Current Affairs Archives

Kindle news

Apparently the Authors Guild is not happy with the Kindle 2.0 "text to speech" option. Amazon and the guild are now working on a compromise that allows 'text to speech', but the voice pattern is that of Droopy Dog.

In other news, The estate of Truman Capote is suing Amazon for the use of Droopy Dog in the 'text to speech' option, saying that by doing so, it dilutes their "brand image".

Oh, I forgot to mention that this is satire.

Posted @ February 12, 2009 04:03 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (247)

And The Generals Said; "Dont worry, we can control him"

As Megan Mcardle recently said "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does have a hell of a stutter". So its in that spirit that I enter down this well trodden road. I'm trying to think of another example of a radical fringe political party, led by a charismatic public speaker with no executive experience, possibly someone who could be thought of as a "community organizer" who takes control of a country through elections during an economic downturn and then immediately starts to move large sections of what was formerly private industry into government control. Has that happened before? At the moment, my mind is sort of drawing a blank on examples, but it does have a sort of familiar ring to it. Is there another example out there in the annals of history, where your political party membership would be essential to your station in life or whether you held a job or whether or not you were harassed by your political enemies? An example where the entire arts and entertainment section of the culture was run under the wing of a single political party, where dissent from the party norm and standards resulted in instant blacklisting and the end of careers?

Gosh, I'm sure if I think about it long enough I can come up with an example. It sure seems like we've seen that sort of thing before, right?

And I hope to hell I'm wrong...

Posted @ February 09, 2009 03:08 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (4)

I think I just found my Secretary of State

As we now live in the modern age of the metrosexual, the political correct docker wearing prius driving soft and cuddly live-at-home-till-hes-30 modern male, you don't often get to see one of these in the wild in his true element. This for those of you who haven't seen one before, is a man.

I don't know who this man is but let the word go forth from me personally and sincerely, that this man will never pay for his beer for the rest of his life.

I find myself asking two of the eternal questions "where do we find these men?" and the second question " how do you walk with balls the size of cocoanuts?"

Posted @ February 07, 2009 12:23 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (31)

Let the Record Show

While your 401k was burning, your home was repossessed your job eliminated and North Korea threatened war, and yet another of the Presidents cabinets discovered why the rest of us hate taxes so much, let the record show that on this day the President and his wife took time to read to children.

Let the record also show that the only kid in that audience who isn't saying "When is recess?" is the one saying "I have to go potty".

Posted @ February 03, 2009 09:15 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (40)

Question of the day: Stimulus? I'll show you a stimulus

Question of the day: If we have already decided to spend 825 billion in a forlorn hope to restart the economy, why not consider 825 billion of across the board tax cuts?

That sounds pretty stimulating to me.

It seems to me that its not the spending that's at issue, but who is doing it. How does letting congress spend my money work better than me spending my own? We just blew through 350 billion in government spending and not a damn thing happened. Let's try something new this time with the second half of the TARP funding.

I think I can stimulate my own economy pretty well all by myself thank you...

Posted @ January 27, 2009 10:41 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Little things lost

I discovered something today that I wished I hadn't. I found out that a friend who I worked with for years had died in 2005. Well people die, that's what we do, so that's not all that unusual. What is unusual is that he died on the same day as my father died. Whats doubly unusual is what he died from.

2005 was the year my father died. Two months after he died, I developed a severe cough that simply would not go away. After a week of non-stop coughing, I began to cough up blood which got my attention, so off I went to my favorite medical facility for a round of specialized industrial care and medicine.

The cause of the blood in my sputum was easy enough to diagnose because with all my coughing I had ruptured my esophagus. A laser solved the immediate problem but left the question open as to the initial cause of the tear. A series of x-rays and a lot of time in the doctors office, a biopsy here and there and four weeks later I was given a clean bill of health. It was not the "big C". It was determined to be nothing more than a severe infection that lead to bigger things, but for a short time in the weeks directly after my fathers death, I was also dealing with the possibility of my annoying cough being something much worse.

The "much worse" was throat cancer which as it turns out, I did not have. Yet as it turns out, my friend and mentor, did, and died of it on the same day as my father. I knew nothing of his condition. We talked on the phone at the end of the year prior, he said nothing about his condition. Perhaps he didn't know at that time, but if he did, he didn't pass it on to me. Frankly it wasn't his style to do something like that. Where I was a "Kirk", he was a "Picard". He was gracious, classy and polite person. As engineers, we made a good team but we would have made an awful cop 'buddy" movie.

When we worked together in the 80's and 90's and his retirement plan back then was that at the end of his career he would cash in his 401k and buy a rock shop in the Oregon desert. It was never going to happen, but it used to make us laugh at the right time in meetings that had gone horribly bad. It always seemed like a great idea to me.

We had a shared background, we had grown up in roughly the same place in Sacramento, but 20 years apart. Here were two Sacramento valley kids working in a company of seriously deep Bay Area bit heads, so we stuck together. A couple of country hayseeds there amongst the cosmopolitan eggheads. We spoke each others language, the language with verbage based on a suspiciously raised eyebrow in a code review or a sigh that sounds like an air leak when someone in management says something patently stupid during a company meeting.

I hadn't heard from him in awhile, which wasn't all that unusual as the fraternity of our shared past life lives out there on a long orbit. We all come around from time to time, but not as often as we would like. All this time I assumed he had finally gone on to buy the rock shop out there in the Harney Desert. I hadn't heard from him in awhile, so I looked him up today and discovered in the process that he was no longer with us. There are times when a Google search can be like the 'angel of death' and this is one of them.

Now it seems my friend will never retire to the Harney desert and I should stop waiting for a call for lunch that will never come. And I now find myself four years late in grief to the man who once taught me the meaning of the word "crisp".

Posted @ January 26, 2009 09:51 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

I was raised by wolves

My pal Ray and I were talking just the other day. He had called to say that the CEO of his company had sent an email that was praising the election of Barack Obama. Then he related a tale of how in the middle of a bit of dentistry, the dental assistant had offered a bit of anti-Bush diatribe.

In the middle of having dentistry - let's pop in a little jab at President Bush. Sure, what could be wrong with that.

I've seen this phenomenon as well. I find that there are some people who just naturally assume that "everyone hates Bush" and therefore no knock is too low, no time is the wrong time for politics.

Jay Nordlinger writes a great piece in NR on the subject today.

As I said, this sort of thing has happened to me as well. This might surprise some of you, but I don't talk politics in public, I certainly don't talk about it at work. I never have, and I never will. I often find myself having to respond to it, and when it occurs, I usually say something like "well I was raised by wolves so you'll excuse me if I abide by the rule that says you dont talk about sex, religion or politics at work. You should respect my diversity in this matter. The real reason I don't talk about those things is something called "common courtesy" which as of late is in short supply. You should never talk about those three things for no other reason that it is simply rude. Talking about any one of those things in a public venue can potentially become an incendiary subject.

So obviously that means I'm depressed and upset about President Obama. Oh, sorry thrillseekers, I'm not. The funniest thing about this election to me is how the left envisaged that we on the right would become as moonbat crazy against President Obama as they did against Bush. It didn't happen and in my opinion, it wont happen. There will be things we like and dislike about President Obama, but I don't think we will hate him. Our negative reaction to Obama wont define who we are.

I'll come back to this later, but to illustrate my point let me relate this story. I was at the office after the inaugural when one of my liberal collegues came by to tell me how happy they were with the election and in a slip of the tongue he said "Im so proud to be an American". He was expecting anger from me but I just said "feels good doesn't it? That sudden pulse of patriotism. Welcome to the side of the angels my friend!"

He stopped dead cold. He was genuinely feeling good and he was feeling genuinely patriotic and these were entirely new feelings for him. I told him it was ok, it was a good thing to love your country but that idea just seemed to make him woozy. For the first time since I've known him, he was forced to recognize something that he had not believed possible.

That he and I, were actually on the same side. That thought doesn't bother me at all, but it bothers the hell out of some people.

Posted @ January 26, 2009 08:01 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (232)

What's the difference between Bush and Obama

- Bush believes in the messiah, Obama wants you to believe that he is the messiah...

Posted @ January 23, 2009 12:24 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (41)

Explain to me how this works

Let's say I am a "cop on the beat". I go from call to call, and on occasion I as a police officer am called upon to apprehend and detain someone in the course of daily duties.

When that happens, I take the accused back to the holding cell, where they are processed into the legal system. They might post bond, they might sit overnight but eventually they see a judge, who with the help of their attorney and the District Attorneys office, will determine where the accused will go from here.

So let's say that some well meaning citizenry has complained that the holding cells are incompatible with human rights. In a craven attempt to curry favor with the voting public, the City Council so decrees that the holding cells should be closed and in a blaze of camera flash - it is done!

Ok. Fine. I'm just a cop. I do my job. I get up and go to work the same way I did before this happened, right?

The problem is, what "job" do I do? Should I arrest anyone? If I do, where do I take them? What happens when they go there? You need a place to hold people as they are processed. If you close it, what do you do to the rest of the system? You take away the jail, you take away the process and without the process, there is no "system".

So now the President has "so decreed" that Guantanamo and all the "secret CIA" jails are to be closed, "In the interest of Human Rights".

I think its fine to want to close Guantanamo, but the question is, what do you do with those folks who get captured in the effort of fighting terrorism? If you don't have anywhere to take them, where do they go? If you are not going to capture them and you don't have any facilities for processing them, what do with them?

Here's the 10 billion dollar question:

"If you're a soldier in the field and you have to choose to capture a combatant (for which there are no longer any facilities or systems to hold or process prisoners, and the very act of capturing prisoners which may very well put you personally at risk of legal entanglements) or kill the combatant, which will end the issue outright. So what do you "choose" to do?"

Yeah... Me too.

The funny thing is that this whole "close Guantanamo" thing was done in the interest of protecting human rights, but in reality, something else might just have occurred. You know, the older I get, the more I'm convinced that the "law of unintended consequences" is as absolute as the law of gravity.

Update: I'm gently reminded of this scene from "A Bridge Too Far" for somewhat related reasons:

Posted @ January 22, 2009 09:48 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (31)

The Geithner Defense

"You know Senator, maybe if you folks in the legislature didn't make a tax system that is so byzantine and obscure that it defies any reasonable persons ability to comprehend much less comply with, maybe if you did that, then MAYBE I might have figured out that I had a problem with my taxes. It's not like I'm stupid, its not like I didn't have tax lawyers, its not that I didn't TRY to pay my taxes, its that none of my lawyers, my CPA's nor the IRS could come to terms on the final amount. The problem Senator with my taxes and yours sir, is that no two tax lawyers or CPA's can ever make a good guess to what the damn tax laws are at any given time! "

Well. That's what I would have said anyway...

Posted @ January 21, 2009 07:50 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

observations

I can't really tell what it is that I'm watching with this Inaugural.

I should be seeing people, American people, who are genuine in their expression of joy that the smooth and Democratic transition of power has occurred and the Republic remains intact. We have, democratically, decided to move on to bigger and hopefully better things. I want to be fair and optimistic, but I don't believe that is what I am seeing here. What I'm seeing here is something else, something that has my worried. I see this Inaugural as the very living evidence, the very essence of the "something good" that lives deep in the America soul that I have always believed in, but I just cant shake this feeling that a good many others out there who are looking at this Inaugural as the end of the America they have always hated and the beginning of "something else".

What worries me is that the "something else" is decidedly undemocratic. What I am worried about is the worship of men over the respect for the Constitution.

There seems to be a lot of talk about the "greatness of the man" and not about the nature of the office that he now holds.

Men( and any woman will tell you this ) are just men. Some are good, some are bad, but they all have their flaws. Let us not forget that he is a man, and only a man and that any man who holds the office will someday leave it. Let us pray he does not begin to actually believe the good things that people say about him. Let us hope that he also does not believe the bad things that people will say. Let us deeply wish that he doesn't care one way or the other, because in the end he was elected to lead, not to be loved and adored or dare I say - worshiped.

The new President is a man,just a man, and there is a real majesty to that fact. The majesty is that a man of no real consequence can be the President if the people so decree. Come what may, we will decide in four years whether to renew his contract to serve us and in eight years he will voluntarily leave the office to his predecessor. This is what the Constitution holds. That is the core of the Oath taken for the office. That is the essential majesty of the office; that so much power,once achieved is to be given up in an orderly fashion. For like the life of a man, it is designed to be temporary, lest it be mistaken by others for a mask of holiness. Being President doesn't make you a better man than the rest of us, it simply reveals to everyone what you already were back when you were just a man. Some men find this humbling, others shrink from the image it brings, others accept the burden and do the best they can, comforted in the fact that it is only temporary and relief will surely come to them in the end.

Let us all be wary of the day when any man is elevated above the office, not for how the process of deification can elevate the man into being something he is not, but how it lowers the rest of us into being something less than men.

Posted @ January 19, 2009 04:02 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (4)

Question of the day: Stimulus Package

So, out of the 850 BILLION DOLLARS that the Democrats propose spending - is there just perhaps possibly maybe any money being spent of better body armor or better Humvee armor? Any Battlefield Laser Area Defense systems to keep those pesky mortars out of the base?

Imagine the kind of Armed Services we could have with just a portion of that cash....

Posted @ January 18, 2009 04:29 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (5)

Last Nights Wyoming Earthquake

Magnitude 3.7 - Epicenter - Just outside of Alpine Wyoming.

How outside? Well, from the maps I'm reviewing this morning, its almost precisely under my sisters house just outside of Alpine. Way to go sis!

Here in "shaky-land", a 3.7 would hardly even count as an earthquake, but a 3.7 directly under your house would tend to get your attention.

Whats with the quakes up there in Idaho-Wyoming-Montana lately? Well I'm sure it has something to do with this:

That is the Yellowstone Volcanic Caldera, which is just a bit north of my sisters place in Alpine. The blue thing is an outline of Lake Yellowstone. The dots are earthquakes since December 26th. You cant see it here but there have been over 900 since that date.

Volcanoes are good at generating earthquakes. Yellowstone is a big volcano. One naturally follows the other and once again we have evidence that the universe we live in is not static but dynamic and changing right before our eyes.

Posted @ January 16, 2009 08:15 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (353)

Honor. You should teach it here, sir.

Patrick McGoohan has passed away today. McGoohans character "Number 6" in the landmark TV show "The Prisoner" illustrated many of my own feelings about the nature of personal rebellion and its role in the operation of a civilization. There might have been one hundred Lucy knock offs over the years, but there has been only one "Prisoner".

My favorite quote from "The Prisoner", which seems rather timely right about now is this exchange with Leo McKern as "Number 2".

Number 2: What in fact has been created? An international community. A perfect blueprint for world order. When the sides facing each other suddenly realize that they're looking into a mirror, they'll see that this is the pattern for the future.
Number 6: The whole earth as... 'The Village'?
Number 2: That is my hope. What's yours?
Number 6: I'd like to be the first man on the moon!

Well obviously, that was before Neil and Buzz and Apollo 11, but the sentiment is one I fully understand.

Oh... and no, I didn't get the last episode either...

Posted @ January 14, 2009 04:42 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Comments off - Twitter On

Comments are now off for all posts, but twitter is on at all times. Follow me on twitter...

Those of you who wish to communicate in long form can use the email system, the email account is my first name with varifrank.com.

Enjoy.

Posted @ January 09, 2009 08:50 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

Quote of the day

"...Saying that you want to spend your way out of recession is like saying the best way to avoid a hangover is to not stop drinking..."

...Caught in passing

Posted @ January 08, 2009 08:32 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Humans are idiots - #412 in a series

#412: Owners of cloned dogs complain that the clone version doesn't behave exactly like the original.

Really. What a surprise...

Posted @ January 08, 2009 12:39 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Sandy McTyre to the rescue!

I think the Governor is missing an opportunity here by issuing IOU's to state employees. I think its time he considers issuing our own currency( which is only a small step removed from IOU's). Here's an inspiration from our neighbors to the north:

That's "money" from the Canadian Tire company. Sure, it seems funny and yes it actually is an official gimmick, but in Canada, CT dollars are serious business. The Canadian version of Ebay actually accepts Canadian Tire Money as a form of valid payment.

That's 'Sandy McTyre' right there on the front. He's not the king of Canada, he's just a cartoon character like our Ronald McDonald or heck, just like our Governor here in California. Think about it, Arnold could issue "Cali-Bucks" to state employees which the state would redeem from stores and banks throughout the state. Businesses and banks would then cash in "Cali-Bucks" with the State of California on an agreed upon exchange rate.

Remember - its not really new currency because that would cause problems with the whole "federal and state" thing, its a "loyalty program".

Come to think of it, the way things currently stand I feel better about the full faith and credit of Canadian Tire Money than I do the US Dollar.

Posted @ January 08, 2009 08:42 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Better check that resume again...

Hmmm, lets see what we got on the stack here:

1. This fellah was a Detroit teacher.
2. A staff member at Michigan State University
3. A member of a task force on school violence
4. A deputy director of the Peace Corps in Kenya, according to a 2005 profile in Detroit's Metro Times newspaper.

Not bad. Oh there's little bit, according to the FBI, he's also the "Zombie Bandit"

snip...

"A convicted bank robber the FBI nicknamed the "Zombie Bandit" during a string of bank holdups in the Midwest in 1991 is the suspect in a robbery last week in Medford. Surveillance videos convinced investigators the man who robbed the Liberty Bank on Dec. 30 is 67-year-old Alan David Hurwitz, who served prison time for holdups at 18 banks across Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.

"He is not the most likely bank robber, but we have seen people fall off the pedestal in the past and resort to crime," Medford police Lt. Tim Doney said.

The FBI nicknamed him the "Zombie Bandit" because of the vacant look on his face during the Midwest robberies.

Hurwitz was arrested in 1992 and sentenced to 12 years in federal prison.

Police describe him as a man who did a lot of good until a drug habit turned him to crime.

"He's done a lot of good in his life, but he has been a slave to crack cocaine," Medford police Deputy Chief Tim George said.

...end snip

Zombies. I hate those guys. They're just like Illinois Nazis, only without the fancy get-ups...

Posted @ January 07, 2009 03:53 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

2009 - where every news article looks like it came from the Onion

This just in...

Japan will find it difficult to achieve Kyoto goals

Its hard these days to hear anything over the din of crashing leftists fantasies as it tends to drown out all the ambient sound. I wonder if any of the signatories of the vaunted Kyoto treaty have managed to meet their commitments under that treaty.

Posted @ January 07, 2009 03:44 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The picture is getting clearer every day

Here's something interesting from CNN:

Commentary: U.S. needs a spy chief with experience

Well that's nice to know. Here we are 90 days after the election, and suddenly we see that for some jobs, "experience" really does matter more than "change".

I told you, this is going to be the funniest 4 years you have ever seen.

Posted @ January 07, 2009 08:27 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (3)

Hey whats it gonna take to get you folks into this car?

Used Cars - A 1980 Kurt Russell movie, where the protagonist, a used car salesman, tries to buy a senate seat.
Coincidence? You decide.

You've been there. You go to buy a car, you walk on the lot and before your second footstep, a human remora has attached himself to you. Helpful to the point of annoying, the ballet begins where handshake, names, cards and pleasantries are exchanged. Well, lets be serious, the remora is the only one doing the exchange, you are looking for a handiwipe.

You continue in your quest, looking for a specific model, and a specific car. Of course that car and model doesn't actually exist. Yes, you've seen the advertising, youve seen other people driving that very car in that very color but you cant find it here at the dealer. Your remora finally guides you towards some other car that you don't like nearly enough but to get the remora to shut up, you tell him its ok. You find yourself being pulled back to his office, which is really a desk sitting in the lobby with all the sense of permanence of a used paper cup.

Your interest dropped off hours ago but the remora insists. Help him out, let him see if he can make you a deal. Be a pal. Paper begins to fly about the desk and improbable numbers begin to appear on the improbable contract paper. The paper is shoved in front of you.

"Is that a great deal or what!" Says the remora with a smile that looks more painful than happy.

You couldn't care less. Your hands are attached to your side as if they were stapled there. The remora reluctantly goes back to work,moving the improbable numbers about the page of paper that looks like it might be legal and contractual. The paper slides back across the table with small imperceptible changes in the actual numbers.

Your reaction is the same. You don't want the car, you never did. The car you actually want and the whole reason you came to the lot in the first place isn't on the lot and any discussion of the car you want is met with "impossible","doesn't exist" "not as good as you think" and my favorite " Wait till you see the XXX model, now that's a great car, but your car is actually the better car".

You then decide that the show is over and get up to leave. Panic ensues. As you get out of the lobby door and suddenly a new character arrives. He's the "sales manager" he ensures you that the car you came to get is actually here after all. He tells you that your remora is new and he's just training and now the "sales manager" wants to help you directly.

The dance begins again. "You want this car?" he says. You say no. He says that you will after you see the numbers. You see the new numbers. Your reaction is the same. You get up to leave. Panic ensues yet again. You sit down and another round of improbable numbers appear on oddly contractual looking paper. You are shocked. The numbers are about half of the original improbable numbers. "Oh, see you do want the car after all!" says the "sales manager". You say no, you're just stunned by the numbers. you begin to look closer at the improbable numbers. You begin to notice that the improbable numbers are describing a completely different car with completely different set of options.

Again, you get up to leave and panic ensues. As you leave the lobby another character arrives. He's the "vice president of sales" and hes glad to make your acquaintance. He's very impressed with the car you wanted to get, the one that's not on the lot because "I've got one of those too! I love that car!". He seems like a genial fellow who's somewhat disconnected and aloof from the all the spittle and sweat that covers the sales floor.

You make your case, you want the car you want at the price you want. He says that seems reasonable, "so if we can get you in that car at that price we can make a deal, right".

Then you make the first mistake of the night.

You say "Yes".

You move to the executive office, a secretary gets you coffee. She likes you, you can just tell. Improbable numbers cross the desk on improbable paper that somehow looks all official but you cant actually read the text, but the deal somehow seem more reasonable. Yes, the model isn't exactly the same but you are assured by the "vice president of sales" that its close enough that no one but you can tell. He tells you some slightly related story that gets your attention because he tells it so well. You think your important, hes talking to you and he's a vice president.

The dance goes on but the show begins to draw to a close. 2 hours later and moments before the place closes for the night, you sign the deal, you get the keys.

Your nose begins to anticipate the wonderful scent of "New Car Smell".

And that's when you discover that instead of the 2008 Challenger, you actually bought a 1984 Dodge Colt. Worse, you paid twice what the Colt was worth when it was new in 1984. Worse still, a week after you get home, you get a call from the "improbable finance company" telling you that they need another 1500 bucks to make the deal or they will have to take back the car and no, the car you traded in is gone so you cant have it back. You signed the contract sir, you should've have thought about all this before you bought the car...

What's all this mean? Well, I realized this morning that all this negotiating that's going on in Washington for the "Car Bailout" was nothing more than a macro version of the basic "car sale dance" that occurs in showrooms across the country. Everyone knows its going to happen, everyone knows it will cost more than everyone says. Everyone knows that 6 months from now, once we are all on the hook for 16 billion in wasted money that the argument will be that we cant let that go to waste and we just need to spend a little bit more and after all whats another 10 billion to ensure the jobs of America?

And this is why everyone hates the deal. We've all been there and we all know where this is going.

Posted @ December 16, 2008 08:15 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (2) | TrackBack (1)

New software holds the key to mapping your dreams

Apparently there is someone out there who has decided to map your dreams.

Naturally, as a software practitioner, this makes me wonder. I think if you hooked me up to this contraption, the 'map of my dream' would look something like this:

Kinda takes your breath away, doesnt it?

The only thing better than being lucky enough to have seen a Connie in the air is actually having been in one while it was in the air. Ive done both and yes, I still dream about her. What a machine...

Photo from 'Flyings Golden Age' The colors are much more vivid in my dreams...

Posted @ December 12, 2008 06:39 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (6) | TrackBack (5)

Its going the be the four most interesting years in human history

hehehhheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheh.

Everyday, every single day since the election, I find more and more of these moments where I just fall over laughing.

Posted @ December 11, 2008 06:46 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2) | TrackBack (1)

Jerry mahoney - Call your Office!

In this post on the WSJ, I had to take a second look at this photo, because it looks like Daschle is so small that he's a ventriloquist puppet sitting on Obamas lap:

Wow, Who knew!

Tonight episode of 'Winchell-Mahoney Time' is sponsored by Studebaker trucks and your local Kaiser-Frasier dealer.

Posted @ December 11, 2008 02:21 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (4) | TrackBack (1)

Dont call it a comeback

I just watched Michgans Sen. Stabenow exclaim "Bankruptcy is out of the question, but its clear that a complete reoganization is called for" Yes boys and girls, thats what passes for thinking in Washington. That line of thinking made my head whip around Wile E. Coyote style, just what does she think a 'bankruptcy' is?

It occured to me that we should just create a special legal plan and process just for the Car Manufacturers that has a sitting judge preside over the reorganization of the company, one that ensures that the debts are fairly paid and allows the company to become solvent again, to benefit both the shareholders and the debtors in a fair and orderly way.

Rather than get all wigged out about the word bankruptcty, we can just call it the "Giraffe" Plan instead. Everyone hates the word Bankruptcy, so dont call it a bankruptcy, but everyone likes Giraffes dont they? So call it a Giraffe and be done with it.

There. Problem solved. The second part of my plan to help General Motors involves the public humiliation and execution of the executives who approved the Pontiac Aztek for production. I suspect that will be somewhat more difficult to accomplish, though the pay-per-view tickets on directTV might just fund the whole bailout process.

Oh, and my hats off to the President for saying that the money has to be paid back to the treasury. That little idea keeps getting overlooked in all this. Its a loan, not a gift, but you'd be surprised how fast one becomes the other in Washington politics.

Posted @ December 06, 2008 11:58 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Anyone Interested in this?

Since being invited to work with Rick Moran on a couple of occasions on his excellent radio show, Ive always wondered what type of Blogradio show would work for me.

And as such, I think I may have hit on one idea that might be worth the effort:

"Ask A Telecommuter!".

Apparently this is an area that many of you are interested in and its something I know more than a little bit about since I've been doing it for the past 8 years. You would think that most people would be doing it by now, but it comes to my attention that many of you are still getting up in the morning and leaving your home to go to work.

I'd like to do my bit for the worlds climate, for the country and for your well being and put a stop to that anachonism if I can.

I'm thinking that it should be a little streaming video show on "How to do it" in regards to telecommuting, what to look out for while you are doing it, what kind of technology that you need to do it and so on and so forth. General help and support for the aspiring non-commuter class.

SO - whattya think?

Ok - Comments are open now, so if this is something youre interested in covering, speak up.

Posted @ December 05, 2008 12:06 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (3) | TrackBack (1)

Theres a lawsuit in here somewhere

See, I told you that TV is bad for you.

Posted @ December 05, 2008 08:56 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

"Thats some catch that Catch-22!" said Capt. Yossarian. "Its the best there is" said Doc Daneeka.

Since the beginning of the current banking and credit crisis, Ive been waiting to hear the sound of the rat trap as it snaps closed on the neck of the general American populace, and I'm here to tell you that I've just heard that fatal "snap".

For the past few months, all these banks have been running to Washington to get their hands on cash to cover their losses, losses largely caused by lending regulations imposed by Congress. "Yippie"! they all scream when the 'Peoples Purse' is pried open and gold coins sprinkle down from heaven, saving the poor unfortunate bank from certain financial doom. What a heartwarming story. Why it occurs to some people that every bank should take this sort of largess. Its there, its available and what could possibly go wrong?

Ah but remember kids, Washington favors always come at a high price. Check out this little blurb on the subject of loans to the Big Three car makers. They are sitting in Washington DC right now trying to get their hands on a little of that money themselves and rihgt off the bat, some Senator figures out real quick whos really in charge of the banks.

"As an alternative( to a cash bailout), Utah Senator Bob Bennett suggested Thursday that those banks getting money from the Treasury be required to convert any car maker debt that they hold into equity, thereby easing the Big Three's cash crunch."

Let it sink in for a minute. Ponder exactly what it is he is saying here.

