Of Deer and Headlights...
Well, you asked for hopechange, and you've got it! Once again, naive Americans who are dumb enough to consider Rock of Love and American Idol to be stimulating entertainment, easily fell hard for the titillation and novelty of an attractively-packaged Barack Obama. No one, it seems, ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public, as H.L. Mencken once told us. This streamlines nicely with George Carlin's contention that the packaging, marketing and distribution of bullshit, is the biggest, and most successful, business in America. And no where is this more evident than in the rise (and very quick descent) of the 44th President of the United States.
So, eat it, Suckers! You've asked for it, and you've gotten it -- in spades (no pun intended). Our President is nothing if not a practiced bullshit artist who managed to finesse his way into office, aided and abetted by a public who can't tell shit from shinola, and who can't be bothered to find out, and by a political opposition that, on a good day, might be able to find it's collective ass with both hands and a compass. It now becomes apparent that all that talk about 'experience' might actually matter after all. It now becomes apparent that all that talk about 'judgement' might actually matter, too. It is now about to become axiomatic that 'cool' is not necessary 'better'. We're about to be taught a very bitter lesson that, sometimes, change is not all it's cracked up to be, and that more often than not, hope is little more than a leap in the dark born out of desperation.
The Spectator weighs in here. So does the normally-unreadable Michael Goodwin of the New York Daily News. Meanwhile, the adorable Mary Katherine Ham has this to say about the mindset of the Obamatards and their 60's-retread foot-soldiers.
McCain/Palin, in retrospect, suddenly looks like the best thing since penicillin, despite the idiocy of the campaign they ran. Perhaps we'll have learned our lessons four years hence, but I rather doubt it. After all, all you really need is a very slick marketing campaign, a catchy slogan, and a dumbed-down electorate, and you too can be President of the United States.
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Thursday, February 05, 2009
And Another One...
Via USA Today, Hilda Solis, President Obama's nominee for Secretary of Labor, is also caught up in a tax scandal. One which has lasted approximately 16 years. Read it here.
Geithner, Rangel, Killifer, Dashcle and now Solis. When anti-war democrats tried to sabotage our troops in Iraq, we were warned against the practice of 'questioning democrat's patriotism'. According to our new Vice President, Joe Biden, "paying taxes is every American's patriotic duty." I wonder if, in light of all these scandals involving democrats and their spouses not paying their taxes, it is permissible to question it now? If not now, then when?
Via USA Today, Hilda Solis, President Obama's nominee for Secretary of Labor, is also caught up in a tax scandal. One which has lasted approximately 16 years. Read it here.
Geithner, Rangel, Killifer, Dashcle and now Solis. When anti-war democrats tried to sabotage our troops in Iraq, we were warned against the practice of 'questioning democrat's patriotism'. According to our new Vice President, Joe Biden, "paying taxes is every American's patriotic duty." I wonder if, in light of all these scandals involving democrats and their spouses not paying their taxes, it is permissible to question it now? If not now, then when?
HopeChangeWeCanBelieveIn is certainly begining to sound ever more hollow as each day passes. If anything, all of these tax issues have revealed two important themes which should be front-and-center on Congress' agenda, even before this stupid, practically-worthless Porkulus Bill:
a) There is a culture of corruption and entitlement within Washington, D.C., which infects the entire elected class, regardless of party. For republicans, this curse takes the form of hypocrisy, for democrats, it manifests itself in criminal wrongdoing. It can no longer be hidden, and will require some mechanism outside the halls of power (i.e. beyond the political classes' ability to influence it) to correct. Thank God we have a clean electoral system, and an independant press! (note sarcasm), and
b) The people who wrote the damned tax code can't understand it, nor can their CPA's and attorneys, and if they all do understand it, they're very good at circumventing it...right up until the time that sheer greed and gall push them to go beyond the limits of even simple good taste knowing they will simply be able to wriggle out of any punishment, protected, even aided-and-abettted, by their fellows in the Congress, the White House, and within the federal apparatus.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
The Information Desert...
Occasionally, I force myself to watch the cacophony that bills itself as The News from different sources (I prefer FoxNews, personally) so that I might (I pray) be given another take on the world, and insights that I may not be getting elsewhere. Hopefully, these other viewpoints are going to be juxtaposed against their intellectual and rhetorical counterparts, place din context free of bias, and something resembling useful information will come out of the TV. It is often a fruitless activity.
CNN is long past the point where objectivity is anything to be prized or striven for. In my experience, the last time CNN told the truth about anything is when it admitted that Peter Arnett lied about American chemical and biological warfare in Vietnam. Still, you might catch Wolf Blitzer in an unguarded moment when his mouth slips a gear and moves out of sync with his mouth. However, the amount of time one must devote to stalking such a choice morsel is counter-productive; you could, if inclined, learn quantum mechanics in the time between uttered truths on CNN. It's a useless exercise as the only thing you'll learn is today's DNC talking points.
Headline News is, I think, simply CNN under the No-Frills label. The 'Store Brand' CNN, if you will.
CBS and ABC News are simply lame. Whoever decided that Katie Couric was a journalist should be neutered -- painfully, and with every precaution taken to ensure rapid and pervasive post-operative infection. The issue is not that Katie is unattractive, nor unintelligent; there's no question as to her appeal, although the brain thing is open to debate. Her real problem is that she simply isn't believable. She hasn't the slightest inclination towards objectivity either, and she can't hide it. Poor Katie's also laboring with the Albatross of Dan Rather hung 'round her neck. This perception of CBS being so, a) dishonest and b) credulous, in it's handling of the G.W. Bush 'desertion' story is a stain that will not go away. It will linger for years, until CBS itself is a distant memory. I wonder if that clouds my judgement on the issue (see? Katie and CBS wouldn't even ask themselves that kind of question! I have more objectivity than CBS News!). Again, no real counterpoint is given to anything that passes ideological muster at CBS. The network who once carried Murrow's famous "London is burning..." now carries nothing at all.
