video:

“And yet, even as I imagined myself following Malcom’s call, one line in the book stayed with me. He spoke of a wish he’d once had, the wish that the white blood that ran through him, there by an act of violence, might somehow be expunged”
~Barack Obama, from Dreams of My Father, on reading Malcom X~

This country really does not need to elect a man this obsessed with his frigging black blood, and alternately, so repelled by his white blood. This dude needs therapy, not a presidency.

I’m am so damn sick of hearing about race.

How about a “space race”, or a race to drill oil, or a race to build nuclear power plants? Screw your freaking ethnicity. This election is about the United States of America. Not your conflicted racial psyche.

It’s about unprotected borders, illegal immigration, intrusion of the state in private lives, free speech, building up defenses, naming the enemy and executing a war, developing energy sources, preserving and protecting American sovereignty and the sanctity of the Constitution, as written.

It’s really useful to make the whole damn thing about race when Obama’s actual positions on what matters most to the majority of Americans would send hordes running to McCain.

Tags: barack obama, black racism, black separatism, malcom X, obama, obama on whitey, Race Card Politics

I didn’t think much of any faith based initiative under Bush. I am horrified that Barack Obama has endorsed it. Even more ominous, he intends to expand the list of faiths to whom it applies.

Christians I can handle. They have yet to threaten to kill me when I offend them. Real Christians (as opposed to the pseudo _christian left) have a healthy respect for free will. More so, they have a healthy respect for life. Islam respects neither, in fact, muslims respect nothing outside of Islam, least of all the right to worship any god, or no god at all.

Given Obama’s seemingly natural affinity for totalitarian systems, I clearly expect him to gravitate towards the autocratic dictates of Islam. And expanding faith based initiatives will open the door ever wider for Islam. More to the point, it isn’t as if they are a body of impoverished believers, hurting for money. Islam has a steady revenue of Wahabbi and Saud money flowing into their coffers. Let them fund their own freaking initiatives.The idea of adding American tax dollars is tantamount to handing ammunition to the enemy.

Islam is quietly crossing the threshold of our schools in this country while hysterical muslims scream “racism’ anytime parents protest. The lamentable and subversive ACLU does absolutely nothing about it. But of course, you have to grow a pair to confront Islam and the dhimmi ACLU are far to used to the easy victories they have had suppressing Christianity.

If American remains indifferent, they’ll be longing for the days when Christianity was the only religion they had to contend with. Don’t believe me. Start reading the blogs and news out of Great Britain. Below is only one small example.

Two schoolboys were given detention after refusing to kneel down and ‘pray to Allah’ during a religious education lesson. [snip] “But not only did they have to pray, the teacher had gone into the class and made them watch a short film and then said ‘we are now going out to pray to Allah’. “Then two boys got detention and all the other children missed their refreshment break because of the teacher. “Not only was it forced upon them, my daughter was told off for not doing it right. [snip] Parents said that their children were made to bend down on their knees on prayer mats which the RE teacher had got out of her cupboard and they were also told to wear Islamic headgear during the lesson on Tuesday afternoon.
Continue reading….
Forcing children to pray to Allah and promoting sharia

Image Source

Tags: barack obama, bush, creeping sharia, faith based initiatives, islam, muslim, obama, sharia law, soft jihad, textbooks

Of course, in reProgressive double-speak, that’s called nuance.

The ad begins with the announcer telling us that Obama “worked his way through college and Harvard Law.” Actually, Obama took out loans to get himself through college, as we heard in a 60-second ad his campaign began running last month. We don’t know how much assistance his family provided.

But “worked his way” through college and law school? The only back-up the campaign provided for this claim was a quote from Obama’s book “Dreams from My Father” having to do with a construction job he had one summer while he was in college, and an article mentioning his job as a summer associate one year at a big Chicago law firm. We asked campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor if Obama held jobs during the school year, or other summer jobs, but he said only, “He had the two jobs I told you about.” Unless Obama had a good bit more employment than his spokesman was able to describe for us, it’s a real stretch to claim he “worked his way” through school.
[...]
The ad claims Obama “passed a law to move people from welfare to work, slashed the rolls by 80 percent.” That’s going too far. First, the law in question wasn’t dreamed up out of thin air by its sponsors. It was the follow-up to the welfare reform act, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, that President Clinton signed on Aug. 26, 1996. That law gave states the ability to design their own welfare programs as long as they met certain federal requirements, including limits on how long recipients could get benefits. The bill that Obama cosponsored was Illinois’ version.