Oh no... You mean the Government is now going to double down on the bad financial advice for banks? You mean to tell me that the same government that told banks via regulations to give people home loans who clearly could not qualify for the loans or even pay them back, is now going to tell the same battered banks that they have to give loans to the Big 3 Automakers, (companies that also cant qualify or pay back loans) because after all according to Senator Bob Bennett - Its the Congresses money that we gave you, right? We helped you, now you go do what we tell you to do - or ELSE!

This is how it ends. As of right now, the Senate IS the banking system. You just try prying the banking system from the hands of the Senate now. You want a loan? Sure, lets just check your voting record, lets see what kind of car you want to buy, oh darn its not a certified government "greenmobile", well sorry mr. Consumer, we cant give you a loan for that new Toyota Dual Axle truck for your ranch, but how about a new Chevy Cobalt Hybrid? Sure thing. Sign right here Mr. Consumer.

SNAP! Thats just how easy it is for you to find that you no longer have any economic choices. No banks - then no bank loans. No bank loans - then no economy. In point of fact, your entire economy is now run by just 100 people. 100 people that if most of us were in an elevator and any one of them got on, we would then get off and walk up the rest of the building rather than risk our well being by exposed to their close proximity.

Posted @ December 05, 2008 08:11 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Just so you know

While Detroit is in DC begging for money to make things no one wants at prices no one wants to pay, The Amazon Kindle is sold out.

Oh, and those "big discounts on big screen Tv's" and "Shoppers not buying", take it from my personal observations over the past few days that both of those things are simply not true. It might not be as big as last year, but after standing in lines in several big item stores over the past day, I can assure you that people are buying big ticket items.

And I just checked a couple of the real estate options I have been watching closely, and both of them have sold in the past week. They have been on the market for about a year, and both of them have sold - in November! I also know of two Christmas tree lots in the area that are already sold out of trees. Did they plan for the downturn and simply not bring as many trees? Probably, but is that bad? I dont think so. Sure, it goes against the current "boo-hoo bad news" paradigm, but there you go.

There might be a recession going on out there but I'm just choosing to not participate in it.

Posted @ December 04, 2008 09:43 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

Scientists confirms WWII rumor.

Heres a riddle:

Hitler had only one.
Goering had two, but very small.
Himmler was somewhat similar.
And poor Goebbels had none at all.

What are we talking about? Click Here.

I cant help thinking that if his father had none that it would have saved us all a whole lot of bother.

Posted @ November 19, 2008 04:27 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (6) | TrackBack (1)

Question of the Day - Lets talk bailouts

Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, California, West Virginia. These are all states in which Toyota manufactures cars in the United States.

And how are sales for Toyota this year? Down 23%. Toyota has already set up plans to cut production, which for everyone but GM/Ford/Chrysler is probably the first thing you would naturally do. Surely this slowdown at Toyota will impact the bottom line domestic US suppliers that have Toyota as a customer, right?

Question of the day: Given the information above, How willing would you be to giving Toyota some bailout money?

Here's a shocker for you, I'd be far more willing to give Toyota some money than I would to GM, and thats not just because I own a Toyota, its because I think they would invest the money better for a greater result for everyone involved. How do I know this for sure? Because they havent asked for it! And thats because they know the strings attached from Washington would keep them from ever being able to make enough money to pay back the loans. While GM has run to 'Big Mama Washington' for a big smothering hug, Toyota has concentrated on making products people want and when people dont want them, they stop making them.

Thats smart. That usually means its a good investment.

I'm not saying we should give Toyota money, I'm just saying that when people say "US Auto Manufacturing", I just dont know what that means. Is that the old companies in Detroit, or is that autos that are built in the US? Toyota is built here, Honda, Subaru, and Nissan, are they US Auto Manufacters? Why not? the CEO of Nissan isnt Japanese, he's Carlos Ghosn, a Brazilian Lebanese guy who used to work for a French Company. Technically, Nissan is half French now since the merger with Renault, yet no one thinks of Nissan as anything other than a Japanese company. This seems wrong to me.

When companies become multinational corporations which almost all of them are now, should we really refer to them after their originating country or does the ethnic background of the CEO matter? or is it what Stock Exchange they operate on that matters when we refer to a company by its 'country of origin'? In my view, GM is no more an 'American Company' than is Toyota. History says GM came from the United States, but it surely didn't stay there. If you were to give the GM shareholders a chance to vote on whether or not to continue US operations or just concentrate on China, and its my guess that most of their investors would just as soon jettison the US market in favor on China. Does that mean that GM would be a "Chinese company"? Just because a company has their headquarters is based here, doesnt really mean that much to me. Does anyone refer to Boeing as a 'Chicago company' just because they moved their HQ to Chicago from Seattle in a dispute of taxes? No. Boeing could move to Baja California, and it will still be thought of as "a Seattle company", but a sense of misplaced nostalgia for what it once was doesnt make it into one now.

A multinational company is just exactly that, so dont be so "unilateral" when you ask for taxpayer bailout money.

Summary: If GM wants more money then sell bonds and stock and maybe look into making a car that actually works after 5 years. Don't talk to congress or taxpayers because once you do, you will never get another buyer on the market again. People who say no one will buy a car from a bankrupt car company need to tell me why anyone would buy a car from a company so poorly run its only hope was to get money from Washington. I can respect bankruptcy as a business strategy because that is fundamentally what it is and what it is used for, but getting more goverment 'help' is almost always a really bad idea that never turns out well for the government, the taxpayers or the companies in trouble in the first place.

Posted @ November 19, 2008 01:47 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2) | TrackBack (1)

Copy Editor Humor

The punchline almost writes itself...

Posted @ November 19, 2008 09:01 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

How To Stop Piracy: A Primer

1. Stop paying ransom. If ships are captured, insurance and bond holders are to consider the ships sunk and the crew lost. International Banks that procure and trade in ransom funds shall be considered outlaw and their assets frozen. Countries that engage in Piracy shall be given the same consideration as those who harbor terrorists. IMF funds, international letters of credit and UN protection for nations that harbor pirates shall cease upon a UN determination of the support piracy. Nations that fail to secure their coastlines from piracy shall find their coastlines administered and controlled by the United Nations. This will mean that all customs and shipping for the offending country will be administered and controlled by the UN and order kept by the United States Navy and Coast Guard.

2. Kill the pirates. Sink their ships and boats, blockade their harbors. Take no prisoners. Ships at sea that are found without proper documentation and bills of lading and are found to have weapons and crews for the purposes of piracy shall be considered pirates by the Navy or Coast Guard that captures them and will be summarily executed. Hole their boats, destroy their piers and facilities. Leave no local support for people who commit piracy any more than you would for people who commit terrorism.

3. Shipping companies shall hire armed guards and all cargo ships at sea shall carry them. Armed Guards will be managed and supported by the insurance companys that indemnify the ship and the cargo. Ships that do not carry armed guards shall not be insured. Uninsured shipping will not be allowed into any western world harbor.

4. Hire mercenaries to operate "Q" Ships. These ships will act as attractive targets and placed into areas where pirates are known to attack with frequency. When the "Q" ship is attacked, bring all guns to bear. When pirates are captured, offer cash rewards to the Q ship crews for information recovered on the ports of origination for the pirates.

5. Acts of piracy shall be met with summary execution of the pirates by whomever captures them within 24 hours of capture.

6. Nations that are without a Navy or Coast Guard can issue official papers marking hired individuals as "Privateers" on which they can act by authority of the government in the place of Coast Guard and Customs officials. Privateers must be registered with the United Nations and undergo inspection along with being subject to international laws.

7 Individuals who are found to working in concert with pirates, such as crew members who inform on cargo shipments and their availability shall be given the same treatment as that given to captured pirates.

8. In certain strategic world locations, ships will be convoyed to ensure greatest level of protection to shipping.

Posted @ November 18, 2008 07:20 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (6) | TrackBack (1)

Movie Alert - Decision Against Time (1957)

Decision Against Time, a 1957 Ealing Studios film. I managed to catch this last night after recording it from TCM. This is a fantastic movie on many levels but it catches my attention for one reason. No, its not just because there are aircraft in the film (a criteria that I often use to evaluate movies) its because the movie shows life from a perspective that is not often seen in film or literature.

This movie shows life from the perspective of a man. Sound silly to say such a thing, but its true. Most film and literature talks about life from the perspective of a woman or a mother. Rarely is there any examples of the view of life from the eyes of a father or husband. This is one very good solid example of that perspective.

Jack Hawkins plays a test pilot of a struggling post-war aircraft company. Jack is also struggling to provide for his family and is not able to afford buying a new home for his wife. He goes to work and is informed by the company CEO that unless they can sell the aircraft that Jack is testing that they will all be out of work within a month.

Jack then takes the aircraft for a test flight with the potential new customer for the aircraft. Naturally, something goes wrong on the aircraft, a fire breaks out in one of the engines and Jack is forced to make some very tough decisions. Should he save himself and bail out with the rest of the crew? or should he stay with the aircraft which would cause him to lose his life but might possibly allow the company to discover the nature of the problem with the aircraft and manage to stay in business afterwards. While this ocdcurs in the air, on the ground, the factory workers for the doomed aircraft company gaze skyward knowing that their fate is tied to the decisions of this one man. They want him to live, but they also want to be employed and working. They realize that they cant have both. They ponder their own humanity as Jack circles the airfield, burning off fuel. News reporters on the scene are told that unless there is a crash there is no story and with no story they wont get paid. Should they hope for a crash just to make a few dollars? or hope for the life of the man in the aircraft.

There is also a debate among the factory workers about whether or not to tell Jacks wife about the pending disaster. Shouldnt we tell her? How does that Help? Maybe she can talk to Jack, talk some sense into him. Its into this environment on the ground that Jacks wife finds that she has to deal with the fact that Jack has taken this very large, life threatening risk with his life and their family security.

She simply doesnt understand why he would do such a thing. Is this a macho thing? Why would he do it? All the other Pilots say they would never take such a risk.

Suffice to say, Jack explains it to her. Its a riveting scene that explains to many people the decisions that men and husbands often face in their lives that other people, particulary wives, simply dont understand.

"Lawrence of Arabia" fans will enjoy the work of Jack Hawkins( Col. Allenby in Lawrence) in this film as well as the actor Howard Marion-Crawford, who plays the reporter in this movie. In Lawrence, he plays the role of the British Military Doctor introduced in the initial scenes of the movie as "an admirer of Col. Lawrence" saying that "he never met the great man personally". It's only later in the film do you see that he did meet Lawrence and slapped him to the ground when he sees the appaling conditions of the hospital that he takes over from Lawrence, not realizing that the man he had slapped to the ground was in fact the same man he to which he would later offer high praise on the steps of St. Pauls Cathedral.

Posted @ November 18, 2008 09:13 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (3)

Well, He did say "Country First", didnt he?

A 'Random Thought' just popped out of my head as I saw the headline of President-elect Obama is meeting with McCain.

Remember that I have already speculated that McCain wont run for another term as Senator of Arizona. In short, he's finished with elected office but that doesnt mean that I think he's done serving the country.

Let me ask you, is now the time for McCain to become either Secretary of Defense or possibly the Secretary of State? Dont be so quick to dismiss it. If the President were to ask McCain to serve, I think he would take the job.

I dont think it will matter who is the President.

Posted @ November 17, 2008 09:17 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (4) | TrackBack (5)

I shouted out "Who killed the blogosphere" when after all it was you and me

Ah, It's first thing Monday morning and I'm already up one Stones reference. Let's see you top that Steve...

Nick Carr explains who it was who killed the blogosphere and most of you already know who it is. I know most of you are saying "Hey, I didnt even know it was sick!" but yeah, when you live in an era where everyone has a blog, then there is no blogosphere. See, while you were out working out linkage stats, someone came along and made the blogosphere irrelevant.

Good. Now we can all get back to talking about something besides politics on our fancy internet web page thingys.

Posted @ November 17, 2008 08:21 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Megan McArdle Explains it all for you

All the 'back and forth' that we had earlier this week had on this site over the bailout of GM can be distilled into short, sharp, clearly expressed genius from Megan McArdle.

My thoughts about her clarity on the subject? In a word - "Exactly".

Posted @ November 14, 2008 03:18 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

You know youre not supposed to take those ads seriously dont you?

I saw this ad on drudge a few minutes ago. You see these things all over the place and most of the time I dont notice them, but this one jumped out at me:

You know, I dont want to just right come out and say that I think that these people are lying about the weight loss this lady in the 'before' picture supposedly had under their plan, but I just dont think that the 'before and after' picture is the same person. I just have a hunch. I can't quite put my finger on why I feel this way, I just do.

Posted @ November 14, 2008 08:48 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

so what would it take to get me to bailout GM?

Ok, let's say we dont want to go to bankruptcy because that would poison the ability for GM to sell cars. Lets agree for the sake of argument that this is core of the case against GM using bankruptcy as a way to solve its problems. I dont agree, but let's do so for now so that I can illustrate a few things in the process.

The alternative to bankruptcy seems to be that we give GM more money, with fewer strings. This seems to be a genuinely bad idea.

Shareholders buy stock because they believe that the future price of the stock will increase. They believe this through a combination of their own prognostication methods and what is published for the shareholders by the company itself. Its in this way that a companys management is kept accountable. If they fail to meet their goals, the stock is sold ( sorry - dumped ) and a shareholder revolt occurs, resulting in the removal of the management team that failed to deliver. Thats how its supposed to work, and for the most part, it does.

So again the options on the table now are:

1) Bankruptcy.

or

2) To give GM management access to more money and undergo even less accountability than they currently receive from their large institutional investors.

So let's try a third option. Let's call it a "Reorganization" for the lack of a better word. It will work something like this:

A) Let's go ahead and give GM money for a "reorg" but in return, lets break the company up into smaller, more competitive units. In thend, there will be Three GM's, Let's say a separate company for Cars, Trucks and commercial vehicles and Defense. Since its not reasonable for GM to find a buyer for some of the more asinine and incompetant existing product lines, lets go ahead and fund the removal of these business units through a direct "buy out". For example, shut down Buick for lets say 20 billion. You name your business unit and we will agree to a fair price to help you (GM) shut it down. Sound fair?

B) Let's take the Pensions and bundle them into some sort of newly expanded Government Pension protection plan. Oh, and after this - NO MORE PENSION PLANS, its 401k, funded at 7%. Employees in GM/REORG manage their own retirement from here on out, no more of this "cradle to the grave" crap. Oh, and this applies to all employees, not just labor. Everyone sinks or everyone swims at GM/REORG.

C) Retiree Health Benefits. Ok, Let's get that off of GM's back and place the UAW retirees into Medicare. We fund Medicare for each of the GM Retirees added to the plan, thus ensuring that Medicare gets more money and the folks get some form of Health Care. But Frank, "Medicare sucks" you say. Well, ok, we can look at reform of Medicare at the same time makybe kill two birds with one stone. Oh, and dont lay any of that "This isnt what we agreed to in our contract with GM" because if you do that, we can just go ahead and go into bankruptcy and that pretty much puts the end to your contract, right? Consider yourself lucky that we are going this far.

D) Let's have a capital gains cut for any new investors of GM/REORG Stock. Investments in GM Reorg Stock that are kept over 10 years will be free of Capital Gains taxes, now how's that sound? That way the shareholders of GM/REORG can keep an eye on management for their investment and will have an interest in it doing well. Oh yeah, theres that whole, "Its not government money" thing, which naturally makes me happy.

E) Legislative Knot Cutting. Let's take a wholesale look at removing the barriers that keep GM/Ford/Chrysler from being competitive in the world marketplace and lets remove those barriers, ( costs nothing to do and keeps the legislature busy in the mean time, its a win-win). But Frank, wont that make the UAW mad? Look, if the UAW wants more "Auto Workers" in its union, they need to start figuring out how to make more "Autos" in the USA, its a symbiotic relationship between host and parasite and it never foes the parasite any good to kill the host.

That process starts here. Yes, UAW rank and file, you might have to move around a bit, but in the end there might just be more of you, which is good for you, good for me and dare I say it, good for the UAW and GM. PLEASE NOTE: I DID NOT SAY RAISE TRADE BARRIERS TO KEEP OUT JAPANESE CARS FROM THE US MARKET. What I said was, remove the barriers from GM that keep it from competiting on the world market.

Weird? Out of the box? Sure. Would it work? Well, Yes, I think most of these would work and more to the point they would work far better than just giving the current management team access to more cash to keep making the same mistakes they have always made. It would also make the US car industry more competitive and it would remove the knife from the US taxpayers next marked with the words "too big to fail". In my way of thinking, any company that says that they are too big to fail is an immediate candidate for being broken up as part of the agreement to a bailout. Sorry kids, you cant have it both ways.

So yeah, I can see helping GM, but I just dont think giving them a firehose of money to drink from is going to help them with the problems that they have. They need to be reorganized, so let's go do that.

Posted @ November 13, 2008 03:51 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

It just gives me the willies

There is nothing in the world that gives me the creeps more than when Conservatives use the word "fair".

Unless of course, when they use it more than once to make the same point.

Posted @ November 13, 2008 08:39 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

HMS Cumberland: 1 Somali Pirate Dhow - 0

Here's a Somali Pirate Dhow:

Wow. I havent seen anything as fearsome on the high seas since Gilligan shipped out with the Skipper for a three hour cruise.

And heres the HMS Cumberland:

And how did it all turn out? Well, for the Pirates, it didnt end like it does in the movies.
Snip:

"Pirates caught redhanded by one of Her Majesty’s warships after trying to hijack a cargo ship off Somalia made the grave mistake of opening fire on two Royal Navy assault craft packed with commandos armed with machineguns and SA80 rifles.

In the ensuing gunfight, two Somali pirates in a Yemeni-registered fishing dhow were killed, and a third pirate, believed to be a Yemeni, suffered injuries and subsequently died. It was the first time the Royal Navy had been engaged in a fatal shoot-out on the high seas in living memory."

You know, I've been on the "Pirates" ride at Disneyland more times than I can remember, but I would gladly go back every day if they added that little bit of action to the display. Hmmm, maybe if they rename it "Limeys of The Somali Coast"?

That aught to pack 'em in...

Posted @ November 12, 2008 03:14 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1) | TrackBack (213)

Question of the Day - Consumer Behavior

Let me get this straight:

- You won't but GM/Ford/Chrysler stock?
- You won't buy their cars?

But you want to see "The Government" give a big pile of your tax dollars to them?

Question of the Day:

A) Does it ever occur to you that when you are taxed, when the government confiscates your money that you earned for whatever you did to convert your own labor into cash, that this is where its going?

B) Oh, so you dont get taxed? Does it occur to you that what ever tax money there is that is confiscated from other people, that isnt going to fill potholes but instead to make cars that no one wants, built by a company that no one wants to own stock in?

Extra Credit: If Taxpayers are having their taxes used to fund corporate bailouts, then shouldnt taxpayers get stock certificates in the companies they bailed out? If I buy savings bonds, I get something I can redeem later, why not do something similar with the business bailouts?

Posted @ November 11, 2008 12:04 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

What is this I see?

The Brownshirts - 1933

The Brownshirts - 2008

Ah, the new age is here and examples of love and tolerance can be seen everywhere for all to see, like these:

300 protest outside Mormon Church, CHP closes Highway 13 ramps.

Prop 8 Protestors Spray Graffitti on Mormon Church in Orangevale.

Prop. 8 protesters target Mormon temple in Westwood

Mormon Missionaries Attacked By Mob, Stabbed.

76-year-old man and 77-year-old wife were physically assaulted by Prop 8 supporter.

Vandals attack homes owned by Prop 8 supporters.

I could go on for days with more examples of the peace, love and tolerance that flows from the new leaders of world 'love and tolerance'. How ironic that those who calmly lecture the rest of us for the acceptance of alternate lifestyles can so quickly revert to animalistic and decidedly undemocratic behavior in blatant attempt to bully their neighbors into submission and to attack their beliefs with violence. If this had been any other sort of sign you can imagine, whos intent it was to intimidate the people within the house for their beliefs, the reaction would have been quite different. Condemnation, arrest, disgust would be the reaction of the public at large, and it would be the correct reaction by all. And yet, because its directed towards Mormon, its met with titters and laughter by the at large public.

Somehow I feel like I've seen this show before and I didnt much like it last time.

No one should be made to live in fear. It does not change anything at all in the argument to change the sign from the word "BIGOT" to something else. Spend a few minutes yourself and replace the word "BIGOT" with any noun you wish to choose; try out a few 'colorful' ones just for fun. You see, The effect is the same. The righteousness of your argument does not undo the damage done to the the induvidual its being used against. Once called a "Bigot" there is no undoing it. You are, simply because someone else chooses to make you one.

That they would do this to a person at all is beyond disgust to me, but that they decide to take up this horror on this, the 170th anniversary of the issuance of the Mormon Extermination Order by the Govenor of Missouri and the 70th anniversary of Kristalnacht in Nazi Germany is a reminder of how thin the tissue is that holds our collective memory and its resulting morality together and how once its torn, there is no length that the minority will go to impress its will on the majority through acts of quiet terror.

This is a small warning to all of us who see it for what it is. If this sort of strong arm bullying of Mormons is allowed to go on as acceptable behaviour by society as a whole, if we allow people to fear for their lives and their property by quietly accepting this sort of terror as normal, If the targeting of individuals for expressing their votes is to be met with political terrorism, if people will start to fear for their jobs and their property because they speak their minds, then which of us will dare express ourselves when the firehose of leftwing 'thug politics' is turned on us?

The message here should be clear. This isnt about Mormons, Mormonism or their belief system, so dont start arguing theology with me as a way to justify the crimes of the left towards Mormons. Its about Democracy and your right to even have a voice at all. The Mormons are a minority in all but a few places in the world. Yet, they are an organization with billions of dollars and millions of members in their church and at their disposal.

If the thugs can take the right to vote from the Mormons through acts of brutality and everyone else turns a blind eye to it while its done, because, you know, "its just the Mormons", how long do you think you can stand up to them?

Be warned. Those who think I'm overreacting need to simply tell me how far should I let this sort of thuggery go on before I should get upset? Should I wait until Mormons are regularly kept from possible employment in certain companies and industries? Should I wait till playwrights are praised for their anti-mormon writings? Should I wait till Mormons are always portrayed in a negative light in film and literature? Should I wait until pre employment background checks reveal your political support and thus your religion to your employer? Should I wait until people and property are attacked and brought to public ridicule for their beliefs?

Oh. Most of those things have already happened, and not just back in 1933. Its happening now. Pehaps its too late already, eh?

So,how far? and for how long? You come tell me, oh lovers of "peace and tolerance", and when you do I've got some books I want you to read.

Posted @ November 09, 2008 01:58 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (6) | TrackBack (3)

Question of the day - GM or Not GM

Question of the day -

"So why can't GM be allowed to go into bankruptcy?"

Seems to me that United Airlines and half a dozen other companies I can name have gone into bankruptcy without also going out of buisness. GM goes into bankruptcy it gets relief on some of its debt but gets "reorganized" which can't be a bad thing if you ask me.

Might it have a little something to do with the juicy union contracts that would become toast in bankruptcy court and thus the political drive to "do something"?

Having GM shed a dozen asinine contracts and unjustifiably expensive health and benefit plans would seem to me to be a good thing for everyone. I dont have a problem giving GM money, but like any investor I want to see the business plan that goes with it before the dollars cross my desk. So far the business plan seems to be to keep doing the same moronic things they have been doing only on a whole new class of investors dollars. Since when did working at GM become an entitlement?

Any Thoughts?

UPDATE:

Welcome Instapundit-eers, Vodka-teers, and the good folks from Powerline.

One other note: most of you seem to have missed the rather obvious connection between government intervention and poorly performing companies. There are lots of arguments about why GM must be bailed out by the US Taxpayer, but no one ever recognizes tht by doing so they ensure that GM becomes more deficient and incapable of competing in the marketplace. If the can't fail now, what makes you think they will be allowed to fail after sucking down a trillions of your tax dollars?

For Example:

We've all seen kids who still live at home when they are 30. The kid of kid whos parents give them an ample allowance and expect next to nothing of them in return. Thats GM in a nutshell. The 'Kato Kaelin' of manufacturing. Now, rather than go to college, or get a job, the no good layabout is about to invite his friends Ford and the Dodge Brothers over to watch a 'Twilight Zone Marathon' on the SciFi channel while they chug a few brewskis.

UPDATE II: The concensus amoungst the commentariat is that "no one would buy a car from a bankroupt company". Perhaps, but why would anyone buy a car from a car company that requires a bailout from the government? We bailed out Chrysler, and where are they today?

Fundamentally, the question to ask is how does the bailout make GM a better company? It doesnt and in my opinion, it can only do harm. You dont think so? Ask the workers at British Leyland.

If its really "for the workers" then give the money to the workers directly. For all the billions they want to pour into GM to 'save jobs for the workers', you could pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to each worker and tell them to go directly to retirement.

Workers dont want work, they want the money they get in exchange for working, or in som cases, pretending to work.

Posted @ November 08, 2008 01:06 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (36) | TrackBack (0)

Strategery

At this time, I wish to point out something that many people on the Republican side have yet to recognize and it needs to be said early and often lest we fall into a very serious mistake.

Pay attention folks - President Obama is off-limits. He is not the new 'Bill Clinton'. Unlike Bill Clinton or George Bush he isnt just the president, he's a symbol. Attacking Obama like he was the new Clinton will have the same effect as attacking Ronald Reagan, his supporters wont be swayed and you will look small as a result.

'President Obama' is a symbol of the country, he's like a walking flag. However, this can work out to our advantage and here's why - Here's a riddle: What has two heads, no brain and an approval rating of 9%?

Answer: The Democratic Congress.

Thats where you will find a target rich environment on which to launch your opposition. If you run on a ticket of change, you have to deliver and the change you bring had better be demonstrably better than what people expected. Chances are extremely likely that they have significantly overpromised and are likely to underdeliver on those promises before the next election. Republicans should exploit this to the highest degree.

Short version: Ignore Obama, concentrate on the Democratic Congress. Separate the two wherever and whenever possible.

Let me also bring the following list into the game:

Christopher Dodd of Connecticut
Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas
Barbara Boxer of California
Ken Salazar of Colorado
Daniel Inouye of Hawaii
Evan Bayh of Indiana
Barbara Mikulski of Maryland
Harry Reid of Nevada
Chuck Schumer of New York
Byron Dorgan of North Dakota
Ron Wyden of Oregon
Patrick Leahy of Vermont
Patty Murray of Washington
Russ Feingold of Wisconsin

Is the Senate Majority leader ever vulnerable? Go ask Tom Daschle.
There are targets on this list that we need to get to work on right now.

UPDATE: Oh, forgot to mention that Bob Byrd has stepped aside from his chairman seat. He's 91. Oh, and he's from West Virginia. Let's see, how did West Virginia vote this time? Red State with an Open Senate Seat. Go For It...

UPDATE II: Betcha McCain doesnt run in 2010. I dont think he will resign, so theres a bit of work to be done there. And I betcha neither does Lieberman, so theres some work to to there too. And I'll bet Ah-nold runs in 2010 for Boxers Seat, and wins!

Posted @ November 07, 2008 09:18 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Channeling my inner Emma Goldman

Dear Little-Boys-and-Girls-formerly-of-the-McCain-Campaign-who-now-find-yourselves-unemployed-and-now-thanks-to-your-antics-are-very-possibly-unemployable.

Ahem.

I just want to give you something to think about as you go about making Sarah Palin into a scapegoat for your failures:

"If you dont have room for Govenor Sarah Palin in your party, then you dont have room in your party for me"**

You ever look at the Reagan/Mondale electoral map of 1984? You folks wanna see that map reversed, with the next Republican getting his home state and nothing else? Then keep talkin' trash about the one thing in your campaign that actually worked - Sarah Palin. You jackasses think that Govenor Palin was all about "getting the PUMA's", well it wasnt. It was about getting the Republican base behind McCain. If Sarah Palin had been at the top of this ticket, I dare say we would have done better and I say this as someone who likes McCain. If Sarah Palin had not been on the ticket, just exactly who do you think would have showed up for McCain? If Sarah Palin was so bad, then why did McCain take her everywhere? Well thats easy because everywhere she went, thousands of people showed up. That didnt happen with McCain, unless of course, people heard that Sarah Palin was going to be there with him.