Charlie Gibson is simply moribund. He reminds me of rice pudding. Six month old rice pudding. Stodgy and dodgy, and still laboring under the pretense that he offers something to the hungry -- in this case, hungry for news. I have a feeling that before Charlie goes on, someone scrapes the mold off him and props him up in his seat. I find him to be as interesting as unbuttered toast, and he makes me positively yearn for the days of Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts. I don't like Charlie Gibson, and I find even less useful information on ABC news as I would expect to find in any collegiate doctorate course.
So, I'm left with NBC, which is really quite frightening. Rockefeller Center should be renamed Red Square. NBC is so devoted to the political left in this country that it's frightening. Now, if the hallowed halls of NBC News weren't scary enough, what with Tom Brokaw getting misty on Ascension (Inauguration) Day, the NBC cable operation is down right horrifying.
I call it PMSNBC. It's appropriate, because it's major hosts are all whining sacks of estrogen -- Nora O'Donnell, Chris Matthews and (especially) Keith Olbermann . All are shills for the political left and make no secret of it. In a token gesture of fairness, they drag Pat Buchannan out as the Conservative Curmudegeon and then surround him with two or three communist sympathizers programmed to repeat the same rubbish ad nauseum, in three different configurations. These are three of the most ingenuous people I've ever seen on TV. The other major host is Rachel Maddow, who has mysteriously proclaimed herself the Queen of Cable TV, while managing to be wrong in her pronouncements more often than those who defended Bill Clinton's innocence and decency. Her only saving grace is that she's obviously smarter than Olbermann, but her leftist zeal leaves you wanting to smack her with a brick. She reminds you of the poodle next door that won't stop yapping, But give her credit: she's at least probably in control of her faculties.
Nora O'Donell, I get the impression, doesn't have an idea that doesn't originate on a teleprompter; she's simply eye candy they taught to read. Matthews occasionally hits upon a patch of impartiality, but it's usually when the occasion is too obvious to obscure. Olbermann is simply insane. He's in love with his own voice, his own ideas, and his own (vapid and vacuous) jokes (I think they're supposed to be jokes). He's also obsessed with Bill O'Reilly. Like high-school-pimply-geek-who-keeps-asking-you-to-the-prom-stalker obsessed.
However, I will say this for PMSNBC -- Morning Joe is better than Fox and Friends, but only from the standpoint that since both really suck, it manages to suck a little bit less. Mostly because of Mika. That Mika Brzs-sha-sha-nis-shin-ski is nice to look at in the morning, and she actually offers some useful dialogue and asks the occasional relevant question...when Scarborough lets her get a word in edgewise, that is. When he presents a republican point of view, however, you feel as if the surface has merely been scratched, and barely at that. Toss JOe and give Mika more time to do her newswoman shtick; I'll bet she's good at it. She looks bright and competent
There is no possibility of an alternate point of view from the political right being fairly or fully presented on cable or broadcast TV, it seems, except on the Internet, and for that you have to actively search them out. Since most people are lazy and have attention spans measured in RPM's, I rather doubt many of them are spending their time trying to get properly informed, and are simply swallowing the mental jetsam available on TV without a thought.
It's no wonder people fell for HopeChange as a political program for American greatness.
Occasionally, I force myself to watch the cacophony that bills itself as The News from different sources (I prefer FoxNews, personally) so that I might (I pray) be given another take on the world, and insights that I may not be getting elsewhere. Hopefully, these other viewpoints are going to be juxtaposed against their intellectual and rhetorical counterparts, place din context free of bias, and something resembling useful information will come out of the TV. It is often a fruitless activity.
CNN is long past the point where objectivity is anything to be prized or striven for. In my experience, the last time CNN told the truth about anything is when it admitted that Peter Arnett lied about American chemical and biological warfare in Vietnam. Still, you might catch Wolf Blitzer in an unguarded moment when his mouth slips a gear and moves out of sync with his mouth. However, the amount of time one must devote to stalking such a choice morsel is counter-productive; you could, if inclined, learn quantum mechanics in the time between uttered truths on CNN. It's a useless exercise as the only thing you'll learn is today's DNC talking points.
Headline News is, I think, simply CNN under the No-Frills label. The 'Store Brand' CNN, if you will.
CBS and ABC News are simply lame. Whoever decided that Katie Couric was a journalist should be neutered -- painfully, and with every precaution taken to ensure rapid and pervasive post-operative infection. The issue is not that Katie is unattractive, nor unintelligent; there's no question as to her appeal, although the brain thing is open to debate. Her real problem is that she simply isn't believable. She hasn't the slightest inclination towards objectivity either, and she can't hide it. Poor Katie's also laboring with the Albatross of Dan Rather hung 'round her neck. This perception of CBS being so, a) dishonest and b) credulous, in it's handling of the G.W. Bush 'desertion' story is a stain that will not go away. It will linger for years, until CBS itself is a distant memory. I wonder if that clouds my judgement on the issue (see? Katie and CBS wouldn't even ask themselves that kind of question! I have more objectivity than CBS News!). Again, no real counterpoint is given to anything that passes ideological muster at CBS. The network who once carried Murrow's famous "London is burning..." now carries nothing at all.
Charlie Gibson is simply moribund. He reminds me of rice pudding. Six month old rice pudding. Stodgy and dodgy, and still laboring under the pretense that he offers something to the hungry -- in this case, hungry for news. I have a feeling that before Charlie goes on, someone scrapes the mold off him and props him up in his seat. I find him to be as interesting as unbuttered toast, and he makes me positively yearn for the days of Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts. I don't like Charlie Gibson, and I find even less useful information on ABC news as I would expect to find in any collegiate doctorate course.
So, I'm left with NBC, which is really quite frightening. Rockefeller Center should be renamed Red Square. NBC is so devoted to the political left in this country that it's frightening. Now, if the hallowed halls of NBC News weren't scary enough, what with Tom Brokaw getting misty on Ascension (Inauguration) Day, the NBC cable operation is down right horrifying.
