Quick Takes, January 13, 2011

ITEM: According to Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Passport Services Brenda Sprague, new passport applications will be “gender neutral.” Blanks will no longer ask for “Father” and “Mother,” but will now list “Parent one” and Parent two.” Why? ““We find that with changes in medical science and reproductive technology that we are confronting situations now that we would not have anticipated 10 or 15 years ago,” Sprague said.” Sprague denied that the change was motivated by political correctness. Well of course. More and more people are recognizing that there is absolutely no difference between men and women. Unconfirmed rumors are circulating that under a little known provision of Obamacare, hospitals may lose federal funding if an insufficient quota of men are not proved to be giving birth.

ITEM: Having cut off production of the F-22 stealth fighter, currently the most advanced in the world at only a bit over 180 aircraft, the Obama Administration apparently felt no embarrassment or alarm whatever at the release of video of China’s Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter. The J-20, which resembles the F-22 in many ways, appears on first glance to have benefitted from stolen American technology. It completed its first test flight this week. China is currently working on an unprecedented technological military build up. This too does not seem to embarrass or alarm the Obama Administration. You?

ITEM: Congresscritters and the Obama Administration are claiming that repealing Obamacare would actually cost money and would “explode the deficit.” The lamestream media is taking up the hue and cry. Let’s see if I have this straight: Repealing a bill that will spend upwards of three trillion dollars (or more), establish more than 100 new federal bureaucracies, hire tens of thousands of highly paid, mostly unionized governmental employees in the IRS alone, that is already causing insurance and medical costs to skyrocket, that will give free insurance to tens of millions, etc. etc. is far more costly and damaging to the economy than not spending all that money? But of course. Have I mentioned that I have a miraculous fuel additive that will allow your car to get 500 MPG? Only $99.99 if you call in the next 15 minutes! It also removes body fat and wrinkles!

ITEM: Those darned kids these days. Seventeen year old Sammy Parker weighs only 75 pounds. Stricken with cerebral palsy, Sammy cannot speak or walk. Until his recent surgery for a life-threatening heart ailment, his father Rick carried him upstairs to his bedroom every night. Enter Rudy Favard, the son of Haitian immigrants. Co-captain of the Malden Catholic high school football team in Boston and an honor roll student, Rudy was glad to help, and so four nights a week, he drives to the Parker home and carries Sammy to bed. The complete article can be found here. This is America. This is the best we can be, and Rudy is not alone. There is real hope.

ITEM: Under President Obama, gas prices have risen 55% in only two years! We’re number one! We’re number one! Shortly after his appointment, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that he wanted to “...figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels of Europe.” At that time European gas cost $7.00 to $8.00 per gallon. Remember that President Obama, while on the campaign trail (yes, I know; he’s never left), promised that “energy prices would necessarily skyrocket” if he got his way. Memo to self: When a Democrat politician promises to destroy the economy, that’s the only thing about which he is not lying.

ITEM: So that’s what caused it! Former Speaker of the House (Ahhhhh! To paraphrase James Brown: “That feels good!”) Nancy Pelosi has, for the sake of posterity, explained why Democrats were so soundly spanked at the mid-term election: George W. Bush did it. But of course! Global warming? Bush did it. No global warming? Bush did it. Lost your car keys? Bush did it. Got a pimple? Bush did it. Amazing what a man certified by the left as a low-grade moron can accomplish. Can we pass a constitutional amendment requiring that all federal politicians be pre-tested and certified for adulthood?

ITEM: There is no lack of competition for the “Most Deranged Commentary by a Politician Commenting On Deranged People” award, but I hereby nominate Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) and Former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerry (D). On the Imus show, Kerry noted that the Arizona killer was “mentally ill and deeply troubled,” and that he wouldn’t address his political beliefs--immediately before announcing that his attack was motivated by those who want to appeal ObamaCare(?!). Clyburn suggested that the attack was somehow motivated by or related to the recent reading of the Constitution in the House of Representatives and unspecified attempts to “delegitimize the President.” “All that stuff is uncalled for,” he said. I just know that somehow, somewhere, George W. Bush is involved...

ITEM: Speaking in Abu Dhabi, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton compared the Arizona killer with Arab terrorists, drawing no distinction between them and calling both “extremists.” But of course. There is obviously no difference between organized and well financed groups of Jihadis who have declared war on the United States and western civilization, who commit horrendous atrocities without a second thought, and a deranged pothead loner with a handgun. That’s why Mrs. Clinton gets the big bucks and all the perks. Nuance. Sophistication. Vision. Hope. Change. I used to think that she could not have been worse that Barack Obama. I’m no longer sure...

ITEM: Rep. Peter King (R-NY) has announced plans to make carrying a firearm within 1000 feet of certain “high-profile government officials” a federal offense. Great. That’s more than three football fields. As with so many gun laws, this proposal would do nothing more than create an entirely new class of criminals out of law abiding gun owners who had no idea that a “high profile government official” was within 1000 feet of them. “But that’s not what we intend with this law,” its supporters would surely say. OK then. Don’t pass it.

ITEM: He did it again. President Barack Obama has, in his serial insults of Great Britain, set another world record. But in a press opportunity with French President Nicolas Sarkosy Obama said: ‘We don’t have a stronger friend and stronger ally than Nicolas Sarkozy, and the French people.” It’s hard to imagine a more direct insult to the British other than, perhaps, Mr. Obama’s previous serial insults. THe British press has not been amused. With a President and Secretary of State like this, who needs enemies?

ITEM: The Democrat controlled Illinois legislature, having driven the state into bankruptcy, at the urging of Gov. Pat Quinn took the bold and courageous move of increasing personal income tax rates 67% and business rates 46%. No Republicans voted for the increase. The governors of Indiana and Wisconsin are said to be ecstatic and are advertising, or planning to advertise, their business friendly climates. That’s Progressive thinking for you: “Our policies have propelled the state into bankruptcy, but that’s only because we haven’t inflicted even more of the same policies on the state. Just wait; you’ll see.” Yes, they will. Congratulations to Wisconsin and Indiana and to the owners of Illinois home and business moving companies!

ITEM: A few questions about President Obama’s speech at the Tucson memorial service on Wednesday evening: Why would anyone think a university athletic arena an appropriate venue? Repeatedly and loudly cheering the President? At a memorial service? Handing out t-shirts beforehand? Did it remind you too of the Wellstone memorial/Dem. pep rally? Janet Napolitano and Eric Holder speaking before the President? A 34 minute speech, after other lengthy speeches? Why was the POTUS there at all, to say nothing of the other administration figures? Is this yet another occasion all about Mr. Obama? Is this his attempt to be, like Bill Clinton, the comforter in chief? Will he rush to comfort victims of tragedies around the nation from now on? Just asking.

CORRECTION: It seems that the source from which I received an armed citizen report isn't quite as reliable as I might have hoped. Since I can't unquestionably verify it, I'm removing it. Thanks to George and Professor Hale for catching that one!

See you next time!