...because the money is going to China.
Rhode Island Wind Farm will use turbines Made in China, paid for by Stimulus Funds.
Really? I mean, Rhode Island is so small you could probably power the entire state with half a dozen hamsters running in wheels attached to an Our-Gang-style, jury-rigged generator. And who knew they had sewage systems in Rhode Island? I thought it was just Massachusetts' parking lot.
This story is problematic -- and typical of government 'solutions' to any problem, because:
a) Green Energy sources, especially windmills, don't work as they are dependant upon a fuel which is largely unpredictable or expensive to create or capture, in this case, the Wind. Wind power is not practical as a primary power source, and in addition it kills off birds in great numbers (birds being too stupid to avoid flying into whirling turbine blades, or to avoid falling out of nests built on the towers), which sorta-kinda defeats it's supposed ecological benefits.
b) I wonder what Jeff Immelt over at GE thinks about his asshole-buddy relationship with the Obama Administration now? I thought we made wind turbines here in America, unless the American brand -- heavily subsidized by tax dollars -- is still too damned expensive (probably because of Union Wage scales) to be bought by Americans. I reckon Jeff figured that having paid enough of his shareholder's money to get into Obama's good graces,and having his broadcast arms (NBC and (P)MSNBC) practically get Obama elected without doing as much as a single investigative piece on him, that GE was entitled to every dollar the government intends to waste.
Sometimes, Jeffy, when you lie down with -- and kiss the asses of -- dogs, you wake up with fleas...and a really bad taste in your mouth.
c) EnvironMENTALism is simply Socialism in better packaging. Not only are we now implementing a regime of 'renewable energy' which is part of a grander scheme of redistributing wealth all over the planet at our expense, we're paying Communists to help us to do it.
d) If Rhode Island needed three windmills -- to pump shit through a pipe -- why didn't the taxpayers of that state just pay for it themselves? Maybe because that would have meant the state couldn't spend that money on bi-lingual education or funding abortions. Priorities, and all that.
EnvironMENTALism is the New Socialism; it's basic aim is to arrest the technical development of the Industrialized World (by restricting it's use of energy and by pouring billions of dollars into largely-useless and wasteful initiatives) which will allow the Third World -- largely exempt from the Carbon Control Scheme -- to 'catch up', thus bringing about Socialism in effect. It operates by pulling one society down, while allowing another to make incremental-and-unregulated surges upwards, and so, artificially aims to 'equal' everyone out without having to toss a violent revolution to achieve any of it. Of course, all this really means is that Western economies, through Green Energy initiatives, Carbon Control regimes, international treaties and U.N. Mandates, will be economically hamstrung until everyone in Katmandu, New Guinea or the Congo, can afford an iPad and at least half a meal a day, while the West will have committed Economic and Social suicide under the banner of "saving the environment".
The purpose of Green Energy projects is to basically waste resources that otherwise would have been spent by individual consumers or taxpayers to increase their standards of living and quality of life, and thus, increase the distinctions based on wealth between peoples. Building windmills is fundamentally the same as baking a million loaves of bread -- and then setting them on fire. It's the equivalent of catching a few billion fish and then dumping them back into the sea. Energy is expended, resources are used up, labor is wasted, capital is spent... and no one benefits from it.
Except the Chinese who get paid for the windmills, the politicians who took the bribes to make sure the Chinese got the contract, and the doofus in the Serengetti who, if his standard of living hasn't been raised, as least has the smug satisfaction of knowing that his American counterpart hasn't gotten any richer or more comfortable.
That is, after all, what Socialism is all about: it's all about fear, and guilt, and envy, all wrapped up in a nice,shiny package emblazoned with the words like "Equality!" and "Plenty!", and all it can really guarantee is that there's Plenty of squalor to be Equally distributed. Now that's REAL Equality: we can all starve to death at the same speed.
Why do you think it is that every Socialist regime in history comes with a Secret Police and a system of Gulags, after all?
So, while we'll all be equally miserable, if the Watermelons (Green on the outside, Red on the inside) have their way, we can at least console ourselves with the thought that our initial motive was high-minded...
...and that Rhode Island has a wind-powered sewage treatment plant just at the point in history when indoor plumbing becomes a thing of the past, seeing as how bankrupt and homeless Americans will all soon be living in cardboard boxes in the woods because their government spent their hard-earned tax dollars to give the Chinese jobs at their expense.
Until the Watermelons start complaining that all those people living in the woods are destroying the ecosystem, of course. The government of Rhode Island will probably respond to that next environmental crisis by outsourcing the roundup and transport of it's citizens to the concentration camps to Russia, or something.
It's probably the one service GE doesn't provide, and I hear The Russkies are really good at that sort of thing.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Obama Releases His Birth Certificate...Finally...
And for some, it still just ain't enough, because within a very short time someone posted a screed purporting to have discovered 'inconsistencies' which would lead one to believe the released document is, itself, a forgery.
My word, but at what point does it just go away? I'm sick and tired of Mr. Oblah-blah, sure, but this is getting ridiculous, and is probably the first sign of a political neurosis: If we could have Bush Derangement Syndrome, then why not an Obama Derangement Syndrome?
I wrote this a few weeks ago, when Donald Trump re-opened the whole Birther controversy. The money quote:
"I'm no fan of Barack Obama, believe me, but at this point trying to get him tossed from office on such skinny hopes reeks of the Prosecuting Attorney who went into court with a murder weapon, the suspect's fingerprints and DNA, three eyewitnesses, a confession and the whole crime captured on videotape, loses his case through incredible stupidity -- and then tries to get the accused busted on a jaywalking rap, just to save face.Barack Obama's Birth Certificate just might turn out to be the political equivalent of The Bloody Glove."
And so it still might, because now the argument is: he's released the records you wanted, Nutjobs, and you're still not satisfied? What else do you want? If you thought the Dhimmicratic Party was out to question your sanity then, just you wait.
As for Donald Trump, he got himself to a press conference so quickly that he left a vapor trail behind. Of course, he took credit for finally forcing the President to release a Birth Certificate, and then quickly changed the subject: When are you going to release you college transcripts, Mr. O?
Really?
Personally, I think the whole Birth Certificate kerfuffle was always a waste of time. I find it difficult to believe that the man was able to run for office, first in Illinois, and then for the Presidency, without having to offer an official birth certificate at some point along the way. I'm sure that when Mr. Obama applied for a driver's licence, a passport, or registered for school, a birth certificate, likewise, was required. Somewhere along the way, you figure someone could have found a copy of the damned thing anytime they wanted to, including the President himself. The only reason I can see for Mr.Obama letting this little drama go on for so long was because it gave him the excuse to attack his opposition and paint them as insane racists who can't handle having a (half-)black dude in the Oval Office. That's basically the gift that keeps on giving, in democratic party politics.
Which begs the question; then why make such a show of releasing it at all?
Answer: expect some extremely bad news by the end of the week.
My word, but at what point does it just go away? I'm sick and tired of Mr. Oblah-blah, sure, but this is getting ridiculous, and is probably the first sign of a political neurosis: If we could have Bush Derangement Syndrome, then why not an Obama Derangement Syndrome?
I wrote this a few weeks ago, when Donald Trump re-opened the whole Birther controversy. The money quote:
"I'm no fan of Barack Obama, believe me, but at this point trying to get him tossed from office on such skinny hopes reeks of the Prosecuting Attorney who went into court with a murder weapon, the suspect's fingerprints and DNA, three eyewitnesses, a confession and the whole crime captured on videotape, loses his case through incredible stupidity -- and then tries to get the accused busted on a jaywalking rap, just to save face.Barack Obama's Birth Certificate just might turn out to be the political equivalent of The Bloody Glove."
And so it still might, because now the argument is: he's released the records you wanted, Nutjobs, and you're still not satisfied? What else do you want? If you thought the Dhimmicratic Party was out to question your sanity then, just you wait.
As for Donald Trump, he got himself to a press conference so quickly that he left a vapor trail behind. Of course, he took credit for finally forcing the President to release a Birth Certificate, and then quickly changed the subject: When are you going to release you college transcripts, Mr. O?
Really?
Personally, I think the whole Birth Certificate kerfuffle was always a waste of time. I find it difficult to believe that the man was able to run for office, first in Illinois, and then for the Presidency, without having to offer an official birth certificate at some point along the way. I'm sure that when Mr. Obama applied for a driver's licence, a passport, or registered for school, a birth certificate, likewise, was required. Somewhere along the way, you figure someone could have found a copy of the damned thing anytime they wanted to, including the President himself. The only reason I can see for Mr.Obama letting this little drama go on for so long was because it gave him the excuse to attack his opposition and paint them as insane racists who can't handle having a (half-)black dude in the Oval Office. That's basically the gift that keeps on giving, in democratic party politics.
Which begs the question; then why make such a show of releasing it at all?
Answer: expect some extremely bad news by the end of the week.
Too Smart for His Own Good?
Three anonymous (probably Leftard) 'experts' subject President Obama to a thorough examination -- without meeting him -- and form the following diagnosis:he's a complex dude, and that's why we don't understand just how absolutely fucking incomprehensibly awesome he really is.
Let's get this out of the way: I like Barack Obama, The Man, not Barack Obama the Jumpshot-in-Chief. I think he is genuinely smart in that Ivory Tower, bookish sort of way which makes for interesting cocktail party conversation, but which usually doesn't work when applied to practical problems. I'd like to spend an afternoon with him over a couple of beers and a ballgame, or maybe an evening of poker, cigars and dirty jokes. Hell, he can fuck my sister, I admire him so much.