I call it PMSNBC. It's appropriate, because it's major hosts are all whining sacks of estrogen -- Nora O'Donnell, Chris Matthews and (especially) Keith Olbermann . All are shills for the political left and make no secret of it. In a token gesture of fairness, they drag Pat Buchannan out as the Conservative Curmudegeon and then surround him with two or three communist sympathizers programmed to repeat the same rubbish ad nauseum, in three different configurations. These are three of the most ingenuous people I've ever seen on TV. The other major host is Rachel Maddow, who has mysteriously proclaimed herself the Queen of Cable TV, while managing to be wrong in her pronouncements more often than those who defended Bill Clinton's innocence and decency. Her only saving grace is that she's obviously smarter than Olbermann, but her leftist zeal leaves you wanting to smack her with a brick. She reminds you of the poodle next door that won't stop yapping, But give her credit: she's at least probably in control of her faculties.
Nora O'Donell, I get the impression, doesn't have an idea that doesn't originate on a teleprompter; she's simply eye candy they taught to read. Matthews occasionally hits upon a patch of impartiality, but it's usually when the occasion is too obvious to obscure. Olbermann is simply insane. He's in love with his own voice, his own ideas, and his own (vapid and vacuous) jokes (I think they're supposed to be jokes). He's also obsessed with Bill O'Reilly. Like high-school-pimply-geek-who-keeps-asking-you-to-the-prom-stalker obsessed.
However, I will say this for PMSNBC -- Morning Joe is better than Fox and Friends, but only from the standpoint that since both really suck, it manages to suck a little bit less. Mostly because of Mika. That Mika Brzs-sha-sha-nis-shin-ski is nice to look at in the morning, and she actually offers some useful dialogue and asks the occasional relevant question...when Scarborough lets her get a word in edgewise, that is. When he presents a republican point of view, however, you feel as if the surface has merely been scratched, and barely at that. Toss JOe and give Mika more time to do her newswoman shtick; I'll bet she's good at it. She looks bright and competent
There is no possibility of an alternate point of view from the political right being fairly or fully presented on cable or broadcast TV, it seems, except on the Internet, and for that you have to actively search them out. Since most people are lazy and have attention spans measured in RPM's, I rather doubt many of them are spending their time trying to get properly informed, and are simply swallowing the mental jetsam available on TV without a thought.
It's no wonder people fell for HopeChange as a political program for American greatness.
The Rangel Rule...
There seems to be a big problem in Washington, these days. It's not a lack of lobbyists, Code Pink protesters, or Streetwalkers (That's three kinds of whores in one sentence!).If those things were in short supply in D.C., perhaps our elected officials would get something done properly (entirely by accident, I assure you). Oh no, Washington DC., Sodom-On-The-Potomac, shall never want for these things, since those who have been elected always draw such creatures as surely as a pile of shit shall draw flies. The Cardinal Rule of Human Relations: uninteresting, stupid people don't get any attention -- but really super-uninteresting, stupid people with the ability to hijack billions of tax dollars suddenly become the sexiest people. Ever.
Anyway, back to that problem I was about to complain about.
It seems that democrats, and their hangers-on, have problems paying taxes. See: Rangel, Daschle, Geitner. It also turns out that they have problems paying for a lot of things, as well. Like parking tickets (Rangel), or for chauffeurs and limousines provided by a 'very good friend' (Daschle). Even when informed by accountants, given written instructions on what to do, and even given a separate check to cover the expense (Geitner), these guys, for whatever reason, can't seem to stick a crowbar in their wallets and do what Joe Biden called 'your patriotic duty' (i.e. pay your taxes).
And what's amazing is the amounts of taxes owed! Rangel owed 75-grand, Daschle over 140,000 large, Geitner, a mere pittance, at 40k. These guys must be very rich, indeed. They seem to owe more in taxes than some people earn as a pre-tax salary. I thought it was axiomatic in democratic circles that rich people were evil parasites, sucking the lifeblood from 'the underprivileged' whose 'fair share had been 'stolen' by those with enormous wallets. Certainly, no one who has been financially fortunate could ever have come by that sort of money honestly. That's on Page 1 of the democratic (small 'd' intentional) party handbook. Why, the entire point of the so-called progressive tax system was to ensure that the rich paid their fair share. I think these guys would qualify as 'rich', and it's apparent they haven't paid their 'fair share'.
Of course, if you have a 'D" next to your name and are either the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, responsible for writing the tax laws of this nation, or you are to be named to some important post (like, you know, being the guy who will run the freakin' IRS!) by the Savior of the Universe in Mortal Form. Then there is no criminality, no hypocrisy, no act of sheer audacity that can't be forgiven. In this case, you can just pay what you owe -- quietly, if you can -- and then the little people can just ignore the screaming hypocrisy. That's right...go back to watching Oprah and American Idol...good peasant...good...nothing to see here.
Except the Peasants actually noticed this time. Ooops.
Not only did these three men not pay their taxes, like the rest of us must (in fact, most of us have our taxes taken directly from our paychecks so that that we can't make the kinds of 'mistakes' these guys do), they then, mystically, have avoided the payment of interest and other penalties that you just absolutely know they would hit you and your neighbors with. Not a peep about interest and penalties, not a mention of possible criminal proceedings, no garnishing of wages or freezing of accounts. The dreaded Audit Beast was apparently put back in it's cage and given a sedative.
The IRS would have made life an unmitigated hell for the average person who did what these guys did, and very often does for a lot less money.
The people who scolded GM executives for flying in private jets to attend a meeting Congress itself told them to come to, while they looked the other way as $350 billion dollars simply vanished into the darkest recesses of the banking system, have a bigger issue that they'd better solve before any other;
They are sorely, incredibly, painfully out of touch with the real world. The next time one of them says 'for the American people' or 'working families' someone should step out of the crowd with a 2-by-4 and whack them right across the forehead. These people don't know jack shit about working families or the American people.
Neither working families nor the vast majority of the American people could get away with "I made a mistake on my taxes" when they've been helping to write the goddamned tax code for a quarter of a century. Working families don't have friends who lend them limousines and chauffeurs, while they collect a $83,000-a-month paycheck from him as well, or have their employer provide them with a check to pay their taxes separate from their salary. These people have a credibility gap that's wider than the gap between Nancy Pelosi's ears, deeper than the black pit of Henry Waxman's nostrils, more hazardous than the open ground between Chuck Schumer and a TV camera.
