The current battle over Healthcare directly springs from Boomer selfishness; the Baby Boomers are, without a doubt, the most health-obsessed people in the history of mankind. They have brought us the jogging craze, the aerobics craze, the macrobiotic and organic diets, steroid abuse, vitamin abuse, herbal remedies, the healing power of crystals, holistic medicine, Yoga and Pilates. They believe they have the right to live forever.
They expect to live forever, perpetually young, and free of every minor complaint. You'll notice that all of the ultra-expensive-but-marginally-effective drug advertising these days is aimed specifically at Baby Boomers, and their lifestyle of convenience: once-a-month osteoporosis treatments (because they're too busy to devote 18 seconds a day to taking a pill with a glass of water), erectile dysfunction medications that swear you can get a boner on a schedule (because it pays to have that 36-hour zone of boner-on-a-moment's-notice piece of mind), miracle cures for leaky bladders, overgrown prostates, pattern baldness, vaginal dryness, graying and thinning hair, and made-up "diseases" like Chronic Dry Eye (take your fucking contacts out and wear glasses once in a while, you vain motherfucker!) and Restless Leg Syndrome (do they get up and walk away of their own volition? How about you get off your recliner and go take a walk?). All pushed by exquisitely-tanned-and-well-preserved-through-extensive-plastic-surgery Baby-Boomer actors, who seem to portray the ideal retirement life centered around recreating the 60's -- only with mountain bikes and spandex shorts-- where eternal youth is measured in orgasms,or merely the ability to fuck at all. And of course, they expect it all to come at someone else's expense.
Because being a Baby Boomer means never having to answer for anything, even taking care of your own health. They try to avoid the consequences of Old Age with the same fervor their parents devoted to fighting the scourge of Nazism. Consequences (from anything) are for other people, and in this case, so are the bills. Oh, and if they don't get what they want, why, they'll have nothing but medically-extended years to do nothing at all --- except vote....for people like Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and John Kerry. People who think like they do, because they are the same people.
Not that the last crop of politicos was any better. George W. Bush's idea of "reforming" medicare was to add the "Prescription Drug Plan", a $1-trillion dollar waste, that was negotiated into existence by Boomers, will almost exclusively be abused by Boomers, and paid for by non-Boomers forever.
The battle over who gets this "healthcare" is typically framed in terms of Citizens-vs-Illegal Aliens, Unions-vs-Private Sector, Black-vs-White, and to a certain extent, all of that is true: the democratic party would like to give even yet more "free" shit to a new demographic (Hispanics) which will replace the old, disappearing demographics of blacks who haven't realized that the fight for Civil Rights was won 40 years ago, and Union Labor. However, the real battle lines are being drawn between those with pre-and-post 1965-birth dates.
Because it is the pre-1965 folks who will receive all the benefits, and all the post-19665 folks who will pay for it (I have chosen 1965 arbitrarily, but it seems as reasonable a starting point as any). That, above all else, is probably why that promise to see everything on C-Span has been broken; because if we saw what was truly going on, we would see a bunch of Baby Boomers conspiring to reserve the privilege taxpayer-funded of medical care all to themselves. Because they're the ones who will have to retire soon, in greater numbers than ever before seen in history, and do so with portfolios that have been destroyed by the economic collapses of recent years (collapses engineered by other Baby Boomers, naturally). All the major players in this drama, Pelosi, Reid, Landrieu, Nelson, Schumer, Bayh, Dorgan, Dodd, Frank, and even Martha Coakley (although she's too dumb to realize it) are all Baby Boomers themselves. There's not a person under 40 in that smoky, political backroom, I'll bet.
I was reminded of all this this morning because first thing, I turned on my television, and I was assaulted, again, by the image of half-a-dozen-aging-hippy-garage-banders singing a paean to the virtues of the erection, and the little pill that brought it to them, but which has 72 other side effects and restrictions which would probably kill a brontosaur under normal conditions.
It's only a short leap from paying for hip replacements and heart valves, to a demand that Government start paying for aphrodisiacs, breast and penile implants, maybe even labioplasty, for octogenarians, just so they can try all those new-fangled-and-totally-free parts out.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Bloomberg Hands Out $2 Million in Bonuses...to Campaign Hacks...
Mayor Michael Bloomberg hands out $2.1 million in bonuses for winning an illegal third term.
This is why rich people should be excluded from running for public office. The man spent $108 million to beat a third-rate democratic party hack who had all the charm of an ingrown toenail, and all the smarts of a garden slug...by only 4.4 points. Then he hands out bonuses on top of it? Apparently, the way to get rich working for Michael Bloomberg is to be just barely-adequate.
You'd think if you had $110 million bucks laying around, you'd have something better to do with it then run for Mayor of New York City.... just so you could tell people what to eat. The sooner this shithead is out of office, the better off we'll all be. Michael Bloomberg is a monomaniacal control freak -- which probably served him well as a businessman -- but as a politician it places him just slightly to the right Chairman Mao. All that's missing is the Little Red Book of Bloomberg which tells you what to eat, how to eat it, how much salt you can put on it, what you can throw in your trash, what you can't throw in your trash, how you should throw out your trash, where you can or can't walk and on what days,where you can and can't drive and on what days, and explains his entire rationale for taxing tobacco products until crack becomes a less-expensive alternative while the City give frees instruction on how to properly inject heroin...with free needles in the bargain. Somehow, both are supposed to be for the betterment of public health in a way which is only ever partially explained, and even then, it's always sabout money, and nothing but money.
Yes, pass a law I say: you can't have a million bucks in the bank and run for public office. The number of millionaire "public servants" in this (New York) state simply boggles the mind, and considering we're supposed to be governed by people with enough financial acumen to accrue such personal fortunes (supposedly legally), you wonder why it is this city and state are almost always perpetually broke -- even in the years when Wall Street was making record profits. It's typical liberal (that's small-l liberal) economics: they know how to balance their own checkbooks with the greatest of care and strict adherence to the rules of rational mathematics, but the public purse exists to be abused like a $20 whore.
I'm going to heat up some tar, and fetch me some feathers...
This is why rich people should be excluded from running for public office. The man spent $108 million to beat a third-rate democratic party hack who had all the charm of an ingrown toenail, and all the smarts of a garden slug...by only 4.4 points. Then he hands out bonuses on top of it? Apparently, the way to get rich working for Michael Bloomberg is to be just barely-adequate.
You'd think if you had $110 million bucks laying around, you'd have something better to do with it then run for Mayor of New York City.... just so you could tell people what to eat. The sooner this shithead is out of office, the better off we'll all be. Michael Bloomberg is a monomaniacal control freak -- which probably served him well as a businessman -- but as a politician it places him just slightly to the right Chairman Mao. All that's missing is the Little Red Book of Bloomberg which tells you what to eat, how to eat it, how much salt you can put on it, what you can throw in your trash, what you can't throw in your trash, how you should throw out your trash, where you can or can't walk and on what days,where you can and can't drive and on what days, and explains his entire rationale for taxing tobacco products until crack becomes a less-expensive alternative while the City give frees instruction on how to properly inject heroin...with free needles in the bargain. Somehow, both are supposed to be for the betterment of public health in a way which is only ever partially explained, and even then, it's always sabout money, and nothing but money.
Yes, pass a law I say: you can't have a million bucks in the bank and run for public office. The number of millionaire "public servants" in this (New York) state simply boggles the mind, and considering we're supposed to be governed by people with enough financial acumen to accrue such personal fortunes (supposedly legally), you wonder why it is this city and state are almost always perpetually broke -- even in the years when Wall Street was making record profits. It's typical liberal (that's small-l liberal) economics: they know how to balance their own checkbooks with the greatest of care and strict adherence to the rules of rational mathematics, but the public purse exists to be abused like a $20 whore.
I'm going to heat up some tar, and fetch me some feathers...
Friday, January 15, 2010
Quote of the Week...
Is from S.E. Cupp, writing on the Daily Caller, in reference to Steve Schmidt, former campaign director for John McCain, and Sarah Palin's biggest critic:
"While wondering what happened to Steve Schmidt to make him such a boorish, classless, puerile dick, I finally figure out who he reminds me of: Stewie Griffin. A big, bald, baby."
Yep. Just about covers it.
"While wondering what happened to Steve Schmidt to make him such a boorish, classless, puerile dick, I finally figure out who he reminds me of: Stewie Griffin. A big, bald, baby."
Yep. Just about covers it.
Danny Glover: Racist Idiot...
You know, I never quite figured out when it was that the great mass of people decided that if someone is "a celebrity", it automatically qualifies them as an expert on anything. If you care to get your foreign policy punditry from Janeane Garofalo or Angelina Jolie, or you economic forecasts from someone who's only claim to notoriety is that he came in second on "American Idol", then that's your problem; just don't be surprised when people snicker behind their hands and call you an idiot.
Angelina is an actress. She makes her living pretending to be someone else. Usually someone who's never actually ever existed. That and looking good. None of that requires a PhD. I'm fairly certain Brad and Angelina don't discuss the works of Proust over the breakfast table. I'm pretty sure neither of them could tell you what the atomic weight of Vanadium is (it's 50.9414... don't ask me how I know).
That's not to say that I necessarily look down on Brangelina, or harbor doubts about their intellectual horsepower; it just means that when it comes to certain subjects, I'm inclined to believe that they are most likely to not know their asses from their elbows. I wouldn't go to either if I needed a box-girder bridge designed, and I wouldn't seek the advice of either on how best to set a fractured leg. These questions and subjects fall outside the scope of their field of expertise, which is "being famous."
Yet, there are many people on this planet who believe that their "celebrities" are somehow well-rounded, super-intelligent individuals who are possessed of a brilliance and sensitivity that is denied to us mere mortals. The truth is probably that 90% of them couldn't find their own asses with both hands and a flashlight.
As proof, I submit Danny Glover.
Mr. Glover (you may remember him from the Lethal Weapon movies with Mel Gibson, who's considered a MENSA in some circles simply because he's the right kind of Christian, you know), as the hard-bitten, older sidekick to Mel's borderline-psychotic with a gun. Be that as it may, Mr. Glover is probably one of the dumbest men I've ever heard speak on any subject. Probably because all of his ideas originate in the same place; his own racism. Danny Glover hates Whitey. With a passion.
He's blinded by his hatred of Whitey so much so that he can say -- with a straight face and no sense of how ridiculous he sounds -- that the earthquake in Haiti was (paraphrasing) caused by white guys who oppressed the Haitian people, and all people of color, and then who failed to sign a piece of useless fucking paper in Copenhagen.
So, that earthquake was caused by global warming, Mr Glover? And Global Warming is part of a conspiracy of the White Man to kill and oppress the people of color? Gotcha.
You can see the whole thing here. See if you can makes sense of what he's trying to say, because he stumbles all over it. It's good to see that someone that brilliant is also so articulate.
After all: He's a famous person, so he must be smart.
Angelina is an actress. She makes her living pretending to be someone else. Usually someone who's never actually ever existed. That and looking good. None of that requires a PhD. I'm fairly certain Brad and Angelina don't discuss the works of Proust over the breakfast table. I'm pretty sure neither of them could tell you what the atomic weight of Vanadium is (it's 50.9414... don't ask me how I know).
That's not to say that I necessarily look down on Brangelina, or harbor doubts about their intellectual horsepower; it just means that when it comes to certain subjects, I'm inclined to believe that they are most likely to not know their asses from their elbows. I wouldn't go to either if I needed a box-girder bridge designed, and I wouldn't seek the advice of either on how best to set a fractured leg. These questions and subjects fall outside the scope of their field of expertise, which is "being famous."
