Richard Disney

Here is another great vintage video showing some of the basics of capitalism. More school children need to see videos like this one made in 1949. Enjoy!

The money quote from this article about overturning a smoking ban in Germany is this one near the end, “Under the Nazis smoking was frowned upon. After 1945 smoking became a symbol of a post-war freedoms and broadmindedness.”

Looks like the Progressive Smoking Nazis are making a resurgence.

Article follows:

The ruling came after a case brought by the owner of two small bars, who claim that their business has been unfairly hit by the smoking ban.

Introduced in patchwork fashion across the country’s 16 federal states earlier this year, Germany’s smoking ban has been poorly received by often tobacco-friendly Germans, about a third of whom smoke.

The laws have often been ignored or barely enforced, with the owners of small bars and restaurants claiming that their businesses were threatened by the legislation.

Among them were the owners of two separate one-room pubs in Berlin and the south-western state Baden-Wuerttemberg.

They claimed that their bars small size prevented them cordoning off a smokers’ area, as other bars have been allowed to, putting them at a competitive disadvantage. The constitutional court agreed.

“I am satisfied all around,” said Sylvia Thimm, owner of ‘Doors’ in Berlin, one of the two bars involved in the case.

German tobacco lobbyists DVZ said the smoking ban was heavy handed.

“We are warning against a growing culture of bans and regulations in Germany,” said DVZ chief Wouda Kuipers.

In fact, Germany has long been notoriously heavily regulated, but smoking has established itself as a lone act of rebellion against the prevailing culture.

Under the Nazis smoking was frowned upon. After 1945 smoking became a symbol of a post-war freedoms and broadmindedness.

Now, all German states will have to review their smoking bans and come up with new legislation by 2009, either banning smoking outright or allowing it in one-room bars too.

German court overturns smoking ban - Telegraph

Tags: smokingban, germany, nazis, progressive nazis, fascist, cigarettes, tobacco, berlin, baden-wuerttemberg, liberal fascism

This is interesting to me because I was directly involved in looking for Karadzic in Bosnia and his military commander Ratko Maladic near Hans Piezak in the Bosnian Serb sector. Our military sector which was halfway between Tuzla and Sarajevo and very wide west to east was some wild country. While serving with Task Force Silver Lion 2-68 Armor out of Camp Linda in Olovo, Bosnia we didn’t find Karadzic. Now I understand why.

I was in Srebrenica in 1996 and saw mass graves there. It was unbelievable and horrible to behold. I am very glad Radovan Karadzic was caught and I hope Ratko Maladic isn’t far behind.

Article follows:

By GRAHAM BOWLEY
Published: July 23, 2008

He grew long white hair and a flowing white beard, and, as Dragan Dabic, the former psychiatrist worked for years in a clinic in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, as a practitioner of alternative medicine. He even lectured at local community centers.

“How convincing his false identity was, we can tell you that he has been freely walking in the city, ” said Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor, Vladimir Vukcevic, on Tuesday. “Even the people he rented a flat from were unaware of who he was.”

The secret life was very different from his years as the outspoken, clean-shaven leader — with a prominent square jaw and a distinctive shock of grey hair — of Bosnian Serb forces during the 1990s.

But on Monday his false identity was broken, his mask pulled away, and secret police officers arrested Radovan Karadzic, one of the world’s most wanted war criminals for his part in the massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995.

He had been sought by international prosecutors since he vanished from view in 1996.All along, he was said to have eluded arrest by disguising himself as a Serbian Orthodox priest and by hiding out in caves in the mountains of eastern Bosnia and in monasteries.

But details provided by Serbian officials for the first time on Tuesday showed that, at least for some of those years, one of the accused architects of Europe’s worst massacre since World War II had been hiding in Serbia in plain sight.

Serbian officials said he had transformed his identity and appearance so successfully that he was able to walk out freely in public. He used false documents and false identities, and most recently lived in New Belgrade, a working class neighborhood of the capital that is known as a stronghold of Serbia’s radical far-right party.

Click here to read entire article: For Bosnian Serb, a Life of Hiding in Plain Sight - NYTimes.com

Tags: bosnia, serb, radovan karadzic, ratko maladic, hans piezak, srebrenica, 1996, olovo, bosnia, camp linda, 2-68 armor, silver lions

Things must be improving in Iraq when the Main Stream Media starts publishing stories like this.

Article follows:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Spc. Grover Gebhart has spent nine months at a small post on a Sunni-Shiite fault line in western Baghdad. But the 21-year-old soldier on his first tour in Iraq feels he’s missing the real war — in Afghanistan, where his brother is fighting the Taliban.

Military officials say violence in Iraq is at its lowest point in the past four years.Military officials say violence in Iraq is at its lowest point in the past four years.

With violence in Iraq at its lowest level in four years and the war in Afghanistan at a peak, the soldiers serving at patrol station Maverick say Gebhart’s view is increasingly common, especially among younger soldiers looking to prove themselves in battle.

