Or He Could Move to NY, NJ, or CA and Pay Taxes . . .

From the UK Telegraph comes word about Austrian self-made millionaire Karl Rabeder, who "is giving away every penny of his £3 million fortune after realising his riches were making him unhappy." 

Austrian millionaire Karl Rabeder is giving away his fortune

He is in the process of selling his luxury 3,455 sq ft villa with lake, sauna and spectacular mountain views over the Alps, valued at £1.4 million.

"My idea is to have nothing left. Absolutely nothing," he told The Daily Telegraph. "Money is counterproductive – it prevents happiness to come."

Instead, he will move out of his luxury Alpine retreat into a small wooden hut in the mountains or a simple bedsit in Innsbruck.

His entire proceeds are going to charities he set up in Central and Latin America, but he will not even take a salary from these.

The 47-year-old businessman who grew up poor and made his fortune selling interior furnishings and accessories is selling his £1.4 million luxury Alpine villa and his £613,000 stone farmhouse in Provence. He's already sold his collection of six gliders and his Audi A8, and is giving his money to charities that help small businesses get started.

The tipping point came while he was on a three-week holiday with his wife to islands of Hawaii.

"It was the biggest shock in my life, when I realised how horrible, soulless and without feeling the five star lifestyle is," he said. "In those three weeks, we spent all the money you could possibly spend. But in all that time, we had the feeling we hadn't met a single real person – that we were all just actors. The staff played the role of being friendly and the guests played the role of being important and nobody was real."

[snip]

Suddenly, he realised that "if I don't do it now I won't do it for the rest of my life".

[snip]

Since selling his belongings, Mr Rabeder said he felt "free, the opposite of heavy".

Rabeder has placed his mountain retreat up for raffle at a price of 99 euros per ticket. If you'd like to purchase one, you must be an EU citizen and buy your ticket by February 28. Your chance of winning? One in 21,999,  the number of tickets being sold.

If, on the other hand, you'd like to buy his house in Provence, contact the real estate folks there.

Worker bees, dream on.
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Record Snows Embarrass New Gov't "Climate Service" (Updated)

R Street, NW, Washington, DC  February 6, 2010, 7:00 a.m.  Photo by Tom Brown

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a new division called the NOAA Climate Service. (Hat tip: Instapundit)

This is what they are predicting for the USA: "sea-level rise, longer growing seasons, changes in river flows, increases in heavy downpours, earlier snowmelt and extended ice-free seasons in our waters." The new Climate Service's job is to offer "relevant and timely information" about the effects of global warming in our "own backyards."

It seems that the Climate Service folks might be placing a little too much trust in their own prognostications. Just as they were about to hold a big press conference announcing the launch of their services, 30 inches of snow fell on their own backyards and on the National Press Club where the press conference was scheduled to be held. Another 10 to 20 inches is predicted to follow.

For the safety of all concerned, the press conference was held by telephone.

Not to worry, though. The Climate Service wants to reassure you: Global warming is advancing as advertised.

After all, climate is not weather.

Uh huh.

And carbon credits are not an energy-rationing scheme designed to create a huge new revenue source for governments and fat cats everywhere. 

UPDATE (4 p.m. Eastern): And now this time-lapse video of the DC storm, via the ever-scintillating Mad Minerva:

Philly, NYC, Boston, and the Cape: "Get ready, Teddy."
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Related:

• Climate Change: Cooking the Books, African Edition...
• Nor'Easter Weather Report: White on White
• Funnin' With Al Gore
• The Climate Change Outside is Frightful (UPDATE)
• Climate Change Brings Snow to French Riviera
• Friday Nite Movie: Climate, Clouds, and Cosmic Ray...
• ClimateGate: Cooking the Books, Swiss Edition
• ClimateGate: Warming Earth by Cooking the Books, S...
• Copenhagen: The "Multitrillion-dollar Shakedown"
• ClimateGate: Science Fiction Level of Accuracy?
• Earth Climate Data: Some Real Stunners
• 22 Inches of Global Warming Hit Flagstaff, AZ
• Copenhagen: The Climate Fiction Experience Begins ...
• ClimateGate: New Zealand Climate Scientists Aren't...
• Make Way for the Code Breakers
• Obama's Science Czar Holds a Whip in the Tree-Ring Circus
• What You Did Was Such a Crime

"Hyper-Smart" Obama Detects "Logistical" Problem: NYC Doesn't Want KSM!

Yesterday, Katie Couric asked Barack Obama straight out: "Have you ruled out trying confessed 9-11 mastermind  Kalid Sheik Mohammad in New York City?" To which Obama replied:

I have not ruled it out,  but I think it's important for us to take into account the practical, logistical issues involved. I mean, if you've got a city that's saying no, and a police department that's saying no, and a mayor that's saying no, that makes it difficult.

