Wotka World Wide

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

On his latest album Bruce Springsteen goes all in with the Occupiers and the anarchists. He openly advocates for the shooting of Wall Street bankers, with lines that specifically refer to killing bankers, such as "If I had me a gun, I’d find the bastards and shoot ‘em on sight" and "…send the robber barons straight to hell" followed by shooting sound effects. I've heard of protest rock and I have listened to and enjoyed a lot of it, but this goes way over the line. And I wonder what the financial managers that oversee his huge fortune think? Here's hoping they are a little less careful with all that money.

I'm also still waiting for all that "new civility" in the wake of the Rep. Giffords shooting. Not that anyone was really expecting it from the left. But when someone takes up Bruce on his suggestion, will it matter then?

Monday, March 26, 2012

Victor Davis Hanson offers his thoughts on current events with Beware of the Mob. Of course there is a bit of discussion about a certain President who charges into racially charged debates without all the facts:

The role of a president is to rein in the mob, not to unleash it. The latter is what community organizers do; the former is what makes statesmen. Yet on issue after issue — anti-terrorism, global warming, government ethics, and racial relations — a frenzied mob, egged on by the media and demagogues like Barack Obama, have almost stormed the jail, only to dissipate when met by either evidence, or the knowledge that the incarcerated was one of their own — as if they had never screamed and threatened in the first place.

Do read the whole thing.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Have you heard about the new federal mandate changing the ADA to require handicapped access to all public pools and spas? It went into effect last week, generally under the radar, and suddenly people, generally the small business owner types like who would own a motel with a pool, are freaking out. Initial details are here, while a follow up story here describes how the DOJ has just issued a two month extension on compliance. Meanwhile, certain Congressmen are pushing to have the rules changed. We'll see what comes of this, but when people talk about the myriad and arbitrary regulations burdening small businesses and restricting the economy, I see what they are talking about. When you add about ten thousand dollars plus to the cost of having pool, plus added insurance for having a hazard for children in every shallow end, I would bet many hoteliers and small municipal operators will simply not build one or close their current one. Of course, most of the press completely gives this story a pass. I wonder why.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

From National Review, How Obama is Choking Off US Oil Production. I'm still wondering why more of the Republican candidates aren't hammering him for this, it seems so obvious. Just approving the Keystone XL pipeline would bring in another 700,000 barrels a day. Throw in the lack of leases for drilling on federal lands and the hold-up in offshore permitting in the Gulf of Mexico and we could add about two million barrels a day in just a few years. Add in the new EPA restrictions on refinery emissions, which restrict production as well as the development of new refineries, and it is no wonder that gas prices are on an upward trajectory with no relief in sight. Higher gas prices are part of the plan, even if they won't come right out and admit it. How else do you get consumers to shell out fifty grand for an electric car or upgrade from that gas guzzling truck?
Did you hear that Louis Farrakan spoke at UC-Berkeley last week? He spoke at the invitation of an "Afrikan" student group holding a conference, which apparently canceled out the fact that a known racist was speaking on one of the most PC campuses in the country. Now, if Ann Coulter had tried to speak, they would have had to call in the riot police from Oakland to control the protests that would have ensued. But Farrakan had no problem giving his keynote address.

Still, some of the students were apparently not too pleased that a devout anti-Semite (not to mention a homophobe and a misogynist) was invited to speak on campus. And he delivered in that department as well, urging his mostly black audience to make friends with the Jews who control the government and the media to get ahead in life, while urging them to buy his latest book, with details on how the Jews controlled the slave trade in centuries past. Odious and almost unbelievable. But the fact that his visit wasn't met with more of an outcry says a lot more about UC-Berkeley than it does about Farrakan. We know where he stands.

One would think Berkeley would be more concerned about their reputation world-wide, but then maybe they were sending a message here too. They even addressed the outcry in a cryptically muddled declaration that never actually condemned Farrakan's visit, expressing hope that the "experience" was hopefully "educational" about the need for respecting "the principles of community". Right.

Thursday, March 08, 2012

Lost amid the brouhaha about contraception is the fact that the whole mandate is a massive payoff to the pharmaceutical industry. Hardly surprising. Big pharma is a huge Democratic donor, so why not require every FDA approved contraception to be carried by every insurance company. What is really surprising is that virtually no one has mentioned this aspect of the debate.

Friday, March 02, 2012

Barack Obama: The Dust Bowl President. Let him own that. He's keeping tens of thousands out of work and driving up food prices across the country, to save a bait fish. Unbelievable.