Our political class, and their satellites, cannot be trusted. They make up the rules as they go along, and then alter them as they see fit or are required to for political purposes. They do not obey the laws they pass, and often, exempt themselves from them. They feast at the public trough, all the while taking backdoor paychecks-by-other-euphemism from private industry, citizen's groups, labor unions, those seeking their favor in terms of government contracts or legislation, and even each other.
A Congressman from Texas is about to submit a bill in the House of Representatives this week (assuming Nancy Pelosi lets him, since alas, he's a Republican) that would allow any American who owes taxes this April 15th to simply write "Rangel Rule" on the bottom of his/her tax form, and thus, claim the same privilege enjoyed by Rep. Rangel so that they don't have their life turned upside down by the IRS. I hope he succeeds.
One of the founding ideals of the American Experiment is that all people, regardless of wealth, position, race, religion, and especially political affiliation, are considered equal in the eyes of the law, and that no matter what that law will be equally and fairly enforced. Apparently, it's not. We've known it for a very long time, but didn't want to admit it. Now it can no longer be hidden or ignored, and seems all the more disgusting when people in this country are losing jobs; robbed by their businessmen on the one hand, cheated by their political leaders on the other. We have no one to blame but ourselves as shareholders and voters.
These are the people to whom we're about to entrust the spending of one trillion dollars. It's a fucking disgrace.
Update: More on this from American Thinker here and here. Now, the woman who was supposed to the Chief Performance Officer (some sort of super-efficiency guru) has had to bow out here. Professor Hanson agrees with me.
There seems to be a big problem in Washington, these days. It's not a lack of lobbyists, Code Pink protesters, or Streetwalkers (That's three kinds of whores in one sentence!).If those things were in short supply in D.C., perhaps our elected officials would get something done properly (entirely by accident, I assure you). Oh no, Washington DC., Sodom-On-The-Potomac, shall never want for these things, since those who have been elected always draw such creatures as surely as a pile of shit shall draw flies. The Cardinal Rule of Human Relations: uninteresting, stupid people don't get any attention -- but really super-uninteresting, stupid people with the ability to hijack billions of tax dollars suddenly become the sexiest people. Ever.
Anyway, back to that problem I was about to complain about.
It seems that democrats, and their hangers-on, have problems paying taxes. See: Rangel, Daschle, Geitner. It also turns out that they have problems paying for a lot of things, as well. Like parking tickets (Rangel), or for chauffeurs and limousines provided by a 'very good friend' (Daschle). Even when informed by accountants, given written instructions on what to do, and even given a separate check to cover the expense (Geitner), these guys, for whatever reason, can't seem to stick a crowbar in their wallets and do what Joe Biden called 'your patriotic duty' (i.e. pay your taxes).
And what's amazing is the amounts of taxes owed! Rangel owed 75-grand, Daschle over 140,000 large, Geitner, a mere pittance, at 40k. These guys must be very rich, indeed. They seem to owe more in taxes than some people earn as a pre-tax salary. I thought it was axiomatic in democratic circles that rich people were evil parasites, sucking the lifeblood from 'the underprivileged' whose 'fair share had been 'stolen' by those with enormous wallets. Certainly, no one who has been financially fortunate could ever have come by that sort of money honestly. That's on Page 1 of the democratic (small 'd' intentional) party handbook. Why, the entire point of the so-called progressive tax system was to ensure that the rich paid their fair share. I think these guys would qualify as 'rich', and it's apparent they haven't paid their 'fair share'.
Of course, if you have a 'D" next to your name and are either the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, responsible for writing the tax laws of this nation, or you are to be named to some important post (like, you know, being the guy who will run the freakin' IRS!) by the Savior of the Universe in Mortal Form. Then there is no criminality, no hypocrisy, no act of sheer audacity that can't be forgiven. In this case, you can just pay what you owe -- quietly, if you can -- and then the little people can just ignore the screaming hypocrisy. That's right...go back to watching Oprah and American Idol...good peasant...good...nothing to see here.
Except the Peasants actually noticed this time. Ooops.
Not only did these three men not pay their taxes, like the rest of us must (in fact, most of us have our taxes taken directly from our paychecks so that that we can't make the kinds of 'mistakes' these guys do), they then, mystically, have avoided the payment of interest and other penalties that you just absolutely know they would hit you and your neighbors with. Not a peep about interest and penalties, not a mention of possible criminal proceedings, no garnishing of wages or freezing of accounts. The dreaded Audit Beast was apparently put back in it's cage and given a sedative.
The IRS would have made life an unmitigated hell for the average person who did what these guys did, and very often does for a lot less money.
The people who scolded GM executives for flying in private jets to attend a meeting Congress itself told them to come to, while they looked the other way as $350 billion dollars simply vanished into the darkest recesses of the banking system, have a bigger issue that they'd better solve before any other;
They are sorely, incredibly, painfully out of touch with the real world. The next time one of them says 'for the American people' or 'working families' someone should step out of the crowd with a 2-by-4 and whack them right across the forehead. These people don't know jack shit about working families or the American people.
Neither working families nor the vast majority of the American people could get away with "I made a mistake on my taxes" when they've been helping to write the goddamned tax code for a quarter of a century. Working families don't have friends who lend them limousines and chauffeurs, while they collect a $83,000-a-month paycheck from him as well, or have their employer provide them with a check to pay their taxes separate from their salary. These people have a credibility gap that's wider than the gap between Nancy Pelosi's ears, deeper than the black pit of Henry Waxman's nostrils, more hazardous than the open ground between Chuck Schumer and a TV camera.
Our political class, and their satellites, cannot be trusted. They make up the rules as they go along, and then alter them as they see fit or are required to for political purposes. They do not obey the laws they pass, and often, exempt themselves from them. They feast at the public trough, all the while taking backdoor paychecks-by-other-euphemism from private industry, citizen's groups, labor unions, those seeking their favor in terms of government contracts or legislation, and even each other.