Ya think?

A really, really smart guy--I mean a really practical guy--the kind of guy who is on top of logistics, might have consulted that city, that police department, and that mayor before making the decision to plant a terrorist magnet in their midst, just a short distance from the former World Trade Center, and give him all the rights and comforts that he denied almost 3,000 innocent people on that terrible day in 2001.

The quote is in the first 22 seconds of the video:

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Climate Change: Cooking the Books, African Edition

Last September, Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri,  Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control (IPCC), Director General of the Energy and Resources Institute, and Director of the Yale Climate and Energy Institute, addressed dignitaries attending the UN Summit on Climate Change. 

Pachauri emphasized that he spoke "in the voice of the world’s scientific community" when he claimed that global warming will likely produce widespread thirst and starvation in Africa in a mere 10 years:

In Africa, by 2020, between 75 and 250 million people are projected to be exposed to water stress due to climate change, and in some countries yields from rainfed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50%. [Hat tip: David Brewer]

Wow. Up to 250 million people will suffer from lack of water due to global warming in only 10 years? That's disturbing.

But wait! Oops! It turns out that the man the UK Telegraph called "the world's most powerful climate scientist" has again neglected to check his references:

Pachauri’s recent claim of an imminent potential 50% reduction in yields from rain-fed African agriculture comes from misrepresenting an IPCC WGII suggestion that itself is based on an un-peer reviewed paper which quotes unnamed studies that may themselves only reflect the existing fact that North African crop yields drop by 50% in drought years. [Hat tip: David Brewer]

The un-peer reviewed paper on which Pachauri based this claim was issued by a lobby group, the International Institute for Sustainable Development, which suggested, on no particular evidence, that Africa faced the risk, "linked to climate change," of "deficient yields from rain-based agriculture of up to 50 per cent during the 2000–2020 period.”

One problem with Pachauri's claim is that, although North African crop yields can be cut in half by drought, no reputable studies have suggested that global warming will plunge Africa into a permanent (or even temporary) state of drought. (Interestingly, greenhouse warming wouldn’t be expected to increase high temperatures near the equator so much as to moderate low temperatures in the temperate zones and the poles. Hat tip to crosspatch.)

Pachauri is not doing too well lately in his previously wildly successful Department of Extravagant Global Warming Doomsday Prognostications. The dust has not settled on the IPCC's claim that the Amazon rainforest "might be wiped out by global warming because they are extremely susceptible to even modest decreases in rainfall."

The sole source for that claim, reports The Sunday Times of London, was a magazine article written by a pair of climate activists, one of whom worked for the WWF [World Wildlife Fund]. One scientist contacted by the Times, a specialist in tropical forest ecology, called the article “a mess.”

And the dust is still swirling over Pachauri's absent-minded-professor failure to check the references on the IPCC's absurd claim that the Himalayan glaciers will melt in the next 25 years, which was based on a copy of a copy of a typo of a copy of a single estimate by one researcher who projected glacier melt in 325 years. Three hundred and twenty-five years, not twenty-five years.

Of course, failure to check references is not the kind of forgetfulness that plagues your typical head-in-the-clouds scholar, who is much more likely to be guilty of forgetting to match his or her socks than to be excoriated for presenting for public acceptance a rumor pulled straight out of a global-warming alarmist's tin-foil hat.

Is it too much to imagine that the IPCC could afford a fact checker or two? Or, alternatively, could Pachauri be benefiting by his wild prognostications? A head honcho of the UN? Hmmm.

On May 19, 2009, the European Union announced a $4.5 million (3 million euro) project to study retreat of Himalaya glaciers, with TERI being one of the institutions.

And what is TERI, one of the chief recipients of this largesse? TERI is The Energy and Resources Institute, a think tank in India headed by none other than Pachauri himself. No conflict of interest there, obviously.

It should be noted that Pachauri has categorically stated that “TERI is not involved in this [Himalayan glacier] mistake.”

And if you believe that, Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri has a bridge over the River Ganges to sell you, paid for with your tax dollars.

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Related:

• Will NASA Dare to Go Where Japan Has Been Before?
• Funnin' With Al Gore
• The Climate Change Outside is Frightful (UPDATE)
• Climate Change Brings Snow to French Riviera
• Friday Nite Movie: Climate, Clouds, and Cosmic Rays
• ClimateGate: Cooking the Books, Swiss Edition
• ClimateGate: Warming Earth by Cooking the Books. South Pole Edition
• Copenhagen: The "Multitrillion-dollar Shakedown"
• ClimateGate: Science Fiction Level of Accuracy?
• Earth Climate Data: Some Real Stunners
• 22 Inches of Global Warming Hit Flagstaff, AZ
• Copenhagen: The Climate Fiction Experience Begins ...
• ClimateGate: New Zealand Climate Scientists Aren't too Hot Either
• Make Way for the Code Breakers
• Obama's Science Czar Holds a Whip in the Tree-Ring Circus
• What You Did Was Such a Crime

Nor'Easter Weather Report: White on White

Forecasters said the snowstorm pounding Washington, DC, "could be the biggest for the nation's capital in modern history." As Washington tries to keep up with a storm predicted to drop 2 1/2 feet of snow, the U.S. Weather Service is reminding folks that Washington "has gotten more than a foot of snow only 13 times since 1870."

