Points to ponder on foreign policy......

.....and the failure thereof:

Some background on Lara Logan.

Related:  Dearborn Fordson High School principal called the police on me for driving with 2 Israeli flags on my truck.

Sometimes......

…you just gotta dance, right?

Gratefully stolen from The Coalition Of The Swilling.

Friday Cartoons

More below the fold.  Click to enlarge!

Quote of the day

I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.

Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Ludlow — 1824

Friday news and opinions

It's the Economy

• STRANGE: Jobless Claims Sank to 339,000 in Latest Week, Though Data Didn't Include One Large State
• About Those Awesome!!11! Jobless Claims Numbers 
• The Many Guises Of Financial Repression
• JACK WELCH DOUBLES DOWN: Yes, the Unemployment Rate is Bogus and Here's Why, Media-Schmucks
• CEO TO EMPLOYEES: If Obama Wins, You May Want to Get Some Boxes and Pack Up Your Offices
• Enrollment in Food Stamps, Medicaid, and Disability Far Outpaces Job Growth in Last 4 Years

Big Government

• Green-jobs subsidies bust: $21 billion, 28,854 jobs
• Obama Quietly Extends National Emergency Declaration, 11 Years After 9/11 Attacks

Liberal mindset, Socialism

• BREAKING: Double boom! Second O’Keefe video shows OFA aiding voter fraud in multiple states
• Anti-Socialist Ad Will Be Pushed By $5-10 Million Ad Buy
• This Is A Useless, Unserious Person
• New Berlin School Bus Driver Tells Child He Should Have Been Aborted.  Update: Driver fired.

Politics, Election, Foreign Policy:

• Stephanie Cutter: Benghazi is only an issue because of Romney and Ryan; Update: NYT more or less agrees
• Did Stephanie Cutter Just Win The Foreign Policy Debate For Romney?
• Mother of Sean Smith, Slain in Benghazi Terrorist Attack, Demands Answers From Obama, Hillary, Biden; Says They Lied To Her Face
• Panic Time? Romney Gains Eight Points on Faltering Obama in California as Independents Flee in Droves
• Begala On Support For Obama: "There's Real Erosion, No Use Lying"
• Obama campaign refers to liberal bloggers as “tinfoil hat crowd”
• Bounce continues in new swing-state polling
• American embassy security leader assassinated in Yemen
• Damage Control: Obama Meets With Hillary at WH
• Someone Has Finally Thrown Obama Under The Bus And Her Name Is Hillary Clinton
• Quote Of The Day

Vice-Presidential Debate roll-up

• Biden, Ryan face off in high-stakes vice presidential debate in Kentucky
• Biden, Ryan slug it out in vice presidential debate
• Media Hits Biden: 'Stop Smirking!' 'Weird,' 'Jerk'
• Angry old man yells at Paul Ryan for 90 minutes; Update: CNN insta-poll of undecideds shows tie; Update: Ryan wins CNN insta-poll overall, 48/44
• Flashback: Moderator Raddatz Stunned Democrat John Silber's Campaign for MA Governor in 1990 Debate
• Vice President Jerk: The return of Smirky Malarkey McSmirk
• Biden Grunts, Guffaws, Smirks and Bullies His Way Through VP Debate
• In Two Post Debate Polls Ryan Beats Sitting a Vice President
• CNN Poll on debate winner: Ryan 48%, Biden 44%
• Ryan Wins CNN's Poll of Undecided Likely Voters, 48-44%Also Wins on Likability, Ryan 53% Biden 43%AP Poll: Ryan 51%, Biden 43%

This is from one of the above links, but is worth posting here:

Local news items.....

.....of interest to the Tea Party:

• Wa-Hi bond proposal on horizon
• On the Agenda - Port of Walla Walla (a bit late, but still worthy of a reminder that the Port Authority is a government agency, and a user of a tax money)

Why foreign policy is important

This is not directly related to our core values, save that we have enemies who loathe our core values.

A storm of massive proportions is brewing in the MidEast

 Oh yeah, and this too:  Panetta: US sends forces to Jordan

Is this an acceptable end-state for Agenda 21?

One can't help but think so: ‘Coffin’ apartments offer wooden box homes for the living

Related:   200 Square Feet and Room to Swivel. 

Life inside a failed communist state

From CLASSIC DALRYMPLE: The Wilder Shores of Marx, excerpt (1991):

I went several times during the festival to Pyongyang Department Store Number 1. This is in the very centre of the city. Its shelves and counters were groaning with locally produced goods, piled into impressive pyramids or in fan-like displays, perfectly arranged, throughout the several floors of the building. On the ground floor was a wide variety of tinned foods, hardware and alcoholic drinks, including a strong Korean liqueur with a whole snake pickled or marinated in the bottle, presumably as an aphrodisiac. Everything glittered with perfection, the tidiness was remarkable.

It didn't take long to discover that this was no ordinary department store. It was filled with thousands of people, going up and down the escalators, standing at the corners, going in and out of the front entrance in a constant stream both ways - yet nothing was being bought or sold. I checked this by standing at the entrance for half an hour. The people coming out were carrying no more than the people entering. Their shopping bags contained as much, or as little, when they left as when they entered. In some cases, I recognised people coming out as those who had gone in a few minutes before, only to see them re-entering the store almost immediately. And I watched a hardware counter for fifteen minutes. There were perhaps twenty people standing at it; there were two assistants behind the counter, but they paid no attention to the 'customers'. The latter and the assistants stared past each other in a straight line, neither moving nor speaking.

Do read the whole thing.  It's a chilling insight to how failed communist states don't work.