A Congressman from Texas is about to submit a bill in the House of Representatives this week (assuming Nancy Pelosi lets him, since alas, he's a Republican) that would allow any American who owes taxes this April 15th to simply write "Rangel Rule" on the bottom of his/her tax form, and thus, claim the same privilege enjoyed by Rep. Rangel so that they don't have their life turned upside down by the IRS. I hope he succeeds.
One of the founding ideals of the American Experiment is that all people, regardless of wealth, position, race, religion, and especially political affiliation, are considered equal in the eyes of the law, and that no matter what that law will be equally and fairly enforced. Apparently, it's not. We've known it for a very long time, but didn't want to admit it. Now it can no longer be hidden or ignored, and seems all the more disgusting when people in this country are losing jobs; robbed by their businessmen on the one hand, cheated by their political leaders on the other. We have no one to blame but ourselves as shareholders and voters.
These are the people to whom we're about to entrust the spending of one trillion dollars. It's a fucking disgrace.
Update: More on this from American Thinker here and here. Now, the woman who was supposed to the Chief Performance Officer (some sort of super-efficiency guru) has had to bow out here. Professor Hanson agrees with me.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Eight is (Apparently Not) Enough...
Recently a woman in California gave birth to octuplets. Typically, this is one of those things that would make you marvel at the wonder of life and the unpredictability and randomness of existence, and then shake your head, whistle and say "Congratulations and God bless you."
That would be the reaction I would expect to have...unless I'd found out the mother already had six children before the new arrivals showed up. Then I think my reaction would be more in-line with wondering whether or not the woman was insane.
Well, turns out that is, indeed, the case. Now this woman (no mention of husband, you'll notice) who lives with her parents, in a three-bedroom house, has 14 children to care for. Her father is about to head back to Iraq in order to find work (guess he doesn't want to wait for The Saviour's Pork-ulus Decree to have it's desired effect), leaving two women -- both of questionable sanity to judge from these things I've read -- to fend for themselves. I'm certain the Welfare authorities in California are already lining up to cut checks. One of the articles quoted below reports that some of the octuplets are being fed with donated breast milk...I never knew such a thing existed.
Anyway, here's a bit of a round up; CBS News report is here (note how low standards of spelling and grammar have apparently fallen at CBS!), and here's one from Yahoo! News.
Recently a woman in California gave birth to octuplets. Typically, this is one of those things that would make you marvel at the wonder of life and the unpredictability and randomness of existence, and then shake your head, whistle and say "Congratulations and God bless you."
That would be the reaction I would expect to have...unless I'd found out the mother already had six children before the new arrivals showed up. Then I think my reaction would be more in-line with wondering whether or not the woman was insane.
Well, turns out that is, indeed, the case. Now this woman (no mention of husband, you'll notice) who lives with her parents, in a three-bedroom house, has 14 children to care for. Her father is about to head back to Iraq in order to find work (guess he doesn't want to wait for The Saviour's Pork-ulus Decree to have it's desired effect), leaving two women -- both of questionable sanity to judge from these things I've read -- to fend for themselves. I'm certain the Welfare authorities in California are already lining up to cut checks. One of the articles quoted below reports that some of the octuplets are being fed with donated breast milk...I never knew such a thing existed.
Anyway, here's a bit of a round up; CBS News report is here (note how low standards of spelling and grammar have apparently fallen at CBS!), and here's one from Yahoo! News.
Now It All Makes Sense...
This article about Sarah Palin appeared on RedState.Com and highlights a serious problem that exists within the ranks of journalists, commentators and members of the 'professional' punditocracy:
They haven't got a fucking clue...
So now it all makes sense; the reason we see such mediocrities, crooks and idiots as Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Charles Rangel, Hillary Clinton, Rod Blogojevich and most recently, Princess Caroline (Take note: the majority of them are affiliated with which party again?) , vault to the top of the political heap in this country is because the general media -- the very people we depend upon to bring us information that we can use to make informed political decisions -- are themselves confused, biased, partisan or just plain ignorant, and often all four at once.
These people can't even agree on the definition of basic political terms: conservative, republican, libertarian, progressive, democrat, etc. which is symbolic of the way in which political discourse has become bastardized in this country to an incredible degree. It has gotten so bad that one pundit's conservative is another's libertarian, one columnist's bible-quoting avenger is another's paragon of reason. To what extent this phenomena is intentional is arguable -- I'm not a great believer in conspiracy theories. I don't, for example, believe that the reporters from the New York Times, Slate and (P)MSNBC get together in a secret underground bunker and plot the deliberate dumbing-down of the American electorate, and co-ordinate their activities to that end. Instead, that they do manage to dumb the American electorate down is more a by-product of their own stupidity and partisanship, which radiates out from the central point of their newspaper or broadcast, falls like raindrops from the sky, and eventually gets enough people without a metaphorical umbrellla (i.e. sans critical faculties) wet enough to have that effect.
Consider it the trickle-down theory of ignorance. I'll apply for the patent as soon as I finish writing this.
The first thing that becomes apparent to me is that these folks are mostly making it up as they go along. There is no other way to explain it. It's almost as if they wake up and have decided that whatever they write this day must be divorced from reality, delivered with a sneer, and given a dash of snark intended to make certain the peasants know their place on the Great Media Food Chain -- "Hey, I'm a fucking expert on this...you just have to buy it, not necessarily understand it."
The second thing that becomes apparent to me is that one's point of view is now inextricably tangled up with one's persona feelings and political proclivities. There is no longer even a pretense towards objectivity, facts are to be ignored if they are inconvenient, language and definitions are to be mangled in order to often make a case which should probably be strangled in the intellectual cradle. If delivered with greater degrees of hyperbole and invective, all the better.
This is the system of information dissemination the American people had at their disposal this past year, and viewed in this light, the election of Barack Obama makes perfect sense. See you on the bread line sometime soon because of it. I do hope that Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews are there too -- so I can kick them both in the balls.
Update: This seemed entirely apropos.
This article about Sarah Palin appeared on RedState.Com and highlights a serious problem that exists within the ranks of journalists, commentators and members of the 'professional' punditocracy:
They haven't got a fucking clue...