And far from having “passed” the bill single-handedly, Obama was among five Senate sponsors of the measure, as we said previously. It was passed by both chambers of the Illinois Legislature and signed into law by the governor.
Continue reading…FactCheck.org: Obama’s Work Claim

Via Sistertoldja

Tags: ad campaign, barack obama, elections-08, flip flopper, obama, obama lies

The U.S. ambassador in Nairobi, Mike Ranneberger, hosted a party yesterday to commemmorate American Independence Day. It was not your typical July 4th barbecue.
[...]
Raila Odinga, the new prime minister, was a big hit, turning up in a stars-and-stripes tie (which I presume he got on his recent trip to Washington). But an even bigger star arrived a few moments later: Sarah Obama (right), the paternal step-grandmother of a certain U.S. Senator, who traveled a long way from her far western village but looked none the worse for wear…

Long before Barack Obama contended for the White House, the Kenya-U.S. relationship was tight — and lucrative for the Kenyan government, which gets about $1 billion in U.S. government aid. In his remarks, Ranneberger stressed the strength of this relationship and praised Kenyans for forming a coalition government to end, or at least paper over, the election violence. He quoted several Swahili proverbs (”Every door has its own key,” was the only one I understood), while Raila took to the stage and quoted Thomas Jefferson (”endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights”). It was quite the lovefest. (Source)

It is interesting to note that some Kenyans recognize a bit of RINO blood in Mr. Ranneberger.

The US ambassador to Kenya is a jumpy-jumpy man. He was appointed by the Republicans and Bush to serve in Kenya. Now he realises that the republicans may be defeated in November then he starts telling Kenyans that the Americans are ready to be lead by Obama. The same ambassador has been pushing for Raila to be respected as PM in Kenya. May be he wants a job from Obama if he wins and most definitely, he may ask the US government to remain in Kenya until he sees Kibaki out of power. This man - Ranneberger is very disturbing. George Bush, his boss should punish him by recalling him now that instead of supporting Senator Mcain, who is taking over from Bush if the republicans win, he starts to support Obama, a man from a different party. As long as he remains in Kenya, the Kenyan politicians will continue to suffer in his hands because he uses the might of his country and money to supress Kenyan leaders. Since whedn have Kenyans heard a Kenyan ambassador in the US say a word and yet this Ranneberger man is talking all the time all over Kenya. (Source)

Tags: barack obama, kenya, Mike Ranneberger, obama, obama's grandmother, raila odinga, sarah obama

From February 2008…

The secret details of the high-level meetings US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held with President Kibaki and ODM leader Raila Odinga in her few hours of diplomacy in Nairobi can be revealed today.
[...]

On the basis of the information gathered since the disputed elections, Dr Rice is said to have delivered to President Kibaki and his team on the one side and to ODM leader Raila Odinga (man on right on photo) and his group on the other a three-fold message laying out the concerns of the United States and the international community.
[...]
The third issue was based purely on Washington’s concern over international terrorism. It is understood Dr Rice told the two sides that the US believed that should political instability take hold in Kenya, then terrorism would have found a new home.
[...]
Dr Rice reminded the government and ODM of America’s war on terror and the suspected Al Qaeda activities in the neighbouring Somalia which is struggling to establish a central government after 17 years of civil war.

I wonder, if at the time of her mission, that Rice was aware that Raila Odinga, Barack Obama’s cousin, had already made commitments to Kenyan muslims promising to thwart America’s efforts to prosecute terrorists, in addition to promising that he would help institute sharia law.

Even more sinister has been Mr. Odinga’s electoral pact with the National Muslim Leaders’ Forum — a hardline Islamist organization that represents Kenya’s Muslim minority. According to this document, dated August 29, 2007, Mr. Odinga promised the Muslim leaders that, if elected, he would establish Sharia courts, not only in the northern and coastal regions where Kenyan Muslims are concentrated, but throughout the country.

