GINA COBB

Website of the Day: Doug Ross @ Journal

The website of the day is Doug Ross @ Journal.

Do You Find the News Depressing?

By DemocracyRules

I know, it happens to me too.  The MSM makes the world seem like a depressing place.

Things sometimes look bad because the MSM is lying, or putting negative spin on positive stories.  They bury the good news, and feature the bad (if it bleeds, it leads).  Recent examples: "U.S. Economy in meltdown", is incorrect.  These recent headlines tell the true story: Economy Improves, Old Media Ignores , Greenspan says worst of credit crisis over, The U.S. economy is structurally strong.

The MSM will predictably lie about certain topics.  On those topics, you can discount the reports 100% or even just reverse the meanings to get the real story.  Here are some key topics:

(1)  Poverty, domestic or foreign.  Any story about the poor getting richer, the average person being better off, or the the size of income disparities getting smaller will be ignored by the MSM.  In Canada recently, the MSM faked some income numbers so they could report a catastrophe.  As Communists, the MSM is absolutely dead-simple incapable of acknowledging that poverty is disappearing, and that capitalism is working.  For every story that cries about poverty, good news is ignored.  Either they are lying or misinterpreting the data, or they are focusing on one negative datum, and ignoring tons of positive data.  Ergo, any poverty reporting can be reversed into : "World Poverty Declining!", "U.S. Most Prosperous Country in History!", "Fewer and Fewer Starving in Africa!".

(2) Paper Recycling. Any story which deals with paper recycling and paper wastage will be misreported.  Why? Because newspapers use up millions of trees per year, and newspapers will never complain that this represents a waste of resources, or causes clear-cutting, or fills up landfills.  So any negative story about paper recycling can usually be reversed into: "NYT and Others in Trouble, Millions of Trees Saved!"

(3) Environmental Catastrophes of any sort are routinely falsified or exaggerated.  E.g., "Massive Volcano Erupts in Chile", really means,  "Chilean Catastrophe Averted, Hundreds of Thousands Safely Evacuated!", or "Ash Fall from Chilean Volcano Produces Massive Increase in Soil Fertility!".

(4) All Global Warming stories are false and can be ignored.

(5) MSM Crybabies. Almost all stories which portray the MSM as victims are false or misleading.  The MSM is unwilling to criticize itself no matter what horrible thing they did.  E.g., "Rotten Reporter Lies to Court, Gets Jail She Deserves!"

(6) Christian Bashing. Almost all MSM stories about Christianity will be biased or falsified.  The good news is that Christians are, by many objective social measures, better people than atheists.  They have lower divorce rates, more marital happiness, better incomes, less depression, and on and on.  These things will not be reported in the MSM because it is controlled by faithless Communist ideologues.  Thus, these stories should read, "Depression, Substance Abuse and Suicide Drops in MSM Who Convert to Christianity!".

(7) Military Bashing. Any story which criticizes the military will be biased or falsified.  For every negative story about the military there are at least a thousand positive stories which go unreported.  Reversal works well for military stories.  So, "Haditha Marines Charged in Barbaric Attack" actually means, "Iraq War the Most Cleanly Fought in History". 

So you see, the News is actually full of positive stories, if you read it or listen to it properly. 

Furthermore, if you get your News from Gina Cobb, you will read about Hedgehog Rescue, funny cartoons and anecdotes, and everyday good things that happen to people.

Pro Patria

P.S. The picture is of Michaëlle Jean, the Governor-General of Canada.  Our head of state is better-looking than your head of state!

 

Is This a Hate Crime -- Or Just Funny?

By DemocracyRules

h/t Chronicle Herald, cartoonist Bruce MacKinnon

Recently several Muslim men were acquitted after charges  arose from a backwoods area they had set up.  They went there to uh, "camp", and uh, "shoot weapons", and uh, "shout Jihad".  They successfully argued they were just kidding around.

