Terrorist Kill Their Own

One of the scariest things about Islamist terrorist is their complete lack of anything close to a conscience. They will kill anyone at anytime and at any place.

Just yesterday, militants in Somalia set off a bomb at the education ministry that killed at least 70 people.

Al-Qaida-linked militants launched their deadliest single bombing in Somalia on Tuesday, killing 70 people and demonstrating how the group that blocked aid to famine victims can still mount devastating violence even after most of its fighters fled the capital in August.

A truck loaded with drums of fuel exploded outside the Ministry of Education on one of central Mogadishu’s busiest streets, where student and their parents were registering for scholarships offered by the Turkish government.

Rebels of the al-Shabab militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying it was striking government officials and foreigners – referring to African Union peacekeeping troops supporting the UN-backed regime (Source: Associated Press via The Daily Beast)

This is just beneath contempt. Killing innocent civilians who want a better life marks these people as less than human. To think they would kill fellow Muslims who were hoping to get an education provided by a Muslim country defies comprehension. I guess these militants realize that the only way for them to stay in any sort of power is to keep the general population from understanding that education is the way out of poverty and failure. As long as the average Muslim is not allowed to develop critical thinking and reasoning, these murders will hold sway.

Banks to Raise Fees

In the arena of unintended consequences, banks are going to introduce or raise fees for users of debit cards. When the democrat-controlled Congress and President Obama passed the finance reform bill, banks had to find other ways to make money. The fees are probably the first of many increases that we will see over the next few years.

Worst Housing Market in Decades

More bad news from the housing market front.

The home buying season was a bust.

March through August are typically the peak buying months. But this year, Americans bought fewer new homes in that stretch than in any six-month period since record keeping began a half-century ago.

Sales of previously occupied homes didn’t fare much better; they nearly matched 2990’s total for the peak buying months. And that was the worst since 1997.

Combined, total sales this spring and summer were the weakest on records dating back to 1963. The figures underscore how badly the housing market is faring and suggest that a recovery is years away.

Because the economy is barely growing and unemployment exceeds 9 percent, many people see a home purchase as too big a risk. Some worry about losing their jobs. Others can’t afford the 20 percent down payment most lenders now require. (Source: Seattle Times)

Reeducation Camps?

Earlier this week I put up a brief post asking the question whether or not President Obama would do what NC Gov Perdue suggested and cancel the upcoming elections. I really do not think that Obama would go so far as to do something that dramatic, although he has not really been a friend of the Constitution. So you might say that I am not much for conspiracy theories.

Saying that, please take a gander at the video posted above and let me know what you think. The video here is part one of two parts; click through to get the second one. The video does make a compelling argument there might be something fishy going on. The Obama administration has already come out publically, stating that people who are against a large federal government, and have right-leaning tendencies, could and should be on a government watch list. I guess that would make most of my readers domestic terrorists.

I have occasionally watched Jesse Ventura’s old show, Conspiracy Theory, and he can be a bit over the top. But just because he might be off-target doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t consider what he has to say.

Volts Falls Short Yet Again

The Chevy Volt continues to be an utter failure for Obama Motors (aka General Motors). Only 723 Volts were sold last month.

General Motors has repeatedly claimed a sales target for 2011 of 10,000 units for the plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt sedan. But, nine months into the year, they’ve only shipped 3,895 off the lot. In fact, in September sales numbers, released an hour ago, GM sold only 723 Volts. Will GM fail to meet its own sales predictions? (Source: Jalopnik)

To reach their predicted goal, GM will need to sell more than 2,000 units over the next three months. So far, no month in 2011 has even come close to this number.

Since you the taxpayer have such a large stake in GM due to the bailout of GM’s unions, this should concern you. How is Obama spending your money (it is your money). Tax dollars for tacking bees, and money to solar panel factories, and even more money to failed automakers should be something you need to consider.

IS Chris Christie too Fat to be President?

