As if you didn't have enough to worry about these days, Michael Walsh over at the Corner has put up a great article on the fundamental issue facing modern societies.  His argument reminds me of the warning from the Catholic Pope of the rise of what he termed a "culture of death" in the West, which judging by this article, cannot be ignored any longer.

From the article:

 "The Western world is facing an unparalleled demographic crisis brought on by a feminist-inspired modern twist on Lysistrata (showering sex but withholding children), while at the same time, the West’s vaunted “safety net” is collapsing because the system has been turned upside-down and a bevy of great-grandparents now coos over a single child.

Surely, this is the ultimate expression of the suicide cult that is the modern Left, a subset of libertine takers that so loathes itself that it will dragoon the makers into underwriting the chalices of tasty hemlock it’s so eager for everybody to quaff in order to put itself out of its misery. If, as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody, it feels good, do it! Alas, it does hurt somebody — it hurts society, by robbing it of its future and burdening those lucky kids who make it through the contraceptive/abortifacient gauntlet with an unpayable debt to the very people who tried to get rid of them."

Is that not the rub?  Our culture must change itself back to what it was, or it really is facing extinction in time.  Might as well start now, and the election of Mitt Romney, a Mormon with a big family, could very well be the first step back from the edge.  I know I've done my part with three kids of my own.

Sales of VW's Passat are booming, so much so that the company is planning to hire 800 more workers here in their American assembly plant.


This threatens the UAW, so they are attempting to unionize the factory.  After all, how can they compete paying legacy UAW men 28 bucks an hour, when VW pays only 18, and doesn't have to deal with nonsensical union rules to boot.

Obama saved the union with taxpayer money, screwing the bondholders along the way, but now the market appears to be doing the job he couldn't, namely disciplining the inefficient and non competitive.

Full  disclosure:  I drive two Dodges, and they have both been great cars.

Freckles, they are good.

Your happy news for a Saturday morning from the Daily Caller:

"Conservatives on Twitter today quickly hijacked the #ILikeObamacare hashtag, which had been launched by President Barack Obama’s campaign to highlight supporters of the Democrats’ signature health care reform law.

The Twitter hashtag was the most popular in the world Friday afternoon, but not for reasons the Obama campaign wanted. (RELATED: Full coverage of the health care law)

For every tweet saying, “My son is now covered, despite his pre-existing condition,” ten tweets were dripping with sarcasm about the health care law. The Daily Caller rounded up ten funniest tweets that came across our screen."


My favorite of the top ten is this one:


1.) @voteforcantwell: #ILikeObamacare Because I’m too poor to pay for insurance – Sent from my iPad 3”

 I especially like this little bit of piracy because it shows, first of all, the unpopularity of Obamacare.  Secondly, it illustrates the much better motivation of the anti Obamacare people, and finally it shows that conservatives are more advanced technologically than their rather slow witted adversaries on the Left.

All in all, a very amusing and encouraging way to start the day. 

It's close enough. It's Friday, all I have to do is sit in a seminar all day and drink coffee, and it

Some of the blogs I was reading tonight had some smoking hot pictures of "girls with guns," so I thought I'd find one and do the same. Gotta be good for traffic, right?

And check out this chick's great trigger discipline.  Magnificent!

Check out this screen shot from the movie Die Hard, and in particular the gas prices.  

Imagine gas at less than a buck a gallon! Was that really all that long ago?

The other day the 16 year old took the time to make a time lapse video here around the house.  Our camera isn't set up to do it easily, but with a lot of patience it can be done.  Not bad for a first try.  I really should upgrade someday to a camera that does this on it's own timer.

Dog noses.  One of life's simple pleasures.

"Green" transportation.

 

Incredibly, and for the first time ever, Ruger firearms has suspended new orders from their distributers until May, due to their inability to keep up with new orders. 

First, thanks have to go to President Obama and the Democrats for this.  Job creation, after all, is the goal.

Second, kudus to Ruger for doing this to maintain quality, rather than simply pump the product out as fast as possible.  That will be legendary in the firearms community and pay dividends later, when demand isn't so high.

Finally, they have been introducing new models at a blistering pace, and some of this success has to be attributable to that. 

Low budget travel

 

Take that, smelly dog!

Thursday freckles

Here is another type of tomahawk, in this case purely an art object.  Created by master bladesmith Daniel Winkler and edged weapon specialist Rafael Kayanen, it has a unique shape and tribal decoration. Not the most practical of tools, and certainly not cheap, but interesting nonetheless.  

More here.