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His name was Bubba, he was from Mississippi ... And he had a problem.... So... He walked into a bank in New York City and asked for the loan Officer. He told the loan officer that he was going to Paris for an International redneck festival for two weeks and needed to borrow $5,000; and that he was not a depositor of the bank. The bank officer told him that the bank would need some form of security for the loan, so the Redneck handed over the keys to a new Ferrari. The car was parked on the street in...

“One of the first things you have to do to give someone permission to change their mind, is to lower their defences and prevent them from digging their heels in to the position they already staked out,” Marman told SBS. “If I immediately start to tell you all the ways in which you’re wrong, there’s no incentive for you to co-operate. But if I start by saying, ‘Ah yeah, you made a couple of really good points here, I think these are important issues,’ now you’re giving the other party a reason to want to co-operate as part of the...

Market doomsayer Marc "Dr. Doom" Faber has launched a racially charged diatribe in his latest newsletter, alleging that the U.S. is great primarily because it is ruled by white people. The eccentric Gloom, Boom & Doom report author, who often speaks on CNBC and other financial media, generally forecasting some type of market downturn, focused his latest comments on the racial conflicts happening around the country. (A CNBC spokesperson said it will not book him in the future.) "And thank God white people populated America, and not the blacks. Otherwise, the US would look like Zimbabwe, which it might look...

When it comes to political violence such as we witnessed in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend, there are no partisan “sides” to the issue. In an enlightened society, you either believe violence is an acceptable means to an end, or you do not. In this parity, there is no room for equivocation, where the perceived nobleness or virtue of one’s agenda can excuse it. Initiating force against any group or individual for the sake of achieving a political goal or simply making a political statement, is morally and legally wrong. Full stop. Last weekend was a national embarrassment in every sense...

When Richard Spencer, a controversial figure of the “Alt-Right,” was punched in the face during a television interview earlier this year, the Left cheered the assault, and turned video of the attack into gleeful memes. “The only good thing that happened [at Donald Trump’s Inauguration] was when suit-owner and neo-Nazi Richard Spencer was socked in the head by the new masked hero of Gotham,” wrote Jordan Sargent at Billboard Music’s Spin.com. For a movement populated by pacifists and peaceniks, the Left’s justification of the violence against Spencer came surprisingly easy.Then, last Friday, when two protestors disrupted a disturbing production in...

You have probably concluded from the first three essays in this series that I am a Christian. You would be correct to assume so. I am one of the 2.2 billion people on this planet that shape their worldview based on the principle that Jesus of Nazareth was more than man. Like all Christians, I fail frequently in my attempts to live up to the standard set by Christ, and I rely on a belief that God accepts my frailty and forgives my transgressions as I recognize, repent from, and atone for them. I would imagine my view of Christianity...

They can't be this dumb, can they? They just can't be. Our progressives Democratic friends aren't that stupid, right? But they are counting on the American people being stupid when it comes to world affairs. And there's very little to suggest they won't be successful in that endeavor. Be it the president saying ISIS is "contained" hours before the group unleashed evil on the streets of Paris, or the secretary of state saying the Paris attacks were crazy, unlike the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo, where there was "legitimacy" and a "rationale" to them, nothing they say can...

The speaker of the House wants to know what the legal justification for war with Syria is. And more than a quarter of the House says President Barack Obama can’t launch an attack on Syria alone. But the president has yet to give them — or the public — a response. White House spokesman Josh Earnest repeatedly declined Thursday to give a legal justification for an attack on Syria — something that the United Kingdom has already detailed — or give an explanation on how the president can act on his own without Congressional authorization. That will come if and...

Readers of American Thinker are well aware that conservative thought has made considerable advances with respect to identifying the theoretical shortcomings of Establishment power. While there is still plenty of work to be done in this area, it is important not to lose sight of the fact that eventually theoretical gains must be translated into practical advantage. This contribution suggests, by way of examples and two simple, general principles, ways to convert theoretical insight into practical political gain. The approach is Alinskyite in terms its rhetoric and the function of ridicule. Read more at: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/04/using_conservative_jujitsu_on_progressives.html

It occurs that our capacity to converse and to set forth arguments for the truth are often hindered today on account of many factors. One of those factors is a paradoxical relationship between a kind of skepticism and and exaggerated insistence on absolute proof that results. The fact is, absolute certitude in our human condition is rare, and to insist on it is usually unreasonable. This of course does not mean that firm certitude cannot be had in many matters as well as lesser degrees that remain a firm confidence as to the facts in a matter.On Monday there was...