The storm comes with the predictable results of poor visibility, slick highways, and heavy, wet snow: hundreds of traffic accidents, abandoned vehicles, empty store shelves, downed power lines, falling trees, and collapsing roofs. DC, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and parts of New Jersey are being blanketed by the white stuff. In Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, 60,000 people are without power.

AJ at The Strata-Sphere reporting in:

We have been shoveling snow for two days now to keep ahead of this. Never seen anything like it in the DC area, and I have lived here almost 50 years.

The image above is from Centreville, Virginia. The image on the right (courtesy lifeontheedges) shows road conditions this morning from Laurel to Greenwood, Delaware. It's stay-off-the-road time, folks.

Here in central New York State, I recently heard a local "expert" confidently broadcasting the notion that unusually big snowstorms are the result of global warming. I have this to say about that:

The biggest snowfall for the Washington-Baltimore area is believed to have been in 1772, before official records were kept, when as much as 3 feet fell, which George Washington and Thomas Jefferson penned in their diaries.

I guess the Founders could have avoided record-setting blizzards if they only could have been driving "low-carbon-footprint" electric cars instead of carriages drawn by carbon-munching horses.
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Related:

• Will NASA Dare to Go Where Japan Has Been Before?
• Funnin' With Al Gore
• The Climate Change Outside is Frightful (UPDATE)
• Climate Change Brings Snow to French Riviera
• Friday Nite Movie: Climate, Clouds, and Cosmic Rays
• ClimateGate: Cooking the Books, Swiss Edition
• ClimateGate: Warming Earth by Cooking the Books. South Pole Edition
• Copenhagen: The "Multitrillion-dollar Shakedown"
• ClimateGate: Science Fiction Level of Accuracy?
• Earth Climate Data: Some Real Stunners
• 22 Inches of Global Warming Hit Flagstaff, AZ
• Copenhagen: The Climate Fiction Experience Begins ...
• ClimateGate: New Zealand Climate Scientists Aren't too Hot Either
• Make Way for the Code Breakers
• Obama's Science Czar Holds a Whip in the Tree-Ring Circus
• What You Did Was Such a Crime

Tonight's Nor'Easter Theme Song

Stay warm and dry, everyone!

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The Real Unemployment Picture

Discouraged Workers from January 1994 to January 2010:

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Crotch Bomber's Houston Imam: The Truth Will Out (Video) (Updated)

One of the teachers of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the infamous crotchbomer, is Yasir Qadhi, a homegrown "moderate" Islamic Scholar, who was born in Houston of Pakistani parents. From Fox News:

Here's a sample of what Qadhi has to say when he's not appearing on US television or sitting on panels at U.S. universities:

No Supreme Court, no system of government, no democracy where they vote! Can you believe it, a group of people coming together and voting? And the majority vote will then be the law of the land? What gives you the right to prohibit something or allow something? Who gave you this right? Are you Creators? Are you all-knowledgeable?

Sounds like Qadhi thinks only imams should have a say in how societies operate.

In addition to his numerous TV appearances, Qadhi has access to some of the most respected podiums in the Western world, including the U.S. National Terrorism Center, Harvard Law School, and University of Edinburgh. He is on record as describing the Holocaust as "false propaganda."

Qadhi has complained that Muslims suffer from a "presumption of guilt."

Would it be too much to presume that many Muslims do not approve of democracy?

UPDATE (8:00 p.m. Eastern):

It gets worse.  One of Qadhi's favorite people is Ali Al-Timimi,

who was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of soliciting others to wage war against the United States. Even after Timimi's conviction, to Qadhi, he is someone "who I can say (with pride) that fifteen years ago, back in the early 90s, he played an instrumental role in shaping and directing me to take the path that has led me to where I am today."

If you have a strong stomach, read the rest at Atlas Shrugs.
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Related:

• The Christmas Bomber: Curiouser and Curiouser
• A Question of Enemy Identification
• Christmas Bomber's Briefs: The Photo
• What? Two Gitmo Guys Planned the Christmas Bomb Plot?
• Christmas Bomber: No Passport. No Luggage. No Problem
• Christmas Bomber: "I don't have funds" for Lawyer ..