Another case was also going on. In Halifax, Canada, prosecutors were going after three accused terrorists, but recently the charges had to be stayed, and they were released from jail.  Then one man's wife began threatening to sue the federal  government, for, uh, like doing something bad.  She said to reporters, "I want millions, seriously..."  The cartoon depicts her quite accurately.

Then this cartoon recently appeared in a Halifax newspaper (Chronicle Herald).  Then the same woman complained to the local Human Rights Commission, claiming that the cartoon is a hate crime.  What do you think?

More background here.

Cartoon here:

What do you think.  Is this cartoon a hate crime, or not?

Is this cartoon a hate crime?
	Yes, a hate crime
	No, not a hate crime
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Nasrallah Will Kill Anyone Who Touches His Weapon

By DemocracyRules

Including the U.S., Canada, whatever.  The poor man, he's just a misunderstood peacemaker.  May his 72 virgins come to him soon.

Pro Patria

Norwegian Hedgehog Rescue -- I'm Serious

By DemocracyRules

h/t AftenPosten

Well, hedgehogs are people too, you know!

Website of the Day: JustOneMinute

The website of the day is JustOneMinute.

The Real Cuba

By DemocracyRules

Here's a good summary of life in Cuba.

As a Canadian, I can travel to Cuba, so I did.  Wonderful people, horrible government.  In a way, I wish Americans could go there, they would quickly see how bad it is.  For me it was a lot like standing on the Berlin wall, looking into George Orwell's worst nightmare on the East Berlin side.

If you go to a place like Cuba as a committed leftist of some sort, strange things begin to happen.  For many leftists, it begins a slow unraveling of their ideology.  Cubans are VERY skinny-- why?  Eleven million people in a lush, abundant tropical country.  But the farms are all collectivized, and Communists get no reward for productive work.

The accompanying story tells of a pensioner trying to get by on a few dollars a month.  If she had access to 200 square feet of soil to plant some potatoes, her life would change completely.  But that is forbidden.

Pro Patria

Two Years Ago Today on GINA COBB: Which Tips REALLY Save the Most Gas?

Originally published on May 8, 2006: Which Tips REALLY Save the Most Gas?

Would you like to reduce how much gasoline you have to pay for by about one third? 

Depending on how you drive, that may be quite possible.

Edumunds.com has field-tested six different popular tips to save gas, and found a few surprises.  (Hat tip to Lifehacker)

The good news:  You can use your air conditioning!  It doesn't make that big a difference in your mileage after all, compared to turning off the AC and rolling down your windows.

The bad news:  You're going to have to drive more -- gingerly.  It really helps to avoid aggressive driving (lots of rapid acceleration and braking).  This was the single most important tip, producing average savings of 31%. 

Read the whole report here.

_______________________

If these tips save you money, please consider dropping a few dollars in my tip jar.  Thank you!

Would you like to reduce how much gasoline you have to pay for by about one third? 

Depending on how you drive, that may be quite possible.

Edumunds.com has field-tested six different popular tips to save gas, and found a few surprises.  (Hat tip to Lifehacker)

The good news:  You can use your air conditioning!  It doesn't make that big a difference in your mileage after all, compared to turning off the AC and rolling down your windows.

The bad news:  You're going to have to drive more -- gingerly.  It really helps to avoid aggressive driving (lots of rapid acceleration and braking).  This was the single most important tip, producing average savings of 31%. 

Read the whole report here.

_______________________

If these tips save you money, please consider dropping a few dollars in my tip jar.  Thank you!

Hizbullah Tries For Civil War in Lebanon

By DemocracyRules

h/t Naharnet.com

The effort is calculated and well-coordinated.  This is not the first time Hiz has tried to incite civil war.  Hiz is an Islamist terrorist group funded by Iran and sponsored by Syria.  They are Shia Muslims.  About 65% of Lebanese hate Hiz.  Hiz started a war against Israel and got decimated, as well as getting a bunch of Lebanon bombed (just where Hiz were hiding).  Hiz has no money to rebuild their areas, and the rest of Lebanon is not predisposed to help them.  Hiz insists on keeping their arms in spite of UN resolutions demanding that they disarm. 