Yet, there are many people on this planet who believe that their "celebrities" are somehow well-rounded, super-intelligent individuals who are possessed of a brilliance and sensitivity that is denied to us mere mortals. The truth is probably that 90% of them couldn't find their own asses with both hands and a flashlight.
As proof, I submit Danny Glover.
Mr. Glover (you may remember him from the Lethal Weapon movies with Mel Gibson, who's considered a MENSA in some circles simply because he's the right kind of Christian, you know), as the hard-bitten, older sidekick to Mel's borderline-psychotic with a gun. Be that as it may, Mr. Glover is probably one of the dumbest men I've ever heard speak on any subject. Probably because all of his ideas originate in the same place; his own racism. Danny Glover hates Whitey. With a passion.
He's blinded by his hatred of Whitey so much so that he can say -- with a straight face and no sense of how ridiculous he sounds -- that the earthquake in Haiti was (paraphrasing) caused by white guys who oppressed the Haitian people, and all people of color, and then who failed to sign a piece of useless fucking paper in Copenhagen.
So, that earthquake was caused by global warming, Mr Glover? And Global Warming is part of a conspiracy of the White Man to kill and oppress the people of color? Gotcha.
You can see the whole thing here. See if you can makes sense of what he's trying to say, because he stumbles all over it. It's good to see that someone that brilliant is also so articulate.
After all: He's a famous person, so he must be smart.
Why Did It Take a Canadian to Write This?
David Warren in the Ottawa Citizen takes a swipe at feminism, terrorism, airport (in-)security, Islamonazis, political correctness and the devaluation of the manly virtues...in one fell swoop.
And it's got hockey, too? I think I just had an orgasm....
This is required reading! Pass it on to everyone you know.
(H/T FiveFeetofFury)
And it's got hockey, too? I think I just had an orgasm....
This is required reading! Pass it on to everyone you know.
(H/T FiveFeetofFury)
RE: Douchebag of the Week Nominees...
This is just a reminder that Nominees for our Douchebag of the Week Award are due by tomorrow. Send your candidate's name to Excelsior502@gmail.com.
The winner will receive at least four paragraphs of hopefully-funny approbation and ridicule, written by Your's Truly, and dare we dream?, internet immortality. I was thinking of getting a trophy made, but no one makes a trophy with a douche bottle on top of it. I scoured the Internet looking for one. Too bad; it would have looked nice on the mantle next to the Nobel Prize, Daytime Emmy, Oscar, Lombardi Trophy, or whatever.
Such is life.
Our current list of nominees, is as follows:
1. Harry Reid -4 votes
2. Barack Obama - 4 votes
3. Pat Robertson - 2 votes
4. Keith Olbermann - 1 vote
5. Steve Schmidt - 1 vote
6, Lane Kiffin - 1 vote
7. Janet Napolitano - 1 vote
8 Nancy Pelosi - 1 vote
Remember: the qualifications are that the nominee has to have done or said something so mind-numbingly stupid as to question their faculties, lineage, sanity and/or motives. Please include a link to your nominee's incredible stupidity so thatit may be judged in context with everyone else's.
The Winner will be announced on Monday, January, 18.
The First Winner is Oliver Stone for his attempt to rehabilitate Adolf Hitler's rep, and rewrite or whitewash the entire history of the 20th Century...with a 10-hr movie. He's lonely on the list all by himself. Give him some company, will ya?
Let your voices be heard!
The winner will receive at least four paragraphs of hopefully-funny approbation and ridicule, written by Your's Truly, and dare we dream?, internet immortality. I was thinking of getting a trophy made, but no one makes a trophy with a douche bottle on top of it. I scoured the Internet looking for one. Too bad; it would have looked nice on the mantle next to the Nobel Prize, Daytime Emmy, Oscar, Lombardi Trophy, or whatever.
Such is life.
Our current list of nominees, is as follows:
1. Harry Reid -4 votes
2. Barack Obama - 4 votes
3. Pat Robertson - 2 votes
4. Keith Olbermann - 1 vote
5. Steve Schmidt - 1 vote
6, Lane Kiffin - 1 vote
7. Janet Napolitano - 1 vote
8 Nancy Pelosi - 1 vote
Remember: the qualifications are that the nominee has to have done or said something so mind-numbingly stupid as to question their faculties, lineage, sanity and/or motives. Please include a link to your nominee's incredible stupidity so thatit may be judged in context with everyone else's.
The Winner will be announced on Monday, January, 18.
The First Winner is Oliver Stone for his attempt to rehabilitate Adolf Hitler's rep, and rewrite or whitewash the entire history of the 20th Century...with a 10-hr movie. He's lonely on the list all by himself. Give him some company, will ya?
Let your voices be heard!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Major Jerkoff Caught Jerking Off...Film at 11...
Scott Ritter. Remember him? He's the guy who claimed that Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction...and then that he had none...and then it was all a figment of Bushitler's fevered imagination. Then we found out that Mr. Ritter had allegedly been bought by Saddam Hussein, perhaps through the U.N. Oil for Food scam (remember that?) with some cash that was supposed to be a investment in some "documentary" Mr. Ritter was making.
Now we know just what it was that Saddam had on Ritter to turn him around and into a tool of Iraqi Propaganda.
Scott Ritter was caught soliciting what he thought was a 15-yr old girl, online, complete with video of him...umm...well... masturbating. Like a chimpanzee on speed. Oh, and it appears that Ritter has a history of this stuff, having been caught once before in New York, a charge he originally attributed as a revenge move by the U.S. Government.
It's nice to see that Karma is still operating.
But, Good Lord, why does it seem that everyone connected with the U.N. is a pedophile?
(H/T Althouse and JWF)
Now we know just what it was that Saddam had on Ritter to turn him around and into a tool of Iraqi Propaganda.
Scott Ritter was caught soliciting what he thought was a 15-yr old girl, online, complete with video of him...umm...well... masturbating. Like a chimpanzee on speed. Oh, and it appears that Ritter has a history of this stuff, having been caught once before in New York, a charge he originally attributed as a revenge move by the U.S. Government.
It's nice to see that Karma is still operating.
But, Good Lord, why does it seem that everyone connected with the U.N. is a pedophile?
(H/T Althouse and JWF)
Selling Illiteracy...
I've just heard the most ridiculous advertisement, ever.
A local cable television station, NY1, presents a segment on their morning newcasts called "In the Paper", where the well-coiffed hosts actually read interesting or important articles from all three New York dailies...so that you don't have to.
The ultimate in laziness: having someone, on TV, read your paper for you. Not only do the earnest folks at NY1 offer this dubious service with a straight face, their more than happy to tell you that it's an"exclusive service of TimeWarner Cable..."
A local cable television station, NY1, presents a segment on their morning newcasts called "In the Paper", where the well-coiffed hosts actually read interesting or important articles from all three New York dailies...so that you don't have to.
The ultimate in laziness: having someone, on TV, read your paper for you. Not only do the earnest folks at NY1 offer this dubious service with a straight face, their more than happy to tell you that it's an"exclusive service of TimeWarner Cable..."
Homeland Security: On the Job!
Unless you've carried a gun on a flight...and then have to turn yourself in.
Of course, you might want to keep quiet in the first place, particularly if you are an American citizen of a particular right-leaning political affiliation, because your status as a Bitter Clinger and Gun Nut makes you a potential terrorist threat. Or it, could be even worse; you could be an American citizen who's actually foiled a terrorist plot only to realize that you're in for trouble because you've saved republicans, and have come to the realization that Lefties are full of shit in the process.
In the meantime, DHS is working diligently to bring you the state-of-the-art in Homeland Security and Terrorist Catching Technology Thingies. Do read the comments and product reviews, please. They'll make your day!
Of course, you might want to keep quiet in the first place, particularly if you are an American citizen of a particular right-leaning political affiliation, because your status as a Bitter Clinger and Gun Nut makes you a potential terrorist threat. Or it, could be even worse; you could be an American citizen who's actually foiled a terrorist plot only to realize that you're in for trouble because you've saved republicans, and have come to the realization that Lefties are full of shit in the process.
In the meantime, DHS is working diligently to bring you the state-of-the-art in Homeland Security and Terrorist Catching Technology Thingies. Do read the comments and product reviews, please. They'll make your day!
Teddy Pendergrass, RIP...
Teddy Pendergrass has died of colon cancer at age 59.
What a voice that man had. What talent, too. He will be missed.
What a voice that man had. What talent, too. He will be missed.
Obama, The Musical...
Well, we've already had the collectable plates, lunchbox, placemats, drinking glasses, mousepads, even Obama: the Condom. He's dominated the covers of every magazine of importance (supposedly) from Time, to Men's Health, to Cosmopolitan, and so forth, so why not? I'm surprised he hasn't had a disease named for him yet (somthing that shrinks the brain and causes intense sphincter-squeeze ought to be appropriate).
Someone is bringing Barry to the Great White Way. (Heh, I just figured out that could be construed as a racial thing. Now ask me if I give a shit when I get a torrent of race-based hate mail?)
Why is it only the Germans seem to have this extremely acute sense both of poor taste, and over-enthusiasm-approaching-worship for destructive socialist figures? Someone should study that....maybe it's genetic?
(H/T JWF)
Someone is bringing Barry to the Great White Way. (Heh, I just figured out that could be construed as a racial thing. Now ask me if I give a shit when I get a torrent of race-based hate mail?)
Why is it only the Germans seem to have this extremely acute sense both of poor taste, and over-enthusiasm-approaching-worship for destructive socialist figures? Someone should study that....maybe it's genetic?
(H/T JWF)
Is Carpertbagging Worse Than Teabagging?
Someone should ask Harold Ford that very question. He's a Tennessean. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but he's not one of us. He's not a New Yorker, which despite the embarrassment of having the crappiest government this side of Washington, still it means something to us. We've had enough carpetbaggers (named Kennedy and Clinton) in this state, thank you very much, and we don't need yet another useless piece of shit with a family legacy and no talent here. We already have Andrew Cuomo for that.
The NY Republican party is no better; it has a chance to snatch a Senate Seat, and the best it can do is talk about Rick Lazio, the man famous for losing to Hillary Clinton by virtue of simply invading her personal space (queue eerie music, and get your barf bag, as you recall Al Gore trying to intimidate GWB during the debate with the same tactic). It couldn't convince Susan Molinari (former Congresswoman from my hometown of Staten Island) to run, it couldn't pay Rudy Guiliani enough to run for this seat, and at this point, if it could manage to teach a cocker spaniel to speak by October, it would still be a better candidate than Lazio.
By all accounts, Kirsten Gillibrand is a Senatorial-lightweight. She should be easy to beat, especially in a year when democrats have overreached. She's viewed in these parts as being in Harry Reid's pocket. Still the republican establishment in this state is a mess that can't find decent candidates if you put a gun to it's head. That's why it associates with the likes of Michael Bloomberg and Ron Lauder, for Chrissakes.
But this takes the cake. Harold Ford has no connection, that I'm aware of, with New York at all. Why is it that any two-bit politician without a regular job feels that he/she can just set up residence here and then run for office? Why do we allow it? Why isn't the NY Republican party screaming it's head off about this? Yet just something else that stinks in this state.
Ann Althouse has a few thoughts. As does JammieWearingFool. I'll be searching the local papers for more on the audacity of Harold Ford, Jr. to post later on.
Update: Kirsten Gillibrand fights back....like a girl!