About that "Jihad Isn't Terrorism" Thing: 5 U.S. Nationals Sweating It Out in Pakistan

Early in January I reported about these five young Muslim men, ages 19 to 25, who left their homes and families in the Washington, DC area and headed east, aiming to help Taliban militants in Pakistan "battle U.S. troops in neighboring Afghanistan and die as martyrs," according to the Pakistani police who captured them after they were turned in by suspicious locals. Back home, their families had already discovered the farewell video they left behind "showing scenes of war and casualties and saying Muslims must be defended." In Pakistan, the militants that the group managed to contact reportedly didn't want anything to do with them because they lacked trusted references. There also was a language barrier: none of the group was able to communicate in fluent Urdu.

Soon after their capture, and before they had been charged, Egyptian-American Ray Zamzam, 22 (bottom row, right), boasted, "We are jihadists, and jihad is not terrorism."

Now, from PTI via Jihad Watch, comes word that the five have been charged, and that their charge
sheets allege that they wanted to target important installations in Pakistan, to fight in Afghanistan, and to embrace martyrdom.

You can't always get what you want. These young men sought martyrdom, but they're getting jail. And they don't like it. The story they are sticking to is that they never committed any crime and never had any intention of committing any crime. They've also managed to claim that they have been "subjected to torture by the FBI and the Pakistani police." They've appealed to the media for help.

The identities attached to the mugshots above are: Pakistani Americans Umer Farooq and Waqar Hussain; Ethiopian Americans Aman Yamar and Ahmed Abdullah Mimi; and Egyptian American Ramy Zamzam.
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Related post: "We are jihadists, and jihad is not terrorism"

Will NASA Dare to Go Where Japan Has Been Before?

 

In a memorable exchange featuring two Mercury 7 astronauts in the film, The Right Stuff, Astronaut Gordon Cooper points out, "You boys know what makes this bird go up? FUNDING makes this bird go up." Astronaut Gus Grissom backs him up with, "He's right. No bucks, no Buck Rogers."

If Congress backs up Barack Obama in his proposed 2011 budget for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA's old vision of pioneering manned space flight will be "reset" to Obama's new vision of tracking "climate change." From the Associated Press:

Obama's budget would kill former President George W. Bush's $100 billion mission to return to the moon, on the seventh anniversary of the space shuttle Columbia disaster.

[snip]

The budget is much more about spending closer to Earth. It promises a speeding up of launching new Earth's observing satellites, especially to monitor climate change. It includes money to fly a replacement for a carbon dioxide monitoring satellite that fell into the ocean last year instead of going into orbit.

Despite deepening scandals that make the "science" of global warming look like a house of cards about to make contact with an occluded mesocyclone tornado, Obama is determined to put NASA in charge of demonstrating that we really really really do need Cap and Trade, in whatever form he can push it through.

It is a little advertised but uncomfortable fact (for global warming alarmists, at least) that, although the U.S. carbon dioxide monitoring satellite hit the drink, Japan's carbon dioxide monitoring satellite, named IBUKI, made it into orbit (see image above) and recovered very interesting data. According to that data, the United States, rather than being the expected major producer of widely dreaded CO2, actually lags behind most of the world in CO2 production.

Yes, the U.S. has one of the world's smallest CO2 footprints!

Below is the Japanese chart of worldwide CO2 production. The little dots show various concentrations of CO2 in the air, with the blue dots representing lower concentrations, green dots representing higher concentrations, and orange and red dots representing the highest concentrations.
 

 

Notice who the CO2 culprits really are? India, China, Northern Africa, Southern Africa, Australia, and Eastern Europe. See who's lagging behind, primarily because of the efficiency and environmental consciousness of our operations?

Evidence like this isn't going to make it any easier for NASA to fulfill Obama's dreams of a (purportedly) rapidly overheating Earth being saved by carbon credits bought and paid for by guilty Americans.

Read more about it at The Strata-Sphere

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Related posts:

• Funnin' With Al Gore
• The Climate Change Outside is Frightful (UPDATE)
• Climate Change Brings Snow to French Riviera
• Friday Nite Movie: Climate, Clouds, and Cosmic Ray...
• ClimateGate: Cooking the Books, Swiss Edition
• ClimateGate: Warming Earth by Cooking the Books, S...
• Copenhagen: The "Multitrillion-dollar Shakedown"
• ClimateGate: Science Fiction Level of Accuracy?
• Earth Climate Data: Some Real Stunners
• 22 Inches of Global Warming Hit Flagstaff, AZ
• Copenhagen: The Climate Fiction Experience Begins ...
• ClimateGate: New Zealand Climate Scientists Aren't...
• Make Way for the Code Breakers
• Obama's Science Czar Holds a Whip in the Tree-Ring Circus
• What You Did Was Such a Crime

Rules for Radicals, Recommended Reading in High School

This report from Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs is going viral in the blogosphere, as well it should:

An Atlas reader, Chuck,  has a student in the eleventh grade in an Ohio High School. Her government class passed out this propaganda recruiting paper so students could sign up as interns for Obama's Organizing for America (OFA is the former mybarackobama.com site.)

