UF has more Olympic medals than UK, Australia, Canada

A little bit of Olympic pride for my fellow Gators:

Business Insider | The University Of Florida Has More Medals Than Great Britain Right Now 

The University of Florida has 40 athletes competing in the Olympics, and they are doing some serious medal-winning.

Right now, UF athletes have four medals, two gold, and two silver. That's more than Australia, Canada, and even the home town team, Great Britain...

Happy 100th Birthday Milton Friedman!

Milton Friedman, economic adviser to Ronald Reagan and Nobel-prize-winning leader of the Chicago school of economics, was born a century ago today, on July 31, 1912.

Thomas Sowell, who was lucky enough to be a student of Friedman's, wrote an article about his former professor at National Review:

National Review Online | Milton Friedman’s Centenary

Oelrich campaign reacts to my post...sort of...

I think I smell smoke...

Last week, the Steve Oelrich for Congress campaign sent out a press release expressing outrage at a mailer sent by one of his primary opponents, Cliff Stearns, in which he claimed that the reason he was ineligible for military service was because of injuries he received during his law enforcement career.

However, as I noted in a post last week, publicly available documents show that the injury that made Oelrich ineligible for military service happened in a hunting accident when he was a teenager, before he was a police officer.

This is what supporting Israel looks like: Romney in Jerusalem [VIDEO]

Mitt Romney gave a powerful, moving speech in Jerusalem earlier today, stating unequivocally his support for our ally, as well as his condemnation for terrorists who threaten Israel's security and Iran's quest for nuclear weapons.

Additionally, unlike the current White House administration, Romney had no problem stating very clearly that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

The speech is a must-watch:

If this story doesn't make you proud to be an American, nothing will

Here's a great story I spotted at Babalú Blog yesterday:

Awesome advice from a church

Heh. Found this at Buzzfeed...definitely not the kind of advice you normally see on a church sign:

I'm hoping Steve Oelrich can explain this

Are Steve Oelrich's pants on fire?

An alert reader forwarded me some intriguing information about a dispute between two of the candidates in the Republican Congressional primary in Florida's Third District, and I'm posting it here, hoping that State Senator Steve Oelrich has a good explanation for what seems, at first glance, to be a blatant and cynical distortion of the truth, if not a flat out lie.

Here's the background:

"I'm a lifelong Democrat...but this time I'm going to vote for a Republican."

Here is a must-see ad created by the Republican Jewish Coalition, which they describe as the "first in a series of ads...highlighting the real stories of real people who give voice to the nagging doubts that many in the Jewish community feel about President Obama:"

BREAKING: Allen West endorses Sandy Adams

"I fully endorse Sandy Adams...she represents a new generation of Republican
Conservatives who have come to the Halls of Congress to find solutions..."

Sandy Adams locked in another powerful endorsement for her reelection campaign today from one of her fellow freshmen members of Congress, Allen West.

RedState is coming to the Sunshine State!

The annual RedState Gathering is coming to the Sunshine State next month, and you won't want to miss it.

Check out www.RedStateGathering.com for all the details, including information on registration (Note: TODAY is the last day for the early-bird price!) and discounted hotel reservations.

Romney's Full Speech to VFW Convention [VIDEO]

Mitt Romney gave what, in my opinion, was one of his best speeches of the campaign so far, at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention yesterday. Here it is, in its entirety, for you to enjoy:

FL-7 Update: Soul Mates, Fact Checks, and Art Museums

If you're not following the Republican primary for Florida's Seventh Congressional District, you're missing one of the most interesting races in recent political history. This is my home district in Orlando, and I have a personal interest in this race, so I've been writing a lot about it (see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here for starters).

Here are some of the latest updates from the campaign:

Netanyahu on Fox News Sunday [VIDEO]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a guest on "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace yesterday:

Hey Ya! OutKast's Big Boi speaks out for Second Amendment rights

(License plate available for purchase here.)

Gotta love politicians. Never going to let a national tragedy go by without taking advantage of the opportunity to politicize it.

In the wake of the shootings at "The Dark Knight Rises" premiere in Aurora, Colorado, the usual list of gun control advocates (Piers Morgan, NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg, etc.) pounced and started immediately pushing for tighter gun laws.

Never mind that you can't outlaw crazy or evil. If someone is determined to kill innocent people, some statute that says they can't carry a gun isn't going to slow them down.

More failure from the stimulus: Energy Dept. loses $500K worth of equipment

That's our money (and our children's, and grandchildren's, and great-grandchildren's...) they're spending:

The Heritage Foundation reported earlier today on their blog, The Foundry, that $500,000 worth of equipment purchased as part of the "green energy" grants under Obama's stimulus program have gone missing.

Great new Romney web ad: "These Hands" [VIDEO]

Here's the latest web ad from the Romney campaign, hitting Obama for his ridiculous "you didn't build that" comments attacking entrepreneurs:

Sean Bielat on the Gillespie Show [AUDIO]

Sean Bielat, candidate for Massachusetts' Fourth Congressional District, was on the Gillespie Show with Josh Gillespie (@JoshGillespie on Twitter) on FTR Radio last night.

If you missed the show, you can listen here:

Josh Gillespie | Interview with Sean Bielat

Being a Congressman has its perks - ask John Mica!

Congress is awesome! Why do
 you think I stayed for 20 years?

Getting elected to Congress brings a lot of really cool perks. Besides having people address you as Representative and getting to shape the future of our country, there's the salary, excellent health insurance, multi-million dollar international vacations...