It takes a great man to be this utterly clueless and still get elected to the highest office in the land. I'd like to know his secrets to success.
But, there's something about Obama that just doesn't compute, and as we used to say in my old systems programming days, if it doesn't add up, then you've fucked up. There's something missing, a key variable, a lack of data, some error that must account for the gap between the Hope and Result.
So, I've done my own evaluation of Barack Obama -- debugging, as it were, the Man's code -- and since I'm not a psychiatrist, haven't read any of his three, five, seven, whatever, biographies, don't parse his speeches looking for flashes rhetorical brilliance, I don't faint at the mere sight of him, or read any of his policy papers, I figure this makes me just as qualified to evaluate the President from a distance and with no direct input as three so-called psychiatric experts who apparently are incapable of speaking in coherent sentences.
I don't believe that Barack Obama ever expected to win the election in 2008.
I believe this, without proof or first-hand evidence -- but that didn't stop Millbank's Experts, did it? -- that B.O. was just as convinced as every other Flapping Rectum in the summer of 2008 that Hillary Clinton had the democratic nomination all but stolen, and that his job in that case was to remind the Clinton Wing of the democratic party that the Moonbat Left was still there and had stuff to say (It may have been stupid stuff, but it still needed to be said), and they would not be silent while a candidate they saw as fundamentally the same as McCain took her premature victory lap and coasted into a uncontested November win.
Obama was probably content to play Clinton's Ralph Nader, and then try again another day.
But then the Economy hitthe skids. The Stock Market crashed. The Housing Market was imploding. The country was still embroiled in two wars that appeared to be becoming social laboratories and Straw Men for Left and Right to argue over rather than actually WIN. People began to worry, they began to panic, and when they examined their choices come November 2008, they found two people who were indistinguishable in their 'maintain the status quo' politicking, and some dude who gave good speech and managed to make 'more of the same' even more unappealing.
So, they voted for Barry. Whether this was the desperation of Hope, or the desire for Change, matters not: if Obama had one thing in his favor it was that he wasn't an aging Cold Warrior who couldn't stay on the same side of the political street for three minutes, or an opportunistic hellion in a Black Crusty Pantsuit who was going to have her Presidency run -- and probably ruined -- by her horndog husband. Obama was seen as alien to the viper pit of Washington politics that had caused the multiple messes we were in. That was enough for a good many folks.
So there he was, actually winning. The problem was, I think, that since he hadn't expected to win, he had no plan for what do next.
This became evident almost immediately with the Stimulus Plan. it wasn't an economic plan as much as it was a wish-list of ridiculous projects and pet peeves compiled by Congressional Democrats. The only thing "shovel ready" about that plan was The Plan Itself. It's not surprising that it failed because it wasn't really intended to do anything beyond ensuring that certain democratic (small 'd' intentional) party allies and constituencies were fully funded before the money well-and-truly ran out.
The next clue was ObamaCare. In the midst of an economic crisis, Obama puts forth a brand-spankin' new entitlement program, and then leaves the details to Congress again. He then spends 15 months -- the first third of his Presidency, in effect -- trying to sell a plan that he can't explain, can't describe the need for, and can't justify at a time when people are losing their jobs left and right. A year after it's been passed he still can't explain it, and the more we learn of it as the days unwind, the less we like it. Nancy Pelosi wasn't just being coy when she said "We have to pass it to find out what's in it"; none of the people who allegedly put it together even KNEW what they had wrought, and what they did know of it was sure to be political suicide (see 2010 midterms). That's why the thing was cobbled together in secrecy, funded up-front, and passed almost in the dead of night with the hope that it would eventually just be too complex -- and embeded -- to kill at a later date.
The next indication that Barack Obama wasn't prepared for this job was the enormous amount of time he spent complaining about having to do it. I was especially shocked to listen to President-Elect Obama take daily questions from the Press on this or that subject, and alternately expound a load of fertilizer where he thought it would do him good, and then gently remind the Press that he wasn't President yet when a question was inconvenient. Later, the criticism becomes too great and mean-spirited, everything was George Bush's fault, it's racism and he inherited every problem and they couldn't all be fixed overnight(this is true, but it's not as if he didn't know about the pile of horse dung that is Washington and American Politics; but he did, after all, lobby for the job and should have known), and this led to the next clue:
The amount of time Barack Obama has spent in the last two years NOT being President of the United States.He's on vacation every few weeks. He's delegated a shitload of authority and responsibility to 'czars' and 'Blue Ribbon Panels', he's taking "Date Nights" with the Missus, taking the kids to Hawaii, playing as much golf as possible. When catastrophe strikes, and the Gulf Coast is poisoned by a massive oil spill, Obama goes on vacation, but promises to file a lawsuit when he comes back. He starts a war by committee, so that England and France can fight Khadaffi to the last American on behalf of their oil supplies, and then tries to back away from ownership of it. This as American forces are already fighting on behalf of the Europeans in Afghanistan and Iraq. Our foreign policy leadership has been turned over to the U.N., the Arab League, and the European Union.
But the Biggest Clue about about how clueless Barack Obama is in the selection of his advisers; he went back into the Clinton Administration to find a good number of them. Nothing says 'Change' like a return of the legions of Clinton Zombies who had served so well that Al Gore couldn't even win his OWN STATE in a time of peace and prosperity, and was reduced to trying to sue his way into the White House.
Leon Pannetta, Rahn Emannuel, Eric Holder, and if that's not frightening enough, there's a cavalcade of democratic party stars rumored to be waiting in the wings, whispering this or that piece of sage advice, or angling for jobs: Jimmy Carter, Jamie Gorelick, Donna Brazille, Joe "The Raging Dumbass" Biden. Some change.
Whatever economic plan Obama and his team managed to write on the back of a cocktail napkin and presented as a serious solution to our economic woes sounds as if it came right out of a Soviet Three Year Plan, one that college students are obliged to read about in their textbooks: massive government 'investment' in Green Energy -- an industry which has, to date, not delivered a single result to ever match it's claims -- a return of FDR's Public Works Programs, Nationalization of the Banks and selected (union-dominated) Industries on a scale, and in such brazen fashion, that it would have made the Nazis blush with envy.
Change? We're trying the same things that have been tried in various countries since the 1930's; they didn't work then, they sure as hell won't work now. We're being lectured to on Capitalism by the Chinese and Russians, for Christ's sake! I'm sure everyone in the White House has read Das Kapital, but has anyone there read The Wealth of Nations?
Don't even get me started on how it is that Candidate Obama and President Obama are polar opposites on Gitmo Detainees, The Surge, Raising Debt Ceilings, Bush Tax Cuts (he's now changed positions on these, by my count, three times), talking about ending two wars, but then starting a third, etc, etc. I guess it's easy to criticize when you're ignorant of reality than it is when you're in full possession of the facts -- or at least when you're trying to get someones job, only to find out it's not all it's cracked up to be. In the end, it looks as if you're making it up as you go along, flying by the seat of your pants, confused, uncertain, disinterested.
This guy always seems to be two or three steps behind the curve on everything. Everything comes as a surprise, every issue or crisis is one that is unforeseen, and is preceded or followed with the adjective 'unexpectedly!'. He doesn't know what to do about Egypt. He doesn't know what to do about Libya. He doesn't realize that governments don't run economies, businesses do. He doesn't know what to do about much of anything, and when he tries to explain what action he does/doesn't take, no one buys it. We see right through it all.
Too smart for his own good? A complex thinker? Not by half. Barack Obama would have made a good insurance salesman. There's no shame in that; the world needs insurance salesmen. But a deep thinker? a Complex personality? A mathematician's ability to juggle variables in his head? On what fucking planet?
What Barack Obama is -- to use a poker analogy -- is a guy who's had his bluff called when he's short-stacked, and has but one option left: to go All In; he talked the talk, so the American people gave him an opportunity to walk the walk, and then it became apparent that Obama WAS, indeed, nothing but talk, and even then, he was given the benefit of the doubt seeing as how he was walking into a gigantic mess; maybe,some hoped, he would grow into the job?
No such luck. If anything, Barack Obama has shrunk while in the job, which is a pity almost beyond words. It was a task that he was not prepared for. Attempts to spin Obama's deer-in-the-headlights performance by resort to the well-worn political columnist's trick of "he's too smart for most people to understand", "he's too complex", "it's bad communications", "he's a deep thinker" are outright distortions of the truth, and that a newspaper columnist should have the audacity to promote such distortions as serious reportage/editorial is an absolute outrage.
Before firing Dana Millbank, his bosses should kick his ass for being a dipshit.
Dana Millbank's job is to present the facts; not trot out the shop-worn "He's too smart for us" bullshit in an attempt to explain away or paper over what is, already, a failed Presidency. We've been there and done that with other political figures; Hillary Clinton and Jimmy Carter, for example, and it wasn't true then, either. What makes anyone think the third time's a charm?
Let's get this out of the way: I like Barack Obama, The Man, not Barack Obama the Jumpshot-in-Chief. I think he is genuinely smart in that Ivory Tower, bookish sort of way which makes for interesting cocktail party conversation, but which usually doesn't work when applied to practical problems. I'd like to spend an afternoon with him over a couple of beers and a ballgame, or maybe an evening of poker, cigars and dirty jokes. Hell, he can fuck my sister, I admire him so much.
