People who look young for their age ‘live longer’
People blessed with youthful faces are more likely to live to a ripe old age than those who look more than their years, work shows.
Danish scientists say appearance alone can predict survival, after they studied 387 pairs of twins.
The researchers [...]
because, er… he says so:
“Today, everybody agrees that the recession is over, and the question is what the pace of the expansion is going to be,” Summers said [...]
In today’s podcast, why is Chavez taking over the banks now?
Related reading:
The Venezuelan banking crisis made simple
Venezuela: Bank Nationalizations
Banking in Venezuela
Fall of the Boligarchs: Hugo Chávez cracks down on allies
As Jack Nicholson said, “Not many shopping days before Christmas,” and the Dems aren’t getting Obamacare through – not because the Republicans can actually block it but because of Dems themselves.
So Harry Reid is canvassing Independent Joe Lieberman and Blue Dogs:
Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi taken to hospital after being attacked at rally in Milan
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been struck in the face after leaving a meeting in Milan.
He was left ‘profusely bleeding’ from the mouth.
It was reported that a protester in a crowd hit Berlusconi with [...]
Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk:
Politico:
Iranian Prime Minister Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe plan to address negotiators at international climate talks in Copenhagen next week.
The three leaders are listed in a line-up of more than 180 government officials published in a United Nations schedule [...]
IF this is authentic, it’s bad news for the people of Illinois, and for the whole country:
(IF, in caps, because it is not on an official letterhead, and it is not signed, but the White House did not deny its authenticity)
Additionally, Andy McCarthy explains,
But, assuming it is [...]
Report: Senate Health Bill Will Raise Costs
The report, compiled by the chief actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, estimated that total health costs in the U.S. would be $234 billion higher than if the bill weren’t passed. President Barack Obama has said Democrats’ health plan [...]
Dan Collins inaugurates The Department of Cablinasian Studies.
Cablinasians of the world, unite!
(Yes, light blogging due to an unexpectedly busy last 24 hours)
[...]says the WSJ:
Worse Than the Public Option
Harry Reid’s Medicare gambit.
It’s hard to imagine a better illustration of the panic and recklessness stringing ObamaCare along in the Senate than the putative deal that Harry Reid announced this week. The Majority Leader is claiming that a Medicare “buy-in” [...]
Snubbed Norwegians replace absent Obama at event with … cardboard cutout
Yessiree…the cutout made a personal appearance
a “Save the Children” benefit concert, where organizers replaced him with an Obama cardboard cutout. Obama also won’t be around for Friday’s Nobel Concert.
Here he is on stage right:
Maybe the NYT will include some Orquesta Kef CDs in their segregated shopping guide,
A change in immigration rules that is affecting performers (among them traveling tango instructors and performers):
Send Us Your Tired, Your Poor, But Only if They’re ‘Culturally Unique’
Immigration Caseworker AA0089 Has Some Thoughts About [...]
#DarsiFerrer blogburst today, Human Rights Day.
Marc Masferrer has the story:
Blogburst/blogacción, 12/10/09 | Free Darsi Ferrer NOW!
Dr. Ferrer is a leader. Dr. Ferrer is a patriot. Dr. Ferrer is a hero.
But this year, Dr. Ferrer needs our help. We must pick up his banner and demand human [...]
… and available on line, too.
White NYT Readers, You May Skip To The Next Page!
This gift guide takes a holiday season celebrated by both Caucasians and people of color, and sets apart a page for gifts meant “by and for” a group of people defined only by [...]
La Gringa, last night:
Proceso Digital, an online Honduran newspaper, reports that Mel Zelaya has requested a ’salvoconducto’ (safe conduct) and may be leaving for Mexico in the next hours. Radio Globo reported earlier in the day that they had information that Zelaya was [...]
You can watch it live here (h/t The Corner).
Adding to the list of events Obama won’t be attending,
a dinner with the Nobel Peace Prize Committee a press conference a TV interviewPlus the other events I mentioned yesterday.
