Hypersanity

Big Shakeup in GOP Primaries Coming

2011-04-13T16:58:00.001-04:00

Rueters (Ames, Iowa) Republican moderates have assembled outside Oscar's Feed & Grain, a popular restaurant in Ames, Iowa, to back a surprising candidate: Barack Obama circa 2007. Frustrated in their search for the appropriate candidate to run against Barack Obama in 2012, GOP moderates have come up with the novel idea of running Barack Obama of 2007 against the popular incumbent President. "I know this is highly unusual, but we think there is a real contrast that we can use to differentiate our candidate from theirs, and there are lots of other good reasons" said organizer Wesley Smollis. While supporters admit there may be a constitutional issue and expect attacks by Democrats, they believe they are on solid legal ground. "There is documented proof that the 2007 Obama took the oath of office in public, and no, it wasn't botched as some twelvers claim", said Roy Beamish, attorney for the group.

"Twelvers" is the term 2007 Obama supporters use to describe people who claim that only one version of Obama can run for office in a given election cycle. "Anyone who says there is some kind of Constitutional rule that the 2007 version of Obama can't be President is relying on a technicality that, frankly, smacks of racism. " said Mr. Beamish.

Republicans for Our Obama 2007, or ROO7 was formed by Wesley Smollis who realized that each GOP potential candidate came up short on one or more crucial qualities; some were too conservative, others had personal baggage, others weren't charismatic or inspirational, or else just simply couldn't win. Smollis decided to do something about it, "Looking back, the 2007 Obama made some great promises that I think are real winners, I called up some friends and we decided he's the candidate we want running on our side of the ticket."

The constitutional question isn't the only obstacle, supporters concede. "We recognize this is certainly outside-the-box, and the 2007 Obama has been away from politics for the last two years might be a bit rusty", said rally organizer Martin Billings, "but we think he can use those great oratory skills and run rings around the the guy who's in there now, he certainly beats him on all the issues."

Most here agree it's Obama 2007's strong and unwavering stands on the issues that's the driving force behind the growing support. "He's against bailing out banks, he's for lower gas prices, won't raise taxes on the middle-class guys like me, and he's for jobs, he's saying all the right things" said one supporter. "And if you compare Obama of 2007 to the one we know today, he sure seems like a Republican."

In order to differentiate their candidate, who happens to share the same name with the presumptive Democratic nominee, some of Obama 2007 supporters refer to him as '007'. Others prefer the term Our Obama. George Mauvy, vice-chairman of ROO7, "Look, Our Obama polls well, he's a great speaker and we prefer him on the issues to Obama 2012. We believe independents and Republicans will vote for Our Obama overwhelmingly. He is much more forceful and believable and he doesn't have the horrible record that Obama 2012 has. I guarantee he'll win all three debates."

Even some Democrats are on board; "I like his positions on Iraq and Afghanistan", said Democrat Beth Weesley, "and 007 would never have gotten us into Libya, and don't even bring up Guantanamo" she said.

But many conservatives don't share the enthusiasm for this Obama 007. "It's just like the GOP to nominate another liberal. First it was Bush, next McCain, and now Obama 007." said Jess Murfree "Just because he's not John McCain and he's a little more conservative than the other guy, they expect me to vote for him? I might as well just give up." said Murfree shaking his head.

But others are more circumspect. Fred Boortz, a wholesale grain salesman, told us, "If it's between Obama 2007 and Obama 2012 I'll have to go with 007, if only because of the Supreme Court picks."

An official from Republican National Committee, speaking off the record said, "We need to get the moderate and the independent vote, and this time it will be Our Obama not their Obama. Obama with an "R" after his name has a nice look to it. We'll have the second black President, so Democrats can't call us racists anymore, and most important, he can win. Our Obama is against gay marriage, which should motivate some of our conservative friends, even though I personally don't agree. We all have to make compromises, see?"

Republican strategist and pollster Patrick Murphy sees Obama 2007 as the best alternative, "You can't beat something with nothing, and 007 is a fiscal conservative, he's got a plan for Iraq and Afghanistan and he's going to stop bombing Libya. America is going to be more respected in the world, and he's promising unemployment won't go above 8% when he's in office."

Polls show Republicans like Obama 2007 for his relative fiscal sanity, and that many who once cheered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have soured on nation building and the mismanagement of the current administration. "Now that we see how Obama 2012 has been handling these wars 007's ideas of getting out make a lot more sense". Many Republicans also prefer the 2007 Obama's approach to racial harmony. Said another attendee at the rally, "The 2007 Obama distanced himself from that Reverend Wright character, and would never have associated with the likes of Al Sharpton."

Republican strategists expect blacks will vote Republican in unprecedented numbers considering Obama 2007 is also black. However many African-Americans remain skeptical. "Our Obama be They Obama" is a common bumper-sticker found in urban communities. Vasser East, prominent African-American studies professor in Princeton does not approve, "This is another example of the white establishment trying to buy the black man like a slave, and since 007 is half-white they're trying to pay half price."

In order to placate conservatives in the party, GOP insiders are considering two big names to balance the ticket. John F. Kennedy circa 1960 a hawkish tax-cutter and social conservative and Harry S Truman circa 1944 a throwback to the age of responsibility and honesty. Both are said to have practical problems running on a 2012 ticket, however.

Real Estate Salesman vs. New York Times Columnist - Neither Writes Too Good

2011-04-11T11:21:00.002-04:00

Okay, I know the headline is wrong but I just finished reading Gail Collins' column, Donald Trump Strikes Back, along with Trump's original letter and, well, I thought I'd join in the fun of writing poorly and I had to get kinda radical since I'm supposed to be, with my credentials, worse than both of them. (was that a run-on sentence? )

Anyway, I can excuse Trump because he doesn't write for a living, and no one is expecting him to be anything more than blunt and efficient in his communications. You might get a rushed memo with a typo on it, too. Deal with it. Still, he should have had someone proofread and edit his most recent letter, especially since he called into question the columnist's writing ability.

I don't read the New York Times much anymore, but I thought you had to be a pretty good writer to work there. Trump, of all people, calling out a New York Times columnist on her word-choices and storytelling ability seems pretty outlandish, but maybe Gail and The Donald are colluding to drive up both New York real estate prices and the Times' circulation figures, who knows?

Not since Trump took on Rosie O'Donnell has there been so much back-and-forth nastiness. Then, it was two shameless self-promoters piling up enough Manhattan mud to make the NYC Sanitation Department consider another work-slowdown.

This time we have two writers of dubious ability against each other:

In this corner, wearing the black- and-white-and-red-all-over trunks, New York Times editorial page writer and editor Gail Collins.

In that corner, wearing the gold lame EverTrumps, real estate mogul and bestselling author Donald Trump. The judges will be High School English teachers, and as the promoters say, This time it's personal.

Gail Collins:

Although Trump and I have had our differences in the past, I never felt it was personal. In fact, until now, I have refrained from noting that I once got an aggrieved message from him in which he misspelled the word “too.”

Ringside crowd boos this one. (Judges take a half point off Trump, but take five points off Collins for trying this feeble ploy as her opening attack.)

But about the letter. Mainly, it’s a list of alleged evidence that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Trump has made this the centerpiece of his faux presidential campaign, falling further and further into the land of the lunatic fringe.

The crowd is restless (Judges take off 1 point for sentence without a verb, take off 2 points for the misuse of a word - further instead of farther, which should be used when conveying the concept of distance - but award one point to Collins for employing French word faux in a New York publication that's not the Post or the Daily News)

Okay, now to the color commentary

Let's move on to the second sentence. What is "alleged evidence"? Is this something that purports to be evidence but isn't actually evidence? I have never read this in any other context in the New York Times. I don't remember reading about the "alleged evidence" regarding speculations about Bush freely bandied about in New York Times editorial pages, so I googled Bush alleged evidence New York Times And found nothing but evidence of the non-existence of alleged evidence citations. It's all evidence plain and simple. But my understanding is that evidence doesn't mean guilt. There can be faulty evidence, circumstantial evidence, or even fraudulent evidence. I wonder if a lawyer can get away with calling the prosecutions bloody glove, "alleged evidence"? Somehow Johnny Cochran didn't even deign to go there.

Trump does not actually seem to have people studying, or even Googling. Still, he sounds very self-assured. This is because before he was a reality-show host, he was in the New York real estate business, a profession in which it is vital to be able to say imaginary things with total certainty. (“I have five other people who are begging me to sell them this property. Begging.”)

The first sentence: "Trump does not actually seem..." How does one actually seem? It doesn't sound right to me. Does she mean, Trump does not seem to actually have... this would be better, but it's still awkward. There is an internal conflict, since actual and seem have two opposing meanings. This confuses the reader. How about omitting either the actually, or the seem? Trump does not seem... Or, if the columnist wishes to make a stronger statement, Trump does not actually....
Perhaps Ms. Collins wants to have the strength of actually hide behind the protection of seems. (That's what it actually seems like to me anyway.)

On the positive side, I like the phrase, "a profession in which it is vital to be able to say imaginary things with total certainty" True enough. Real estate mogul, meet New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, and this is Gail Collins...you guys have a few things in common...

Next:

“Bill Ayers wrote ‘Dreams From My Father,’ I have no doubt about it,” Trump told Joe Scarborough...

Trump must have read Deconstructing Obama, which lays out a pretty compelling case. Collins continues:

Ayers is the former '60s radical who became a huge Republican talking point in 2008 because he had once given a house party for Obama when he was running for state senate. It’s a pretty big jump from coffee and cookies to writing an entire book, but I guess that’s what neighbors are for.

I'm beginning to see Trump's point about this writer's word-choices. Reading this is made quite difficult by the word-order and awkward construction.

(Judges take off one point for ambiguous wording
"...he had once given a house party for Obama when he was running for state senate" Who was running for the state senate Obama or Ayers?)

We have to start early and work our way through this one; "is the former" is how she chooses to represent "was". This is a bit strange. Perhaps the writer uses this formulation to convey the idea that he has given up his silly hippy-dippy ways, as so many of us have (sorta). But it is still inaccurate. A simple Google search turns up evidence, or perhaps alleged evidence, since it comes from Collins' own New York Times, that Ayers actually pulled off his biggest bombing stunts in the 1970's. And the linked article is entitled No Regrets and was published September 11, 2001. While this isn't the date you want the New York Times to promote your "no regrets" treatise on bombing the Pentagon, it remains evidence that Ayers isn't a "former (insert decade) radical" at all.

But back to the sentence, "who became a huge Republican talking point". Reading sequentially, as most of us do, I was jolted by this confusing word-order. This is the thought process, in micro-seconds of a not-so-average New York Times reader like me:

Sixties-radical-who-became-a-huge-Republican

Oh, like David Horowitz?

no... Republican-talking-point,

But how does a person go from being a sixties radical to a huge talking point, Republican or otherwise? That sounds.. strange, maybe the ultimate bad trip for any 60's type." I went to Woodstock, dropped some bad blotter-acid, now I'm a huge Republican talking point" (that could make for an effective Public Service Announcement, by the way)

He went to become a huge talking point because he served tea and cookies to Obama once.

Ya mean, he slipped them hash cookies or some-such hippie prank ?

No, he's a former sixties radical.

But what's so bad about that? The guy's reformed, he had them over for non-hallucinogenic cookies, perfectly OK.

Yes, that's the point. You are reading the New York Times, and the idea is that Republicans and Donald Trump are so ridiculous to believe that since Ayers had Obama over for cookies as a neighborly gesture, that Ayers wrote Obama's book.

Wow, that's pretty ridiculous. Wait. Who's being ridiculous?

Since I am a former, um, sixties "radical" also, I had a little flashback, please forgive me. I'm back now with more sober analysis:

What's noteworthy about Ayers , isn't that he set off bombs in the Pentagon, or that he claims responsibility for bombing New York City Police Headquarters, not even that he's an author of his own book, ''Fugitive Days'' (Beacon Press, September 2001) which chronicles his run from the FBI as a leader of the Weather Underground in the 1970's, or even that he is a "distinguished" professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago according to Collins' own publication, Bill Ayers is a "huge Republican talking point". That's all we need to know. And New York Times readers know that huge Republican talking points are all fictions to be summarily dismissed.

Now, let's read this sentence again. "a former '60s radical who became a huge Republican talking point in 2008 because (italics mine) he had once given a house party for Obama when he was running for state senate."

Interesting construction. (oops, forgot the verb - take away one point)

It’s a pretty big jump from coffee and cookies to writing an entire book, but I guess that’s what neighbors are for.

Yes, that's a pretty big jump, alright, if you leave out facts like Ayers is a published author and a prolific writer. If you leave out circumstantial evidence of motives like Obama had a sizable cash advance with a deadline fast approaching and Ayers had time on his hands, and leave out Jack Cashill's analysis of the different writing level between Obama's two published tomes, along with Cashill's detailed comparisons of words, phrases and sentences between the book in question with examples from Ayer's works noting similar word-choices and parallel construction of distinctive complex sentences. Leaving all that out, it's a pretty big leap.

Maybe Gail Collins isn't such a bad writer after all, once you realize she may be taking liberties with facts and readable sentence structure in order to lead her followers away from certain relevant issues, then it makes more sense that her writing is so convoluted. That's where those journalism degrees come in so handy! Perhaps there is method behind Collins' clunky prose if the real goal is to throw the average New York Times reader off the scent.

Collins concludes with another jolt for us readers. Here we are reading all about Trump and birthers and out of nowhere, she clumsily invokes Mitt Romney:

Recent polls have shown Trump running second among potential Republican primary voters. I believe this is not so much an indication of popularity as a desperate plea to be delivered from Mitt Romney.

Huh?

Well, since Collins is the editor of the editorial page, perhaps she's editing herself.

(Judges give the first round to Trump.)

2010-05-03T19:15:00.000-04:00

Breitbart.tv � Creepy PA Tax Amnesty Ad: ‘We Do Know Who You Are’

Take a mushroom and call me in the morning

2010-04-12T09:16:00.000-04:00

Hallucinogens Have Doctors Tuning In Again - NYTimes.com

Photographers and police: a First Amendment clash / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

2010-03-20T00:40:00.000-04:00

Photographers and police: a First Amendment clash / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

This Is Getting Ridiculous

2010-03-04T10:31:00.004-05:00

I fail to see how bringing the actual bill, however many pages long it may be, to a meeting debating said bills' merits constitutes political theater as Obama claims, but let's give him the benefit of the doubt:

One week later:

The only kind of medical personnel who wear their whites outside a clinical setting are mental health professionals, worn to communicate to the patient and public their qualifications for whatever intervention they are making. Knowing Obama's open contempt for using props and political gimmickry, they certainly can't be regular physicians wearing white coats, right?

I have to conclude that either Obama is a brazen hypocrite or has managed to alert the psychiatric community perhaps based on this diagnosis:

"doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"

- the popular definition of insanity.

To be fair, Obama isn't trying to do exactly the same thing, but he may still be insane. Perhaps some of the "blue dogs" covertly called up St. Elizabeth's to take him for an evaluation.

This time, our president wants to use a parliamentary trick, "reconciliation" or the "nuclear option". Obama and fellow Democrats are on record denouncing this in no uncertain terms.

One election, and 5 years later:

Is this Dementia? Early onset of Alzheimer's? If Obama has a clean bill of mental health after his checkup, then I'm not sure if Barack Obama knows what he is doing to his credibility and the credibility of his fellow Democrats.

That's My Stop...

2010-02-22T09:53:00.000-05:00

Pigeons follow roads and landmarks to navigate

Smackdown Romainian Style

2010-02-16T10:02:00.000-05:00

This woman was accused of abusing her students, the police were called... in Romaina they handle this kind of thing the old fashioned way.