Now you see why she should be easy to beat...That was a lot of misguided meaningless pablum to spout in one go, even by NY Standards.
Ford Warns Obama He Ain't No House Slave.
Yeah, really nice of President Hopenchange,who should have better things to do, like resign, to poke his nose into our state politics, and give directions about who gets to run for what. Give Ford credit for calling a spade a spade (Oops, did I just go there...twice? Ohnoyoudinnit!), but this asshole has no right to step in and run in the first place, either.
The NY Republican party is no better; it has a chance to snatch a Senate Seat, and the best it can do is talk about Rick Lazio, the man famous for losing to Hillary Clinton by virtue of simply invading her personal space (queue eerie music, and get your barf bag, as you recall Al Gore trying to intimidate GWB during the debate with the same tactic). It couldn't convince Susan Molinari (former Congresswoman from my hometown of Staten Island) to run, it couldn't pay Rudy Guiliani enough to run for this seat, and at this point, if it could manage to teach a cocker spaniel to speak by October, it would still be a better candidate than Lazio.
By all accounts, Kirsten Gillibrand is a Senatorial-lightweight. She should be easy to beat, especially in a year when democrats have overreached. She's viewed in these parts as being in Harry Reid's pocket. Still the republican establishment in this state is a mess that can't find decent candidates if you put a gun to it's head. That's why it associates with the likes of Michael Bloomberg and Ron Lauder, for Chrissakes.
But this takes the cake. Harold Ford has no connection, that I'm aware of, with New York at all. Why is it that any two-bit politician without a regular job feels that he/she can just set up residence here and then run for office? Why do we allow it? Why isn't the NY Republican party screaming it's head off about this? Yet just something else that stinks in this state.
Ann Althouse has a few thoughts. As does JammieWearingFool. I'll be searching the local papers for more on the audacity of Harold Ford, Jr. to post later on.
Update: Kirsten Gillibrand fights back....like a girl!
Now you see why she should be easy to beat...That was a lot of misguided meaningless pablum to spout in one go, even by NY Standards.
Ford Warns Obama He Ain't No House Slave.
Yeah, really nice of President Hopenchange,who should have better things to do, like resign, to poke his nose into our state politics, and give directions about who gets to run for what. Give Ford credit for calling a spade a spade (Oops, did I just go there...twice? Ohnoyoudinnit!), but this asshole has no right to step in and run in the first place, either.
Why You Should Always Hire Professionals...
It's a lesson that it seems that someone (usually a businessman who should know better) always needs to re-learn.
I have a friend. This friend is a CPA. He has his own firm, and has approximately five other CPA's working for him. These six CPA's use a server system which controls all of their PC's, internet access, and which stores and manages all of their business records on great big, networked hard disks. Why, it does this so well, that they barely use paper in that office anymore, what with writable CD's and so forth being so much cheaper and easier to store.
Which is their first mistake. Because when your computers go Ka-BLOOEY! (that's a technical term which translates, loosely, to "Tits-Up"), you should have some paper files to lean on. See, paper doesn't need electricity, and it doesn't break.
Unless you've decided that buying and storing paper is a hassle and expense that you can safely dispense with it because you've been smart enough to put everything on cheap, writable disk media...that you've stored someplace else. Like in another state. Because you don't want to keep it around in case of fire.
In which case, you should have both the person who knows how to run the server, and who knows how to fix it, recover data, and how to retrieve disks from off site storage as part of the usual backup regime, on site. Unless he happens to be your son, and is away at college, and he set up your office automation project for free... and he's an archeology major. Computers are just his hobby, not his job, see?
So, you need help, ASAP, right? And who do you turn to? A guy you know who's a computer whiz who just happens to have all the time in the world on his hands, and because he's a friend, will give you a break on the bill. So, you call him.
And this friend gets there, and discovers that not only is your server a piece of shit that somehow survived the Triassic Period, it's carrying the disease known as Linux (an operating system which gives old-time, professional programmers more fright than the word "proctosigmoidoscope"), with several Linux-based knock-offs of commercial software (because they're free, you know. Downloaded right off the internet from the Archives of Joe Schmo, whoever he is...) as it's operating system instead of something commercially-viable-and-supportable, like a Microsoft product, because....well....you have to actually pay for those.
So now your computer-whiz friend gets there, and he's looking at a system older than his own mother, running software that was written by an exceptionally-bright-8-year-old with no formal training whatsoever, and very poor documentation skills. He can't talk to the guy (the son who actually put the system together with bailing wire and spit, but who is now away at college, or to the guy who wrote the software) to ask several simple, but pertinent, questions that might get to the heart of the matter immediately. So, he has to do some serious research, trying to read program files that are available only intermittently, because the fucking server keeps crashing every 15 minutes, or so. No one knows how to recover the data that was shipped off site the week before, because they've never had to actually do that before, and customers are calling with all sorts of questions and concerns about their finances, which can't be answered because there's no computers. The boss is tearing what little hair he has left out, and the Computer Guy you begged to come fix your problem threatens to shoot anyone who comes within five feet of him asking "Is it done yet?"...every 45 seconds.
Eventually, your computer-whiz friend fixes your problem. After 14 hours, and $2800, of debugging. The issue is with an automatic updater written into one of the myriad piece-of-shit Linux programs that tries desperately to "phone home" to receive periodic updates, but which doesn't know how to stop trying after 155,362 times (most likely because Linux Geek who wrote this particular app either got a real job, found a girlfriend or just got bored with constantly having to write updates for something he wasn't getting paid for in the first place), and so crashes the entire system...and continues right where it left off just as soon as you reboot. A simple matter of "commenting out" that portion of the code, so that'll it never run again. But, you get what you pay for, and in this case...the desire to work cheaper/faster/better/smarter became very expensive, indeed.
Because not only did you lose a day of productivity and piss your clients off because you couldn't get any work done, and not only did you have to pay a guy $200 an hour to fix a problem you wouldn't have had if you did the right thing and stuck a crowbar in your wallet in the first place, but now you have to pay the computer-whiz an even bigger shitload of cash to replace the system your idiot, non-professional son built with his erector set, chewing gum and free software of dubious origin and value, with real professional-grade business shit.
I can tell you this; I'm glad he's not my accountant.
I can also tell you this: he probably won't be my friend after he gets my bill, either. Still, I'm probably cheaper than Geek Squad, and better-dressed, I reckon. I really don't want to redesign and rebuild his officer server system, but in this economy who can turn down work?
Let this be a lesson to you: cheaper is not always better. Always hire a professional when you need one.
I have a friend. This friend is a CPA. He has his own firm, and has approximately five other CPA's working for him. These six CPA's use a server system which controls all of their PC's, internet access, and which stores and manages all of their business records on great big, networked hard disks. Why, it does this so well, that they barely use paper in that office anymore, what with writable CD's and so forth being so much cheaper and easier to store.
Which is their first mistake. Because when your computers go Ka-BLOOEY! (that's a technical term which translates, loosely, to "Tits-Up"), you should have some paper files to lean on. See, paper doesn't need electricity, and it doesn't break.
Unless you've decided that buying and storing paper is a hassle and expense that you can safely dispense with it because you've been smart enough to put everything on cheap, writable disk media...that you've stored someplace else. Like in another state. Because you don't want to keep it around in case of fire.
In which case, you should have both the person who knows how to run the server, and who knows how to fix it, recover data, and how to retrieve disks from off site storage as part of the usual backup regime, on site. Unless he happens to be your son, and is away at college, and he set up your office automation project for free... and he's an archeology major. Computers are just his hobby, not his job, see?
So, you need help, ASAP, right? And who do you turn to? A guy you know who's a computer whiz who just happens to have all the time in the world on his hands, and because he's a friend, will give you a break on the bill. So, you call him.
And this friend gets there, and discovers that not only is your server a piece of shit that somehow survived the Triassic Period, it's carrying the disease known as Linux (an operating system which gives old-time, professional programmers more fright than the word "proctosigmoidoscope"), with several Linux-based knock-offs of commercial software (because they're free, you know. Downloaded right off the internet from the Archives of Joe Schmo, whoever he is...) as it's operating system instead of something commercially-viable-and-supportable, like a Microsoft product, because....well....you have to actually pay for those.
So now your computer-whiz friend gets there, and he's looking at a system older than his own mother, running software that was written by an exceptionally-bright-8-year-old with no formal training whatsoever, and very poor documentation skills. He can't talk to the guy (the son who actually put the system together with bailing wire and spit, but who is now away at college, or to the guy who wrote the software) to ask several simple, but pertinent, questions that might get to the heart of the matter immediately. So, he has to do some serious research, trying to read program files that are available only intermittently, because the fucking server keeps crashing every 15 minutes, or so. No one knows how to recover the data that was shipped off site the week before, because they've never had to actually do that before, and customers are calling with all sorts of questions and concerns about their finances, which can't be answered because there's no computers. The boss is tearing what little hair he has left out, and the Computer Guy you begged to come fix your problem threatens to shoot anyone who comes within five feet of him asking "Is it done yet?"...every 45 seconds.
Eventually, your computer-whiz friend fixes your problem. After 14 hours, and $2800, of debugging. The issue is with an automatic updater written into one of the myriad piece-of-shit Linux programs that tries desperately to "phone home" to receive periodic updates, but which doesn't know how to stop trying after 155,362 times (most likely because Linux Geek who wrote this particular app either got a real job, found a girlfriend or just got bored with constantly having to write updates for something he wasn't getting paid for in the first place), and so crashes the entire system...and continues right where it left off just as soon as you reboot. A simple matter of "commenting out" that portion of the code, so that'll it never run again. But, you get what you pay for, and in this case...the desire to work cheaper/faster/better/smarter became very expensive, indeed.
Because not only did you lose a day of productivity and piss your clients off because you couldn't get any work done, and not only did you have to pay a guy $200 an hour to fix a problem you wouldn't have had if you did the right thing and stuck a crowbar in your wallet in the first place, but now you have to pay the computer-whiz an even bigger shitload of cash to replace the system your idiot, non-professional son built with his erector set, chewing gum and free software of dubious origin and value, with real professional-grade business shit.
I can tell you this; I'm glad he's not my accountant.
I can also tell you this: he probably won't be my friend after he gets my bill, either. Still, I'm probably cheaper than Geek Squad, and better-dressed, I reckon. I really don't want to redesign and rebuild his officer server system, but in this economy who can turn down work?
Let this be a lesson to you: cheaper is not always better. Always hire a professional when you need one.
Draining The Swamp...
Just a quick list of democratic "lawmakers" and officials who have wound up on the wrong side of an ethics investigation, or who have some dubious qualifications for office, who best represent the graft that Nancy Pelosi said she would clean up. In no particular order, I give you the Most Ethical and Transparent Government EVAH:
Secretary of the Treasury, Tim Geithner - Tax cheat who didn't even pay his taxes when his employer gave him the money and instructions to do so! Crony capitalist who orchestrated the TARP fiasco, who is now accused of helping AIG hide losses from government regulators. Geithner is at the heart of all things Wall Street bailout-related because of his former job as chief of the NY Fed, but it also seems that Geithner has been in bed with many of the major players at AIG, Citi, JP Morgan, and Goldman Sachs, amongst others. He won't come clean, and he won't resign, and the taxpayer is on the hook for $750 billion that went to his cronies. By the way; Geithner was allowed to pay his unpaid taxes without fines or penalty. Why don't you try to get that sort of deal from the IRS?
Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis - another tax cheat. Solis "forgot" to pay taxes...four times. Even when the IRS "reminded" her to pay them. Four times. Solis was also "permitted" to pay the back taxes she owed (four times) without a fine or penalty, and nary a word said in public. Once again, I invite you to try the IRS on that sort of thing and see if they don't fine you within an inch of your life.
Attorney General, Eric Holder - the man who accused America of cowardice for it's inability to deal with the subject of race (hey, the Klan knew how to deal with the subject of race. Would you prefer we went back to those days, Mr. AG? I think we're doing rather better than that, no thanks to people like you), wants to give terrorists the same rights as any other criminal defendant in our civilian courts. Recently, questions have been raised about his motivations, as it appears the AG may have a conflict of interest in this sort of thing; a law firm he worked for before becoming the AG has defended several terrorists in U.S. civilian and military trials already, garnering a lot of government cash in the process,probably. Mr. Holder himself is yet to be accused of anything, hell, when he appears in front of Congress he apears to not know anything -- at all -- but he may want to rethink that whole "try the Undibombers in the Public Square" thing.
Rep. Barney Frank (Homo - Massachusetts) - Co-Orchestrator of the looming Fannie/Freddie collapse, proponent of the massive 'Stimulus' boondoggle that will cost more than expected and do less than advertised. Barney Fwank was diddling one of Fannie or Freddie's (I forget which) chief executives, who was possibly using his romantic influence with the Representative to keep regulators and reformers away from his agency. Barney stood in the path of reform no fewer than seven times. He never reported his conflict of interest, i.e. fucking one of the executives of an agency he was supposed to be regulating. Barney is also a classic example of why some people in this country continue to call for the stoning of gays in the public square; he is one of the most insufferable human beings alive (Michelle Obama is a distant second). There has been no ethic investigation of Barney's behavior whatsoever.
Sen. Chris Dodd (Dipshit - Connecticut) - Another of the Wall Street defenders, Dodd also had as many fingers (figuratively-speaking) in Fannie (not someones actual Fannie, we mean Fannie Mae, the mortgage thingy. Dodd, so far as we know, isn't quite as gay as Barney Frank). He's up to his neck in mortgage scandal money, having received two "sweetheart" mortgage deals from Angelo Mozillo, former CEO fo Nationwide, which is now defunct. Dodd's fingerprints are all over the AIG mess, and he slipped a provision into a bill int he middle of the night to allow AIG to pay huge bonuses to dipshit executives with Taxpayer money. Dodd's only saving grace was that he's finally resigned, given the reality inevitable loss in the mid-terms. The ethics investigation done on Dodd was a model of speed, efficiency and whitewash, which went by so fast and touched him so lightly that it just might as well have never happened. He can now retire to that Irish "cottage" of his, and hopefully, he will never contaminate these shores again. Oh, and Senator? We're still waiting for the documents!
Sen. Mary Landrieu (Thief - Louisiana) - The recipient of the Famous "Louisiana Purchase", and we don't mean the land deal that Jefferson swung on the French and which led to the exploits of Lewis and Clark. No, we're talking the $300 million dollars Harry Reid promised Mary for her "yea" vote on Healthcare. The stink of this one is that it wasn't even hidden; it happened in broad daylight, on the senate floor, and was being reported on by the cable networks before the proposition was even complete. To date, Landrieu hasn't even expressed a shred of remorse or shame over her actions, and says even less than the statue of Lincoln at the memorial.
Sen. Ben Nelson (Dickhead - Nebraska) - Recipient of another infamous bribe, the "Cornhusker Kickback", in which his state of Nebraska would essentially get Medicare for all eternity at the expense of the other 49 states. Fortunately for us, the people of Nebraska have some sense of propriety and fair-play, and howled so loudly that Nelson began to backtrack even before the ink was dry on that Harry Reid promise (bribe). Now Nelson is in danger of being voted out of office, and plenty panicked about his future. I would suggest he start acquiring a taste for orange jumpsuits, since accepting a bribe for a vote is supposed to be a crime in this country. Unfortunately, he'll wriggle free of this one.
Rep. Charlie Rangel (Hemmorhoid - New York) - the Man who runs the Ways and Means Committee in the House, which writes the very tax laws you struggle with every year, apparently doesn't know, or even bother to follow them, himself. He even said as much, claiming the tax code (which he helped construct) is so complex that even he doesn't know what's in it. When Charlie isn't hiding scads of income like $75,000 in rent from his overseas hideaway, four rent-controlled apartments, illegal deductions for using those apartments for campaign purposes, and accepting all sorts of illegal donations in return for his help in getting some asshole's name on a university building or something, he's busy spending your money faster than the government can collect it, and then even faster than it can borrow it from China. Oh, btw, Charlie was allowed to pay his back taxes without interest or penalty attached. It seems the IRS is in a forgiving mood these days,perhaps I shall give them a miss this year?
Rep. John Murtha (Windbag - Pennsylvania) - Murtha has been up to his ass in scandal since ABSCAM in the mid-70's. He's been up to his neck in shady defense-contractor dealings practically forever, and he's been the recipient of more campaign contributions from defense contractors than any other member of Congress. Yet, this is the man who has denigrated US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq since the beginning of those wars, even going as far as to compare them to the Nazis. He should be shot just for treason just on that basis alone, but instead, the idiots in Pennsylvania (the so-called Bitter Clingers) sent this liberal piece of shit thief back Congress. There has still been no investigation of Murtha's alleged crimes, but Pelosi bent over backwards and practically blew every member of the Ethics Committee in order to nail Randall "Duke" Cunningham on his shady shenanigans with defense contractors. The pot calls the kettle black, methinks.
I know I'm forgetting more of the democratic rogues gallery, like Dorgan, Ackerman, Jefferson, the SEIU, ACORN amongst others. But you get the point.
The rallying cry of the last mid-term election cycle for democrats was the "culture of corruption" that surrounded republicans, with their associations with Jack Abramoff, the Cunningham scnadal, and the "indiscretions" of Senator Craig and Congressmen Foley (both of which involved allegations of inappropriate gay sex, which apparently no one can be bothered to act shocked at when Barney Frank is involved), whom they also used to tar "family-oriented" republicans with the label "hypocrite". Nancy Pelosi, upon her coronation which had all the splendor of Elvis Vegas show but none of the charm, claimed she would "drain the swamp" of Washington, and then Barack Obama came along and cried "transparency on C-Span" (a trick which Bill Clinton once used, too). Somewhere between "Drain the Swamp" and "Hope n' stuff", they've lost their way.
That's if they ever meant any of it in the first place.
Update: I must not have had enough coffee at the time, but I almost forgot: the democratic Secretary of State of Taxachsetts is threatening to delay the certification of Scott Brown, a republican running in a special election for the Senate Seat formerly occupied by the enormous-drunken-alleged-rapist-alleged-manslaughtering-cancer-couldn't-have-happened-to-a-nicer-guy Ted Kennedy, should he win, just so that the dems could keep their 60-vote majority to pass "Healthcare Reform Legislation". This, incidentally, was announced PUBLICLY. They don't even bother to hide conspiracy anymore.
Secretary of the Treasury, Tim Geithner - Tax cheat who didn't even pay his taxes when his employer gave him the money and instructions to do so! Crony capitalist who orchestrated the TARP fiasco, who is now accused of helping AIG hide losses from government regulators. Geithner is at the heart of all things Wall Street bailout-related because of his former job as chief of the NY Fed, but it also seems that Geithner has been in bed with many of the major players at AIG, Citi, JP Morgan, and Goldman Sachs, amongst others. He won't come clean, and he won't resign, and the taxpayer is on the hook for $750 billion that went to his cronies. By the way; Geithner was allowed to pay his unpaid taxes without fines or penalty. Why don't you try to get that sort of deal from the IRS?
Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis - another tax cheat. Solis "forgot" to pay taxes...four times. Even when the IRS "reminded" her to pay them. Four times. Solis was also "permitted" to pay the back taxes she owed (four times) without a fine or penalty, and nary a word said in public. Once again, I invite you to try the IRS on that sort of thing and see if they don't fine you within an inch of your life.
Attorney General, Eric Holder - the man who accused America of cowardice for it's inability to deal with the subject of race (hey, the Klan knew how to deal with the subject of race. Would you prefer we went back to those days, Mr. AG? I think we're doing rather better than that, no thanks to people like you), wants to give terrorists the same rights as any other criminal defendant in our civilian courts. Recently, questions have been raised about his motivations, as it appears the AG may have a conflict of interest in this sort of thing; a law firm he worked for before becoming the AG has defended several terrorists in U.S. civilian and military trials already, garnering a lot of government cash in the process,probably. Mr. Holder himself is yet to be accused of anything, hell, when he appears in front of Congress he apears to not know anything -- at all -- but he may want to rethink that whole "try the Undibombers in the Public Square" thing.
Rep. Barney Frank (Homo - Massachusetts) - Co-Orchestrator of the looming Fannie/Freddie collapse, proponent of the massive 'Stimulus' boondoggle that will cost more than expected and do less than advertised. Barney Fwank was diddling one of Fannie or Freddie's (I forget which) chief executives, who was possibly using his romantic influence with the Representative to keep regulators and reformers away from his agency. Barney stood in the path of reform no fewer than seven times. He never reported his conflict of interest, i.e. fucking one of the executives of an agency he was supposed to be regulating. Barney is also a classic example of why some people in this country continue to call for the stoning of gays in the public square; he is one of the most insufferable human beings alive (Michelle Obama is a distant second). There has been no ethic investigation of Barney's behavior whatsoever.
Sen. Chris Dodd (Dipshit - Connecticut) - Another of the Wall Street defenders, Dodd also had as many fingers (figuratively-speaking) in Fannie (not someones actual Fannie, we mean Fannie Mae, the mortgage thingy. Dodd, so far as we know, isn't quite as gay as Barney Frank). He's up to his neck in mortgage scandal money, having received two "sweetheart" mortgage deals from Angelo Mozillo, former CEO fo Nationwide, which is now defunct. Dodd's fingerprints are all over the AIG mess, and he slipped a provision into a bill int he middle of the night to allow AIG to pay huge bonuses to dipshit executives with Taxpayer money. Dodd's only saving grace was that he's finally resigned, given the reality inevitable loss in the mid-terms. The ethics investigation done on Dodd was a model of speed, efficiency and whitewash, which went by so fast and touched him so lightly that it just might as well have never happened. He can now retire to that Irish "cottage" of his, and hopefully, he will never contaminate these shores again. Oh, and Senator? We're still waiting for the documents!
Sen. Mary Landrieu (Thief - Louisiana) - The recipient of the Famous "Louisiana Purchase", and we don't mean the land deal that Jefferson swung on the French and which led to the exploits of Lewis and Clark. No, we're talking the $300 million dollars Harry Reid promised Mary for her "yea" vote on Healthcare. The stink of this one is that it wasn't even hidden; it happened in broad daylight, on the senate floor, and was being reported on by the cable networks before the proposition was even complete. To date, Landrieu hasn't even expressed a shred of remorse or shame over her actions, and says even less than the statue of Lincoln at the memorial.
Sen. Ben Nelson (Dickhead - Nebraska) - Recipient of another infamous bribe, the "Cornhusker Kickback", in which his state of Nebraska would essentially get Medicare for all eternity at the expense of the other 49 states. Fortunately for us, the people of Nebraska have some sense of propriety and fair-play, and howled so loudly that Nelson began to backtrack even before the ink was dry on that Harry Reid promise (bribe). Now Nelson is in danger of being voted out of office, and plenty panicked about his future. I would suggest he start acquiring a taste for orange jumpsuits, since accepting a bribe for a vote is supposed to be a crime in this country. Unfortunately, he'll wriggle free of this one.