Nobel peace prize: Norwegians incensed over Barack Obama’s snubs
According to a poll [...]
Opening on Christmas Day, Robert Downey Jr stars as Sherlock Holmes. When I was in grade school and my friends were reading Nancy Drew, I was reading the Arthur Connan Doyle stories. In this version of Sherlock Holmes,
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous super-sleuth, Sherlock Holmes, gets an update [...]
It’s a dreary Wednesday and to be truthful, I’m finding politics (American, Latin American, or any politics) exhausting. The Anchoress has an Advent pause for weary minds, but being much less spiritual than her, imagine my delight when I saw this from John Derbishire, whose book, We Are Doomed [...]
Smart diplomacy in action:
Will Obama Snub the King?
The question they should be asking is not will he, but how; according to the article, Obama
Declined an invitation to lunch with King Harald V Will not attend the Peace Center exhibit in his honor, even when Prize [...]
In Today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern, and while we are focused on Tiger Woods’s marital travails,
Noticias 24/AFP report that students, workers, indigenous movements, and other leftist groups met in Caracas this week to create the Movimiento Continental Bolivariano (Continental Bolivarian Movement), which promotes “the [...]
Via Instapundit, what it’s like to need a hip replacement when you get put on the waiting list,
[...]
Ooooh yeah, babeee….
Vanity Fair heaps praise on the Vanderbilt Divinity School drop-out and self-ordained pope of the cult of Anthropogenic Global Warming: Al Gore: The Poet Laureate of Climate Change
Among the brilliance shared by Gore is this (not sure what to call it),
The shepherd [...]
Chavez: Venezuela acquires thousands of missiles
President Hugo Chavez said Monday that Venezuela has received thousands of Russian-made missiles and rocket launchers as part of his government’s military preparations for a possible armed conflict with neighboring Colombia.
“They are preparing a war against us,” Chavez said during [...]
In today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern,
A few excerpts from The Economist’s report, The Panama Canal
A plan to unlock prosperity
Ten years ago this month Panama took possession of the canal that bears its name. It has high hopes for a $5.25 billion expansion of the waterway
Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean.
While Evo Morales won yesterday’s election and apparently gained control of the of the senate, the big story of the week is the crisis at the Venezuelan banks. Read the Venezuela News and Views post and [...]
Today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern,
Evo Morales Appears to Win Bolivia Vote
Second Term Expected to Bring More Ambitious Economic Changes; Ruling Party Poised to Take Over Senate
Related reading:
Bolivia’s Morales Wins Election, Congress on Vow to Help Poor
Bolivian elections: Evo [...]
Andrew Gilligan reports from the summit zoo:
Copenhagen climate summit: 1,200 limos, 140 private planes and caviar wedges
Copenhagen is preparing for the climate change summit that will produce as much carbon dioxide as a town the size of Middlesbrough.
According to the organisers, the eleven-day conference, including the [...]
Little Miss Attila has a few choice words for Shine’s Jessica Ashley, who’s come out saying that Tiger Woods’s wife did the right thing by resorting to violence. Jessica says,
I am not going to opine about whether Elin should or should not stick with her husband (although [...]
While we’re wallowing in disastrous economic policy, Chile is flourishing. Why is that?
How Chile Got Rich
Wealth: Chile is expected to win entry to OECD’s club of developed countries by Dec. 15 — a great affirmation for a once-poor nation that pulled itself up by trusting markets. One thing [...]
Copenhagen, Hope ‘n hagen,
In last-minute stunner, Obama changes plans to attend final day of Copenhagen talks
On Friday, the Obama administration announced a startling shift in plans: rather than stop by the Copenhagen climate talks on Dec. 9, Obama will be going on the 18th, the final day [...]