Poor Amy, Life Isn't Fair...

2010-02-16T07:37:00.000-05:00

We know Amy Bishop shot and killed several colleagues, we know she shot her brother "accidentally" in 1986 and we know, if we read deep into the story in one newspaper , she was , " a far-left political extremist who was “obsessed” with President Obama to the point of being off-putting." Well, we know that last part is irrelevant, right? ~ If she been a Ron Paul supporter or been a gun rights advocate, this would not have been news at all, it wouldn't even warrant a mention ~ But I point it out because there is a bigger picture.

(note: the ~ sign denotes sarcasm)

She also was a suspect in the attempted pipe-bombing of a Harvard professor in 1993 which has gone unsolved. Who would want to kill a doctor who works at a Children's Hospital? Amy Bishop? With the other pieces of the puzzle in place, I'd say she becomes the prime suspect.

If Amy Bishop deliberately killed her brother, then getting away with the crime contributed to her subsequent act(s), because humans need to atone for their deeds, not just for society, but for themselves. If they escape punishment, one part of their psyche is tormented by guilt while another part creates a compartment in defense, which in turn allows the person to believe they won't suffer outside consequences for their actions, yet perpetuates and feeds a kind of inner demon.

But it is from the neighbors that we get one of the more telling insights into Ms Bishop's character:

"Bishop once stopped a local ice cream truck from coming into their neighborhood. According to WBZ-1030 radio, she said it because her own kids were lactose intolerant, and she didn't think it was fair that her kids couldn't have ice cream.

Ipswich neighbors recall confrontations with Amy Bishop - Local News Updates - The Boston Globe:

Fairness is very difficult (in fact, impossible) to achieve, especially when our multi-faceted society that rewards different people differently. Sometimes brilliant academics are lousy teachers. Sometimes affable and charming professors, light on brute intelligence are actually better teachers. Some...many professors don't get tenure. Some, in fact, many, musicians don't get a record deal.

Kids who are not lactose intolerant have a right to eat ice cream. The pursuit of "fairness" often results in doing harm to others in small ways and monumental ways. Depriving others of a life because you don't feel you have a life; and depriving neighborhood children of the joys of the ice cream truck because you don't think it is "fair", it's all part of the same mindset.

Life is especially unfair for those who were injured and lost their lives because of this woman, yet we will for years hence focus on giving Ms. Bishop a "fair" trial and she won't even be deprived of ice cream in prison. No, life isn't fair at all.

This Just In...

2010-02-07T10:03:00.000-05:00

Don't Forget: Never Trust a Cop

2010-02-04T14:48:00.000-05:00

EMBED-The Best DUI Arrest In History - Watch more free videos

This reminds me of a story a friend told me (who shall remain nameless) who was stopped for drunk driving. This woman is a black-belt in karate , and was given a series of balance tests which she passed with flying colors. She was very good at answering the questions as well, being a down-to-earth Texas girl responding truthfully and matter-of-factly to each question. Unlike this garrulous good-ole-boy, she was finally let go.

I asked "Were you drunk?

"I was stone-cold drunk!"

"Did the cops know it?"

"I think they did, but they had to let me go, I guess I kinda won them over."

She also never admitted to anything....

The Future of Movie Reviews?

2010-02-03T04:52:00.000-05:00

I first encountered this reviewer in his epic 7 part evisceration of the Star Wars trilogy, which is also worth a look. I probably won't see Avatar since I have roughly the same sentiments as this man when it comes to story, character and crude Hollywood manipulation techniques.

Bunch Of Phonies Mourn J.D. Salinger - The Onion

2010-01-31T09:55:00.000-05:00

Bunch Of Phonies Mourn J.D. Salinger

"He had a real impact on the literary world and on millions of readers," said hot-shot English professor David Clarke, who is just like the rest of them, and even works at one of those crumby schools that rich people send their kids to so they don't have to look at them for four years.

More Proof Science is Culturally Biased

2010-01-31T09:47:00.000-05:00

French correct British scientists: G spot does exist - Telegraph

The French

2010-01-14T12:37:00.001-05:00

Borat it ain't, but some of these pranks are especially funny. I like the ones that get the meter maids and cops the most...

The Futurist: The Misandry Bubble

2010-01-10T07:24:00.000-05:00

The Futurist: The Misandry Bubble: "Executive Summary : The Western World has quietly become a civilization that undervalues men and overvalues women, where the state forcibly transfers resources from men to women creating various perverse incentives for otherwise good women to conduct great evil against men and children, and where male nature is vilified but female nature is celebrated. This is unfair to both genders, and is a recipe for a rapid civilizational decline and displacement, the costs of which will ultimately be borne by a subsequent generation of innocent women, rather than men, as soon as 2020."

I know because I trust everyone else who knows, who trust everyone else who knows...

2009-12-14T17:32:00.000-05:00

Thanks to an honest and sincere woman we get treated to a rational discussion on Climate Change. If Kirsten were to be dishonest she would have erupted, counterattacked, impugned motives, and run off haughtily defiant.

We all are subject to faith through hearsay, it is a human condition and so we must be careful to ask questions.

Elitism not Racism

2009-07-24T06:51:00.003-04:00

This is a fascinating story to me because this is really elitism vs. the working stiff, masquerading under the cloak of race. So race-obsessed we are in our culture that it obscures the reality of the situation to the point of absurdity.

First, these people are all doing their jobs. Cop responds to complaint, gets vital info, however undiplomatically, discovers no crime has been committed and begins to leave. Harvard African American Studies professor has a job too - find and explain racism wherever it rears its head, in history, in common practices and in the hearts of men. Mr. Gates gets paid well for this and has tremendous status as a college professor of Harvard. Cop gets barely middle-class wages and must work 50 weeks per year. Cop has a multitude of supervisors and masters to serve; Mr Gates has tenure and can do pretty much as he pleases most of the time. Mr Gates has connections Mr. Crowely could only dream of, the clout of Harvard University in Cambridge Mass, not to mention the President of the United States himself.

Gates had just returned from China, a country Mr. Crowder will likely never see as he can't afford the plane ticket or the time off from work. But Gates no doubt saw a different strain of racism in China, one he can't easily blame on white Americans. Black people are an oddity in Asia, and had Gates ventured anywhere beyond the tourist centers of Beijing he was likely gawked at and oogled by the non-white Chinese. They didn't know he was a professor, and he may have been mistaken for a retired basketball player more than once, which is slightly better than being mistaken for a criminal, yet despite the curious gawkers, I'm sure the Black man Gates was kowtowed to by a myriad of Chinese servants in hotels and restaurants quite sufficiently to keep him comfortable with the status he is used to receiving at Harvard and elsewhere in the US.

But hasn't Mr. Gates gotten the memo? Police are gruff, they are not particularly polite when they are investigating possible crimes, and as a white guy I can assure Mr. Gates that I have been treated similarly and worse by policemen in various cities in different circumstances where I was totally innocent. In fact, police can be downright nasty and I think there are far too many authoritarian drones in police forces, which is why I initially sympathized with Gates. However, after reading the report and reviewing the record of the police officer in question I just have to laugh. This is not racism or even bullying emanating from the cop, it's elitism and bullying coming from Mr. Gates!

Do you know who you are messing with?

It seems Mr Gates is animated by his bloated ego and his own prejudice and stereotypical mindset, not by his concern for ordinary black men who might be profiled. If he was concerned with ordinary black men i.e. those not tenured at Harvard, not President of the United States not the Mayor of Cambridge or the Governor of Massachussetts, he wouldn't make false charges, because it undermines the still somewhat real problem with authoritarian police officers - some of whom may have racial animosities as well as other traits unbecoming to those charged to protect and serve us all.

Then in a nationally televised press conference where the press asked no questions on our ailing economy, no questions on two simmering wars, no questions on corruption in government, Obama is asked about this trivial incident. And he answers as if this were a real issue!

Obama also was doing his job. After all, he was promoting a health care plan he hasn't read, and is on record admitting his unfamiliarity with key provisions of said plan, why shouldn't he weigh in on something else about which he doesn't have the facts?

The Astounding World of the Future

2009-06-02T12:44:00.000-04:00

British Health Bureaucrats Become Boss Clowns

2009-04-24T06:29:00.170-04:00

Clown cannot wear giant shoes due to health and safety

Valerik Kashkin, a clown in the Moscow State Circus, was performing in Liverpool's Sefton Park last Saturday when he fell from a three metre high slack wire, injuring his foot.
Although he continued to perform for the rest of the show, when he went to hospital later that evening, he was told he had broken the metatarsal bone in his left foot.

When he returned to the circus he was told by management he could no longer wear the size-18 shoes because they compromised his health and safety.

Mr Kashkin features in the circus' reworking of the Rasputin tale, The Monk's Dream.

His routine includes dressing himself whilst walking on a wire, dress himself within a hoop of fire, and playing a drum-kit, trumpet and double-bass all at the same time.

The British Health Ministry telling a clown what he can and can't wear is ripe for comedy, but the fact that the clown is still allowed to play double-bass, a drum kit and dress himself inside a flaming hoop of fire while balancing on a slack-rope is a testament to the absurdity that is state-run health care. Somehow the bureaucrat placed all the blame on his choice of footwear.

Had Mr. Kashkin gone to the hospital for treatment for burns he would no doubt have had to lose the "flaming hoop of fire".

Once this type of universal health care is adopted it is a short trip toward more state control of our personal habits and practices. In Britain, obese people are denied hip-replacement surgery (along with nearly everyone else) and smokers are considered secondary citizens when it comes to treating lung ailments, having brought their misery upon themselves, despite the years of cigarette taxes they paid.

If the state must spend money out-of-pocket for your excesses it follows that the payer, in this case, Mother Britain, has a vested interest in your personal well-being lest it cost the treasury. But who would think it could go so far as directing ... clown bits?

Which brings us back to Mr Kashkin, the Russian clown. Russian clowns are usually very good, in the same sense that Americans basketball players are good or British rockers. The reason Kashkin is performing in Britain as a clown is the same reason that British rockers are giving concerts in Moscow and American basketball players win Olympic medals.

The reason there are so many good Russian clowns is a result the high esteem circus is held in Russia, and the wealth of talent that was nurtured during the Soviet era. The Soviet Union believed the circus to be "The People's Theatre", and at one point there were 150 state-run and funded circuses traveling throughout the Motherland's 11 time zones, transcending different languages and ethic groups with feats of daring with universal comedy provided by clowns.

The elite circus was The Moscow Circus, which has a dedicated building in Moscow. The Soviets had a treasure of talented acts, and to raise revenue and promote good will, the Politboro sent their best performers on the road.

In 1980 I saw the "Moscow Circus" at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, and the best circus performance I have ever seen was The Cranes, a display of consummate circus artistry that would make any Cirque de Soleil trapeze act weep with envy. It was the first time I saw circus as art, not spectacle.

The Soviet Union gave free health care for all. They actually pioneered the concept and no doubt treated thousands of circus performers over the years for sprains, dislocations, and fractures. In the central planning culture the added cost of treating circus injuries was minor given their status and role as ambassadors for the Soviet system.

But in Britain, the clown Kashkin and circus representatives now must explain to the Ministry of Health why clown shoes are important.

Mr Kashkin, 40, from Temruk, Russia, said: "The shoes are an important part of my costume, and I was disappointed to be told I couldn't do this part of my act.

"I feel fine, and think I could do it in the shoes – the impact might be lost on the audience now."

Mr Kashkin knows the shoes are vital to his act but perhaps has been so busy working on all the performance elements hasn't the chops to articulate the abstractions. But even if he could articulate them, the bureaucrat is oblivious.

Clowns use skills to be funny, often by way of mocking impressive but ultimately meaningless stunts. The clown is actually making fun of the absurd human condition, whilst parodying the serious and highly skilled circus acts of his fellow performers. The role of the clown in circus has the effect of adding levity and separation between daring climaxes. From the standpoint of the show as a whole, the clowns performance serves as a self-mockery, communicating, for all the hyperbole, the artistes don't take themselves that seriously. It has an endearing effect.The clown's goal is to be funny, not to impress, yet it is impressive.

I can hear the critics now; "You shouldn't need big shoes to be funny." But funny shoes are a common thread in the history of physical comedy, and to a skilled clown almost essential. Without the shoes it becomes another art form.

In the Middle Ages, court jesters used turned-up shoes to communicate ridiculousness. The master comic actor Charlie Chaplin used funny shoes, along with his cane and bowler, to subtle but necessary effect. Chaplin, as brilliant as he was, actually did not resonate with the public until he found his comic accessories. The big shoes of a clown convey immediately a harmless fellow who has no hope to impress us. The shoes serve a constant reminder to the audience that the emphasis is on farce, not skill. And in the physical world, where the comedy of the clown resides, it is a goof on fundamentals; any dancer, athlete or martial artist knows the importance of ground contact, foot placement and balance, so the clown's first contact with earth is questionable at the outset; we already have a "funny feeling" - the audience is primed to expect mistakes.

Steve Martin ( a clown in the broad sense) was once asked, “How can you be so funny?"

"Each morning I put a slice of baloney in each of my shoes. And then, I feel funny.”

Rejecting that it was a case of health and safety gone mad, Larry Dewitt, Health and Safety adviser to the circus said: "I'm not a believer in political correctness, or doing things for the sake of doing it however.

"You have to take a common-sense approach with these things – if it's stupid, don't do it."

If it is stupid don't do it.... Normally, I would agree, but in the case of clowning, I think that's the point...

Beware, Mr Kashkin ! Another slip-up and your act will be reduced to playing a kazoo whilst pedaling a three-wheeled unicycle!

Government run health care, if it is stupid, don't do it.

Ayn Rand Rises Again - Forbes.com

2009-04-20T19:05:00.000-04:00

Ayn Rand Rises Again - Forbes.com

More Unintended Consequenses: Traditional Values and Modern Surgery

2009-04-10T15:57:00.003-04:00

China's birth limits create dangerous gender gap

Condensed Galt

2009-04-08T19:15:00.002-04:00

John Galt's Speech

For twelve years you've been asking "Who is John Galt?" This is John Galt speaking. I'm the man who's taken away your victims and thus destroyed your world. You've heard it said that this is an age of moral crisis and that Man's sins are destroying the world. But your chief virtue has been sacrifice, and you've demanded more sacrifices at every disaster. You've sacrificed justice to mercy and happiness to duty. So why should you be afraid of the world around you?

Your world is only the product of your sacrifices. While you were dragging the men who made your happiness possible to your sacrificial altars, I beat you to it. I reached them first and told them about the game you were playing and where it would take them. I explained the consequences of your 'brother-love' morality, which they had been too innocently generous to understand. You won't find them now, when you need them more than ever.

We're on strike against your creed of unearned rewards and unrewarded duties. If you want to know how I made them quit, I told them exactly what I'm telling you tonight. I taught them the morality of Reason -- that it was right to pursue one's own happiness as one's principal goal in life. I don't consider the pleasure of others my goal in life, nor do I consider my pleasure the goal of anyone else's life.

I am a trader. I earn what I get in trade for what I produce. I ask for nothing more or nothing less than what I earn. That is justice. I don't force anyone to trade with me; I only trade for mutual benefit. Force is the great evil that has no place in a rational world. One may never force another human to act against his/her judgment. If you deny a man's right to Reason, you must also deny your right to your own judgment. Yet you have allowed your world to be run by means of force, by men who claim that fear and joy are equal incentives, but that fear and force are more practical.