[snip]

Organizing for America is (and I quote) recruiting in our high schools to "build on the movement that elected President Obama by empowering students across the country to help us bring about our agenda" ............of national socialism.

The Ohio High School is Perry Local in Massillon, Ohio.

Geller has published the entire recruiting form for this "movement" internship program (here) that Geller points out is "geared toward the 2010 elections." The recommended reading list (page 4) is scary as hell:

• Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky
• The New Organizers, Zack Exley
• Stir It Up: Lessons from Community Organizing and Advocacy, Rinku Sen
• Obama Field Organizers Plot a Miracle, Zack Exley, Huffington Post
• Dreams of My Father Chicago Chapters, Barack Hussein Obama

It is repugnantly unprofessional for teachers to encourage impressionable, idealistic, high-school kids to learn and adopt deceptive, dishonest methods to help the teachers' political gurus gain political ascendancy. It was Saul Alinsky, father of the Chicago school of community organizing, who said, "Life is a corrupting process from the time a child learns to play his mother off against his father in the politics of when to go to bed; he who fears corruption fears life." Here's how my dictionary defines political corruption: "dishonesty, unscrupulousness, double-dealing, fraud, fraudulence, misconduct, crime, criminality, wrongdoing; bribery, venality, extortion, profiteering, payola; informal graft, grift, crookedness, sleaze. 

Do I fear corruption? Indeed I do. 

No teacher, no honorable person of any field, should even consider steering young people toward a Marxist ideology, the ideology with the worst track record of any that has ever been tried on the planet.

Yet many teachers on the public payroll regard it as their duty to teach their students how to destroy what they believe to be an evil American society. These teachers, I have no doubt, believe they are doing the right thing. Nevertheless, I have never known one of them to be familiar with the history of the march of socialism through Europe, China, and Africa. Before they advocate that their young charges trade honesty for political cunning, particularly in the name of superior moral virtue (and that claim always is made), I recommend that they read a few history books covering the rise of Marxism, and read those books with a calculator in hand to keep track of the millions and millions of dead who were forced to sacrifice their lives to the Marxist experiment.

The first 20 seconds of the following video contains the money quote:

What conclusion do you reach if you just do the recommended reading?
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Faceoff: Gov't Motors vs. Toyota: Is Big Brother Behind the Big Recall?

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has attributed five deaths and 17 injuries to unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles since 2006. Those are not happy figures, but they are smaller than the number of deaths and injuries to Americans resulting from terrorist attacks on U.S. soil during that period.

Maybe that's why I'm having a difficult time reconciling the Obama administration's lackadaisical approach to terrorist attacks with their heartracing concern over sticky Toyota gas pedals. 

Am I detecting all over the Toyoto recall the incriminating fingerprints of an auto-manufacturer-owning Big Brother who never let a crisis go to waste? If so, I'm not the only one.

From Economic Policy Journal:

Many Toyota insiders are furious at the Obama Administration. The recall they have issued is the result of pressure from the U.S. Transportation Department. They believe that the pressure is coming not because of a true concern for safety, but an attempt by the Administration to drive sales toward the recently bailed out U.S. auto makers.

Although Toyota insiders admit that sticking has occurred in a few cars, they point out that it has been occurred in far fewer than 1,000, and not something where the Administration should have pushed for an immediate full recall, but rather something that could be handled during routine maintenance after a reasonable priced solution was developed.

[snip]

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told WGN Radio in Chicago that "the reason Toyota decided to do the recall and to stop manufacturing was because we asked them to."

According to MSNBC:

General Motors is offering interest-free loans and other incentives to Toyota owners who may want to get rid of their cars due to fears about faulty gas pedals.

GM General Manager of Retail Sales Steve Hill said Wednesday the company is responding to thousands of inquiries from Toyota owners.

The Detroit automaker is offering offer zero percent financing for 60 months on most models. It also will offer $1,000 to Toyota owners toward a down payment on a GM vehicle and up to $1,000 to help to pay off current leases early. The offers run through the end of February.

ABC News said:

American automakers are eager to pounce. After decades of losing customers to Toyota, Ford and General Motors are now doing their own poaching. They are unabashedly offering Toyota owners cash back and zero-percent financing on their new cars.

Many dealerships, such as Rizza Chevrolet, near Chicago, are touting the deals in full-color newspaper ads.

"We're hoping for one thing: sell more cars and increase our volume," said Joe Fosco, Rizza sales manager.

Daniel Howes, a columnist for the Detroit News, said, "It presents an opportunity for them to pick up market share and, frankly, to get more Americans in their vehicles."