Gibbs Tells a Female White House Correspondent to ‘Calm Down’
Ryan had a heated back-and-forth with Gibbs over whether White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers overstepped her bounds in the “Gate-Crash-gate” incident and was pressing Gibbs on the subject through repeated questions.
“Some might have called her the belle of [...]
Giuliani To Provide Security Consulting For Rio Olympics
Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s consulting firm is being hired by the city of Rio de Janeiro to help make the city safe for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Giuliani visited a slum in Rio on Friday and praised the city’s efforts to bring [...]
Met Office to re-examine 160 years of climate data
The Met Office plans to re-examine 160 years of temperature data after admitting that public confidence in the science on man-made global warming has been shattered by leaked e-mails.
The new analysis of the data will take three years, meaning that [...]
Now that AGW has been shown to be a scam, the enthusiasm for the Copenhagen conference has cooled down tremendously.
But hey, the hookers are unionized, and they are free!
Gropenhagen Conference
Prostitutes Offer Free Climate Summit Sex
Copenhagen Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard sent postcards to city hotels warning summit [...]
… asks Andrew McCarthy,
It’s been brought to my attention by several reliable sources that the Defense Department has brought Louay Safi to Fort Hood as an instructor, and that he has been lecturing on Islam to our troops in Fort Hood who are about to deploy to Afghanistan. Safi [...]
Yeah, that ought to do the trick, won’t it? How did that sort of thing work in Zimbabwe?
Fighting drought, Venezuela takes over more farms
1,500 farms taken from landowners in eight years
HATO SAN JOSE, Venezuela, Dec 2 – Venezuela this year has taken over more than a [...]
Today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern,
The Honduran Congress will not reinstate Mel Zelaya, and what that means to the Obama administration.
Related reading
U.S. `disappointed’ by vote against Zelaya
U.S. officials said they were `disappointed’ with the Honduran congress’ vote against returning former President Manuel Zelaya to office.
[...]
And Stewart rips the “value-added data”, even when he apparently still hopes we weren’t scammed.
Instapundit posted that video, along with another item, from P. J. Gladnick of NewsBusters:
Over at the HuffPo, Huffington Post Suffers ClimateGate Panic Attack since, even when the AGW gig is up, their mind [...]
Cracking Cuba
U.S. sanctions have failed to bring down the Castro brothers. It’s time for carrots instead of a stick.
Political and civil rights abuses committed by the Cuban government have continued unabated in the three years since Raul Castro took over from his older brother, Fidel. U.S. travel [...]
111 out of the 128 members of the Honduran Congress present voted against reinstating deposed president Mel Zelaya. The vote came after an all-day session where the Congress reviewed several reports from the country’s institutions, including the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, and various members [...]
My latest post, Brazil and That Coveted Security Council Seat, is up at Real Clear World.
————————————-
There will be no podcast this morning.
Two weeks ago I posted a link to a gruesome report that allegedly a Peruvian gang was killing people for human fat. Now the BBC has an update on that story:
Peru officer suspended over human fat killers ‘lie’
Peru’s police chief has suspended a top investigator for saying [...]
My friend Rick Moran talks about last night’s speech by Obama on Afghanistan, Honduras, and how the two are related.
You can listen live at 11AM Eastern, subscribing through iTunes, or in the archive at your convenience.
[...]Show tango at its best, Luis Bianchi & Daniela Pucci dancing to Piazolla’s Oblivion,
[...]Just when you think you’ve heard it all, some researcher has come up with the notion that Loneliness can be “transmitted” from one person to another
Talking about the loneliness condition, John Cacioppo, a University of Chicago psychologist and a leading scholar of loneliness, said that loneliness is not [...]
Was reading this article in the Wall Street Journal when I remembered this song from Dire Straits, where they said that to make real money you should be a rocker instead of someone with a real job, say, selling appliances:
We got to install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
[...]