“I’ve heard it a lot since I got here,” said 2nd Lt. Karl Kuechenmeister, a 2007 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point who arrived in Iraq about a week ago.

Soldiers who have experienced combat stress note that it is usually young soldiers on their first tour who most want to get on the battlefield. They say it is hard to communicate the horrors of war to those who have not actually experienced it.

“These kids are just being young,” said Sgt. Christopher Janis, who is only 23 but is on his third tour in Iraq. “They say they want to get into battle until they do, and then they won’t want it anymore.”That soldiers are looking elsewhere for a battle is a testament to how much Iraq has changed from a year ago, when violence was at its height. Now it’s the lowest in four years, thanks to the U.S. troop surge, the turn by former Sunni insurgents against al-Qaeda in Iraq, and Iraqi government crackdowns on Shiite militias.

At least 29 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq last month, and there were 19 deaths in May — the lowest monthly toll for American troops since the war began in March 2003. By comparison, in Afghanistan, 28 Americans died in June and 17 in May, but there are four times as many U.S. troops in Iraq.

American military deaths in Iraq are also down sharply this month, in a trend that could take center stage during Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama’s planned visit to Baghdad and the debate over whether America’s main battle is shifting back to Afghanistan.

Click here to read entire article: Quiet Iraq streets leave soldiers yearning for Afghanistan - CNN.com

Tags: iraq, war on terror, u.s. army, afghanistan, baghdad, soldier, military, alqiada, barack obama

Priceless!

Hat Tip: OpFor

Hat Tip: Brain-Terminal.com

From the Wall Street Journal comes explanation of how Barack Obama plans to pay for new entitlements promised during his Presidential campaign. Using government power to redistribute wealth from those who earn it to those who don’t is not only bad economics that hurt everyone but it is immoral and Unconstitutional. The Founding Fathers created the U.S. Constitution to LIMIT the Federal Government and would be appalled at how the Federal Government is involved in taking from the wealthiest and giving to entitlement recipients.

Article follows:

Reviving Redistributionism

New data from the IRS will be out in a few weeks on who pays how much in taxes. My contacts at the Treasury Department tell me that for the first time in decades, and perhaps ever, the richest 1% of tax filers will have paid more than 40% of the income tax burden. The top 50% will account for 97% of all federal income taxes, while the bottom 50% will have paid just 3%.

But Barack Obama has decided the rich still don’t pay enough. He would redistribute the tax burden even more heavily on small business owners and the entrepreneurial class (two-thirds of the tax filers in the highest income tax bracket are small-business owners.) The nonpartisan Tax Foundation’s Scott Hodge has just crunched the numbers on the Obama plan and concludes that “more than $131 billion would be redistributed from the top 1 percent of taxpayers to all other taxpayers.

“Sounds fair, no? Only 1.13 million taxpayers, out of some 128 million, would end up paying higher taxes, according to the Obama camp.

But in the real world, who ends up paying a tax is not just the person on whose tax return it falls. History has demonstrated time and again that raising tax rates on the wealthy in the name of “redistribution” leads to so much income shifting, reduced work and investment, and redeployment of money into tax shelters, that the rich usually pay less, not more taxes, at higher rates. The burden of paying for government shifts to others, including some who may not file an income tax return at all – because they no longer have jobs or no longer earn enough to pay income tax.

Economist Glenn Hubbard of Columbia University has shown that in 1970, when the highest tax rate was 70%, the top 1% shouldered 16.7% of the income tax burden. Today the top tax rate is 35% and the same class of taxpayers pays a whopping 39% of the burden. The worst way to “soak the rich,” Mr. Hubbard finds, is to raise tax rates.

Somebody needs to give the Obama campaign a refresher on all this. The Tax Foundation’s Mr. Hodge wonders: “Can a tax system so focused on redistribution be compatible with economic growth?” Probably not but the Obama brain trust wants to give it a try anyway.– Stephen Moore

Political Diary - WSJ.com

Tags: barackobama, redistribution of wealth, redistributionism, politics, presidential campaign, election 2008, wall street journal, wsj

John Culberson (R Texas) describes in the video below, how the House of Representatives Leadership (Nancy Pelosi (D California)) is trying to impose a rule in committee that would limit Congressmen from communicating with Twitter, Plurk, YouTube, Qik.com and other internet services without authorization from House Leadership.

Culberson talks about shining a light in every corner of Congress because a thief can’t steal from you in the light. Seems that Pelosi wants to keep Congress dark enough so The People don’t notice their pockets being picked.

What is it?

The PlurkCAST at Plurkable Contest is a contest for all Plurkers. You’ll be able to win prizes such as t-shirts, games, movie tickets, online guides, advertising and more!

When?

