Timothy Birdnow

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.

Was FEAR a Reichstag Fire Dry Run?

One of the cornerstones of the Obama Administration and fellow travelers power grab has been the definition of political enemies as terrorists. They tried it with the Missouri fusion center report which gave Missouri state police instructions to profile returning military and pro-lifer and Second Amendment advocates' cars as potentially containing terrorists, with the Department of Homeland Security report making the same claims, and have tried to reinforce this notion numerous times, claiming the attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was an act of domestic terrorism spawned by Tea Party "hate speech" being just one example.

Roberts Rule of Odor

In Roe v. Wade, Justice Harry Blackman, writing for the majority, made the following arguments in favor of the Constitutionally protected nature of abortion:

The Roberts Jizya and the Art of War

Perhaps history's greatest military strategist is Sun Tzu, the ancient Chinese general and tactician. Tzu made the following observation: "Though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays."

The Sexualization of Scouting

The United States was once a land of wholesome civic organizations. By its very nature America lent itself to private groups working for the betterment of their fellows and the society as a whole. In America the role of government was limited by the Constitution and the American zeal for liberty, and the American Experiment is largely one of private individuals acting for the common good on their own, independent of the force and coercion of government. This is an important point, because what is done by government in many societies was done by private groups in the United States. There are many charitable acts performed by such organizations as the Rotaries, the Elks, the Optimists, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion. And more than charitable acts these groups form the basis of community, help to knit the People together in a brotherhood of community service. The local welfare office may have greater resources to help feed the hungry than the local chapter of the St. Vincent De Paul Society, but the society usually does a fine job of giving help to the poor - and in the process makes its members better citizens. These organizations were once the bedrock of Middle America.

The Coming Breastfeeding Wars

Time Magazine has caused a stir with a rather risqué picture of a pretty model breastfeeding her three year old son, and the internet has been abuzz with commentary, much of it directed at the picture - and its appropriateness - itself. What has been missing is a discussion of the actual article the picture was intended to promote, and why Time felt it worthy of devoting the cover to an article about extended breastfeeding. One must ask; is there more to this than meets the eye?