RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://townhall.com/columnists/benshapiro/2011/09/07/theres_no_such_thing_as_crony_capitalism/print

This week, Sarah Palin gave a terrific speech in Indianola, Iowa. In it, she tore into the Washington political class. Men and women in government get wealthy by “bail(ing) out their friends on Wall Street and their corporate cronies…reward(ing) campaign contributors…buy(ing) votes via earmarks…And there is a name for this: It’s called corporate crony capitalism…It’s the collusion of big government and big business and big finance to the detriment of all the rest — to the little guys.” This “crony capitalism,” Palin said, is “not the capitalism of free men and free markets.” It is the “crony capitalism that destroyed Europe’s economies.”

In general, she’s right. But on one particular — her terminology — she is dead wrong.

http://townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/2011/09/06/a_plan_that_works/print

This will be a stretch for some, but stay with me. Suppose someone presented a plan that is guaranteed to achieve the objectives everyone (or almost everyone serious about such matters) agrees are necessary to create jobs, end our financial dependence on China, reform the tax code and repair Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid so they not only continue to support people now, but ensure the health and welfare of future generations.Would the politicians accept this gift from the political gods? Or would they prefer the dysfunction that characterizes virtually everything they do and prevents solutions, guaranteeing instead the continuation of the issue for partisan political gain?

This is the central question preceding President Obama’s Thursday night address to Congress.

The problem with so much of Washington today is that no Democrat will accept a good idea if it comes from a Republican and, conversely, Republicans will reject any good idea that comes from Democrats. So here’s a plan whose author shall remain anonymous until the end of this column in hopes you will read on.

http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2011/09/07/two_different_worlds_part_ii/print

Editor’s note: This article is Part II in a series. Click here to read Part I.

A few weeks ago, I had what seemed to me a small medical problem, so I phoned my primary physician. However, after we discussed the problem, he directed me to a specialist.After the specialist examined me, he directed me to a different specialist elsewhere. When I was examined and tested in the second specialist’s office, he immediately phoned a hospital, asking to have an operating room available in an hour.No more than 5 hours elapsed between my seeing the first specialist and the time when I was on an operating table.

This was quite a contrast with what happens in countries with government-run medical systems. In such countries, it is not uncommon to have to wait days to see a physician, weeks to see a specialist and months before you can have an operation. It is very doubtful whether I would have lasted that long.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/6/white-house-mum-labor-leaders-fiery-war-threat/

HOFFA’S OBNOXIOUS THETORIC AND THREATS BRUSHED OFF

The White House sidestepped questions Tuesday about a labor leader’s controversial rhetoric at a Labor Day rally headlined by President Obama, dismissing the matter as “kabuki.”Press secretary Jay Carney refused to condemn Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa’s fiery remarks and pointed out that Mr. Obama was not yet on stage when Mr. Hoffa roused a crowd of union workers in Detroit by promising “war” with the tea party. “President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let’s take these sons of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong,” Mr. Hoffa said in his introduction of the president.

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/

Anyone who cared to dig through the graveyards of Sudan already knew that Muslims mattered more than Africans to us. The sky full of jets that we dispatched to bomb Yugoslavia on behalf of Muslim terrorists never clouded the skies of Khartoum. But they did show up to bomb Tripoli so that Islamist thugs could begin torturing and murdering Africans.

In the left’s pyramid of races, some matter more than others, and Arabs are higher than Africans. So much higher that Sudan is piled with corpses, but the mere thought of Islamist rebels losing in Libya was enough to send in the air forces of bankrupt Western countries already tied up in too many places.

Islamic ‘Arbitrators’ Shadow German Law By Maximilian Popp http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,783361,00.html In mosques or tearooms, Muslim elders dispense verdicts that keep their communities in line. They mediate between aggrieved immigrants, sometimes at the expense of German justice. Some say the arbitrations ease caseloads in court, but others see the creeping advance of Sharia law. The men ambushed […]

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/09/06/end-of-land-for-peace/ The deteriorating Egyptian-Israeli relationship has produced an interesting side effect: For the first time in 30 years, Israelis are seriously questioning the wisdom of “land for peace.” Even veteran land-for-peace advocates like former Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief David Makovsky now acknowledge war with Egypt is no longer unthinkable. Recognition is growing that Egypt’s nonstop demands to […]

http://www.hudson-ny.org/2402/palestinian-state-arafat-dream Having a state is not the end game of Palestinian leadership; it is just a major stepping stone. Former Palestinian Chairman Yassir Arafat and his successor, President Mahmoud Abbas, could already have had a Palestinian state a decade ago, thanks to generous offers of Prime Ministers Ehud Barak in 2000, and Ehud Olmert in […]

http://www.hudson-ny.org/2401/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2011 This series, developed to collate some—by no means all—of the most extreme instances of Muslim persecution of Christians that surface each month, serves two purposes: 1) To document that which the mainstream media does not: habitual, if not chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians. 2) To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic, […]

URL to article: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/john-kerry-no-blind-trusts-tax-avoidance-and-conflicts-of-interest/

Senator John Kerry (D-MA), the richest member of the United States Senate and one of the most senior members of the debt super committee, is seen as an advocate for raising taxes on the rich, echoing the Obama administration. But with a net worth over $230 million, Kerry and his wife — whose $1B net worth dwarfs her husband’s — over the years have avoided millions of dollars in taxes through a complex web of inherited trust funds. Last year alone they earned about $4.8 million for which they paid no taxes.