He also promised to impose Muslim dress codes on women, ban alcohol and pork, indoctrinate children, ban Christian preaching, and dismiss the Commissioner of Police “who has allowed himself to be used by heathens and Zionists.”

In short, Mr. Odinga in effect offered to Islamize Kenya in return for Muslim votes, despite the fact that Muslims make up only 10% of the population, compared to the 80% who are Christian. Mr. Odinga himself is nominally an Anglican, yet he signed a document that refers to Islam throughout as “the one true religion” and denigrates Christians as “worshippers of the cross.” (Source)

Well, it seems that the “National Muslim Leaders” intend to collect on all of Odinga’s promises. It sounds like they get their victim training from CAIR - some of this garbage comes straight from their handbook. How dare anyone accuse poor abused muslims of terror.

We would like to remind you, Honourable Prime Minister Sir, of the memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that you signed with Muslim leaders prior to the last general elections, where you committed yourself to stand as a beacon of hope in the face of injustice, and support institutions where ‘credible evidence’ and not ‘ethnicity’ was the barometer of guilt.

In particular we would like to draw your attention to clause (E)(b)(4) of the memorandum where you committed yourself to ‘specific action’ to protect the rights of marginalised groups in the country:

‘Specific action will include the setting up of a commission to inquire on deliberate schemes and actions of the government , its agencies or officers, to target or interfere with welfare and social well-being of Muslims in Kenya as citizens including renditioning of Kenyans to Somalia, Ethiopia and Guantanamo Bay. Such schemes and actions will be put to an end and public officers responsible for the same named and held to account .’

With the foregoing Mr. Prime Minister Sir, we would like to humbly pose the following questions to you:

• When will the government of Kenya bring back the deportees to be accorded justice in Kenyan jurisdiction as the constitution and laws of the land provide?

[...]
[ed note: violin playing, insert CAIR whine]
The Muslims are a community that has lived under the blinding glare of injustices, reaching the peak with the so called US war on terror, being forced to cower as foreign powers seek to convince the world of their righteousness and of the guilt of Muslims. Their moral superiority has been eroded dramatically as they blatantly flout the same rules that they have established to govern themselves, but which they feel Muslims are not worthy of. Hitherto hallowed fundamental human rights principles like adherence to the Rule of Law; Prohibition against Torture and Protection against Arbitrary Detention have been discarded on the wayside and left Muslims open to the arm of their tyranny.
[...]

Suffice it to say that your promise to deal with the whole issue of human rights violations in the guise of fighting terrorism and specifically the renditions endeared you to majority Muslim voters and defenders of human rights. We pray that you shall not be party to their feeling continuously let down even by the grand coalition government.
Letter by Muslim Human Rights Forum (MHRF) to THE PRIME MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA RT. HON RAILA AMOLO ODINGA EGH, EBS MP (Friday June 05 2008)

Tags: barack obama, condi rice, kenya, National Muslim Leaders, obama, obama's cousin, raila odinga, terrorists

It’s over 200 years since Adam Smith died, you’d think the argument would be over by now.

From The National Post

The genius of Adam Smith
PETER FOSTER
Today, outside St. Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, on the cobblestoned Royal Mile, economics Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith will unveil a monument to the most influential figure of the Scottish Enlightenment. At long last Adam Smith, whose insights are still too rarely grasped more than 200 years after his death, will receive a fitting memorial.

July 4th is appropriate for such a tribute, as is the fact that Smith’s towering statue (pictured below) is being unveiled by an American. Not only was Smith’s great book, The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, the year of American Independence, but he had great sympathy with the colonists’ revolutionary cause. Smith had been a professor at Glasgow University when that city was booming from trade with the Americas, but he had realized that much of Glasgow’s wealth came from restrictions on what the colonies could produce for themselves. He also pointed out that the military costs involved in controlling colonies as part of a “mercantilist” system were greater than the benefits. He favoured a free trade relationship and even political union with North America, which he predicted would one day rise to become a greater power than Britain.