The Israeli military has castigated itself for not killing enough Hiz fast enough before a truce was declared.  I thought Israel did pretty well, given that it was a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing.

Either Assad of Syria or Iran are behind this new confrontation.  Lebanon has been a wobbly democracy since 2005, and they now have a pretty good, loyal army of about 50,000.  The biggest group who opposes Hiz are Lebanese Sunni's(!?) 

If the Hiz militia goes beyond the burning tires and highway barricades this time, the Lebanese army will dis-arm them if necessary.  I hope they also dis-leg them.

Pro Patria

Obama's Anti-Semitism

By DemocracyRules
h/t Jerusalem Post

Hate gets us nowhere.

Pro Patria

It's Up To the Superdelegates

There is growing pressure to crown Obama the Democratic Party presidential nominee and to get Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race, but as a mathematical reality neither Obama nor Clinton can secure enough delegates to win the nomnation outright.  That means the choice of Democratic Party presidential nominee is in the hands of the superdelegates now.

WASHINGTON - Sen. Barack Obama climbed within 200 delegates of clinching the Democratic presidential nomination based on a split decision in Tuesday's primaries.

Obama won most of the delegates at stake in the two contests, picking up at least 94 delegates in the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, according to an analysis of election returns by The Associated Press. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won at least 79 delegates, with 14 still to be awarded.

Twelve of the outstanding delegates were from North Carolina and two were from Indiana.

In the overall race for the nomination, Obama led with 1,840.5 delegates, including separately chosen party and elected officials known as superdelegates. Clinton had 1,688.

That leaves Obama just 184.5 delegates shy of the 2,025 needed to secure the Democratic nomination.

There are 217 delegates at stake in the final six contests: West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota. Obama, however, won't win enough of those delegates to claim the nomination because of the proportional method used by the Democrats to award them.

That leaves the nomination in the hands of about 270 superdelegates who have yet to be claimed. Superdelegates are the party and elected officials who will automatically attend the national convention and can support whomever they choose, regardless of what happens in the primaries and caucuses.

Nearly 800 superdelegates will attend the national convention. About 220 remain undecided and about 50 others will be named at state party conventions and meetings throughout the spring.

Obama argues that superdelegates should support the candidate who wins the most pledged delegates. Clinton says superdelegates should exercise independent judgment.

Obama is on pace to reach a majority of the pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses in two weeks, when Kentucky and Oregon vote. Obama has a 167-delegate lead among pledged delegates.

Clinton leads in superdelegate endorsements, 270.5 to 256, though Obama has been chipping away at her lead since the Super Tuesday contests on Feb. 5. Both candidates picked up a superdelegate endorsement Tuesday.

Why I Call Obama a Communist

By DemocracyRules

I used to be patient about this.  First I called Obama and his minions "progressivist socialists" or "social democrats". 

Certainly from the very beginning it was clear that Obama was not a Liberal .  Liberalism began with philosophers like John Locke who advocated freedom, liberty, free markets, and people power through democracy.  Locke's early thoughts were expanded and elaborated by the Founding Fathers.  They began to put these ideas into practice.  John Stuart Mill continued and extended the ideas of Liberalism (e.g., "On Liberty").

I started out calling Obama a Socialist because he wanted forced economic leveling and intervention in free markets.  Obama has a long Socialist history.  The euphemism is "Social Justice". 

Communism is different from Socialism because Communism dispenses completely with free enterprise and democracy.  Communists abjure discourse and debate, the cornerstone of democracy.  Marx said it was useless, he told followers to seize control of the state by whatever means was expedient.  After that, discourse and debate could be eliminated, because the rest of the plan was clearly laid out by Marx.  The Communists' job was to implement Marx's plan, and there was no need to discuss anything.  Trotsky, the pro-democracy rival of Stalin, was murdered for his beliefs.

For John Stuart Mill, one of the key responsibilities of a democracy is to enable and encourage discourse and debate.  Otherwise there is a risk of developing a "dictatorship of the majority" which would ultimately destroy the state.