It takes a great man to be this utterly clueless and still get elected to the highest office in the land. I'd like to know his secrets to success.
But, there's something about Obama that just doesn't compute, and as we used to say in my old systems programming days, if it doesn't add up, then you've fucked up. There's something missing, a key variable, a lack of data, some error that must account for the gap between the Hope and Result.
So, I've done my own evaluation of Barack Obama -- debugging, as it were, the Man's code -- and since I'm not a psychiatrist, haven't read any of his three, five, seven, whatever, biographies, don't parse his speeches looking for flashes rhetorical brilliance, I don't faint at the mere sight of him, or read any of his policy papers, I figure this makes me just as qualified to evaluate the President from a distance and with no direct input as three so-called psychiatric experts who apparently are incapable of speaking in coherent sentences.
I don't believe that Barack Obama ever expected to win the election in 2008.
I believe this, without proof or first-hand evidence -- but that didn't stop Millbank's Experts, did it? -- that B.O. was just as convinced as every other Flapping Rectum in the summer of 2008 that Hillary Clinton had the democratic nomination all but stolen, and that his job in that case was to remind the Clinton Wing of the democratic party that the Moonbat Left was still there and had stuff to say (It may have been stupid stuff, but it still needed to be said), and they would not be silent while a candidate they saw as fundamentally the same as McCain took her premature victory lap and coasted into a uncontested November win.
Obama was probably content to play Clinton's Ralph Nader, and then try again another day.
But then the Economy hitthe skids. The Stock Market crashed. The Housing Market was imploding. The country was still embroiled in two wars that appeared to be becoming social laboratories and Straw Men for Left and Right to argue over rather than actually WIN. People began to worry, they began to panic, and when they examined their choices come November 2008, they found two people who were indistinguishable in their 'maintain the status quo' politicking, and some dude who gave good speech and managed to make 'more of the same' even more unappealing.
So, they voted for Barry. Whether this was the desperation of Hope, or the desire for Change, matters not: if Obama had one thing in his favor it was that he wasn't an aging Cold Warrior who couldn't stay on the same side of the political street for three minutes, or an opportunistic hellion in a Black Crusty Pantsuit who was going to have her Presidency run -- and probably ruined -- by her horndog husband. Obama was seen as alien to the viper pit of Washington politics that had caused the multiple messes we were in. That was enough for a good many folks.
So there he was, actually winning. The problem was, I think, that since he hadn't expected to win, he had no plan for what do next.
This became evident almost immediately with the Stimulus Plan. it wasn't an economic plan as much as it was a wish-list of ridiculous projects and pet peeves compiled by Congressional Democrats. The only thing "shovel ready" about that plan was The Plan Itself. It's not surprising that it failed because it wasn't really intended to do anything beyond ensuring that certain democratic (small 'd' intentional) party allies and constituencies were fully funded before the money well-and-truly ran out.
The next clue was ObamaCare. In the midst of an economic crisis, Obama puts forth a brand-spankin' new entitlement program, and then leaves the details to Congress again. He then spends 15 months -- the first third of his Presidency, in effect -- trying to sell a plan that he can't explain, can't describe the need for, and can't justify at a time when people are losing their jobs left and right. A year after it's been passed he still can't explain it, and the more we learn of it as the days unwind, the less we like it. Nancy Pelosi wasn't just being coy when she said "We have to pass it to find out what's in it"; none of the people who allegedly put it together even KNEW what they had wrought, and what they did know of it was sure to be political suicide (see 2010 midterms). That's why the thing was cobbled together in secrecy, funded up-front, and passed almost in the dead of night with the hope that it would eventually just be too complex -- and embeded -- to kill at a later date.
The next indication that Barack Obama wasn't prepared for this job was the enormous amount of time he spent complaining about having to do it. I was especially shocked to listen to President-Elect Obama take daily questions from the Press on this or that subject, and alternately expound a load of fertilizer where he thought it would do him good, and then gently remind the Press that he wasn't President yet when a question was inconvenient. Later, the criticism becomes too great and mean-spirited, everything was George Bush's fault, it's racism and he inherited every problem and they couldn't all be fixed overnight(this is true, but it's not as if he didn't know about the pile of horse dung that is Washington and American Politics; but he did, after all, lobby for the job and should have known), and this led to the next clue:
The amount of time Barack Obama has spent in the last two years NOT being President of the United States.He's on vacation every few weeks. He's delegated a shitload of authority and responsibility to 'czars' and 'Blue Ribbon Panels', he's taking "Date Nights" with the Missus, taking the kids to Hawaii, playing as much golf as possible. When catastrophe strikes, and the Gulf Coast is poisoned by a massive oil spill, Obama goes on vacation, but promises to file a lawsuit when he comes back. He starts a war by committee, so that England and France can fight Khadaffi to the last American on behalf of their oil supplies, and then tries to back away from ownership of it. This as American forces are already fighting on behalf of the Europeans in Afghanistan and Iraq. Our foreign policy leadership has been turned over to the U.N., the Arab League, and the European Union.
But the Biggest Clue about about how clueless Barack Obama is in the selection of his advisers; he went back into the Clinton Administration to find a good number of them. Nothing says 'Change' like a return of the legions of Clinton Zombies who had served so well that Al Gore couldn't even win his OWN STATE in a time of peace and prosperity, and was reduced to trying to sue his way into the White House.
Leon Pannetta, Rahn Emannuel, Eric Holder, and if that's not frightening enough, there's a cavalcade of democratic party stars rumored to be waiting in the wings, whispering this or that piece of sage advice, or angling for jobs: Jimmy Carter, Jamie Gorelick, Donna Brazille, Joe "The Raging Dumbass" Biden. Some change.
Whatever economic plan Obama and his team managed to write on the back of a cocktail napkin and presented as a serious solution to our economic woes sounds as if it came right out of a Soviet Three Year Plan, one that college students are obliged to read about in their textbooks: massive government 'investment' in Green Energy -- an industry which has, to date, not delivered a single result to ever match it's claims -- a return of FDR's Public Works Programs, Nationalization of the Banks and selected (union-dominated) Industries on a scale, and in such brazen fashion, that it would have made the Nazis blush with envy.
Change? We're trying the same things that have been tried in various countries since the 1930's; they didn't work then, they sure as hell won't work now. We're being lectured to on Capitalism by the Chinese and Russians, for Christ's sake! I'm sure everyone in the White House has read Das Kapital, but has anyone there read The Wealth of Nations?
Don't even get me started on how it is that Candidate Obama and President Obama are polar opposites on Gitmo Detainees, The Surge, Raising Debt Ceilings, Bush Tax Cuts (he's now changed positions on these, by my count, three times), talking about ending two wars, but then starting a third, etc, etc. I guess it's easy to criticize when you're ignorant of reality than it is when you're in full possession of the facts -- or at least when you're trying to get someones job, only to find out it's not all it's cracked up to be. In the end, it looks as if you're making it up as you go along, flying by the seat of your pants, confused, uncertain, disinterested.
This guy always seems to be two or three steps behind the curve on everything. Everything comes as a surprise, every issue or crisis is one that is unforeseen, and is preceded or followed with the adjective 'unexpectedly!'. He doesn't know what to do about Egypt. He doesn't know what to do about Libya. He doesn't realize that governments don't run economies, businesses do. He doesn't know what to do about much of anything, and when he tries to explain what action he does/doesn't take, no one buys it. We see right through it all.
Too smart for his own good? A complex thinker? Not by half. Barack Obama would have made a good insurance salesman. There's no shame in that; the world needs insurance salesmen. But a deep thinker? a Complex personality? A mathematician's ability to juggle variables in his head? On what fucking planet?
What Barack Obama is -- to use a poker analogy -- is a guy who's had his bluff called when he's short-stacked, and has but one option left: to go All In; he talked the talk, so the American people gave him an opportunity to walk the walk, and then it became apparent that Obama WAS, indeed, nothing but talk, and even then, he was given the benefit of the doubt seeing as how he was walking into a gigantic mess; maybe,some hoped, he would grow into the job?
No such luck. If anything, Barack Obama has shrunk while in the job, which is a pity almost beyond words. It was a task that he was not prepared for. Attempts to spin Obama's deer-in-the-headlights performance by resort to the well-worn political columnist's trick of "he's too smart for most people to understand", "he's too complex", "it's bad communications", "he's a deep thinker" are outright distortions of the truth, and that a newspaper columnist should have the audacity to promote such distortions as serious reportage/editorial is an absolute outrage.
Before firing Dana Millbank, his bosses should kick his ass for being a dipshit.
Dana Millbank's job is to present the facts; not trot out the shop-worn "He's too smart for us" bullshit in an attempt to explain away or paper over what is, already, a failed Presidency. We've been there and done that with other political figures; Hillary Clinton and Jimmy Carter, for example, and it wasn't true then, either. What makes anyone think the third time's a charm?
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Well, They Needed Them to Go With the $30 Million of Unused Bike Lanes, Silly!
Something I wanted to write about last week, but never got around to;
City of New York wastes $60,000 on bike racks, along a street with no dedicated bike lane.
Such is life in Mike Bloomberg's New Yorkistan. The really surprising thing is that the project didn't cost $6 million, and have to be re-done three times by a union-dominated, Mob-connected contractor with no competitive bidding process allowed.
