It Is The Little Things That Count

I maintain that the American media is biased towards the political left.  Given a choice, they will always choose to be less aggressive towards a politician that is left of center.

The most recent example comes via my close personal friend^[1], Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit fame.

It seems that Mr. Obama recently made a visit to Rudy's Hot Dog in Toledo.  While there he sampled the local cuisine.  And by "sampled" I mean that he stuffed two chili dogs down his pie hole.

That is what chili dogs were made for, so I hope he enjoyed them without any post-meal difficulties.  Us older dudes gotta stick together when it comes to chili dogs.  That is especially true when it comes to the women in our lives constantly telling us what we should or shouldn't eat.

Which brings us to Mr. Obama's lovely wife Michelle.  It seems that she unveiled new dietary guidelines for America within the last few days.  I haven't read them all, but thus far I cannot find "two huge chili dogs in one meal" anywhere in them.

Which brings us to the British media.  They promptly pointed out the apparent hypocrisy of Presidential consumption of two chili dogs given the recent national dietary hectoring provided by the First Lady.  With photos of said consumption.

Which brings us to the American media who said in a tersely worded statement, "Who us?"  The New York Times omitted all mention of the deeeelicious dogs.  The Washington Post mentioned the dogs, but offered no photographic evidence.  Nor did they mention the recently issued dietary guidelines.

A quick search via Google's News feature suggests that only a few obscure media outlets and non-leftist polemicists, such as yerz truly, have mentioned this crucial issue.

A Bing search includes a full blown USA Today story on the event, with photos, without mention of the dietary guidelines.

How might we rekindle the sort of carefree and open reporting practiced overseas?  Elect someone named George W. Bush?

[1] Not really.  But when one longs for an Instalanche, one does what one must.

Default On Your Mortgage? Why Not!

If it is good enough for the Mortgage Bankers Association, then it must be good enough for you!

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Mortgage Bankers Association Strategic Default
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Images of Mohammed

Most folks know of the serial kerfuffles that arose over various publications electing to print images of Islam's Prophet Mohammed.  A guy with the nom de guerre of "Zombie" has developed and maintains an online catalog of images of Mohammed.  Many of those images come from Arab countries.

The one that I like the most is this image of Mohammed that is currently on a wall/doorway in Iran.

Poke around....learn a little something....I found it fascinating.

After you get done with the art, you may as well try the letters.....from Muslims around the world.....to Zombie....telling him in very specific detail how they feel about his compilation.

Curiously, for a group that says it practices tolerance and peace, and as a group that expects tolerance and peace, they sure don't seem very tolerant or peaceful.  At least some of them don't.

An Unusual Fascination

As someone who it critical of America's fear of nipples, I naturally take note whenever breasts enter the American political consciousness.  It appears that Sarah Palin's critics have turned their attention downward; south of her chin and north of her navel.  The question currently occupying their little minds?  Are Mrs. Palin's prominently perky pair purely the product of her progeniture or has she opted to fan her fame with phony foobies made of flubber^[1]

I suspect that her critics are just trying to make boobs of themselves.

Tigerhawk adds some perspective.

First, does the left enhance -- and I use the word advisedly -- its appeal among the electorate by suggesting that we ought to ridicule women for getting breast implants? The boobery need no further reminder that the left disdains their sense of aesthetic, but if liberals want to beat them over the head with it, fine. This may, in the end, be Palin's greatest contribution to conservative political fortunes: She suckers the chattering left in to reminding everybody that they are, well, snots.

 [1] Yes, I know I'm reaching.

Taxes, It Is Always About Taxes

From Rasmussen comes this poll;

Sixty-six percent (66%) believe that America is overtaxed. Only 25% disagree.

Lower income voters are more likely than others to believe the nation is overtaxed.

Not surprisingly, the tax issue provokes a wide gap between the Political Class and Mainstream Americans. Eighty-one percent (81%) of Mainstream American voters believe the nation is overtaxed, while 74% of those in the Political Class disagree

...

Just 23% of voters favor a more active government with more services and higher taxes.

The poll reveals some interesting and erroneous beliefs about how much we pay in taxes as well as where it goes.  I think a lot of that can be explained by people being unwilling...or perhaps unable....to differentiate between a federal tax and a state tax.  If you are paying higher state taxes to fund a federally mandated program, then there really isn't much of a difference in which taxing authority you are satisfying.

Also in the poll, most of the polled people think you shouldn't have to pay more than 10% in federal taxes.  Given that we pay more than 15% just in FICA and Medicare taxes, 10% would be a much better figure.

Sadly unsurprising is the conclusion that most of our political class does not think that taxes are too high.  I guess taxes can never be too high when you are controlling and living off of the government teat.

Double Standards??

The Daily Mail from the UK has the recent story of Apple removing thousands of applications from their "App Store" due to "racy" content.  The removed applications range from a shopping app that lets the user browse for bikinis to an entertainment app that lets the user take advantage of internal motion sensors to cause a bikinied model's body to...um....jiggle by tapping the side of the iPhone/iPod.

So where is the double standard?

While these apps ranging from the useful to the salacious have been removed, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit app remains available.  I don't own an appropriate Apple product, but I'm willing to bet that this app includes photos of models wearing body paint as well as swimsuits!

Apparently Apple only approves of bikinis on models if you have more lawyers than God and are therefore capable of fighting back against their arbitrary "rules".