Rep. Charlie Rangel (Hemmorhoid - New York) - the Man who runs the Ways and Means Committee in the House, which writes the very tax laws you struggle with every year, apparently doesn't know, or even bother to follow them, himself. He even said as much, claiming the tax code (which he helped construct) is so complex that even he doesn't know what's in it. When Charlie isn't hiding scads of income like $75,000 in rent from his overseas hideaway, four rent-controlled apartments, illegal deductions for using those apartments for campaign purposes, and accepting all sorts of illegal donations in return for his help in getting some asshole's name on a university building or something, he's busy spending your money faster than the government can collect it, and then even faster than it can borrow it from China. Oh, btw, Charlie was allowed to pay his back taxes without interest or penalty attached. It seems the IRS is in a forgiving mood these days,perhaps I shall give them a miss this year?
Rep. John Murtha (Windbag - Pennsylvania) - Murtha has been up to his ass in scandal since ABSCAM in the mid-70's. He's been up to his neck in shady defense-contractor dealings practically forever, and he's been the recipient of more campaign contributions from defense contractors than any other member of Congress. Yet, this is the man who has denigrated US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq since the beginning of those wars, even going as far as to compare them to the Nazis. He should be shot just for treason just on that basis alone, but instead, the idiots in Pennsylvania (the so-called Bitter Clingers) sent this liberal piece of shit thief back Congress. There has still been no investigation of Murtha's alleged crimes, but Pelosi bent over backwards and practically blew every member of the Ethics Committee in order to nail Randall "Duke" Cunningham on his shady shenanigans with defense contractors. The pot calls the kettle black, methinks.
I know I'm forgetting more of the democratic rogues gallery, like Dorgan, Ackerman, Jefferson, the SEIU, ACORN amongst others. But you get the point.
The rallying cry of the last mid-term election cycle for democrats was the "culture of corruption" that surrounded republicans, with their associations with Jack Abramoff, the Cunningham scnadal, and the "indiscretions" of Senator Craig and Congressmen Foley (both of which involved allegations of inappropriate gay sex, which apparently no one can be bothered to act shocked at when Barney Frank is involved), whom they also used to tar "family-oriented" republicans with the label "hypocrite". Nancy Pelosi, upon her coronation which had all the splendor of Elvis Vegas show but none of the charm, claimed she would "drain the swamp" of Washington, and then Barack Obama came along and cried "transparency on C-Span" (a trick which Bill Clinton once used, too). Somewhere between "Drain the Swamp" and "Hope n' stuff", they've lost their way.
That's if they ever meant any of it in the first place.
Update: I must not have had enough coffee at the time, but I almost forgot: the democratic Secretary of State of Taxachsetts is threatening to delay the certification of Scott Brown, a republican running in a special election for the Senate Seat formerly occupied by the enormous-drunken-alleged-rapist-alleged-manslaughtering-cancer-couldn't-have-happened-to-a-nicer-guy Ted Kennedy, should he win, just so that the dems could keep their 60-vote majority to pass "Healthcare Reform Legislation". This, incidentally, was announced PUBLICLY. They don't even bother to hide conspiracy anymore.
Obama Asks G.W.B To Help With Haiti Relief...
Considering what democrats, including Obama, have said about Bush's handling of the two great disasters of his Presidency, 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, it seems to me to be highly hypocritical for a democrat to ask GWB for anything disaster-related.
But Obama is so desperate to help a sinkhole like Haiti (it'll be good for his "legacy" in that Peace Prize-heal-the-Universe-vein, and besides, if we don't keep the Haitians there, they'll be a mass Inner Tube exodus to Miami) that he'll even turn to someone his 'side' has told us for a decade is the Most Colossal Boob in the Solar System for help.
If it were me, I'd tell Obambi to go fly a kite. Fortunately for the people of Haiti, GWB and his father are better people than that. Fortunately for Obama, they have enough class not to tell him to go fuck himself. They'll help him look more "Presidential" -- but not for the credit, they'll do it because it is the right thing to do.
Pray to whatever you hold holy that when the next disaster strikes (a mushroom cloud over an American city because the Obama Administration won't frisk Muslims in airports), that men like GWB and GHWB are here to actually DO something, rather than just SAY something and then implore others to do the heavy lifting.
In the meantime, if you can manage it in these tough economic times, give whatever you can to he people of Haiti in their time of need. Yeah, I know, they'll never repay the kindness, and the Obama Taxmen won't let you deduct the donation from your taxes because there's an illegal alien who crossed the border because Mexico doesn't provide free treatment for her like chronic dry eye and restless leg syndrome, who needs free medicine courtesy of the US Taxpayer... but do it anyway. It's the right thing to do, and good Americans always try to do the right thing.
There's a baptist church (yeah, in Staten Island, go figure!) around the corner from my home which is holding a clothing drive for Haitian relief. I'm donating whatever old clothes that I can, plus some new stuff, half-a-dozen servicable blankets and an old 4-man tent that I don't use anymore, but which could be put to better use there. Apparently, this church either has, or is associated with, some missionaries already on the island, so I know the relief will go straight to the people who need it, instead of being stolen by corrupt government officials on it's way there.
And don't give the UN a dime.
Update: President Obama has ordered 12,000 American health care workers to be placed "on alert" for movement ot Haiti. It seems that when it's convenient for Our Savior, our excellent healthcare stinks on ice, is unresponsive and kills people in it's spare time, just for fun, but when it comes to providing emergency medical relief in a disaster area they're apparently just the people to call upon. Try explaining that bit of political about-face, Mr. President. Maybe you could do that on C-Span, too? Jackass.
Also, I made my clothing delivery early this afternoon, and I'm told by the church workers I was speaking to that small-scale efforts like theirs will take more time to get relief supplies to Haiti, and that they have been working with Catholic Charities -- which has a great many people in Haiti already -- to collect and distribute relief supplies. You could make a donation there, if you wish to help out.
But Obama is so desperate to help a sinkhole like Haiti (it'll be good for his "legacy" in that Peace Prize-heal-the-Universe-vein, and besides, if we don't keep the Haitians there, they'll be a mass Inner Tube exodus to Miami) that he'll even turn to someone his 'side' has told us for a decade is the Most Colossal Boob in the Solar System for help.
If it were me, I'd tell Obambi to go fly a kite. Fortunately for the people of Haiti, GWB and his father are better people than that. Fortunately for Obama, they have enough class not to tell him to go fuck himself. They'll help him look more "Presidential" -- but not for the credit, they'll do it because it is the right thing to do.
Pray to whatever you hold holy that when the next disaster strikes (a mushroom cloud over an American city because the Obama Administration won't frisk Muslims in airports), that men like GWB and GHWB are here to actually DO something, rather than just SAY something and then implore others to do the heavy lifting.
In the meantime, if you can manage it in these tough economic times, give whatever you can to he people of Haiti in their time of need. Yeah, I know, they'll never repay the kindness, and the Obama Taxmen won't let you deduct the donation from your taxes because there's an illegal alien who crossed the border because Mexico doesn't provide free treatment for her like chronic dry eye and restless leg syndrome, who needs free medicine courtesy of the US Taxpayer... but do it anyway. It's the right thing to do, and good Americans always try to do the right thing.
There's a baptist church (yeah, in Staten Island, go figure!) around the corner from my home which is holding a clothing drive for Haitian relief. I'm donating whatever old clothes that I can, plus some new stuff, half-a-dozen servicable blankets and an old 4-man tent that I don't use anymore, but which could be put to better use there. Apparently, this church either has, or is associated with, some missionaries already on the island, so I know the relief will go straight to the people who need it, instead of being stolen by corrupt government officials on it's way there.
And don't give the UN a dime.
Update: President Obama has ordered 12,000 American health care workers to be placed "on alert" for movement ot Haiti. It seems that when it's convenient for Our Savior, our excellent healthcare stinks on ice, is unresponsive and kills people in it's spare time, just for fun, but when it comes to providing emergency medical relief in a disaster area they're apparently just the people to call upon. Try explaining that bit of political about-face, Mr. President. Maybe you could do that on C-Span, too? Jackass.
Also, I made my clothing delivery early this afternoon, and I'm told by the church workers I was speaking to that small-scale efforts like theirs will take more time to get relief supplies to Haiti, and that they have been working with Catholic Charities -- which has a great many people in Haiti already -- to collect and distribute relief supplies. You could make a donation there, if you wish to help out.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Blogging Light Today, Will be Back This Afternoon...
Got me a little programming job to complete this morning (it's just a little de-bugging, but it pays, YAY!) , so I shan't be posting much. I will probably be finished by late afternoon, and I'll be posting all through the evening. If you need some reading material, I suggest that you stop over at a few of the blogs I like to read:
Lucianne Goldberg (yes, it's Jonah's Momma)
Fred on Everything (the blood-curdling screams of a South'ren ex-pat)
The American Thinker (exceptionally-astute commentary)
James Lileks (An American original. I wish to have him bronzed and set upon my TV set with all the other bric-a-brac)
The Daily Caller (Because I feel sorry for Tucker.He's not really such a bad sort, is he?)
Lucianne Goldberg (yes, it's Jonah's Momma)
Fred on Everything (the blood-curdling screams of a South'ren ex-pat)
The American Thinker (exceptionally-astute commentary)
James Lileks (An American original. I wish to have him bronzed and set upon my TV set with all the other bric-a-brac)
The Daily Caller (Because I feel sorry for Tucker.He's not really such a bad sort, is he?)
RE: Douchebag of the Week...
It has come to my attention that some folks who read this blog without being Google Followers are having some trouble contacting me, via e-mail, to nominate their favorite douchebag.
I have put up a personal e-mail address at the top of this page, under the Lunatic's Asylum marquee. This isn't my personal-personal e-mail address, but it is a convenient place for people to drop messages without having to sign up for yet another Google account. That address is Excelsior502@gmail.com.
If you wish to nominate a Douchebag of the Week, please just put "DOW Nominee" in the subject line, so I'll know what it's about without having to know exactly who you are.
The nominees for this week -- thus far -- are (no particular order):
Nancy Pelosi
Harry Reid
Barack Obama (I have a feeling he might be a perennial nominee)
Janet Napolitano
Keith Olbermann
Lane Kiffin (already? Sheesh...get a life, guys!)
I have put up a personal e-mail address at the top of this page, under the Lunatic's Asylum marquee. This isn't my personal-personal e-mail address, but it is a convenient place for people to drop messages without having to sign up for yet another Google account. That address is Excelsior502@gmail.com.
If you wish to nominate a Douchebag of the Week, please just put "DOW Nominee" in the subject line, so I'll know what it's about without having to know exactly who you are.
The nominees for this week -- thus far -- are (no particular order):
Nancy Pelosi
Harry Reid
Barack Obama (I have a feeling he might be a perennial nominee)
Janet Napolitano
Keith Olbermann
Lane Kiffin (already? Sheesh...get a life, guys!)
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Oliver Stone: Douchebag...
Our Douchebag of the Week is Oliver Stone. Actually, Mr. Stone is one of the finalists in the Douchebag-of-the-Last-Five-Decades-Running competition, primarily on the strength of his abilities to mangle history and then make really bad movies out of it.
(Ed. Note: The Douchebag of the Week Award will now be a staple of this blog. Readers are encouraged to nominate those they believe fit the bill. Just drop a mail with your candidate's name and a link to the event, quote, action, etc, that made your candidate a good bet to win. I will select the winner, who will be announced every Monday morning.).