And when you stop to consider it's only $60,000, you realize it could have been far worse. After all, the City just demolished an entire skate park in Midland Beach that it only built a few years ago for a reason that no one has been able to yet adequately explain, and now there's a lot of talk about a solar and wind farm project at Fresh Kills (formerly the biggest garbage dump in the United States, rumored to have been visible from Earth Orbit) that will probably cost three times it's original estimate, and produce one-fifth the promised energy. All this at a time when the Bloomdouche Administration is crying poormouth -- in the richest city, with some of the highest property taxes, in all of America.
Perhaps if the City wasn't busy installing bike racks along major roads with no bike lanes that will mostly go unused -- along roads that are deteriorating something fierce, and which have become safety hazards in their own right -- building wind farms that are unnecessary (the land upon which they will be built on is perhaps one of the richest sources of methane gas known to Man; it will be built on the largest decomposing garbage dump, after all), making your personal eating habits it's primary focus, persecuting smokers to pay for insulin and neo-natal care for illegal immigrants,and handing out free needles to heroin addicts, there might be some tax money available for all those things it was originally intended for: running the city. You know, like for repaving streets, filling in potholes, keeping the streets clean, and the hospitals open. Maybe then the Public Schools wouldn't have to hold bi-monthly fundraisers just to buy toilet paper and pencils.
But Bloomberg didn't become Mayor to do something as insignificant and unfulfilling as running the City efficiently. Hell no: he became Mayor to impose his mentally-constipated-Upper-East-Side views upon us all. He's here to make sure we eat right, Go Green even if it kills us, encourage us to stay out of Manhattan on weekends so that the Upper Crust set should never have to rub elbows with the Outer-Borough Peasants ever again, and finding new and inventive ways to kill economic activity with rising tax rates and new taxes that often defy belief. All the while screaming "Budget cuts! Budget cuts!".
It makes you wonder how it was that this douchebag ever became a self-made billionaire.
Because someone who actually knew about Money would know that it isn't a lack of funding that causes City Budget shortfalls; it's the continuing and concerted campaign of waste and stupidity that comes out of City Hall and Albany that's to blame for that lack of revenues. Forethought, careful planning and auditing of public funds are words that are apparently not in any of our elected officials vocabularies.
Hence, $60,000 for bike racks in an area where riding a bike is akin to jumping from a perfectly-functioning airplane...without a parachute. But that should not matter to people like Blooomberg, who see public office as a means to an end -- in this case, catering to the needs of a select brand of total retards. This City is increasingly being run by the Stupid for the benefit of the Even Stupid-er, and the rest of us are just expected to shut up and pay for it, no matter how much it costs, how dubious the motivation, or how ridiculous the project.
And besides, bicyclists are fucking gay. It takes a special brand of effete faggot to be brave enough to negotiate our often narrow, crowded and following-the-same-routes-they-did-in-Revolutionary-War-times streets in a snugly form-fitting yellow spandex body condom, demand a little respect and then expect to be taken seriously. Frankly, I'm not surprised that you see so few cyclists on Staten Island streets, but am I surprised that the ones you DO see aren't run down just for being an annoying douchebag in public. We laugh at you. We question your sanity and lineage. I know more than a handful of drivers who will actually go out of their way to crowd you off the roads or open their car doors when they see you coming towards their parking spot.
You're lucky there aren't more of you being beaten up on a daily basis, because you're even more obnoxious people than those doofuses on Mob Wives and Jersey Shore.
No, you aren't better than the rest of us because you ride a bike instead of an Escalade; that's just something you tell yourself to make yourselves feel better about having such small penises. We know you have small ones because you wear so much neon-colored spandex that it's almost impossible for us not to notice.
And guess what? I don't drive anywhere, Mr.-I'm-Reducing-My-Carbon-Footprint. Haven't for 15 years, as it is terribly impractical in these parts. I walk everywhere, and where that isn't possible I take public transportation. That would make me superior to all of you, if we were ranked by your own environmentally-retarded criteria: building your bike required mined metals, rubber, energy to produce, transport to the bike store, petroleum-based paints and lubricants,and at some point, all of it will have to be replaced, either piecemeal or in total, as it wears out. My feet are greener than your bike (hmm, maybe I should bathe more often?), but I don't see the city spending $60k for a shoe rack outside my local supermarket -- and there's already a sidewalk there, unlike the complete dearth of bike lanes.
And what bike lanes there are in Staten Island often lead absolutely nowhere, and many terminate at blank walls and dead end streets. That's only to be expected given the propensity for the City of New York to plan it's projects and identify it's priorities so gosh-darned carefully.
UPDATE: The New York Post spends a week watching cyclists, concludes that they are mostly massive cunts.
City of New York wastes $60,000 on bike racks, along a street with no dedicated bike lane.
Such is life in Mike Bloomberg's New Yorkistan. The really surprising thing is that the project didn't cost $6 million, and have to be re-done three times by a union-dominated, Mob-connected contractor with no competitive bidding process allowed.
And when you stop to consider it's only $60,000, you realize it could have been far worse. After all, the City just demolished an entire skate park in Midland Beach that it only built a few years ago for a reason that no one has been able to yet adequately explain, and now there's a lot of talk about a solar and wind farm project at Fresh Kills (formerly the biggest garbage dump in the United States, rumored to have been visible from Earth Orbit) that will probably cost three times it's original estimate, and produce one-fifth the promised energy. All this at a time when the Bloomdouche Administration is crying poormouth -- in the richest city, with some of the highest property taxes, in all of America.
Perhaps if the City wasn't busy installing bike racks along major roads with no bike lanes that will mostly go unused -- along roads that are deteriorating something fierce, and which have become safety hazards in their own right -- building wind farms that are unnecessary (the land upon which they will be built on is perhaps one of the richest sources of methane gas known to Man; it will be built on the largest decomposing garbage dump, after all), making your personal eating habits it's primary focus, persecuting smokers to pay for insulin and neo-natal care for illegal immigrants,and handing out free needles to heroin addicts, there might be some tax money available for all those things it was originally intended for: running the city. You know, like for repaving streets, filling in potholes, keeping the streets clean, and the hospitals open. Maybe then the Public Schools wouldn't have to hold bi-monthly fundraisers just to buy toilet paper and pencils.
But Bloomberg didn't become Mayor to do something as insignificant and unfulfilling as running the City efficiently. Hell no: he became Mayor to impose his mentally-constipated-Upper-East-Side views upon us all. He's here to make sure we eat right, Go Green even if it kills us, encourage us to stay out of Manhattan on weekends so that the Upper Crust set should never have to rub elbows with the Outer-Borough Peasants ever again, and finding new and inventive ways to kill economic activity with rising tax rates and new taxes that often defy belief. All the while screaming "Budget cuts! Budget cuts!".
It makes you wonder how it was that this douchebag ever became a self-made billionaire.
Because someone who actually knew about Money would know that it isn't a lack of funding that causes City Budget shortfalls; it's the continuing and concerted campaign of waste and stupidity that comes out of City Hall and Albany that's to blame for that lack of revenues. Forethought, careful planning and auditing of public funds are words that are apparently not in any of our elected officials vocabularies.
Hence, $60,000 for bike racks in an area where riding a bike is akin to jumping from a perfectly-functioning airplane...without a parachute. But that should not matter to people like Blooomberg, who see public office as a means to an end -- in this case, catering to the needs of a select brand of total retards. This City is increasingly being run by the Stupid for the benefit of the Even Stupid-er, and the rest of us are just expected to shut up and pay for it, no matter how much it costs, how dubious the motivation, or how ridiculous the project.
And besides, bicyclists are fucking gay. It takes a special brand of effete faggot to be brave enough to negotiate our often narrow, crowded and following-the-same-routes-they-did-in-Revolutionary-War-times streets in a snugly form-fitting yellow spandex body condom, demand a little respect and then expect to be taken seriously. Frankly, I'm not surprised that you see so few cyclists on Staten Island streets, but am I surprised that the ones you DO see aren't run down just for being an annoying douchebag in public. We laugh at you. We question your sanity and lineage. I know more than a handful of drivers who will actually go out of their way to crowd you off the roads or open their car doors when they see you coming towards their parking spot.
You're lucky there aren't more of you being beaten up on a daily basis, because you're even more obnoxious people than those doofuses on Mob Wives and Jersey Shore.
No, you aren't better than the rest of us because you ride a bike instead of an Escalade; that's just something you tell yourself to make yourselves feel better about having such small penises. We know you have small ones because you wear so much neon-colored spandex that it's almost impossible for us not to notice.
And guess what? I don't drive anywhere, Mr.-I'm-Reducing-My-Carbon-Footprint. Haven't for 15 years, as it is terribly impractical in these parts. I walk everywhere, and where that isn't possible I take public transportation. That would make me superior to all of you, if we were ranked by your own environmentally-retarded criteria: building your bike required mined metals, rubber, energy to produce, transport to the bike store, petroleum-based paints and lubricants,and at some point, all of it will have to be replaced, either piecemeal or in total, as it wears out. My feet are greener than your bike (hmm, maybe I should bathe more often?), but I don't see the city spending $60k for a shoe rack outside my local supermarket -- and there's already a sidewalk there, unlike the complete dearth of bike lanes.
And what bike lanes there are in Staten Island often lead absolutely nowhere, and many terminate at blank walls and dead end streets. That's only to be expected given the propensity for the City of New York to plan it's projects and identify it's priorities so gosh-darned carefully.
UPDATE: The New York Post spends a week watching cyclists, concludes that they are mostly massive cunts.