So now it all makes sense; the reason we see such mediocrities, crooks and idiots as Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Charles Rangel, Hillary Clinton, Rod Blogojevich and most recently, Princess Caroline (Take note: the majority of them are affiliated with which party again?) , vault to the top of the political heap in this country is because the general media -- the very people we depend upon to bring us information that we can use to make informed political decisions -- are themselves confused, biased, partisan or just plain ignorant, and often all four at once.
These people can't even agree on the definition of basic political terms: conservative, republican, libertarian, progressive, democrat, etc. which is symbolic of the way in which political discourse has become bastardized in this country to an incredible degree. It has gotten so bad that one pundit's conservative is another's libertarian, one columnist's bible-quoting avenger is another's paragon of reason. To what extent this phenomena is intentional is arguable -- I'm not a great believer in conspiracy theories. I don't, for example, believe that the reporters from the New York Times, Slate and (P)MSNBC get together in a secret underground bunker and plot the deliberate dumbing-down of the American electorate, and co-ordinate their activities to that end. Instead, that they do manage to dumb the American electorate down is more a by-product of their own stupidity and partisanship, which radiates out from the central point of their newspaper or broadcast, falls like raindrops from the sky, and eventually gets enough people without a metaphorical umbrellla (i.e. sans critical faculties) wet enough to have that effect.
Consider it the trickle-down theory of ignorance. I'll apply for the patent as soon as I finish writing this.
The first thing that becomes apparent to me is that these folks are mostly making it up as they go along. There is no other way to explain it. It's almost as if they wake up and have decided that whatever they write this day must be divorced from reality, delivered with a sneer, and given a dash of snark intended to make certain the peasants know their place on the Great Media Food Chain -- "Hey, I'm a fucking expert on this...you just have to buy it, not necessarily understand it."
The second thing that becomes apparent to me is that one's point of view is now inextricably tangled up with one's persona feelings and political proclivities. There is no longer even a pretense towards objectivity, facts are to be ignored if they are inconvenient, language and definitions are to be mangled in order to often make a case which should probably be strangled in the intellectual cradle. If delivered with greater degrees of hyperbole and invective, all the better.
This is the system of information dissemination the American people had at their disposal this past year, and viewed in this light, the election of Barack Obama makes perfect sense. See you on the bread line sometime soon because of it. I do hope that Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews are there too -- so I can kick them both in the balls.
Update: This seemed entirely apropos.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
The Devil is in The Details...
The Wall Street Journal takes a look at that massive 'stimulus plan' of Obama's, and finds out it's nothing of the sort. Call your Congresscritter and demand that this thing die the inglorious death it deserves!
It is a testament to how deranged, and lacking of basic economic accumen, that democrats (small 'd' intentional) are, that they actually believe that changing the light bulbs at the Smithsonian, or re-sodding the lawn on the Mall counts as 'economic stimulus'.
Seriously, this sort of thing needs to Stop. Right. Now.
The Wall Street Journal takes a look at that massive 'stimulus plan' of Obama's, and finds out it's nothing of the sort. Call your Congresscritter and demand that this thing die the inglorious death it deserves!
It is a testament to how deranged, and lacking of basic economic accumen, that democrats (small 'd' intentional) are, that they actually believe that changing the light bulbs at the Smithsonian, or re-sodding the lawn on the Mall counts as 'economic stimulus'.
Seriously, this sort of thing needs to Stop. Right. Now.
Son, It's Your Mother's Fault...
Regarding economic turmoil in the United States; blame Baby Boomers. Don't believe me? Try this, courtesy of Tigerhawk. Make certain you read the comments section, which has one very sorry excuse for a Boomer trying to make the lame case that her generation's profligate ways are really their parent's fault!
As always, Victor Davis Hanson (here) scolds and emasculates the Boomer generation in such eloquent and learned tones that you almost feel like cheering...until you realize that he's talking about their primary role in bankrupting the greatest country in the history of mankind, both financially and morally. Then you want to puke.
Boomers. All of a sudden, Logan's Run looks like a great idea...
Regarding economic turmoil in the United States; blame Baby Boomers. Don't believe me? Try this, courtesy of Tigerhawk. Make certain you read the comments section, which has one very sorry excuse for a Boomer trying to make the lame case that her generation's profligate ways are really their parent's fault!
As always, Victor Davis Hanson (here) scolds and emasculates the Boomer generation in such eloquent and learned tones that you almost feel like cheering...until you realize that he's talking about their primary role in bankrupting the greatest country in the history of mankind, both financially and morally. Then you want to puke.
Boomers. All of a sudden, Logan's Run looks like a great idea...
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
A New Link...
I have added a link to a brand-spanking-new blog, Called Closet Conservative. According to the description:
"This blog is for people is for people who are forced to hide their politically incorrect opinions because they work with people who are intollerant of diversity of opinion.
This blog is for the people who have to search out the secret underground of like-minded people where they work and play.
This is a place where you can share your story of the repressive thought police that surround us."
Given that the American people have just elected a cult figure as President of the United States, I can pretty much guess that the Thought Police will now be emboldened like they've never been before, and therefore, more vigilance is needed. Whoever the author is, he/she is performing a valuable public service, IMO.
Good Luck to the Closet Conservative...and Thanks!
I have added a link to a brand-spanking-new blog, Called Closet Conservative. According to the description:
"This blog is for people is for people who are forced to hide their politically incorrect opinions because they work with people who are intollerant of diversity of opinion.
This blog is for the people who have to search out the secret underground of like-minded people where they work and play.
This is a place where you can share your story of the repressive thought police that surround us."
Given that the American people have just elected a cult figure as President of the United States, I can pretty much guess that the Thought Police will now be emboldened like they've never been before, and therefore, more vigilance is needed. Whoever the author is, he/she is performing a valuable public service, IMO.
Good Luck to the Closet Conservative...and Thanks!
Monday, January 26, 2009
The Princess and the Pea-brain...