Now clear out your desk, turn in your keys and go back to getting your masters degrees in Poli-Sci at some Ivy League sausage grinder.

**: Emma Goldman - A left wing agitator from the last century who once said "If I cant dance, I dont want to be in your revolution".

UPDATE: Simple, direct and to the point. It expresses my feelings exactly. .

Posted @ November 06, 2008 02:19 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Back to basics

I'll have more to say on this later, but for right now, let's try to distill our core arguments in small, bite-sized sentences that people of all education levels can understand.

Here's my first take:

"Its Your Money".

It's not "government money" its not "fairness" to have someone else decide to take it away from you, it is simply your money. You should be left to spend it in any fashion you see fit for whatever reasons you wish.

This is the essence of the concept of "pursuit of happiness" which as I understand it, is a phrase that can be found in some obscure written documents that date from the formation of the country. "Fairness" can be best defined as those policies that result in you keeping more of your own money for you to spend as you see fit.

There is nothing fair to be found in simple confiscation.

Posted @ November 06, 2008 11:11 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (2)

Im Chris from Shamwow!

Hey Chris, I'd check your ratings on your current gig before you sign on for a bigger mission. MSNBC could make more money with your timeslot by just giving it to "vince from shamwow".

Posted @ November 06, 2008 10:55 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (7)

Channelling my inner Mencken

Just repeating over here something that I just said over at Steves Place:

Channelling my 'inner Mencken' this morning, I found myself saying:

“A new President has been elected. Well that aught to teach him…”

The Office of the Presidency is a cruel inhumane joke that we invented to trap our most agressive alpha males. They get attracted to the scent of power, and the find themselves trapped in the steel jaws of a governmental system thats designed on purpose to not work.

That's why everyone comes into the office of the President loks like a bright shiny penny and leaves the office looking like a bag of freshly hammered dog crap.

I almost feel sorry for him. Almost.

Oh, and my mood today? I'm actually feeling pretty good! I'll tell you why later...

Posted @ November 05, 2008 10:33 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Congratulations President Obama

No sour grapes here. I think it was good race by all parties. I doesnt look to me like its going to be a landslide, but it doesnt have to be. I think McCain has made a solid run against overwhelming odds. I see no shame in that, he was not "Dole 2.0". I think we need to recognize that Barack Obama is the President. I would hope that at some point he thanks the one man who most made it possible:

George W. Bush.

By effectively managing the 'war on terror' to the point that it no longer exists as a factor in elections, it was President Bush who provided the conditions that lead to the rise of Barack Obama. The last time we saw something like this was when George H.W. Bush finished the cold war and was thanked for his efforts by the electorate by being instantly replaced by Gov. Bill Clinton, all for the crime of not knowing what a checkout scanner was. Barack Obama survived the primaries and this election because the electorate doesnt see warfare as a likely possibility in the next 4 years. That can only be because the last eight years were successful and one man - literally one man, and thats because of his leadership in the face of horrible advice and military intelligence data, used his character to do the right thing to defend this country. He should be thanked for that effort and I hope in his graciousness of victory, the new President takes the time to thank him for that.

As I said earlier, if Barack Obama can run the country as well as he ran his campaign, we all should do very well.

Let us all hope and pray for the new President in the execution of his duties. Oh, and here's to the end of 'Bush Derangement Syndrome'. And kids, let's not go and replace it with Obama-mania, one way or the other,ok? He's a man, no more, no less. I hope he remembers that fact as well as you.

There will be plenty of time later for "whats next" but let's all take a moment and recognize what happened here tonight. I'm 47, just like the new President and I have to say that weve seen alot happen in our lifetimes. When I was a kid back in the 1960's, it was a big deal when a black person had their own prime time TV show where they werent playing a maid or a clown of some sort. It was a big deal when a black man was promoted to be on the Thunderbirds Air Demonstration Team, it was a big deal when a black man became an Astronaut. In my lifetime, it was once a scandal for black men to marry white women and in some places it was outright illegal. All of that happened in our lifetime and I'm glad its no longer weird or odd to see black folks do any damn thing they want to for no other reason than they can and marry whomever they please. I no longer live in an age where its assumed that they arent up for the job just because of the color of their skin.

And now we have a President with the name Barack Obama who's father was from Kenya.

Is this a great country or what?

And all you anti-american europeans who cant wait to find something to hate about America and Americans, I have just one question for you:

"Where's all your black candidates, hmmmm?"

You folks in the UK can come talk to me about "racist Americans" when you get a Prime Minister whos something more than opaque.

Posted @ November 04, 2008 06:27 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (12) | TrackBack (0)

caught in passing

Hallway conversation...

She: "You dont really think that McCain will win Pennsylvania do you?"

Me: "No, but I'll bet Palin does"

Heh.

Posted @ November 04, 2008 12:09 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

my only prediction for the day, and its a sad one

I was really hoping against hope that we would see a clear result today.

That hope has now been dashed:

"Denver Election Commission spokesman Alton Dillard says the "days of having your close to final results by 10 p.m. are over." He says officials have tried to make it clear from early on that workers will still be counting ballots into Wednesday, and that still holds true."

So its time to explode a myth. Mail in ballots are not counted until after the election polls have closed. Most elections, the mail in ballots arent even counted and one of the two candidates has to sue the election board to get a count. However, due to the closeness of this election, they will almost certainly have to count them to get a result. Sadly,that will take time. more time than they can get in a single day. This is not limited to Colorado, any state with large amounts of mail in voting will suffer from this phenomenon.

The good news is that this is yet another sign that its a close election. The bad news is that we gotta put up with this crap for a few more days.

Posted @ November 04, 2008 10:04 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (2) | TrackBack (9)

Hawaii Good Luck Symbol makes a sudden comeback

Obama expresses his true feelings.

Look you hatemongers, thats not a "middle finger", thats a Hawaiian "Good Luck" symbol. Obamas from Hawaii, he wants to be your friend, thats all it is. Just relax, ok? You haters out there really need to get a life...

Heck, here's a picture of some good old Navy guys giving the same symbol:

and wouldnt you know that it was published in Time Magazine in 1968, so how could it be so rude as you think it is? See, Its "Good Old Navy" guys, just like John McCain is a good old Navy Guy, and they are giving what you think is an insult to their gracious hosts, the Peoples Democratic Republic of Korea. Now who would give an insult to their hosts? I mean what kind of people do you think good old Navy guys are anyway? Its a friendly gesture ok? Look, here's another picture of the same crew:

Just look at their faces, do you see any angry haters in there? No no I dont either.

If you are being critical of Barack Obama for using this symbol of friendship then you are being critical of the crew of the USS Pueblo and you know what that makes you, right? That's right, youre unpatriotic. So, you just watch yourself, OK comrade?

Posted @ November 03, 2008 01:19 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (7)

An obscure movie reference which serves as my light for the day

Steve McQueen - The Great Escape

Camp Commander: (To Steve)Cooler. 14 days.
Steve: Walking away, turns and says - "Oh, ah, you'll still be here when I get out, right?
Camp Commander: Cooler. 30 Days.
Steve: Turns, walks towards the cooler. Head held high. smirks and shakes head.

That's precisely how I feel today.

I'm feeling pretty positive today and upbeat. I spend most of the day hummming the Lee Greenwood song "I'm proud to be an American", which honestly if there was any justice in the world would be the national anthem. I feel good, I'm walking with my head held high.

I'm so sorry to tell you this, you leftists out there, but if my party doesnt win, it wont mean that people like me will suddenly "shut up and go away". We might have to go to "the cooler" for a little while, but all you leftists will still be here when we get out. You are not going anywhere anytime soon.

The things I believe in might be beaten in this election, and in a way that means I will be beaten, but I wont be defeated. Its going to take something a little more powerful than what you guys have to do that.

I dont have a McCain sign in front of my house but I do have an American Flag, just so you know whos side I'm on.

I dare you to come take it down.

...-

Posted @ November 03, 2008 11:24 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

If everything is going to hell, then why am I so upbeat?

ABC - Always Be Closing. Good Advice...

Polls-schmolls. Nobody knows nuthin....

Here's a small breakdown of what I think at this late date in the game.

1. Its 2000 all over again. I said awhile back, that for Obama to win this election, he would have to have a landslide and that all John McCain needed to do was continue to break even and he would probably win. The late undecideds would go for the "safe bet" in the election and that was before the world economy collapsed in September.

I see lots of polls. I don't see any poll that shows a landslide Obama win. Sorry kids, you take the outliers on either end and toss them in the trash and the rest, thats the polls that matter. Those show its within 3-5 at best for Obama. Thats margin of error- that's a tie.

Incredible as it may seem, we are right back where we were on the 2000 election. We could finish this election once again with an electoral college win on one side and a popular vote for the other guy.

For either McCain - Or Obama. And wouldn't that be funny as hell if it were Obama who got the Electoral College win!

Advantage McCain.

2. Shopping habits. This last couple of months have been historic times for Americans and the world. The reason why everyone you meet these days is ready to bite your head off is all sorts of things they used to be able to count on has suddenly gone into a tailspin. If I were to categorize the entire American electorate right now, I would say two words would do it:

"Risk Averse"

Everyone is making decisions in their daily life right now, but no one is taking any risk. Buy a car? Ahhh, not right now honey, lets wait on that for a bit, ok? Hey should we swing our savings into some real estate right now babe? Ah, no not right this second, I'm filling out my resume and buying bullion. You see the Stock Market going all over the place, which I admit is fun, but what you don't see is trading volume. America is losing sleep because their mattresses are stuffed with dollar bills right now. These are dollars that used to be in their 401k, but now, people are looking at those dollars to make it through a some of the next few months rather than buying a new speedboat or condo in Maui.

When people are in survival situations, they don't tend do risky things. I don't think the Donner Party spent a lot of time wondering how they could do a bit of bungee jumping off the cliff tops while they waited for rescue. People tend to get focused on "Maslows Hierarchy of Needs" when there is a lot of risk in the air and they are trying to survive.

Its into this environment that Barack Obama has decided to start talking about taxes and specifically why you don't pay enough. His Vice President has already started redefining wealth down to 150,000 a year. Mistake? Well sure, it could be, but I think we know what he means. He means that 250, 150, heck its just a number we picked out of the sky anyway, so what the hell, right? Anyway, it's not about raising revenue to keep the government running, its about "fairness", right? Come on man, everyone loves a little "fairness", don't they?

Note to Barack Obama - Your timing stinks.

Right now, right here in the middle of all this, the "new kid on the block" wants to diddle with the Tax System, take your 401k away and make it so you never want to buy stocks or bonds again, all to create his idea of a socialist paradise right here on earth, just for you, the voter! Eh, Sorry kid, nows not a good time, why don't you come back when things have settled down a bit, ok?

You think back to the last time we elected a Democrat to the White House. It was 1992. What was significant about that year is it was the first time in many of our lifetimes that we could say that there was no real big threat or risk to a Nuclear War. That was really, really big for us back then. We could, for the very first time afford the luxury of a president who wasn't a "wartime military qualified" President. We took a risk on Bill Clinton, because we could do it without fearing for our lives.

Now we have Russia's Putin putting the bear back in the woods and he's hungry, frankly hes eating all of the neighbors that he can get his hands on and threatening the rest of them. Venezuela is now run by a fat version of Castro. Iran wants the bomb so bad they are probably even willing to kill for it. We are in the worst financial crisis in 60 plus years, if not in the entire history of mankind and no one can tell how much oil there really is out there to still be had and so on, and so on etc, etc...

Oh yeah, and the Islamic terrorists are still out there, doing what they do best. killing and maiming women and children in increasingly more disgusting and inhumane ways.

So tell me, you feel like taking a little risk with the fundamental foundation of your country right now, hmmm?

Advantage McCain.

3. The-Car-Salesman-who-tries-too-damn-hard. You go into a car lot because you like a certain car, and you want to buy the car, and suddenly you get 'Mr. Slick' right there with you at all time, he's so on top of you that he's practically humping your leg like he's Ernest T. Bass' bloodhound. Whatever you might have thought of the car and no matter the price, you just have to get away from this guy.

This is what it feels like to be "uncommitted" in this election.

I found myself watching the Military channel this weekend and guess what I saw. Each and every commercial break was an ad for Barack Obama. Now, I thought it was funny because it just showed me what a fire hose of cash the Obama campaign has at its disposal. But I can bet that more than a handful of people who watch the Military Channel and were toss ups, found after two hours of watching nonstop impressions of "Hi Im Barack from Shamwow!" or "Barack Obama - Apply directly to the forehead" from his deep saturation campaign ads that viewers were now (thanks to the never ending barrage) making up their minds, but in favor of McCain.

The thing is, when people get a sense of creepy "overselling", they start to think, "Gee Mister, you sure do want me to but that Pontiac Aztek awfully bad don't you. I wonder if there is something wrong with it. If its so good, then why are you trying so damn hard"?

I think the biggest, weirdest part of the polls is the rather constant 10-11% who say, even today, that they are uncommitted. This has been one long assed campaign, I don't believe that anyone is still uncommitted after all we have seen in this unrelenting horror show we call "politics". What I do believe is that most people who are still saying they are "uncommitted" that they are now - in large part voting for McCain. They just don't want to explain to you why they are voting for McCain.

In some ways its just like high school, no one wants to be seen as voting for the "unpopular" kids, everyone wants to be seen sitting with the hip kids in the cafeteria, no one wants to be seen with the A/V Geeks. But come the mid-terms, everyone is calling the A/V Geeks for help with trigonometry homework. They just don't talk about it.

Advantage McCain.

4. The Polls. I believe the polls this year are unlike any other set of polling we have ever seen. In 1948, the problem was there was one polling group - Gallup, and they were just wrong. Everyone believed the polls they took that year because it was what those folks in the press of the day wanted to believe, not what was actually happening on the ground. It was the opposite problem of what we have now, and yet the problem was similar to todays situation. The problem we have now isn't that there is one polling group, its that there are hundreds and they are all feeding off of each other for their data and the result is, the data is crap. I saw Karl Rove tonight say that there have been more polls taken in the last 30 days then the entire 2004 race. And that seemed like a pretty intense race to me, didn't it to you?

It's not that we have too little data sampling, its that we have too much. In computer science, we call this sort of thing "thrashing". The CPU is running at a 110% but not very much work is really getting done. Its all sort of tangled up on itself.

You can't really use the polls this year for anything other than a general trend, the actual numbers are goofy and in my opinion its because the sample population is being oversampled. The trend is and continues to be, that yes, Obama is ahead, but consistently it moves back and forth about 3 to 5 points, which is within the margin of error. That is a tie, and as I said, a tie will mean that McCain is going to win the actual election.

And another thing, you can't really use the polls overall sampling because politcal polarization has reached a point in this country where people cant say the Presidents name in polite company. Support Bush? Sure you might still do that, and there are still three times as many that say that they do "Support Bush" than say they support Congress, but say it out loud? Oh I don't think so... Its just so, you know, icky...

If the polling groups were accurate, then several of the primary polls that showed Barack Obama winning against Hillary! would have held up. They didn't. Barack Obama consistently underperformed in the actual election against what he was polled to win. (Theres a reason for this that I will get to later.)

Advantage McCain.

5. The Kitchen Sink. I'll say this about Barack Obama, if he can run the country half as well as he has run his campaign, we should do ok. This guy has poured everything into this race. It really shows you what an incompetent clod John Kerry was in 2004( and in my opinion he still is an incompetent clod, but thats another subject for another time). Obama has done it all, he's taken every advantage he can, taken every shot he can get, thrown every bit of ammo there is into his target whenever and wherever he can. The Media is part of his campaign, and thats not just me saying it, they are saying it! They don't care, its no longer non-partial, they look right at ya and say they are on Obamas side. Its almost not a fair fight and you feel sort of sad for McCain, even if you don't like him.

And yet, theres good old John "Old Ironsides" McCain, sitting within the margin of error. Why cant Obama put this guy away? Its John McCain for crying out loud! John McCain tied himself to public financing so he hasn't got a dime. John McCain is a lifetime sufferer of the horrible disease of "Senator-itis". Senators make lousy candidates, the longer they are in the Senate, the worse they are and yeah, John McCain has been in the Congress since Barack Obama got out of High School.

And yet, Barack Obama, with the campaign equivalent of the entire 8th Air Force at his disposal, hasn't retired John McCain from the contest.

Why the hell not? Well lets be totally honest here, its not because John McCain is all that great of a candidate. He is a great man, but he is not a great candidate. Its not because John McCain is better or more capable campaigner than Obama, so what could it be?

Its because even now, there are significant doubts about Barack Obama. The risk factor, the fear factor, the dare I say it "old folks voting their pocketbooks and for their grandchildren" factor is the whats really keeping the "John McCain, Captain of the USS Constitution" afloat. Despite everything that the left and Obama has put downrange on John McCain, he still hasn't been "de-masted", and hes still fighting and he hasn't gone down with the ship. Its this fundamental "Failure to Close" that has caused Obama to go upside down in his primary polls vs. the actual election results ( see above.)

People respect that McCain is still in the game, and running hard against what can only be called overwhelming odds. You don't hear anyone saying "John McCain is too old" anymore, do you? With all his built in disadvantages, he's within the margin of error to a behemoth campaign of huge proportions. Thats not bad.

Advantage McCain.

What is it Alec Baldwin said in "Glengarry Glenn Ross"? "ABC - Always Be Closing?". Barack is out there selling like a demon, but he's just not closing the sale with the "Nyborgs", but in point of fact, the Nyborgs have long since made up their minds and they are not buying what you are selling, they just like to have you pay attention to them and keep them company.

My bet is that its going to be Barack Obama that is getting 'Steak Knives' and its McCain thats getting the Cadillac in this election contest.

So there you have it. In a few days, we will all see. Until then, nobody knows nuthin...

Posted @ October 29, 2008 09:11 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (7) | TrackBack (2)

question of the day - Pathological Journalism?

Its a widely held observation that in this election the media isnt just following its normal bias, its acting in a way that is indistinguishable from the way that they would act if they were paid campaign workers for Obama.

In science, the issue of observer bias is central to the scientific method. Observer bias, or more simply put, the desire on the part of the person doing the experiment to get the results they wish to see in the result is a constant problem that all scientists are on constant watch to work against.

Question of the day - In this election has modern journalism just adapted itself into a form of journalistic Lysenkoism where the politics matters far more than the actual observation?

Here's my case: The "Main Stream Media", now more than ever before, is a single party, single culture group. Their observations are not based on the data they actually see as much as the result they wish to get. When they encounter data that doesnt fit the template, they attack the person that brings the data or they interpret the data as to fit the preconceived results rather than see how the data effects their hypothesis. If the data doesnt fit their hypothesis, then there is something wrong with the data. Theres a parallel for this in science, its called "Pathological Science":

"...the process in science in which "people are tricked into false results ... by subjective effects, wishful thinking or threshold interactions".

If this is the case( and I think it is), then why would you trust or believe anything that they say about this election being "in the bag" for Obama?

Posted @ October 29, 2008 10:34 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (3)

A random thought - Locust season

On what part of the population is the entire election going to turn?

It occurs to me that the very people most likely to vote for Obama in this election are the exact same people who took out subprime loans to buy homes that cost nine times their annual earnings, only to walk away from the mortgage a year later because they were shocked to find that the bank wanted their mortgage payments each and every month. You know these people, the exact same folks who with their complete inability to understand the meaning of the word "VARIABLE" have now managed to so destroy the world economy to a point where the words "Great Depression" are no longer descriptive enough for the situation we face.

And now these same people want to put a marxist in the White House and increase the power of Congress. Oh yes, that will help, thanks for that guys. Good Work Kids!, 7,000 years of western civilization completly undone in one generation and its all to be replaced with a governmental system that incorporates the social dynamism found in "Lord of the Flies" and fiscal soundness thats found in each and every PBS pledgebreak.

Posted @ October 27, 2008 08:38 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

Question of the day

My father once said that the most magnificent thing about the Nixon Administration was that an entire goverment was removed from power by nothing but the simple rule of law and not a single tank or military division was ordered to be moved in support of the President as he was removed from office. This act, and its reponse by the powers of all of the various area of Government as well as both political parties, he felt, was all that really separated us from the other Democracies in the world. At the end of the day, Richard Nixon was just a man and no man was above the law.

Question of the Day -

All Presidents face executive challenges and all Presidents can and do make errors, some of the errors they perform might even fall into the area of 'crimes and misdemeanors'. The Constitution offers a remedy to the Republic for this problem via the legislative branch, which is known as "Impeachment".

Yet, given the volitile state of politics in this country, is it at all possible that 'President Obama' could plausibly face impeachment at some point in the future?

Extra Credit - What happens to the Republic if such a thing were to actually occur?

Posted @ October 26, 2008 03:49 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

John McCain was never tortured in my jail

I never tortured or mistreated the PoWs and nor did my staff,” Reports Tran Trong Duyet to the UK Times. He is the man who acted as warden to the infamous "Hanoi Hilton", where United States Prisoners of War were handled by the North Vietnamese.

When he says "there was no torture" you understand of course that he is referring to the grotesque inhuman examples set by American troops and Abu Ghirab and Guantanmo Bay, where inmates were forced to wear womens undergarments and were photographed with Lynnde England. Thats what the world thinks is torture. The Mail never manages to mention John McCains own account of his time in Hanoi, or point out why it is that he still can't comb his own hair. Mr. Duyet would have you believe that John McCain stayed at a youth hostel, a Best Western Hotel or in Col. Klinks own Stalag 13 for 5 years.

Sadly, He did not.

Oh, I'm pretty certain that those things that our horrible troops did in Abu Ghirab didnt occur while you were the warden of that Prison, Mr. Duyet, but I am absolutely sure that the following things did occur:

murder, beatings, broken bones, teeth and eardrums, dislocated limbs, starvation, long term isolation, purposely serving of food contaminated with human and animal feces and medical neglect of infections and tropical disease occurred.

How do I know these things occured?
Well -

Bud Day recounted the same things during his time in your care.
Robbie Risner alsso recounted similar things during his time.
Jeremiah Denton also shared his findings, hes also a Democrat.
Joe Kittinger also reported the same thing during his time.
James Stockdale said he saw the same thing.
Everett Alvarez recounted the same things during his time.
Ernest C. Brace, said the same thing.
Floyd Thompson, said the same thing and he was a civilian.
John McCain even recounted them in his book, Faith of My Fathers.

These men are my heroes. You sir, are a disgusting little guttersnipe. Oh, I dont blame you though, you worked for a government that saw the organized destruction of Catholics in the south, through work and reeducation camps that was done on a scale not seen since the end of dachau and treblinka. A human created disaster so total that thousands of your countryman took to the seas in whatever would float, just to get away. Most of them died trying to get away from you and your comrades and the socialist society you helped make. Oh but rest assured, some of them managed to get away. I went to school with one. you'll be happy to know she's doing just fine here in the States. Her brother even went on to become a valedictorian at the US Air Force Academy. Imagine that, people who were so willing to take to the open ocean, survive deprivation and horrors of what met them out there, just to get away from you and yours.

Oh, you can't be blamed because you are just a little man a big machine now can you? just a little man serving "the state", thats what you were then and what you are now. Who are you to question your orders when they told you to break men in your care?

Damn shame for you that they never broke, isnt it Mr. Duyet? It must be hell to wake up every day with that on your mind, knowing that one of your former charges lives life large and free, while you drink fresh sewage from the tap in your squalid little apartment in Hanoi.

Posted @ October 25, 2008 08:30 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Question of the day - Bubble?

Irving Janis, a research psycologist at Yale devised eight symptoms that are indicative of 'groupthink'. 'Groupthink' is described as the systematic errors made by groups when taking collective decisions.

Let's work through these symptoms:

1. Illusions of invulnerability creating excessive optimism and encouraging risk taking.

2. Rationalising warnings that might challenge the group's assumptions.

3. Unquestioned belief in the morality of the group, causing members to ignore the consequences of their actions.

4. Stereotyping those who are opposed to the group as weak, evil, disfigured, impotent, or stupid.

5. Direct pressure to conform placed on any member who questions the group, couched in terms of "disloyalty".

6. Self censorship of ideas that deviate from the apparent group consensus.

7. Illusions of unanimity among group members, silence is viewed as agreement.

8. Mindguards — self-appointed members who shield the group from dissenting information.

Question of the day - The Media, Democrats and the Obama campaign are deeply entrenched in the culture and process of 'Groupthink' and hence, the Obama campaign can be thought of in terms of an irrational 'bubble'.

Discuss amoungst yourselves.

Posted @ October 24, 2008 02:29 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (4) | TrackBack (1)

Monster

"You're shocked that the market is going down? Really? I'm shocked that its holding up as well as it is. You understand when a politician says that he wants to 'spread the wealth' that what he is going to do is confiscate your wealth and give it to other people. You understand that, right? Confiscate...Your...Wealth! Your home, your property, your 401k, your bank accounts, your stocks and bonds, your health accounts - all are in the process of becoming the property of 'the state'. All of it. Thats what "spread the wealth" actually means, it means CONFISCATE and then "distribute along party lines'. This is no longer about this tax rate or that tax rate or what party has a better plan to grow the economy, its about the Government of the United States - all three branches of it - that is now actively and aggressively pursuing and acting on a plan to confiscate private wealth (your wealth) and punish those who create it (you).

When I look at the market, I cant help but think that the Democrats misunderstood the chant 'drill baby drill' from a rallying cry for more oil into a rallying cry for drilling the whole idea of markets into the ground. People keep asking 'when the housing market will come back?' but they dont seem to understand that there is no housing market anymore. There is no up, no down. No gain, no loss. With no up and down, no loss or gain, then what is it? That is not a market, that - is a morgue. That is just a small sample of what is happening to each and every market in the United States. And incredibly, this distruction is entirely by design. By destroying your faith in markets, that faith can be supplated by a newly found faith in government. This is their plan, their design, and they will sell it you by promising to remove all uncertainty and volatility from the market (Its for your own good dontcha know! ). What they dont say is that by removing all uncertainty then there is no 'market'. The market has now been replaced by the 'committee'. A committee that is chaired by Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, The Media and Barack Obama.

You ever heard of Richard Matheson? He wrote some pretty good science fiction back in the day, lots of Twilight Zone Episodes and a whole host of short stories back in the 50's and 60's. He's most remembered for one short story thats been made into a movie about a half a dozen times. It's called "I AM LEGEND". Its the story of the last man on earth after a plague wipes out most of the population. What parts of the population the plague doesnt wipe out, becomes transformed into what can best be described as 'vampires'. Most people know that narrative of the story, but most every filmed version and most retelling of the story forget is the main point of the story. The point is this; When you live on a planet where humans are normal and vampires are the monsters, thats something we understand. What Mathesons story forces the reader to come to grips with is the opposite, that when you live on a world where the vampires are the normal, then you, as the last remaining human, have become the monster.

This is what we conservatives and libertarians have become. With the plague of 'fairness' now loose in the ecosystem of public ideas and discourse, we have become the monster. They are working to destroy our nest (the markets) and after that is destroyed, they will come for us. "

Casual hallway conversation. Captured on October 24th 2008.

Posted @ October 24, 2008 12:20 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Always work the negative angle

A video of John McCain was released today. Whats the lead sentence in the Sky News article?

"The video portrays the Republican as a hero but the message may be tarnished as he is filmed smoking a cigarette."

Unbelievable.

Posted @ October 23, 2008 09:39 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

I am Joe

From Iowahawk:

Go here and download the graphic, print it, and place where its best seen. Stand with Joe. Show all the other Joes you stand with them.

Remember, Obama came to his house. Joe just asked Obama a question and for that, they took his job. The Press and the media hounded this man out of the life he made for himself and his son.

All he did was ask a question. He didnt insult him, throw a pie, call him names or any of the things that the Bush administration has to deal with every day for the past eight years, he just asked a question.

If they can do this to him before the election, what will they do to you afterwards? If they have no shame, if they have no "checks and balances" on their power, if the media( who normally report such an abuse of the electorate as an abuse ) are the ones that are actually perpetrating the crime, what makes you think it will all go away after the election?

Stand with Joe. Stand up while you still can.