The Lunatic Branches Out...
I have recently been asked to become a guest blogger over at the Insane Asylum. I thank Mr.Chap for this opportunity to display my mental defects to a bigger slice of Amereica, and to a brand-spankin' new audience, vis-a-vis, an African-American audience.
The first installment -- a discussion on the topic of Hate Crimes Legislation -- was posted this morning.
So, scoot on over to the Insane Asylum and look for a new (we hope regular) feature entitled "Affirmative Reaction", where this clueless White Boy dares to boldly go where no Man has gone before, and asks all the Politically Incorrect questions that his unfiltered stupidity brings to mind on the differences in perception on all topics racial.
And then take a good look at everything else on offer at the Insane Asylum, because it's a pretty cool and interesting place all on it's own which deserves more than just a casual visit. You'll be glad that you did.
The first installment -- a discussion on the topic of Hate Crimes Legislation -- was posted this morning.
So, scoot on over to the Insane Asylum and look for a new (we hope regular) feature entitled "Affirmative Reaction", where this clueless White Boy dares to boldly go where no Man has gone before, and asks all the Politically Incorrect questions that his unfiltered stupidity brings to mind on the differences in perception on all topics racial.
And then take a good look at everything else on offer at the Insane Asylum, because it's a pretty cool and interesting place all on it's own which deserves more than just a casual visit. You'll be glad that you did.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
When Reality Television Hits Home...
From my local fishwrap vis-a-vis the new VH-1 'Reality Show' Mob Wives.
First off, I object to the term 'Italian-American Elite' for the following reasons;
a. We (those of us who think this show presents a seriously destructive view of Italians and Staten Islanders, and glorifies the Mafia Lifestyle) are not elitists; we're average people of moderate intelligence and taste who can still recognize a turd when we smell one,
b. The examples of this so-called 'Italian-American Elite' quoted in the article are no such thing. I didn't know these people even existed (except for the Borough President and the State Senator) before someone asked them for a quote. That's how influential and recognizable they are in the Staten Island Italian community specifically, and the New York City Italian community in general. As for the lady who was the head of the Island GOP, this is akin to being President of the AV Squad in junior high, given the dysfunctional nature of most New York State GOP establishments.
If New York democrats weren't such knuckle-dragging doofuses who fucked up by the numbers on a regular basis you couldn't pay enough people to vote republican in most local and state elections. It's usually only after some catastrophic performance (think David Dinkins) , or some great debacle (think Mario Cuomo) by a libtard that some Repubs even get a sniff at a chance to run successfully for office, right up until the NY GOP, predictably, shoots itself in the foot (see: Rick Lazio, Dede Scozzafazza, Carl Palladino, et. al. Oh, shit...they're all Italians!).
The point being that if you're going to designate people as an elite, there'd had better damn well be something elite about them. But I digress...
Secondly, this show, much like most of the drivel on television these days, has no redeeming qualities about it, whatsoever. In a day-and-age where we're treated to shows like 16 and Pregnant, The Real Housewives of_______, American Idol, Jersey Shore, Celebrity Rehab, and 1,000 Ways to Die, just how many more chances does Hollywood need to prove to us that, yes, the Entertainment Industry does believe that we're all mouth-breathing retards, and the more offensive and inane the fare proffered the more retarded we get, and the richer they get, at which point the cycle begins afresh, and society drops a few more precious IQ points?
If you must know, I did, indeed, watch about 10 minutes of this sorry spectacle on the replay (not that I wanted to, but I can't keep running it down without at least knowing something more than what I read about it),and it made me physically ill. Primarily because THAT was almost every woman in my life flashing before my eyes on the screen; I grew up with that, I've dated that, I've been surrounded by it my entire life. I'm absolutely sick of it, and watching it on television only makes me want to seriously injure somebody, and causes my prostate to contract painfully -- as if it were digging a foxhole in my innards with which to shelter itself from the barrage of whiny, nasally, third-grade dialogue, all the fake tans, the cellulite and the image of four cows in spandex and three-inches of slapped-on-with-a-trowel-Mabelline who think they're all the sexiest thing alive in the Solar System.
I find the thought of being violently ass-raped by a rutting moose with a bad case of halitosis infinitely more appealing, and far more intellectually stimulating, than watching these four broads with their unjustifiably-bordering-on-serious-mental-disease high opinions of themselves and their delusions of sophistication, coolness, sense of style or erroneous belief that they are some kind of trendsetters.
We don't have Trailer Trash in these parts, but if we did, that would be it's equivalent.
Often, I am accused by some readers of this page of having absolutely no respect for women; well, if you were raised in a swamp in which these four assholes are the best example of the prevailing female type, then you'd have little respect for women, too. Actually I DO have respect for women, but only the ones who actually DESERVE some. This type most certainly doesn't.
First off, I object to the term 'Italian-American Elite' for the following reasons;
a. We (those of us who think this show presents a seriously destructive view of Italians and Staten Islanders, and glorifies the Mafia Lifestyle) are not elitists; we're average people of moderate intelligence and taste who can still recognize a turd when we smell one,
b. The examples of this so-called 'Italian-American Elite' quoted in the article are no such thing. I didn't know these people even existed (except for the Borough President and the State Senator) before someone asked them for a quote. That's how influential and recognizable they are in the Staten Island Italian community specifically, and the New York City Italian community in general. As for the lady who was the head of the Island GOP, this is akin to being President of the AV Squad in junior high, given the dysfunctional nature of most New York State GOP establishments.
If New York democrats weren't such knuckle-dragging doofuses who fucked up by the numbers on a regular basis you couldn't pay enough people to vote republican in most local and state elections. It's usually only after some catastrophic performance (think David Dinkins) , or some great debacle (think Mario Cuomo) by a libtard that some Repubs even get a sniff at a chance to run successfully for office, right up until the NY GOP, predictably, shoots itself in the foot (see: Rick Lazio, Dede Scozzafazza, Carl Palladino, et. al. Oh, shit...they're all Italians!).
The point being that if you're going to designate people as an elite, there'd had better damn well be something elite about them. But I digress...
Secondly, this show, much like most of the drivel on television these days, has no redeeming qualities about it, whatsoever. In a day-and-age where we're treated to shows like 16 and Pregnant, The Real Housewives of_______, American Idol, Jersey Shore, Celebrity Rehab, and 1,000 Ways to Die, just how many more chances does Hollywood need to prove to us that, yes, the Entertainment Industry does believe that we're all mouth-breathing retards, and the more offensive and inane the fare proffered the more retarded we get, and the richer they get, at which point the cycle begins afresh, and society drops a few more precious IQ points?
If you must know, I did, indeed, watch about 10 minutes of this sorry spectacle on the replay (not that I wanted to, but I can't keep running it down without at least knowing something more than what I read about it),and it made me physically ill. Primarily because THAT was almost every woman in my life flashing before my eyes on the screen; I grew up with that, I've dated that, I've been surrounded by it my entire life. I'm absolutely sick of it, and watching it on television only makes me want to seriously injure somebody, and causes my prostate to contract painfully -- as if it were digging a foxhole in my innards with which to shelter itself from the barrage of whiny, nasally, third-grade dialogue, all the fake tans, the cellulite and the image of four cows in spandex and three-inches of slapped-on-with-a-trowel-Mabelline who think they're all the sexiest thing alive in the Solar System.
I find the thought of being violently ass-raped by a rutting moose with a bad case of halitosis infinitely more appealing, and far more intellectually stimulating, than watching these four broads with their unjustifiably-bordering-on-serious-mental-disease high opinions of themselves and their delusions of sophistication, coolness, sense of style or erroneous belief that they are some kind of trendsetters.
We don't have Trailer Trash in these parts, but if we did, that would be it's equivalent.
Often, I am accused by some readers of this page of having absolutely no respect for women; well, if you were raised in a swamp in which these four assholes are the best example of the prevailing female type, then you'd have little respect for women, too. Actually I DO have respect for women, but only the ones who actually DESERVE some. This type most certainly doesn't.
In Defense of the Right to Offend...
Mark Steyn belongs on Mt. Rushmore. Click on the links contained within to gain the full context of the rather impenetrable stupidity on display all over the world, and then ask yourself this question:
How is it that the Western World, the culture that has invented just about everything that is useful or enriching, that fostered the spirit of unfettered free inquiry, ensconced in Law the principle of the fundamental rights of all Men, which first harnessed and then unleashed the energy that makes modern life possible and sustainable, has fallen to this astoundingly low level of petty argument within itself, about it's own validity, accomplishments and worth?
Probably because we live in an age where people freely claim the pretense to an intellect, but possess none of it's actual tools. A steady diet of Post-modernism and multiculturalism will do that to you, you know.
There is no progress, in any sense or meaningful way, without the ability to ask questions -- and thus find answers -- which will eventually offend someone on some level. Offense is a necessary evil if society or science is to ever evolve to another, perhaps freer, more honest, more inclusive, and higher stratum. One is left to wonder just what has been left undiscovered, unexamined, unsaid because someone who would have discussed, examined, or discovered was kept from the initial impulse by the thought "Better not go there; someone might be offended"?
Why is it necessary to punish people who speak things that others don't like? Why is it necessary for people to find ever more ways to whine and wear the mantle of victimhood, even when they have no call to? Why have we divided ourselves by race, sex or sexual preference, religion, political leanings or economic class? When will all the fucking snivelling end? And when can we get back to kicking ass and taking names as a Culture?
