Happy New Year!

...and thank you.

Thank you for stopping by this little roadside stand on a desolate stretch of the unimaginably massive Internet highway whether to read, to comment, or just depart in disgust. 2009 saw a huge spike in readership at Right, Wing Nut!, with each of the last three months (yes, even the dreaded traffic-free month of December...was it the Hanukkah Hotties?) setting a new height in visits. I appreciate it, and I am thankful for each and every one of you.

Some have called 2009 an "Annus horribilis"; I beg to differ. Yes, liberal totalitarianism has taken hold in America, much as many on the right had predicted, with the rise of this nation's first charismatic ideologue. But we need this battle. The arguments against liberalism were lost, defeated by a hateful opposition to George W. Bush and a mainstream media who pounded us every day with leftist propaganda.

What we have gotten, and what we have needed to see firsthand, is how destructive liberalism is in practice. Only with having experienced it, can we be sure of its corrupt and poisonous nature. And thus to save our nation, we must rise up and defeat the Left in a battle that will be virtually unprecedented in American history. We must re-invent the media, we must rise up in anger,we must take to the streets, and we must loosen our tongues against those who profit by and support the regime now in control of the United States.

And we will win this battle. And yes, it will be a costly victory, with decades in economic, scientific, and medical growth lost as we recover from the damage done by the "progressive" agenda. But it is a necessary war - the ideals of the constitution must be re-established, our prominence in international affairs must be re-asserted, and our right-of center national values must be enshrined in every action that is taken in the name of the People of the United States of America.

We live in interesting times. And although that is considered a Chinese curse, it is a blessing as well. We live to join the battle, to fight, to risk, to stand tall for our values against an opposition who would crush us under the banner of socialism. It is an opportunity for us to show what we are made of, to show that our words are more than platitudes, to show we will defend what we have so that the next generation can enjoy the spoils of our victory as well.

Let us relish this battle, and join it with hearts and heads held high. For it is a righteous one, one that will define freedom, democracy, and world peace for the remainder of the 21st century.

May God bless each and every one of you with strength, vigor, and happiness in 2010.

Happy New Year!

$50 Billion in Taxpayer Bailouts, And What Do You Get?

...besides another year older and deeper in debt, you ask?

You get a Chevy Volt video, complete with amateur dancers chanting inane slogans telling us how much we are going to love the new Government Motors ("E" for Electricity, "V" for Chevy Volt and me!") and hand-miming the mileage ("4-0!"). Note the paltry, disinterested crowd:





Pathetic. Even Kim Jung Il does it better than Obama's bitches at GM:

When The Top Ten Are All FOX...

...then Baracky, maybe you ought to admit you made a mistake by taking on the Big Dog, and biting off more than you could chew. Seems like your proto-fascist attempt to silence your critics backfired on you, just a bit, you know?

Take a look at the top-10 rated cable news shows for 2009:

1. The O'Reilly Factor - 3.34M
2. Hannity - 2.51M
3. Glenn Beck - 2.32M
4. Special Report - 2.04M
5. On The Record - 1.97M
6. The Fox Report - 1.88M
7. O'Reilly Factor (11pm Rpt) - 1.51M
8. Your World - 1.48M
9. Americas Newsroom - 1.43M
10. Studio B - 1.21M

See a pattern there? Even the Huffington Post bows:

2009 was a record year for the Fox News Channel.

The News Corp-owned cable news outlet has just finished its best year among total viewers in its 13-plus year history.

Both CNN and MSNBC, meanwhile, are down significantly in all categories.

But its not just the network's conservative opinion commentators that are having their best years ever. The network's signature news programs — "Special Report with Bret Baier," "The Fox Report with Shepard Smith," "Studio B with Shepard Smith," and "Your World with Neil Cavuto" — also had their best years ever among total viewers.

But I thought FOX was just "opinion journalism masquerading as news" and "not a news organization". Guess Obama and his lackys were wrong again, and FOX has survived the attack only to come back more powerful than ever. Defeat the force you cannot, oh weak Axlerod...

Will the Obami ever learn? Or will they stick their heads into the lion's mouth again, overcome by the irresistible desire to prove they they are the ones we have been waiting for, and not Glenn Beck? Those who work on the dark side are often clever, but not always smart...

We'll Never Know What Hit Us....