You've allowed such men to occupy positions of power in your world by preaching that all men are evil from the moment they're born. When men believe this, they see nothing wrong in acting in any way they please. The name of this absurdity is 'original sin'. That's inmpossible. That which is outside the possibility of choice is also outside the province of morality. To call sin that which is outside man's choice is a mockery of justice. To say that men are born with a free will but with a tendency toward evil is ridiculous. If the tendency is one of choice, it doesn't come at birth. If it is not a tendency of choice, then man's will is not free.

And then there's your 'brother-love' morality. Why is it moral to serve others, but not yourself? If enjoyment is a value, why is it moral when experienced by others, but not by you? Why is it immoral to produce something of value and keep it for yourself, when it is moral for others who haven't earned it to accept it? If it's virtuous to give, isn't it then selfish to take?

Your acceptance of the code of selflessness has made you fear the man who has a dollar less than you because it makes you feel that that dollar is rightfully his. You hate the man with a dollar more than you because the dollar he's keeping is rightfully yours. Your code has made it impossible to know when to give and when to grab.

You know that you can't give away everything and starve yourself. You've forced yourselves to live with undeserved, irrational guilt. Is it ever proper to help another man? No, if he demands it as his right or as a duty that you owe him. Yes, if it's your own free choice based on your judgment of the value of that person and his struggle. This country wasn't built by men who sought handouts. In its brilliant youth, this country showed the rest of the world what greatness was possible to Man and what happiness is possible on Earth.

Then it began apologizing for its greatness and began giving away its wealth, feeling guilty for having produced more than ikts neighbors. Twelve years ago, I saw what was wrong with the world and where the battle for Life had to be fought. I saw that the enemy was an inverted morality and that my acceptance of that morality was its only power. I was the first of the men who refused to give up the pursuit of his own happiness in order to serve others.

To those of you who retain some remnant of dignity and the will to live your lives for yourselves, you have the chance to make the same choice. Examine your values and understand that you must choose one side or the other. Any compromise between good and evil only hurts the good and helps the evil.

If you've understood what I've said, stop supporting your destroyers. Don't accept their philosophy. Your destroyers hold you by means of your endurance, your generosity, your innocence, and your love. Don't exhaust yourself to help build the kind of world that you see around you now. In the name of the best within you, don't sacrifice the world to those who will take away your happiness for it.

The world will change when you are ready to pronounce this oath:
I swear by my Life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man,nor ask another man to live for the sake of mine.

Text courtesy of Daryl J. Sroufe

"If you have nothing to hide..."

2009-04-07T10:04:00.005-04:00

"We are becoming far too eager to give away our liberties in the face of false security. We want to make our plane and we don't want a five-minute hassle so we are eager to give up our freedom, and that is unfortunate," Mr. Bierfeldt said.

TSA detains official from Ron Paul group

More important than reading the article Listen to the audio

The Content Free Initiative

2009-03-28T12:15:00.003-04:00

The Tank on National Review Online

The Obama-Matic (TM) Content-Free Euphemism Generator [Fred Schwarz]

Sometimes you just have to hand it to the Obama administration. What better way to signal a new beginning than to rename the boring old War on Terror as the Overseas Contingency Operation? The phrase has an almost Dadaist purity, like that random-word spam we all used to get a few years ago. And you can’t deny that whenever anyone hears the phrase “Overseas Contingency Operation,” the first thing they’ll think of is a violent struggle against Islamic extremists. Either that or airline scheduling software.

Anyway, Obama is nothing if not ambitious, and he seems determined to extend his revolution to every area of life. That’s going to require a lot more Newspeak phrases. Yet think of all the hours that must have gone into devising “Overseas Contingency Operation”! Since it’s the duty of every citizen to help our president in this time of crisis, The Tank presents the Obama-Matic (TM) Content-Free Euphemism Generator (patent pending), to simplify the critically important job of governmental obfuscation. Simply pick one word apiece from columns A, B, and C, string them together, and you instantly have a one-size-fits-all Obama-compatible catch phrase — impressive-sounding, devoid of meaning, and entirely suitable for any concept that needs obscuring.

Click here for the generator

$50 local, $75 National (2008 dollars)

2009-03-27T16:27:00.003-04:00

In The Know: Are Politicians Failing Our Lobbyists?

Another Cop Caught Abusing His Power

2009-03-27T15:20:00.002-04:00

Double click video for the full story. At least the Police Force is investigating and the officer is on leave (paid). Notice how the officer changes his tone when hospital personnel enter the scene. He actually says, "attitude is everything" and then proceeds to lie about the basis of the encounter. What an arrogant fuck.

Insight into Modern Education Methods Here:

2009-03-26T10:47:00.002-04:00

The Lost Shaker of Salt

2009-03-26T09:17:00.003-04:00

Another brilliant South Park episode, "Margaritaville" Watch the whole thing! Here are a couple of clips, the link to entire episode at the bottom.

Full episode of Margaritaville

http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/220760

Green is the New Brown

2009-03-26T06:19:00.003-04:00

From the San Fransico Examiner:

With almost no public attention, both chambers of Congress in the past week advanced an alarming expansion of the Americorps national service plan, with the number of federally funded community-service jobs increasing from 75,000 to 250,000 at a cost of $5.7 billion. Lurking behind the feel-good rhetoric spouted by the measure’s advocates is a bill that upon closer inspection reveals multiple provisions that together create a strong odor of creepy authoritarianism.

What color will the uniforms be?

The bill also summons up unsettling memories of World War II-era paramilitary groups by saying the new program should “combine the best practices of civilian service with the best aspects of military service,” while establishing “campuses” that serve as “operational headquarters,” complete with “superintendents” and “uniforms” for all participants. It allows for the elimination of all age restrictions in order to involve Americans at all stages of life. And, it calls for the creation of “a permanent cadre” in a “National Community Civilian Corps.”

Read the whole thing.

www.sfexaminer.com >> Opinion

Could we have some of this in the USA please?

2009-03-25T11:26:00.001-04:00

The Song Remains the Same - Or Not

2009-02-26T20:02:00.000-05:00

The Two Faces of Barack Obama: A president contradicts himself all night long - Reason Magazine

2009-02-26T01:19:00.000-05:00

The Two Faces of Barack Obama: A president contradicts himself all night long - Reason Magazine

What Fun to Spend other People's Money!

2009-02-24T09:41:00.004-05:00

Does anyone believe these people really care about anyone but themselves?

2009-02-23T23:17:00.004-05:00

Soon, we gonna all be really cool, scro!

2009-02-17T06:39:00.005-05:00

Jaltcoh: Obama does crazy things with his voice.

While commenting on the contents of this link over at Althouse, I was reminded of the film Idiocracy. Our president reads his audio book with style . And John Mc Whorter ruminates on Obama's ability to talk trash.

"...what makes Obama's linguistic repertory especially resonant as an American phenomenon is that he speaks Black English as a second language. Growing up with a white mother, he did not acquire it on her knee, nor does one come away from Hawaii and Indonesia steeped in the cadences of Jay-Z. Black English is, for Obama, part of the identity he constructed as a young adult. In line with how seamlessly constructed that identity is, he's a great mimic. Not all black people who adopt Black English in their late teens or afterward pull it off as well as Obama; they tend to discharge it with an "accent," so to speak, that a native speaker can detect.

This is surely part of why Obama can speak with no hint of Black English's sound when he wants to. I first heard his voice when I tuned into his famous 2004 Democratic Convention address on the radio and didn't know it was him yet, and at first thought I was listening to a white speaker. If the only way he could speak was in some degree of black cadence, he would not have been elected. In being so deftly bidialectal, Obama can speak to all of America in a way that neither a John Edwards nor a Jesse Jackson ever could. What's interesting is that his black style--wielded sparingly, to be sure--is useful in reaching quite a few whites."

This is all about being "cool" or "hip" or whatever the word is now.

In 1992, Americans clearly wanted a hip President. The Clinton phenomenon was largely a result of a pent-up need for many Americans to get a man in the White House who shared their cultural attitudes. Many analysts and pundits framed this phenomenon as simply that "baby-boomers" wanted their own, but this never went far enough. A large segment also wanted someone who could be hip, play Saxophone and go on MTV and answer questions like, "boxers or briefs?" from a hot chick - while remaining responsible, of course. In 1996, the Republicans ran father-figure Bob Dole, who of course lost badly in the hip department.

Bush was the next "baby boomer" President, but he could never be hip mainly because of his party identification. Everyone knows Republicans are not hip, no matter what. The fact that he had been rumored to have taken drugs was used by his opponents as proof of hypocrisy, while Clinton's dabbling and the tortured spin, "I didn't inhale" had been understood by the counterculture as a necessary fib for a hipster to get into office, wink, wink.

In the 2000 and 2004 battle of hip, Bush had opponents who few could really accept, despite their counter-culture credentials. Kerry had his anti-war activism, and Gore was rumored to have been an avid toker in college, but neither had a believably hip persona. Gore had also destroyed any possibility of hip by attacking music lyrics in the 80's. So Bush didn't have much competition.

President Bush, perhaps out of a need to compensate for his casual, un-serious youth, went to great lengths to project seriousness and responsibility. Yet it is this aspect of George W. Bush that counterculture-loving comedians love to mock most. Bush is always portrayed, besides being hopelessly stupid and arrogant, as crudely casual. This, being distinctly unrepresentative of Bush and his considerable efforts to respect the office of the Presidency and honor his responsibilities, reveals this aspect of the comedy to be simply mean-spirited, juvenile attacks.

Now we once again have casual style in the White House, and it only serves to highlight what we had in the Bush years. Perhaps this reflects the public's need for the president to be "one of us", but it also includes the new hip hop hip that marks our current zeitgeist with the ethnic bonafides as a kicker.

It is mere coincidence that Idiocracy, filmed in 2005 portrays a black man as President. What makes this film pertinent and funny are it's many swipes at the direction our country is taking, mocking our coarsening culture and the rewarding and celebration of certain behavior.

Military slacker Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson) and hooker Rita (Maya Rudolph) sign up for a top-secret experiment to be frozen in suspended animation for a year. Due to a mix-up with the officer in charge (whom I believe but can't confirm is one of the Bobs from Office Space), they aren't thawed out for 500 years. In the interim, the intelligence of American society has been decreasing -- we've become a nation of total nitwits who sit around watching TV shows like Ow! My Balls!, and movies consisting of a naked ass farting for two hours (called, appropriately enough, Ass). When it's discovered that Bauers has the highest IQ in the country, he's appointed to a Cabinet post and expected to solve, well, everything.

Watch the trailer for an overview

I have paired the following two videos for obvious reasons:

One more, just for fun. Here they lampoon the news media. Fox is singled out, but this applies to them all.

This film is set 500 years in the future it could just as easily be 25 years,

OK, but do they have any money ?

2009-02-15T12:28:00.002-05:00

Galaxy has Billions Of "Earths"

Traveling Game Show

2009-02-14T11:33:00.006-05:00

Mark Steyn reviews our new President

When the going gets tough, the tough go campaigning. So, almost as if he were still running for office rather than actually running an office, the president arranges a photo-op or a town-hall meeting, where, for the moment, the hopeychangey shtick still plays. "I have an urgent need," a freeborn citizen of the republic (I use the term loosely) beseeched the president in Fort Myers last week. "We need a home, our own kitchen, our own bathroom."

As Michelle Malkin commented, "If she had more time, she probably would have remembered to ask Obama to fill up her gas tank, too." He took her name – Henrietta Hughes – and ordered his staff to meet with her. Hopefully, he won't insult her by dispatching some no-name deputy assistant associate secretary of whatever instead of flying in one of the big time tax-avoiding Cabinet honchos to nationalize a Florida bank and convert one of its branches into a desirable family residence, with a swing set hanging where the drive-thru ATM used to be.

We could not have a show like "Queen for a Day" in these times. Politicians have a monopoly on this kind of thing.

I remember this show from my childhood and how much I hated it. Looking back I don't think they had any black contestants; they would have either won more often due to hardship, or lost more often due to racism.

It would be funny though if one of the contestants was a black woman whose plight was being a maid - in the employ of one of those contestants... she'd get my vote.

"Lisa, what do you bid for all that?"

2009-02-14T11:06:00.003-05:00

$787,000,000,000

It's not April Fools Day and we are all losers going to Bogusylvania on OCD Airways.

Sad Day for the U.K.

2009-02-13T17:48:00.000-05:00

Straight Talk

2009-02-13T06:50:00.001-05:00

We Care Senator, We Care

2009-02-10T16:59:00.000-05:00

Government Greed

2009-02-08T06:50:00.004-05:00

The whole idea that the President, any President, can or should control the economy is abhorrent to me. The truth is Government really can't control economies, they can only sabotage them.

Government has coercive power, it does not have any power or ability to produce wealth.

We know this trillion dollar bill will not stimulate the economy, and we know that it will have many negative consequences, yet it's full speed ahead into the iceberg.

There is urgency and fear mongering on the part of the administration that strikes me as disingenuous. My evidence is that there is nothing in this bill that will help our economy and plenty of evidence that it will hurt. Obama and the Democrats have to know this, they aren't stupid.

Obama and his team want to cause and aggravate crises and use them to gain power and control. Try looking at events with that perspective and everything they do and say starts making sense.

The Cloward/Piven Strategy of Economic Recovery

Using borrowed money for a band-aid bailout of the economy should seem backwards to most people. However, it likely is a planned strategy to promote radical change. Those naively believing that President Obama is simply rewarding his far-left base, and will then move to the political center, must wise up.

The assumption that Obama will need the nation to prosper in order to protect the 2010 mid-term election incorrectly assumes that he esteems free market capitalism. He does not. Rather than win through superior ideas and policies, the Democrat plan for success in the mid-term elections is to win by destroying political opposition.

Read the whole thing.

Stimulis - Ask Your Doctor

2009-02-06T10:28:00.001-05:00

Hate Masquerading as Politics

2009-02-05T07:14:00.004-05:00

Victor Davis Hanson gives us in a few hundred words what our day-to-day media won't report because it is not "news". In our modern pop culture we get a lot of news and no perspective. Our 24 hour news cycle allows us to live in an illusion that things "are happening" and that things can be changed.

VDH puts a few things in perspective for us. Read the whole thing.

Been There, Done That in the Middle East by Victor Davis Hanson on National Review Online

When will the media-addled drones wake up and realize that all these demands are simply pretexts for war? There is a simple fact that cannot be denied: Millions want to destroy Israel.

There is no treaty, no bribe or promise, no change of behavior on Israel's part or the part of the United States that will end this desire of millions of people who live both near and far from Israel. There are no rulers, envoys, plans, processes or agreements that will change this simple fact.

We would love for these issues to be real. If they were real we wouldn't have to fight. If they were real we could "solve" them. But they are not real. We have to face that first.

Wake up America.

Seriousness Deficit

2009-02-03T13:07:00.004-05:00

One thing I've noticed since Bush has left office is the lack of seriousness in the Obama administration. These people have made it big and are elated, that's what it looks like to me. They have big responsibilities, but they aren't acting like it.

Hillary has been in the public eye for decades now but this is the first time she has had any real power.

Meanwhile our economy tanks and our enemies are salivating over their next moves.

Obama dresses casually and acts like a real regular guy. Matt Lauer is clearly a fan, and manages to find the one magazine published in the last month that omits Baracks visage from its' cover. Oh, and our President has something to say about Jessica Simpson.

When the Truth is Obscene

2009-02-01T14:18:00.003-05:00

Banks collecting billions of dollars in federal bailout money sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers to the U.S. for high-paying jobs, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications.

The figures are significant because they show that the bailed-out banks, being kept afloat with U.S. taxpayer money, actively sought to hire foreign workers instead of American workers. As the economic collapse worsened last year — with huge numbers of bank employees laid off — the numbers of visas sought by the dozen banks in AP's analysis increased by nearly one-third, from 3,258 in fiscal 2007 to 4,163 in fiscal 2008.