I'm reminded of a famous speech, uttered by one of the most offensive people to ever walk the Earth, if the history books are to be believed:
"I am Theoprastus, and greater than those to whom you liken me; I am Theophrastus, and in addition, I am monarcha medicorum and I can prove to you what you cannot prove...I need not don a coat of mail or buckler against you, for you are not learned or experienced enough to refute even a word of mine...As for you, you can defend your kingdom with belly-crawling and flattery. How long do you think this will last? Let me tell you this: every little hair on my neck knows more than you and all your scribes, and my shoe buckles are more learned than your Galen and Avicenna, and my beard has more experience than all your high colleges..."
Who said that?
Why, it was none other than Phillipus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, better known to history as Paracelsus. Who was Paracelsus? He was a chemist, botanist, mathematician, astrologer, theologian, doctor, Ur-psychologist and all-around Royal Pain in the Ass (some believe, wrongly, that his name was the origin of the English word 'Bombast') who invented the modern science of toxicology, and who is one of the Fathers of modern pharmacology and medical diagnostics.
Who was he berating? The medieval medical profession (the Doctors of Physic) of his day who still believed that disease was either caused by an imbalance of 'humors' that could be treated with bloodletting, sweating or purging (which often killed the patient in the process), or who were still attached to the superstitious Christian belief that diseases were the just rewards of a sinful life.
It almost sounds like ObamaCare.
Paracelsus drove his opponents crazy. Many thought him insane (and if you ever read about his life, he just might have been). He was ostracized, attacked, stripped of his posts, bankrupted, persecuted, publicly vilified and humiliated...and he was also RIGHT. He suffered because he dared to speak a truth -- actually, many truths -- that offended, well... basically everyone; the members of his profession, the Church, the Universities of Europe, the Rich and the Powerful.
He died penniless and discredited, an itinerant doctor travelling all over Europe -- on foot -- experimenting, treating the sick and injured for the sake of his belief that he was put on this Earth for just that purpose. He left his few remaining possessions (one legend has it these consisted of his writings, a cloak, and a pair of boots) to the poor. His reputation as a thoroughly disagreeable, arrogant, obnoxious -- and most offensive man -- meant that his methods and discoveries would be denied to medical science for many years after his death by his quite considerable number of intellectual, religious and scientific enemies.
The point? Just because you don't like the messenger, just because you don't like the message, it doesn't necessarily follow that either is wrong, and the message certainly should not go unexamined because it offended someones tender sensibilities, or threatened someones rice bowl. Even a really stupid idea presented by a complete asshole can sometimes reveal some drop of wisdom, if you can manage to strip away the bullshit and keep your feelings in check long enough to examine it.
Truth is truth -- even if it's delivered with a four-letter word, a racial slur, bad joke, or a gratuitous insult -- real or perceived -- attached to it.
All this sensitivity bullshit is leading us towards a less-cohesive, rather than a more-inclusive, society. This will slowly chip away at our veneer of civility and the bonds of friendship, and ultimately destroy what few notions of freedom and democracy -- you know, the remaining freedoms that haven't already been bastardized and destroyed by illiberal Liberals already -- that we might have left.
I really fear to live in such a world, and not only because it will be either really, really boring or exceedingly violent, but because it will be intellectually, artistically and spiritually sterile. What remains of Life after such a thing occurs would be hardly worth living, because the basic right of expression will have been excised from it. No exchange of ideas, no arguments, no jokes, no books, no trade, no art, no music.
All human endeavor would stop right in it's tracks, out of fear of giving offense and the retribution that follows.
How is it that the Western World, the culture that has invented just about everything that is useful or enriching, that fostered the spirit of unfettered free inquiry, ensconced in Law the principle of the fundamental rights of all Men, which first harnessed and then unleashed the energy that makes modern life possible and sustainable, has fallen to this astoundingly low level of petty argument within itself, about it's own validity, accomplishments and worth?
Probably because we live in an age where people freely claim the pretense to an intellect, but possess none of it's actual tools. A steady diet of Post-modernism and multiculturalism will do that to you, you know.
There is no progress, in any sense or meaningful way, without the ability to ask questions -- and thus find answers -- which will eventually offend someone on some level. Offense is a necessary evil if society or science is to ever evolve to another, perhaps freer, more honest, more inclusive, and higher stratum. One is left to wonder just what has been left undiscovered, unexamined, unsaid because someone who would have discussed, examined, or discovered was kept from the initial impulse by the thought "Better not go there; someone might be offended"?
Why is it necessary to punish people who speak things that others don't like? Why is it necessary for people to find ever more ways to whine and wear the mantle of victimhood, even when they have no call to? Why have we divided ourselves by race, sex or sexual preference, religion, political leanings or economic class? When will all the fucking snivelling end? And when can we get back to kicking ass and taking names as a Culture?
I'm reminded of a famous speech, uttered by one of the most offensive people to ever walk the Earth, if the history books are to be believed:
"I am Theoprastus, and greater than those to whom you liken me; I am Theophrastus, and in addition, I am monarcha medicorum and I can prove to you what you cannot prove...I need not don a coat of mail or buckler against you, for you are not learned or experienced enough to refute even a word of mine...As for you, you can defend your kingdom with belly-crawling and flattery. How long do you think this will last? Let me tell you this: every little hair on my neck knows more than you and all your scribes, and my shoe buckles are more learned than your Galen and Avicenna, and my beard has more experience than all your high colleges..."
Who said that?
Why, it was none other than Phillipus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, better known to history as Paracelsus. Who was Paracelsus? He was a chemist, botanist, mathematician, astrologer, theologian, doctor, Ur-psychologist and all-around Royal Pain in the Ass (some believe, wrongly, that his name was the origin of the English word 'Bombast') who invented the modern science of toxicology, and who is one of the Fathers of modern pharmacology and medical diagnostics.
Who was he berating? The medieval medical profession (the Doctors of Physic) of his day who still believed that disease was either caused by an imbalance of 'humors' that could be treated with bloodletting, sweating or purging (which often killed the patient in the process), or who were still attached to the superstitious Christian belief that diseases were the just rewards of a sinful life.
It almost sounds like ObamaCare.
Paracelsus drove his opponents crazy. Many thought him insane (and if you ever read about his life, he just might have been). He was ostracized, attacked, stripped of his posts, bankrupted, persecuted, publicly vilified and humiliated...and he was also RIGHT. He suffered because he dared to speak a truth -- actually, many truths -- that offended, well... basically everyone; the members of his profession, the Church, the Universities of Europe, the Rich and the Powerful.
He died penniless and discredited, an itinerant doctor travelling all over Europe -- on foot -- experimenting, treating the sick and injured for the sake of his belief that he was put on this Earth for just that purpose. He left his few remaining possessions (one legend has it these consisted of his writings, a cloak, and a pair of boots) to the poor. His reputation as a thoroughly disagreeable, arrogant, obnoxious -- and most offensive man -- meant that his methods and discoveries would be denied to medical science for many years after his death by his quite considerable number of intellectual, religious and scientific enemies.
The point? Just because you don't like the messenger, just because you don't like the message, it doesn't necessarily follow that either is wrong, and the message certainly should not go unexamined because it offended someones tender sensibilities, or threatened someones rice bowl. Even a really stupid idea presented by a complete asshole can sometimes reveal some drop of wisdom, if you can manage to strip away the bullshit and keep your feelings in check long enough to examine it.
Truth is truth -- even if it's delivered with a four-letter word, a racial slur, bad joke, or a gratuitous insult -- real or perceived -- attached to it.
All this sensitivity bullshit is leading us towards a less-cohesive, rather than a more-inclusive, society. This will slowly chip away at our veneer of civility and the bonds of friendship, and ultimately destroy what few notions of freedom and democracy -- you know, the remaining freedoms that haven't already been bastardized and destroyed by illiberal Liberals already -- that we might have left.
I really fear to live in such a world, and not only because it will be either really, really boring or exceedingly violent, but because it will be intellectually, artistically and spiritually sterile. What remains of Life after such a thing occurs would be hardly worth living, because the basic right of expression will have been excised from it. No exchange of ideas, no arguments, no jokes, no books, no trade, no art, no music.
All human endeavor would stop right in it's tracks, out of fear of giving offense and the retribution that follows.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
This Is Why No One Reads Wonkette Anymore...
A few weeks ago, I got an mini-avalanche of traffic from Wonkette readers, who apparently arrived because they were looking for pictures of drunken leprechauns. Presumably they needed them to make fun of the proverbial inebriated Irishmen on St. Patrick's Day, and couldn't find their crayons. Now, they make fun of a three-year old with Down's Syndrome just because they happen to viscerally hate his mother. And why do they hate his mother? Because she happens to hold different political and social views than the oh-so-sophisticated Wonkette legion.
They can't stop her, so they might as well attack her children. That's on Page 3 of Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, you know.
By the way, these people tend to call themselves "Liberals", but there's very little of the Liberal in them.