Wait, what? Multi-million dollar international vacations?

Sandy Adams: Winner of the Week in Florida Politics

In case you missed it, the Tampa Bay Times posted their regular blog feature, "Winner and Loser of the Week in Florida Politics," yesterday afternoon, and they named Congresswoman Sandy Adams as the Winner for last week:

Now Mica is calling for tax increases. Please, just go away.

"There's no way in hell I would support banning earmarks" ~ John Mica

Well, I guess we now know how John Mica plans on paying for those earmarks and pet projects he loves so much: tax increases! 

Despite the fact that the 20-year incumbent has been desperately trying to re-brand himself as a fiscal conservative in his primary battle with Sandy Adams, Mica was in Atlanta on Friday and did his best to talk the locals into voting for a tax increase. Yes, really. 

"Whatever happened to hope and change?" [VIDEO]

The latest Mitt Romney web ad asks a very good question:

Sandy Adams on Greta: "Washington as Usual Has Got to Stop."

Freshman Congresswoman Sandy Adams was on Fox News Channel's "On The Record" with Greta Van Susteren last night regarding her calls for a Congressional investigation into a multi-million dollar conference held by the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Manufacturing Extension Partnership at a resort near Walt Disney World in Orlando:

Former Fla Dems Executive Director Endorses Romney

There are approximately eleventy bazillion to the umpteenth power articles posted every day by people describing the latest outrage committed by the Obama administration and stating that they will not be voting from him in November. I've certainly written several posts like that here myself.

What makes the article that I'm linking in this post different is who the author is: Barney Bishop, a "lifelong Democrat" and former executive director of the Florida Democratic Party during the last few years that the Democrats had any significant power in the state.

DON'T PANIC: A nerdy discussion about why we can calm down about Romney's VP pick

[Note: this is probably going to be one of the nerdiest posts about Romney's choice for vice president you'll read. Bear with me...]

Fans of Douglas Adams' comedic science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are familiar with the phrase, "DON'T PANIC." These two words are described in the books as being written "in large, friendly letters on the cover" of the electronic guide book that inspired the name of the series. Intergalactic travel is a complicated and dangerous endeavor, so a little reminder not to panic is a helpful concept.

I'm starting to think that all articles speculating about Mitt Romney's choice for vice president should be required to have a large "DON'T PANIC" label on them. Too many people seem to have lost the ability to discuss the topic with any sort of calmness or logic.

BREAKING: Sarah Palin endorses Sandy Adams for Congress!

BREAKING NEWS: Sarah Palin has endorsed Sandy Adams in the Republican primary for Florida's Seventh Congressional District.

Palin's endorsement follows a series of conservative endorsements for Adams such as National Right to Life, Concerned Women for America, Maggie's List, the SBA List, the Central Florida Tea Party Council, David Barton, Sheriff Joe Arapaio, RedState's Erick Erickson (and yours truly!).

Here is the press release from Sandy Adams' campaign:

Neville Chamberlin, 2012 edition

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlin is not usually touted as the kind of leader one hopes our politicians would emulate, but since we haven't seen Obama's college transcripts, I can't say with certainty how well he studied history.

Anyway, if you aren't familiar with the details, in late September 1938, Chamberlin returned to London after  the signing of the Munich Agreement, clearing the way for Hitler's Nazi regime to occupy the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. Speaking to the British people about the Agreement, Chamberlin gave what is remembered as one of the most ironic and  naïve  speeches in the last century, announcing that they had secured "peace for our time."

John Mica Won't Sign Letter Calling for Earmark Ban

Here we go again. Following his refusal a few weeks ago to sign a letter calling for the Department of Justice to investigate attempts to intimidate conservative bloggers, twenty-year incumbent Congressman John Mica has once again failed to sign a letter that should be a no-brainer for a Republican.

Outrage of the Day: Our border agents were firing beanbags at the drug cartel members who shot Brian Terry

Saw this at Gateway Pundit earlier this afternoon:

Gateway Pundit | White House Finally Admits Brian Terry Was Shooting Beanbags Against Cartel Assault Rifles

US Border Agent Brian Terry was shooting beanbags at cartel members before they shot him dead with assault rifles...

For the first time the Obama Administration today admitted that Brian Terry and fellow border agents were firing beanbags and not bullets during their shootout with armed cartel members.

Want jobs in your state? Vote Republican.

If something happens once, it's probably a fluke. Twice, might be a coincidence. Seventeen times? Well, that might be worth studying.

On Friday, Examiner.com published an analysis of the unemployment rate in the seventeen states that elected new Republican governors in 2010, noting that every single one of these states had seen an improvement in their jobs rate:

Why is the Florida Legislature playing Russian Roulette with our property insurance?

Our luck won't last forever.

Smart people don't play Russian Roulette. 

They definitely don't consider playing it repeatedly, knowing that every turn they take would increase the chances of catastrophe.

So why is the Florida Legislature using Russian Roulette as a model for our property insurance?

"We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor"

Two hundred and thirty six years ago, a brave group of patriots signed their names to a document that would change the course of human history. 

These fifty-six men publicly declared their commitment to the "self-evident truths" that formed the foundation of our nation and which have continued to serve as a beacon of hope for all people around the world who have ever yearned to be free.

A Doctor's View of ObamaCare

American Thinker posted a must-read article over the weekend, featuring an interview with a surgeon frustrated about ObamaCare and its looming impacts on the medical profession: