UPDATE II: The Latest Mrs. Limbaugh (Ditto Heads)

Conservatism, Media, Morality, Pop-Culture, The Zeitgeist

Silly me; I had imagined that the fourth marriage of an iconic American conservative, at the ripe age of 59, would be a little less ostentatious than Michelle Obama’s disco party for Mexican President Felipe Calderon. No such luck.

The latest Mrs. Limbaugh is half his age. Not unattractive; she’s certainly a trophy wife. The boob job is identifiable a mile away. I see identical mounds everywhere around me.

“Serial monogamists” is how Larry Auster thinks of “the Republican Party’s three major stars—Gingrich, Giuliani, Limbaugh,” who’ve “reached a milestone,” since all three have been married three times.

“With this trinity of thrice-married ‘conservative’ deities on tap, who knows what wonders 2012 might bring? Perhaps a Gingrich-Giuliani presidential ticket, with Limbaugh presiding at the inaugural ceremony.”

Run for cover.

UPDATE: “I’M A SINGLE LADY.” Men, especially powerful wealthy ones, have always been able to court younger women. The kind way to put it is that power and wealth are aphrodisiacs to women. The harsher reality is this: to be prepared to bed an older, overweight man (albeit with means), a young woman in her prime is probably also greedy (there are exceptions, of course).

I don’t care for the reductionist biological explanations of why older, uglier men can attract young attractive ladies.

UPDATE II (Aug. 13): What do you know, the ditto heads have been rushing headlong into this blog, unburdened by fact (or principle), blinded by their factional loyalties.

Here’s some red meat from our Rush Archive, for the “yes” men and women who are incapable of critical thought, only blind obeisance:

It’s About Federalism, Stupid!

Addicted To That Rush

Official Monetization Commences

Debt, Economy, Federal Reserve Bank, Glenn Beck, Inflation

“The Fed,” reports Bloomberg.com, “will buy about $18 billion of Treasury securities and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities through mid-September in the first month of purchases …”

We’re printing money to buy up our debt, because China and our other debtors won’t. Why is no one but Beck alerting our comatose countrymen to this indicator of bankruptcy, moral and material?

We are supposed to take comfort in the fact that, “While the move shows a change in policy direction away from exiting monetary stimulus, the Fed didn’t indicate it was ready to pursue larger-scale purchases of securities.”

Change in direction? How so? The policy of easy credit will continue apace, except that the Fed will be counterfeiting the country’s coin to pay down the government’s stratospheric debt. Let a private citizen try that trick. See where it’ll land him.

Brace for impact.

UPDATED: Astounding Healthcare Revelations (NOT)

Debt, Economy, Government, Healthcare, Reason, Regulation, The State

In “Heeere’s Health-Scare” I posited an absolutely revolutionary concept (NOT): that it was a mathematical improbability to expect “an expansion of government through an enormous entitlement program to drastically reduce the deficit and debt.”

Apparently that no-brainer has been recognized by an aide to the ruling Solons. Chief Medicare actuary Richard S. Foster grew a brain or got some courage, or both.

“In signing the measure last month,” writes the NYT, “President Obama said it would ‘bring down health care costs for families and businesses and governments.”

But Mr. Foster said, “Overall national health expenditures under the health reform act would increase by a total of $311 billion,” or nine-tenths of 1 percent, compared with the amounts that would otherwise be spent from 2010 to 2019.

In his report … Mr. Foster said that some provisions of the law, including cutbacks in Medicare payments to health care providers and a tax on high-cost employer-sponsored coverage, would slow the growth of health costs. But he said the savings “would be more than offset through 2019 by the higher health expenditures resulting from the coverage expansions.”

AMAZING. Why did I not think of that!? It takes an actuary to convince the country that when you cut expenses, expenses go down. And that when you steal from Peter to lavish on Paul, Paul’s expenses diminish.

Unbloody believable.

Oh, the actuary’s report also stated what I reported in another column, on August 7, 2009, where I contended that BHO was “Destroying Healthcare For The Few Uninsured.” For less than ten percent of the population, to be precise.

Mr. Foster’s report said that “34 million uninsured people will gain coverage under the law, but that 23 million people, including 5 million illegal immigrants, will still be uninsured in 2019.”

But illegals use ER facilities liberally for free. Going by statism’s logic (read lies) there has to be some savings in there somewhere.

UPDATED (Aug. 11): Via NewsMax:

“A published report saying the Obama administration knew that its healthcare proposal would increase costs instead of reducing them is “troubling,” according to a senior House Republican leader.

Administration officials from the president downward used claims that the legislation would reduce healthcare costs to get the votes of wavering members of Congress.

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius knew about a report from Medicare’s Office of the Actuary prior to the House’s March 22 vote, indicating the bill would increase healthcare costs, according to an April 26 report appearing in The American Spectator’s Washington Prowler blog.

The bill passed by a 219-212 margin with several self-proclaimed fiscally conservative Democrats voting in favor, believing it would reduce costs.”

Paying Freddie & Fannie To Hoard Homes

Business, Debt, Government, Political Economy, Socialism

If there’s one thing you need to know about President Barack Obama so-called financial-regulatory overhaul it is that, predictably, it didn’t touch the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae money pits. Freddie, a government owned mortgage-finance company, has cost taxpayers (or China) $63.1 billion, and it has “asked the U.S. Treasury to provide [it with an additional] $1.8 billion infusion.” “Fannie last week asked the government for $1.5 billion, bringing the total tab for the companies’ rescue to $148 billion.”

You will recalled that in May of this year, the thieves in charge of the Treasury handed over another $8.4 billion to “Fannie Mae and sister company Freddie Mac.” And that “The Obama administration had pledged to cover unlimited losses through 2012 for Freddie and Fannie, lifting an earlier cap of $400 billion.”

WSJ:

The U.S. took over Freddie and Fannie two years ago through a legal process known as conservatorship and has pledged to inject unlimited sums of aid over the next three years to keep the companies afloat.

Freddie is being propped up by taxpayers (read China) until eternity or until the US collapses, whichever comes first. This, despite the fact that these mortgage sinkholes should have long since been liquidated.

As a bankrupt and bankrupting state-run entity, Freddie and Fannie are responsive to political masters, not to markets. This would explain why these entities are hoarding houses when they should be getting rid of them at fire-sale prices.

As political players, they are expected to avoid “putting further pressure on home values.” “The inventory of homes owned by the companies has doubled over the past year, to a combined 191,000, up from 97,000 a year ago.”

Freddie and Fannie forever.