Overextend yourself, live well beyond your means and you shall be rewarded:
U.S. steps up pressure on lenders to modify more mortgages
Treasury threatens public shame and monetary penalties
The Obama administration on Monday promised tougher scrutiny of lenders participating in its marquee foreclosure-prevention effort and threatened to penalize companies [...]
My latest article, Honduras: Pepe Lobo Wins, is up at Real Clear World. Please go read it.
[...]Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. Today the Carnival’s dedicated to the Honduran election.
Here’s a roundup of links:
Good news from Honduras
Honduras election results in decisive win for democracy
Don’t miss Daniel’s two posts: Honduras and the US win; Chavez [...]
Semanario Verdad Latinoamericana reports that nurses in a Bolivian hospital are forced to wear a hijab veil at their jobs.
The article, Bolivia: enfermeras son obligadas a llevar velo, says that state newspaper Cambio (link to their website here, but no link to their report on the hospital) reported [...]
In today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern,
Honduras elects Porfirio Lobo as new president
Rival Elvin Santos concedes defeat as ousted president, Manuel Zelaya, declares vote illegitimate
Profile of Porfirio Lobo (in Spanish).
Electoral map results at El Heraldo.
La Gringa’s election day post.
In other presidential [...]
Warm sentiments from a religious fanatic who wants to bring about the mahdaviat, to a power-hungry tinpot dictator:
Ahmadinejad to Chavez: ‘We’re going to be together until the end’
“We feel at home here and among our brothers … we’re going to be together until the end,” Iranian President [...]
… says Jacob Weisberg about Obama:
Day By Day illustrates exactly what Obama has accomplished in his first ten months (click on image for full size):
But hey, there’s still [...]
The University of East Anglia scientists found the shortest distance between the facts and the results they were looking for: when the data didn’t fit, they dumped it.
Climate change data dumped
SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data [...]
My latest post, Honduras: Elections tomorrow, Zelaya talking of leaving is up at Real Clear World.
[...]Haven’t read the books, haven’t seen the movies, but this is funny,
Top 20 Unfortunate Lessons Girls Learn From ‘Twilight’, with the stress on prepping up for abusive relationships:
1. If a boy is aloof, stand-offish, ignores you or is just plain rude, it is because he is secretly [...]
EM writes on the cult of Oprah hosting the Obama Christmas special:
Don’t get me wrong, I envy her a little. Who wouldn’t want to be the person millions of gullible people turn to for advice on all the wrong things?
Indeed, and Oprah ought to be credited for having [...]
When tribalism trumps truth:
Mark Steyn: Cooking the books on climate
The trouble with outsourcing your marbles to the peer-reviewed set is that, if you take away one single thing from the leaked documents, it’s that the global warm-mongers have wholly corrupted the “peer-review” process. When it comes to promoting [...]
The Economist has a brief case study of automotive ineptitude
SELDOM, since the day Adolf Hitler gave the order to produce the Volkswagen, has a car been given such an explicitly ideological mission. But the vehicles that roll, occasionally, off the production line at Venirauto’s factory, west of Caracas, [...]
Senate Bill: 2,074 pages
House Bill: 2,014 pages
118 new boards, commissions, and programs
$1 trillion new entitlement of stupefying arbitrariness and inefficiency
Charles Krauthammer says Kill the Bill:
You’ll find mandates with financial penalties — the amounts picked out of a hat.
You’ll find insurance companies (who live and [...]
Yes, it’s the morning after Thanksgiving Day and there’s a list of things that need to be done, Dubay’s gone broke, the Latin Americans are a mess and rude people are crashing White House parties.
What better way, then, to procrastinate than to [...]
Fred Astaire in the most perfect pas de deux:
Dancing in the Dark, with Cyd Charisse,
How Private Property Saved the Pilgrims
Silvio posts the Thanksgiving Declaration.
No Sheeples Here checks out the Prescription for Truth
Eric’s home after a lot of travel.
The Anchoress is thankful on Thanksgiving.
