The Debate is Shifting...MY Way

day after day, more and more people are realizing, or coming out and saying, that it was NOT deregulation and lack of oversight that led to our current financial crisis, but rather the usual liberal social engineering.

Stan Liebowitz chimes in:

HOW did America wind up in its worst financial crisis in decades? Sen. Barack Obama explained it this way last week: "When sub-prime-mortgage lending took a reckless and unsustainable turn, a patchwork of regulators systematically and deliberately eliminated the regulations protecting the American people."

That's exactly backward. Mortgage lending took that "reckless and unsustainable turn" because of regulation - regulation driven by liberals and progressives, not free-market "deregulators."

Pushed hard by politicians and community activists, the regulators systematically and deliberately altered financially sound lending practices.

Someone else gets it. It's big government once again; it's allowing government to pick and choose the way the economy should go, based upon some program of the way things ought to be. Once again, instead of leaving people free to make choices, the control freaks need to take control. This leads to a worse situation than the one they try to correct.

It wasn't GREED, it was POWER. McCain and Obama have both been wrong on this -- both are busy attacking Wall Street for something Washington promoted and made happen. Will they learn? Only time will tell. At least we can see more and more economists out there are explaining what really happened, and why.

hat tip to Rachel Lucas for finding this :)

Wow, You Mean They Might Do the RIGHT Thing?

At least that's what Breitbart.com is saying:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in a months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., told reporters Tuesday that a provision continuing the moratorium will be dropped this year from a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running after Congress recesses for the election.

Republicans have made lifting the ban a key campaign issue after gasoline prices spiked this summer and public opinion turned in favor of more drilling. President Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling in July.

Republicans showing some stones? Democrats capitulating on their desire to wreck the economy, blame it on Bush, connect Bush to McCain, and elect Obama? Hallelujah!

Well, not exactly. The fact is, this is the least popular congress in its history, and they know how the people feel. They knew that by going against the will of the people here, it is THEY who would lose out. Polls are already showing that Obama might not be the Messiah they were hoping for -- he'll still probably win, but may not have the coat-tails that a realignment often has with it.

Regardless, this is some good news, finally in a news cycle that has been nothing but bad news. Oil Companies: let's get this party started!

The perfect storm: factors leading to the downfall of an MMO

Another fine thread about the sinking of the ship that was Star Wars Galaxies:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/203234

Diddy Blog #21: Sh*t Happens!

aka the poo Diddy edition. As always the usual language warning applies...

Biden, the Gift that Keeps On Giving.

Joe. Hoover was president. TV wasn't even invented yet. Love you, man!

Bloodsucking Fiends

No, this isn't another post about government, although you might think so by the title, this is actually about the book, Bloodsucking fiends: A Love Story, by Christopher Moore. For years, people have told me, dude, you'll really love this guy, he has your kinda sense of humor, and he loves the same sh*t we do.

I have read dozens of snippets from Lamb and while I had never sat down and actually read the whole book (I do plan to now), I loved the goofy religious satire, and in world with far too little religious humor, that book seems to be one of the best -- charmingly blasphemous, well written, and just plain cute.

Anyway, Bloodsucking Fiends. Loved it! Funny, a cool little story, believable characters, nice use of fan service to the vampire genre, and did I mention it was funny?

Without really going into too much detail, the story of Jody the vampire is my kinda vamp tale: she becomes a vampire and just deals with it. No big oh my God I can't believe it; much more like wow, vampires ARE real now how do I deal with it?

Just like a real person who has seen a few movies and experienced popular culture would be. I always hate it when in contemporary urban fantasy we have to suffer through pages and paragraphs of the characters NOT BELIEVING in what has happened and acting like they've never heard of a vampire before. Refreshing.

Add to that a collection of highly memorable characters, retail humor reminiscent of Kevin Smith, and you have a highly enjoyable, low maintenance novel. If you have some time, give this one a read. You'll be glad you did.

More Evidence That It's the Democrats, Stupid

The evidence is mounting that while both parties had a hand in it, the current money meltdown has far more Democratic fingerprints on it, as we told by Kevin Hassett of the American Enterpise Institute at Bloomberg.com:

Enough cards on this table have been turned over that the story is now clear. The economic history books will describe this episode in simple and understandable terms: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac exploded, and many bystanders were injured in the blast, some fatally.