And why do companies wish to hire foreign workers over Americans? They can pay them less and control them more easily. Below is a famous video (not famoust enough, though) that catches a law firm giving a seminar on how to avoid hiring an American citizen, legally of course.

Stimulus for Who?

2009-01-30T07:28:00.001-05:00

Ron Paul has thoughts on the stimulus package

This week the House passed an $819 billion economic stimulus package. In reality, this bill is just an escalation of a government-created economic mess. As before, a sense of urgency and impending doom is being used to extract mountains of money from Congress with minimal debate. So much for change. This is déjà vu. We are again being promised that its passage will help employment, help homeowners, help the environment, etc. These promises are worthless. This time around especially, Congress should know better than to pass anything of this magnitude without first reading the fine print. There are many red flags that I have found in this bill.

At least $4 billion is allocated to expanding the police state and the war on drugs through Byrne grants, which even the Bush administration opposed, and the COPS program, both of which are corrupt and largely ineffective programs.

To help Big Brother keep a better eye on us and our children, $20 billion would go towards health information technology, which would create a national system of electronic medical records without adequate privacy protection. These records would instead be subject to the misnamed federal “medical privacy” rule, which allows government and state-favored special interests to see medical records at will. An additional $250 million is allocated for states to nationalize individual student data, expanding Federal control of education and eroding privacy.

$79 billion bails out states that haphazardly expanded their budgets during the bubble years, but refuse to retrench and cut back, as their taxpayers have had to, during recession years.

$200 million expands Americorps. $100 million goes to “faith-and-community” based organizations for social services, which will further insinuate the government into charity and community service. Private charities are much more efficient and effective because they are directly accountable to donors, while public programs tend to get rewarded for failure. With its money, the Federal Government brings its incompetence and its whims, while creating foolish dependence. This is sad to see.

Of course the bill is rife with central planning projects. $4 billion for job training, much of which will be used to direct workers into “green jobs”. $200 million to “encourage” electric cars, $2 billion to support US manufacturers of advanced batteries and battery systems, which is yet another function of government I can’t find in the Constitution. Not to mention $500 million for energy efficient manufacturing demonstration projects, $70 million for a Technology Innovation Program for “research in potentially revolutionary technologies” in which government, not supply and demand, will pick winners and losers. $746 million for afterschool snacks, $6.75 billion for the Department of Commerce, including $1 billion for a census.

This bill delivers an additional debt burden of $6,700 to every American man, woman and child.

There is a lot of stimulus and growth in this bill �" that is, of government. Nothing in this bill stimulates the freedom and prosperity of the American people. Politician-directed spending is never as successful as market-driven investment. Instead of passing this bill, Congress should get out of the way by cutting taxes, cutting spending, and reining in the reckless monetary policy of the Federal Reserve.

Negotiation for Peace Begins!

2009-01-28T09:09:00.006-05:00

Now that Barack Obama is in the White House and has given his first interview to Al Arabaya Network a breath of fresh air blows in diplomacy circles and there is new hope for peace in the Middle East.

As Obama says, it is tough to get everyone to agree, but it is do-able over time. We just need the right diplomats, the right language and demeanor, and respectfully negotiate. Being able to say the word "nuclear" properly, and not being George W Bush is key. Everything else will work out in the process.

Obama made the first overture for talks. He knows it isn't going to be easy or simple. While there are ancient problems between the Palestinians and Israel and many Arab and Muslim countries that have their own needs, the main problem seems to be Iran. If we can just get them onboard, everything else should fall into place nicely.

Only one day after Obama historically reached out to Iran, Ahmadinejad responded publicly.

Iran has, in effect, come to the negotiating table!

But before we get too excited at Iran's willingness to negotiate, we must stipulate that Obama did suffer a slight diplomatic setback when Iran's President interpreted his overtures as being "new words".

"If someone wants to talk with us in the language that (George W) Bush used ... even if he uses new words, our response will be the same that we gave to Bush during the past years."

But optimism remains at Foggy Bottom that the statement was merely a negotiating tactic we can get beyond. The fact remains that Iran has unclenched its' fist, taken Obama's outstretched hand, and is talking, finally telling us what the Bush administration missed by not having cultivated a serious and respectful dialog.

And what Iran wants turns out to be pretty simple:

1. "...apologize to the Iranian people and try to repair their past bad acts and the crimes they committed against Iran"

This we can do! By stating, in no uncertain terms, that we're sorry for what we did to the Iranian people for 60 years, and give them the trillion dollars we were planning on spending on our stimulus package - heck, most people were against that anyway, we can achieve peace! But we will have to remember to say, "mere money could never make up for all the devastation we caused, we hope that's enough", and remember to get an agreement in writing they won't make anything new up to ask for more, because we are broke.

2. "...put an end to the US military presence in the world, withdraw your troops and take them back inside your borders."

This is harder to achieve because we have agreements with all of these countries, South Korea, Germany, even Iraq, where we must give 12 months notice before withdrawing troops. Another sticking point is that this was essentially Ron Paul's position during the last election, so it would be a bitter pill for both Republicans and Democrats to swallow. Moreover, this hits right at Obama's favorite war, Afghanistan, where our new President is planning to deploy 20,000 more troops. Afghanistan would be taken over by the Taliban again. Also, allies South Korea, Japan as well as Taiwan would be lost, but who needs them, do they have oil? So it is possible.

3. "...stop supporting the Zionists, outlaws and criminals"

We need to clarify what Ahmadinejad means by "Zionists", but from the Iranian President's previous speeches and references we can for now safely assume he means Israel, and anyone who is Jewish, including Rahm Emanuel.

This would be difficult, but not impossible for Obama. Ultimately, if there were peace in the Middle East, would it really matter if Israel no longer existed? And Rahm Emanuel could be replaced. A difficult trade, no doubt, but peace would be achieved.

"outlaws and criminals" is a bit trickier since it would make cabinet confirmations and other appointments more difficult for the new administration. Reaching outside the beltway to find qualified but untainted people would be a lengthy and tedious process, but possible nonetheless.

4."...stop interfering in other people's affairs"

We are consummate busybodies nagging everyone to be a democracy, sending aid to earthquake and tsunami victims without them asking, wagging our fingers at Rwanda and Zimbabwe, and hectoring everyone about "human rights" while we waterboard innocent jihadis, but perhaps it would be good for us to keep to ourselves more. A lot of Americans feel the same way, too. Obama, as a member of the Democrat Party, would have a hard time not interfering, but if he has the will power to have stopped smoking, he can keep his hands out of other peoples' affairs and lead his Party by example.

5. "...let the American people decide their own future ... Stop pressuring them"

This, I admit, could be a dealbreaker, but there is always hope. Perhaps George Mitchell and Hilary Clinton can use their negotiating skills to get around this one.

Big Hollywood � Blog Archive � Ten Things You Can Do To Save The Planet

2009-01-27T00:04:00.001-05:00

MySpace Celebrity and Katalyst present The Presidential Pledge

Big Hollywood � Blog Archive � Ten Things You Can Do To Save The Planet

A Go-Green Guide for the Hollywood Community

More than ten years after the Kyoto accords, our planet continues to careen helplessly toward certain environmental destruction. The skies are choked with pollutants. Adorable helpless polar bears plunge through thinning ice caps. Ben Affleck still can’t find a decent comeback project.

The signs are ominous, but it’s not too late to do something. As a member of the entertainment community, you are uniquely qualified to save our planet from coming climate disaster. But it will take more than raising awareness — it will take action. Have your personal assistant add these 10 to-dos to your Blackberry, and let’s get the Earth on the road to recovery!

1. Reduce Water Consumption. One single dripping faucet or flushed bidet may not seem to be much of an environmental threat, but those numbers really add up when you’re hosting an NRDC fundraiser for Laurie David and all 10 of your bathrooms are in use. When possible, encourage guests to pee in the pool, and remind them that “if it’s yellow, let it mellow.” Unless you’re serving asparagus canapes.

2. “Green Begins At Home.” Whether you live in East Hampton or Topanga Canyon, there are dozens of little things you can do around your compound to reduce your carbon footprint. For instance, tell your groundskeeping crew to plant a tree. Save your leftover foie gras to grow your own homemade organic Botox. Turn off your energy wasting security cameras between 1 AM and 7 AM. If you own a vanity cattle ranch in Montana, email the trail boss and tell him/her to add Beano to your herd’s feed to reduce ozone-depleting methane emissions.

Black Markets Trump Control

2009-01-26T08:37:00.004-05:00

Recently, the unelected New York Governor proposed massive tax increases on shoes, clothing, luxury items, cigars, you name it, but raising taxes on cigarettes was, for once, not in the mix.

Why? Simply because they have already taxed cigarettes to the point of being close to $10 per pack in New York city, and thus they are now being smuggled in from out-of-state by the truckload. A whole new way for gangs to make money was instituted by Government greed. The tipping point has been reached.

Interfering with markets creates unintended consequences; in this case by fueling a new black market which the city then must spend some of those tax dollars to catch, prosecute and incarcerate those who engage in illicit arbitrage. If they raised the taxes on cigarettes even higher, more people would stop smoking, and a stronger incentive would be created for people to buy, sell and smuggle untaxed cigarettes, resulting in a net loss of revenue for the State.

It is a useful economic lesson. We know what happened when alcohol was prohibited. Gambling used to be a vice and against the law but it was everywhere, so now it is a primary source of revenue for nearly every State in our Union. The market was simply too broad for realistic enforcement.

Even though gambling discourages poor people to save and is a "tax on people who are bad at math" it is endlessly promoted by the State (responsibly, of course call 1-800-GAMBLER if you have a problem, ha, ha) It is supposed to create jobs and more and more States are proposing to legalize gambling. Now some States who have resisted the urge to legalize gambling are now advocating it as a defensive measure to keep money from flowing out of their State into neighboring States, which is, sadly, a valid argument.

If there is a significant market for something whether it is tobacco, gambling pornography, passage across borders or drugs, the demands will be met by someone. Enforcement must be very near total to be effective.

We do not have, nor can we have, sufficient enforcement of our drug laws to be effective.

As I posted before the drug war and the prohibitions are manufacturing cruelty

Mexico is near collapse because of the un-free market of illegal drugs flowing into this the USA. If all the suffering corruption and costs are taken into account, the cure is clearly worse than the disease.

From the Neuvo York Times

A report by retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the former drug czar, makes similar observations. "The malignancy of drug criminality," he writes, "stretches throughout the U.S. in more than 295 cities." Gen. McCaffrey visited Mexico in December.

Here is how he sees the fight: "The outgunned Mexican law enforcement authorities face armed criminal attacks from platoon-sized units employing night vision goggles, electronic intercept collection, encrypted communications, fairly sophisticated information operations, sea-going submersibles, helicopters and modern transport aviation, automatic weapons, RPG's, Anti-Tank 66 mm rockets, mines and booby traps, heavy machine guns, 50 cal sniper rifles, massive use of military hand grenades, and the most modern models of 40mm grenade machine guns."

How is it that these gangsters are so powerful? Easy. As Gen. McCaffrey notes, Mexico produces an estimated eight metric tons of heroin a year and 10,000 metric tons of marijuana. He also points out that "90% of all U.S. cocaine transits Mexico" and Mexico is "the dominant source of methamphetamine production for the U.S." The drug cartels earn more than $25 billion a year and "repatriate more than $10 billion a year in bulk cash into Mexico from the U.S."

To put it another way, if Mexico is at risk of becoming a failed state, look no further than the large price premium the cartels get for peddling prohibited substances to Americans.

And why the high prices? Law enforcement. Law enforcement succeeds only in raising prices and picking the low hanging fruit. Those drug dealers who haven't been sufficiently cruel and haven't corrupted the right judges and politicians are caught by law enforcement or are killed off by rival gangs.

I Know Why They Call it Fannie

2009-01-24T07:12:00.002-05:00

H/T Gateway Pundit

15.8 year-old vs. Maine Diplomat

2009-01-23T11:45:00.003-05:00

Mark Steyn on Hugh Hewitt

HH: Now in terms of George Mitchell, and I’m going to talk a little bit later with Juan Williams and pose this question to him, I don’t think anybody from America has anything that they can bring to this table at all. I don’t believe any American can change on the ground in Israel. Am I wrong, Mark Steyn?

MS: No, you’re not. The reality is in Gaza, for example, the median age is 15.8 years. 15.8 years.

HH: Are you going to go off on one of your demographic rants here?

MS: Yeah, I am.

HH: Good, go ahead.

MS: I’m not going to go off on a demographic rant except to this extent, that I think this idea that great men fly around the world…

HH: Exactly.

MS: …flying into presidential palaces and sorting problems out, doesn’t take into account what’s happening on the ground. On the ground in Gaza, there are millions of angry, young men, uneducated, who are no good at doing anything, no good for any kind of employment, and there isn’t any employment anyway. That’s the same problem, and you mentioned the tribal lands in Pakistan a couple of minutes ago…

HH: Yup.

MS: That’s the same problem there. And this idea that one guy flies in on his government jet, and is taken to the presidential palace and has a cup of tea and everything seems nice and hunky dory, that sort of great man view of diplomacy is a failure in Palestine, it’s a failure in Pakistan where it led to nothing except sending poor Benazir Bhutto back to that country to get blown to pieces. That is not good. The young men, median age 15.8 years, is the reality on the ground. And one nice, middle-aged, elderly gentleman from Maine can’t change the reality of all those angry, young men of 15.8 years.

Celebrate Good Times, Come On! It's Obama-nation

2009-01-23T11:08:00.003-05:00

Everything is Gonna be Alright, Diane!

Classical Celebrities

2009-01-23T07:30:00.005-05:00

Yo-Yo and Itzhak Bow-synced Inaugural

It has always bothered me that some people, great as they are, become tokens or symbols, and this actually inhibits the wider dispersal of art.

Name a famous cellist: Yo-Yo Ma. Now, name another. If you are like me and millions of others, you can't. Does this mean that the number two cellist in the world, who few can name, or even the top 20 or top 100, lag so very far behind Yo Yo in talent? Of course not, but somehow it seems that way, doesn't it? This is because fame and name recognition is the currency by which we judge people. We only know someone is a talented cellist because we recognize the name. We are forfeiting our own independent judgment, and more importantly appreciation, to hearsay.

Perhaps Yo Yo is more famous because he has a distinctive name, I don't know. Certainly he is talented enough. Which is my point. For non-aficionados like myself, (and I am a musician) and the people watching the Inaugural, hundreds of cellists and violinists are talented enough for us to hear in such a venue. Maybe we need to hear more cellists so as to compare one with the other, and no doubt we would then hear more dimensions in tone, feeling, precision and other elements. Then we could not easily rank the players themselves. Yet Yo Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman continue to grab the lion's share of fame and fortune while others struggle in comparative obscurity.

It is not exclusively their fault. They were offered a gig, and had they turned it down saying, "why don't you give this up-and-coming cellist a chance to get famous too and sell some CD's", the booker would probably say, "Well, we want big names." And since fame of their talent is what they are really being paid for, why should they dilute their market? It is more about the status of the Inauguration and Obama than promoting art or making it more accessible. The name is the draw. The name alone commands a price. And it doesn't even matter if they play their instruments, the tokens are there in person, we know we are listening to the best of the best, and why should they risk sounding less than stellar in the cold?

In 2007 The Washington Post set up an experiment using renowned violinist Joshua Bell as a busker in a DC subway with hidden cameras and after-the-fact interviews with passers by and the few who stopped briefly to listen and contribute. I have tremendous admiration for Mr. Bell for participating in this stunt.

The article is fascinating as is the discussion afterward.