Posted @ October 22, 2008 11:29 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (2)

Redshirts Unite!

Star Trek T-Shirts. Its About Damn Time!

Must...Fight...Urge...To...Buy...One...Of...These...Must...Resist...
Must...Fight...On...Should...I...Buy...Red...Shirt?...ooooh...Damn...
Im...Losing...My...Will...To...Resist...Willpower...Growing...Weak...
Cant...Fight...For...Much...Longer...This...Is...Just...Like...
Episode#24...Where...Spock...Gets...Hit...With...Those...Spores...
and...Gaaaaaahhh!...Must...Not...Talk...Trek...Must...Not...Must...
Fight...Bones!...Uhura...Scotty!..NEEDMOREPOWER!...
Vultures!...Assassins!......Khaaaaaaannnnnn!!!!!

UPDATE: Im not getting anything at all done today.

Posted @ October 22, 2008 12:19 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

60 years ago...

From Wikipedia:

snip.

"Truman toured -- and transfixed -- much of the nation with his fiery rhetoric, playing to large, enthusiastic crowds. “Give 'em hell, Harry,” was a popular slogan shouted out at stop after stop along the tour. However, the polls and the pundits all held that Dewey's lead was insurmountable, and that Truman's efforts were for naught. Indeed, Truman's own staff considered the campaign a last hurrah. The only person who appears to have considered Truman's campaign to be winnable was the President himself, who confidently predicted victory to anyone and everyone who would listen to him. However, even Truman's own wife had private doubts that her husband could win."

end snip...

Trumans victory in 1948, which was predicted by not one single poll, was in large part based on the fact that he was able to secure a 1% advantage in just three key states, all three of which he had been predicted to lose by as much as 10%. Truman, who is beloved by the American public today was actually derided and hated in that time as much as President Bush is today. President Truman was noted in a Chicago Tribune editorial given that very year as a "nincompoop".

Great Presidents are recognized by their decisions in the face of history, not by how much they are loved by the press while they are in office. Harry Truman, who ordered the destruction of two Japanese cities, lead the fight for integration the military, dealt with an unpopular war in Korea and an economic recession was not rehabilitated until the late 1960's.

I'd also like to point out that in 1948, The president worked against the advice of many of his advisors and world opinion on long shot foreign policy project that everyone at the time predicted would most certainly fail.

It was later known in history as "The Berlin Airlift". I humbly suggest Dear Reader, that the Berlin Airlift was "The Surge" of its day.

UPDATE: I'm not the only one thinking that things are askew.

Posted @ October 21, 2008 08:37 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Who you gonna believe?

Staggering News - According to this poll, Proposition 8 in California is ahead by a nose.

Proposition 8 is a "marraige-is-between-a-man-and-a-woman" intiative. Now based on this poll, were supposed to accept the idea that Proposition 8 has a chance of passing, yet John McCain has zero chance of winning in California. This, as the Robot on 'Lost in Space' would say: "Does Not Compute".

How do proposition 8 voters feel about McCain? If you take a look around the town where I live, when you see John McCain bumper stickers or lawn signs, you almost always see "Yes on Proposition 8" signs as well.

Remember, the poll says Prop 8 is winning. Remember as well that Prop 8 has been viciously opposed by the very same people who are voting for Barack Obama. They have poured millions into the Anti-Prop 8 campaign. This has become a pivotal Proposition in this election. In one case, 8 memebers of a college student council face a recall election because they support Proposition 8. Thats pretty stong stuff from the anti-prop 8 crowd. You used to get recalled from office if you were doing something illegal or failing to do your duty, now all you have to do is take the politically incorrect side of an argument and it seems you must be removed from your civic duty, lest the populace be harmed because of your spreading dangerous perverted ideas like "only one man and one woman owning the franchise of marraige in society" and crazy stuff like that. Once upon a time I dare say you could be recalled from office if you were suspected of being gay.

How times have changed.

And I say again, Proposition 8 appears to be winning in California, against everything that the core of the liberal world can throw at it. Does anyone really believe that there are lots of people who will vote for Prop 8 and also vote against John McCain? Im sorry, Im just not willing to buy that. Statistically there will be some small number, but there will be far more who because of the issues behind Proposition 8 wil be voting for McCain who otherwise would not have done so. I think its also statistically small that there are Pro-prop 8 people who are voting for Barack Obama this year, yet I'm sorry to report that I havent seen a single yard sign with Obama/Biden and "Yes on Prop 8". That tells me that the number of pro-obama, pro prop 8 voters is mighty small.

In my little neighborhood, I see more signs for Prop 8 than I do any of the two candidates. That is very interesting to me. It says that this issue has exercised a part of the populace that doesnt normally get exercised. This may be the source of what has moved this poll in the direction it has gone. It may be the key to the election in California for John McCain.

How can Proposition 8 be winning and John McCain also be losing in California? It seems to be that if you go to the polls for one, you are going to pull to level for the other too. Either Prop 8 is winning which will give some form of "political coattails" to John McCain, or the poll is silly and doesnt really show an accurate representation of the political landscape. I can accept that the poll is goofy but I can't accept that Prop 8 will pass but John McCain will lose.

My wife asked me yesterday how the election was going, and I said "cant really tell". That was before I saw this poll result. I honestly have no idea what is going on, I only know that things are not as they appear to be.

Posted @ October 21, 2008 07:47 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (5) | TrackBack (4)

Ok, thats the last time I do that.

I finished reading "Fugitive Days", "Dreams From My father" and "The Audacity Of Hope".

The problem with reading crap like that is you can't un-read it. Its like looking at crime scene photos, watching LBJ lift up his shirt to show you his scars or accidentally finding your grandmothers teeth in the bottom of the glass you just drank out of. You did it, but now you got to deal with the thought of it for the rest of your life as the little images rattle around in your head from time to time.

I wont go into detail tonight but I have discovered the one thing I deeply dislike and distrust about Barack Obama. Its something I think completely disqualifies him to be President.

(You Star Trek Geeks will get this one) What I dont like about Barack Obama is that he's never faced failure. He's never passed the "Kobyashi Maru" test at the Academy. He's simply trying to hard to be liked. I dont trust a man who hasnt absolutely blown it once in his life. You ask a man "whats your biggest mistake?", you better see him immediately look at his feet and then look away for a moment while he decides if he should trust you or not, else you've got a liar on your hands. You've either got a liar, or you've got a man who doesnt entirely trust you either. This is not a good place to start a relationship as intense as the one he's asking us to take part in.

"Whats your biggest failure" is actually a question I ask all my potential hires. If they start giving me some half assed ear candy about failure teaching them everything and it was a great experience, they usually get the door. If they stop and get real humble, if they start to get that face that only comes from experience and if they can tell me how it changed them, they get to continue.

Nowhere in either book or Ayers' book do I get any sense of failure. Loss? yeah, lots of loss, regrets? yeah but not in the way you would think. The word "Pentinent" comes to mind for both men and "they aint it" as my Dad would've said. I'm struck by Obamas non answer to that question in the first debates. It would not have passed my test in a job interview. Obama simply leaped out with the answer as if he was a student too eager to please the teacher. John McCain changed the pitch in his voice and looked down. McCain faced failure. Obama has no idea what I'm talking about, no man who has ever failed leaps out at that question anymore than "one-armed lion tamers" are anxious to get back into the cage with the lions.

To Obama, "Failure" is an interpretation, a grade to be made in class. With McCain, its the bitter taste of bile and the acrid smell of self doubt that lingers over a lifetime. Its that ghostly thought that crosses your mind at 2:00 AM and causes you to sit upright at the end of the bed.

To Obama, Failure is a judgement that you pass onto others, its meaningless and its not a threshold he's crossed in his life, he's been swaddled in words of soft praise throught his life and protected from any harm by those who love him. Frankly, its made him soft and malleable, like super putty. You put him on any image and he becomes a facsimile of that image and you can stretch it to any dimension you like. To McCain, failure is the beating the anvil takes to make soft metal into hard iron. You can bang on it all day long, it only tempers the Iron, it wont suddenly transform into Bamboo because its the fashionable thing to do.

To be honest, only one person out of ten actually passes that test in my interviews. Most people are just simply as full of crap as a Christmas goose and would do anything in the world for you in an interview, except of course, confess it all to you about how "way back when", they totally and completely screwed up. People will try to dress it up into something more than it was or minimize it into less or place the blame someone else or even parade out some fashionable illness to allow them to take the role of victim in the story. But try as they might, no one can quite get the blood out of carpet of their soul. The stain is there, you either make it part of the scenery and you learn to tell a great story about it or you buy a really big potted plant to cover it and hope no one notices.

But you know that you will have this thought rattling around in your mind making noise on your soul like that of a single marble running loose in the bottom of a 55 gallon metal trashcan; that everyone will know why it is that you have a potted palm tree right there in the center of your living room. The harder you try to hide it and the stain just becomes all the more obvious.

So when someone at a job interview asks you the equivalent of "Say buddy,whats with the big potted plant - you tryin to hide something?", try to remember that confession is good for the soul. And for job interviews?, its not so bad either. Just dont make a habit of it. One potted palm shows you are human, two or more shows you have a complusion.

(I will be in the shower with a large container of Comet cleanser and a wire brush for the next 24 hours trying to get the stink of these three books off me.)

Posted @ October 20, 2008 10:56 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Question of the Day: Whats it all about, Alfie?

Heres todays "Question of the Day"

Are elections about the candidates or are candidates simply a reflection of the larger issues at hand?

Let me say it another way, "What if this election really isnt about Obama or McCain after all"?

Then the question becomes - what is it really all about?

If you start to think about the election and take the effort to not make it a personality contest, lots of things become very clear. Spend a few minutes thinking about it that way and I'll get back to you this evening with what I thought of with my own exercise on this question.

Posted @ October 20, 2008 03:47 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1) | TrackBack (41)

I Am Spartacus!

David Corn of Mother Jones meets the "working class" and downtrodden he says he supports and the ungrateful bastards give him an earful:

snip:

"The scene turned into a mini-fracas when David Corn, of Mother Jones, defended press coverage. Munoz was having none of it. Why, he asked, would the press whack Joe the Plumber when it didn't want to report on Obama's relationship with William Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber? "How come that's not in the news all the time?" Munoz said. "How come Joe the Plumber is every second? I'm talking about NBC, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN." A black woman with a strong Caribbean accent jumped in the fray. "Tell me," she said to Corn, "why is it you can go and find out about Joe the Plumber's tax lien and when he divorced his wife and you can't tell me when Barack Obama met with William Ayers? Why? Why could you not tell us that? Joe the Plumber is me!"
"I am Joe the Plumber!" Munoz chimed in. "You're attacking me"

end snip.

I ask you dear reader, which side of the microphone would you like to be on at that particular moment? Poor David, he has no idea where these folks are coming from.

"I am Joe The Plumber!" Thats a ralling cry thats on a par with "I AM Spartacus!".

I can't overlook the irony of a left wing, "supporter of the working class" and the lowly downtrodden getting his lily white ass handed back to him by the very same working class and downtrodden he says he is so interested in helping. I wonder if he will change his mind now that he's actually met them face to face? ( the ungrateful wretches simply dont know what's good for them!)

I'm also reminded that in all my life, one that is straight out of the working class, with time spent working on swing shifts and graveshifts in real life working class factory jobs (just like they show in hollywood), working in plastic factories and working as a landscaper, I never once met a communist or a socialist until I went to college, not one. They were always easy to find in college there because they were always whining about everything under the sun while driving the very newest sportscars and living in apartments paid for by their mommies and daddies. They went to rallys against Nuclear power while I worked at pizza restaurants, ate pallets of top ramen and walked or rode a bike until I graduated. Did I whine or complain about the "unfairness" of it all? Hell no. I enjoyed every minute of it and was grateful for the chance to do what I do. I know what a great and wonderful thing this country is because I've seen the faces of people who didnt get that chance. I known people who came here from Vietnam, unable to speak the language, with literally nothing and go on to achieve great things. I've worked with men who crawled here across deserts I wouldnt drive through and I know what life in this country really means because they have risked it all to come here. I've known people who came here from Afghanistan who know what freedom really means. I know people who lost it all in the dust bowl in Oklahoma in the 1930s who later went on to own their own home construction companies and live a life of comfort in their old age.

They all had hope for the future and they knew where to get it. Not in Europe which wouldnt have them, not in Cuba which would kill them or in Vietnam which would force them into reeducation camps for the crime of simply being catholic or some other socialist paradise set to destroy their souls before they feed their bellys, but here where a man could start with nothing and go on to make a life for himself. For the freedom, for the liberty to live their lives, they have sacrificed it all. They know where home is, they know where their heart is and it is here.

They Are And I Am - Joe the Plumber!

Posted @ October 20, 2008 01:02 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Sunset

Commander-in-Chief President Barack Obama.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

All with the sure and solid backing of each of the large commercial media outlets in every country around the world. Go ahead and speak out, lets see where that gets you. I know a guy who once asked Barack Obama question and he paid the price for it. He was evicerated for having the gall for actually talking to Barack Obama.

So, when the entire governmental system of 'checks and balances' rests solely on their shoulders with no measure of accountability, what will remain of our freedoms? and for how long?

The feeling that it leaves me with reminds me of a scene in the 1960's TV show "The Prisoner":

(Number 2 describes "The Village" - a secret installation where the character "Number 6" is being kept against his will for the crime of "resigning". The Village is a place where the prisoners and their guards are indistinguishable from each other. Number 2 is essentially the warden of prison. )

Number 2: What in fact has been created? An international community. A perfect blueprint for world order. When the sides facing each other suddenly realize that they're looking into a mirror, they'll see that this is the pattern for the future.
Number 6: The whole earth as... 'The Village'?
Number 2: That is my hope. What's yours?
Number 6: I'd like to be the first man to live on the moon!

I know the feeling brother. I surely do.

Posted @ October 18, 2008 08:46 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Question of the day

I just heard Obama at a rally say that "McCain wants to cut Medicare". I want someone to explain to me - point it out to me, show me any example at any time where any President ever cut anything or any size or shape! We still have Mohair subsidies in the budget and a sizeable Helium reserve just in case we get back in the dirigible business and all of a sudden someone is going to cut Medicare?

I want to ask - and this is the question of the day - how does the budget get created? President Mccain can propose anything he wants, but all he gets to do is sign off on whatever the congress decides to do.

And I ask you, who is in charge of both houses of Congress? Democrats!

A future President McCain can propose anything he wants to congress, they will immediately override whatever he says is important with their own ideas. So how is the future President McCain or the future Senator McCain going to cut anything in the budget?

All President McCain can really do is stop the Congress from taking more of your money by the power of the veto. President Obama is running his campaign saying you already have too damn much money and wouldnt veto anything under any circumstances from the Democrat congress.

Posted @ October 17, 2008 11:53 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Hey! Guess who else gets a "Middle Class Tax Break"?

While the battle of Joe the plumber" plays out, with Joe Biden and Barack Obama now making fun of the idea of a mere plumber making 250,000 a year its important to remember that Senators get 188,000 a year.

Hey wait a second....Oh my gosh, do you mean that Obama is proposing a tax cut for those in the Senate?

Sounds like it to me! Who knew the Senate was considered Middle class!

Posted @ October 16, 2008 06:56 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Geraghty Provdies the Inspiration - You supply the caption

Jim Geraghty provides the inspiration.

Caption 1: "I simply can't understand your tax plan Senator Obama and I work for H&R Block!"

Caption 2: "Democrats - This man is your ENEMY!"

Caption 3: "Senator, the government says its was ok to make 250,000 dollars a year but when I accidentally made 251,000 dollars last year, they took it all away from me. Now I have had to lay off my employees. Senator Obama, what do I tell them when they ask me what happened to their lives? "

Caption 4: "Can you please not say "spread the wealth" because when you do, it makes me feel icky inside."

Caption 5: "Senator Dodd, can I get the same mortgage that you got?"

Caption 6: "Senator Obama, I bought a house I could afford in a place I could afford to live. I put 20% down and pay my mortgage payments early. I try live within my means. I've been married to the same woman for 25 years and have two lovely kids. I pay my taxes, serve on the school board and support the Boy Scouts of America. I own a rifle, two shotguns and a pistol. I also own a truck and a jeep as well as a Harley Davidson. I believe this is the greatest country on earth and I have faith that the future will be better than the past. Senator, what does all this make me in your eyes? "

Caption 7: "Senator Obama, if your party wont trust me with a 401k, why should we trust your party with the US Treasury?"

Caption 8: "No sir, I aint never been to Europe. My Daddy went there through, back in 1944. He came back, but alot of friends of his are still there, at a place called Colleville-sur-Mer. Oh I'm sorry Senator, you were saying something about how I needed to pump up my truck tires to save the planet, right?"

Caption 9: "So If I understand your position Senator Obama, all the problems you see out there in the world can be solved if only I willingly give up more of the money it will be spent more wisely by the government, correct? Really? "

Caption 10: "Thank you for meeting me face to face without preconditions, Senator Obama"

Posted @ October 16, 2008 10:59 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Sandbagged

SO - we no longer ask our Presidential candidates any questions that involve the military?

I wanted to hear McCain talk about Missile Defense. I wanted Obama to explain how missile defense is different than aircraft defense. I wanted Obama to tell us how many carrier battle groups we are going to have in his administration. I wanted to hear him explain what weapons system he would cut. How big an Army? How many ships in the Navy, how many aircraft and what kinds? Should the V-22 get cut? Should the B-52 be retired? How about a question or two about the damn Air Force tanker deal?

Three debates and I don't get any answers on these and many other important issues, I get the equivalent of what it feels like to have two used car salesman run back and forth and "ask their manager" if they can get me a "discount on the price for the undercoat" ( an undercoat that I don't want or particularly need, but will be forced to take to get off the car lot with my wits and my wallet mostly intact.)

I seem to remember questions about the military in 2004, 2000, 1996, 1992, 1988. 1984. I guess we wouldn't want to ask questions that might embarrass one of the two candidates. I guess since were all safe now and theres no threat from abroad anymore we can just dispense with that whole idea, right?

Just keep saying to yourself "Commander-In-Chief" Barack Obama. If that doesnt do it for you, then this picture just might:

Yeah. I know. I laughed for 15 minutes when I saw it today...

OH! - and one other thing, can we please stop calling these things "debates"? They are at best a joint press conference. There's no actual debating going on in these things, just two guys taking questions at the same time. The only thing missing is Helen Thomas isn't the moderator.

It occurred to me tonight, that based on most of Obamas answers to questions that McCain really isn't running against the Senator from Illinois, he's actually running against 'Santa Claus'. People wait in line for days, then hop in his lap, squirt a couple of tears and then "Senator Santa Obama" promises to send them a big pile of someone elses money down their chimney to make everything all better.

Posted @ October 15, 2008 08:06 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

On this date - October 14th 1912

On this date October 14th 1912, Theodore Roosevelt who is running for President under the new "Progressive Party" is shot in the chest by John F. Schrank. The bullet is stopped by TR's glasses and his written speech. He went on to speak for ninety minutes at the rally in Miliwaukee, but he at times managed to speak no more than a whisper. His opening comments to the gathered crowd were, "I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose." From that point on the party was called the "Bull Moose" Party. Afterwards, doctors determined that he was not seriously wounded and that it would be more dangerous to attempt to remove the bullet than to leave it in his chest. Roosevelt carried it with him until the day he died.

Posted @ October 14, 2008 10:20 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Research Notes: William Ayers in "Fugitive Days" Part IV

Day one ---

I was just thinking of a line from the movie "Minority Report": Watch out chief, you go diggin up the past, and all you get is dirty!"

I have to say that before this exercise, I didn't really know that much about the Weatherman except for little bits of this and that. After spending about 6 hours crawling around in the debris they left behind, I wish I didn't know what I know now. I do feel a bit dirty for my efforts. Over the past few years since 9/11, I have always struggled to deal with one thing that has always dropped my morale every time I think about it. Its not that there are people in the world who want to see everything we have destroyed (and us along with it), that I can accept. In an odd way, I think its almost an honor to know that certain people can't stand the idea and ideals of America.

That's not what gets me down. What gets me down is that there are so many people here, who have lived in the US, people who have benefited from its strengths and values, that think the exact same thing. I find it so hard to accept that so many people right here at home make a fetish of destroying this country and the people in it. They live right next door, they go to school with me, work in the same place as me, only when they see the flag they don't get a jolt of pride, instead they feel the urge to spit at it.

To put my feelings on what I've read so far in clear terms; The Weatherman and their generational ilk simply make me sick to my stomach. To read this book and the parallel efforts gives me the same reaction that I get when I read about the people in "Berlin Diaries" or "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" People who saw evil and didn't just do nothing but actually took steps to help the evil occur, then justified it later under a crazy quilt of half truths and rationalizations. These are deranged people. They are sick and very sad. They live in a deep dark place that I cannot quite see into. They live in world that is populated by the cartoon like figures on the front of Communist propaganda leaflets, angry workers rising up, cold hearted capitalists enslaving the working man while trampling on his children. Imagine living in a world where those goofy puppets that are in each and every protest are real, and thats the world these folks live in, only the 20 foot tall statues of Bush with blood dripping down his teeth are actually real. The reality I live in is nowhere to be found in this book. Where I would look out at the horizon in the morning and see the Sunrise and I would see it for the miracle that it is, they would see only a source of skin cancer and a burden to the oppressed working man picking fruit while the greedy rancher whips them from his air conditioned truck while it sits there belching its industrial fumes.

Every sentence is a pronouncement of class, race or privilege and each motivation is one made of revenge or retribution. They want to excuse their violence behind the shield of some sense of vigilante street level justice but its just violence for hates sake. There is no rhyme or reason in their acts, no strategy beyond the shock of it, no real end to justify the bloody means. It seems that the more bloody the means, the better.

From what I can see, until they managed to kill themselves in one big "todo" in Greenwich, it was all great fun to them. It seems to have brought meaning to their lives as if to say that this all had more to do with establishing their own sense of self worth to their poor wounded upper class "daddy didn't love me" egos than it ever did with "changing the world".

I simply do not get these people.

Posted @ October 14, 2008 08:32 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Research Notes: WIlliam Ayers in 'Fugitive Days' - Part III

Here's an excellent review of the book "Fugitive Days",written on September 30th 2001.

The author of the review makes the case that Ayers is a "spinner of tales". To me, it will represent a stylistic marker for his writing that should show itself in either of the two Obama "autobiographies" in question.

snip:

"The story of Oughton's struggle is poignant, whether or not it's true. But elsewhere in ''Fugitive Days'' the task of choosing among the true, the near true and the untrue is frustrating. Ayers reminds us often that he can't tell everything without endangering people involved in the story. But his partial retelling reaches fraudulence when he writes, ''Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon,'' then backs and fills, saying that he bombed it, not literally but metaphorically, as part of the Weathermen group in charge of the operation. He says that he needed to ''claim'' the explosion in order to write about it, and he adds later that he is not ashamed of any of the bombings and would not rule out planting another bomb someday; ''I can't imagine entirely dismissing the possibility.''

In Ayers's hands, a career in terrorism becomes a harmless episode out of a John le Carré novel, in which our hero lives on the run, steals explosives, sets off explosions using ''tradecraft,'' as the flap copy puts it -- as if the Weathermen were characters in ''Smiley's People.'' But the Weathermen game was never really a game. Nor was it ever noble, or even moral. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks that killed thousands of people in Lower Manhattan and the Pentagon, readers will find this playacting with violence very difficult to forgive. "

end snip.

Well, most of us would find it hard to forgive. Yet, the man who is potentially the next President of the United States seems to have found the task quite easy.

Posted @ October 14, 2008 08:14 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Research Notes: WIlliam Ayers in 'Fugitive Days' - Part II

Ayres has a brother, who is also an educator. How much you wanna bet he writes...

UPDATE: He writes for the Huffington Post.

Posted @ October 14, 2008 05:47 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Research Notes: WIlliam Ayers in 'Fugitive Days'

William Ayers had a girlfriend prior to his marriage to Bernadine Dohrn. Her name was Diana Oughton. So who was she? She was in the Greenwich Village Townhouse explosion. According to the forensics report, she was at the point of detonation for the explosion.

William Ayers volunteers the information that she had a fight with Bernadine Dohrn over the construction of the bombs. Dohrn wanted anti-personnel style weapons to be used by using roofing nails with the dynamite. Oughton wanted to stay with simple dynamite. Ayers suggests that it was Oughton who set off the bombs. How he would know this information is not discussed, we have to assume that Dorhn told him of the fight between herself and Oughton.

The target for the bomb was the NCO club at the US Army Base at Fort Dix.

The only survivors of the Weathermen who were at the site were Kathy Boudin and Cathlyn Wilkerson. Kathy Boudin went on to rob armored cars, and Cathlyn? She went to work training teachers in the New York School system.

UPDATE: It cant get any better than this, Bill Ayers speaks in a forum about the weatherman. Apparently, he hates Bush ( who knew!). Unfortunately the link shows me he has written more books that I will now have to read for the forensics exercise.

Gosh, He sure writes a lot, doesn't he?

Posted @ October 14, 2008 05:17 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Someone Save me from myself - PLEASE!

When I first heard the "psst- Obama didnt write his own book" conspiracy, I found it a little hard to accept. Then I read the Jack Cashill post that started it all and it got me thinking, but I still didn't think it was reasonable.

So, quite by accident I happened to hear Michael Medved interview the man himself.

This is most unfortunate because its going to screw my free time all to hell and I have precious little of it at the moment. Now, because of Jacks initial post and what I heard on the interview today, I am now going to devote the next three days to reading 4 books.

Fugitive Days - By Bill Ayers
Sing a Battle Song - Bernadine Dohrn
Dreams from My Father - Barack Obama
The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama

I'm looking for more examples, but those are a good start for the first 72 hours.

The "Cashill Postulate" is this:

That the most famous writing of Barack Obama, 'Dreams from My Father' does not follow the same literary language and style as any of his earlier writings. How does he determine this? Literary Forensics. Imagine reading a book that someone said was by Hemmingway, only every sentence was a run on sentence. Hemmingway is recognizeable by his crisp and economical use of words. Hemmingway writes sentences like "The night was hot" not "It was a sultry Jamaican evening on the evening tide as the sun dropped below the palms". By itself, this would say that Barack Obama used a ghostwriter, which is not really that big of a deal. What is a big deal is that Mr. Cashill proposes that the ghostwriter is none other than William Ayers himself. This is a problem for a candidate who once described Bill Ayers as "an old guy who lives down the street" and committed his crimes when he was only 8 years old.

This is a quick 72 hour exercise in "Literary Forensics" which will most likely do nothing but make me want to gouge my eyes out. I do not expect to do anything with this except satisfy my own curiosity. If it pans out, if my first level exam passes the 'smell test" then we shall proceed, I have already set aside some software to confirm my findings and let me assure you, it does work.

I will liveblog the experience just so we can share the pain. Yes, come here to varifrank for all your leftist literature needs.

Blech....

It should be no secret that I've learned to loathe politics this season. This exercise will probably cement that feeling in my mind. Fundamentally I find this whole election to be far less interesting than the 2004 contest because I think that the differences between the two are so incredibly stark that it simply could not be more clear. If you have a contest between a leftist and anyone else, to me, anyone else who is running who doesn't a felony on their record or a brain tumor in their head is probably a better choice than the leftist that's running.

To me, socialism has always been a game that is too expensive for anyone but the truly rich to be able to afford to play.

Posted @ October 13, 2008 04:06 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping

Oracle Corp. Chief Executive Larry Ellison said his company may take advantage of the slumping economy to acquire other software companies at a buyer's price.

"Acquisitions that we have been looking at for some time may now be more attractive," Mr. Ellison said Friday at the software giant's annual meeting of stockholders. He added that he expects to target small-but-growing companies rather than large publicly traded ones.

I'm going to say this in the most heterosexual way I can possibly say it but I'm going to say it anyway. So here it goes:

I absolutely love this man.

You can whine and cry and talk about the "end of capitalism" if you want, Larry is going shopping while you sit around feeling sorry for yourself.

Posted @ October 10, 2008 12:04 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2) | TrackBack (6)

Say, about that autobiography....

An interesting thought on the authorship of "Dreams of my father".