I keep hearing the news that Jew Jersey Governor Chris Christie is in the final processes of a decision on whether or not he is going to throw his hat into the ring for a run at the Republican nomination.

Two thoughts on this.

I don’t want him to run. I have no dog in the fight as whether or not he stays on as NJ governor since I am not from there and have never been there. I do follow him. One of my favorite blogs, TigerHawk, always puts up the latest Christie video, generally where he is telling someone who wants to spend more taxpayer dollars to sit down and be quiet. He is a budget hawk, cutting where cutting needs to happen. Considering where our federal budget sits, he might be a good choice.

But I do have concerns about a couple of significant platforms he supports. First, he is in favor of some form of amnesty for illegal immigrants. While I do think you should never be a one policy or platform voter, this is a biggie. With more than 12 million illegal currently residing in our great nation, granting a blanket amnesty is not something I can support. These people have broken the law do not deserve to be put ahead of folks who have ask for legal status in the proper way. I have also never heard him say exactly how he plans on enforcing our borders to keep illegal immigrants out once the blanket amnesty have been granted.

The second platform that has me concerned is his lack of anything concrete on the 2nd Amendment. Shortly after he was sworn in as governor, he had an opportunity to grant a pardon to a man who was convicted of transporting weapons into Jew Jersey. The sticking point was this guy was moving from Colorado to NJ, bringing his weapons with him. He was not a gun-runner. Christie commuted the sentence, but the dude still has a record.

My other thought on Christie (yes, I can have two thoughts at once) is the way the left wing (aka main stream media) is treating this guy. Recently, a couple of stories broke as to whether or not Christie deserves the nomination because he is overweight. You read that right, there are concerns his weight makes him a less than desirable candidate and folks on the left are locking on to that. Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson tells Christie to “eat a salad and take walk.” In his column, Robinson pretty much declares which side of the aisle he supports (big surprise there), but says his advice is “non-partisan.” Not quite. I don’t recall very many left-leaning reporters and columnist taking Obama to task for his smoking.

Michael Kinsley is over the top when he writes:

“Look, I’m sorry, but New Jersey Governor Chris Christie cannot be president: He is just too fat.” (Source: Bloomberg)

(BTW: Links via Frank Bruni column at the New York Times. This one is also worth a read because he is a liberal basically telling his liberal friends to back off the Christie weight issue. Good for him.)

Disgusting is all I can say about this. For a political body that is always harping on how they are the party of the downtrodden and the little people, this is hypocritical. Maybe they feel they can get away with it because Christie is a Republican and is not so little.

Humor

As the father of two teenage boys, I found this a tad bit amusing.

Could it Happen?

Considering the foot-in-mouth episode of NC Governor Beverly Perdue regarding suspending Congressional elections, this little bit over at Patriot Update is more than a little scary. Does anyone think that Obama wouldn’t be willing to suspend the 2012 elections if there were some crisis going on? I generally try to stay away from conspiracy theories, but when you think about it, it really doesn’t seem all that far-fetched.

Thanks for the tip Sandy!

Do We Want A British Style Health Care System?

Is this the future of our medical system? Some in the Obama administration are on record as being in favor, or admiring of, the British health care system, the system that brought about the fiasco linked above.

Long Climb Out

This is certainly not welcome news. For those of us who were hoping to have our homes as a nest egg for retirement are going to be disappointed. This will be especially true for those who will be retiring for good in the next 10 years or so.

The pessimistic outlook on home values is really not all that surprising in my book. Serious damage to the real estate market has been done. Values in homes are as low as 2000 prices, and the market has yet to experience a serious glut in foreclosed homes. Couple the aforementioned reasons with a natural pessimism that I think people are going to have towards purchasing a home, home values increases are going to be stunted. There will be some markets that will recover nicely, most likely in areas that see economic recovery sooner.

I sometimes wonder if Barney Frank and other democrats who pushed banks to loan money to people who should have never been the market ever loses sleep over what he has wrought. If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say that he feels nothing. It would not surprise me if and when the market shows life once again, that he doesn’t try the same thing all over again.