By Gene Weingarten
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Pearls Before Breakfast - washingtonpost.com

Pearls Before Breakfast
Can one of the nation's great musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush hour? Let's find out.

No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made. His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?

Obama is Pissed at His Vice President

2009-01-22T06:47:00.004-05:00

This was embarrassing and does not bode well for the Obama/Biden relationship. Obama made what I thought to be a mistake choosing Biden as Vice President, but it didn't play out during the campaign since the media chose to focus on Obama exclusively and Palin was the focus of any and all VP criticism. Regular readers here know what kind of contempt I hold for US Senators, who are, almost to a man, fatuous blowhards who are rarely challenged and get worse the longer they hold office. Joe Biden could certainly be the poster boy for the Senate in this regard. Biden will be on public display for four years and provide late night comedians with more material than Dan Quayle, Spiro Agnew and Paris Hilton combined.

Obama, however, hasn't spent much time in the Senate and his reaction to Joe's bumbling is encouraging. The Commander-in-Chief may have hired a fool, but at least he is not suffering the fool gladly:

Change:"The Great Satan Now Has a Black Face"

2009-01-21T14:03:00.003-05:00

Barack Obama greeted with hatred and quiet hope in Iran - Telegraph

Perhaps those who have viewed our international troubles as purely a function of George Bush and his policies will be surprised to see that they were just using him as a prop. I see Obama's election as an opportunity for many Americans to see a bit of reality. Perhaps seeing the outside world with the partisan prism of our own internal politics removed will awaken them to the very real threats our enemies are making. Obama is the new prop. Nothing has changed, regardless what he says or does. Please take these people seriously. That is, read the words and take them literally, because that is how they mean it. Oh, and you may have new insights as to how sophisticated the rest of the world is on racial issues.

It was the Supreme Leader's Special Representative though, who put it most graphically and with evident disgust. "Obama's is the hand of Satan in a new sleeve", explained Hossein Shariatmadari. "The Great Satan now has a black face". His words have weight because he speaks for Ayatollah Khamenei, the man who makes the big decisions in Iran; on foreign policy and all matters nuclear. His fingernails have regrown since they were pulled out by the Shah's torturers thirty years ago and Shariatmadari now edits Iran's most hardline newspaper. "Obama won't make any big change in American policy towards Iran", he told me. "Because he has little room for change in anything. And we won't change our goal; we are determined to have nuclear power but not nuclear weapons."

Travesty of Justice

2009-01-20T10:58:00.002-05:00

In-flight confrontations can lead to terrorism charges - Los Angeles Times

By Ralph Vartabedian and Peter Pae
January 20, 2009
Reporting from Los Angeles and Oklahoma City -- Tamera Jo Freeman was on a Frontier Airlines flight to Denver in 2007 when her two children began to quarrel over the window shade and then spilled a Bloody Mary into her lap.

She spanked each of them on the thigh with three swats. It was a small incident, but one that in the heightened anxiety after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks would eventually have enormous ramifications for Freeman and her children.
A flight attendant confronted Freeman, who responded by hurling a few profanities and throwing what remained of a can of tomato juice on the floor.

The incident aboard the Frontier flight ultimately led to Freeman's arrest and conviction for a federal felony defined as an act of terrorism under the Patriot Act, the controversial federal law enacted after the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

"I had no idea I was breaking the law," said Freeman, 40, who spent three months in jail before pleading guilty.

Freeman is one of at least 200 people on flights who have been convicted under the amended law. In most of the cases, there was no evidence that the passengers had attempted to hijack the airplane or physically attack any of the flight crew. Many have simply involved raised voices, foul language and drunken behavior.

Some security experts say the use of the law by airlines and their employees has run amok, criminalizing incidents that did not start out as a threat to public safety, much less an act of terrorism.

And get this:

After three months in jail, Freeman agreed to plead guilty in exchange for being released on probation. A court-appointed attorney told her that a plea deal would be the fastest way to see her children, who had been taken back to Hawaii and put into foster care.

Her probation required her to stay in Oklahoma City, where she grew up, and prohibited her from flying. Meanwhile, legal proceedings in Hawaii have begun to allow the children's foster parents to adopt them.

Freeman has been denied permission to attend custody hearings in Maui over the last six months, court records show.

"I have cried. I have cried for my children every day," Freeman said. "I feel the system is failing me."

What is our country coming to? Read the whole thing.

Take a Quiz

2009-01-20T09:06:00.003-05:00

Politics described in terms of left/right is quite crude and inaccurate. Politics isn't a "spectrum", but more of a landscape -a four-way struggle between Statism, Libertairianism Leftistism and Conservativism. This quiz will tell you more accurately where you stand. Remarkably simple and telling.

World's Smallest Political Quiz

Lyin' Biden

2009-01-18T08:56:00.007-05:00

One would think that in our Democracy a politician who behaves like this on camera would not be re-elected to the Senate, and certainly not advance his career to become Vice-President.

The clip below was recorded in 1988 during Biden's first presidential run, shortly after he was caught plagiarizing a Neil Kinnock speech. Later it was revealed that Biden had been caught lifting five pages from a law journal without attribution in a paper he wrote in Law School.

But first, let's watch Biden in full bluster:

Transcript: (Statements highlighted in red are outright falsehoods. Green signifies exaggeration)

Q: What Law School did you attend, and where did you place in that class? And the other question is...

OFF CAMERA INTERJECTION: Who cares?

Q (continues): could you quickly - I think we all should...

BIDEN:I think I probably have a much higher IQ than you do, I suspect. I went to Law School on a full academic scholarship, the only one in my class to have a full academic scholarship(1). The first year in law school I decided I didn't want to be in Law School and ended up in the bottom two-thirds of my class, and then I decided I wanted to stay, went back to Law School and in fact ended up in the top half of my class(2). I won the International Moot Court Competition(1). I was the outstanding student in the Political Science Department at the end of my year(3). I graduated with three degrees from Undergraduate School(4)....and I'd be delighted to sit down and compare my IQ to yours if you'd like, Frank.(END TRANSCRIPT)

So, that's four lies and one exaggeration in 36 seconds.

From the New York Times

...Mr. Biden, who attended the Syracuse College of Law and graduated 76th in a class of 85, acknowledged: ''I did not graduate in the top half of my class at law school and my recollection of this was inaccurate.''

Inaccurate, hmm, top half vs bottom, er, 10th? How can anyone mis-remember something so completely false?

As for receiving three degrees, Mr. Biden said: ''I graduated from the University of Delaware with a double major in history and political science. My reference to degrees at the Claremont event was intended to refer to these majors - I said 'three' and should have said 'two.' '' Mr. Biden received a single B.A. in history and political science.

Another strange inaccuracy coming from someone who brags about his IQ. Not degrees, but majors, and not three, but two.

'With regard to my being the outstanding student in the political science department,'' the statement went on. ''My name was put up for that award by David Ingersoll, who is still at the University of Delaware.''

So, he was nominated by one professor and he didn't win, therefore he was not the outstanding student. Another lie.

In his statement today, Mr. Biden did not directly dispute this, but said he received a scholarship from the Syracuse University College of Law ''based in part on academics'' as well as a grant from the Higher Education Scholarship Fund of the state of Delaware. He said the law school ''arranged for my first year's room and board by placing me as an assistant resident adviser in the undergraduate school.''

As for the moot court competition, Mr. Biden said he had won such a competition, with a partner, in Kingston, Ontario, on Dec. 12, 1967.

Mr. Biden acknowledged that in the testy exchange in New Hampshire, he had lost his temper. ''I exaggerate when I'm angry,'' Mr. Biden said, ''but I've never gone around telling people things that aren't true about me.'' Mr. Biden's questioner had made the query in a mild tone, but provoked an explosive response from Mr. Biden.

To classify these statements as mere exaggeration is actually another lie.

Notice how so many of Biden's boasts emphasize his superiority to others:

1. He has a far higher I.Q. than the questioner.

2. He graduated in the "top half" of his class.

3. He was the outstanding student in the Political Science Department.

4. He was the only student to receive a full scholarship to law school.

5. He won the moot court competition. (He had a partner. This competition has many regional winners that move onto international competition. Biden and his partner did not win the international competition)

Biden Admits Plagiarism in School

In a letter defending himself, dated Nov. 30, 1965, Mr. Biden pleaded with the faculty not to dismiss him from the school.

''My intent was not to deceive anyone,'' Mr. Biden wrote. ''For if it were, I would not have been so blatant.''

At another point, the young Mr. Biden said that ''if I had intended to cheat, would I have been so stupid?''

''I value my word above all else,'' the impassioned letter said. ''This is a fact which is known to all those who are or have been acquainted with my character.''

As have seen with Senator Biden's subsequent statements, Biden has brazenly plagiarized a speech and has asserted outright falsehoods about his history, all of which can be easily found on record. He didn't learn from his mistakes in school to be careful, or perhaps he did learn that as long as he was brazen about it, he would coast.

Later in his career while plagiarizing Kinnock, Biden doesn't seem to care if he uttered falsehoods about himself and his family:

In the course of his news conference, Mr. Biden also acknowledged that he was mistaken when he implied on several occasions that it was Denis Healey, a prominent British Labor Party official, who had given him a videotape of another speech whose words the Senator later used. In London, Mr. Healey's office denied giving Mr. Biden the tape, and today the Senator said that in fact it had not come from Mr. Healey.

In addition, Mr. Biden said that in his talks invoking that speech, by Neil Kinnock, the Labor Party leader, he had miscast some of his own forebears, painting them as having rather more humble origins than they in fact did. For example, borrowing Mr. Kinnock's sentiments, Mr. Biden had said he was ''the first in his family ever to go to university.'' In fact, Mr. Biden said today, ''there are Finnegans, my mother's family, that went to college.''

"I started thinking as I was coming over here...

This is fun, too:

Biden is also on record as saying he would not accept the Vice-Presidency if it were offered to him. That may be a lie we can forgive him, since they all say that, but really there are just too many outright lies for this man to be in any kind of office.

Don't forget they are keeping his Senate seat in Delaware warm for his son.

Report from Britain

2009-01-17T13:46:00.000-05:00

Mark Steyn:Permanent State of Routine Emergency

2009-01-17T07:22:00.002-05:00

Mark Steyn:Permanent State or Routine Emergency

The proposition that a new federal administration is itself a federal emergency is almost too perfect an emblem of American government in the 21st century. FEMA was created in the 1970s initially to coordinate the emergency response to catastrophic events such as a nuclear attack. But there weren't a lot of those even in the Carter years, so, as is the way with bureaucracies, FEMA just growed like Topsy. In his first year in office, Bill Clinton declared a then-record-setting 58 federal emergencies. By the end of the Nineties, Mother Nature was finding it hard to come up with a meteorological phenomenon that didn't qualify as a federal emergency: Heavy rain in the Midwest? Call FEMA! Light snow in Vermont? FEMA! Fifty-seven under cloudy skies in California? Let those FEMA trailers roll!

The Cato Institute's James Bovard was struck by the plight of Vernon, Conn., a town ravaged in the winter of 1995-96 by, er, slightly more snow than they'd expected. So FEMA sent them a check for $40,023. Vernon had 30,000 people, and its town snow-removal costs that winter were $258,000. "That's just $8.60 per person," Bovard pointed out, "less than a 12-year-old charges to shovel out a driveway after a good snowfall."

So why did they need "federal emergency" aid? Because the town had only budgeted $104,516, and so claimed to be "overwhelmed" by the additional costs. They could have asked the good burghers of Vernon to chip in an extra five bucks apiece. But why bother when FEMA's so eager to give you a warm bath in the federal love nectar? The town government wised up pretty quickly. The next winter, they set the snow-removal budget at just $69,383.

Read the whole thing.

If I Had a Trillion Dollars

2009-01-16T15:49:00.004-05:00

I'd buy you some eggs

Zimbabwe has a little inflation problem.

Bully Sanchez

2009-01-16T07:04:00.003-05:00

Sam Warzelbacher makes some less than artful comments about journalists, and who is there to call him out? Why, it's Rick Sanchez of CNN.

Let's stipulate for the sake of argument that Samuel Warzelbacher is an amateur journalist who doesn't know much and who has an obvious agenda. On top of that, he works for a fringe internet media company, Pajamas Media.

Enter Mr Sanchez, who is a professional journalist, but who also doesn't know much and also has an obvious agenda, and who seems to be focused more on petty squabbles with those he considers less-than-qualified.

Roll tape

Wow. Does this not seem like overkill? A CNN anchor spewing vitriol on an amateur from a fringe media company? Why is Rick is so angry?

Ricardo Sanchez - that's his real name by the way, was born in a communist country so he is "familiar with people like you (Samuel Warzelbacker)... and Fidel Castro - not to name-drop."

Ricardo left Cuba at the age of two, so I guess he has direct experience with communists rationing his mother's milk and checking his diapers for subversive content.

Not to name-drop? Does Sanchez know Fidel personally? Then it's not namedropping, Rick; it is smearing.

Let me tell Ricardo San-chez something. I was born during a barbecue, and if there was anyone who is "that obnoxious guy who doesn't know anything" it is you. Not to "namedrop", but Sanchez reminds me a little of Stalin, but since I wasn't born in Russia but the good ole USA, I should cite an American - Joe McCarthy.

If you could pick one story from history to cover, what would be your dream story be?

Rick Sanchez: The McCarthy era, I wonder if I would have had the guts to say, “this is wrong.” In many ways I see comparisons to what we're living now.

Now let's see what kind of Anti-McCarthyite Rick Sanchez is. Roll tape

Speaking of communism, isn't the idea that people have a right to others' money communistic? Rick obviously stopped learning about communism around the same time he left Cuba.

Sanchez is quite the hypocrite, attacking someone for owing money to a hospital, for owing back taxes, and not having some kind of license, since Warzelbacker isn't responsible for the death of another human being.

Following a Miami Dolphins football game, on December 10, 1990, just past midnight, on a residential street just outside of Joe Robbie Stadium, an intoxicated Rick Sanchez, driving his Volvo, struck an intoxicated pedestrian, Jeffrey Smuzinick, who had just run into the street and into the direct path of Sanchez's car. Sanchez initially stopped his car but then left the scene. Sanchez said he left the scene to go home to retrieve his driver's license and insurance card. Sanchez also said he tried to aid Smuzinick at the scene of the accident and tried to flag down motorists although eyewitnesses claim Sanchez ignored the injured man and loudly told police and bystanders that blood tests were pointless, and would hurt his public image.[2] Sanchez was said to have "smelled strongly of alcohol" by a Metro-Dade police officer. A blood test taken 75 minutes after the accident[3] revealed Sanchez's blood-alcohol level was .15, over the legal .10 limit.

In an interview a month after the accident, Sanchez told the Miami New Times he had consumed no alcohol the night of the accident. Later, Sanchez's attorney, Richard Essen, said Sanchez had returned home and had "a couple of drinks to calm his nerves" before returning to the scene. Essen doubted that Sanchez's DUI charge would ever come to trial. "I think the results of the blood tests will be thrown out," Essen said. "If the results of the blood tests are suppressed, then there is no evidence against him at all. The state cannot proceed."[4]

Sanchez was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol in the December 10, 1990 accident, which police stated he left the scene after hitting Smuzinick and then returned. However prosecutors decided not to charge Sanchez with causing bodily injury while driving drunk, which is a third-degree felony in Florida.

Sanchez ultimately pleaded no contest to the drunk driving charge and he never attempted to provide restitution to Jeffrey Smuzinick or to Smuzinick's family for the 5 years of mounting medical bills that Sanchez's accident caused[6].