The Cotillion’s back up and celebrating Thanksgiving.
And no Thanksgiving Day is complete without this:
[...]… says Michelle Obama’s Mirror’s Blog about the gown:
Evening. Naeem Kahn – Indian born American based designer. Oh, how clever of Lady M! “The dress is entirely handmade, requiring three weeks of work by 40 people, completed in Naeem Kahn’s family workshop in India.” So that’s another 40 [...]
Yes, it’s that time of year again.
Since I don’t tolerate food with sugar added, here’s the sum total of my baking:
Apple and pecan pie:
The day before: marinade 1/2 cup of raisins in a glass dish and add enough bourbon to cover the raisins. Cover the dish and set [...]
It’s not enough that the government imposes confiscatory taxes and funds all sorts of entitlement programs, in Germany a bank manager was taking money from the “rich” clients to give to the “poor”:
German banker admits transferring money from rich to help poorer clients
The 62-year-old branch head of [...]
Obama to attend climate talks in Copenhagen
President Obama will travel to Copenhagen in December to help kick off the global climate talks despite the conference’s failure to secure a binding worldwide treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
An administration official said Obama will travel to the Danish capital Dec. [...]
In today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern, Ahmadinejad and his entourage of 200 businessmen visit Bolivia and Venezuela.
Related reading:
Iran’s leader gets backing in friendly Bolivia
Iran, Bolivia agree to cooperate on study of Lithium
Iran’s Ahmadinejad arrives in Venezuela
Venezuela [...]
Correction: SEALS are not Marines.
My apologies for my ignorance
Via Michael Goldfarb, you would think the US is monitoring a kindergarten playground instead of fighting a war:
Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist
Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted [...]
Christopher Hitchens: Multicultural MasochismThe “war on terrorism” didn’t cause the Fort Hood shootings.
For a start, did Hasan or Muhammad ever say what “killing” of which “Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan” they had in mind? There isn’t a day goes by without the brutal slaughter of Muslims in both [...]
Thomas Sowell explains what politicians are after when making disastrous policy:
Solving Whose Problem?
No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems– of which getting elected and re-elected are number one [...]
In today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern,
It’s the two Mahmouds for Lula: Having hosted Mahmoud Abbas last week, this week it’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s turn. What is Lula after?
Related reading:
Lula Says U.S. Shouldn’t Broker Middle East Talks
IBD Editorial Brazil’s Bad Move
Brazilian president [...]
Makes me wonder how much money is actually changing hands between those two:
Lula urges Iran dialogue, backs nuclear plan
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva urged his Iranian counterpart on Monday to engage in dialogue on nuclear non-proliferation but backed Iran’s right to develop [...]
Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad started his tour of South America by accepting Lula’s invitation to Brazil, which was first scheduled for last May but was postponed after public outcry. Protestors were at the airport
Around 200 Iranian businessmen [...]
Der Speigel’s harsh assessment of Obama’s trip to China:
Obama’s Nice Guy Act Gets Him Nowhere on the World Stage
When he entered office, US President Barack Obama promised to inject US foreign policy with a new tone of respect and diplomacy. His recent trip to Asia, however, showed [...]
In today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern,
Carlos Alberto Montaner’s article in El Herald Por qué Estados Unidos le quitó su apoyo a Zelaya Why the US withdrew its support for Zelaya.
The Carnival of Latin America will be up later today.
[...]The Coming Deficit Disaster
The president says he understands the urgency of our fiscal crisis, but his policies are the equivalent of steering the economy toward an iceberg.
Going forward, there is no relief in sight, as spending far outpaces revenues and the federal budget is projected to be [...]
John Hinderaker summarizes “the priority that the global warming alarmists give to politics and career advancement over science” The Alarmists Do “Science”: A Case Study
The story began when Steve McIntyre, the same researcher who was largely responsible for destroying Michael Mann’s “hockey stick” graph purporting to show unprecedented [...]