Unless you live under a rock, you know of the trials and travails of one Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the dead president and airhead extraordinaire. If you don't, you need to get out more, but here's a brief synopsis;
When Hitlery gave up her Senate seat to be the Secretary of State for the Enlightened One, the governor of New York, David Paterson, was constitutionally required to choose a replacement for the old hag. In a shameful display of rabid self-interest (politicians in New York state disprove on a daily basis the contention that they 'serve the public') a feeding frenzy -- reminiscent of a swarm of sharks surrounding a whale carcase -- developed around the nomination, fueled by the swollen heads of the swags battling each other for the governor's nod, the hyper-active press in Albany which has nothing else to do, and the Governor himself who had to make certain he got the proper 'dap' for his selection without appearing to get any (after all, when you've come into office because your predecessor disgraced himself with his sexual proclivities, and when the governor of Illinois is under indictment because he was trying to sell a seat, you need to be careful. Oh, but this is New York; as long as you didn't say "Show me the money!", it doesn't matter if it's only implied that you need to see the money).
A bunch of non-entities fought it out behind the scenes to get their grubby mitts on the senate seat; Andrew Cuomo, attorney general, former HUD secretary, son of the former governor and prince of the undead, was one. He is one of the most singularly ugly and frightening individuals you have ever seen in your life. Instead of haunting courtrooms in Albany, he should perhaps be offering boat rides across the River Styx. But I digress.
Most of the other folks mentioned (mostly by the press) you will probably never have heard of, and for good reason: most of them haven't accomplished anything of worth in their miserable lives. They're creatures of the State Capitol of Albany, which repels people with talent like a reverse-polarity magnet. If you have enough skill to chew gum and can breathe without mechanical assistance, you go elsewhere to work and can probably look forward to a personally-rewarding and useful career. Albany is where parasites go to live out their normal life-cycle before newspaper scandal, a federal indictment or old age takes them. You can talk about graft in Illinois and Louisiana, but ours is just as bad, and mostly because only the very worst sort finds it's way into the halls of power.
Which brings us back to Miss Kennedy.
It's not as if she had any 'qualifications' for the Senate (then again, neither did the Hil-de-beest, so that's a poor argument against), and her only real appeal was as the last remnant of the tattered memory of Camelot -- which is somehow being magically restored under the stewardship of Barack Hussein Obama. That's strange because in the days of the real Kennedy Camelot, Obama would have been a real steward and not just a metaphorical one. But, anyway, Caroline's elevation to the Senate seat once held by her uncle Bobby (himself a moron and carpetbagger) would have been a poetically elegant touch to this new era of democratic (small 'd' intentional) nostalgia and euphoria. The retards from the 1960's have finally seen what they equate to true equality in the United Sates with the elevation of an unqualified black man to the head of state, so why not complete the 1960's vision and have the last living heir to the Kennedy vision elevated to a job she can't do, too? And then we could have another Woodstock, complete with very bad brown acid. Then the aging hippies could finally die in peace, their postponed pea-brained vision of a Kumbaya future apparently realized.
But then the governor dashed all those dreams, all those carefully-constructed fantasies, and went picked some other woman, one Kirsten Gillibrand -- who might as well be a republican with her pro-gun and anti-bailout stands --- and then had the audacity to backhandedly trash Sweet Princess Caroline in the process!
Anyways, it seems that Caroline was owed that seat. The way the Kennedy's talk, Paterson is about to be steamrolled by the Kennedy machine, and vengeance will be Teddy's. He (Paterson) publicly humiliated the woman who can't complete a sentence without resorting to 37 "you knows", and "I means..." and "you know what I mean?". And then there's the allegations that she won't disclose her financial information, possible tax problems, and the faintest whispers that she may have hired illegal immigrants and not paid their taxes, either. But no, Caroline was embarrassed by the governor, and denied her just due. Why it was her just due is beyond me, but you get the impression from her (very vocal) supporters that this senate seat was her birthright.
Quite frankly, I don't care for any of that incestuous and noxious crowd up in Albany; not for people who believe they have the right to public office because of the accident of their birth (no more Cuomos, no more Kennedys, and I swear I will puke if we see another Clinton in office in this state), or those who believe that because they spent a number of years successfully milking the public tit in the state Assembly or Senate that they are suddenly entitled to move on up to a bigger tit as Governor or Senator, and then milk that dry. I'm sick of Mayors who say one thing, and then do another, and for whom, the exercise of power is a right granted by virtue of the fact that he can bring his personal fortune to bear in it's attainment and execution.
I'm perfectly happy that Caroline Kennedy didn't get this seat, because while the coverage of her failure (or double-cross, depending upon which side you're on) is annoying and disgusting, the way the press would have fawned over her for the next two years and treated her every pronouncement as pure gold would have been even more maddening. I wish Kirsten Gillbrand (whoever she is) the best of luck; she's going to need it now that the American Royalty has been snubbed -- they have their knives out for her, too.
I want everyone to look back to that press conference the governor held when he named Gillibrand and take a look at who was standing up there representing New York:
* A governor who wasn't elected, but got the job because Eliot Spitzer liked hookers, and who then admitted when he took office that he had once had a drug habit.
*Charles Schumer, a man so vile that there isn't a disinfectant powerful enough to scrub him off the public stage...yet. They say the most dangerous place to be in the world is between Charles Schumer and a television camera. The man is so self-obsessed that he's in danger of folding in upon himself. This is one of the architects of the current banking crisis (his letter publicly identifying Indy-Mac as a failing institution began a run on the banks which helped to exacerbate the problem). The sooner Charles Schumer gets sucked up into a vent or falls into a black hole, the better.
*Sheldon Silver, the Speaker of the New York State Assembly. Silver has never met a welfare program or tax hike that he didn't like, and has a real problem with separating his public work in Albany with his private work as a high-priced lawyer representing some of the more powerful, monied interests in New York City. Unless the check clears...
Caroline should be thrilled she won't have to sully herself with hanging about these men, on the one hand, and on the other, we should be glad none of them will get the chance to pull her strings. With this bunch, even with her pedigree, she would have been nothing but the Puppet Princess.