Smith’s statue was sculpted by Alexander “Sandy” Stoddart, the Scottish artist who also crafted the nearby tribute to Smith’s best friend, philosopher David Hume. The representational heroism of Mr. Stoddart’s work stands in stark and deliberate contrast to much of the trendy, leftish “art” of recent decades, which was either incomprehensible, or deliberately insulting to the viewer.

The driving force behind the new monument is the London-based Adam Smith Institute, but some credit must also go to a Scotsborn Canadian, Bob Lamond, a Calgary oilman who will be at today’s ceremonies. Mr. Lamond has been pressing for more than a decade to have Smith better remembered, and was instrumental in cleaning up Smith’s neglected tomb in the nearby Canongate Kirk.

One parodic view of Smith is that, as the father not only of economics but of perpetually demonized capitalism, he had no sympathy for those below plinth level. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Smith was very much concerned with improving the lot of ordinary people. In The Wealth of Nations, he pointed to the remarkable social — and international — benefits of self-interested interaction through trade and the division of labour. He noted that participants appeared to be guided by an “Invisible Hand” to produce a good that was “no part of their intention.” This truism has been the centrepiece of attacks on the capitalist system as motivated by “greed” and “selfishness” and thus morally indefensible. But the merely obvious observation that Smith’s famous “butcher, brewer and baker” are ser ving us primarily in their own interests in no way detracts from the value of that service, nor implies that they are rendered heartless by their business dealings.

One oft-repeated criticism of Smith is that his insights could not possibly apply to a world of supermarkets and giant corporations, of automobiles and air travel, of global financial institutions and the Internet, of alleged resource depletion and worsening pollution. But despite the fact that politicians and activists persist in biting the Invisible Hand, it continues its remarkable work. More fundamentally, Smith’s insights remain valid because he was not merely a supporter of markets and a critic of overweening governments, but also a student of human nature. Indeed, Vernon Smith has pointed out that Adam Smith should also perhaps be known as the “father of psychology.” While The Wealth of Nations permeates economics, modern scholarship has still not caught up with many of the remarkable insights of Smith’s “other” book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which received an unlikely boost earlier this year when it was commended by billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates.

Some have seen a fundamental contradiction between Smith’s two books, but the notion that one must choose between humans as either self-interested or sympathetic is ridiculous. Smith painted humans as complex and often internally conflicted creatures whose prudence, benevolence and ingenuity is nevertheless best encouraged in a free and open society with minimal government, clear laws and strong external defences. He would have been astonished by the redistributionist pretensions of the welfare state and the “global salvationism” of such organizations as the United Nations.

Indeed, in that regard, it would be intriguing to reflect on what Adam Smith might think of Vernon Smith’s participation in the “Copenhagen Consensus,” a distinctly wonkish exercise in deciding how authorities might most effectively spend $50-billion to achieve a “better world.” He might be similarly concerned at the “folly and presumption” of his new fan, Mr. Gates’ desire to “leverage” tax dollars. Adam Smith might ask what elite groups are doing lavishing huge amounts of other peoples’ money on countries whose lack of development is rooted in repressive government, something about which the Sage of Kirkcaldy knew a good deal. One of the Copenhagen group’s more welcome — but obviously controversial — conclusions was that fighting climate change was a waste of resources. We might imagine that climate change would be quite beyond Adam Smith’s ken, but although “negative externalities” were not much on the minds of 18th-century political economists, Smith thought deeply about both scientific theory and the fanaticism of religion. Among Smith’s philosophical works is a treatise on astronomy that notes that scientific theories are designed to cater to our desire for explanations, and are always and inevitably provisional. He would thus treat claims that science of climate change was “settled” with the greatest suspicion, particularly since they come accompanied by calls for draconian government action.

Adam Smith will doubtless witness much more folly and presumption from his new Edinburgh perch.

Obama’s Vow Could Threaten Industry

– Barack Obama on Tuesday vowed he would break America’s addiction to “dirty, dwindling and dangerously expensive” oil if he is elected U.S. president — and one of his first targets might well be Canada’s oilsands.