Hassett goes on to explain how this happened, and then goes on to discuss how some people tried to stop it, or at least head it off:

The clear gravity of the situation pushed the legislation forward. Some might say the current mess couldn't be foreseen, yet in 2005 Alan Greenspan told Congress how urgent it was for it to act in the clearest possible terms: If Fannie and Freddie ``continue to grow, continue to have the low capital that they have, continue to engage in the dynamic hedging of their portfolios, which they need to do for interest rate risk aversion, they potentially create ever-growing potential systemic risk down the road,'' he said. ``We are placing the total financial system of the future at a substantial risk.''

What happened next was extraordinary. For the first time in history, a serious Fannie and Freddie reform bill was passed by the Senate Banking Committee. The bill gave a regulator power to crack down, and would have required the companies to eliminate their investments in risky assets.

If that bill had become law, then the world today would be different. In 2005, 2006 and 2007, a blizzard of terrible mortgage paper fluttered out of the Fannie and Freddie clouds, burying many of our oldest and most venerable institutions. Without their checkbooks keeping the market liquid and buying up excess supply, the market would likely have not existed.

But the bill didn't become law, for a simple reason: Democrats opposed it on a party-line vote in the committee, signaling that this would be a partisan issue. Republicans, tied in knots by the tight Democratic opposition, couldn't even get the Senate to vote on the matter.

Again, BOTH sides are to blame for this, but each day, more and more evidence shows the Democrats deserve the lion's share of it. Will the mainstream media allow this story to get out? Not if it might hurt their Messiah, Barack Obama.

Funny Biden Video

One of the things I LIKE about Joe Biden is he is just a regular guy. I don't like his politics, but I do like him:

Now, people are saying he is drunk here; but so what if he is? he's not driving, he's hanging out.

Either way, I love seeing politicians when they get caught as human beings :)

...and if this turns out to be a fake, it's still a funny video.

Update: From what I understand, Biden doesn't drink. Nothing wrong with a sober man making himself look silly either :)

1 Timothy 4: 9-10

Here is a saying you can trust. You can accept it completely. 10 We work hard for it. Here is the saying. We have put our hope in the living God. He is the Savior of all people. Most of all he is the Savior of those who believe. (NIV)

This [is] a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe. (KJV)

9The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. 10For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. (ESV)

Okay, we have three translations, even the one the hellraisers are so fond of: the King James Version. I don't think the Apostle can be any more clear here: "The saying is true and deserving of full acceptance." In other words: listen the heck up, dudes, this is VERY IMPORTANT I am about to tell you something that is certified.

He then says "for to this end we toil and strive" -- in other words -- THIS is what it's all about.

Now he doesn't say, watch out, yer hellbound unless you get yourself born again, pray the sinners prayer, and let Jesus into your soul. Nope. Not at all. The Apostle then goes on to say that "we have our hope in the living God, who is Savior of ALL people, especially those who believe.

There we see it AGAIN, a "special" salvation for believers, but make no mistake, ALL seems to once again mean ALL, and here we see God is the savior of ALL.

Once again, either Paul is a liar, or all are saved.

Clinton Praises Palin

America's greatest living politician more or less agrees with my assessment of Palin, as reported by ABC News Jennifer Parker:

September 18, 2008 6:33 PM
Asked if he was surprised by the bounce McCain received in the polls after choosing Palin as his vice presidential candidate, Clinton said he wasn't, and lavished praise on the Alaska governor.

"No, she's a-- she's an instinctively effective candidate," he said, "And with a compelling story. I think it was exciting to some, that, that she was a woman. It was exciting that she was from Alaska. It was exciting that she's sort of like the person she is. And she grew up in a, came up in a political culture and a religious culture that is probably well to the right of the American center. But, she didn't basically define herself in those terms," Clinton said.

"She handled herself very well," he said, "I get why she's done so well. She, she's, it's a mistake to underestimate her. She's got good intuitive skills. They're significant."

Love him or hate him, Bill Clinton knows his stuff. Democrats would do well to pay heed to the opinions of a master. It is interesting that Clinton's opposition hated him beyond reason and tried to dig up as much personal garbage on him as possible, attacked his daughter, and otherwise resorted to extremely low tactics to hurt him politically.