Now, I'm no angel, here. I regularly write stuff that's just as vile and which could be considered hateful, unless you have half a brain and a sense of humor, but in my defense Muslims AREN'T regular human beings; they're some sort of inbred mutant strain that diddles livestock and which blows themselves up because God said they should, so that doesn't count. But, I can at least say I've never attacked a child ( parents: hell yes!) just to make what's basically a very stupid political point, i.e. that Sarah Palin, by her very existence, is an affront to everything a committed feminist stands for -- mostly because she's the most glaring and obvious example of just how wrong boilerplate feminism truly IS. Whenever I write something nasty, I do try to at least follow a very simple philosophy:
a. There must be some point that I'm trying to make. It might not be a very good point, granted, and I might not even communicate my point very well, but then again, I'm not one of the oldest political websites on the 'net that still retains a pretense as being THE trendsetter in regards to all things Left-leaning. I don't even claim to be the guy who knows everything about everything and everyone that's anyone. I don't worship at the altar of political power, and I simply do not drool over the thought that I might see and gossip about the really sexy libtard junior Congresscritter from California's 405th District who has a really highly-developed sense of metrosexual fashion. That stuff ain't important, which is probably why fewer and fewer people read Wonkette every day.
b. I don't claim to be, nor do I aspire to be, a professional journalist; I don't own a set of kneepads, never learned to cover my teeth when performing acts of gratuitous fellatio upon the rich and powerful denizens of Washington, D.C., and I didn't spend a shitload of Mommy and Daddy's money on a J-school degree which turns out to be about as useful as one of those "Be a Certified Gun Repair Technician!" certificate courses one used to see advertised on the inside of matchbook covers. I would rather be labeled a Sex Offender, Child Molester, Mass Murderer or Enron Executive than to be considered a journalist. It's a profession which has been so thoroughly discredited that I'd wager that Barehanded-Septic-Tank-Cleaner probably evokes an image of far greater prestige and respect amongst most people. I'm simply a crazy dude with a variety of axes to grind, determined to use my First Amendment Rights before people like the social-climbing-libtard-prostitutes of Wonkette conspire with their democratic (small 'd' intentional) party johns to take them away from me.
c. I wouldn't even make fun of Nancy Pelosi's retarded children (I'm sure she must have many), a person who actually HAS done serious and long-lasting harm to this country (unlikeTrig Palin), and she's perhaps the second-worst person on Planet Earth, First Place being occupied by a three-way tie of Hillary Clinton, Ryan Seacrest, and Kathy Griffin (each perhaps a harbinger of Antichrist?), and all four just nudging that Ama-doo-dad feller into a solid third place. There's no reason to go there, anyway: Nancy, Hillary, or Sarah are all adults, capable of defending themselves and answering their critics, even the unreasonably insane ones -- like me. Attacking children is a really douchey thing to do, and with Sarah Palin, it's become the Libtard's sport of choice. First it was Bristol, then Willow, and now, Trig. At what point does it stop? At what point do you believe you've exposed your pettiness and stupidity enough, and whatever sense of shame you still have left -- finally --kicks in?
I know, I know...If you let something akin to a sense of decency kick in, you'd never get invited to another smart cocktail-cocaine-and-forced-anal-sex party in Georgetown.
As for the author of that piece (my guess is that he learned and honed his fine journalistic skills upon only the very best gas station washroom walls), the fact that he -- after the fact, and after the outrage -- retroactively adds an inadequate apology at the top of the post, cuts no ice. The post, after all, is still there for everyone to view. Frankly, it's probably still there because without the outrage it's caused no one with two braincells to rub together would visit Wonkette anymore. If anyone over there had any class whatsoever, they'd take it down, but alas, they haven't seen traffic like this in years. A dilemma if ever there was one.
Some of the comments to this article were, if you can believe it, far more vile than the post itself.
There's talk going about the 'net about a boycott of Wonkette's sponsors (that would probably be Massengill Disposable Douches, SuperFlow Do-it-yourself Home Enema kits, and Sunstroker 2000: The Solar-powered Men's Masturbation Aid for a Greener Planet!), but I've never been a big fan of boycotts. Mostly because they're stupid, and never hurt the people they're intended to. The good people at ToadinMyHole.com (THE Homosexual Dating Service for the discerning anonymous Interstate restroom sex aficionado) or the Craig's List Adult Services Page aren't responsible for what Wonkette decides to publish, or even has a say over what is published -- the asswipes at Wonkette would scream from the rooftops about censorship if a sponsor ever demanded editorial say-so, even if Wonkette.com does sometimes, hypocritically, scream even louder for the censoring of it's political opponents -- so why should those people, with no connection other than an advertising stake, be unfairly punished?
Don't boycott the sponsors; just stop reading Wonkette. And yeah, I've 'fallen into the trap' of reposting their stupidity while imploring you to avoid it, but this is about something more important than whether or not Wonkette gets a few more readers.
It's about people who would, and do, happily echo the Left's oft-repeated mantra that, for example, a Paul Ryan Budget Plan would cause children with Down's Syndrome to have to 'fend for themselves' taking a position on one hand of standing as the defender of the weak and helpless -- to score cheap political points -- while on the other hand viciously attacking a child with Down's Syndrome -- to score cheap political points.
Wonkette claims that it's a humor site, but it's difficult to see anything funny about any of this. If anything, it's extremely educational: you now know, if you didn't know before, what the self-proclaimed, self-assured, oh-so-fashionable, self-selected 'Liberal' elite really thinks and how it behaves, despite a pretense of intellect and sophistication, or claim to the higher moral ground in all things.
They can't stop her, so they might as well attack her children. That's on Page 3 of Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, you know.
By the way, these people tend to call themselves "Liberals", but there's very little of the Liberal in them.
Now, I'm no angel, here. I regularly write stuff that's just as vile and which could be considered hateful, unless you have half a brain and a sense of humor, but in my defense Muslims AREN'T regular human beings; they're some sort of inbred mutant strain that diddles livestock and which blows themselves up because God said they should, so that doesn't count. But, I can at least say I've never attacked a child ( parents: hell yes!) just to make what's basically a very stupid political point, i.e. that Sarah Palin, by her very existence, is an affront to everything a committed feminist stands for -- mostly because she's the most glaring and obvious example of just how wrong boilerplate feminism truly IS. Whenever I write something nasty, I do try to at least follow a very simple philosophy:
a. There must be some point that I'm trying to make. It might not be a very good point, granted, and I might not even communicate my point very well, but then again, I'm not one of the oldest political websites on the 'net that still retains a pretense as being THE trendsetter in regards to all things Left-leaning. I don't even claim to be the guy who knows everything about everything and everyone that's anyone. I don't worship at the altar of political power, and I simply do not drool over the thought that I might see and gossip about the really sexy libtard junior Congresscritter from California's 405th District who has a really highly-developed sense of metrosexual fashion. That stuff ain't important, which is probably why fewer and fewer people read Wonkette every day.
b. I don't claim to be, nor do I aspire to be, a professional journalist; I don't own a set of kneepads, never learned to cover my teeth when performing acts of gratuitous fellatio upon the rich and powerful denizens of Washington, D.C., and I didn't spend a shitload of Mommy and Daddy's money on a J-school degree which turns out to be about as useful as one of those "Be a Certified Gun Repair Technician!" certificate courses one used to see advertised on the inside of matchbook covers. I would rather be labeled a Sex Offender, Child Molester, Mass Murderer or Enron Executive than to be considered a journalist. It's a profession which has been so thoroughly discredited that I'd wager that Barehanded-Septic-Tank-Cleaner probably evokes an image of far greater prestige and respect amongst most people. I'm simply a crazy dude with a variety of axes to grind, determined to use my First Amendment Rights before people like the social-climbing-libtard-prostitutes of Wonkette conspire with their democratic (small 'd' intentional) party johns to take them away from me.
c. I wouldn't even make fun of Nancy Pelosi's retarded children (I'm sure she must have many), a person who actually HAS done serious and long-lasting harm to this country (unlikeTrig Palin), and she's perhaps the second-worst person on Planet Earth, First Place being occupied by a three-way tie of Hillary Clinton, Ryan Seacrest, and Kathy Griffin (each perhaps a harbinger of Antichrist?), and all four just nudging that Ama-doo-dad feller into a solid third place. There's no reason to go there, anyway: Nancy, Hillary, or Sarah are all adults, capable of defending themselves and answering their critics, even the unreasonably insane ones -- like me. Attacking children is a really douchey thing to do, and with Sarah Palin, it's become the Libtard's sport of choice. First it was Bristol, then Willow, and now, Trig. At what point does it stop? At what point do you believe you've exposed your pettiness and stupidity enough, and whatever sense of shame you still have left -- finally --kicks in?
I know, I know...If you let something akin to a sense of decency kick in, you'd never get invited to another smart cocktail-cocaine-and-forced-anal-sex party in Georgetown.
As for the author of that piece (my guess is that he learned and honed his fine journalistic skills upon only the very best gas station washroom walls), the fact that he -- after the fact, and after the outrage -- retroactively adds an inadequate apology at the top of the post, cuts no ice. The post, after all, is still there for everyone to view. Frankly, it's probably still there because without the outrage it's caused no one with two braincells to rub together would visit Wonkette anymore. If anyone over there had any class whatsoever, they'd take it down, but alas, they haven't seen traffic like this in years. A dilemma if ever there was one.
Some of the comments to this article were, if you can believe it, far more vile than the post itself.