In addition to forced economic leveling and intervention in free markets, Obama and his minions reject discourse and debate.  Any criticism of Obama is called racism.  The Democrat party has almost completely lost any sense of democracy.  Victim-hood is used to overwhelm opponents.  Law-breaking is acceptable.  Unethical conduct is normal.  Character assassination is routine.  Obama beat Hillary by shouting down her supporters more effectively than Hillary could do the same to him. 

Now Obama will go after McCain.  All of Obama's critics, including all Republicans, will be labeled racist redneck religious fanatic crackers.

These are age-old Communist tactics. 

We call Sweden a Socialist country because they believe strongly in free debate and democracy.  Everyone can and does speak up. 

In contrast, Obama and his minions do not permit discourse and debate.  The entire left-wing in American politics, from Pink Whatever, to MoveOn.org, etc., abjure discourse and debate.  Instead they fight with everyone and each other.  They shout down dissent, suppress it, de-fund it, ban it from publication, declare it illegal, and sue dissenters. 

Their main target is free speech, but their ultimate goal is to surgically remove the Constitution.  When people joined the American Communist Party, they swore to destroy the U.S. Constitution.  This oath superseded any oath of allegiance to the U.S. that a Communist took.

Obama and his minions strive at every turn to impose their ideology on every member of the population.  Any different view is "not politically correct".  For them, democracy would just slow down the take-over of the American State.  Democracy must be removed.

That's why I call him a Communist.

Pro Patria

References:

Obama Mandingo?

Obama’s International Socialist Connections

The Communist Manifesto, Marx/Engels, 1848

Russia Threatens War With Georgia

By DemocracyRules

Why? No particular reason, maybe too much vodka.  Here's my posting on Kommersant.ru about it:

Could You Guys Please Just Stop This?

Points to consider:
(1) So Russia needs more land?  How could Russia possibly need more land?

(2) It's not appropriate to fight wars with places I have never heard of. Alright, South Ossetia rings a bell, but I can't even pronounce the other one. I could find them on a map, I suppose, but I DON'T WANT TO.

(3) A peace-keeper keeps the peace. A regular soldier kills as many of the enemy as possible. These are different things! Call them what they are.

(4) If Russia actually goes to war with Georgia, it will make a terrible mess. Wars always do. You will actually have to kill thousands of Georgians. Remember, Afghanistan looked easy in the beginning, but it wasn't. Georgians will fight much harder and more effectively than the Afghans.

(5)  Georgia used to be part of the USSR.  It's like declaring war on your brother.

(6) Georgians will fight like Russians. They will fight tooth and nail, to the last man. The Germans used to fear Russians because they would keep attacking even if you put bullets in them. If they could crawl, they would attack, even if they had no weapons. The Georgians will fight like that.

(7) The war will go on for years, and don't expect the West to help. We are busy with the Islamists, and you should be too. Leave this war for later.

Pro Patria

The White House also thinks this war would be dumb.  (Dana Perino is hot)

Reaction to Gore's Attempt to Blame Global Warming for Deadly Cyclones in Myanmar

Can you think of a good word to describe Al Gore opportunistic attempt to blame man-made global warming for the cyclones have killed and injured tens of thousands in Burma?

How about "nauseating?"

Check out the remarks of Marc Sheppard at American Thinker.

Why Did Hillary Clinton Cancel All Public Appearances for Today?

Is it because she's dropping out of the race, or is it just that she doesn't want to have to publicly defend staying in the race after Obama's win in North Carolina?

Tim Russert says it's over.  Barack Obama is the nominee.

However, Clinton has eked out a "razor-thin" victory in Indiana.

Update 1:  Lucianne puts it this way today:  Hillary mortally wounded. How long before she actually falls down?

Update 2:  Check on the guy on the left.  He seems delighted by Hillary's win in Indiana, doesn't he?  (And isn't it beautiful to see the love between the Clintons continue to deepen and grow as time goes by?)

Website of the Day: NewsBusters

The website of the day is NewsBusters.