You of course, do know there is software that you can use to determine authorship, right? Anyone out there want to be the "buckhead" of this election?

Posted @ October 09, 2008 08:33 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

The Fremen have awakened!

Sarah Palin - Carson City Nevada, October 4th 2008.
"And how can this be? For (s)he is the Kwisatz Haderach!" From Frank Herberts' Dune.

Posted @ October 04, 2008 08:14 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (11) | TrackBack (0)

Ready to be President on day one?

Joe Biden went for a walk down memory lane last night, walking down to "Kaites Restaurant in Wilmington".

You know, that nice place right next to the Home Depot that Joe hangs out in.

Only its been closed for 20 years. Apparently he used to stop by when it was open, but again, that was 20 years ago.

Now, I'm absolutely sure that had McCain made such an error, it would be immediately overlooked as quaint(insert smirk here). Sadly, I think its my duty at this point to say that Joe is only a few years younger than McCain and you know what that means dont you? Sure you do...

Headline:

"Biden gaffes prove that McCain not capable of being President"

Ah. That is so easy!

Posted @ October 03, 2008 08:45 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

This Just In...

Tina Fey is doomed to play Sarah Palin for the next 4 years.

Posted @ October 02, 2008 08:32 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Fossett

Steve Fossetts plane has been found.

Reasonable Rational Questions that outstanding:

1. Was the engine running at the time of the crash?

2. Why was he traveling south from Barron Hilton's place? On his way to Mojave? Why didn't anyone know that was his plan, including anyone at Mojave?

3. ELT's are triggered when aircraft undergo G-loads. I know, I've set off my fair share of ELT's back when I was a student pilot( Let's just say that if Cessnas came with tailhooks, I would have perfected the 20ft. short field landing. I had a hell of a time with the concept of "flair" in landing. I just slammed the thing down on the numbers. My instructor cured me of this by making me fly along the runway at 10 feet, and then doing about 10 hours on short grass fields, so I got over my 'carrier landings'. ). So where was the ELT on this aircraft and what is its state? It's not impossible that it didn't go off, but why exactly?

4. Where is the body? My guess is its 6 feet buried into the mountainside or has been ingested by the wildlife in the area over the past year. The fact that the first thing detected of the crash site was his personal clothing items, seems to back up that hypothesis.

5. Why didn't they find the wreck at the time of the accident? Well, you have to know where to look. Without a flight plan and some idea where you were going, your search area is 360 degrees in every direction as far as the aircraft in question can fly. In rough numbers, lets say the Citabria can fly for about 5 hours at 100 mph. If you don't know what direction the pilot was flying and you are flying over the empty and untraveled terrain of the Owens valley, the High Sierra and western Nevada topography then there are literally thousands of square miles to search and in that area, you have to find something about the size of a king-size bedsheet, only the bed sheet has been ripped to shreds and buried partially by rocks and dirt. Remember, Aircraft that crash don't always look like aircraft when the crash, they end up looking like trash and theres a tremendous amount of trash and debris in that part of the world. Aircraft that hit the sides of mountains are usually covered with dirt and rocks as well, which helps to hide them from the eyes of search pilots. Oh, and Search pilots don't go flying up next to mountain tops in the eastern sierra unless they have a good reason to go look there, because, as you can see, its dangerous.

It's entirely likely that:

- Mr. Fossett died prior to the crash. This may shock non-pilots, but aircraft that are correctly trimmed by the pilot will fly without input from the pilot until something changes, like they run out of gas or, as it appears to be in this case, hit something hard. The most famous examples are the Payne Stewart accident, or the B-24 "Lady Be Good", both examples flew on for hundreds of miles without a pilot in command.

- Oxygen deprivation. He was at high altitude, I don't know if he was using any supplemental oxygen. If he was, there is a fair chance it didn't work. If he wasn't, then his physical state at the time is a prime suspect.

- He was caught in a phenomenon known as a mountain wave, or "rotor' which he was fighting at the time of the accident. I was in one of these off of Catalina Island once, it was the most frightening thing I've ever been in. For 15 minutes after we departed Catalina Airport, we were not so much an aircraft as we were simply a 'leaf in the wind'. We had absolutely no control over the aircraft. If we tried to go towards the ocean, the aircraft plummeted towards the sea, if we tried to turn towards the island, (Catalina is just is a big mountain sticking out of the ocean) it would climb like a banshee but not in a good way, it was climbing directly for the island, which being hard, was something we wanted to avoid. We just went flinging around the air like a swimmer inside the tube of a big wave in the ocean. The best we could do was to try to stay in the middle of the 'tube' which was not good, but it was better than the other two options. Once we crossed the south end of the island, it stopped as suddenly as it started. My friend, whom I was flying with that day( he was a 'Raven' in Vietnam ), said it was the most frightened he had ever been in a small plane. We actually watched the wings on the little Cessna 140 we were in - flex. When we departed Catalina Airport, There was no sign, no clouds, there was nothing to tell us that the wave was there.

- The most likely cause of the accident is that he simply flew into the side of the mountain. Its easier to do than you think, especially if you are a high time IFR pilot who is flying VFR. Overconfidence is a constant killer of pilots.

I'm not willing to entertain any crazy "Fossetts Still Alive" theories. Did he run away and is living his life on Tahiti? I honestly would love to think so, but I think Mr. Fossett met his end in the air over California and is buried on a mountainside.

I only hope that now that the wreck has been found that his family can find the peace they have been looking for.

Update: Steve has been found at the site, as expected. Rest In Peace, my friend.

Posted @ October 02, 2008 11:31 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (2)

Genius

Tom McMahon is a Genius.

Posted @ October 02, 2008 09:45 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Im having second thoughts

Not about Palin, but I am having second thoughts about this election. I used to think it was just important, but now I think its more like:

"Vote for McCain, before its too late"

In regards to Palin, I want you all to remember that they aren't laughing at her, they are laughing at you. McCain and Palin are nothing but proxies for the left to take out their rage at you for all that you have done to them( specifically not letting them have the power they so richly deserve). They really don't understand you, so what makes you think they are going to understand McCain or Palin?

How dare you even consider the idea that you can rule yourself, peasant...

These people don't just want to run the government, they want to run your life(ed: yeah, right inta da ground too...)

Posted @ October 01, 2008 12:35 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Infamy

September 30,1938. British Prime Minister Chamberlain signs agreement with Hitler proclaiming "Peace in our time".

In the desire to stop a war, Chamberlains actions ensured its eventuality. This action, based on the hope for peace, instead resulted in the deaths of 52 million people world wide in what came to be known as World War II. It would take until 1992 for Czechoslovakia, the main object of the Munich agreement, to return to the freedom they knew before Chamberlain stepped in to help.

History records that Prime Minister Chamberlain was considered to be "a nice man".

Posted @ September 30, 2008 08:14 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Im going down a real bad path here, but bear with me

I'm not much for conspiracy theories, but I'm increasingly finding myself thinking that Democrats are capable of anything and I do mean anything to win.

Is it too hard to believe that they would stoop to sabotaging the market to win the election? Its revolting, but the more I think about it, the more evidence I see. And trust me, its not something I want to see. I've spent the afternoon trying to figure out why Nancy Pelosi acted the way she did with this vote. Things are kind of convoluted in congress but sometimes the best way to kill a bill is to make it so distasteful that even its supporters wont vote for it. If you have the President come out and say that something is necessary and needs to be done right away, but you spend all your time 'poisoning the well', all you have done is insure in a very backhanded wsay that nothing will be done. You can flap your arms and say you tried real hard, but what the President said he wanted to do is going down in flames. It's going down in flames not because it isn't actually necessary but because some people want to see Bush lose.

Here's the sad thing. Bush didn't lose 1.1 TRILLION dollars today, you did.

But heres the thing that bothers me. Since 2006, Democrat leadership in the legislature have demonstrably:

1. Tried sabotage the American Military so that it would be seen to lose
in Iraq.

2. Deny Americans access to their own oil.

3. Destroy the American Financial System. They spent three months
telling us we were dead certain in a recession earlier this year. We
weren't. What they seem to have learned is that they needed to go
further in the effort to scare the living bejeebus out of you.

4. Do we all remember Senator Chuck Schumer and his role the Indymac bank failure? I'm wondering how many bank failures have started because of "whispering campaigns". How many banks were shorted because of an engineered effort to cause the bank to crash?

To what benefit? None of this to benefits America or the American People. Its not as part of an idealogical dispute, but purely to benefit the Democrats. This is just wrong. You "don't like Bush" in fact you hate him, ok, I get that, but you don't burn down the house just to get rid of the sofa.

I cannot get past the idea that the Democrats have engineered this whole scene and that is a very bad thing to believe.

In this election with this track history, are we really ready to give
them the legislature AND the Executive Branch as a reward?

Posted @ September 29, 2008 04:22 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (9) | TrackBack (1)

John Galt Lives!

Shocking Poli-sci students the around the world -- American taxpayers refuse to continue fund banks that give out bad loans!

The question of the day - Why Nancy Cant Count?

Second question of the day - "Hey, if this is such bad news, why do I feel so good"?

UPDATE: Ok, Post lunch paranoia strikes deep. Remember last years run on rice? Remember when everyone was concerned that there wouldnt be enough food? Remember March, April, May when every news report insisted that we were in a recession and the end was nigh, only we weren't? It did seem that someone out there was desperate to create the sort of things that are actually under way now. What bothers me is that 90% of what is going on now was created by the very people who tell us they are interested in fixing it. Henhouse - Fox, guarding of, something like that.

One thing that has been bothering me is why would Nancy Pelosi allow a vote she knows wouldnt work? Why would she step out and insult the Republicans and then try to get their votes, knowing that they would be inflamed by what she said? Is she so stupid and has no idea what shes doing, or does she know exactly what she is doing and has actually achieved her goals? Now she can craft another really bad bill, and get all the Democrats to sign on, and Wall St. will actually be helping them do it. The President wasn't going to sign anything until Friday anyway because the Senate wouldnt be voting until Wednesday, so she still has time to get a second, far worse bill out there and voted on.

Does it occur to anyone else that the Democrats, by destroying any remaining faith in the government, are actually in the process of taking over the government, lock, stock and barrel?

Are we really so stupid as to reward this sort of behavior?

Posted @ September 29, 2008 11:28 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

One Last Saturday Night

All around the world, the financial world sits on the edge of a disaster. If the American liquidity crisis is allowed to sink the our banking system, there will be a stock market crash the size of which will make the 1929 crash pale by comparison. This crash will bring on an economic depression that will spread world wide in a matter of days.

We all know this, its been in the back of all of our minds for a couple of weeks now. Tonight I found myself thinking that the fate of 8 billion people around the world rests in the hands of 100 people in the Senate and 440 in the House and there probably isnt 10 of them that any of us would not find ourselves not immediately repulsed from and in dire need of a shower afterwards, if we simply shook their hands.

Worse, its in these law school rejects, half-wit pseudointellectuals and failed businessmen which comprise the whole of the body of the federal legislature, each of whom hates the other more than the man next to them; that the world is hoping that they will all work together to create a solution to hold off a disaster of truly biblical proportions.

I honestly have more anxiety tonight than I have had at any point since September 11th 2001. I have to sit here quietly and hope that congress essentially nationalizes the banking industry, this is supposed to be the upside. This is supposed to be the good news. The alternative is we go into another depression. Gee, thats some sort of choice we got there, slow death by strangulation or all at once with poison.

Given that the last depression lasted from 1930 till 1980 at a time when the world wasnt nearly as global as it is today, who knows how deep this hole could go.

And it all happened because someone said that it should be as easy to buy a house as it was to rent an apartment and then set about passing legislation to see that the entire banking system of the world could be made worthless because people with no basic economic common sense or credit rating were given more money than they even begin to handle. Then they passed legislation to make sure that no one was penalized for foreclosure or bankruptcy. Did they do it on purpose? Did they set about to wreck the joint when they went down this route? Or was it all just an accident?

Who knows, but here we are, all the same. Purpose or accident the damange is the same. The entire earth is all in the same boat, its not like this will just hit the US economy with everyone else swimming right by, the US goes down, everything else goes down with it. Communist, Capitalist, Socialist or barter-trade, it all depends on capital and capital is built on trust and the entire US economy has just gone NSF at the favor bank.

You know, its funny to me to think that the last time the entire world all sat and hoped for the same thing was when Apollo 11 was on its way to the moon...

Posted @ September 27, 2008 08:54 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

The Other Hitchens: Chinas Slave Empire

Peter Hitchens, author of the highly recommended "The Abolition of Britan" and brother of Christopher Hitchens writes a horrifying post where in it, he is nearly killed by a Communist Chinese directed mob in Africa.

Why?

Snip:

"After the murderous disaster of Mao, and the long chaos that went before, China longs above all for stable prosperity. And, as one genial and open-minded Chinese businessman said to me in Congo as we sat over a beer in the decayed colonial majesty of Lubumbashi's Belgian-built Park Hotel: 'Africa is China's last hope."

End Snip.

China, it appears, has rediscovered Imperialism.

Pour your self a stiff drink and read the whole thing.

I find myself living in a time that is as if all of the adrenaline fueled nightmares of our grandfathers have returned and become real.

Posted @ September 27, 2008 08:26 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1) | TrackBack (4)

All elections come down to one question

All Presidential elections boil down to one essential question, and the nation votes on that question.

It's taken until tonight for us to get a clear distillate from the fermentation tank of American Politics on this election. The question of this election comes down to one clear thing that you have to answer when you go into the voting booth:

"Is this really a good time for risk?"

Face it kids, Obama is a nice guy and has the ability to tell us all about his vision of the future of America, and his future is a future with surprsingly little Soylent Green in it, but theres just no way you can say hes not a risk.

John McCain is a lot of things, both good and bad, but he is not a risk. John McCain is the dean of students at the school of "Been there- Done that", He's been there, got the T-Shirt and mailed home a box of the locally grown, organic "kissmyass" for the folks at home to enjoy and he repeated this fact over and over again tonight.

It's clear that John knows that the threat of Russia towards Georgia is aimed squarely at Ukraine. I have no doubt that John McCain knows the situation with Ukraine, because he was able to clearly say what the issues were in under a minute. Obama, mentioned lots of states out of the area of contention with Russia, but he skipped right over Ukraine. Does he understand the situation there? Maybe, and then maybe not. Its a risk for us to assume one way or the other. It's a risk that if it turns out well, then good for everyone, but if the risk fails, then its could be very bad for everyone.

A misstep on something like the Russian stance on Ukriane is not insignificant.

Those of us who have a memory of the days when another Russian president decided to take advantage of a young unproven President remember just how close it came to not working out well. The people of Cuba remember, because they have had no hope of gaining their freedom since that event. Yes, we didnt all go up in a flash and thats good, but Cuba became a prison for its people. They paid the price for John F. Kennedys youth and inexperience.

Everyone talks about change like its a good thing, but you know what, cancer is change, so saying "we want change" to me is not exactly going to help you close the sale with that line. To me the word "Change" is a lot like "Community Organizer", it has no definite meaning, I cant find that title in the HR manual at work, I cant find the test you take to get the job and I cant really tell how to tell if you did the job, good or bad. Do you mean "Cub Scout Den Mother"? Thats a community, and its usually needs organizing. Do you mean "button man" for Don Corelone in the process of "getting out the vote" for the Barzini and Tataglia families on the east side? What?

Community Organizer means nothing to me and niether does "Change". To me, "Change" is what happened when I got divorced. It was the change I was looking for, but if I had the choice, I would have rather skipped the whole awful marriage process first and not had the need for the divorce in the first place. To be fair, Change is what also happened when I graduated from college. Again, change often depends on where you stand and what exactly you are standing in at the time.

For me, this election is not about "change", its really all about "Risk". One of the things I have a hard time with for a very long time is explaining this idea that all of what we have here in our lives today, is not in any way, guaranteed or permanent. It can, with just a few twists and turns, all fall away. Your rights, your property, your very lives all twist like leaves at the end of a very long branch from a very old tree.

Modern humans, and Americans in particular have so rarely experienced any privation that they simply dont know what it looks like or what to watch out for to avoid it. Its a situation that reminds me very much of those dangerously deluded people who wont vaccinate their kids because they "heard a guy, who knows a guy" who said that "vaccinations give kids autism". People who do this have almost never seen what happens when there is a major disease outbreak like polio, where just the word "polio" made my grandmother audibly gasp and cross herself.

Unlike my grandmother and her generation, these people today who wont vaccinate, havent seen death or the wages of disease, they simply dont know what it is so they make up a fake fear to take its place. Polio, which they have never seen, has become a rather sick fairy tale, while autism, which they have seen, becomes the thing to be feared and avoided.

The problem is that if you get enough people who dont immunize their children, it makes the entire populace at risk for an outbreak of a disease that can kill and disfigure.

There's a tipping point where once enough people decide that polio is not a risk, but autism is, that the entire population becomes at risk for an outbreak of polio. But if no one in the population has ever seen polio, they simply dont know how to evaluate that risk so they ignore it as something that is not worth bothering with.

Did I just say that Senator Obama is the same as Polio or that people that vote for him are as irresponsible as people who dont vaccinate their children?

No.

What I did say is that the human mind has a problem with collective memory and the assesment of risk. Our current generation has never experienced an actual economic "Depression". The current generation has hardly even seen a recession, they have no idea what those words mean or what the real impact is to their lives. They read about it books, but they dont know what it is. They see bank closings in the news and wonder if they still have to pay their credit cards.

In their experience, Washington is a never ending fountain of money and source of help for all things bad, and all you have to do is ask for it and someone up there will get it to you. They cant imagine a day when someone stands up and says "Sorry oliver, you cant have any more". They only know Americans as the winners in war, they dont know what military defeat looks like or how it changes everything at home. They have no knowledge of being deprived of anything. Most people in the United States think that having only two cars, a TV in every room but no plasma screens and sadly no "cable", is the definition of "poor".

Americans and specifically this particular generation of Americans, have no idea what a thing like conscription is, or what it means to give up two years of your life for the "good of the country". When the country is a war, and we have decided collectively to do that, sure, but when its used to suppress the population? no. Americans cant imagine that happening because they have no experience with it at all, but ask any immigrant from south or Central America and they will tell you what it means.

This is a country that thinks that a "month to month" pay as you go phone plan is an burden and a hardship. This is a country that has lost its collective memory of true hardship. I fear that having lost this memory it may very well have lost its ability to see a risk for what its is and evaluate it accurately in the correct context.

I'm not much for putting risk into the Office of the President. I've read too much history to know just how badly things can go if the wrong person is in the wrong place at the wrong time. If the President of the United States answers the phone at 3:00 am, he aught to be asking "where" are the carriers?, not "what" is a carrier?

I just dont need that sort of stress in my life.

Posted @ September 26, 2008 08:46 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

I dont care about the debate and frankly I never did

Who are we kidding? Is anyone going to watch this debate and change their minds about who they are going to vote for? Is Obama going to close the sale? Is McCain going to pull off a mask and reveal his inner Nixon to the world?

No.

Stop kidding yourselves into thinking that you are going to see something here, because there is nothing to see tonight, because its already happened, the "press-**" has seen to it that the message they want to send will be the only message that gets out.

Let me be "Kreskin" here and predict whats going to happen.

10 seconds after the debate is over, the left will hit "enter" on their progressive-apple-laptops-that-look-just-like-girls-makeup-cases-from-back-when-girls-actually-carried-such-things and publish their already written posts, saying that McCain looked tired and worn out, stammered around stage, while Obama looks "statesmanlike" with a firm grip of the facts, even though the word most often repeated tonight by Barack Obama will be "ahh, ummmm, errr". The first 6 paragraphs will also breathlessly point out the relationship between "Ole Miss", deeply entrenched American racism and the shock (to some) of a black man running for President,all while quietly whispering the little known fact that McCain appears to be a "white man".

I'll repeat it again. This is an exercise in pointless twaddle with as much to do with actual politics as the WWF has to do with actual sports.

I dont care if McCain walks out begins to channel the ghost of Jim Morrison, drops his pants and takes a big whizz on stage shouts "I AM THE LIZARD KING!!!,because even if he did do that, I'm still voting for him. Quite frankly, if he does do that, I will probably send his campaign money. If he also turns around smacks Jim Lerher to the ground and calls him "a commie punk", I'll fly to Manahttan and wear a "MCCAIN FOR PRESIDENT" sandwich board in Times Square and ring a bell and hand out campaign literature to the New Yorkers like those "end is nigh" folks.

I suggest to you that rather than sit in front of the TeeVee, a better use of you time would be for you all take the opportunity to go for a walk in the autumn air and enjoy the company of good friends.

** - "Press" used to be a word that invoked the use of a "printing press " in the creation of distibutable information. This is not to say that in those days the information was any better, but in those days you could always reuse the paper for other purposes, such as bird cage liners, training your puppy or what is called when camping "Mountain money". Now the word "press" has come to mean the feeling my head gets either when I place my skull between a C-Clamp and tighten the screws and its the exact same feeling I get if I watch MSNBC for more than 10 minutes, or if Alan Colmes starts to talk or if someone decides this would be the perfect time to talk to Rosie O'Donnell and get her feelings on the election.

Posted @ September 26, 2008 01:46 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Well after all, he is a fighter pilot

McCain up by 2.

Sure its Zogby, The "Haaretz of polls" ,but there you go.

So, McCain suddenly suspends his campaign, which immediately causes his opposition (who is underestimating and overconfident) to overshoot. This is a maneuver to which to my aviation geared mind sounds like "McCain slams down the airbrakes and rolls over the top of the overshooting aircraft and suddenly finds himself with a shooting solution".

Where did he come up with that idea? Its an air combat maneuver called a "Rolling Scissors". Note to the Obama campaign, if you are wondering where McCain went, check your six.

Posted @ September 25, 2008 01:39 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (3)

ipso facto

NBC's Luke Russert says "The smartest kids in the state go there so it is leaning a little bit toward Obama."
He said in a blog later Wednesday that he misspoke and "made what is without a doubt, quite simply a dumb comment..."

So - By saying something so dumb, is Luke Russert telegraphing the fact that he's actually for McCain?

Posted @ September 24, 2008 04:37 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (2)

Priorities on Display

I'll say this about John McCain, he may be 72 years old, but he's not boring.

John McCain seems to have this weird out of date old fashioned idea idea that there is something out there that is more important than politics and your daily poll numbers. He actually thinks that this thing called "the country" is more important than politics. He actually thinks that making a sacrifice for the good of the country is a good idea! The poor deluded old fool...

Barack Obama seems to think that a debate on Foreign Policy is the most important thing that he can possibly do for the country right now, that people crave politics and hang on his every word.

What A Narcissist...

We stand on the edge, not of a recession but an outright depression. If companies cannot borrow capital to stay in business, they will go out of business. Once a certain number of companies go out of business, then there is simply no business to be had. Unless you are some sort of "frontier trapper" living out where you can catch your own food, you need capital to survive because "It takes money to make money". If you dont make money, then you are an expense and when things go bad, expenses get cut and that means you daddy-o. The only reason you got that cushy office job at "Consolidated Sprockets Unlimited" isnt because youre a "great guy", its because theres a market for sprockets and there is enough capital out there for other companies to buy sprockets from your company. If people want your sprockets but can't buy them, then your company doesnt sell sprockets. If it doesn sell sprockets, theres no money to pay for you and your cushy job and before you know it, you're out on your ass and "Consolidated Sprockets Unlimited" is out of business. See how that works? WALL STREET IS MAIN STREET! YOU HAMMERHEADED MORON SENATOR SCHUMER! I dont care how much money you have in the bank, it doesnt mean a thing if its not flowing around the economy. A pile of dollar bills is not money, its insulation. A pile of dollar bills that is invested in the economy is MONEY, or in other words, its CAPITAL! Money doesnt mean anything if there is nothing to buy. The flow of capital is the cornerstone of American economics and frankly, its the cornerstone of your freedom. Remember varifranks universal law of economics, "if you cant own property, then you are property. If there is no economic freedom to allow you to buy property, then you are only the property of the stete."

If you want someone to take care of all your economic decisions then move back home with your parents. I'm sure they kept your room just like you left it. If you dont like capitalism, then stop borrowing money for cars and houses and go live in a field with all the other hippies( And I'm talking right to you Senator Charles "I Hate mortgates" Schumer). Most people think it would be great to get back to nature, but a week of camping will usually break them of the habit. Take it from me kids, Poverty is not "fun". There is nothing good or noble about living in poverty. It sucks, if at all possible, avoid it.

I like capitalism, I like owning a house a car and having a job and having disposable income to do what I see fit with as I see fit. I kinda think that its a good thing to NOT BE STARVING TO DEATH BECAUSE I CAN ACTUALLY AFFORD TO EAT AND I CAN EAT WHATEVER THE HELL I WANT WHEN I WANT TO. Socialist economies are the ONLY places where famines occur. Period. You just think of that the next time you think " Golly, socialism would be great!"

How anyone over the age of 12 can vote for a leftist socialist with zero economic experience or so much as a drab of common street sense to be President of the United States is completely beyond my ability to comprehend. You would get more economic common sense if you talked about the 1980's "laffer curve" with a three legged tincan chomping billygoat with a lapshade on its head. The only thing socialists know about markets and economics is how to wreck them and make everyone equally poor.

We need to recapitalize this country, not nationalize the banks and take away your economic freedom. We need to cut the capital gains tax to ZERO and we need to do it NOW.

Oh, and while we are at it, we need to STOP GIVING MORTGAGES TO PEOPLE WHO CANT MEET THE CREDIT QUALIFICATIONS TO RENT AN APARTMENT!!!!

Posted @ September 24, 2008 02:00 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

I question the timing

Is it at all reasonable to consider that the Democrats are willing to sink the economy for their own benefit?

I mean, wheres the downside for them? They get to nationalize everything, they get to return to the happy days of the Great Depression, its perfect. So why solve it? why not net it burn? Nancy "Nero" Pelosi, its not that far removed if you think about it.

Because of course, Im the only one who is looking at the Democrats askance on how they are handling the whole banking crisis and natually all problems benefit the Democrats at the polls. Is it really wrong of me to be this politcally paranoid?

Posted @ September 23, 2008 03:24 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (3)

Doc Browns Time Machine

I just had a flash of a future, a future where President Palin is running for re-election against Senator Hillary Clinton in 2012. Oh what fun that debate would be!

Then I read this Hitchens post and realized that there must have been some shift in time-space that resulted in the two of us thinking the same thing.

Posted @ September 22, 2008 04:19 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Question of the day

Q: How many crises situations has President Bush faced during his Presidency? Military, Foreign Policy, Natural Disasters, Economic, Political, if you stop and think about what this President and this country has faced in the last eight years, its pretty staggering.

"Ah but Frank, does matter to you that he caused most of them?"

Well, I think that blaming the President for Hurricaines is like blaming the fire department for house fires. You might complain about how slow there were in getting there, but the fire itself is not the fault of the guys who come to put it out. Military? I see a military that has been transformed from a post cold war machine that was still addicted to big weapons systems like the Crusader artillery system into one where Air Force systems like UAV's and GPS guided weapons have transformed the battlefield. Economic? We went into the Bush years with the meltdown from the "Dot Com" years, and we are going out with a meltdown of housing, both are more alike than we care to realize. Ken Lay and Franklin Raines are more alike than folks on the left will ever admit. Political? Bush took office in 2001 with what can only be called a near insurrection and except for occasional periods of quiet which can only be described as the political oppostion in the act of re-arming, he's managed the office of the executive branch. Managing when you have a majority is hard but managing when you have a revolt on your hands is damned difficult. President Bush has faced a crises after crises since the first day of his Presidency without any sizeable let up.

So the question of the day is based on this. President Bush going away will not lower the amount of activity in the world. The next President will face at least the same amount if not more than President Bush has faced. Having lived through the last eight years and knowing what we know about this most recent period of time, what do you want your next President to take into office with him? Remember, Presidents are simply the leader of the executive branch of Government. In that position, they fill a large amount of the executive branch with people that, in their experience, will do a good job.