A senior adviser to Obama’s campaign told reporters it’s an “open question” whether oil produced from northern Alberta’s oilsands fits with the Democratic candidate’s plan to shift the U.S. sharply away from consumption of carbon-intensive fossil fuels.

“If it turns out that those technologies don’t advance … and the only way to produce those resources would be at a significant penalty to climate change, then we don’t believe that those resources are going to be part of the long-term, are going to play a growing role in the long-term future,” said Jason Grumet, Obama’s senior energy adviser.
The remarks amount to a shot across the bow of Alberta’s oilsands industry, which is planning to boost production from 1.3 million barrels a day to 3.5 million barrels over the next decade.

The industry has come under sustained attack from U.S. environmentalists over the past year because the production of its heavy oil emits an estimated three times more greenhouse gases than conventional oil.

Tags: Alberta's oilsands industry, barack obama, canada, Global Warming Lies, green weenies, Jason Grumet, oil

Kenyans, and Africans in general, seem to have rather high expectations should Obama win the presidency. I’m sure Americans will be more than willing to foot the bill.

It is amazing that a country like Kenya, or any damn nation for that matter, dare to presume what America will do for them should Obama win. America does not belong to the world, but when you have a socialist running for office, the wolves lick their lips, scenting blood.

May Obama’s grandmother’s prayers die stillborn on her lips.

In Mombasa, the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya Organising Secretary, Sheikh Mohamed Khalifa, urged Obama to stick to his manifesto which has earned him wide support and to steer away from US President George W’ Bush’s “confrontational policies”.

“Apart from being close to Africa, we expect Obama to move away from confrontational policies and unite the US and the rest of the world if he finally wins the presidency,” Khalifa said.

ODM-Kenya nominated MP, Ms Shakila Abdalla, said Obama’s victory was an achievement for Kenyans and Africa.

“Because Obama has roots in Kenya, we expect the US and Kenya to forge close ties. We are praying for his victory in the presidential poll,” Shakila said.

And North Eastern Province on Wednesday took delight in Obama’s victory. The predominantly Muslim province came to the limelight during the primaries early this year when Obama’s rival, Mrs Hillary Clinton’s campaign team circulated pictures on the Internet of Obama in Somali traditional attire taken in Wajir.

An elder, Mr Mohammed Hassan Mumin, who was photographed dressing Obama during the senator’s visit to Wajir, said they were happy that Obama was a step away from the presidency.

Mr Maalim Hussein, a teacher at a Quranic school in Garissa, said: “He was a victim of smear campaigns from the Clintons for embracing our attire, but we kept praying for his success and we are celebrating today.”

He added: “We also pray that he becomes the next US president so that he can help our impoverished province and Africa.”

Mr Christopher Njoroge, who lives in Washington, Seattle, said on the telephone: “This is great victory. It is victory for all America that wants real change.”

And from Des Moines, Iowa, Ms Nancy Mwirotsi, a key Obama supporter and mobiliser in a State that gave Obama his first victory, shed tears.

“For me, Obama’s victory is not just about himself and his family, it is about many young Kenyans here who look up to him as their role model,” she said.(Source)
[ed:emphasis mine]

It seems that Kenyan expectations are well on their way to being met - on your dime. What are you paying for gas and groceries these days? Notice anything coming out of Obama’s mouth that bodes well for the American economy? Didn’t think so.

APA-Nairobi (Kenya) The United States government on Sunday pledged to give more than 1 billion shillings($15 million) towards the implementation of the coalition accord, as well as advancing reconciliation and reconstruction efforts.

APA-Nairobi (Kenya) United States will give Kenya $75 million in support of the grand coalition government formed between President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga in February, US ambassador to Michael Ranneberger said on Thursday.

Addressing a press conference in Nairobi, he said the money will be granted to Kenya after the US Congress approves the funds.

He said the funds will be used for key reforms key including electoral, constitutional and land reforms.

Ranneberger said the funds are in addition to the $25 million already granted to resettle over 300,000 displaced persons left homeless following the post-poll violence triggered by December 27 presidential elections.

Tags: barack hussein obam, barack obama, election '08, kenya, obama's muslim family, raila odingo, Sheikh Mohamed Khalifa