Jeffrey Smuzinick died October 30, 1995 in a Pennsylvania nursing home due to complications resulting from the injuries caused in the accident where he was struck by Rick Sanchez's vehicle. The accident left Smuzinick in a coma for months, permanently paralyzed, and severely physically and mentally disabled.

Infidels: Convert or Die

2009-01-10T07:18:00.004-05:00

There are two fundamentally different ways of seeing the world that cannot coexist; the liberal tradition versus the absolute and fundamental view of modern Islam.

Basically one force is intent on destroying the other.

I am not presenting a theological argument here but a philosophical one.

Islam itself has many sects and interpretations, but here I refer to the dominant form; the manifestation of political and cultural Islam.

It is nearly impossible for those steeped in the liberal tradition to understand that others do not share the idea that we can, or even should "all get along". They just don't agree. We think they are just angry, or insane, or misguided and we can somehow convince them they are wrong. Many believe we are agitating them that our actions cause, or contribute to, their hatred of us.

Most westerners refuse to understand that their very formulation and identity is predicated on our destruction, and that part of being a Muslim is in not accepting other views; being Muslim means one must reject and ultimately kill infidels.

The Absolute view declares that the liberal tradition must be vanquished. Being absolutists, there is no argument that will work. Reason is irrelevant. We worship the god of reason. They worship Allah. Apples and Oranges.

Those of us in the liberal tradition literally can't understand this kind of thinking. We believe that we can convince zealots that we can all live together, that we mean no harm, that we will listen to their complaints and adjust our society. But this is our view, not theirs. They believe we cannot live together, and that we don't even deserve to live unless we convert.

At some point soon, people will have to defend themselves. Many more westerners are starting to see what is really happening, as more Muslims intimidate us, punch us, burn flags, shoot up airports, behead journalists, slash gays, stone women, exploit children for propaganda, hide behind civilians to fight, and insist on cultural adaptations to their absolute, intolerant way.

This is a philosophical cancer that attaches and feeds off a host cell and will subsume it.

They use our notion of tolerance against us, while they remain free to advance their absolute intolerance towards us. Win-win for them, lose-lose for us. In order to save our civilization we will have to become uncivilized in our own way. We cannot avoid a certain amount of hypocrisy to save civilization. They decry the loss of their innocents and vow revenge on ours. They target and celebrate deaths of our innocents, while they relish the sacrifice of their own to fuel their lust to kill and maim.

Anger Over Gaza Grows in Arab Street - NYTimes.com

Forces are moving inexorably to war between Muslims and anyone who won't accept their ways worldwide. Everywhere there are violent demonstrations and unrest. France, England, Spain, Turkey, Norway, The Netherlands, Pakistan, the United States, India.

Oslo 2009

A cursory reading of today's headlines, with massive economic swindles, rampant and unprecedented political corruption, moral and scientific debauchery, when taken in sum reveal an inexorable trend toward cataclysmic destruction and worldwide upheaval.

London end of 2008

There are a thousand little "rockets" being fired all over the world by Muslim cultural aggression, once there is the slightest retaliation, as Israel is doing in Gaza now, the escalation will follow massively. Many know this, which is the near-term incentive for restraint.

But this is a fundamental battle that cannot be solved by diplomacy in the streets or between governments. The there are many nations with varied laws,with very diverse relations with Israel, and differing participation in Iraq, but still one uniform complaint and one solution from the dominant Muslim world. Their argument is a pretext. It is not genuine, and thus they cannot be mollified.

Islam is not a country but a worldwide ideology that takes over countries. One country cannot negotiate with a worldwide theocratic/political movement.

We in the West must decide if we will allow hatred and bigotry to flourish. If we do, our civilization will end, as it is already on shaky ground. Otherwise we will have to fight, and civilization will have the temporary suspension of war.

Ft. Lauderdale and San Francisco

Iran is actively behind all of this and will provide a unifying central command. They are trying to de-stabilize Egypt which is the lynch-pin to the destruction of Israel. No diplomacy or declared cease-fire can stop this. Once Iran has nuclear weapons there will be nothing to stop the total destruction of Israel but this would not be the end, it would be just the beginning.

They don't need to actually nuke Israel either, they just need the insurance, the threat, to keep the infidels at bay while they systematically bring diverse forces to bear.

This is a worldwide movement that western democracies do not know how to counter, and sadly they are still on the wrong track philosophically.

Londonistan 2009

The United States has a full plate, both domestically and internationally, and Americans will be blindsided by cold reality in 2009. The world will not love America. Bush, Obama it doesn't matter. These forces are in motion and the root causes are not historical but philosophical.

Wars will rage and America lacks the strength to fight on all the fronts that will open up.

The most tempting path for Obama will be appeasement. The destruction of Israel may well come about during this administration, but the bloodlust that follows will not end.

This can happen very quickly. We can have full blown World War in a year regardless of actions on the USA's part.

The UN is a sham and has no power without American force.

Isn't is obvious by now that they want our destruction, no matter what?

This will not end peacefully. Any concessions made now will be met with more demands. They will provoke and provoke, like 7 years of rocket fire from Gaza and then cry "disproportionality" when there is any real response.

They provoke because they want to be fought so they can feel more outrage and hate. They want to confirm for themselves that their cause is just, and every dead Palestinian child helps them feel justified in their own zeal to kill. Holding ourselves from the fight frustrates them to the point they attack with more vehemence and rage than before.

Listen to these British citizens celebrate the murder of innocents. Take them at their word, before it is too late. We are beyond negotiation, beyond appeasement and beyond civilized solutions. They have declared war on us. When will we hear it?

Danish Embassy London 2006

Tragically, the unspoken theme that runs through our tradition is the Achillies heel for the absolutists to exploit. "Do unto others as you will have them do unto you". This works as a great philosophy, as long as you aren't fighting absolutists. Those who pointedly do not adhere to this belief will simply obliterate you. There will be not one soul left alive to articulate this great philosophy. Then what?

'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years - WSJ.com

2009-01-10T05:34:00.001-05:00

'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years - WSJ.com

I have read a couple of Rand's straight philosophical books, but just recently downloaded this in audio on my ipod. It is staggering how this matches our current zeitgeist.

Kyra the Journalist

2009-01-09T06:48:00.004-05:00

Everyone has to start out somewhere, and Pajamas Media is certainly nowhere near a prestige network like CNN, but Samuel "Joe the Plumber"Wurzelbacher has to start somewhere, and he may have something his competitors don't. A bit of background:

Michele Malkin reports CNN television anchor Kyra Phillips sneered (in her most objective and professional manner, of course): "Oh, Lord, Joe the Plumber's got a new gig. It's got nothing to do with the pipes, it's got everything to do with Gaza." After catching her breath during a commercial break, she embellished her teleprompter lines with ad-libbed contempt (something only seasoned professional journalists have experience doing, you see): "Now Joe the Plumber wants to flush out the truth as a war correspondent. I know, there are just no words."

Still not done trashing the Toledo, Ohio, citizen who had the temerity to question Barack Obama's redistributionist policies, Phillips piled on more derisive words: "Hey, Joe, what do you know? No, seriously, what do you know? … [H]e says he hopes to air Israelis' views on the Gaza offensive. Lord, help us. Just want to remind you that Joe the Plumber has no journalism experience. No war zone experience, either. But he thinks he's, quote, 'pretty well protected by God.' So, what's Joe been smoking, drinking?"

To Kyra, journalism experience is very important. Kyra went to Iraq. She just got her own war experience and now she's lording it over everyone - here is her interview with CNN anchor Kirin Chetry. What did she learn?

KC:Why did you want to go?

KP:I don't know it was just a point in my life where I just needed a change, I needed the experience.......as an anchor I had no idea what the people were going through on a daily basis the Iraqis and the US troops

KC:Were you ever scared for your life?

KP: I wasn't.....

KC:And what did you find?

The first reality check was going into my room in our armed compound and hanging on my door....

But let's look at one of her actual reports shall we? It wouldn't be fair to just take this one interview. Here is one of Kyra's reports from Iraq:

First , I don't care who these men would like to see as President. They are even less informed than Americans and since they don't have a vote it's irrelevant. But I wonder if anyone CNN knows that Iraqis have a cultural trait of saying what they think the listener wants to hear. This is how they got ahead (or stayed alive) in the culture of Sadaam Hussein.

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle or the observer effect applies here. This is the phenomenon where the scientist conducting the experiment inadvertently affects the object studied. We see this all the time in the news media and it is never acknowledged.

Several of these Iraqi soldiers want Hillary for President. This sent up a red flag. Why do these Arab men, not known for their metrosexuality, want a female President? Strange. Well, they are talking to a woman. A very attractive woman, and they probably haven't been laid in decades. Kyra doesn't know this?

One soldier thinks Hillary should write a book about Democracy and send it to the Iraqi politicians. Great idea Mohhamed! These guys are geniuses! There must be plenty of copies of Living History on the remainder pile and I'm sure Maliki will learn things that will open his eyes about democracy. But the prize clearly goes to the guy who supports Obama. Bingo! A huge smile from Ms. Phillips ensues. I would have liked to see a shot of the other soldiers after that reaction - boy did they blow it, "Obama" was the right answer, dang! Whether Kyra will give him the time-of-day after the interview is doubtful, but he can hope. Obama supporters know how to HOPE. But ultimately this isn't news and it doesn't give us any real information. It is confirmation bias; red meat for the CNN partisans.

In another report Kyra landed an interview with Gen David Petraeus. In this clip Phillips launches into a rambling question that is either designed to put the General to sleep (watch his eyes start to glaze), or make him revisit every stereotype about female journalists going back to the Spanish American War, then Phillips blurts out, 'Would you support a war in Iran"?

Kyra Phillips, CNN anchor, apparently doesn't know that an officer in the US Military can't and won't answer this type of question. If Joe Wurzelbacher knows this, which I think he does, he is already ahead of the competition.

CNN is on shaky ground when they talk about professionalism, partisanship and informed content.

But Kyra does look kinda cute in that hat.

Dissent No Longer Highest Form of Patriotism

2009-01-06T11:33:00.003-05:00

Now they proudly sing the National Anthem and wave American flags. Their guy is elected. Do these people know the difference between partisanship and patriotism.? Doesn't seem like it.

Something new brews in Berkeley: patriotic pride - The Boston Globe

The Star Market, a small Berkeley grocery with a robust selection of legumes, recently posted next to its cash register a letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle imploring readers to fly the Stars and Stripes on the day of Obama's inauguration. "In recent times, our flag has been displayed more by one side of the political spectrum than the other," wrote Paul Templeton of Berkeley. "Let's rescue it from unreflective, knee-jerk patriotism."

Read the whole thing for a parade of knee-jerk patriotism based on the election of one man.

For these folks in Berkeley, the cult of personality and tribe trumps the rule of law and our 200 plus years of Constitutional government. Welcome the the United States of Obamica.

Expectation Bubble Bursts

2009-01-05T06:53:00.003-05:00

Americans fantasized about Obama. Europeans fantasized about Obama and of course the Muslim world fantasized about Obama. The word "change" made them wispy for magical solutions, like investors with Bernie Madoff looking for constant 12% returns.

Simon Tisdall: Barack Obama's silence on Gaza is damaging his reputation | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

But evidence is mounting that Obama is already losing ground among key Arab and Muslim audiences that cannot understand why, given his promise of change, he has not spoken out. Arab commentators and editorialists say there is growing disappointment at Obama's detachment - and that his failure to distance himself from George Bush's strongly pro-Israeli stance is encouraging the belief that he either shares Bush's bias or simply does not care.
The Al-Jazeera satellite television station recently broadcast footage of Obama on holiday in Hawaii, wearing shorts and playing golf, juxtaposed with scenes of bloodshed and mayhem in Gaza. Its report criticising "the deafening silence from the Obama team" suggested Obama is losing a battle of perceptions among Muslims that he may not realise has even begun.
"People recall his campaign slogan of change and hoped that it would apply to the Palestinian situation," Jordanian analyst Labib Kamhawi told Liz Sly of the Chicago Tribune. "So they look at his silence as a negative sign. They think he is condoning what happened in Gaza because he's not expressing any opinion."

Obama will soon have to represent the United States of America, which is considerably different than a campaign promising hope and change. Democrat partisans, so convinced the world hates us because of Bush and Cheney are in for a rude awakening.

Congress should convene an Expectation Bailout in January. Call in the New York Times, The Washington Post and the Networks, wag fingers at them and tell them to lower expectations, now!

Live Behind the Shield, Die Behind the Shield

2009-01-04T08:07:00.006-05:00

Bodies of Hamas leader's children paraded as group promises 'painful' revenge for their deaths | Mail Online

We in the West have already worked all this stuff out, in case you didn't know. If we want our children to survive in war, we send them to safety and let the soldiers fight it out.

The body of a child is indeed a sad sight, but Gazans, have more dignity than to parade the bodies of dead children to make a point, it is downright uncivilized.

And what, by the way, is the point?

That Nazir Rayan didn't send his children away, letting them sleep on top of a powder keg of explosives and having been warned there would be an attack?

That can't be it.

That Israelis are pigs and less than human - but he didn't think they would stoop this low?

Doesn't make sense. If he really thinks Israelis enjoy killing innocent children then he should have taken precautions.

Rayan already sent one of his sons on a suicide mission killing two Israelis, and his younger children were already on their way:

“Tell the man what you want to be,” one of Rayan’s wives, Hyam Temraz, said to her 2-year-old son, Abed, as she peeped out of the slit of a black veil the last time I was in their home.

“A martyr,” the child timidly answered.
Truthdig - Reports - Lost in the Rubble

He knew that even Fatah hated him and may give him up, even to the hated Israelis - because of that little killing and torture incident of those 400 Palestinian political opponents in 2007.

Perhaps he could have seen that, since he had already spent one of his grown sons as a suicide bomber, and was an spiritual mentor and instigator to others, the Israelis might now consider his offspring potentially lethal weapons anyway?

And what of the loss of half his wives? Well, in Islam they are not considered full people but possessions. So this is just loss of property, right?

And of course there will be revenge. They will search for and target innocents as they have in the past, feeling fully justified in their blood-lust.

Bumper sticker: Terrorists, don't bring your kids to the meetings!

Mark Steyn: Gaza has its version of rocket scientists - Opinion - OCRegister.com

2009-01-03T10:03:00.001-05:00

Mark Steyn: Gaza has its version of rocket scientists - Opinion - OCRegister.com: "So when Britain's Channel 4 says that we don't get the chance to see these fellows speak for themselves, it would be more accurate to say that they speak for themselves incessantly but the louder they speak the more we put our hands over our ears and go 'Nya nya, can't hear you.' We do this in part because, if you're as invested as most Western elites are in the idea that all anyone wants is to go to university, get a steady job and settle down in a nice house in the suburbs, a statement such as 'England's demise is on our agenda' becomes almost literally untranslatable. When President Ahmadinejad threatens to wipe Israel off the face of the map, we deplore him as a genocidal fantasist. But maybe he's a genocidal realist, and we're the fantasists."

Republic or Tyranny of the Elite?

2009-01-02T07:58:00.003-05:00

Dutch Left Put Finger in the Multi-culti Dike

2008-12-30T06:16:00.005-05:00

From the left, a call to end the current Dutch notion of tolerance - International Herald Tribune

The paper said: "The mistake we can never repeat is stifling criticism of cultures and religions for reasons of tolerance."

And the obligations of the native Dutch? Ploumen's answer is, "People who have their roots here have to offer space to traditions, religions and cultures which are new to Dutch society" - but without fear of expressing criticism. "Hurting feelings is allowed, and criticism of religion, too."

What's Goin' On?