The contest will take place live on the air during the weekly PlurkCAST at 2:00 PM Pacific, 5:00 PM Eastern on Wednesday, June 9, 2008. Winners will be randomly chosen (Click here to see rules explained)

Prizes from the PlurkCast at Plurkable - Plurkiverse

Tags: plurk, plurkcast, prizes, talkshoe, podcast, plurkable, plurkiverse

The U.S. Army Rangers deserve much more praise and attention than they get from American society and media. Rangers are the Army’s primary raiders. Raids are one of the most dangerous missions there is. Rangers Lead the Way!

Article follows:

By Mike Manhatton

SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) - We very rarely hear about United States Army Rangers. But our nation and our world, would be a very different, and likely a much more dangerous place without them.

The 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment is based at Hunter Army Airfield and just recently changed commanders. We offer a WTOC Military Salute to the man who’s lead them through years of the war on terror, Col. Lee Rudacille.

The very public ceremony, in the middle of Forsyth Park, is a rare chance to see some 800 of our finest soldiers marching to honor one of their own, and a time-tested military tradition. The change of command, symbolized by Col. Lee Rudacille handing the colors over to incoming commander, Lt. Col. Brian Mennes.

A time to remember and honor Col. Rudacille’s leadership. Col. Richard Clarke knows all about leading Rangers. He’s the current commander of the entire Ranger Regiment. He’s also served in the unit based at Hunter.

Col. Clarke reminded the gathering of the hard work Col. Rudacille and his Rangers have taken in the global war on terror. “For the past two years, enduring three combat deployments, Lee has ably lead this battalion through some of the toughest parts of the fight,” said Col. Clarke.

Tough isn’t a strong enough word for it. Col. Rudacille obviously can’t talk about the details, but did sum up the missions for his Rangers. “Over the course of 1,000 raids, they captured or killed over 3,000 insurgents,” said Col. Rudacille. “You have forever changed the fight against extremism.

“Col. Clarke pointed out just how challenging that can be. “While deployed all night, every night, they went on literally thousands of raids, by helicopter, by vehicle, by foot and in some cases on boat assault,” said Col. Clarke. “Yes, Rangers were doing boat assault, against the world’s most valuable, dangerous and elusive targets, in the worst areas, under the most threatening and demanding operational conditions.

“Col. Rudacille bid farewell with honors for his soldiers. “The credit for this battalions achievements belongs to the Rangers in the field, who not only entered the arena time and time again, and emerged victorious,” said Col. Rudacille. “May God bless, continue to bless, this great battalion, our Army, and our nation. Rangers lead the way!”

WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports | Military Salute: Col. Lee Rudacille

Tags: rangers, u.s. army, col clarke, col rudacille, honor, change of command, hunter army airfield, military, war on terror, raid

This is another Harry Reid moment of “open mouth, insert foot.” When Harry Reid says that “coal makes us sick”, he is not tuned into reality. Electrical power from coal and transportation from oil based products have improved the lives of Americans and the world enormously.

Also, without ample amounts of electricity and gasoline driven engines, Las Vegas would still be about the same size as Harry Reid’s hometown of Searchlight, Nevada. Maybe that is how Senator Reid prefers it.

Article follows:

Hat Tip: Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey

When the editorial board of the Las Vegas Review-Journal calls Harry Reid a “YouTube sensation”, they don’t mean it as a compliment. Given that the city runs on a tremendous amount of coal-based electricity and depends on oil-based transportation to bring gamblers and tourists to the desert oasis, they find Reid’s latest comments sickening in their own right. Far from making the world sick, the industrialization spurred by fossil fuels has made the world and its residents healthier than ever:

By Thursday afternoon, the video clip had close to 400,000 hits on YouTube. Like an “American Idol” reject who has no idea he can’t sing, Sen. Reid serves up speechification that crashes and burns in spectacular fashion.

Doesn’t the Democratic Party have its own Simon Cowell, someone with enough common sense to cut off the Slipup from Searchlight before he finds all new ways to embarrass his home state?

Funny thing about coal and oil. Before they began transforming Americans’ everyday lives by providing electricity and transport that didn’t require a horse, average citizens trudged though life with mouths half-full of teeth, fortunate to live past age 40. Far from making us sick, they’ve powered advances that have extended the country’s collective life expectancy to about 80, helped eliminate hard-core poverty and made us the wealthiest nation in the history of the planet.

Today, coal still provides half the country’s electricity — power that allows Las Vegas air conditioners to run 24 hours per day during the soul-searing heat of July, power that lets partygoers enjoy the city’s luxuries at all times. And how did they — and the foodstuffs they ate for breakfast — get to this otherwise uninhabitable tourist outpost? They drove or flew here on a tank of fossil fuel.

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Las Vegas Review-Journal: Been to Vegas lately, Harry?

Tags: harryreid, searchlight nevada, las vegas, nevada, senator reid, energy, coal, gasoline, oil, electricity, solar power, slip up