There's talk going about the 'net about a boycott of Wonkette's sponsors (that would probably be Massengill Disposable Douches, SuperFlow Do-it-yourself Home Enema kits, and Sunstroker 2000: The Solar-powered Men's Masturbation Aid for a Greener Planet!), but I've never been a big fan of boycotts. Mostly because they're stupid, and never hurt the people they're intended to. The good people at ToadinMyHole.com (THE Homosexual Dating Service for the discerning anonymous Interstate restroom sex aficionado) or the Craig's List Adult Services Page aren't responsible for what Wonkette decides to publish, or even has a say over what is published -- the asswipes at Wonkette would scream from the rooftops about censorship if a sponsor ever demanded editorial say-so, even if Wonkette.com does sometimes, hypocritically, scream even louder for the censoring of it's political opponents -- so why should those people, with no connection other than an advertising stake, be unfairly punished?
Don't boycott the sponsors; just stop reading Wonkette. And yeah, I've 'fallen into the trap' of reposting their stupidity while imploring you to avoid it, but this is about something more important than whether or not Wonkette gets a few more readers.
It's about people who would, and do, happily echo the Left's oft-repeated mantra that, for example, a Paul Ryan Budget Plan would cause children with Down's Syndrome to have to 'fend for themselves' taking a position on one hand of standing as the defender of the weak and helpless -- to score cheap political points -- while on the other hand viciously attacking a child with Down's Syndrome -- to score cheap political points.
Wonkette claims that it's a humor site, but it's difficult to see anything funny about any of this. If anything, it's extremely educational: you now know, if you didn't know before, what the self-proclaimed, self-assured, oh-so-fashionable, self-selected 'Liberal' elite really thinks and how it behaves, despite a pretense of intellect and sophistication, or claim to the higher moral ground in all things.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Girls Will Be Boys and Boys Will Be Girls...
10-yr old Australian boy to get Sex-change "therapy".
You know, if you want to have your privates mutilated, it's not a lifestyle choice or a matter of feelings; it's a fucking mental disorder. Finding ways and excuses to allow people to mutilate themselves (free-of-charge, too) is not 'therapy'; it's insanity. And if you've ever wondered just why the medical community hasn't yet found cures for AIDS, cancer or malaria, it is probably, in part, because vital medical resources are being wasted trying to figure out how to turn vaginas into penises, and vice-versa.
The amount of money this sort of unnatural and medically-unnecessary transformation eats up, from beginning to end -- what with the drugs, the hormone treatments, the surgeries, not to mention the life-long mental health 'support' regime -- is presumably enormous. I'm guessing that if someone were to add it all up, for the expense of granting one demented douchebag -- probably prodded into it by his whackadoo Mother, in the first place -- his Cinderella fantasy, the Australian government could probably provide treatment for four or five cancer victims, if not more.
Worse, once the process is completed (i.e. post-surgical mutilation) it's not exactly reversible, so tough shit if you change your mind when it's all said-and-done.
The following quotes from the article are complete and total bullshit:
"The court heard that Jamie saw herself as a "freak" and a "girl in a boy's body," and had first identified as a girl when she was a toddler."
How many toddlers do you know who are capable of making that determination all on their lonesome, let alone would remember having done so? Is this scientifically possible? Has any reputable scientist studied this phenomenon? Did anyone even fucking check?
"At the moment Jamie can live comfortably as a girl, is socially confident and suffers no teasing or social isolation."
Yeah...riiiight. I don't know what planet these people live on, but here on Earth children the world over are beastly little swine who just can't wait to tease, ostracize, and beat up other children they find weird. It's just what they do. My guess is that this child never goes out to play, has few friends, and probably lives in a hermetically-sealed bubble at home.
This is child abuse, plain and simple. That it is being sanctioned by the Australian government is absolutely astounding.
Without knowing all the particulars, I wouldn't doubt for a second that the kid's mother, disappointed at not producing a baby girl, put this idea into his head or at least decided while he was young to ignore biology and treat him as a her for the sake of her own misguided preferences. Been known to happen. I'd sterilize this 'mother' before she breeds again. It might be the one thing that saves some poor, future child's sanity, and maybe even his life.
In the meantime, we discover that Australia's neighbor, Malaysia, simply sends boys who display feminine tendencies to special camps in order to butch them up. In an Islamically-approved way, of course. The only problem with this, though, is that the people who judge which boys are deemed to be in need of rectification are members of a religion which sanctions sheep-shagging and gang rape, and is part of a greater culture which is notorious for higher-than-average rates of male-on-male sexual assault.
Islamic Madrassas are infamous dens of male rape, you know. How else do you get them into the proper frame of mind to fly an airliner into an office building? When creating future generations of terrorists you need to first destroy their self-esteem and will to live, and endemic poverty, unemployment, sexual frustration and denial of basic human freedoms can only get you so far, you know. I'll bet that on page one of every terrorist in Gitmo's dossier, it's stamped in red: Raped By Imam/Terrorist Recruiter. Send 'em to a camp where sexually-frustrated males (all Muslim men are sexually-frustrated, you know) who live in a culture where male-on-male rape is endemic and systemic on the off-chance that you can 'save' them from homosexuality? Sounds like 66 Islamocally-approved sexual assaults just waiting to happen, if you ask me.
All of this leads me to a very interesting question, however. Assuming the Muslim kids won't be raped by their 'counselors' (it could happen), which approach to building healthy and happy children makes more sense to you: a government-sanctioned medical board deciding to spring for hormone therapy for a10-year old boy so that he can one day -- maybe -- grow tits that won't work, and have his tallywhacker reshaped into a facsimile of a vagina -- that likewise won't work -- or sending kids to a 4-day camp/seminar where someone can give them some advice and counselling, and probably provide a manly role model or two?
I hate to have to admit it, but the Exploding Sheep-Shaggers may just have this one right.
You know, if you want to have your privates mutilated, it's not a lifestyle choice or a matter of feelings; it's a fucking mental disorder. Finding ways and excuses to allow people to mutilate themselves (free-of-charge, too) is not 'therapy'; it's insanity. And if you've ever wondered just why the medical community hasn't yet found cures for AIDS, cancer or malaria, it is probably, in part, because vital medical resources are being wasted trying to figure out how to turn vaginas into penises, and vice-versa.
The amount of money this sort of unnatural and medically-unnecessary transformation eats up, from beginning to end -- what with the drugs, the hormone treatments, the surgeries, not to mention the life-long mental health 'support' regime -- is presumably enormous. I'm guessing that if someone were to add it all up, for the expense of granting one demented douchebag -- probably prodded into it by his whackadoo Mother, in the first place -- his Cinderella fantasy, the Australian government could probably provide treatment for four or five cancer victims, if not more.
Worse, once the process is completed (i.e. post-surgical mutilation) it's not exactly reversible, so tough shit if you change your mind when it's all said-and-done.
The following quotes from the article are complete and total bullshit:
"The court heard that Jamie saw herself as a "freak" and a "girl in a boy's body," and had first identified as a girl when she was a toddler."
How many toddlers do you know who are capable of making that determination all on their lonesome, let alone would remember having done so? Is this scientifically possible? Has any reputable scientist studied this phenomenon? Did anyone even fucking check?
"At the moment Jamie can live comfortably as a girl, is socially confident and suffers no teasing or social isolation."
Yeah...riiiight. I don't know what planet these people live on, but here on Earth children the world over are beastly little swine who just can't wait to tease, ostracize, and beat up other children they find weird. It's just what they do. My guess is that this child never goes out to play, has few friends, and probably lives in a hermetically-sealed bubble at home.
This is child abuse, plain and simple. That it is being sanctioned by the Australian government is absolutely astounding.
Without knowing all the particulars, I wouldn't doubt for a second that the kid's mother, disappointed at not producing a baby girl, put this idea into his head or at least decided while he was young to ignore biology and treat him as a her for the sake of her own misguided preferences. Been known to happen. I'd sterilize this 'mother' before she breeds again. It might be the one thing that saves some poor, future child's sanity, and maybe even his life.
In the meantime, we discover that Australia's neighbor, Malaysia, simply sends boys who display feminine tendencies to special camps in order to butch them up. In an Islamically-approved way, of course. The only problem with this, though, is that the people who judge which boys are deemed to be in need of rectification are members of a religion which sanctions sheep-shagging and gang rape, and is part of a greater culture which is notorious for higher-than-average rates of male-on-male sexual assault.
Islamic Madrassas are infamous dens of male rape, you know. How else do you get them into the proper frame of mind to fly an airliner into an office building? When creating future generations of terrorists you need to first destroy their self-esteem and will to live, and endemic poverty, unemployment, sexual frustration and denial of basic human freedoms can only get you so far, you know. I'll bet that on page one of every terrorist in Gitmo's dossier, it's stamped in red: Raped By Imam/Terrorist Recruiter. Send 'em to a camp where sexually-frustrated males (all Muslim men are sexually-frustrated, you know) who live in a culture where male-on-male rape is endemic and systemic on the off-chance that you can 'save' them from homosexuality? Sounds like 66 Islamocally-approved sexual assaults just waiting to happen, if you ask me.
All of this leads me to a very interesting question, however. Assuming the Muslim kids won't be raped by their 'counselors' (it could happen), which approach to building healthy and happy children makes more sense to you: a government-sanctioned medical board deciding to spring for hormone therapy for a10-year old boy so that he can one day -- maybe -- grow tits that won't work, and have his tallywhacker reshaped into a facsimile of a vagina -- that likewise won't work -- or sending kids to a 4-day camp/seminar where someone can give them some advice and counselling, and probably provide a manly role model or two?
I hate to have to admit it, but the Exploding Sheep-Shaggers may just have this one right.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Professor Hanson on Patient Obama...
National treasure. I say we put the Prof's face on the dollar bill, already.
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