I'm trying to figure out a way to graph those situations along with how President Bush responded to them. I have to say that there are a lot of situations that happened over the last eight years that I had simply forgotten about. Remember the Crisis with the Chinese when they shot down one of our aircraft and held the crew? I had forgotten about that and I had forgotten about the whole ENRON show with Ken Lay as well. The number of Hurricaines and wildfires that have happened over the past eight years. Its also amazing the things you forget about. One thing I've noticed is that President Bush has been through a lot of things over the past eight years but there is no way that he has been bored in office, even for a minute.

Posted @ September 21, 2008 10:28 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

If youre Barack Obama, would you hold a fundraiser at an oil mansion?

Get outta my house, you interloper!

You've all heard about the fundraiser in "Hollywood" that generated 9 million dollars. What you didn't hear is that it was held at Greystone Mansion. You folks who are not from LA will think that it has something to do with Tarzan, but the mansion does have something to do with another Hollywood connection; Edward Doheny, one of the nations early oil magnates owned the mansion. He was made famous in the Upton Sinclair Novel "Oil" Which is what the film "There will be blood" was based on.

I grow tired of pointing out the hypocracy of the press these days, but I feel I must do my duty, so here it goes:

Ahem.... Oh, how they would have howled if a Republican had held a fundraiser A) in a Mansion B) in an MANSION MADE FROM OIL PROFITS!!!!

So There. And yes as always, "I Drink Your Milkshake", but you knew that or you wouldnt be here, would you?

Posted @ September 17, 2008 07:44 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

As a taxpayer Im just asking, as a capitalist Im appaled as a shareholder Im furious

Now, I say this as a complete capitalist, but if a business gets so large that its failure would collapse the market( Like AIG is purported to be), then is it fair to say that the business should be broken up by the government to keep that from happening?

"Too big to fail" should not be "Taxpayers pick up the tab". If you are too big to fail, maybe we need to make you a little smaller.

That goes for you too GM...

Posted @ September 17, 2008 07:49 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Headline of the day

Joe Biden impresses Manitowoc teen at rally.

Honestly.

Posted @ September 10, 2008 08:04 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A Democrat speaking in code

We've recived some signal traffic from Politico:

Obama poked fun of McCain and Palin's new "change" mantra. "You can put lipstick on a pig," he said as the crowd cheered. "It's still a pig." "You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still gonna stink." "We've had enough of the same old thing."

What exactly does this mean exactly? Lipstick? Pig? Old Fish? Its pretty cryptic.

Let's say we run this text through the "Democrat-decodifyer" and see what it says.

Well look at that!, it says:

"Help! I've fallen and I cant get up!"

You know, the cool thing about our electronic translator gizmo is that we probably could read that message even before the Democrats can.

You stay classy Obama! And please, whatever you do, dont change...

Posted @ September 09, 2008 05:22 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

57 channels and nothing on

Let's see, as I scan through the TV tonight I see that theres a show called "Ice Road Truckers", a show about men who drive trucks in the frozen north of Canada, usually they are doing their jobs in support of the Canadian Oil industry. Then theres also Deadliest Catch, a show about working fisherman in the Alaska crab fisheries. Theres also "Ax Men", a show about timber men in Oregon and finally, there "Dirty Jobs", where the host goes all over America an spends a day working in some of the most difficult jobs in the country.

Half of America spends its dinner hour laughing at the little people out there in flyover country, you know - the NASCAR type folks who drink beer from cans, plan their vacations around deer season, play softball like it was a religious sect and take time out each week to go to church on Sundays without apology or shame. With all of these shows you get the idea that there sure does seems to be a hell of a lot of people out there who like and respect the people who work in these jobs enough to watch them do it. (I am a big fan of "Deadliest Catch".)

Yet, with all those channels of television, not one of the many industrial hard working television producers has made so much as a single hour of television dedicated to the hard work of the hard to define world of "community organizers". Clearly this is an oversight and the market will step in quickly to fill the airwaves with shows like "Teamster Union Organizer - Local 292" or "Cicero City Alderman - Behind The Scenes". You know from what I've gleaned from the headlines, having a webcam at the Detroit City council meetings would probably be a hoot to watch.

Perhaps I should check the listings on Bravo or PBS for "Barack Obama - Community Organizer".

Posted @ September 06, 2008 09:52 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (6)

A thought about frontier moms.

Xerxes: You Greeks take pride in your logic. I suggest you employ it. Consider the beautiful land you so vigorously defend. Picture it reduced to ash at my whim! Consider the fate of your women!
Spartan King Leonidas: Clearly you don't know our women! I might as well have marched them up here, judging by what I've seen.

You know, my grandmother Agnes had 5 children, she was a nice lady but if you crossed her you could likely walk away with one less appendage for your efforts. My other Grandmother Myrtle, she had 5 kids and I dont think theres ever been a meaner, nastier lady on the planet since Livia, the wife of Augustus. She would never hurt you personally, she would never sully herself with the actual act, but she knew people who would do it for a price. She was always nice to me, but I think she thought I was slow and harmless. My aunt Bobbie had 5 kids, and she ran car dismantling business in Blythe California. Blythe, for those of you from out of state is where the Devil holds spring training for Hell.

My mom had 4 kids and I dare you to cross her or say the wrong thing about one of her kids if you are within arms reach. My advice if you do is this; dont get up from the floor when she knocks you down, just play dead.Its better to play dead than to be dead, ok?

I dont know how they do things "back east", but my own experience with western frontier women who raise kids and know how to shoot things is - dont underestimate them and do not think that they are sickly little stick figure victims that are prone to getting a case of the vapors if it gets a little hot.

Posted @ September 05, 2008 04:06 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Question for the press

Q: Since Obama has said that "He has been to 57 states in this campaign", do we yet know if one of them was Alaska? Is Alaska important to the Democrats? If not, why not?

Editors note: According to spokesman for Gloria Stienem, when she issued the statement "The only thing Sarah Palin shares with Hillary is a chromozone" was not intended as to be taken as an endorsement of Sarah Palin by Ms. Stienem. Her spokesman said that she hopes that this clarifies the issue.

Posted @ September 05, 2008 03:02 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Joke of the day: From Gerald Baker

"What's the difference between Sarah Palin and Barack Obama?”

“One is a well turned-out, good-looking, and let's be honest, pretty sexy piece of eye-candy.

“The other kills her own food"

From Gerald Baker.

Posted @ September 05, 2008 12:16 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

What I'm reading: In the Realm of Prester John

Robert Silverberg: In the Realm of Prester John.

Imagine an obscure out of the way place that you have heard about all your life, a place like St. Helena in the South Atlantic. A place you had always heard of, but never actually met anyone who had been there themselves. You accept that its true because other people have told you that it is true. Then one day, you discovered that it really didnt exist, that it was all made up and no one had any idea how the whole story of "St. Helena" got started.

That's the essence of the legend the "Kingdom of Prester John". Its a story that got started in the time of the crusades that quickly got a life of its own, a story that all of western civilization believed to be true from the 1100's to the 1700's, but never had any actual basis in fact.

Posted @ September 05, 2008 08:34 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Think you used enough dynamite there butch?

My reaction? Yeah, She's ready. You say you want change? Well, I got change for you right here and its Big John McCain who brought it to you. McCain picking Palin is the single best example of US Naval strategy at work since Nimitz was at Midway.

Oh, and someone needs to call the Democrats and tell them that we found those balls Obama lost when he picked Biden for VP, they can pick them up at the Palin campaign headquarters. Those folks who are on that side who are convinced that Palin is going to get "eagleton'ed", think again folks, McCain is likely to go before she is. And Biden? Heh...

( oh, and someone tell Brit Hume that the reason she was so solid on stage and not rattled by the situation isnt because she is a polished politician, its because shes the mother of five kids. After five kids, that woman could probably withstand a 24 mortar barrage and not get rattled. A public speaking opportunity is nothing by comparison to a 2:00am feeding. )

Posted @ September 03, 2008 08:29 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

For the Record: I heart Palin

(Backing my theory that McCain has been on the upswing since his appearance at Sturgis, here is Govenor Palin resting on a Harley...)

1. I think the choice for Sarah Palin is simple genius. This choice irritates and annoys all the right people for all the right reasons. All the reasons that have animated the press into levels not seen since Bush was elected are all reasons that I see as positives. Not from Washington? Great. Hunter,Fisher, mother of 5? Perfect. Small town mayor? excellent. Not "vetted" by the liberal press? Well, sign right here Mrs. Vice President.

2. I think the most conservative of values is the phrase "None of your damn business", so yeah you could quickly guess from that I dont care that her daughter is pregnant. If the press didnt care that John Edwards cheated on his cancer ridden wife with a woman who during the affair actually had a baby, then they shouldnt dont care if Sarah Palins daughter is pregnant.

3. I am pretty tired of hearing her child referred to by the press as "A Down Syndrome Child". Last I checked, "Down Syndrome" is a condition and not a designation of human subspecies.

4. The left cant understand why anyone would have a baby unless you had nothing else to do in your life there was government sponsored day care available 6 weeks after the birth of the baby and the baby was guaranteed to be error free. The right understands that life is a blessing and we are all enriched by its presence. This is why Sarah Palin drives the left absolutely insane. The left is all about choice but only if that choice is self serving. To the left, choosing self sacrifice over self endulgence is considered a character flaw.

5. Thanks to the Sarah Palin candidacy, the Republican brand has a very human face. Monday at the Convention, you saw Laura Bush and Cindy McCain on stage, while on everyones mind was Sarah Palin in the background. It is into this atmosphere that the anti-american left chose to riot in the street, attacking boy scouts and old ladies. Instead of attacking "the man", the left can now be seen to be out in the streets attacking women and children. Nice work boys, that should help you out in your quest to take on "the man". Oh damn, the man is now a woman...

6. Let me be clear, John McCain could not have made a better choice. I fully support and endorse Sarah Palin not despite all that has come out - but because of it. For those who say she will drop out of the race, I believe the odds are far better that Biden will drop out.

Posted @ September 02, 2008 07:44 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A little dance on the role of government in health care

When it comes to health care, the only thing I know for certain is this; that despite your best efforts and all that modern technology has to offer, your fate is that you will get sick and die. 100% of the time, the end result of our lives is exactly the same for all of us. What we share as a species is the fact that no matter who you are, no matter your station in life, the very best you can hope for in life is to simply go to sleep one night and die comfortably unaware of your demise.

So, with that in mind, here is how I tend to break down the “health care conundrum”. Who should be responsible for my health care and why should they do it? I tend to think of the various solutions that exist along the lines of a “spectrum”. At the low end we have “Do Nothing” and at the high end we have “Do Everything”.

Let's examine this spectrum in some detail.

The “Do Nothing” option. Since it can be argued with some certainty that you will die, then it can also be argued that any health care at all is futile and a waste of time and resources. I tend to disagree with this option as I myself have survived several life threatening events like a burst appendix, which with the application of a moderate amount of health care allowed me to continue life beyond the 17 years I had lived at that time it occured. The use of the “Do Nothing” ethic also would have stopped the love of my life from existing at all, since she was born premature and without any health care, she would most certainly have died before her first few days of her life were complete and that would have been a true loss to the world and most devastating loss to me. Also, since I am of the first generation of humans to not live in the shadow of terror that came to all previous generations from polio, measles or half a dozen other all to common things that used to slaughter humanity with impunity; it would seem rather spoiled of me to reject all of what medical science has done since then and say “Ah screw it, rather than clean our wounds with antiseptics, lets all just die of septis instead because you know, were all going to die anyway, right?” So, while there is a pure scientific argument that can be made about zero health care, it can also be shown that it is somewhat silly to think that way, because vaccinations work, antiseptics work, diet works and as such allows the sick to get well and the near dead to go on living where just a short time ago, we would have simply died from things we can now cure easily and cheaply.

Now that we’ve examined (and dismissed) the lower end of the spectrum, let’s go to the other end of the argument the “Do Everything” option.

Unlike the “Do Nothing” option, this one is emotionally hard to walk away from because we are living things, and as living things we tend to strive for life. It’s the nature of everything with DNA to try to stay alive. Emotionally, we want every possible option there is to for us to be able to stay alive, no matter how expensive, no matter how small a chance there is that we understand intellectually to be in a solution to stay alive, we will still want it.

However, if we say we really want this option, we need to ask ourselves “who should go without, so that I can live”? Health Care resources are not infinite and under no “real world” plan could they ever be made to be; there simply are not an infinite number of beds, doctors nurses, gallons of plasma, sheets, operating room lights, ambulances, janitors and so on. They have to be parceled out along some sort of plan and some sort of priority basis; else you would have an oversupply of janitors and an undersupply of surgeons. If you think that you should go first to the front of the line in this decision of "who lives and who dies", then you need to ask yourself “who should go last?” Should my children spend all of their money and live destitute just to keep me alive? Should my neighbors forfeit their property just so I can stay alive for another week, a month or a year? How long is their obligation to my ill spent (in their opinion) life? “Do Everything” actually does have a limit and the limit is set by the bookend called “within reason”. The question that most people find themselves asking about this is “who gets to set that standard of “reason”? Is it Me? My Family? The Doctor? The insurance company? The Government? And this is the problem with “Do Everything” because it’s not entirely up to you, its up to those whom you yourself empower with your life and health. If you are the only person involved with your health care, then the “Do Everything” option is limited only by you and your own resources. But can you operate on yourself? Can you create and design medicines? Well, probably not, so you have to get other folks involved in the process.

The traditional method that humans use to fill a gap in what they have for what they want is to trade something they have for something else. Since the time of the Hittites, we have found it convenient to trade money for labor and resources. So one metric that limits “Do Everything” is how much money you have to trade to accomplish your goal of staying alive. When we think about this, let's try to remember that all of these people engaged in health care are not doing it as a hobby, they are spending a great deal of time and resources just to be able to provide this service to the world. It takes a great deal more time and skill to create a nurse or doctor than can be accomplished on Saturday afternoon at the Learning Annex, therefore, they tend to be in short supply.

The people that work in the health care industry are doing it partially because they believe they are helping people in the process, but they are also doing it because they can trade their skills and time for money and with that money, they can go on to live their lives as they see fit, to buy curtains, or go on vacation in the Bahamas or perhaps even breed and create little doctors and nurses as well. They need money to get paid to them so that they can pay for their homes, their families wants and needs, their food, and yes, their own health care because even the best surgeon in the world finds his own Proctology to be something that is beyond his own reach.

Some people are greatly offended by this idea of trading money for health, saying that its not fair that those with lots of money can get more care than those without. I say that if you recognize that people in the health care industry deserve to be paid for their skills and that people who make the goods that are used in health care deserve to be paid for the effort and that the people who create the buildings and infrastructure that will become hospitals and clinic, also deserve to be paid for their work; then we are more in agreement than the "money is bad" people probably realize. If you are arguing instead for a fundamental “fairness” of the world, then you are arguing for a whole series of things that go far beyond health care and start to become the purvey of the discredited ideas of Mr. Marx ( Karl, not Groucho. Karl was a moron on the same scale as L. Ron Hubbard, where Groucho was a genius. One would be better served by the ideas of the latter rather than the former, and if history had listened to Groucho instead of Karl, there would be far fewer mass graves throughout the world).

It is no more fair to say to doctors and nurses that money should not be used in health care than it would be to say to Farmers, Fishermen and and Stockmen that you shouldn’t have to pay for food. Farmers, Fishermen and Stockmen around the world will understand the true nature of what I’m saying here, in that there is nothing more expensive than something that is “free” and that life itself, it has been said many times by many people, is not fair.

So, the “Do Everything” option is limited, if not by your own resources, then by those whom you bring into the decision. Should your family decide? Well, if you let them, then they will and they will make that decision like all humans do, based on what’s in their best interest, ( which sometimes is shockinging to discover that their interests are not the same interest as yours). If they like you and you have a good relationship, then you can be somewhat assured that you will be dealt with properly but as someone who himself doesn’t trust his own relatives with his car much less his life, this option provides me with no real comfort whatsoever.

Should the insurance company decide? Well yes, if you have insurance, then you have a contract that you honor by paying the premium and they honor by the terms of coverage. They are bound by contract to observe the terms of that contract. However, if the insurance company is silly enough to sign a contract that essentially has no bounds on the level of carewell then! good for you!, but the likelihood of that company surviving the economics of providing a subscriber with "never ended care" is very small. Worse still, by you insisting on “Do Everything” and then trying to force the insurance company to provide it, you will have limited a large number of other people from having a “Do Something” option from the same company. Its that old “finite resources” problem again. If I give you everything, it costs a great deal for everyone else to pile it up for you (and exactly who are you anyway?).

So what about the Government? Shouldn’t they decide? Well, what is the obligation of Government? Is it to keep you alive or to provide for the general welfare of the citizenry? If we agree that you will get sick and die, then the government cannot be obligated to simply keep you alive in all situations and circumstances, in fact history has repeatedly shown that just the opposite is true. History shows that what Governments are obligated to do by the rest of the healthy citizenry is to keep you from being a drain on the finite resources or in your declining health from becoming a risk to the rest of the population. You, as the individual and your “quality of life” are the last thing on the agenda of Government. If you are sick and no longer paying taxes, then you are an expense, and as is in the universal nature of all human governance systems, you will become a problem to be solved and all governments exist to eliminate problems.

If you are also a member of a minority, a religious, racial, political minority from the government or the populace, you will have little satisfaction on the idea of the government acting as an arbiter for your care. If you want an example of Government health care when the individual is not in control of the decisions being made, visit any Indian Reservation or spend a day at the VA. When you are given the fact that all modern government sponsored health care systems were started as an offshoot of the 1890’s eugenics movement, with what was then called “progressive” idea that it would improve mankind by basically killing off or sterilizing large portions of the citizenry who were deemed by "The Government" to be “undesirable, feebleminded, somehow less than whole”, then you can understand why I find idea of the government being involved with my health care decisions, fundamentally repulsive. So again, what is the role of government in my health care? Should "The Government" fulfill a role in with my life that I wouldn’t allow my mother-in-law to do?

Hardly.

Government does have a role in health care, but I want to make sure that the role is a small as possible. It should set standards, set training guidelines and licensing, even allow and adjudicate some form of legal redress, but should it decide who lives and who dies? It makes me shudder to think that there are so many out there who think that it should. The collective history of 7,000 years of organized human history is rife with examples of why that’s always a bad idea.

On the other hand, if I let the government pay for my health care, If I surrender my rights for the childlike and unattainable dream of “Do Everything” then what right do I have to argue when they say that they have done everything they can and I "should go"? If I surrender my right of life to "The Government" for a "cost vs. benefit" evaluation then what does that make me? Is this not THE fundamental “Quality of Life” issue the issue of should I live at all and who is it that makes that decision?

So, in the middle of the spectrum from "Do Nothing" to "Do Everything" is a spread that goes somewhere between “What can I do?” and “what can I afford to pay someone else to do?”. I am not one of those who lives his life like he will live forever and I will not find myself disappointed when I discover that the end is near (for all I know, it probably is even as I write this). As I said, we, the living – die; each and every one of us, without exception. So what can we do in the mean time? And this is where I think that this phrase "quality of life" comes into play because what I think we really want is not “insurance” but “cost containment”. To put it simply, I don’t want to go broke in the process of staying alive.

By myself, as an individual I cannot get the Bayer company to create something as simple as Aspirin because I don’t have enough capital incentive for the Bayer Company to do that just for me. But if 400 million of other headache sufferers all say: “ Hey man! I got a headache and I’m willing to pay someone to get something that makes it go away !” then I can bet that the marketplace, of which Bayer is just a part, will crawl all over themselves to get me a solution. This is as I’ve said before how Humans has solved problems since the time of the Hittites. You have something that you want to get, and I’ve actually got that “something” that you want, so we sit down and trade each other something for it. Anything else other than simple commercial trade, is really just some form of collective coercion and governmental tyranny.

As a consumer, I can walk down the pharmacy aisle and see that I’m correct in this observation. We live in a society where there are 400 brands of toothpaste, competing for my toothpaste dollars, not because its “fair” or the government has decided that everyone has a right to good teeth or that there are companies that are mandated to create and sell toothpaste to me. We have 400 brands of toothpaste because the people who are good at making toothpaste have found out what people with teeth want to buy and the people who want to buy toothpaste are free to choose what toothpaste they desire to buy.

It needs to be said, that not every human society that exists on earth today, or at any time in the past, has ever had such wide choices in the marketplace. The choices what to buy and how much to spend on it is almost entirely left in the hands of its citizenry. With 400 brands to choose from, if you make toothpaste, you need to make really good toothpaste for a very low price or you wont make toothpaste for very long. Until recently, there were few toothpaste options for the individual to buy but now we have 400 brands to choose from, and overall they are pretty damn cheap.

What I want out of "health care" is more of that. I want doctors and hospitals competing to keep me as a customer because that will be the single best proven method to actually contain the cost of health care. Notice I didn’t say “Insurance”, because our primary premise is that you will die, therefore you cannot “insure” against it like you can insure against fire, with the application of building codes and the assessment of premiums. But for that to happen, I have to decide that its my responsibility to take care of my own health, good or bad, and not the responsibility of the neighbors next door or that pack of rabid, wild dogs who live next to the Potomac River who call themselves "The Congress of the United States".

Good or bad my life is my own. You roll the dice, you take your chances and there are no guarantees one way or the other how it will all turn out. My family has a role to play in my quality of life decisions, just as they do in everything else in my life, but in the end, its my choice how I live or die and it should remain exactly as such. I will allow my insurance company to be involved only as far as I have contracted them to help me, but in the end, my life is my own. If they choose not to honor the contract we have agreed to, well, so be it. I can reasonably expect them to honor their end of the bargain and I can legally hold them to it to the best of my abilities, but I cannot expect them to go bankrupt in the process of taking care of me. If such a thing were to be mandated I would find it offensive that I should, in my own desire to live, steal so much from others who could have found care from that insurance company had I not destroyed it, so I could go on living. It would be wrong to demand life for myself when it could be given to me only at the expense of other peoples lives.

I ask only that while I am alive that I am left in a condition of as much liberty as I see fit to use and as much as I can handle responsibly. For my health, I do not want everything that can be done to be done, I only want everything that can be reasonably done with the resources that I have at hand. I have no essential right to expect anything else.

Posted @ August 29, 2008 07:25 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (17)

America Wants to Know

Heh.

Posted @ August 28, 2008 04:29 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Who Mourns for Obama?

So, Apparently there is going to be a Greek Temple for the unveiling of Obama.

This naturally makes me think of the 1967 classic Star Trek episode "Who Mourns for Adonis?"

Apollo: I would have cherished you, cared for you. I would have loved you as a father loves his children. Did I ask so much?
Capt. Kirk: We've outgrown you. You asked for something we can no longer give.

Of course, only myself and Jonah Goldberg will make this connection.

Posted @ August 27, 2008 02:13 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Opening soon in Flint Michigan

Yesss.....

Posted @ August 18, 2008 02:10 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A moral equivalance test and a modern day Guernica

Georgia - A modern day Guernica.

It seems its the fashion of the day to try to tie some sort of moral equivalence to what Russia is doing in Georgia to what the United States and its allies did in Iraq.

This is, of course,a putrid pile of of leftist hogswallow and they know it. If you dont agree or if you feel that there might be something to that argument, then ask yourself or anyone else who will listen "where are the Human Shields? Where is Sean Penn? Where is Medea Benjamin? Where is Katrina VandenHeuvel?" Where are the protests of Russian Embassys world wide? Where are the throngs of peace loving protest crowds around the world?

Well, certainly not in Georgia where they can get hurt or possibly even killed in the process. The American Armed forces have their reputation, the Imperial Russian Army has its well earned reputation. Everyone knows its safe to stand in front of the American Army, everyone also knows the opposite is true when standing in front of the Russian Army.

But if the left is anything, its consistent. It's consistently wrong, consistently insane and consistently on the side of tyranny and this time its no different. Its always quick to condemn the so called "American War Machine", and all too quick to excuse the Imperial Russian Empire as it marches over the lives of free people in an effort to crush their homes, destroy their property and most importantly, terrorize their neighboring countries to do the bidding of the new Czar.

Ask yourself this - If Georgia falls to the Russians, what hope does Ajerbijan have? Uzbekistan? Tajikistan? Ukraine?, Estonia?, Latvia?, Lithuania?, Poland?, Romania?, Hungary?

And what or who is to stop them? Don't the current Imperial Russian arguments for military action in Georgia also work in those places as well? What makes you think that this will go "this far an no further". You can be sure that each of those countries know what language His Imperial Majesty "Czar Putin I" is speaking. Its Russian, spoken with a bohemian German accent. Its the sound made by a jackboot holding a man supine against the ground, by his throat, his words of protest caught under in the desire of an empire to increase its ambitions for what is not theirs. Europeans know the sound of this language all too well, for it has been spoken for years on their continent before the peace that was brought by the Americans.

Now, here in the new century, this language seems to be making a comeback. I cant help but notice that war in Europe has broken out, just as Americans were in the act of leaving it. There might be a connection in there to take note of, if there are any of us left to make the connection after this is all over. History says that despite our hopes, this conflict will get wider and uglier before it is all over. I hope that history is wrong, but I'm a skeptic in that area.

Its interesting to me to note how the safest place for a civilian seems to be either in front of or in the care of the American Armed Services while the most dangerous place in the world for a civilian is to simply live on the border with Russia. Theres a lesson in there somewhere about where the real moral high ground in the world exists.

Posted @ August 14, 2008 11:14 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Russian Constant

It seems to me, given the nature of the world at the moment, that you could still use this ad today. It kinda makes you sick to realize that, after everything that has been said and done since 1989, were right back to Imperial Russia.

Posted @ August 09, 2008 05:58 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

I dont think that word means what you think it means

I present, "The Obama Salute"

Which of course is supposed to represent the Emperors first initial,which Im sure fills his followers with all sorts of deep down good feelings. But to folks like me, it just says "That guy is a whole lotta nuthin"...

You see, it really does work and yet it works on so many levels.

From the Prof...

Posted @ August 07, 2008 08:07 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Question of the day: Gore my ox?

Q: How many mutual funds would be negatively impacted by a plan to tax "windfall profits"?

Extra credit - How many American retirees would be affected by this move?

Posted @ August 04, 2008 09:55 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Snickers: Get some nuts!

Back when the earth was young, dinosaurs roamed the Earth and all TV shows were made by either Irwin Allen, Quinn Martin or Sheldon Leonard, this would have been considered funny to one and all, but lo, in the age of the "sensitive man" this advertisement makes some people cry and because of that, it must not see the light of day.

Of course, when I say "sensitive", I'm referring to people who play soccer.

It's days like this that I weep for the species. and when I say "weep" I dont mean "cry' I mean I shake my head quietly, by myself, where it cant be seen. I dont want to get caught showing emotion in public because, well, that would be wrong, am I right? I mean there are just some things that a man doesnt do, right?

Posted @ July 30, 2008 12:13 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

How to fix the social security system

Eat up baby boomers, the only thing thats gonna save my generation is a healthy heapin' of suvivor benefits, so forget about your "healthy start" organic food options, forget about the gym you joined and start smoking and drinking again just like in the good old days.

Then fix youself up a daily plate of these:

Paula's Fried Butter Balls

2 sticks butter
2 ounces cream cheese
Salt and pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg, beaten
1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
Peanut oil, for frying

Cream the butter, cream cheese, salt and pepper together with an electric mixer until smooth. Using a very small ice cream scoop, or melon baller, form 1-inch balls of butter mixture and arrange them on a parchment or waxed paper lined sheet pan. Freeze until solid. Coat the frozen balls in flour, egg, and then bread crumbs and freeze again until solid.
When ready to fry, preheat oil in a deep-fryer to 350 degrees F.

Fry balls for 10 to 15 seconds until just light golden. Drain on paper towels before serving.