Stone announced this week that, having exhausted every hippie-centric view of the 1960's, he will now take a crack at the entire 20th Century, and to show you just how bad a historian Mr. Stone is and just what sort of mindset will be making this film, he has this to say about Adolf Hitler:
"...Talking to critics, Stone, a three-times Oscar winner, explained that Hitler had been “an easy scapegoat throughout history” and that his new series would put things into their proper context. “We can't judge people as only 'bad' or 'good'. [Hitler] is the product of a series of actions,” he noted. “It's cause and effect....”
Just what we need; a therapeutic and forgiving view of Hitler, full of moral relativism, and which is yet another refight of the battle between the "Nature vs. Nuture" branch of psychology. Hitler is not an evil man driven by his personal lunacy, he's a product of his times, yet one more victim of a topsy-turvy world.
When you stop to consider the damage Stone's "historical treatment" films have already done, and here I'm speaking of the hero-worshiping "JFK", and the over-the-top surrealism of "Apocalypse Now" -- with their soft-60's-platitudes and fawning-adorational speeches placed in the mouths of people who never spoke them, the liberties taken with both fact and evidence, the outright misrepresentation of the motivations of both sides of any argument -- I can only imagine what Stone will produce in 10-hours.
Mostly, it should be reminiscent of something you occasionally have to scrape off your shoes.
We'll probably find out that Stalin murdered millions because of an extremely painful ingrown toenail that an American trade embargo prevented from being properly treated. Mao loved to collect teddy bears and hold tea parties, but Eisenhower didn't send Mao a card on Valentine's Day. Pol Pot was a cross-dresser, who wanted nothing more than to star on Broadway, but LBJ and Richard Nixon conspired to keep him in dinner theatre in Phnom Penh. All of them were driven to the acts that sullied their good memories, and ran their good intentions right off the rails (after all, they were socialists and in Stone's world, the Socialists are the heroes. Flawed Heroes, to be certain, but always the Good Guys) by greedy, ignorant, jingoistic Westerners --particularly Americans, and hopefully, Conservatives (even if Stone has to take great pains and twist the truth to portray them as Conservative). None of the true villains is ever responsible.
Murder millions on an industrial scale, deliberately starve millions more, preside over a reign of terror that makes the French Revolution seem like the Elk's Club Annual Picnic, and Stone will find some excuse to let you off the hook. A new generation of Americans which doesn't read, and which doesn't study history, will again learn their lessons from Stone's Movies, and pretty soon, they'll find a reason to excuse Osama Bin Laden...oh wait, they've already done that.
There. I've just saved you 10 hours and $50 bucks. You can thank me later.
The Telegraph has more here.
(Ed. Note: The Douchebag of the Week Award will now be a staple of this blog. Readers are encouraged to nominate those they believe fit the bill. Just drop a mail with your candidate's name and a link to the event, quote, action, etc, that made your candidate a good bet to win. I will select the winner, who will be announced every Monday morning.).
Stone announced this week that, having exhausted every hippie-centric view of the 1960's, he will now take a crack at the entire 20th Century, and to show you just how bad a historian Mr. Stone is and just what sort of mindset will be making this film, he has this to say about Adolf Hitler:
"...Talking to critics, Stone, a three-times Oscar winner, explained that Hitler had been “an easy scapegoat throughout history” and that his new series would put things into their proper context. “We can't judge people as only 'bad' or 'good'. [Hitler] is the product of a series of actions,” he noted. “It's cause and effect....”
Just what we need; a therapeutic and forgiving view of Hitler, full of moral relativism, and which is yet another refight of the battle between the "Nature vs. Nuture" branch of psychology. Hitler is not an evil man driven by his personal lunacy, he's a product of his times, yet one more victim of a topsy-turvy world.
When you stop to consider the damage Stone's "historical treatment" films have already done, and here I'm speaking of the hero-worshiping "JFK", and the over-the-top surrealism of "Apocalypse Now" -- with their soft-60's-platitudes and fawning-adorational speeches placed in the mouths of people who never spoke them, the liberties taken with both fact and evidence, the outright misrepresentation of the motivations of both sides of any argument -- I can only imagine what Stone will produce in 10-hours.
Mostly, it should be reminiscent of something you occasionally have to scrape off your shoes.
We'll probably find out that Stalin murdered millions because of an extremely painful ingrown toenail that an American trade embargo prevented from being properly treated. Mao loved to collect teddy bears and hold tea parties, but Eisenhower didn't send Mao a card on Valentine's Day. Pol Pot was a cross-dresser, who wanted nothing more than to star on Broadway, but LBJ and Richard Nixon conspired to keep him in dinner theatre in Phnom Penh. All of them were driven to the acts that sullied their good memories, and ran their good intentions right off the rails (after all, they were socialists and in Stone's world, the Socialists are the heroes. Flawed Heroes, to be certain, but always the Good Guys) by greedy, ignorant, jingoistic Westerners --particularly Americans, and hopefully, Conservatives (even if Stone has to take great pains and twist the truth to portray them as Conservative). None of the true villains is ever responsible.
Murder millions on an industrial scale, deliberately starve millions more, preside over a reign of terror that makes the French Revolution seem like the Elk's Club Annual Picnic, and Stone will find some excuse to let you off the hook. A new generation of Americans which doesn't read, and which doesn't study history, will again learn their lessons from Stone's Movies, and pretty soon, they'll find a reason to excuse Osama Bin Laden...oh wait, they've already done that.
There. I've just saved you 10 hours and $50 bucks. You can thank me later.
The Telegraph has more here.
And Speaking of Vaginas...
The Top Ten Most Amazing Vaginas.
Warning: May not be Cubicle Safe!!!!, even if there's no actual nudity. I've included it because of a particular young lady with a...special...musical talent. She came in at Number 6, if you want to skip ahead.
(H/T Instapundit)
Warning: May not be Cubicle Safe!!!!, even if there's no actual nudity. I've included it because of a particular young lady with a...special...musical talent. She came in at Number 6, if you want to skip ahead.
(H/T Instapundit)
The Crusade is Back...
Thanks to a New Lunatic, I've been led to a lovely website which is All-Anti-Muslim-Terrorism-Watch-all-the-time.
It's called Al' Salibiyyah which translates into English as"The Crusade". It's some really good stuff that'll let you know exactly what the Islamonazis are up to. I recommend a visit or two.
In other news concerning the The Religion of Peace (TROP), Phyllis Chessler tells us all about the wonderful conversation she had about terrorism and profiling during her gynocological exam. I could comment on it, but I'm laughing too hard just thinking about the circumstances of that conversation.
(H/T FiveFeetofFury)
Update: Almost forgot: Tucker Carlsson has a new blog which is supposed to be the Conservative alternative to the Huffington Post. It's called The Daily Caller. I thought Carlsson was a libertarian, though? Anyways, it launched yesterday, and I took a peek. Might interest some of you.
It's called Al' Salibiyyah which translates into English as"The Crusade". It's some really good stuff that'll let you know exactly what the Islamonazis are up to. I recommend a visit or two.
In other news concerning the The Religion of Peace (TROP), Phyllis Chessler tells us all about the wonderful conversation she had about terrorism and profiling during her gynocological exam. I could comment on it, but I'm laughing too hard just thinking about the circumstances of that conversation.
(H/T FiveFeetofFury)
Update: Almost forgot: Tucker Carlsson has a new blog which is supposed to be the Conservative alternative to the Huffington Post. It's called The Daily Caller. I thought Carlsson was a libertarian, though? Anyways, it launched yesterday, and I took a peek. Might interest some of you.
Monday, January 11, 2010
About Those Steroids...
RE: Mark McGwire's "confession" that he did, indeed, take steroids (like nobody knew?).
First of all, it comes off as extremely self-serving, given that he's finally talking as a necessary precursor to his taking a job with the St.Louis Cardinals, his old team, and the first people he'll have to reconcile are the fans in his home stadium. The same fans who cheered him on in 1998 when he was breaking the single-season home run record, and the same fans who had every reason to believe that what they were watching was truly talent, and not a chemically-enhanced moron with a bat.
Secondly, if McGwire gets away with this -- and by "gets away" I mean gets to keep his job in baseball, and, God forbid!, eventually finds his way into the Hall of Fame -- then I shall have to pray for the soul of Pete Rose. Rose simply gambled, and the implied problem with that was that he had the ability to affect the outcome of games so as to make good on those bets. McGwire, thanks to a better Life Through Chemistry, had the ability to affect games simply for his own selfish ends, i.e. the Record and the Hall of Fame...not to mention millions in contract negotiations.
Tell me how one (Rose's offense) is worse than the other's (McGwire's offense) and then explain to me why Pete Rose is persona non grata and McGwire gets the chance to "rehabilitate his image"? Is it because Rose stonewalled for many years? Well, didn't McGwire do the same thing, and even do it in front of Congress, under oath? Is it because Rose's actions struck at the very integrity of the game? I can't think of anything that undermines the integrity of the game more than a player who has knowingly taken drugs deliberately designed to increase his strength. If Mark McGwire were a racehorse, somebody would be going to jail. We cared about doped up racehorses then, but not human beings...
Mark McGwire is a liar and a cheater. He has cheated baseball. He has cheated the fans who paid good money for tickets in the mistaken belief that the competition was on the up and up. He has desecrated another man's (Roger Maris') accomplishment. I not only hope McGwire fails in his new capacity as hitting coach (and seriously, what sort of hitting coach can you be when your experience is limited to "shoot up, bulk up and swing hard"?), and I hope the only way he ever sees Cooperstown is from the Interstate.
Mark McGwire is one of the reasons why I no longer watch baseball, and haven't for years. The other reason is the sanctimonious "owners" who knew full-well that the sport was being cheated by McGwire, Sosa, Bonds, Clemens and others, and who then acted shocked...shocked...that the sport was crooked. They made billions --- and then had the nerve to tut-tut and click their tongues when the public outrage became widespread. What a bunch of phonies! A pox upon both their houses.
First of all, it comes off as extremely self-serving, given that he's finally talking as a necessary precursor to his taking a job with the St.Louis Cardinals, his old team, and the first people he'll have to reconcile are the fans in his home stadium. The same fans who cheered him on in 1998 when he was breaking the single-season home run record, and the same fans who had every reason to believe that what they were watching was truly talent, and not a chemically-enhanced moron with a bat.
Secondly, if McGwire gets away with this -- and by "gets away" I mean gets to keep his job in baseball, and, God forbid!, eventually finds his way into the Hall of Fame -- then I shall have to pray for the soul of Pete Rose. Rose simply gambled, and the implied problem with that was that he had the ability to affect the outcome of games so as to make good on those bets. McGwire, thanks to a better Life Through Chemistry, had the ability to affect games simply for his own selfish ends, i.e. the Record and the Hall of Fame...not to mention millions in contract negotiations.
Tell me how one (Rose's offense) is worse than the other's (McGwire's offense) and then explain to me why Pete Rose is persona non grata and McGwire gets the chance to "rehabilitate his image"? Is it because Rose stonewalled for many years? Well, didn't McGwire do the same thing, and even do it in front of Congress, under oath? Is it because Rose's actions struck at the very integrity of the game? I can't think of anything that undermines the integrity of the game more than a player who has knowingly taken drugs deliberately designed to increase his strength. If Mark McGwire were a racehorse, somebody would be going to jail. We cared about doped up racehorses then, but not human beings...