2008-12-29T09:52:00.001-05:00

Excellent article about Detroit - and America

The City Where the Sirens Never Sleep

They tried to do this with words, now it is colors

2008-12-26T18:03:00.003-05:00

Teachers banned from using 'confrontational' red ink in case it upsets children | Mail Online

Ultimately, they are trying to remake the surface of the world so they can indulge in their illusions.

These people don't know how profoundly stupid they are.

Mark them WRONG but do it in green and draw a heart and remind them they are good people but they are wrong - sorry. I know wrong is the wrong word to use because it is too harsh, too confrontational, too blunt., and that is frankly wrong, or right impaired, or accuracy challenged.

What is the word new word for wrong and what is the color?

Have a Billion Dollar Christmas

2008-12-24T12:15:00.000-05:00

Crazy Christians

2008-12-24T11:52:00.003-05:00

Iran's Ahmadinejad to give alternative Christmas message - Times Online

Any chance the Pope will get to give the alternative message for Ramadan?

Despicable

2008-12-24T11:38:00.003-05:00

Yule be in tears at Christmas | The Sun |News

THAT FAT MOMMA PROBABLY EATS THE DOLLAR EQUIVALENT OF AN x-BOX EVERY THREE DAYS.

Freedom imperilled - The New Criterion

2008-12-24T11:24:00.001-05:00

Freedom imperilled - The New Criterion:

"We are being asked to unlearn what we know, to surrender the virtues that can only be acquired in conditions of freedom, and to become a lesser people than we are. The land of the free and the home of the brave could soon be transformed into the land of the dependent and the home of the infantilized."

Hello, Poverty

2008-12-22T07:22:00.002-05:00

Chavez says mall to be expropriated in Venezuela: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance:

"'We're going to expropriate that and turn it into a hospital -- I don't know -- a school, a university,' Chavez said to applause during his Sunday television and radio program, 'Hello, President.'"

Venezuela has income from oil revenues so I guess they can get by with just schools and hospitals for a while. Isn't it great that a country can have just one man making decisions for everyone's welfare? Like so many socialist countries, one day the graduates from these schools discover there are no jobs, and what jobs there are pay a pittance, because the government controls them. And they applaud, just like stupid Americans do. Schools, Hospitals Hooray!

And the best of these students from socialist countries around the world could always come here for a decent job, but that is pretty much over because of creeping socialism here.

Shouldn't Journalists be offended?

2008-12-21T08:47:00.003-05:00

Journalists are very careful about labels. They don't want to call Muslims shouting,"Allah Akbar!" as they spray gunfire at random citizens "terrorists", they prefer the word "militant" .

But when someone with a press pass tries to assault and insult a world leader, you would think the members of the Fourth Estate would be a little more protective of their profession and find a different word to describe this Baathist partisan.

I had to go offshore to find Roger Crombie, a journalist who has some understanding of the word "journalist":

You may have seen a "journalist" in Iraq throw his shoes at President Bush. Actual journalists don't throw footwear, or anything else, at world leaders. Imagine what would happen if I were to start tossing my hippie sandals at our leading politicians. I'd be put in jail, that's what would happen, and I wouldn't get my sandals back. Do you suppose the Bermudian people would march down the street demanding my release from jail? Would insurance company CEOs be waving placards saying "Free Crombie now"? You bet they wouldn't. I'd moulder in jail until some guys came along and beat the living daylights out of me during a card game.

You may not know it, but there is an unwritten pact between journalists and the Government of Bermuda. We don't throw footwear, and they don't throw us in jail. It's a system that has worked extremely well so far. By the way, no sign of the Iraqi Government withdrawing its advertising from the TV station that employed the shoe-throwing "journalist". The pen, of course, is mightier than the shoe.

The Royal Gazette

Besides the code of overall professional decorum, a journalist is supposed to be objective. Any overt demonstration of non-objectivity undermines the journalist's credibility, and credibility is the only currency a journalist has, thus this man is not a real "journalist", or is he?

Not your Father's Tom and Jerry

2008-12-20T07:24:00.001-05:00

BBC NEWS | Americas | Mice suspected in deadly cat fire

Taxman in NYC

2008-12-17T12:37:00.004-05:00

No, not Patterson or Bloomberg silly...
George Harrison Tribute at Banjo Jim's

Let me tell you how it will be;
There's one for you, nineteen for me.
'Cause I�m the taxman,
Yeah, I�m the taxman.

Should five per cent appear too small,
Be thankful I don't take it all.
'Cause I�m the taxman,
Yeah, I�m the taxman.

(if you drive a car, car;) - I�ll tax the street;
(if you try to sit, sit;) - I�ll tax your seat;
(if you get too cold, cold;) - I�ll tax the heat;
(if you take a walk, walk;) - I'll tax your feet.

Taxman!

'Cause I�m the taxman,
Yeah, I�m the taxman.

Don't ask me what I want it for, (ah-ah, mister Wilson)
If you don't want to pay some more. (ah-ah, mister heath)
'Cause I�m the taxman,
Yeah, I�m the taxman.

Now my advice for those who die, (taxman)
Declare the pennies on your eyes. (taxman)
'Cause I�m the taxman,
Yeah, I�m the taxman.

And you're working for no one but me.

Taxman!

Banjo Jim's presents their 2nd Annual George Harrison Tribute next
week, Dec. 18th starting at 8:00 and going all night!
This event is hosted by Ky Hote and will have a cavalcade of New York stars!

Michael and Chris Huebner, the Huebner Bros. will provide backing with help
from Melissa Mulligan, William Blue and Paul Ehrlich.

The guests include Monica Passin, Kevin So, Ana Egge, Alana Amram & the Rough Gems, John Pinamonti, Joel Harrison, Paul Thornton, Elena and Joe Mac (The Max Band), Jeremiah Birnbaum, Willie Breeding, Homeboy Steve, Jan Bell, Frank O'Gara, Drina Seay and Banjo Lisa
herself! Surprises are in the works as well...

This year's Tribute will feature obscure Harrison tunes such as "In
Spite of All the Danger," "Cheer Down" and "Be Here Now." Of course
your favorites will also be presented, such as "Something" "Taxman"
"Living in the Material World" and "Heading For the Light."
Come help us celebrate the "Quiet Beatle" at NYC's premier
singer/songwriter club!

2nd Annual George Harrison Tribute hosted by Ky Hote Banjo Jim's 700 E
9th St (at Ave. C) NYC

Nepotism Nation: Dems embrace dynasty politics - Charles Mahtesian - Politico.com

2008-12-17T09:48:00.000-05:00

Nepotism Nation: Dems embrace dynasty politics - Charles Mahtesian - Politico.com

Next step: A Wall

2008-12-17T07:14:00.005-05:00

What happens when there are no more rich to tax?

Paterson told reporters. "Maybe we should have thought about this when we were depending on what we thought was inexhaustive collections of taxes from Wall Street - and now those taxes have fallen off a cliff."

Gov. David Paterson unveils dire New York State budget that includes new taxes, layoffs and cuts

The Governor has some agencies he will cut and some small number of State employees (521) , but that isn't enough to make up for the 15.3 billion dollar shortfall. So we get belt tightening government style.

What company with 121 billion in revenues facing 16 billion shortfall lays off only 521 people?

"We're going to have to take some extreme measures," Paterson said Tuesday after unveiling the slash-and-burn budget.

The State of New York has a shortfall of 15 billion dollars, Paterson still wants to increase the budget and the reporter calls it "slash and burn"?

In order to be able to increase the budget in the face of hard times, Paterson goes back to the well of the taxpayers, who seem to have unlimited funds to hand over to the State increasing taxes on clothing, cigars, beer, wine, yachts and luxury items. Oh, and gambling - that great source of revenue, having the mathematically challenged pay a larger share - surely New Yorkers would gamble more if there were more slot machines and lottery offices were open later.

Tax shoes and clothing - there is a great source of revenue because everyone needs shoes and clothes - even poor people who normally don't pay any income tax at all..

And then there is beer, wine and cigars. I guess raising the cigarette tax has taught the Governor that that source is maxed out:

According to Patrick Fleenor, author of "Cigarette Taxes, Black Markets, and Crime: Lessons from New York's 50-Year Losing Battle," efforts to suppress behaviors through excessively punitive taxation always yield such unanticipated yet predictable results. "Since the first state cigarette taxes were imposed in the 1920s, black markets and related criminal activity have plagued high-tax jurisdictions. Such activity has proven to be resistant to law enforcement curtailment efforts," wrote Fleenor. "The negative side effects of high cigarette taxes in New York provide a cautionary tale that high tax rates have serious consequences -- even for such a politically unpopular product as cigarettes."

High taxes fuel organized crime prompting States to spend more tax dollars on enforcement. This is a game where everyone loses.

Imposing a 5% tax on expensive cars and yachts is another shallow plan.. Consumers are free to shop anywhere in the world but a business can't relocate with every change in tax laws, so what happens is local businesses lose customers to out of-state businesses. And since these local businesses pay scores of taxes already on their profits, the State will suffer a net loss, and they don't make the connection until it is too late.

Most wealthy people in New York State already live very near to New Jersey and Connecticut while almost any resident wealthy or not can drive to Vermont , Pennsylvania or Ohio in 90 minutes. How long will it take New Yorkers, most of whom have IQ's higher than Patterson and his advisers, to discover they may get a better deal in New Jersey? Will Patterson build a wall?

What exactly is so precious that New York State does for people? Are the people really getting their 121 billion dollars worth every year?

Governments need to start taxing themselves, which means cutting their budgets to the bone like the rest of us.

Celebrity Senate - new game show from NBC

2008-12-16T06:29:00.009-05:00

Stay tuned for the Celebrity Senate a new game show on NBC, Programming Executives say the show will be similar to the old Hollywood Squares where questions are asked and contestants must determine if the Senators are telling the truth or lying. "We are going to use real sitting Senators who will have the option of answering a question truthfully or make one up like the old Hollywood Squares, and they will also tell jokes and make short quips " Said one executive.

"We got the idea because so many talented people are gravitating away from Hollywood and Burbank and into Senate seats and Governorships, and we want to utilize that talent. A game show is a natural."

Taxpayer vouchers and stimulus packages are given to contestants who get the most answers right. The grand prize, given out each week will be a complete tax amnesty for a year.

Insiders say NBC is not planning to use the tic-tac-toe format however, "It will be more like Monopoly where the Senators buy Utilities and Railroads and of course Real Estate on behalf of the contestants when they get a correct answer. Taxpayers, as the contestants will be called, will have to hold onto their earnings while they traverse the board spending on properties the Senators choose, and hoping they don't go broke. With each successful cycle they will get $200 which they can either contribute to any given Senator for protection, or make their own way and answer all the questions correctly.

Said one NBC executive. ""We feel that this show will hit on several trends: where reality meets politics, plenty of light humor and also some real drama".

"The idea of the contestants suffering real-world consequences will heighten the tension, contestants can actually lose in this game and we feel Americans will be better able to relate to this kind of outcome than rooting for someone to win."

"It is more like reality", said another, "when you play with Senators and you are a taxpayer, you will lose unless you are really connected and really sharp"

No host has been named yet but David Gregory is a frequently mentioned name as well as Chris Matthews who may play a dual role of host and Senator. The show already has a bevy of sponsors including Chevrolet and Chrysler along with several prestigious Insurance companies and Brokerage Houses.

(end report)

Some perspective on American politics centered on New York
Read the whole thing:

The Rosett Report � The Banana Republic of New York

Of course Jay Carney Time Magazine's Washington Bureau Chief (and husband of Claire Shipman of ABC) has changed his status to official spokesman, upgraded from unofficial

Time's Jay Carney will be Biden aide - Mike Allen - Politico.com

This is the second member of the media elite who has signed on with Obama's administration. ABC News correspondent Linda Douglass joined the campaign as traveling spokeswoman, and now is working for Obama's Presidential Inaugural Committee.

Chris Matthews moving from NBC to C-Span in bid to improve ratings

Cheeze Whiz Chris Matthews

Al Franken to run as Senator from Minnesota - first laughs he has gotten in decades - and even funnier - he might just win it!

Exclusive Investment Club for Dumb Billionaires

2008-12-14T08:41:00.003-05:00

"Prosecutors allege that the 70-year-old Mr. Madoff hid losses, paying certain investors returns using principal he received from other investors. Prosecutors and regulators have yet to determine how much has been lost, or the amount in assets still held by Mr. Madoff's business."

Isn't this how our Social Security system works?

Fund Fraud Hits Big Names - WSJ.com

I am having a rush of Schadenfreude I have to admit. I mean, these billionaires and mega-millionaires still weren't satisfied with 4 or 5% returns; they wanted 8 - 12 %, and they were operating under the belief that some people are just so much smarter (like themselves) than others that they can consistently beat the market.

One of the victims is NJ Senator Frank Lautenberg who, because of recent scandals, can't even sell his seat. Poor guy.

2008-12-13T22:09:00.002-05:00

In five years according to Gore, the entire polar ice cap will melt completely- Quick, sign the Kyoto accords or we are doomed!!

And why is Gore telling the Germans and not us? We have to get this vital information third hand? Thanks a lot, Al!

In the trailer for An Inconvenient Truth (1:45) Gore tells us that "if this were to go (pointing at the polar ice cap), sea level will rise 20 feet...causing hundreds of millions of refugees..."

If the polar ice cap is melting at a rate in which it will be completely melted in five years - "gone" as Gore says, sea levels would rise about four feet a year (4 X 5 = 20 is my scientific calculation).

Head for the high ground people! If we start now we can have an orderly evacuation.

Czar Power

2008-12-13T07:47:00.006-05:00

Washington DC (Expleuters) President elect Obama has appointed Gen. Barry McCaffrey to a new cabinet post designed to coordinate actions among Federal agencies which is being called the Czar Czar. "We have a rapidly growing number of czars: Drug Czar, Energy Czar and Car Czar, there needs to be a central clearinghouse where the Czars can coordinate their actions, that is where the Czar Czar comes in", a spokesman for the Obama Administration said yesterday.

Having served in the Clinton Administration as one of the first Czars (Drug Czar), McCaffrey says he knows the pitfalls and difficulties inherent in being a Czar. "One of the things, when you have overreaching power over several agencies and no one to tell you what to do, it can get overwhelming and that is where a Czar Czar can help. As history shows, Czars have often had difficulty being accepted by serfs and peasants so I intend to guide them in these relations also, but most of my duties serving the public as Czar Czar will be taken up by ensuring that all the Czars are on the same page, welcoming any new Czars who are appointed into their posts, and generally cutting through bureaucratic red tape to bring America forward.

Rod "Eddie Haskell" Blagojevich

2008-12-11T08:28:00.003-05:00

What a good speech this guy gives. He is so nice and decent. He says all the right things. He wants health care for all and he fights against the forces of evil. And he is a good Democrat - there is no reason not to vote for him, right?

Really that is all you have to do to get past the mainstream media and by extension most voters; be a Democrat and pretend to be decent and caring. Good job Blogo!

How did his aides keep from breaking out in laughter at this event?

After reading transcripts of the FBI tapes I can't help but conclude this kind of talk doesn't exist in a vacuum. No one talks this way without widespread acceptance and agreement. They all understand how things work (or are supposed to work).

I don't think this is an isolated incident either. I can easily imagine similar conversations by other machine politicians in Philadelphia, Detroit, Washington DC.

Being a politician in the USA is supposed to be a public service but it is clearly a steppingstone to wealth and power more than anything else. And many who hold office while professing to us they are serving us are simply serving themselves and their masters.

If we can Talk to the Radicals

2008-12-08T07:32:00.003-05:00

Obama and Iran - the ham hock and twig approach

Obama is offering Iran something that they don't want and threatening them with something that won't affect them at all.

