Author: Bonfire of the Absurdities

“The Constitution did not guarantee public safety, it guaranteed liberty”. Robert Steed, a resident of Vernon, Conn. who took three days straight off work to attend several gun control hearings in Connecticut: “Adam Lanza commits a crime, and I’m here to grovel and plead for my rights and explain to you that my firearms are kept safely?” he asked rhetorically. “I keep hearing the word ‘solution’… you’re not going to find a solution, it doesn’t exist. You can’t find a broad brush solution to evil.” Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness… nothing about public safety, mandatory health insurance or free cheese.

Poll: Even Democrats skeptical Obamacare will improve health care quality, reduce costs. “…37% of Democrats said ‘the cost of health care for the nation as a whole’ would be better as a result of the law, just 39% said health care quality would be better and 27% said consumer protections for private insurance would be better.” So we’re doing this why then? To make Obama look good? Well then it’s all worth it, right?

Rangel: “We’re talking about millions of kids dying, being shot by assault weapons”. Reminds us of the old Dylan song: “Idiot wind, blowing like a circle around my skull, From the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol. Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth, You’re an idiot, babe. It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1eqyDyMb7Kk#!

Minn proposal could hike Alcohol Tax 300%. Tax on spirits would go from $5.03 per gallon to $17.82, wine $.95 per gallon to $8.24, beer from $2.40 per 31-gallon barrel to $13.97. Besides businesses closing, people crossing state borders in droves to buy booze and/or an upsurge in folks making their own, what could go wrong?

Do you want to know what propaganda looks like? The WaPo published this picture, purportedly of a power plant emitting black smoke. It’s really white smoke, condensing water vapor, photographed at a time of day when the setting sun makes it look ominous: “That power plant has state-of-the-art ‘scrubbers,’ which which cost over $400 million, and which remove 95% of the SO2 and nearly all of the particulate matter. Almost nothing visible is left except steam.”

Death Wish Coffee: the world’s strongest java. “Double the strength of an espresso, Death Wish Coffee even comes with a disclaimer warning drinkers to expect ‘many sleepless nights’.” Keep some on hand for Obama’s next prime time speech – on second thought, make ours a decaf.

Jerusalem Post editor: “We can’t figure out what he’s doing here”. “Caroline Glick, Senior Contributing Editor of the Jerusalem Post said the Israeli people consider President Obama ‘a hostile president overall…'” We know the feeling. We can’t figure out what he’s doing here, either.

Barack Obama gets his March Madness picks in on time. “His White House closes tours while he continues to play golf and host lavish parties. He’ll be two months late with his budget, but he got his NCAA basketball brackets in right on time before heading to the Middle East.” Well, to be candid, we’d likely be better off if a basketball coach were making foreign policy. Why not just swap?

Menendez donor Melgen courted President Obama, Harry Reid. Since there about as many selfless politicians as there are snakes with hiking boots, it’s likely there will always be influence peddling. The solution would seem to be to give them less influence to peddle, but we’ve been going the opposite way.

Not even 40 votes in the Senate for the assault-weapons ban, says Reid. “Assume that all 45 Republicans in the Senate are voting no on the AWB; that means, per Reid’s number, that there are at least 16(!) Democrats prepared to vote no as well.” Savor the richly deserved defeat of Feinstein’s “assault weapon” ban. May there be many more such richly deserved defeats.

Cyprus lawmakers reject bank tax; bailout in disarray. “The rejection, with 36 votes against, 19 abstentions and one absence, brought the east Mediterranean island, one of the smallest European states, to the brink of financial meltdown.” Eurocrats desperately search for new plan to keep Cyrpus in the EU Roach Motel.

Elizabeth Warren: Hey, why isn’t the minimum wage $22/hour? Well, maybe because ObamaCare is killing jobs fast enough already.

New Zealand planning Cyprus-style “solution” for bank failure. “Depositors will overnight have their savings shaved by the amount needed to keep the bank afloat.” Yup, gives a depositor a lot of confidence in his bank if he knows that it’ll stay in business no matter what, even if it has to take his money to do it. Let’s see… what’s the definition of “self-fulfilling prophecy” again?

Economists: underground economy booming. Consumers seem to have more money than they ought to, given the “unexpectedly” lousy trends in employment. “It costs too much now for companies to create open positions that carry the costs of mandated health insurance. Instead, more employers appear to be paying cash for what used to be called piece work in a bygone era.” Working for change off the books is what they can believe in, thanks to King Putts.

$2.7M federal study: Why do lesbians have higher “risk for hazardous drinking”? Maybe it’s because all the nosy bureaucrats studying them makes them nervous. How about maybe they’re worried about the national debt and why idiot politicians can’t seem to find anything to cut? Bottoms up.

NY Post: “Weiner has recently been telling pals that ‘when Hillary is president,’ he will get his revenge.” Also, supposedly he has it in for Botox Nan: “Weiner is still fuming over his downfall, and he blames Nancy Pelosi” apparently because she called on him to resign after his “sexting” scandal broke a couple of years ago. Well, once a weiner, always a weiner.

Wallace to Durbin: If $9T in debt was “unpatriotic,” how can $16T in debt be “sustainable”? Watch Dick Dustbin play dodgeball. After a while you get the idea everything these people say is just a cynical ploy to win elections or something.

Kelsey Grammer: I invesed 6 figures in windmills and all I got was this lousy T-shirt. Well, the “Frasier” star didn’t actually say that but that’s the gist of it, except he didn’t get a T-shirt.

Bill Maher defends Iraq War, Bush: “It’s a country that’s standing, I thought it wouldn’t be”. Seriously, has anyone checked his garage for pods?

Bill Maher on California income taxes: “Liberals – you could actually lose me”. “Pointing at Virginia’s former Republican Congressman Tom Davis, Maher said, ‘You know what? Rich people – I’m sure you’d agree with this – actually do pay the freight in this country.'” It’s not the freight that’s bankrupting us, it’s the hobos riding on the train… the rich crony capitalist ones as well as the not so rich.

Europe announces stunning bailout for Cyprus — Bank depositors to get instant 10% tax before banks reopen this week. Eurocrats gonna swoop in and take something from everybody: the “stability levy” will take 10% of the accounts over 100,000 Euros, 6.75% for accounts with less than that. … The challenges we were facing in Cyprus were of an exceptional nature”… i.e. the pols were nearly out of money to hand out to their cronies. More here: Cyprus Depositor Haircut “Bailout” Turns Into Saver “Panic”, Frozen Assets, Bank Runs, Broken ATMs. Wealthy Russians have a lot of money in those banks. Odds are they are not amused.

Blockbuster ratings for “The Bible” mini-series confound Hollywood. “According to the latest Nielsens… Sunday night’s telecast of “The Bible”… managed to attract more viewers than anything on broadcast network NBC … during the entire week.” Well, to put it bluntly, radio attracts more viewers than NBC.

Obama’s second term troubles have begun. Good, because the country’s have been going on for 4+ years already.

The Twinkie’s back! Snack to reappear in stores this summer. Bloomberg readies ban. Film at 11.

Sequester do-over: Obama regime recaptured 4 immigrants released under budget cuts. “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton testified to Congress that his agency released 10 ‘level one’ offenders, and has gone out and apprehended four of them. He said the other six are nonviolent.” At least he knows 10-4=6.