Timothy Birdnow

Judge Not - Lest Ye Be Boys

Yet another example of the war on Boyhood. Apparently the headmaster at a charter school threatened to expel an 8-year-old boy for drawing Halloween costumes - of a ninja, a star wars character, and a soldier. These drawings showed the characters carrying some sort of arms.

Ayatollah Obama; Twin Heresies

"He said, 'Fight them so that there is no more rebellion, and religion, all of it, is for Allah only. Allah must have no rivals.'" --Ishaq:324 When Constantinople fell in 1453 the conquering Turks systematically expunged all evidence of Christian influence there. Perhaps the most egregious thing they did was to convert the world famous Haiga Sophia, basilica of the Patriarch of Constantinople, to a mosque, plastering over the magnificent mosaics that adorned the walls of that famous house of Christian worship. This act of vandalism was hardly unique in the history if Islam; Islam tolerates no competitors in the lands they take by force.

Boys in the Middle East Hood

In a very insightful article at Asia Times Online Dr. Reuven Brenner makes the case against a "two state solution" in Palestine, arguing that there really aren't just the two groups involved (Jews and Palestinians) but that there are actually four separate groups that can be categorized as Palestinians, and that there is no real "state" in the whole region. The Middle East has splintered into disparate groups of military organizations, each with their own leadership and agenda. Brenner's point is that a traditional solution involving partition cannot work, as we have no one group here to hand over the reins of power. Brenner is essentially arguing that, like Africa immediately after de-colonization, the Middle East has essentially become tribal.

America’s Soviet Boomerang Generation

Fewer young adults are moving out of their parents' homes, according to CNN Money.

Obama’s Limits to Growth

In 1972 the Club of Rome put out a blueprint for international action called "Limits to Growth , a study based on computer models simulating unrestrained economic and population growth verses finite planetary resources. Working from a static vision of wealth Limits predicted doom as the world's population continued to rise and the planet's resources continued to dwindle. Limits was a landmark document, spawning the "sustainability" movement worldwide.

Devouring Paula Deen

The big "people" story of the news cycle is the firing of Paula "hiS wife could eat no lean" Deen, former doyen of the Food Network. Deen was fired ostensibly for making racial slurs in the past. I think the Paula Deen, the queen of non-lean, was really sacked because of racial profiling and her steadfast refusal to promote the modern Progressive diet.

Socialist Networking

Last year Facebook opened to public trading with disastrous results.

The Systemic Failure of Bullying

In a recent article at American Thinker, Elise Cooper argued for new programs and more school involvement to reduce bullying. As she rightly points out bullying is on the rise in modern America, and the temptation to turn to psychologists, schools and government is strong - even for conservatives. I fear the notion that bullying can be stopped through governmental programs is misguided. Laws and programs cannot and will not work because they address the wrong issues, or try to treat symptoms of a deeper malady.

The Farming Bubble

For some time I have been arguing that real estate prices are rising not because of a recovery in the market but because of inflationary pressures by the Federal Reserve to artificially boost them - a bubble. The Administration cannot afford to have a depressed real estate market because it was the real estate market that tanked the economy in the first place and a failure of that market to recover would illustrate quite plainly the failure of the Obama Administration policies. More than that, the RE crisis has allowed government to make real, fundamental changes in the way America operates, has allowed the federal government to intrude in what has traditionally been a local industry.

DHS Rolls in the Tanks

Another brick in the black iron prison. The Department of Homeland Security has purchased almost 2,700 light-armored tanks.

The Right to Bear Arms and Self-Government

One of the problems in our modern society is a little knowledge. We know just enough to foul things up, not enough to actually understand what it is that we are supposed to be doing.

A Thirst for Power; Green Dreams of a Hydraulic Empire

With Global Warming a fading dream of the Gang Green, those environmental radicals, a new crisis must brew lest the world stop listening to the watermelon fantasies that drive the modern Left. Here is one possible replacement for AGW.

Barbarians at the Gates of Sandy Hook

The recent massacre at an elementary school in Connecticut (the ironically named Sandy Hook - it's been a bad year for anything named Sandy) has, predictably, brought a chorus of calls for gun control and to double down on Progressive social reform schemes.

The 2012 Election and the Austro-Hungarian Scenario

"The best way to contain Asian dynamism is to absorb it as the United States is doing. Business people keep pointing out that it is far more cost-efficient to import the rest of the world's talent than to train citizens at home." --Robert D. Kaplan, "Travels Into America's Future," The Atlantic Monthly, August, 1998, 37-61 Asian Americans - a traditionally Republican voting block - went 70% for Obama in the last election.

A Prescription for Saving the United States

“When the taste for physical gratifications among them has grown more rapidly than their education . . . the time will come when men are carried away and lose all self-restraint . . . . It is not necessary to do violence to such a people in order to strip them of the rights they enjoy; they themselves willingly loosen their hold. . . . they neglect their chief business which is to remain their own masters.” ― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America Volume 2

Now that the parade has passed and the last of the colorful floats have gone by the people with brooms and rakes must get to work, sweeping up confetti and removing horse dung from the befouled pavement of what had once been America's Main street. Gone are the trick riders, the marching bands, the unicyclists, the clowns and theme balloons. Now the real work of setting things back into order begins.

The Obama Leadership Dark Age

I stink at baseball. I can't throw, can't field, can't catch. I've always been slow of foot, courtesy of short legs and a sturdy build. I've never been fast, and speed is important in chasing down the ball on the field, or in running bases. I've also always been a good hitter, but my base running...

An Early October Surprise?

There is are some puzzling aspects involving the attacks on U.S. embassies in Egypt and Libya. The hysteria that swept through the rioting masses did not seem to make sense at first, not until it became obvious that at least the Libyan attack was preplanned and the film being "protested" was merely an excuse.

Fat, Poor, Liberal, and Stupid

A recent study of obesity in children suggests that being overweight when young reduces the child's intelligence. Researchers at the NYU Langone School of Medicine claim to have found that obese toddlers wind up being, well, stupid teenagers.

Barack Obama; the Man without a Country

When I was in college (back in the mid '80's) the catch phrase was "multiculturalism" and it was heavily promoted by the humanities and social science departments at the university (Saint Louis University). I hadn't really given the subject much thought until I was forced to write a paper on cultural diversity for an anthropology class I was taking (run by a truly radical Greek woman). This particular professor was fanatical on the subject. I outsmarted her; my paper - and oral presentation - was a work I had written for a Russian history class, and it got me an A with no work. I was careful to avoid giving my true opinion of multiculturalism.

Obama’s Blackhawks Invade Minneapolis

The U.S. government has conducted exercises featuring a simulated attack on Minneapolis with Blackhawk helicopters.