Because nothing represents girls’ rights better than this:
It’s Barbie in a burkha: World-famous doll gets a makeover to go under the hammer for 50th anniversary
One of the world’s most famous children’s toys, Barbie, has been given a makeover – wearing a burkha.
Wearing the traditional Islamic [...]
No tango, no thriller, just a song,
Everybody’s wonderin’ what and where they they all came from
everybody’s worryin’ ’bout where they’re gonna go
when the whole thing’s done
but no one knows for certain
and so it’s all the same to me
I think I’ll just let the mystery be
Some [...]
Here’s a bit of news on that “excellent free Cuban healthcare” sure to warm your heart… or something:
Agence France Presse story at Noticias 24:
Cuba realiza implantes gratuitos de prótesis de penes Cuba operating free penile prosthesis surgeries. There are 28 lucky guys waiting for their overhaul.
Back in the olden days this is what passing a bill in Congress was like:
Back then the bill was read, and sat in Congress while it was debated.
Ah, for the good ole days…
Now a senator can make headlines by simply asking people to Read the Senate health bill yourself
“You’re [...]
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was invited by Lula to visit Brazil last May. Following protests in all major cities in the country by Christian, Jewish, candomblé, gay rights, women’s, and human rights groups, Brazil’s Foreign Office announced that the trip had been canceled. The Foreign Office claimed that Ahmadinejad had [...]
Michael Fumento, writing at Forbes, explains why Americans are Not Fit For Combat
Low education and high-fat diets are keeping Americans out of the military.
…
About three-fourths of the nation’s 17- to 24-year-olds can’t join the military, largely due to these problems, says a report from Mission: [...]
Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez submitted seven questions to pres. Obama and to Raul Castro. Only Obama replied. You can read her post here.
The Miami Herald reports, Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez gets answers — from President Obama
A spokesman for the U.S. State Department’s Western Hemisphere department confirmed [...]
As reported in the Daily Prince, Egyptian activist’s invitation withdrawn
A planned Wednesday talk by controversial Egyptian-American activist Nonie Darwish was cancelled Tuesday evening when both of the event’s sponsors, Tigers for Israel (TFI) and the American Whig-Cliosophic Society, withdrew their sponsorship, citing her criticism of Islam.
Darwish, a writer [...]
Obama Tells Troops: “You Guys Make a Pretty Good Photo-Op”
Such tact, such wit.
And if you’re in Afghanistan, hold tight for your turn,
White House aides: No Afghan decision before Thanksgiving (h/t Dymphna); however, the WaPo managed to save the soundbite, so to speak,
Obama arrived on the base [...]
Remember how the other day Hugo Chávez was saying that he was having Cuban technicians bomb clouds for rain?
He proclaimed it on TV (video in Spanish)
Well, Hugo Chávez claims he is now able to make the clouds abort by firing rays from a cannon [...]
I wonder if she’ll run for Senate?
Oprah Winfrey to End Her Talk Show
Not to worry, though. The show will go on until September 2011. After that, the Church of Oprah will roll on and on and on, and her magazine will have her on every cover of every [...]
Leahy: No need to interrogate bin Laden
If the U.S. captures Osama bin Laden, there’s no need to interrogate him, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Thursday.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the chairman of that committee, said that arguments raised by Republican senators about whether bin Laden would [...]
Watching this video, you can’t help but wonder if Eric Holder gave much thought to the decision:
How could Holder not know the answer to this question?
Noel Sheppard (via Instapundit) has the transcript. Money quote:
The big problem I have is that you’re criminalizing the war, that if we [...]
I used to read Andrew Sullivan until I decided that he had irretrievably gone off the deep end, and that was before he took up his gynecological research crusade on Sarah Palin. However, there are several blogs I read who are posting on this masterpiece of obsession and hysteria:
[...]
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In today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern, Getting it together at last
Brazil [...]
[...]