...when the next terrorist attack arrives. That's because by insisting on treating jihadis as civilian criminals rather than war prisoners, they get to sit back, smirk, and say nothing. The administration, of course, continues to "hold out hope" that airline bomber Abdulmutallab will talk, because, well....they're being really really nice to him and have promised not to rough him up and are extending an open hand and have given him a lawyer and all the rights he never enjoyed anywhere else!

Marc Thiessen over at The Corner both mocks and points out the danger to you and I in the Obama administration's childishly naive approach to terrorism:

Holding out hope? Change his mind? Are they kidding? A terrorist like Abdulmutallab is not a common criminal who should be told he has the “right to remain silent.” He is an enemy combatant, who tried to commit an act of war against the United States of America. He possesses vital intelligence about the terrorist network that deployed him to attack America, and may be planning still more attacks. The Obama administration has a responsibility to make him give up that information. Treating him like a criminal is an abdication of that responsibility, and puts our nation at risk.

Abdulmutallab likely knows a lot more than he's saying, but thanks to Barack Obama, he won't be forced to say a word. We do know already there are dozens more like him planning similar attacks; wouldn't it be nice to know that your country had exerted the, ahem, "maximum effort" in extracting that information before your family gets on a plane?

Let's be even more clear: If they knew Abdulmutallab was getting the screws put to him and was likely singing, these terrorist training camps would already have folded their tents and dispersed, at least temporarily, to escape certain Death from Above in the form of a Predator missile. Instead, the training of Islamic radicals continues without a blip, as they act with the comfort of knowing Barack Obama has imposed the American legal system to protect them...

Remember that, the next time a plane fall from the sky...

Seven Crises, Seven Golf Outings

Only a stupid conservative would be unable to grasp that Barack Obama's penchant for playing golf at a moment when leadership is usually called for is actually a genius strategy being employed by The One to calm the nation down, so that they don't get all "wee-we'ed" up about whatever little thing may be sticking in our craw....

E-Nough! provides us with the examples of Obama's leadership and cunning:

In the spring Mr. Obama picked up his clubs to avert a public health scare about swine flu.

Mr. Obama also teed off to calm us after NoKo successfully detonated a nuclear device. And having becalmed the electorate, Mr. Obama squeezed in a minute Memorial Day remembrance before resuming his swing.

And while the economy tanked this summer, there was Mr. Obama on the fairway, not for the love of the game, but to advance the "proper collective response" to his failed stimulus.

This fall Dick Cheney spooked us, accusing Team Barry of dithering on Afghanistan. Mr. Obama immediately reassured Americans, taking up his clubs to do his dithering in the tee-box. (And to further reassure us, he also headlined a series of party fundraisers.)

There. Don't you feel better now? You see, when Barack Obama gave us a perfunctory statement (read some three days after the fact) on the terror attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 , promising he will not rest until he "found those involved and held them accountable" then left immediately afterwards to shoot a quick 18, he was doing it for us, not for him.

Apparently, when he is relaxed, we should be relaxed. When he feels there is a sense of urgency - on health care reform, on climate change, on an economic stimulus - then boy, you'd better get all wee-we'ed up about it as well.

Silly me. And I thought he was just a lazy, thoughtless, cowardly incompetent who would not let even the worst crisis interfere with a potential par-4...

Michelle Obama: Our Own Imelda Marcos!

Sure, the First Lady of the Philippines collected some 5,400 shoes while her nation struggled in wretched poverty, but she ain't no thing compared to our Michelle Obama! Baracky's gal is amassing a collection of high-priced designer footwear while simultaneously driving her nation into wretched poverty! Green with envy, is Ms. Marcos...

We wrote back in May about Michelle's $540- sneakers that she wore to a charity benefit ("Let them eat Keds!", she sneered) and earlier this month we saw the Divine Miss Michelle custom-ordering Robert Clergerie boots to her exact size/style specifications at a cost of over $1,000 each.

And who doesn't need new shoes for going on an extended Hawaiian vacation, right? Especially when you are staying at an $8.9 million estate for an estimated $4,000- per night.

Kristinn over at Free Republic reports that First Lady Michelle was photographed last night wearing a $635 per pair designer shoes by Maison Martin Margiela. How much is that to you and I?

A woman lucky enough to have a job in this economy and working for the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour would have to work 88 hours (without taxes taken out) to make enough to pay for Michelle Obama's shoes.