Mark McGwire is a liar and a cheater. He has cheated baseball. He has cheated the fans who paid good money for tickets in the mistaken belief that the competition was on the up and up. He has desecrated another man's (Roger Maris') accomplishment. I not only hope McGwire fails in his new capacity as hitting coach (and seriously, what sort of hitting coach can you be when your experience is limited to "shoot up, bulk up and swing hard"?), and I hope the only way he ever sees Cooperstown is from the Interstate.
Mark McGwire is one of the reasons why I no longer watch baseball, and haven't for years. The other reason is the sanctimonious "owners" who knew full-well that the sport was being cheated by McGwire, Sosa, Bonds, Clemens and others, and who then acted shocked...shocked...that the sport was crooked. They made billions --- and then had the nerve to tut-tut and click their tongues when the public outrage became widespread. What a bunch of phonies! A pox upon both their houses.
Your Dose of Steyn...
Sometimes, you need someone much smarter than I am to tell you things that are painfully obvious, and make it both interesting and fun.
Here's Mark Steyn on:
Harry Reid's Racism.
Barack Obama's "Leadership".
(In-) Security at Newark International Airport.
The three articles deal with different subjects, but taken together they paint a picture that is not flattering of Barack Obama and his Presidency to date.
Reid's stupidity is simply Harry saying out loud what he thinks privately, and which is simply a reflection of Democratic Party politics and Party-elite attitudes. Obama is the Showpiece President; he's the ultimate symbol of all of the Progressive political whizz-bangery wrapped up into one (a hyper-educated black communist, but without all the ghetto talk that makes Whitey uncomfortable); he's a stereotype and a prototype!
He's also just symbolic. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi really run this government, and all the things that Obama now claims credit for (and ultimately take the blame for) have been engineered by the Democrat-controlled Congress, behind closed doors, with the President's only input being his signature on the final document. Barack Obama is irrelevant to the process of government. His democratic allies make him so.
They don't respect him.
The second is about a foreign policy that encourages the enemies of the United States, rather than give them pause. Iran is still building nukes, as one diplomatic deadline after another falls by the wayside, and even though the country is in the midst of a revolution,the President doesn't wish to antagonize the regime. Al' Qaeda is still sending terrorists to American shores hoping to kill us, and the President can't interrupt his vacation to make a statement, and when he does, finally, make one, it's limp, has no fight in it, and sounds as if he just ginned it up in the Men's Room five minutes before. He initially defends a security apparatus that has more holes in it than a piece of Swiss Cheese, and is run by boobs who insist that when disaster is averted by an innocent bystander who has to confront a terrorist that the Security people had forewarning of, that the "system worked" --- only to have to about-face three days later when the facts become known.
It is indicative of a lack of hands-on leadership which makes it appear as if the President would rather the whole terrorism thing just blow away and be forgotten.
The third is about a bureaucracy that is rudderless. It spends an awful lot of money to gather and process information, which it them makes no use of. It spends a great deal of money on technology, which then fails because no one turned it on. It inconveniences law-abiding passengers by making them drink breast milk, remove their shoes, and subjects them to "random" searches, and then ails because someone is on a cell phone, or takes an unscheduled pee break without calling for a replacement first. It's all about a vast bureaucracy that gets no instructions from the top, or worse, contradictory instructions, and then finds that inertia and complacency are perhaps the best course of action.
Because Barack Obama and some of the winners he's picked (like Napolitano) can't or won't admit to themselves that there are people out there who want us dead, and who need to be stopped with something other than flowery language and best wishes, then don't be surprised when "model employees" keep their jobs after they've been identified as the person who failed to pass on information about a known terrorist, revoke the visa of a known terrorist or abandon their post, causing a major airport to shut down for six hours.
The Chief's don't take this shit seriously, so why should the Indians?
Update: Professor Hanson agrees..in fact, he predicted it last February...
Here's Mark Steyn on:
Harry Reid's Racism.
Barack Obama's "Leadership".
(In-) Security at Newark International Airport.
The three articles deal with different subjects, but taken together they paint a picture that is not flattering of Barack Obama and his Presidency to date.
Reid's stupidity is simply Harry saying out loud what he thinks privately, and which is simply a reflection of Democratic Party politics and Party-elite attitudes. Obama is the Showpiece President; he's the ultimate symbol of all of the Progressive political whizz-bangery wrapped up into one (a hyper-educated black communist, but without all the ghetto talk that makes Whitey uncomfortable); he's a stereotype and a prototype!
He's also just symbolic. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi really run this government, and all the things that Obama now claims credit for (and ultimately take the blame for) have been engineered by the Democrat-controlled Congress, behind closed doors, with the President's only input being his signature on the final document. Barack Obama is irrelevant to the process of government. His democratic allies make him so.
They don't respect him.
The second is about a foreign policy that encourages the enemies of the United States, rather than give them pause. Iran is still building nukes, as one diplomatic deadline after another falls by the wayside, and even though the country is in the midst of a revolution,the President doesn't wish to antagonize the regime. Al' Qaeda is still sending terrorists to American shores hoping to kill us, and the President can't interrupt his vacation to make a statement, and when he does, finally, make one, it's limp, has no fight in it, and sounds as if he just ginned it up in the Men's Room five minutes before. He initially defends a security apparatus that has more holes in it than a piece of Swiss Cheese, and is run by boobs who insist that when disaster is averted by an innocent bystander who has to confront a terrorist that the Security people had forewarning of, that the "system worked" --- only to have to about-face three days later when the facts become known.
It is indicative of a lack of hands-on leadership which makes it appear as if the President would rather the whole terrorism thing just blow away and be forgotten.
The third is about a bureaucracy that is rudderless. It spends an awful lot of money to gather and process information, which it them makes no use of. It spends a great deal of money on technology, which then fails because no one turned it on. It inconveniences law-abiding passengers by making them drink breast milk, remove their shoes, and subjects them to "random" searches, and then ails because someone is on a cell phone, or takes an unscheduled pee break without calling for a replacement first. It's all about a vast bureaucracy that gets no instructions from the top, or worse, contradictory instructions, and then finds that inertia and complacency are perhaps the best course of action.
Because Barack Obama and some of the winners he's picked (like Napolitano) can't or won't admit to themselves that there are people out there who want us dead, and who need to be stopped with something other than flowery language and best wishes, then don't be surprised when "model employees" keep their jobs after they've been identified as the person who failed to pass on information about a known terrorist, revoke the visa of a known terrorist or abandon their post, causing a major airport to shut down for six hours.
The Chief's don't take this shit seriously, so why should the Indians?
Update: Professor Hanson agrees..in fact, he predicted it last February...
This Just In: Fox News Reports Obama Has Not Held Public News Conference in Six Months...
Coulda fooled me. Seems the guy is on television more than that Progressive Insurance chick (and is it just me, or do any of you find her curiously arousing, too?).
Now, I wonder how the define "Public News Conference"? I mean, I thought when the Prezzz hits the airwaves, and there's reporters there, it's a News Conference. Which happens to be a five-times-a-day occurrence, it seems.
Or, are we talking about an "official Obama News Conference" defined as "Barry gets to talk about what he wants to, how he wants to, without having to answer any questions and no input from the Press..." instead of the other kind where he has to talk about would-be terrorists, and why Janet Napolitano hasn't been flogged yet, or where those 6-million jobs "created or saved" are, or why thirty million dollars went to a non-existent Congressional district to study the environmental impact of unicorn farts?
Anyways, I think the claim that there hasn't been a News Conference for six months is spurious,considering we've had a solid year of the Extended Obama Infomercial. Perhaps instead of bemoaning the fact that there hasn't been a News Conference, we should perhaps be thinking about whether we need to see the President anymore than we already do.
I mean, he's getting wall-to-wall coverage, and never has anything interesting to say, anyway, and he just makes you nostalgic for the days of G.W. Bush, so maybe we don't need News Conferences, after all?
But then, what would the Press do? I mean, besides make up the news, like they already do?
They say "absence makes the heart grow fonder..." Perhaps Barack Obama could put that adage to the test? Or at least come back when he has something intelligence and necessary to say.
Now, I wonder how the define "Public News Conference"? I mean, I thought when the Prezzz hits the airwaves, and there's reporters there, it's a News Conference. Which happens to be a five-times-a-day occurrence, it seems.
Or, are we talking about an "official Obama News Conference" defined as "Barry gets to talk about what he wants to, how he wants to, without having to answer any questions and no input from the Press..." instead of the other kind where he has to talk about would-be terrorists, and why Janet Napolitano hasn't been flogged yet, or where those 6-million jobs "created or saved" are, or why thirty million dollars went to a non-existent Congressional district to study the environmental impact of unicorn farts?
Anyways, I think the claim that there hasn't been a News Conference for six months is spurious,considering we've had a solid year of the Extended Obama Infomercial. Perhaps instead of bemoaning the fact that there hasn't been a News Conference, we should perhaps be thinking about whether we need to see the President anymore than we already do.
I mean, he's getting wall-to-wall coverage, and never has anything interesting to say, anyway, and he just makes you nostalgic for the days of G.W. Bush, so maybe we don't need News Conferences, after all?
But then, what would the Press do? I mean, besides make up the news, like they already do?
They say "absence makes the heart grow fonder..." Perhaps Barack Obama could put that adage to the test? Or at least come back when he has something intelligence and necessary to say.
Why Do We Still Have Amtrak?
I know, I know...Joe Biden wouldn't have a setting for those folksy, politically-motivated (and patently false) little vignettes, the one he tells in the style of a cherished recollection. They sort of remind you of Burl Ives, hot cocoa, and invoke a vision of a storybook tale in front of the fireplace.
*Sigh*...I know I just love when Joe tells those stories, about diners that he just ate in a few days ago that later turn out to have closed ten years before. Nothing says "Americana" better than Joe's revelations that he commuted back and forth from Washington to Delaware every day, just like a regular working shmoe, and met all sorts of fascinating, uniquely-American characters that have helped form his political philosophy and personal outlook...when he didn't lift them in their entirety from Charles Dickens or Jackie Collins, or maybe it was Spider Man, or whatnot.
Why, without Amtrak, Joe Biden wouldn't be Joe Sixpack --- the man we all know and love. Joe makes it seem so romantic.
Actually, having travelled many times on Amtrak, I'm surprised we don't find more mass murderers, escaped convicts, headhunters, cannibals and lepers on those trains. It's certainly not the most efficient means of travel, nor the most comfortable. I've routinely spent an average 18+ hours for a trip between New York and Charlotte N.C., for example, on a cattle-car train with a sceptic tank, eating World War II-surplus sandwiches and coffee that was probably made during the Cuban Missile Crisis at prices that would make scurvy an attractive proposition. When you ask the Cafe car attendant "What have yo got?" and he replies "Indigestion or malnutrition, your choice..." you know you're in trouble. That's a trip, incidentally, that Amtrak claims should take only 13 hours, on average.
(Editor's Note: I have driven that same distance, 730 miles or so, in a little over 10 hours --- personal best ---, and you can fly it in just over 1 hour).
In fact, to get anywhere near that 13 hour trip time, you have to leave Charlotte at 3 a.m. to get on the "good train", which at least has larger seats that recline (a little more than usual), but that ticket costs more. Forget about reserving a sleeper berth; for that kind of money, I could fly First-Class...twice. I only want to use the thing for a few hours, not take a mortgage out on it.
I've taken Amtrak many times before; to Philadelphia, Upstate New York, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Boston, Washington D.C. It's sole virtue is that, for some locations, it's infinitely cheaper (and less of a hassle) than flying, provided you have time to spare...a lot of time to spare. Amtrak is hardly ever on schedule. If you're afraid to fly and don't drive, I guess if given a choice between Amtrak and Greyhound, I might choose a train under the logical assumption I will arrive at my destination faster. Fat chance.