Wait a second - Peanut oil? PEANUT OIL! Oh come on Paula, isn't this exactly the right application for Coconut Oil? Peanut Oil? Sheesh. Everyone knows if youre going to fry butter fat that you want an oil thats 95% trigycerides. Get Chef Gordon Ramsay on the phone, he will make me a proper deep fried butter ball and show this lady a thing or two.

mmmm... deep-fried-butter... Its so simple! Its like Elvis' Fried Peanut Butter Sandwhich, just thinking about it takes 10 years off your life. I'm wondering why I never thought of the idea of "Deep Fried Butter" myself! Its like a "deep fried embolism"! The last thing you say is "Wow, that really is good! then you just expire right on the spot. You could put them on a stick, sell them at the State Fair. If you could get them with a side of salmonella, it would be like virtually everything else you get at the State Fair, except that unlike that corn dog that will make you sick for three days afterwards, the Fried Butter Balls will simply kill you on the spot. So, you take the kids to the fair and one of them says " Hey look, its that prop comedian Carrot Top is playing a double bill with Gallagher, can we go see them, please?" You can just say " Sure kids, just let me stop off at the Fried Butter Ball Stand first". They dont get any pangs of guilt for having driven you to thoughts of suicide and you dont have to sit through Carrot Top and Gallagher. Its a total "Win-Win" as they say...

Go on, laugh if you want to but you know you want to try them, dont you... Wait a second, Im having a flash! So, why not wrap them in bacon before you fry them? yeah buddy, Now were talkin'!

Posted @ July 29, 2008 02:13 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (42)

Can we do it? Yes we can

Looks nice doesnt it? Must be some sort of Modern office building somewhere in Hawaii right? Well this structure sits on an artificial island in the Harbor of Long Beach California, Its named for one of the Apollo Astronauts, Gus Grissom.

So what is it? Why its an oil rig! Its designed to be both pleasing to the eye, as well as lower the industrial sound levels through the creative use of waterfalls and sound suppression panels. There are 4 islands like this one in sitting right in Long Beach harbor. All are within eyesight of the scenic Pacific Coast highway, a number of schools and office buildings, not to mention the recreational beaches.

This is the face of modern oil drilling, even though this was created in 1964 prior to the ever-so-not-forgotten Santa Barbara blowout in 1968. There is also an oil refinery just up the coast in Carson California. In California, oil is available, it can be drilled, pumped, pipelined to the refinery and brought to the consumer in a way thats cheaper, neater, faster and I dare say "greener" than most anywhere on earth.

What the Sierra club and the rest of the "green-shirts" would prefer we do is pump oil from Nigeria, then ship it to Japan for refinement and then use it in California all for "the sake of the environment" as if Nigeria, Japan and the vast oceans inbetween simply dont count in the equations of "environment". If you take into consideration that the State of California is currently at a 28 BILLION dollar budget deficit, you might think that the first thing they would think about was raising money through the use of new oil leases. This is what the City of Long Beach does with the oil that it sits on. Long Beach generates a fair amount of its annual budget directly from oil revenues.

More details can be found here.

Can we drill for oil and live side by side with it? Yes we can, because I can show you that weve been doing that for a long time already. There are currently 1,500 active wells pumping in the cities of Long Beach, Artesia and the Huntington and Seal Beach areas, actively generating 40,000 barrels of oil per day. Think of it, Oil and lots of people living side by side in harmony. Can we do it? Yes we can...

Posted @ July 23, 2008 07:27 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

I cant be the only one who thinks that Obama looks like he's borrowed his big brothers suit

I saw the Obama press conference this morning, and all I could think of was the 80's classic movie "Stop Making Sense":

which if you think about it for a second is an apt metaphor for the whole Democrat Presidential campaign in more ways than one. So here it is, for your viewing enjoyment - The David Byrne "Big Suit"

Posted @ July 22, 2008 12:00 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The only thing that matters

A Pre-war "America First" campaign button. Yes, the way to avoid war is to make sure ships dont sail in convoys. You dont want to make the Uboats mad...

Both campaigns are now busily trying to out do each other on timelines for leaving Iraq. In my mind, this is not the question to ask or answer. Truth is, both candidates and the crrent President all want to leave Iraq. The question is not when to leave but how to leave.

If you leave Iraq in chaos and disarray, you guarantee we will have to come back. On the other hand if you leave Iraq in good shape, you best assure that we will not be coming back.

The question that needs to be asked and answered by each candidate is "What are you doing to ensure that American troops will not be needed in the region during your Presidency?"

Americans left Europe to the Europeans after World War I and found themselves 20 yaers later back in Europe in a wider more deadly war. The instincts of the politicians after the First World War was to leave and never look back. It was the next generation that was forced by circumstances that were created by that decision to go back into Europe. After the war, they knew it would be irresponsible to follow the same action because if we had to go back a third time that there wouldnt be much left to liberate. The words you hear over and over again by any World War II veteran about why they fought so hard is this:

"...So my kids wouldnt have to come over and go through this"

And to that I say - Amen.

After a long and deadly war, Americans collectively decided the best course of action to take to ensure that another generation would not have to die on the beaches of France, would be to stay and act as a force of stability on the continent. It was a long debate with the two arguments coming into the "Morgenthau plan" and the "Marshall plan", but in the end, Marshall won the debate. The result of wishful thinking after World War I was World War II and the deaths of 52 million people. The result of our long costly effort in Europe after World War II is a continent populated by a generation that has no experience in war, which given the long bloody history of that region is quite remarkable. While wars in other regions of the world are still very likely, war in Europe is not very likely at all. No American, and no European leader plan for a war with each other on any level at any time. It is simply unthinkable. I caution the reader that there are many of you out there who say that the middle east can never be peaceful. Rest assured, I am not one of those people. If the Germans can be shown to live peacefully and if the Japanese can turn away from war then any nation on earth can be shown a better way to live with the rest of us.

I watch this election closely because besides just being a good citizen, I have a very good personal reason. My son is 14, and the next President will, through his direct action or inaction as President, determine if my son will spend some part of his late teens not just in the military, but in an active, hard fought and costly war.

As a student of human history I know that wars are often started by well meaning, peace loving folks who intended to do just the opposite. Rest assured, that to me the intentions of the next President will make no difference at all if in 6 years time, my son is called into service to fight to liberate Iraq for a third time because of a desire to leave hastily and in chaos just to meet a campaign promise. Those of you who think we can ignore Iraq and the middle east in the future, need only look at your reaction to the reality of $140+ a barrel of oil. The one thing I have enjoyed about $5.00 a gallon gas is that it shows everyone everywhere that our economy and way of life runs on oil and not pixie dust or compressed hamster pellets.

Let us all agree that even if it takes another 10 years to work out the issues in Iraq and the middle east, that 10 years spent in the region is not the worst thing that could happen. Let's not to spend the hours bickering over whether there was a need to go there in the first place but rather, we should all agree that the best policy to follow in the future is the policy that insures that we never have to go back and fight and that with the right course of action, the middle east might someday be as quiet and peaceful as Europe. This is possible, but only if we do the right thing and not the thing that makes us "feel good".

We left Europe in haste in 1918, It felt good. We embargoed Japans oil in 1940, and it felt good too. We did both those things beliving it would result in peace but 52 million people around the world paid the true price for wishful thinking.

Posted @ July 21, 2008 09:11 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (33)

So Who's Vetting Maliki?

If there is one more translation or one more reinterpretation of Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki's statement about when US Troops should leave, he will quickly find himself at the top of the list for Obama's Vice President. Who else but 'The Master' himself can be so dexterous with public pronouncements of policy?

If he starts giving statements about "Roe Vs. Wade', tax fairness and Social Security, you'll know what's coming next.

Posted @ July 20, 2008 09:16 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Id like to help you with this but Im a little busy at the moment

Theres a reason I'm not blogging much at the moment. The reason is right in this picture:

I cant get a laptop to set level on the deck and everytime the boat moves, the laptop falls into the water. Whoopsie Daisy..! And you know what? Theres no Wifi out here! I'll have to get Slartibartfast to correct that error with Earth 2.0.

That's little old me in my kayak this week out on Fidalgo Bay, with Mt. Baker in the background. I'm the only person on earth who goes to Puget Sound and gets a suntan, but I have a good reason. Its been in the 80's all week, with nary a cloud in the sky the entire time. The locals of course think they are sizzling on the Devils Own Hibachi whereas I, a member of that deranged tribe of "Desert Dwellers" to the South think that this is exactly how it should always be. Of course if it was, it would be brown rather than green and not nearly as staggeringly beautiful as it is.

I'm not really here right now, meaning that I'm not sitting around the office with my laptop. I'm out and about, on the water and off with the occasional effort to gointo the city to wrap up some business which is the actual purpose to my visit up here, but blogging? Eh, no, not right now. I have a ton of things rattling around to blog about but I'm really not in a position to sit down and write at the moment, so bear with me here...

I'll be back soon, but for now think about a couple of things and we shall discuss when I return.

Ahem...

July 16, 1945 was the date of the First Nuclear Explosion in History.
There are a couple of things about this pivotal event that I want you to think about, for example:

A) What would have happened if the bomb didn't go off? Billions of dollars were spent on this project. Is it at all possible that General Leslie Groves and Dr. Robert Oppenheimer could have somehow gotten away with not delivering the 'finished goods' without a demonstration of what all the money was spent on? Witness what happened to Howard Hughes after the war with acusations of "War Profiteering" over his undelivered wartime projects. Witness the fact that then Senator Truman was already near to uncovering the Manhattan Project because of the tremendous cost that was being expended on the project. Could they simply have walked away from it all?

B) Since the Trinity test was to confirm the design of the Plutonium bomb, would the US have gone ahead with the U-235 Bomb and dropped it on Japan if Trinity didnt work? Remember, the U-235 had serious limitations which is why the Plutonium Bomb was necessary.

C) Here's one thats always bothered me. Given the large amount of Soviet espionage that was underway in the Manhattan Project and at work at high levels of the US Government at the time, why didnt the Soviets try to sabotage the bomb? Let's say they did, the US then walks away from the design, convinced that the bomb can never deliver more than a fizzle. Then in 1949, the Soviets demonstrate that the bomb actually does work. During the year it would take to catch up, would the Soviets have used the same restraint against the US and the West as we did towards the Soviet Bloc?

D) What if the bomb simply didn't work? What if the design was flawed and the flaw itself was to go unresolved? Would the bomb eventually have been created by someone else later? How could any follow on team ever received the amount of funding necessary to make that project happen with the political mindset of "It failed with brighter minds than your working on the problem, so who do you think you are that you can solve it?" to fight against. If the smartest minds in the world say it cant be done, do you still try? If so, why? A world where there is no bomb sounds like a dream but I'm not so sure it works out that way and I find that rather interesting idea to consider.

Here's the big question. If there was no bomb, was another World War and this time with the Soviets, an actual certainty? In 1949 over Berlin or in Korea? Did the existence of the bomb and the demonstrable use of it on the Japanese change human civilizations view of the limits of warfare? How many times since 1945 did the bomb actually serve as a firebreak against the horrors of "World War"?

Oh, and another thing. We know about the Manhattan Project because it worked but have you ever thought about the possibility that there were other major projects that didnt work that we never found out about because, well, they did fail. Sometimes things fail because they are silly ideas that dont work and could never work and sometimes things fail because of poor timing. As we all know "Success has a thousand fathers but failure is always an orphan". If there was another "near-hit' project out there like the Manhattan project, how would we know?

Ok, now back to the water. Now where did I put my drybag...

Posted @ July 16, 2008 08:45 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Gack!

Whats it like in the central valley these days? Its 112 degrees, zero wind, and there are three thousand fires all over the state. The smoke literally blocks out the sun. If you want to simulate the experience, turn yur furnace on, close all the windows and start a campfire on the front room floor. Oh, and make the campfire out of Mule dung and you will get the correct amount of throat chocking acridness in the air for the full effect.

I also have two items that are in the process of making matters even worse.

1. The city I live in has decided to take this particular time to resurface the street I live on. Now I have the extra special wafting scent of tar and asphalt to go with the rest of the total "8th circle of dantes inferno" experience.

But wait, the fun doesnt end there...

2. We spent some time this year to put in a garden. Gardens mean plants and plants mean fertilizer and fertilizer means that Flies will make an appearance. We had more than our fair share, so I natually decided to "do something". I bought a rather clever flytrap that is essentially a plastic bag that you fill with water which contains some chemical that acts as a "fly attractant". Given what flies are attacted to, you can imagine what it might smell like and it does. The plastic entrance traps the fly in much the same way that crab traps trap crabs. Once they get in, they cant figure out how to get out and there they stay.

The trap worked really well. Inside of a few days it was filled to the brim with the loathesome creatures so quite naturally, I decided to throw it out into the trash can.

This was, to say the least, a serious mistake. You see the "fly attractant" smells like something along the lines of rotting flesh, spoiled kimchee, week three of a New York Sanitation strike and the worst gag inducing B.O. ever, beyond anything your travels on third world public transport could have uncovered.

You see, when I tossed this bag into the 55 gallon black industrial trash can, it actually amplified the smell. Now the fly attactant rather than just getting flies excited in 6 foot circle around the trap can be smelled from 3 blocks away. The smell is itself a living entity. Its big enough to have its own zipcode. You can actually see the smell. You can see it the same way you can see a dog fart as it moves across the room like a mirage riding above the highway, a small distortion in your view and then blam, you are overcome like you were hit with a wave. In this case the wave is rotting cabbage and vomit.

So whats it like in my slice of California right now?

It's 112 Degrees, theres no sunlight, theres no air movement, the air is filled with acrid smoke and just to tip it off, the lingering smell of dead bodies wrapped in cabbage and dipped in sewage, sitting under a sunlamp for a week. Oh and just to kick me directly in the crotch, Barbara Boxer and Nancy Pelosi are representing my state, which given the state of things right now seems to make a perverse sort of sense.

Yessiree dear reader, I now live in hell...

Posted @ July 10, 2008 12:52 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (8)

How the Irish saved civilization in 1969

Oh, Wheres your cartop mounted loudspeaker when you really need it. eh?

Thats Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem with their 1969 Irish hit "Bringin' Home the Oil", give me a big hand...

Posted @ July 06, 2008 09:28 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Wesley Clark on why Wesley Clark wont be Vice President

Oh yes, hes the one to even out the Obama ticket yessiree...

Posted @ July 03, 2008 07:57 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (3)

No ice on the North Pole?

UK Independent Exclusive report: No Ice at North Pole.

snip.
"...It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year..."
end snip...

Really?

ummm,eerrr,uhh....well,ummm,thats certainly INCONVEINENT!
Varifrank Exclusive: I Live On A Planet Filled To The Brim With Submorons Who Believe Anything, Literally Anything, That The Press Tells Them So Long As It Fits The Anti-Human Agenda That Has No More Science In It Than Scientology Does.

The photo comes from a damn nice solid science filled explanation of "Why Ice is routinely missing at the North Pole". Heres a hint, that "Santa living at the North Pole with his elves and Mrs. Santa thing?, Its a lie your parents told you... Damn them! Damn them all!

I only remembered this site because I had a former friend who was absolutely livid with my position on global warming in 2000, who sent me another "Ice missing from North Pole for first time ever" piece back in 2000 to PROVE to me that I was a fool.

Its now 2008, I havent heard from him since. I still stand by me previous position. Global Warming happens all the time not just because your neighbor has a bigger car than you, and you Jeff (not that Jeff, but the other Jeff, you know who you are...) are an ass.

Posted @ June 26, 2008 07:18 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (3)

And this time last year, Hillary was a sure thing

Liveblogging from Boston Logan Airport...

John Stewart reminds his audience that its "OK" to laugh at Barack Obama. I keep asking folks who support Barack Obama " Are you really going to elect someone to be President that you are afraid to criticize? If you cant blame the President for your ills, who will you blame? You know the President is the big cultural voodoo doll that we all stick pins in so we can feel better about ourselves. Its one of the roles that he does for us. So, what will we do when criticism of the President is interpreted to mean something, ahem, else? Will the press quickly adapt to the meme that any oppostion to President Obama is a reactionary knee jerk racist act? Will we see headlines daily that say "You dont have to be a racist to be against Barack Obama, But it helps!"

So, what happens when an entire population finds itself with a voodo doll that cant be stuck with pins, and worse, the voodoo doll sticks pins in you instead? Personally, I want a President who can take a punch without getting all upset and bothered about it. I want to be able to call the President "Hitler" if the mood strikes me and I dont want to find the FBI in front of my house the next day because I did. I dont want a weathervane for a President, I want a "check valve" on the legislature.

I dont have to agree with the President all the time to be happy. I just have to know that the person that is President is there to fulfill a duty to the country and not that hes not there to enhance his resume for bigger and better book deals later on in his life.

I think the Republic can withstand an Obama Presidency because I think that fundamentally, the Republic can withstand anything but apathy. I dont see any apathy right now, do you?

We are the "check valve" on the President and the President gets two years at a time to keep things in order his way, then we re-elect the entire House of Representatives and 1/3 of the Senate which can either work for him if we like what hes doing or against him if we dont. People gave Bush limited power until after the Katrina debacle , and then we took it back from him. All told, in the two years of the congressional session, there are only about 9 months of active legislative sessions that are going to take place. The likelyhood of the President making sweeping changes in that time is actually very small, which I'm all excited and happy about, but its probably going to be a problem for those who are expecting something else.

For the record, I still dont think hes going to be elected...

Addressing the "But Frank, everyone just loooooves Obama" meme that has everyone in a tizzy, I like to take people through this scenario. Where I live is a local Donut shop, its been in business for about 15 years. Its run by an older vietnamese couple. I dont think it makes a ton of money, its not a local fave or anything but its there and every week, week after week, doing what they do which is, making donuts.

About three years ago, Krispy Kreme came to town. It was a total sensation, our local store had people waiting in line 24 hours a day for weeks on end. It was completely amazing, Krispy Kreme was redefining the market and the popularity was beyond anything rational. It was a sensation. I thought at the time that the local donut shops were history, because even I just looooooved Krispy Kreme.

So what happened to the mom and pop Donut shop? Well, its still there, doing what it does and apparently making money because after all this time, it would be a very expensive hobby if it didnt. So where is the big time sensation, Krispy Kreme now? Well in our market, its gone. Totally gone. Three years ago, you couldnt go two feet without running into a Krispy Kreme product in stores, gas stations and at every function that you attended. Today, pffft...

How do you go from a "big time sensation", a great product and a fantastic brand to closing 145 stores and disappearing altogether? Easy, you just have to execute your business plan like a bunch of amatures and get way out beyond your own abilities. It happens all the time.

Remember Boston Market? AOL? The American airline industry? Remember that fads dont last but well exectued business plans do.

And please remember, its OK to laugh at Barack Obama.

( And no, I did not compare John McCain or Obama to a Donut...)

Posted @ June 25, 2008 07:13 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

George Carlin

George Carlin taught me that you could be funny and smart at the same time. It is accepted today that comedians can be smart and funny but back in the day, Comedians were of the Rowan and Martin, Lewis and Martin joke telling types. Before George Carlin, comedic insight rarely went beyond "when my wife sits around the house..." patois. I discovered him during the summer of 1976, in Dennis Lucas' garage and I've always been grateful to George Carlin for teaching me that little fact about comedy. Smart can be funny, infact if smart actually is done right, its almost always funny too.

I memorized, actually I devoured his comedy albums in the 1970's, and began to mimic his style and pacing of speech so much that I became obnoxious about it. "Hot water heater? Hot water doesnt need heating..." Im sure it was funny to everyone the first time they heard it, but after I said it daily for nearly a month, it lost its flavor.

My favorite Carlin quote: " I joined the Air Force to avoid military service".

My favorite Carlin memory - Back in my consulting days in the 1980's, after a wild night out in Manhattan, I fell asleep with the television still turned on. I woke up up in the middle of the night and "That Girl" was on, but Marlo Thomas was talking to some guy in a suit and tie with short hair. The only problem with that is the guy in the proper business suit and hair cut had George Carlins voice. My alcohol enhanced brain could not accept what my eyes were clearly seeing, George Carlin - in a suit and tie as straight as can be. I was convinced that I had passed into some alternate universe...

George Carlin has long been on my list of "People I would have loved to have spent 14 hours sitting next to on a flight to New Zealand".

Posted @ June 23, 2008 04:29 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

"Moveon.org" or "America First" - you decide

(in reference to this nytimes article)

ON THE SCREEN A young, mother speaks directly to the camera as she stands next to the family farm house, holding on her arms a baby boy.

THE SCRIPT The woman says, “Hi, Mr. Truman; this is Alex. He’s my first. So far, his talents include trying any new food and chasing after our dog — that, and making my heart pound every time I look at him. So, President Truman, when you said you would stay for 100 years to contain the Soviet Union, save the world from the threat of communism and stabilize the war torn continent of Europe, were you counting on Alex? Because, if you were, you can’t have him.”

Remember folks, The war in Iraq ended the sanctions that killed (according to the far left marxist front organization 'ANSWER') over 300,000 Iraqis in the 10 years that they were in place.

A generation ago, they had a name for the selfish, mindless, boobs of the isolationist mindset. Today we call those people "Buchanan-ites" but in every way that can be measured, there isnt an dimes worth of difference between Moveon.org and that same spoiled "me first" mentality.

And now on the Dumont Television Network, this word from Radio Free Europe...

And the General Clay referenced by Ronald Reagan? Thats General Lucius Clay, the father of the Berlin Airlift.

Posted @ June 19, 2008 11:23 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

What they dont show you tells you everything you need to know.

"With shovel in hand, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama visited a flood zone in Quincy, Illinois on Saturday. Obama helped locals fill sandbags to place on the banks of the Mississippi river.
Obama has vowed to push for state and federal aid to help victims of the floods."

Kinda brings a tear to your eye, doesnt it? Presidential hopeful Barack Obama, taking time away from his busy schedule to fill sandbags. Message: He cares, he really really cares...

Ok, Let's try looking it this way. We will just adjust the camera angle ever so slightly and look at what is revealed:

"...With shovel in hand, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama visited a flood zone in Quincy, Illinois on Saturday. Obama helped locals fill sandbags to place on the banks of the Mississippi river. Obama has vowed to push for state and federal aid to help victims of the floods."

Gee, that camera angle doesnt quite tell the same story as the text, now does it? If they want to use that picture, it would have to go with text like this:

...Like all posturing politicians who have always proven all too ready to exploit a scene of natural disaster and personal tragedy for the benefit of their politics, Senator Obama with over 100 members of the media his secret service staff as well as his own campaign staff, and visited a flood zone in Quincy, Illinois on Saturday. Senator Obama distracted the effort by pretending to help locals fill sandbags to place on the banks of the Mississippi river while the massive press and politcal staff stood by passing out campaign buttons and bumper stickers to those who had recently lost all of their belongings in the flood. Senator Obama has vowed to push for state and federal aid to help victims of the floods, which is almost entirely guaranteed and unopposed by all elements of both the state and federal government. Locals who were on the scene during the "campaign circus" were heard to ask the candidate if he would allow the Army Corps of Engineer to dredge the river or repair the levees, so that this sort of disaster wouldnt happen in the future. In response, the candidate and his staff was heard to laugh to themselves as he retreated into their SUV convoy and drove to the next fundraiser.

It should be noted that while Senator Obama has raised over 100 million dollars in campaign funding in the last few months and breaking all records for fundrasing in the process, he has yet to offer to donate any of these "windfall" funds to the towns in his home state who have been effected by this disaster.

Hero or Opportunist? It all depends on how you look at it I guess.

(Hat tip to The Great Hugh Hewitt)

Posted @ June 15, 2008 02:51 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Canada to US: I Drink your milkshake!

From CBC:

"Energy giant BP came out the big winner in the federal government's latest auction for oil and gas exploration leases in the Beaufort Sea, offering to spend nearly $1.2 billion to explore on the Arctic seabed"

You know things are bad when even a socialist government like Canada understands the need to drill for domestic oil, but Washington can't quite find the deep down gumption to go and do the same.

Oh by the way, wheres the Beaufort Sea? its just 100 miles to the east from the Alaska National Wildlife Preserve. You know ANWR, that extra special precious place we cant possibly begin to drill in because of some damn reason or another. Yes, our nothern neighbors are "drinking our milkshake"! At this rate by the time we start drilling in ANWR, there wont be any oil left in that area.

Posted @ June 12, 2008 02:55 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Heres a riddle - What does a Cuban have to do to get human rights?

Answer: Why its easy as 1-2-3!

1) Escape from Havana.
2) Join the Jihad in Afghanistan.
3) Surrender to the first American Military Patrol that appears and boom - you get shipped back home but to Guantanamo, where on American side of the wire you have more rights as a prisoner than you do as a citizen of Cuba on the other side of the wire.

Hey, Ive got an idea, why not skip the whole Jihad thing and just jump over the wire in Guantanmo? Well I would...

( My question to the human rights crowd is "After this decision, why would any American in combat ever take prisoners? Why would any Military Command take that sort of risk?, because you know it is risky to take the time and effort to capture people instead of simply killing them outright. You know, things happen out there in the field. Whos to say that the Jihadi was "surrendering"? So will the next "scandal" be on the steadily decreasing number of detainees captured in the field? Hell it probably aleady is. And my question to the rest of you is, If your military is no longer able to kill anyone, capture anyone or break anything in the process, then what is it? )

Posted @ June 12, 2008 10:42 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The age of the Remote Worker has arrived

An Atari 800 Acoustic Coupler, circa 1984. I tried explaining what a modem was to my 14 year old son the other day, I wasnt entirely successful. The concept of an Acoustic Coupler was completely foreign to him as it is to most people of the current generation. He is 14 and has lived his entire life in the age of the "always on" internet. For roughly half of his life, his father has not commuted to work from the suburbs to the urban office but has worked from an office in the home.

A couple of years ago when I wrote a post about what its like to telecommute, I got some odd responses because to many people it seemed to be a bit too far out on the bleeding edge. Now that gas is on its way to 5 if not 6 dollars a gallon, it doesnt seem so odd or bleeding edge. Since the end of the year, I have had a large number of people tell me that they have now switched to "remote working" on at least a part time basis and many are on full time "remote work"

Heres the link to that post.

As I have said, I have telecommuted (I prefer the term "remote work") full time for the past 8 years. This is partly because my boss is a genius and knows how to keep his people happy, but its also a direct result of the forces at work in the world today. You see, once the IT industry (the industry that I work in) decided it had to work with people in India, then it became a daily if not hourly experience to work with people on other parts of the globe as part of your daily efforts. In 1998, it was unusual for me to work closely with people all over the globe. To be sure there were contacts with people overseas back then, but you didnt work in the same level back then that you do today. Today I work with people all around the globe every day, in fact the person closest to me that I work with is 800 miles away. My direct managers are three time zones from me and my nearest peer is 8 timezones away.

In 10 years, things have changed and they have changed dramatically. In 1998, this "remote work" concept was highly unusual, today I am in no way unusual. In 1998, I flew daily to Los Angeles and home at the end of the day. All I did was sit in meetings. Today, no client would suggest or support such an agregious waste of time and money. In 1998 I had a low speed DSL line. Today, A 20mb Fiber-To-The-Home connection. ( for nostalgial purposes, I still have a 1200baud US Robotics desktop modem. It came with my 1984 vintage Macintosh which I also still have. The 128k first generation Mac which I bought for 2400 dollars in Febuary 1984, still works. Yes, I once paid 2400 dollars for a computer that could only run 5 pieces of software. Today my cellphone has more software, more memory and storage and it only cost 200 dollars three years ago. )

Because of the global nature of our marketplace, because of the internet, because of the incredible rise in commodity prices, the working world is being transformed. The single most importatnt difference between todays Oil Surge and the 1970s is that today a great deal of work can be performed without leaving the home. In the 1970's you had to go to work because thats where the phone was, thats where the data was, thats where everyone you worked with was going to be. Today, thats simply no longer true.

One of the things that will fall out of that is the rise of the "Remote Worker". The "Remote Worker" will replace the factory mentality that our fathers and grandfathers were forced due to their circumstaces to live with. The central factory that came with industrialization transformed cities, changed our culture and modified the daily habits of the human race.

But because of my experience over the past eight years,and watching how it has transformed my life, I have no doubt that the "Remote Work" revolution will be as transforming to our society and culture as what occured in the early industrial age to the world of the past.

My advice to those of you who havent already, take advantage of the price of gas to transform your work. You will find that your biggest impediment to becoming a "remote worker" isnt technology, but a long series of ingrown organizational inefficiencies( sometimes called "middle managers") and cultural expectations. Trust me on this one, you can use this time to make a major positive transformation to your life by becoming a "Remote Worker".