Obama has lectured Americans about how they can not expect to live their lives as indulgently as they have in the past. He has lectured businesses about their travel and pay. Yet Obama and his wife live like kings and queens.

And we eat cake, if we can afford the mix. The ultimate limousine liberal married to the ultimate Welfare Queen?

Back to Imelda Marcos, although you may feel free to substitute the name Michelle in there liberally:

Why accumulate so much--2,700 pairs of shoes, 3,000 women--if there is no use for all of them? How much gold is enough? Only a sane person would think to ask....

...were the Marcos shoes... merely grotesque? The Russian word poshlost suggests the transcendent vulgarity at work in the Marcos spectacle. Poshlost is something preposterously overdone but without self-knowledge or irony. It is comic and sad and awful....

The Marcos plundering seems ultimately a cheerless affair, covert though sometimes ostentatious, avaricious though often prodigal...Such venality is not a matter of either Freud or metaphysics. It is just a brutal habit....

Next up: Barack Obama sports ruby rings and a gold-tipped cane with white diamond gloves at next press conference, while telling us we need to turn our thermostats down to 68 degrees this frigid winter....

Barack Obama: Well, It Worked For OJ Simpson!

O.J. Simpson, on the day of his acquittal on murder charges in 1995:

"When things have settled down a bit I will pursue as my primary goal in life the killer or killers who slaughtered Nicole and Mr. Goldman."

President Barack Obama, reading from a statement three days after an attempted terrorist bombing of a US airliner, as reported by Politico:

Obama vowed to track down those who were behind the terrorism plot, and said: "We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable."

According to reports, Obama took no questions...after all, there is golf to be played....

I believe Obama is sincere. Well, at least as sincere as OJ was when he made the same statement all those years ago...


UPDATE: Wasn't joking about the golf thing:

A half-hour after President Obama vowed to catch the terrorists behind a plot to blow up a plane on Christmas, he arrived at 10:40 a.m. at the Luana Hills Country Club, where a golf course winds through a rain forest, the pool reports. The club is below inland cliffs and the towering Mt. Olomana.

John Murtha, 12/22/09: "Al-Qaeda Not a Threat"

With the nation enthralled by Janet Napolitano's "the system worked" assclownery (heckuva job, Napi!), we are missing a classic foot-in-mouth blunder by King Pork himself, John Murtha, who just days ago, said the following:

MURTHA QUESTIONS AL-QAIDA’S CLOUT

JOHNSTOWN December 22, 2009 (dailyamerican.com) - U.S. Rep. John Murtha told reporters Tuesday that he isn’t convinced al-Qaida is still a threat to national security.

Mr. Murtha: I don’t agree there is a threat to national security.

72 hours later, Murtha was proven the fool as only a poor detonator and a heroic passenger saved a Northwest jet from being vaporized by an al-Qaeda operative. No threat to national security, huh?

ABC News reports:

American officials have cause to worry there may be more al Qaeda-trained young men in Yemen planning to bring down American jets. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab told FBI agents there are more just like him in Yemen. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, charged with the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Airlines flight 253, told FBI agents there were more just like him in Yemen who would strike soon.

But they're not a threat, right, Mr. Murtha?

And one wonders if Jan-Nap was aware of the information above when she made the statement below:

Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security secretary, said on Sunday that there was so far no evidence of a wider terrorist plot in what federal authorities said was an attempt by a 23-year-old Nigerian man to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day.

Was she lying to us, or just clueless? Either one is unforgivable from the head of DHS....

And the President of the United States? He's to busy to worry about average Joes being blown to bits by foreign terrorists, don't you know....he's got golfing to do! Shhh....he's concentrating really hard....

Max Baucus: Drunk on the Senate floor

If you've spent enough time in bars, especially what is sometimes termed as "old man bars" - small, smokey, dingy, dark, charmless holes-in-the-ground off some godforsaken highway - you'll know exactly what Senator Max Baucus was doing before he hit the Senate floor in this bizarre video:




All that's missing is Senator Baucus tossing the empty bottle of Old Grand-Dad at the head of Senator Wicker, and we would have drunken perfection....

Politico seems to feel this is just a "conservative" firestorm, and is awaiting comment from Baucus's office on the video. Expect to hear about flu medications and long nights saving health care for the American people as an excuse for the drunken buffoonery of Baucus. If that doesn't work, we'll hear claims of "right-wing video alteration", or something equally stupid that will fool no one except the few remaining True Believers...