But this is too ridiculous, even for Amtrak.
*Sigh*...I know I just love when Joe tells those stories, about diners that he just ate in a few days ago that later turn out to have closed ten years before. Nothing says "Americana" better than Joe's revelations that he commuted back and forth from Washington to Delaware every day, just like a regular working shmoe, and met all sorts of fascinating, uniquely-American characters that have helped form his political philosophy and personal outlook...when he didn't lift them in their entirety from Charles Dickens or Jackie Collins, or maybe it was Spider Man, or whatnot.
Why, without Amtrak, Joe Biden wouldn't be Joe Sixpack --- the man we all know and love. Joe makes it seem so romantic.
Actually, having travelled many times on Amtrak, I'm surprised we don't find more mass murderers, escaped convicts, headhunters, cannibals and lepers on those trains. It's certainly not the most efficient means of travel, nor the most comfortable. I've routinely spent an average 18+ hours for a trip between New York and Charlotte N.C., for example, on a cattle-car train with a sceptic tank, eating World War II-surplus sandwiches and coffee that was probably made during the Cuban Missile Crisis at prices that would make scurvy an attractive proposition. When you ask the Cafe car attendant "What have yo got?" and he replies "Indigestion or malnutrition, your choice..." you know you're in trouble. That's a trip, incidentally, that Amtrak claims should take only 13 hours, on average.
(Editor's Note: I have driven that same distance, 730 miles or so, in a little over 10 hours --- personal best ---, and you can fly it in just over 1 hour).
In fact, to get anywhere near that 13 hour trip time, you have to leave Charlotte at 3 a.m. to get on the "good train", which at least has larger seats that recline (a little more than usual), but that ticket costs more. Forget about reserving a sleeper berth; for that kind of money, I could fly First-Class...twice. I only want to use the thing for a few hours, not take a mortgage out on it.
I've taken Amtrak many times before; to Philadelphia, Upstate New York, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Boston, Washington D.C. It's sole virtue is that, for some locations, it's infinitely cheaper (and less of a hassle) than flying, provided you have time to spare...a lot of time to spare. Amtrak is hardly ever on schedule. If you're afraid to fly and don't drive, I guess if given a choice between Amtrak and Greyhound, I might choose a train under the logical assumption I will arrive at my destination faster. Fat chance.
But this is too ridiculous, even for Amtrak.
Too Much Salt, or Too Much Government?
Via JammieWearingFool; Michael Bloomberg, Der Fuhrer of the People's Republik of New York, has championed a crusade to reduce the amount of salt in the average New Yorker's diet. This is after. mind you, he's gone as far as to ban trans-fats, require restaurants to post nutritional information and ban sodas and juices from New York City schools (unless, of course, your politically-connected soft drink company gives the Board of Ed. a huge financial break, in which case, yours will be the only soft drinks allowed in a New York City public school. Kids should be protected from sugary juices, but then denied the choice of what to drink by a monopoly negotiated in Gracie Mansion?).
This, incidentally, is the same mayor who's spending a shitload of money to teach heroin addicts the advanced techniques they'll need to become really proficient heroin addicts. So they won't get AIDS, you see --- because your run-of-the-mill AIDS-infected heroin addict takes public health resources away from Homosexuals with AIDS. Heroin addicts don't vote as much as Homosexuals, so as long as we're trying to keep them from getting AIDS we might as well really encourage the habit that will eventually kill them anyway, right?
Try to keep up with this logic; teach a heroin addict how to kill himself, but the rest of you need to be protected from high blood pressure? Is it just me or is there a stunning disconnect here?
Mayor Bloomberg cares about what you eat and drink. He says it's for your own good, but really, it isn't. It's about taxation, and the distribution of tax revenue and government services to politically-connected groups and individuals, and ultimately, the power to control an individuals behavior by limiting his choices and punishing those behaviors his self-appointed betters find objectionable.
Too much salt causes problems with high blood pressure. People with high blood pressure wind up in hospitals, and many of them do not have insurance, and they die or skip out on expensive cardiac treatment. High blood pressure, therefore, costs money. Yeah, we get it. But the solution to the problem is not new laws! The solution is in allowing people to actually suffer the very real consequences of their (in-)actions!
The truth is that most people with health problems caused by high blood pressure will pretty much die younger --- which actually saves the system money --- but that fact is glossed over, because there are larger principles at stake.
One of those principles is the questionable idea that if the Mayor (and by extension,any elected official) isn't pushing for new laws then what the hell would we need a Mayor for? This is a common theme which runs through most regulation, nowadays. New Laws and Regulations are not developed so much to address the consequences of certain behaviors, or to adapt and reconcile changes in our society; no, now they are a visible symbol of "government working". The fact that government often works in a an expensive, inefficient and half-assed fashion because of politics and bureaucratic forces is always, conveniently forgotten. When you combine those who believe that government must be seen with those who have inflated egos and an unjustified belief in their own superiority, you get stupid, petty, regressive and ultimately-ineffectual laws like this, that destroy personal choice, put an undue burden on business, cost nine times more than initially estimated, and in retrospect, accomplish jack shit. If we don't see Mike Bloomberg or Chuck Schumer addressing even the smallest, most insignificant concern of even the most brain-damaged asshole in his constituency, then government, somehow, isn't "working"?
This is a mindset that needs to be discouraged. Probably with gunfire.
Frankly, I think they do it just so they can hold a press conference. The Press Conferences are usually the only part of the program that go according to plan. But I digress...
Some people have the strangest notion of what the government should do, and how it should 'work', and the majority of these people believe that government actually exists to either "do things" or to "save us from ourselves". It's not supposed to do either -- it's role is to preserve the conditions under which you exercise your personal liberties, i.e. your power of choice. Instead, government seeks, at the behest of the dumbest and those who can scream louder, to reduce our choices, to limit our liberties, for our own good, but I should be the final arbiter of what "my own good actually" means. The first clue that your liberties are about to be taken away is usually contained in a sentence uttered by some pompous, sanctimonious, beetle-like little asshole with a title ... like this one:
If we achieve our goal, we would talk about saving tens of thousands of lives," Farley said, predicting that deaths from strokes and heart attacks will dramatically fall.
I don't believe for a second that Mr. Farley actually cares whether tens of thousands of people live longer. Why should it be desirable if tens of thousands more of us live? Won't it just make New York more crowded? Doesn't it just mean that those tens of thousands you're "saving' will continue to make demands on the Public Health System that we can't afford? What's the harm in letting them die young? I mean, in this day and age, if you don't know that high blood pressure kills, if you don't know about low sodium diets, and if you don't know of the benefits of regular exercise, then we have to conclude one of two things; a) you're a moron, in which case I want you to die before you procreate, and b) you're an irresponsible, lazy fuck, in which case, I want you dead before you procreate.
Because when "tens of thousands" of stupid, irresponsible, lazy people are artificially "saved" by government, we get more stupid, irresponsible and lazy people...who require more government to pass laws against sticking your genitals in an electrical outlet, sticking pins in your eyes or picking your nose with a samurai sword, because they obviously won't know any better.
The problem we have here is not too much salt, but too much government geared towards catering to too many stupid people.
And Mike Bloomberg still sucks.
This, incidentally, is the same mayor who's spending a shitload of money to teach heroin addicts the advanced techniques they'll need to become really proficient heroin addicts. So they won't get AIDS, you see --- because your run-of-the-mill AIDS-infected heroin addict takes public health resources away from Homosexuals with AIDS. Heroin addicts don't vote as much as Homosexuals, so as long as we're trying to keep them from getting AIDS we might as well really encourage the habit that will eventually kill them anyway, right?
Try to keep up with this logic; teach a heroin addict how to kill himself, but the rest of you need to be protected from high blood pressure? Is it just me or is there a stunning disconnect here?
Mayor Bloomberg cares about what you eat and drink. He says it's for your own good, but really, it isn't. It's about taxation, and the distribution of tax revenue and government services to politically-connected groups and individuals, and ultimately, the power to control an individuals behavior by limiting his choices and punishing those behaviors his self-appointed betters find objectionable.
Too much salt causes problems with high blood pressure. People with high blood pressure wind up in hospitals, and many of them do not have insurance, and they die or skip out on expensive cardiac treatment. High blood pressure, therefore, costs money. Yeah, we get it. But the solution to the problem is not new laws! The solution is in allowing people to actually suffer the very real consequences of their (in-)actions!
The truth is that most people with health problems caused by high blood pressure will pretty much die younger --- which actually saves the system money --- but that fact is glossed over, because there are larger principles at stake.
One of those principles is the questionable idea that if the Mayor (and by extension,any elected official) isn't pushing for new laws then what the hell would we need a Mayor for? This is a common theme which runs through most regulation, nowadays. New Laws and Regulations are not developed so much to address the consequences of certain behaviors, or to adapt and reconcile changes in our society; no, now they are a visible symbol of "government working". The fact that government often works in a an expensive, inefficient and half-assed fashion because of politics and bureaucratic forces is always, conveniently forgotten. When you combine those who believe that government must be seen with those who have inflated egos and an unjustified belief in their own superiority, you get stupid, petty, regressive and ultimately-ineffectual laws like this, that destroy personal choice, put an undue burden on business, cost nine times more than initially estimated, and in retrospect, accomplish jack shit. If we don't see Mike Bloomberg or Chuck Schumer addressing even the smallest, most insignificant concern of even the most brain-damaged asshole in his constituency, then government, somehow, isn't "working"?
This is a mindset that needs to be discouraged. Probably with gunfire.
Frankly, I think they do it just so they can hold a press conference. The Press Conferences are usually the only part of the program that go according to plan. But I digress...
Some people have the strangest notion of what the government should do, and how it should 'work', and the majority of these people believe that government actually exists to either "do things" or to "save us from ourselves". It's not supposed to do either -- it's role is to preserve the conditions under which you exercise your personal liberties, i.e. your power of choice. Instead, government seeks, at the behest of the dumbest and those who can scream louder, to reduce our choices, to limit our liberties, for our own good, but I should be the final arbiter of what "my own good actually" means. The first clue that your liberties are about to be taken away is usually contained in a sentence uttered by some pompous, sanctimonious, beetle-like little asshole with a title ... like this one:
If we achieve our goal, we would talk about saving tens of thousands of lives," Farley said, predicting that deaths from strokes and heart attacks will dramatically fall.
I don't believe for a second that Mr. Farley actually cares whether tens of thousands of people live longer. Why should it be desirable if tens of thousands more of us live? Won't it just make New York more crowded? Doesn't it just mean that those tens of thousands you're "saving' will continue to make demands on the Public Health System that we can't afford? What's the harm in letting them die young? I mean, in this day and age, if you don't know that high blood pressure kills, if you don't know about low sodium diets, and if you don't know of the benefits of regular exercise, then we have to conclude one of two things; a) you're a moron, in which case I want you to die before you procreate, and b) you're an irresponsible, lazy fuck, in which case, I want you dead before you procreate.
Because when "tens of thousands" of stupid, irresponsible, lazy people are artificially "saved" by government, we get more stupid, irresponsible and lazy people...who require more government to pass laws against sticking your genitals in an electrical outlet, sticking pins in your eyes or picking your nose with a samurai sword, because they obviously won't know any better.
The problem we have here is not too much salt, but too much government geared towards catering to too many stupid people.
And Mike Bloomberg still sucks.
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