Unless you live under a rock, you know of the trials and travails of one Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the dead president and airhead extraordinaire. If you don't, you need to get out more, but here's a brief synopsis;
When Hitlery gave up her Senate seat to be the Secretary of State for the Enlightened One, the governor of New York, David Paterson, was constitutionally required to choose a replacement for the old hag. In a shameful display of rabid self-interest (politicians in New York state disprove on a daily basis the contention that they 'serve the public') a feeding frenzy -- reminiscent of a swarm of sharks surrounding a whale carcase -- developed around the nomination, fueled by the swollen heads of the swags battling each other for the governor's nod, the hyper-active press in Albany which has nothing else to do, and the Governor himself who had to make certain he got the proper 'dap' for his selection without appearing to get any (after all, when you've come into office because your predecessor disgraced himself with his sexual proclivities, and when the governor of Illinois is under indictment because he was trying to sell a seat, you need to be careful. Oh, but this is New York; as long as you didn't say "Show me the money!", it doesn't matter if it's only implied that you need to see the money).
A bunch of non-entities fought it out behind the scenes to get their grubby mitts on the senate seat; Andrew Cuomo, attorney general, former HUD secretary, son of the former governor and prince of the undead, was one. He is one of the most singularly ugly and frightening individuals you have ever seen in your life. Instead of haunting courtrooms in Albany, he should perhaps be offering boat rides across the River Styx. But I digress.
Most of the other folks mentioned (mostly by the press) you will probably never have heard of, and for good reason: most of them haven't accomplished anything of worth in their miserable lives. They're creatures of the State Capitol of Albany, which repels people with talent like a reverse-polarity magnet. If you have enough skill to chew gum and can breathe without mechanical assistance, you go elsewhere to work and can probably look forward to a personally-rewarding and useful career. Albany is where parasites go to live out their normal life-cycle before newspaper scandal, a federal indictment or old age takes them. You can talk about graft in Illinois and Louisiana, but ours is just as bad, and mostly because only the very worst sort finds it's way into the halls of power.
Which brings us back to Miss Kennedy.
It's not as if she had any 'qualifications' for the Senate (then again, neither did the Hil-de-beest, so that's a poor argument against), and her only real appeal was as the last remnant of the tattered memory of Camelot -- which is somehow being magically restored under the stewardship of Barack Hussein Obama. That's strange because in the days of the real Kennedy Camelot, Obama would have been a real steward and not just a metaphorical one. But, anyway, Caroline's elevation to the Senate seat once held by her uncle Bobby (himself a moron and carpetbagger) would have been a poetically elegant touch to this new era of democratic (small 'd' intentional) nostalgia and euphoria. The retards from the 1960's have finally seen what they equate to true equality in the United Sates with the elevation of an unqualified black man to the head of state, so why not complete the 1960's vision and have the last living heir to the Kennedy vision elevated to a job she can't do, too? And then we could have another Woodstock, complete with very bad brown acid. Then the aging hippies could finally die in peace, their postponed pea-brained vision of a Kumbaya future apparently realized.
But then the governor dashed all those dreams, all those carefully-constructed fantasies, and went picked some other woman, one Kirsten Gillibrand -- who might as well be a republican with her pro-gun and anti-bailout stands --- and then had the audacity to backhandedly trash Sweet Princess Caroline in the process!
Anyways, it seems that Caroline was owed that seat. The way the Kennedy's talk, Paterson is about to be steamrolled by the Kennedy machine, and vengeance will be Teddy's. He (Paterson) publicly humiliated the woman who can't complete a sentence without resorting to 37 "you knows", and "I means..." and "you know what I mean?". And then there's the allegations that she won't disclose her financial information, possible tax problems, and the faintest whispers that she may have hired illegal immigrants and not paid their taxes, either. But no, Caroline was embarrassed by the governor, and denied her just due. Why it was her just due is beyond me, but you get the impression from her (very vocal) supporters that this senate seat was her birthright.
Quite frankly, I don't care for any of that incestuous and noxious crowd up in Albany; not for people who believe they have the right to public office because of the accident of their birth (no more Cuomos, no more Kennedys, and I swear I will puke if we see another Clinton in office in this state), or those who believe that because they spent a number of years successfully milking the public tit in the state Assembly or Senate that they are suddenly entitled to move on up to a bigger tit as Governor or Senator, and then milk that dry. I'm sick of Mayors who say one thing, and then do another, and for whom, the exercise of power is a right granted by virtue of the fact that he can bring his personal fortune to bear in it's attainment and execution.
I'm perfectly happy that Caroline Kennedy didn't get this seat, because while the coverage of her failure (or double-cross, depending upon which side you're on) is annoying and disgusting, the way the press would have fawned over her for the next two years and treated her every pronouncement as pure gold would have been even more maddening. I wish Kirsten Gillbrand (whoever she is) the best of luck; she's going to need it now that the American Royalty has been snubbed -- they have their knives out for her, too.
I want everyone to look back to that press conference the governor held when he named Gillibrand and take a look at who was standing up there representing New York:
* A governor who wasn't elected, but got the job because Eliot Spitzer liked hookers, and who then admitted when he took office that he had once had a drug habit.
*Charles Schumer, a man so vile that there isn't a disinfectant powerful enough to scrub him off the public stage...yet. They say the most dangerous place to be in the world is between Charles Schumer and a television camera. The man is so self-obsessed that he's in danger of folding in upon himself. This is one of the architects of the current banking crisis (his letter publicly identifying Indy-Mac as a failing institution began a run on the banks which helped to exacerbate the problem). The sooner Charles Schumer gets sucked up into a vent or falls into a black hole, the better.
*Sheldon Silver, the Speaker of the New York State Assembly. Silver has never met a welfare program or tax hike that he didn't like, and has a real problem with separating his public work in Albany with his private work as a high-priced lawyer representing some of the more powerful, monied interests in New York City. Unless the check clears...
Caroline should be thrilled she won't have to sully herself with hanging about these men, on the one hand, and on the other, we should be glad none of them will get the chance to pull her strings. With this bunch, even with her pedigree, she would have been nothing but the Puppet Princess.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)