Posted @ June 07, 2008 11:33 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

You are here

View Larger Map

After todays trip, I can confirm that Wentworth Springs Road is one of the finest motocycle roads in the Western Hemisphere...

Posted @ June 06, 2008 05:29 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

missing the obvious solution

Telegraph UK:Water crisis to be biggest world risk

It's too bad we cant just melt all the icebergs and ice caps to free all that freshwater so people can use it. Perhaps if there was some way to heat the earth on a global scale. Perhaps if we could just warm the atmosphere a couple of degrees it would result in much more water in the aquifers of the cities instead of wasted up in the mountans as glaciers.

Oh, I suppose its just too much of a stretch to think that mankind is powerful enough to change the climate, even if its beneficial for millions of people.

( ...and on a side note, arent we reaching a point in our popular discourse where we are at maximum "greatest threat to mankind" saturation? When everything thats fit to print is the "greatest threat to mankind", doesnt that really mean that nothing is actually the "greatest threat to mankind", since the evidence provided by our lengthening life span and growing population show that desipte throwing everything from bird flu, black plague the Pontiac Aztec and Hanna Montana knock-offs at us, the biosphere is apparently pretty much powerless to stop us? And arent all these complaints about "water supply" just attempts by men to ban the practice of suburban lawns, which they are forced to spend valuable free time maintaining for no good purpose? The average suburban man can say "Honey I dont want to grow a lawn" and the wife will show them the stinkface, but if he says "oh my God!, the earth is running out of water, we need to put in a rock garden to be truly green and ecologically correct!" and she will smile at you in return. Who cares what the excuse is, if it gets you out of 3 hours of mindless labor on Saturday afternoon, why not? Its a scam I tell ya, a scam...)

Posted @ June 05, 2008 08:34 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Online Right

Why does the Right side of the blogoshere have less traffic, a smaller audience, than the Left side of the blogosphere?

Good question. My answer? Because we on the right have jobs, families, responsibilities and duties while the left has trusts funds and a cozy apartment in the basement of mom and dads house. The former leaves far less free time than the latter, but I wouldnt trade it for any amount of network traffic.

Posted @ June 04, 2008 02:14 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

George Lucas Wants you to know...

The man who has the imagination to bring you Ewoks, Admiral Akbar, Jar-Jar Binks, Darth Vader dating a girl twice his age (and she was only 16!), Captain EO and the misunderstood classic mid 80's comedy film "Howard the Duck", wants you to know that Barack Obama has "the force".

Oh good, now Barack Obama has to deal with the deadly curse of Star Wars fanboys. That should slow him down...

Posted @ June 04, 2008 07:27 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

10 second movie review: Cloverfield

Cloverfield: Rating - Skip. Rent the original Godzilla instead. Raymond Burr sitting on a block of ice with prestone running through his veins could emote more energy than any of the characters on the screen in this movie, including the "monster".

Phil Spector once described the record album as "2 hits and 8 peices of crap". Modern movies are much the same idea in that the moments captured on the trailer almost always make up all of the better scenes of the movie. 9 times out of 10, once you've seen the trailer, youve seen all thats worth seeing in the movie. Trailers thankfully end in 90 seconds where you are forced to sit for 90 minutes through the movie.

Exhibit A for this case is made by the movie "Cloverfield". If you've seen the trailer, thats it. Seriously, thats all there is. Cloverfield is yet another movie where youth culture makes its shiny faced debut and you just weep for the species. You know the plot to this movie before you sit down to watch it - a big spooky monster comes to New York, makes a hash of the place. You know it because its been done before, lots and lots of times before. The fact is, I cant think of a time when it was done worse than this movie, and that includes the laughible "Q". What you dont know is this is yet another modern movie where the the overdone technique of "hand held video" is used in the same way for film in the same way that garlic is overused in bad restaurants.

The film starts at a going away part for a young man going away to become his company Vice President in Japan. One look at the guy and you say to yourself, "Vice President! Wow, just imagine how far he will go when he finds a comb!"

The camera wanders around for 20 minutes as you "get to know" the people at the party. At this point I began to say to myself " Hey wouldnt it be great if a big slimy monster fell from the sky and ate all these people? Now I would pay to see that!"

And guess what, thats exactly what happened. So, in that respect, the movie works on a very satisfactory level. Unfortunately in the process of removing the main characters from the movie(which you feel surprisingly good about), the monster messes up some very nice places in New York, so you feel bad about that and you really feel bad that its the real estate getting smashed that gets your emotions going and not Johnny "brothers-brown-suit-who-was-just-made-vice-president-and-shipped-to-japan-for-the-mattel-company-who-youre-supposed-to-care-about-but-dont".

This is yet another modern movie where CGI is used to replace script, plot, direction, acting, lighting and story structure. Cloverfield is to film what the Dixie cup is to Wedgewood pottery. My rule is that if you take the CGI out of the movie, could you still make the movie? If the answer is no, then dont make the movie because no matter how good you think the CGI is for whatever scene you think you need it in, its not as good as your imagination would be in the same place. A good director knows when you put your imagination to work. A bad director just makes a tentacled creature appear on screen. Cheap and easy to use special effects has ruined filmmaking. When directors had no special effects they were forced to write better stories, use better actors, spend more time on scene composition. Now they just put any old damn thing on screen and clean it up later and by "Clean it up later", I mean insert a big improbable multi-tentacled slime creature.

You know, like that video game we used to play. Yeah, that would be cool...

Because thats what film today has become. It used to be moving literature but now its the recorded replay of some video game that is on its way to become a rollercoaster somewhere. Yeah, that would be cool...Clovefield! The rollercoaster!

I've had a real dry spell with movies lately, I mildly liked "The Coward Robert Ford" and I really hated and was geniunely disappointed in "No Country For Old Men" so I may need to go watch Ikiru as a "palette cleanser".

If todays directors spent half as much time on plot and script as they do making sure the movie music playlist in Itunes is programmed for the latest hip tunes and the product placement is optimum, we would have some good stuff out there.

What we have instead isnt movies but really,really long trailers.

Posted @ June 03, 2008 09:17 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

Ode To Hillary - From Jim Morrison

Face it, it just works on so many levels! The jungles of florida. A line of Napalm thrown down to little effect. The newscopters circling overhead. A losing battle against an entrenched enemy who is being openly supported by the press. A situation where you win every battle but lose the war.

Sounds familiar doesnt it?

If you replace the word "Saigon" in the closing speech from Martin Sheen with "New York", it hits all the right notes.

At last, at long last, the Democratic party brings an end to the karma starved campaign of Hillary Clinton and "House Clinton" is forver more reduced to mere asterisk status. In the end, they were undone not by the "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy", but by the comrades on the left who in their need for purity, found her to be not quite pure enough.

Replacing the politically unstoppable juggernaut of "House Clinton" we now see that "House Obama" will take the stage as champion for the Democrats. "House Obama", who is weaker, with less foundation support, with no experience whatsoever in the party is as blissfully unaware of the battlefield ahead as a young waif-like member of the Childrens Crusade was of how to prosecute warfare in palestine against the Moors.

Obamas campaign is based on the idea that he's going to bring everyone together, that the existence of his campaign alone is enough to heal the wound in the American collective psyche.

To demonstrate to us all his certified abilities as a peacemaker, he and his campaign has torn his party in two. Where once was a party in unity has now been replaced by chaos, disorder, anger and contempt.

Barack Obama. A Master Strategist who single handedly accomplishing what Karl Rove only dreamed of doing, defeated the Clintons and the Democratic Party in one fell swoop.

Genius! If he cant get his own party behind him, how can he get the country behind him( or dare I say, the world)? Is that his goal? or does he simply believe that there are more of "them" than there are of "us" and as such we are not a factor because the press tells us every day in every way how much they all love Barack Obama so it must be true, right?

I think that what towers above all the other factors that caused Hillary to lose was the effect of the "karma factor". Hillary spent the eight years of her husbands Presidency kicking the shins of those in her party who would not follow her whim and direction. Tom Wolfe described this sort of thing as the "favor bank" of life. Your actions with others result in either a deposit or a withdrawl from the "favor bank". Hillary started this campaign NSF at the "favor bank" and as a result "Payback" was sure to come one day for that sort of thing. When she announced her campaign, debts from the favor bank would be called in and Hillary would be found wanting. This is why you saw so many people in the high echelon of the Democrat party literally walk away from Hillary. Worse than simply remain silent, they were vocal in their preference of Barack Obama over Hillary. That doesnt just happen, you have to make that happen and Hillary made that happen every day of her husbands administration between 1992 and the year 2000. Everytime she threatened a congressman in 1992 over Hillary-care, it probably cost her 10,000 votes in 2008.

What is it that they say about "Payback"? Its true enough and it need not be said out loud because you are all thinking it anyway so we can just skip that part. Another way to think of it is to simply be careful how you treat people on the way up, because you get to meet them again on the way down.

This is going to be a great election and it will be one made up of great contrasts. McCain is on one side, Obama on the other. The socialist left experiment and its coastal cultural base on one side of the argument, McCain and the "Great American Middle" shop at wal-mart and drive pickup trucks on the other.

I stand by my previous prediction of a 49 state sweep by McCain.

(This is the end...Of our elaborate plans, the end...)

Posted @ June 02, 2008 12:02 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Vacation Blogging

Yes, the news is full of nothing bad news for the economy but I've never been busier in almost 30 years in the IT business, this is probably the busiest time Ive ever had in this business. Busier even more than the grand old Y2K days or the good ol' dot.com days.

You can read more about whats going on in the world of Information Technology today, here.

Yes, its really happening and its happening right now. Its why I havent been blogging as much as I used to. 20 hour days - 6 days a week. So, im exhausted which means its time for vacation.

In what is to me a most unusual move, I'm going to take time off in the summer, european style. For the next 5 weeks, Im off. Outtahere. Gone daddy gone. Dis-connected.

Well sort of. I've been an advocate and user of GPS tracking software for a long time, so I'm going to try to link my travels over the next 5 weeks to the blog along with some digital photography that I take along the way. Thats all I'm going to do for the next 5 weeks in the technical realm.

And the picture above? Its all I think of when I hear the word "Waterboarding".

See ya 'round kids...

Posted @ May 30, 2008 10:13 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Not Plausable

Bonnie and Clyde: Fightin' against "the man" in 1930's America.

Sure, you could say that former terrorist Bill Ayres is now an "English Professor" and has reformed himself from his wild antics in the 1960's. You could also say it in the same way that other people would describe the older european gentleman who lived down the street from you, who was later picked up and deported by the authorities because he turned out to be an SS guard at a concentration camp.

"Nice man, kept to himself mostly, never much trouble, always said hello in the morning, never mentioned the war..."

You could even make the case that you really didn't know about the seditious background of the man that you now dismiss as an "english professor", who was in fact actually plotting and carring out plans to kill Americans back when you were just a "spinach chinned" babe waiting for the next episode of "winky-dink and you".

But if in 1988, you had a summer job with a prestigious law firm and the woman sitting in the corner office was the wife of the the same man, and she herself was an avowed terrorist of noteworthy status herself, don't you think you might remember that? Are you really going to tell me that no one in that entire law firm didnt blurt that out after work while sitting around and drinking down the 6th beer of the evening, down at the corner tavern?

Especially if thats the time and place where you met your future wife?

If I was a hitchiker in Texas during the 1930's and Bonnie and Clyde picked me up on the side of the road and in the process of our adventure I managed to meet my future wife, I think I'd remember Clyde and his profession if someone mentioned his name to me later on.

Somewhere at this law firm there are time cards, memos and various notes from 1988. Imagine how much you could get on Ebay for an interoffice memo or any of the sort of daily office ephemera that is surely kept in the "vault" that has all three of their names on it at the same time.

What I find most implausible is that today, in that entire law firm, there isn't a single employee, staff or associate who as a Clinton supporter isn't willing to do just a little digging in the backroom storage lockers...

Posted @ April 25, 2008 11:05 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

John McCain - Older than...

John McCain is older than FM radio? Oh say it isnt so! Kids, Hes older than Social Security Checks too, shouldn't we get rid of that idea since its clearly past its shelf date?

He's older than the National Endowment for the Arts, so lets ditch that as well. He's older than the State of Alaska, so lets get rid of that so we can start drilling for oil right away. He's older than Pell Grants, Student Loans and Gender Studies. Off they go....

Oh, I could go on like this all day.

John McCain - Saving the world from Punk Hippies since Barack Obama was eight years old.

John McCain - He doesnt hang out with communists, he just kills them.

Oh yes, this is going to be a fun election.

Posted @ April 18, 2008 11:51 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Murtha to address AARP

Snip:

"Democratic Rep. John Murtha says Republican Sen. John McCain is too old to be president. Murtha told a union audience Wednesday that the presidency is "no old man's job." The Pennsylvania congressman is supporting Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton."

End Snip.

Oh, this should help Hillary in Pennsylvania, because what she really needs now is a good old "age bias" slur to put her over the top.

Funny how he didnt say that Obama is too young to be President, eh?

Dear John Murtha,

We welcome your visit to AARP headquarters, so you can explain to our membership in exacting terms why you think that "old people" should vote for your candidate, in light of the slur you just foisted on the American People.

Posted @ April 16, 2008 07:25 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (15)

20 Reasons Why Im Bitter

1. I live in a generation of Americans who don’t know what the words “variable” or “Adjustable Rate Loan” mean.

2. Pets.com really wasn’t worth 60 dollars a share.

3. There just aren’t enough Erectile Dysfunction commercials on television.

4. Bruce Springsteen has made millions singing about being poor.

5. There are still large sections of America that are without the services of an In-and-Out Burger.

6. The death penalty still does not apply to bad drivers.

7. I own an SUV and want the gas mileage of a small Honda Civic. I can have one but not the other. This is simply unfair.

8. My neighborhood wont allow me to park my Personal Water Craft, RV and speedboat in the driveway, which requires that I spend extra money on a storage space.

9. When I fly on airlines, some people have more leg space than I do and get better food.

10. There are large numbers of people who think that Dane Cook is funny.

11. My 47 inch plasma HDTV is heavy and hard to lift.

12. I have 500 channels of television to watch, and there’s not one thing on any of them worth watching.

13. Not one of my three Tivos will record in HDTV.

14. Seafood is only good when its fresh, and I live two hours from the beach.

15. In fine restaurants, polite smokers are always segregated from the general public, yet noisy, smelly, misbehaving children are always welcome and are given the best seats.

16. Soylent Green is people.

17. I now own 'Blade Runner' in 5 different DVD formats.

18. Other peoples ringtones, suck.

19. My gardening service only works one day a week.

20. If I was an irresponsible ass who became a drug user and fathered half a dozen kids out of wedlock, went bankrupt walked away from my mortgage and didn’t pay my bills, the government would provide any number of programs to help rehabilitate me, but if I live a straight life, pay my bills, live within my means and take care of my family, the government can only say that I don’t pay enough taxes and that its only fair that I step in to help people who live in the other category.

Posted @ April 14, 2008 04:09 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Obama: Nothing has changed

The Hypnotoad endorses Senator Obama!
All Praise to the Hypnotoad!

Look folks, I know you’re all excited because it looks to you like Senator Obama has revealed his true self to the world, but let me warn you that nothing new has happened here because of this new statement.

Why?

1. Because if what he said is offensive to you – but you weren’t going to vote for him anyway. If it wasn’t offensive to you, you were already voting for him.

2. Because if to you, this was a wrongheaded and stupid thing to say you weren’t going to vote for him anyway. But to a large number of people in his party, this is precisely what they believe and of course they would vote for him even after he said it . Reverend Wrights ideas are anathema to you, but to Democrats, he speaks the truth and they can’t honestly figure out what all the hubbub was about.

3. Because despite the rather large opportunity to make headway against Senator Obama, Senator Clinton will fail to be able take advantage of it. If she tries too hard to drive this home, it will backfire and by the end of next week, her party will blame her for the situation. Political campaigns are the first show of an executive management style. What Senator Clinton has shown is that she has no ability to execute any sort of plan. This is not a new revelation; we saw this lack of skill displayed in 1993. She is completely unable to deal with competition of any sort; again, this is not new.

4. In the next 48 hours, someone will remind the voters that James Carville once said “Pennsylvania is two big cities with Alabama in between” which will be twisted into something that was not said, but implied. In 7 days, Clinton will be on the defensive for what Obama said rather than the other way around. We saw this phenomenon on display after the Reverend Wright non-apology apology.

5. Obamas numbers will go up, and Clintons down. She is the anti-particle to Bill Clinton. Where he could charm even his enemies, she can only annoy; even her friends and allies.

Senator Obama is past the point where he can be criticized for anything he says. He has become the “hypnotoad” where everything he says is correct, simply because he says it.
Senator Obama could offer to sell Louisiana back to the French, and a large part of the Democrat party would praise his unique foreign policy stance and the consequences to the country be damned.

People in the Democrat party say that they want change, but as I like to remind them, change doesn’t necessarily mean good and it doesn’t always mean ‘sunshine and lollipops’; for example, cancer is change. Simply wanting change for the sake of change is childish and dangerous. It’s like the sort of emotion that comes from a 7 year old when they say they want to run away from home and join the circus because “mommy and daddy” didn’t buy them a “tickle me elmo”.

What is remarkable about Senator Obama isn’t that he says what he says or that he is getting away with it. What is remarkable is that “Senator Inevitable” has become so reviled by her own party that she cannot beat this guy even given every opportunity by him to do so. The soul of her electability is the ethos of victimhood, and being betrayed as a wife is the core of her constituency. The only strategy she has left to try is to have Bill Clinton come out and endorse Senator Obama, which would restore to her victimhood at the hands of Bill and recharge her campaign.

Could Hillary become “the comeback kid”? Sure, anything is possible, but come back or not, she comes back wounded and her party divided, and you can thank Howard “Early Primary” Dean for all of that. Think of all those big party player endorsements who will have to eat their words if she were to win. Yes, that’s a good message to send, the public voted for Hillary, while the party elite stood by Obama. If you cant run a campaign or a political party, how are you going to run a country?

Democrats are the strangest group of people I have ever known. They speak diversity and yet are shocked to find that half the electorate doesn’t agree with them. This is precisely because they don’t tolerate the presence of Republicans or “right wingers” around them, nor do they watch evil Fox News. Diversity is for other people I guess.

If Democrats shopped at wal-mart, went hunting and maybe joined the military now and then, they might find themselves winning elections again.

Be aware that they aren’t voting for Obama because he’s the best candidate to win the general election, they are voting for him because it makes them feel better about themselves for being who they are, which doesn’t do anything for the rest of us who don’t feel that way about him. He offers the Democrats a sort of “moral car wash” for their souls, which is fine if all that is wrong is that your car is just a little dirty, but if the problem with your car is that you are missing a distributor cap and its out of gas, taking it to the car wash doesn’t much help matters, no matter how good the car wash makes you feel.

John McCain should tell his campaign staff to run just one day of advertising each week between now and Election Day, just to remind all voters that he is in the race. The ad should simply play Obamas ads and speeches on a split screen, and on the right hand side show John McCain simply standing there, shaking his head in wonderment at the outright childish palaver that they both say and believe in that party. At the end of the ad, John McCain could say “ Please vote for me so we don’t all have to spend every single day of the next eight years listening to this drivel. For the love of God and all that is holy, please don’t make the people of this country have to crawl though this. Life is too short.”

McCain will win 49 states, not because he’s a great candidate with a lot of great ideas, but because he’s the only adult in the race.

And for that, we can all give a big “Thank you”, to “Howard Dean – Master Strategist”.

Posted @ April 13, 2008 11:00 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Rockefeller hates George McGovern

Lt. George McGovern. The photo is taken in 1943, during a periond of relative unrest in Europe where 'anti-jewish militants' were in control of the government of Germany and many of the worlds nations worked together to broker a 'peace plan' between the anti-jewish factions of Germany and the rest of their neighbors.

Quote:

"He's a fighter pilot. He flies at 35,000 feet and drops laser-guided bombs, missiles. He was long gone when they hit. What happened down there, he doesn't know.

That's unkind, because that's fighting for your nation and that's honorable. But you sort of have to care what goes on in the lives of people. ... and he never gets into those subjects"

Senator Rockefeller is apparently unaware that the 1972 Democrat party candidate for President dropped bombs from his B-24 from 25,000ft over Europe using a method that was a great deal more indescriminate and directed at civilians than John McCain did in 1968.

Its my guess that Senator Rockefeller cant read.

Posted @ April 09, 2008 08:02 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

now serving double entendre at montana teds

Remember, Tuesday is Soylent Green Day at Montana Teds!

Look, we all knew that Ted was crazy, long before he demonstrated the effect of his losing battle against depression on the Charlie Rose show. Honestly Ted, I think you lost your remaining audience of sympathetic supporters at the "cannibalism" thing.

Now when you say something like "Were all going to be cannibals", you need to be extra special with the text on your website,less someone misunderstand. But check this bit of text that I found on his website for his restaurant chain, the Montana Grill:

At Ted’s Montana Grill, above all we are authentic. Real food. Real people.

Real Food? Real People? I can just see Charlton Heston crying out in the ending of Soylent Green with the words "Real Food IS Real People!!!!"

So, this is just a suggestion Ted, but after your appearance on Charlie Rose this week, you might want to change that text.

Posted @ April 02, 2008 11:06 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (2)

The nerve of some people

Referring to Gov. Richardson's defection to Obama, President Clinton said:

"Five times to my face (Richardson) said that he would never do that," a red-faced, finger-pointing Clinton erupted.

Gosh Mr. President, you mean he lied to you? He looked right at you and lied? How could he do that? Who does he think he is?

Posted @ April 02, 2008 01:04 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Rashomon - The Air America Version

Local radio station KSAC has dumped Air America. My first reaction?,I thought that they were already gone, arent they?

So, let's read the reaction of the loss of the progressive flamethrower from this market, from two different viewpoints.
First up, Mike Malloy - who broadcasts on the Progressive Channel:

"I got the call from (KSAC general manager) Paula Nelson today -- she told me it broke her heart to have to make the change," Malloy says.

"It's not a ratings thing -- we have plenty of listeners," Malloy says. "KSAC is experiencing what most other liberal talk show format stations are experiencing - it's not a lack of audience, it's a lack of business support"

"If you listen to Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, you'll hear (plenty) of national ads," he says. "If you listen to someone like me or Randi Rhodes, there's a complete lack of those types of sponsors."

It's a problem plaguing liberal talk radio in markets across the United States, he adds, noting that stations in San Francisco and San Diego have been forced to make similar changes.

Yes, all around the country is a booming business in Hip-Hop Gospel, because you guessed it, thats what KSAC is changing its format to.

"Progressive" talk radio, to Hip-hop Gospel. Why just the other day I was driving down the road and I just could not get a hip-hop gospel radio station to come in. It really set me to thinking, this town really could use a hip-hop gospel station. Clearly, Im not the only guy who was thinking that.

Well, what do you know! Businesses, who are portrayed regularly as evil, no good corporate blood suckers, don't want to advertise on stations that try to make money selling that opinion, Who knew? Next thing you know, you'll tell me that the DNC won't advertise on Limbaughs show.

But wait, theres more! and here's where it gets fun. We see more evidence of the "Liberal Reality Distortion Field" in action. Remember that station manager, who had her heart broken when she had to make the change, Paula Nelson?

We look at the end of the post and we see a link to another blog. What does that blog say?

"KSAC (1240 AM) station manager Paula Nelson says that, frankly, she's happy her station made the switch today from progressive talk radio to gospel.

Oh, and it's not just any ol' gospel - it's hip-hop gospel. Think anything from Yolanda Adams to the Rooftop MCs.

"It's got all the good beats and an inspirational, positive message, too," Nelson says of the new format, which went into effect late Saturday night. The call letters officially switched today.

And, right about now, Nelson says, she could use some positive.

"I was ready for this change - I just wasn't having fun anymore," Nelson says. "The whole political thing has gotten nasty, dirty and contentious."

And it didn't help that major political companies didn't support the station during its four years as a liberal talk radio station, she says.

"There are all these Sacramento Democratic organizations that haven't spent a dime on (advertising) for our station," Nelson says. "To them I say, 'You did this - you were complicit, you shut us down.'

"If you're not sending us the marketing dollars, then you're part of the problem."

You know, you can hardly tell the difference between what Mike said Paula said and what Paula said. Fun, upbeat positive thoughts set to music has actually beaten the voice of constipation, defeat and negativity. Who would've guessed?

I'm telling ya, the more things go on like this, the more I think McCain is going to win 49 states.

Posted @ April 01, 2008 12:27 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Great Depression - The 2008 Version

Dear Diary,

I am down to my last 4 cases of bottled evian water, and the nutrasystem diet shipment doesnt arrive until next week. I may be forced tout of necesssity to cook for myself using canned vegetables.

I am in despair. My extensive Itunes account has now been terminated. I may be forced to listen to the radio. We await the government help that was promised to provide us funding for out itunes accounts to help us survive against Apples predatory purchasing schemes that scammed into buying more music than we could afford.

Yesterday a group of us at the hobo jungle, which we call "Bushville", discovered that the government has established a sort of "free bookstore" where you can get books for nothing. Its like Borders and Barnes and Noble, except that there is no Starbucks and instead of using a credit card, you just give them your name and address and you can take anything they have for free, which is a pretty good deal. Other people have already read the books, but thats to be expected in times like these. Everyone must sacrifice a little in these sad times.

They say its called a "Library" which is a new word for me. The trick is, you have to return the book after they give it to you, which is a bit problem for me since the first 20 books I got there I sold on ebay the next day for a hefty profit.

The wife gave sad news to the family yesterday. She announced that the vacation to Disneyworld is off this year, since there would be little chance of staying "on the park" and the indignity of staying at a property outside the park would simply be too much for the little ones to bear. She then announced to us that it might be fun to go one of the many National Parks that are nearby and the kids broke down into tears over the indignity of sleeping in something less than the suite at the Grand Californian or the Maui Hyatt, which until this damned depression arrived was our normal annual destination. I never thought I would feel the shame of telling my kids they would have to camp outside in tents like vagabonds as part of a vacation, but thats the world that George W. Bush has brought us to. What kind of vacation would it be for kids to suffer like that?

I have had to endure the unendurable in the past eight years. Last week I told my son that I would not be able to buy him a new car for his 16th birthday, that due to the depression, I would have to buy a used car. It just tore out his heart. "But Dad, how will I face the other kids?" he said and broke down crying in my arms. I think I will have to sell another T-bill just to get him a car of any sort at all. I feel lucky to be able to do that, I know some parents who are forced out of necessity to have their kids ride a bike to school. Its shameful, when you see it, teenagers riding on bikes, you just turn your head and try not to look out of embarrasment for them.

I didn't have the heart to tell him that because of depression, he may have to go to a State College. I may soften the blow by telling him he just doesnt have the grades to go to University.

Its terrible what this economy makes you do.

Posted @ April 01, 2008 07:51 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (10)

Why Do Iraq War Movies Suck?

Please take 15 minutes and view this scene from a film by Akira Kurosawa’s called “Dreams”. It's called “The Tunnel”. Go head, I’ll wait right here for you to come back, it wont take but 15 minutes and it will help illustrate my point.

Part 1.

Part 2.

Part 3.

To men that have fought in war and survived, there is a “Private Noguchi” in every shadow. As a genre of the film art form,"War Movies" almost always fail to capture this basic horror of corrosive fear that lives in the heart of any man or woman who has faced the horror of war.

Movies are unique as an art form, as they act more as a mirror of the people making the film rather than reflecting the views of the audience viewing the film. Today's Hollywood cannot make "war movies" because almost everyone in Hollywood has never served in uniform, rarely even met anyone who has served in uniform, have never known the horror of war as a civilian and hold in contempt nearly all who have come into any contact with any war.

The consequence of this is that the modern "War Movie" is actually a political movie, where the spirited arguments for and against the war are fought out on the screen, rather than the audience seeing a depiction of the various battles of the war itself.

Certainly there is never an example of 'heroism' shown on the screen and no hint of a victory is ever given or hinted to. To be sure, in Hollywood, heroism is reseved only to those who stayed home. In fact, this is the only war that the Hollywood culture knows, Not the "Iraq"