Forbes had this to say:

Toyota has recalled 4.2 million vehicles worldwide because the gas pedal systems can get stuck. The company said the problem is rare and is caused by condensation that builds up in the gas pedal assembly.

The recall in the U.S. covers 2.3 million vehicles and involves the 2009-10 RAV4 crossover, the 2009-10 Corolla, the 2009-10 Matrix hatchback, the 2005-10 Avalon, the 2007-10 Camry, the 2010 Highlander crossover, the 2007-10 Tundra pickup and the 2008-10 Sequoia SUV. The recall has been expanded to models in Europe and China.

Not all of these models have the potentially faulty gas pedals, which were manufactured by CTS Corp of Elkhart, Indiana. Many have gas pedals made by Denso Corp.; these function well.

Toyota has five major assembly plants in the U.S and employs about 37,000 people in the U.S. Government Motors, propped up by American taxpayers, employs more than 142,000.

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All He Did Was Chop Off Her Head

Here's a name you'll be hearing more often in a few months when its owner goes to trial: Muzzammil S. Hassan. He's the guy who chopped off his wife's head in Orchard Park, New York, a few days after she filed divorce proceedings against him. You may remember that Hassan and his 37-year-old wife, Aasiya, had co-founded Bridges TV, a station established to counter "negative" Muslim stereotypes.

Muzzammil and his lawyer, Frank M. Bogulski, don't want you to think that little divorce issue had anything to do with Aasiya's beheading. No. They are launching a defense that Bogulski calls "revolutionary" and the "first of its kind in the country."

It's different all right.

In the eyes of Muzzammil and his lawyer, Muzzammil "was the victim." In his marriage to Aasiya, she "was the dominant figure." "She was verbally abusive. She had humiliated him." So he beheaded her.

In that last point, the prosecution's case is remarkably similar to that of the defense:

"He chopped her head off," [Erie County] District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III said of Hassan. "He chopped her head off. That's all I have to say about Mr. Hassan's apparent defense that he was a battered spouse."

[snip]

Nancy Sanders, a former news director at Bridges TV, expressed skepticism over the new abuse claim. She noted that Hassan stood over 6 feet tall and "filled a doorway," while his estranged wife was slender and several inches shorter.

"I never ever heard her disparage him in the workplace at all," Sanders told the Associated Press. "It just did not seem to be in her nature. She was very gentle."

I guess they see things a little differently back in Pakistan, where Muzzammil and Aasiya learned their "positive" Muslim stereotypes.

Hat tip: Jihad Watch

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Scott Brown, the Democrats, and the Battle of Midway

The day Scott Brown was busy getting elected to the U.S. Senate, I was busy dealing with the medical emergency of a family member.

I got home, exhausted, just in time to watch Brown's victory speech. Spouse and I sat there, watching a speech that exceeded our hopes. Sometime during the course of that speech, Spouse turned to me and observed, sagely: "This is the Battle of Midway defeat for the Democrats."

Indeed.

At the Battle of Midway, fought six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese lost four of their major assets in their World War II arsenal of aggression, namely, four aircraft carriers, a loss from which they were unable to recover:

Prior to this action, Japan possessed general naval superiority over the United States and could usually choose where and when to attack. After Midway, the two opposing fleets were essentially equals, and the United States soon took the offensive.

The analogy seems particularly apt because these ships carried aircraft, which in turn carried destructive devices, not unlike four of the vehicles in the Progressive arsenal of aggression: health care deform, cap and tax, civilian trials for foreign terrorists committing acts of war, and instant citizenship for illegal aliens.

Each of these four goals are carriers of further devices of the Progressive agenda intended to destroy many Constitutional protections by means of the takeover of huge chunks of the U.S. economy, the guarantee of American citizen's rights for enemy combatants at the expense of American lives and treasure, and the practical institution of a one-party system in the U.S.

Scott Brown and the people of Massachusetts, with the support and encouragement of the rest of the country, have sunk those vessels.

Now we need to keep up the fight. And we will, I have no doubt.

Note: Thanks for dropping in to read this post. For the present, I'll be spending considerable time focused on the recovery of someone near and dear. I'll be posting when I can.

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Brown-Coakley Race: Massachusetts Weather Report

Cold rain and snow. Perfect weather for driving your pickup truck to your local polling place.

Meet you over at William Jacobson's live blog where he'll be following today's Massachusetts special election action . . .

Yesterday's warmup:

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Patriots vs. Congress: Hitting the Congressional Funnybone

Some time back, over at Pundit and Pundette, I watched a video of Nancy Pelosi, standing on stage in a Congressional group who were openly enjoying the notion that a reporter had taken a politician's campaign promise seriously. The topic at hand was Obama's promise to air health care "reform" negotiations on CSPAN. Judging from their mirth, Nancy and Charlie Rangal and several others were entertaining absolutely zero respect for anyone who didn't take it for granted that nothing that politicians say is intended to be believed by serious people.

Until that moment, I had not mistaken Congress for a choir of angels, but I did regard them as human beings in extraordinary circumstances, accustomed to telling enormous whoppers but, most of them, also capable of telling the truth from time to time and, on those occasions at least, expecting to be believed. It had not dawned on me that Congress never expects to be believed and assumes, as a matter of course, that everyone who is anyone knows that everything they say is a lie.

I mentally filed my new theory for later retrieval during my next conversation with a career politician (or aide): "Must remember that the person you are talking with will completely discount you upon suspicion that you believe a word he or she is uttering."

Curious, I invested some energy in thought experiments in which I imagined what life would be like in a world where nobody feels obligated to speak the truth at any time and everyone assumes that everybody else is lying 100% of the time. Those musings haven't been pretty, but I must confess that I think they have shed some light for me on the question of what Congress is up to.

Then, yesterday, I came across a post at a blog I've never visited before, Boker tov, Boulder. (I forgot to record who sent me there, sorry). The blogger, Yael, had my next lesson waiting for me, all tied up in a bow. Yael had advanced beyond being repulsed by the disdain of politicians for the honest folk of our country who expect honesty, most of the time, from most of the people they choose to know and deal with. Yael had cut to the chase: Congress is so accustomed to dishonesty that they can't imagine that the rest of us are not lying:

The Tea Party, at least up until now, has been totally honest -- what we've been saying all along is exactly what we've meant.  That must be unusual because no one who lives in the bubble of "politics" has seemed to understand it.  They've tried to spin us this way or that, but they've never simply taken us at face value. 

It's not a shtick ... we ARE true American patriots. And we came together, not because of community organizers or a plan to initiate a political movement, but because each man or woman - young or old, rich or poor, liberal or conservative - suddenly sensed that the very foundation and nature of the country was at risk.  Sensing a threat to our way of life, we felt compelled to respond - very simply and without guile - to protect and to defend what we hold dear.

Washington and its fawning, insular media have not yet come to understand that we are in earnest.  Moreover, they have not understood that, because we are sincere, because our belief in the essential greatness of America is very deeply held, we only become stronger and more determined every time we are demonized, insulted or ignored. And we have been demonized, insulted and ignored quite a bit.

You see, we believe that we are the current manifestation of  'We The People' in the Preamble of the Constitution, though not exclusively so.  Make no mistake, we do cling to that document, and we do intend to "secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity." Come hell or high water.

Can you hear us NOW?  It does not escape our notice that this latest skirmish occurs in the very place of the first Tea Party. If we are not heard this time, in Massachusetts, then we are determined to be heard somewhere else some other time.  As we have been saying all along, we believe that the future, our future, depends upon us NOW.

Washington is accustomed to those whose words are empty. They need to realize that ours are not. Perhaps this Senate race in Massachusetts will bring them closer to comprehension: The Tea Parties have been but a spark. The flame is everlasting.

Thank you, Yael. I think you've got it.
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Who Would Sam Adams Vote for on Tuesday?

Many people fond of imbibing the beverage named after the American patriot, Samuel Adams, are not aware that Sam Adams was the principal organizer of the greatest party for free people of all time: the Boston Tea Party.

Adams managed a few other achievements in his day, not the least of which was founding the Sons of Liberty, whose motto was "no taxation without representation." He worked tirelessly toward, and signed, the Declaration of Independence. He served as Governor of Massachusetts.

It is worthwhile to consider who Sam Adams would stand behind for U.S. senator, if he had to choose between Scott Brown and Martha Coakley.

For guidance, we can look back at what Adams had to say in 1780, when the leaders of the country were all men who had already put on the line their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor:

If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.

The entire country is looking to the people of Massachusetts to get to their voting booths this coming Tuesday, September 19, a day that doubtless will be recorded in history.

An experienced patriot is waiting to serve.
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More Martha Coakley: Curt Schilling is a Yankees Fan (Audio)

I didn't think Martha Coakley could make me laugh out loud, but I was wrong:

Transcript of the money quote:

Dan Rea: Scott Brown has Curt Schilling, okay. (laughs)

Martha Coakley: Another Yankee fan.

Rea: Schilling? 

Coakley: Yes.

Rea: Curt Schilling, a Yankee fan?

Coakley: No? All right, I'm wrong on my . . . . I'm wrong.

Rea: The Red Sox great pitcher of the bloody sock?

Coakley: Well, he's not there anymore.

Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling considered running for the U.S. Senate seat himself. He has endorsed Coakley's opponent, Scott Brown, for the U.S. Senate seat, and has plenty to say about Coakley at his blog, 38 pitches. A sample:

If we elect Coakley, or if enough people vote to get her into office, we’re going to get exactly what we deserve as a nation. A bankrupt country footing the bill for a health care plan so full of pork it oinks, that we can’t afford by the way, and MASSIVE cuts to medicare and medicaid that will seriously impede medical services for senior citizens.

Massachusetts can change it all in 5 days.

H/t: Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit.
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Martha Coakley Desperately Seeking Unquestioning Non-Catholic Voters Who Wouldn't Be Caught Dead at Fenway Park

After establishing that sports fans at Fenway Park aren't worth shaking hands with, that the attorney general's office should crack down on garden clubs, and that members of the free press can ask unscripted questions only at their peril, Martha Coakley has planted yet another glaring red flag in direct view of Massachusetts voters. She has announced that devout Catholic medical personnel who don't believe in abortion are not welcome in emergency rooms. Direct quote: "You can have religious freedom but you probably shouldn’t work in the emergency room."

Here's the quote in context: 

Second-class citizenship, anyone?

People who aren't made nervous by this woman are starting to make me nervous.
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Helping Haiti, Helping Ourselves

Thank God that the USA can assemble resources to help earthquake-devastated Haiti, and even lead the world in providing relief.

Streaming toward Haiti are the fruits of the innovations of a free people operating within capitalism. America still can send food, water, and medicine to Haiti; rush these necessities to their destination on air transport as soon as landing fields are reclaimed from the rubble; and deliver these life-saving supplies to the Haitian people via the U.S. military and trained disaster relief teams, in possession of, I will add, hearts of gold.

Yesterday, as I listened to Obama promise America's help to Haiti, I could not help wonder how much longer America will be able to do such a thing, to deliver enormous help to people who just got dealt a massive blow somewhere in the world.

After all, whatever America sends to Haiti will be paid for on our national credit card. We have long since spent our own money on fake economic stimulus, buy-outs of the financial and auto industries, unemployment benefits (paychecks and education stipends) for millions of unemployed Americans, and plenty more. In fact, if Obama has it his way, paying for aid to Haiti will be far down on a long list, after paying for "reforms" that reduce health care and raise medical costs and after paying for carbon "credits" that make our cold winters colder and our heating bills higher.

We already are in debt to at least the third generation.

And then, of course, many people who in the pre-stimulus, pre-reform days would have been writing largish checks to Haitian relief charities now will be writing smaller checks. People who normally would have written smallish checks may be able to write none at at all.

It is darn near impossible to dampen America's generosity of spirit, so there will be help for Haiti, but as our debt load grows, our ability to act on that generous spirit will diminish.

This is the work of Obama and his Obamatons. America's great debate is not whether Obama's administration is wreaking havoc with our economy, but instead is focused on whether America's political and economic devolution is the result of stupid mismanagement or of artful ideology.

The Obama administration's headstrong efforts to destroy the wealth from which America's good works flow cause his admonition to the American people to rankle:

Despite the fact that we are experiencing tough times here at home, I would encourage those Americans who want to support the urgent humanitarian efforts to go to whitehouse.gov, where you can learn how to contribute.

We are not passively "experiencing tough times," as though Nature sent an ill wind that snuffed out 14% of America's jobs. We are experiencing tough times as the result of specific policies being forced on us by a president and Congress unresponsive to--in fact acting in defiance of--the American people. How more desirable would it be if we could we entrust the chore of governance to those who we have elected to govern while we focus our thoughts and energies on helping the people of Haiti in this time of crisis? Very desirable, but that is not the situation that we face.

If we wish to remain strong and able to help others, we'd best make sure that we are in a position to help ourselves.

Help Haiti through reputable charities: Eric Ericson at RedState suggests The Salvation Army; Jeff at RedState recommends the Haiti Foundation Against Poverty; Founding Bloggers recommends the Jewish Federation Relief Fund (100% of donation goes to Haiti). [Added: Fox News has published a list of reputable charities working to send relief to Haiti.]

Added: Similar sentiments elsewhere on the Web:

 Dr. Zero at Hot Air:

Thank God we still have the wealth and will to help the people of Haiti today. If we let the architects of the socialist state build a hospice where we can die quietly, we won’t be able to help the people of tomorrow, either domestically or abroad. It’s about time we remembered our duty to mankind, and accept the truth that only the industry of free men can defeat hunger, poverty, and disease.

There's My Two Cents:

It's not just about our own personal wealth, comfort, or well-being. America truly is the last best hope for freedom in the world, and that freedom is what allows us to achieve such immense wealth...and thus, the generosity that the world sees every time such a catastrophe occurs. Without freedom, there is no capitalism. Without capitalism, there is no increasing wealth. Without increasing wealth, there is no assistance to those who need it.

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