But I guess a lot of things make sense now, especially that clusterf*ck of a health care reform bill, which smelled of cheap whiskey from day one...

New Jersey Democrat: "Jersey Shore" Is a Hate Crime!

Well, while they're busy with this nonsense at least they won't be raising my taxes:

Irked about MTV's glorification of the moronic behavior of a certain batch of brains-challenged beachgoers, the New Jersey Italian American Legislative Caucus led by state Sen. Joseph F. Vitale is demanding the cable net cancel the show....

"The intentional and encouraged use of ethnically derogatory terms to promote a television program with an Italian American cast is unconscionable," writes Vitale.

"Pejorative words including 'guido' and 'guidette' should have been discouraged by network management. In fact, their very use is a breach of Viacom's Global Business Practices Statement requiring a harassment-free workplace environment, standards every Viacom employee is expected to meet."

Ah, leave it to a New Jersey Democrat to declare that a MTV reality show is a hate crime. Or then again, isn't anybody these days who's opposed to a Democratic initiative, whether on a local or national level, a "teabagger", a "racist", or an "extremist"?

The Asbury Park-Press mocks Vitale, and rightfully so:

Good luck with that, senator. High dudgeon may play well for some people, but this kind of attack only fuels voyeuristic rubberneckers to check out the latest MTV equivalent of a car wreck.

...This too shall pass. The shelf life for pop-culture bozos is exceedingly short. By the time you organize a boycott and rally the offended, these dopes will have used up their 15 minutes of marginal fame.

One of the only things worse than televising puerile, reality-show rubbish is using the full force of government to try and censor it.

Someone ought to clip that last part, and send it to Barack Obama....

A Reward In Itself

In light of Jasper Schuringa's heroism on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas day, I thought this story was somehow relevant...

Yesterday's Asbury Park Press talks about how much reward money offered is actually collected when a "civilian" bags a bad guy:

Crime doesn't pay, and in New Jersey, tipsters often don't collect.

Officials say many of the good Samaritans who turn in thieves, rapists and killers often turned down the reward money.

In Union County, many tipsters didn't accept the money when tips on unsolved crimes paid out between $100-$500. But Union County Crimestopper chairman Ronald Posyton says that when the reward was raised to $1,000, nearly everyone took the money.

Now $1K is nice money, and Union is a fairly lower-middle class to poor city, so that $1K means a lot. So go ahead, take it. But it's not necessarily the norm:

In Morris County, where rewards are up to $1,000, nine of 10 times they go unclaimed.

Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura says although rewards there are up to $5,000 for a murder and $10,000 for tips on the killing of a police officer, less than 20 percent of callers take the cash.

Fontoura says tipsters are usually just interested in doing the right thing.

But Americans always are; perhaps never embodied better than the heroes of United Flight #93. But there are plenty of day-to-day heroes as well, that help keep their neighborhoods safe and hunt down criminals in their own way, while never thinking about taking any money for doing what is simply right.

It's a little thing that bothers liberals, incidentally. How can they say we need to be protected from our countrymen and cared for by the state from cradle to grave, when all of the available evidence proves we are more than capable of taking care of ourselves?

The same liberals are the ones who always tell us to leave things to "the proper authorities", or to do nothing, and call the police (whatever you do, don't arm yourself - it's dangerous, you may hurt someone!).

In other words...leave it to them. 'Cause they hate being shown up by the likes of Jasper Schuringa (a Dutchman, incidentally), and the average citizen like you and me. Because if the elites are really not that elite after all, why...that whole liberal belief system can come crashing right down....

A Violation of Geneva !

I mean, really now! With President Hope & Change running the ship, we're obeying the letter of the Geneva Conventions to the "T"! We're outlawed "torture" and are contemplating prosecuting our own soldiers who are accused of it, we are emptying Guantanamo detainees into an Illinois prison, we are giving the loathsome KSM a civilian trial in the city he tried to destroy, and we are even retuning some terrorist prisoners straight to Yemen, where they can pick up guns and start killing Americans with no further delay!

And the result of all this terrorist ass-kissing was supposed to be a softening up of their position, a willingness to abide by Geneva, and eventually peace on earth, all shepherded in by The One! So what is this?