Featured Term (selected at random):APODICTIC Absolutely certain and conclusive. The term is used in philosophy to describe a method of reasoning from premises that are evident. Opposed to dialectical reasoning, which is argumentation with probability and consistency on open questions. (Etym. Greek apodeiktikos, from apodeiknynai, to demonstrate.) All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

The Broken Window Let us begin with the simplest illustration possible: let us, emulating Bastiat, choose a broken pane of glass. A young hoodlum, say, heaves a brick through the window of a baker’s shop. The shopkeeper runs out furious, but the boy is gone. A crowd gathers, and begins to stare with quiet satisfaction at the gaping hole in the window and the shattered glass over the bread and pies. After a while the crowd feels the need for philosophic reflection. And several of its members are almost certain to remind each other or the baker that, after all,...

Darwinists Topple Darwin’s Tree of Life Darwin’s “Tree of Life” is a myth. It’s based on circular reasoning. It is a pattern imposed on the data, not a fact emerging from the evidence. We should give up the search for a single tree of life (TOL) as a record of the history of life on earth, because it is a “quixotic pursuit” unlikely to succeed – and the evidence is against it. Who said this? Not creationists, but a new member of the National Academy of Sciences in his inaugural paper for the academy’s Proceedings.1 W. Ford Doolittle and Eric...

Brain scans can identify who is more "rational" and who is more "emotional," says a new study in the current issue of the journal Science. Researchers at University College London put subjects into a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner and watched their brain activity as they sorted through some artfully structured choices. The researchers posed classic Tversky/Kahneman choices framed as gain and loss scenarios. In this case, the subjects were initially told that they would receive £50, but then were told that they had to choose between a "sure" option and "gamble" option. In so-called Gain frame, the...

WILLCOX — Some soldiers of the 269th Signal Company jumped from Fort Huachuca to this agriculture community in northeastern Cochise County Tuesday. In the military, “jumping” is the movement of a unit from one place to another, like what is happening the next couple of weeks with the 11th Signal Brigade during Huachuca Thunder 2006, an exercise to validate the brigade’s communications equipment. But Monday’s jump for a small group of the 269th also was to show appreciation to students at the Willcox school system, especially the middle school students. The students became pen pals with one of the 269th’s...

Democrats and Republicans alike are adept at making decisions without letting the facts get in the way, a new study shows. And they get quite a rush from ignoring information that's contrary to their point of view. Researchers asked staunch party members from both sides to evaluate information that threatened their preferred candidate prior to the 2004 Presidential election. The subjects' brains were monitored while they pondered. The results were announced today. "We did not see any increased activation of the parts of the brain normally engaged during reasoning," said Drew Westen, director of clinical psychology at Emory University. "What...

If the Supreme Court continues using "evolving standards of decency" to interpret the Eighth Amendment, it may soon declare it cruel and unusual punishment to subject double-talking politicians like Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois to questioning by Tim Russert, host of NBC's "Meet the Press." Russert put Durbin on the rack last Sunday, torturing the poor man with his own contradictory words. When Durbin was first elected to the U.S. House, you see, he was pro-life. Now, as a pro-abortion member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he is expected by left-wing groups to enforce his party's pro-abortion litmus test...

William Saletan of Slate, in a recent article called “For the Benefit of Others,” sees a contradiction in President Bush’s promise to veto embryonic stem-cell research and his support of the death penalty. The logic goes like this: If the only justification for the death penalty is to “save lives,” as Bush has apparently stated many times, then why isn’t embryonic stem-cell research justified by the same rule? Or reverse that, as Saletan has done: How can Bush not support stem-cell research, which purportedly save lives, but turn right around and support the death penalty, which is claimed to have...

Posted by politmuse1 Added to homepage Wed Nov 03rd 2004, 01:20 AM ET I tried earlier, and no one wanted to believe it. Maybe now you do? *THE FIX IS IN.* If we're afraid to call it as is, there's no chance we'll ever see democracy or a Democrat elected in this country every again. PLEASE WAKE UP AND SMELL THE ROSES. Here are some facts: (1) All exit polls had Kerry ahead in in FL and OH. (2) All Democrats were completely confident, based (I'm sure) on internal polls. Kennedy said Kerry won. He was sure. So was the...

The Two Johns: What's Your Next Speech Going to Be About? (Election Levity, II) Written by Gregory Borse Friday, October 22, 2004 Al Gore’s Gore TV--a new cable channel that promises to speak to kids in their twenties in a language they can relate to--released more footage from the reality series, ''The Two Johns.'' The series, which follows two rich, white liberals as they plot their strategery for winning of the White House in 2004, is currently being shot and producers intend a November 3, premiere. In this snip, the two Johns discuss campaign speechmaking. Commenting on the footage, Gore...