The Taliban released a video Friday showing a U.S. soldier who was captured more than five months ago in eastern Afghanistan.

"This is a horrible act which exploits a young soldier, who was clearly compelled to read a prepared statement," said a statement from U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, spokesman for the NATO-led international force in Afghanistan that confirmed the man in the video is Bergdahl. "To release this video on Christmas Day is an affront to the deeply concerned family and friends of Bowe Bergdahl, demonstrating contempt for religious traditions and the teachings of Islam."

Here it comes....

The Geneva Conventions, which regulate the conduct of war between regular armies, bar the use of detainees for propaganda purposes and prohibit signatories from putting captured military personnel on display. As an insurgent organization, the Taliban are not party to the treaty.

And yet we insist on abiding by it while our enemies use this weakness against us, and continue to press the attack inside our borders:

A Northwest Airlines passenger from Nigeria who said he was acting on al-Qaeda's instructions set off an explosive device Friday in a failed terrorist attack on the plane as it was preparing to land in Detroit, federal officials said.

Over at Skating on Stilts, a legitimate question is asked:

One passenger is said to have helped thwart the attack by climbing over several less active passengers to grapple with the terrorist, apparently suffering burns to his hands in the process. How long will it take Secretary Napolitano (at least) or President Obama (my preference) to visit this guy in the hospital if these facts turn out to be true?

My question: How long will it take for Obama to apologize to the Nigerian terrorist, and for Holder to prosecute the passenger? And will Obama reconsider his foreign policy tenets based on their myriad failures (Iran, the "peace process", Europe, Copenhagen, etc...)?

Unlikely, as we are dealing not with the pragmatic realist were were promised, but a committed anti-American ideologue instead. Expect more conciliatory moves and self-abasement, accompanied by a growing threat to our national security that will be waved off by the Obami as insignificant or the fault of George W. Bush.

Remember, we really have only one thing to fear: Failure to obey the Geneva Conventions....

A Hearty "Merry Christmas!", From Your Resident Jew

{this is a reprint of my Christmas Day post from last year; I still like it, it's still relevant, and I can't think of anything better to say. I did add a twist ending, though, just to change things up a bit. So enjoy!}

I like Christmas. A lot.

I grew up in an Italian-Catholic neighborhood, and celebrated Christmas with the families of my friends since I was a little kid. Not "celebrated" in the sense of going to church - it's not my place - but I was always invited over to a friends house to eat, drink, and occasionally exchange a gift. I think Christmas trees are beautiful, I like Christmas specials on TV, and I enjoy getting into the spirit of the season.

So it annoys the hell out of me when I hear people getting offended when they are wished a "Merry Christmas" by someone who good-naturedly assumes they celebrate. The intent of the greeting is good wishes on a special day; even if you do not worship the deity involved, the wish of a "merry" is a positive one; what the hell does it cost to smile, say "Thank you", and return the greeting?

Sometimes people will start to wish me a Merry Christmas, then stutter and stammer a bit when they remember I'm Jewish. It usually goes like this:

"Hey, Jerseynut - Merry...oh, wait, I forgot..how do you pronounce it again....?"

Me: "it's OK - you can wish me a Merry Christmas!

"But you don't celebrate it - I'm sorry, happy...is it still...Hanukkah?"

Me: "Yes, but it's OK. A Merry Christmas to you too ! "

"Can you say that?"

I'll speak for myself: I'll take any good wishes I can get, whether I celebrate them or not. I understand this is predominately a Christian nation, and as a Jew, I thank God that I live here, perhaps the most hospitable nation for a Jew since our beginnings. After thousands of years of being persecuted, tormented, executed...is this the best we can do? Complain about Christmas greetings and Christmas trees on public property? To my people I say - get a grip. Thank God for your good luck. And of course, Merry Christmas!

I'll end with an excerpt (that checked out OK on Snopes) from a viral email that I received with a holiday message from fellow tribe member Ben Stein:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat....

UPDATE 12/25/09 11:05 AM:

So I go out this morning to the local Qwiki-Mart, which I knew would be open today. I walk into the store, only to see my friend Amit, our Hindu owner and proprietor, working solo. "Oh, Merry Christmas, good sir!" he bellows out to me as I cross the threshold. "And a Merry Christmas to you, my humble shopkeeper!" I cry back to him. We both look at each other, and burst out laughing. We get the joke, while others would accuse us of a hate crime...