Now we all have to go to Remedial School on Diplomacy with Iran because the American people (or slightly more than half of them) have believed the idea that you can talk to your sworn enemies, that you can negotiate with people who do NOT wish to live in harmony, and that religious zealots will listen to reason and can be bribed out of their suicidal convictions with a few carrots.

Here is a sample of the kind of talk Obama and our State Department will encounter

Just as a thought experiment thinking outside the box, what if Barack were to actually convert to Islam? Wouldn't that solve so many problems in the world? He wouldn't have to believe everything, and it would be for purely political purposes, just like before, so it wouldn't bother me at all if he did that. We can also have our first Muslim President. Doubly historic!.

Speaking on the television programme Meet The Press, Mr Obama said: "We are willing to talk to them directly and give them a clear choice and ultimately let them make a determination in terms of whether they want to do this the hard way or the easy way."

What is the "hard" way Barak? Hard for whom? Us? Is this saber-rattling? It sounds like a High School teacher who is threatening some punks with a visit to the Vice Principles office, only the punks are not Eddie Haskell and Wally Cleaver, but Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris .

"In terms of carrots, we can provide economic incentives that would be helpful to a country that despite being a net oil producer is under enormous strain, huge inflation, lot of employment problems.

Of course we can solve all those problems for the Iranian people, assuming their leaders care about them (they don't) we show them how we handle our employment and economic problems. We can invite Mullahs to Congress; Barney Frank and Chris Dodd can fashion a great plan for them,

But we also have to focus on the sticks. In order for us to change Iran's behaviour we may have to tighten up those sanctions."

Ooooh, did Barack just threaten Iran with more sanctions? That is just what the Mullahs and Achmedinijad fear most. They will surely come around after more sanctions are applied.

Oh if we could just Talk to the Radicals:

If you change the meaning of words, you don't have to lie...

2008-12-07T11:16:00.001-05:00

Mark Steyn points out the serial misuse of language and the absurd substitute words journalists are using to describe terrorists. Now they are even pretending to be unclear about the motives and goals of the "militants" while they shout "Allah Akbar" .

...the assault on Bombay found it easier just to call the alleged perpetrators “militants” or “gunmen” or “teenage gunmen,” as in the opening line of this report in the Australian: “An Adelaide woman in India for her wedding is lucky to be alive after teenage gunmen ran amok…”

Kids today, eh? Always running amok in an aimless fashion.

Silence=Acceptance by Mark Steyn on National Review Online

By the way,the United Coalition of Teenage Gunmen have denied any connection to the shootings in Bombay. The UCTG claimes, quite rightfully, that just because the perpetrators were teenagers does not mean that all teenage gunmen wish to target innocent Jews and Westerners in India or anywhere else, and that it is in fact a very small minority of teenagers who perpetrate this kind of violence, and these are usually to be found in the Middle East and Pakistan and are in very large part Muslim. A spokesman for the UCTG has put The Austrailian and other publications on notice, "We object to this linkage, and many moderate teenagers will be will be pushed into bloodlust if a retraction isn't immediately forthcoming"

It is no wonder newspaper circulation is down and journalists are no longer held in very high regard by the public. They are not providing a service to us when they gloss over the truth and hide behind vague and misleading terms. I can't read these accounts without feeling I need to activate the Willful Ignorance Module in my brain.

The time has now come that the word journalist itself has a negative connotation, just as the word janitor is considered demeaning, Not all journalists are apologists for terror, but the term journalist today is tainted with negatives. I propose these folks be called Middle-aged Scribblers or Word Crafters or perhaps Syntax Scientists, any term that doesn't carry the nasty implications of the J- word., and we all can feel better.

When government tries to "help"

2008-10-01T10:54:00.004-04:00

Barney Bailout

2008-09-26T11:19:00.001-04:00

The corrupt always want more power

2008-09-24T22:39:00.003-04:00

FROM MCCAIN AND OBAMA:

JOINT STATEMENT OF SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN AND SENATOR BARACK OBAMA

For Immediate Release

Contact: Press Office

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

ARLINGTON, VA -- Today, U.S. Senators John McCain and Barack Obama issued the following statement:

"The American people are facing a moment of economic crisis. No matter how this began, we all have a responsibility to work through it and restore confidence in our economy. The jobs, savings, and prosperity of the American people are at stake.

"Now is a time to come together -- Democrats and Republicans -- in a spirit of cooperation for the sake of the American people. The plan that has been submitted to Congress by the Bush Administration is flawed, but the effort to protect the American economy must not fail.

"This is a time to rise above politics for the good of the country. We cannot risk an economic catastrophe. Now is our chance to come together to prove that Washington is once again capable of leading this country."

Now is our chance to come together to prove that Washington is once again capable of leading this country."

The last sentence has all we need to know- Now is our chance as American citizens to prove that Washington is , once again? capable of leading this country. Translation; give us more power.

Washington (that's what they say when the word "politicians" has negative connotations) fucked up - big time - with their ineffective and counter-productive regulations, their venal meddling, and outright corruption; now they want to unite around the same losing strategy.

Again we have the same people, hurriedly making more short-sighted and profoundly flawed regulations with the same legislators using the same advisers, pretending they are helping us.

And - get this - now they are "united".

And here is another scary statement:

"The effort to protect the economy must not fail."

Pure Fascism . This is not free-market capitalism that made the USA what it is /was.

Governments don't/can't protect economies, economies exist outside of government. Government can regulate -and if it does a good job regulating economies and more of the citizens prosper. But when governments fail to adjust for imbalances due to corruption, how should we get behind another quick political fix?

By the way, notice the statement specifically notes that it is the American people who are facing an economic crisis. Not AIG and their stockholders and corporate honchos, not Fannie May and Freddie and those who are complicit in recklessness on the political and business side. They screwed up , but we pay.

No wonder they are now buddy-buddy and all bi-partisan - they feel the need to unite - against us! I don't believe these people, not for a moment! The only reason they will unite is to save their own hides. They know they screwed up and they will all pay if we really saw how pathetic these losers are, so now they are pretending to get along..

They really must think we are stupid. Many of us are, apparently.

Muslim Rumors

2008-07-16T09:37:00.005-04:00

It's only a cartoon! But Obama adds that New Yorker cover insults Muslims:

"These fallacious e-mails and The New Yorker cartoon are 'actually an insult against Muslim Americans,' he said. There are 'wonderful Muslim Americans' across the country, Obama said, and 'for this to be used as sort of an insult, or to raise suspicions about me, I think is unfortunate.'

'It's not what America's all about,' he said."

Apparently there are rumors being circulated that Barack Obama is a Muslim. I've heard them too. I've heard many rumors. There is a rumor that Elvis is alive, making a living in Vegas as an Elvis impersonator. There is a rumor that John McCain wasn't really in the Hanoi Hilton but in a much more posh hotel (a real one) with all the amenities (such as they were in N. Vietnam) because he betrayed his country. There is also a rumor that G.W. Bush had foreknowledge of the 9/11 attack - this one has lots of believers. There is a widely circulated rumor that we are losing the war in Iraq. Nearly everyone (outside of Iraq) believes this one. And then there is the mother of all rumors - Global Warming. But the only rumor that Obama seems concerned about (overly) is the rumor that he is a Muslim. The rumor that he is a radical socialist apparently doesn't bother him, nor does the rumor that he lacks experience, or the one that he was fully aware of the Reverend Wright's beliefs about America, yet said nothing.

I'll stipulate here that Obama is a Christian. Specifically, he belonged for 20 years to a sect led by Reverend Wright, which in essence expropriated the world-view of Louis Farrakhan and "Christianized" it, so any mention of Obama's Christianity, de-linked from his church of 20 years, is to his advantage.

But I don't get how the cover insults Muslims. The Koran isn't burning, the American flag is. There is nothing "Muslim" in the cartoon. Osama Bin Laden's picture is hanging in the Oval Office, and he happens to be a Muslim, but his extremist views are only held by a minority of those who proclaim Allah the one great God - about 10%, a mere 100 million people. There is another 30% who are somewhat sympathetic to Bin Laden's cause, about 300 million people. So that leaves 600 million Muslims in the world who side with America - well, that is a little strong, who don't side with Osama. It is sad that this majority isn't very vocal, but they are there in the shadows, and it is comforting to know that for every suicide bomber, there are at least six muslims who completely disapprove, even though they are too intimidated to say so publicly.

Most of these 40% percent, the extremists and the sympathizers, believe another rumor - that Jews are inhuman. Literally. They didn't learn this via e-mail or in internet chat rooms; they heard this rumor, day after day, in schools and in mosques.

So I still can't see where the cartoon is an insult to Muslim-Americans. Obama is not a Muslim, his wife is not a Muslim, she is dressed like Angela Davis and he is wearing what looks like Indonesian garb. Indonesia is mostly Muslim country, but I don't think there is any specific garb that identifies a person as a Muslim - at least for men. If you wear a suit and tie, or high heels, are you a Christian?

And what about radical leftists, aren't they insulted? Most radicals don't have afros anymore and they aren't all carrying AK-47's; this is stereotyping in its' crudest form.

And what about those who revere the American symbols - the flag, the Oval Office, the Presidency, shouldn't they be insulted too?

But I especially object to Obama's statement, "That is not what America is all about"

Just because he is running for president doesn't give him the right or status to define or redefine America. He seems to think he is our national spokesman. That is not what the presidency is. We don't need an activist lawyer from Harvard to tell us what America is or isn't.

And the statement is actually false. Freedom of speech is what America is, in part, about. There is something offensive in Obama using "what America is about" as a defense, or as an attack as the case may be. One can take any negative thing that happens and claim, "that is not what America is about" and it will sound true on the surface, and Obama is subtly calling a cartoon and it's publisher un-American for exercising free speech. Now that is un-American.

But there is a very important issue when it comes to rumor, belief, and what is taken as insult. Whatever faith Obama has been practicing - some Christian cult that makes Mormonism look mainstream - there is the real issue of whether Obama was born a Muslim - not to Americans, we don't care what religion someone's parents were, but to Muslims around the world.

In the Islamic creed, the son is automatically considered a Muslim for life if the father is Muslim. Barack Obama's father was a Muslim, therefore, according to most Muslims, Obama is an apostate. A Muslim apostate is someone who leaves the faith for any reason, and is, in a sense, the ultimate insult to Islam. There are severe punishments to be meted out for apostates, and we don't know what the Islamic world will do with this when someone they consider to be an apostate Muslim becomes President of the United States.

So it is a real issue, and Barack Obama needs to address it.

Blind Skepticism

2008-07-15T11:24:00.002-04:00

When you really think about it, how can it be that a man who has only been in national politics for 4 years (at best), who has won only one contest against a feeble last minute opponent in Illinois, with not one accomplishment behind him, has risen to become the savior of the United States of America?

Obama is channeling the disaffection and hatred of Bush and turning it into a healing salve, calming the troubled masses with empty rhetoric, grandiose posturing and vague promises. As deluded and deranged they have become over the last 8 years, they now need some relief, and Obama is there to provide.

Below I will present clear evidence that large sections of the US citizenry are nothing more than believers. And they are so hypnotized, they actually believe they are skeptics. But these people are skeptical of only one set of things - whatever conflicts with their beliefs!

According to these folks, and they are legion, anything that emanates from the Bush administration is a lie or a manipulation. They pride themselves for their skepticism and guffaw and blithely dismiss any argument or evidence to the contrary as naivete, yet they fully and universally accept and believe Obama, and they will continue to do so.

No person or administration can lie about everything. It is literally impossible to always lie, or to always be malicious, yet day after day this is the narrative these people believe. Somehow Bush is dumb and incompetent, yet he has managed to fool the world into believing Sadaam had WMD. He managed to fool Ted Kennedy into signing the no child left behind act, he managed to fool more than half the voters that another terrorist attack was imminent and he would protect them better than John Kerry. And no subsequent terror attack proves only that the terrorist threat is all hype and manipulation. And most dumbfounding, they believe that Obama will unite the country and end partisanship. These are the people who are themselves so bitterly partisan (and perhaps they are at least unconsciously aware of this) that if their guy is elected, America will miraculously come together, even though it never has in its 230 year history. These people who pride themselves on their educations and knowledge, are so conceited that they believe the country should fit their own fantasy, as though the Constitution was designed with checks and balances only in case the voters are stupid enough to elect a Republican as President. They believe history begins and ends with them and their time, and that any new untried idea emanating from their camp is a better one, and it will have no unintended consequences. Obama wants to remake America, and those who follow him believe any change Obama makes will be good. They don't have any evidence of this, then again, they don't need it.

In The City Journal, Michael Knox Beran addresses this and other aspects and traces the roots of Obama's style and techniques to Machiavelli.

Obama, Shaman by Michael Knox Beran, City Journal Summer 2008:

"The solution, he says, lies in a political reformation. Unless we “begin the process of changing politics and our civic life,” we will bequeath to our children “a weaker and more fractured America” than the one we inherited. Hence his mantra, “Change we can believe in.” Like the Nicene Creed, Obama’s doctrine begins in belief. Credo. Once we believe in the possibility of a transformative politics, “the perfection begins.” The selfish politics of the present yields to the selfless politics of the future. We discover that “this nation is more than the sum of its parts—that out of many, we are truly one.” So believing, we can replace a politics that breeds division, conflict, and cynicism with a politics that fosters unity and peace. In Obama’s “project of national renewal,” government can become an expression of “our communal values, our sense of mutual responsibility and social solidarity.”"

Obama; America's Lecturer-in-Chief

2008-07-10T12:21:00.002-04:00

Jesse Jackson says Obama talking down to blacks | Politics | Reuters

In Obama's defense, Jesse Jackson is wrong. Barack Obama talks down to everyone equally. In the past two weeks Barack has lectured us on patriotism; don't call me unpatriotic and I won't call you unpatriotic. On language; how embarrassed he is that Americans aren't fluent in unnecessary languages like French, and on service and sacrifice; how Americans should be compelled by government into service because it will be good for our souls.

I am getting really put-off by this guy. We are getting high doses of arrogance, sophomoric lectures, and a kind of the narcissistic tautology from Obama in the form of the equation that links his own rise to stardom and power to America's greatness. Americans are great because they want to vote for me, a black guy with a weird name. Or, America is great - take my life story for example. When I listen closely to Obama's message this is essentially the only logic behind it.

If this were true, then America hasn't been a great country - until now, which is basically what his wife Michelle is on record saying. All those other Independence Day parades were mere pomp and circumstance, all those wars fought for freedom were prelude to having a black man (or half-black) as our President. For Barack and Michelle, the simple fact that he is in the position he is, makes America great; no more evidence needs to be citied. Now, once the citizenry is mobilized and inspired by a great leader and orator, we can fulfill the American dream or promise.

If more than 50% don't wish to vote for Obama, is America not great, or not yet truly great? Those Americans who won't vote for him, are they unpatriotic?

America is not great because a man like Obama can be a viable candidate for President, that only proves some progress and speaks well for America, but emphasizing this as much as Obama does damns America with faint praise. Obama constantly injects his own life story as ipso facto proof that America is great. America is not great because there is apparent equal opportunity - at least in politics, and just because he is elected won't solve the many underlying problems of black people or white people anymore than his vaunted activism has changed things on the south side of Chicago, and it won't end whatever residual discrimination that lingers. The rhetoric is actually tokenism. Obama calls himself a black man, and he is the self-proclaimed token that America isn't racist, and therefore great.

But Obama isn't always talking about how great America is - that only happens when we hear elements from Obama's own life story. The rest of the time we hear how Americans are getting screwed, and how the dream is fading for many Americans, and that America needs to change into some improved version of itself. According to Obama, America needs the approval of other countries - other countries which have different systems and different interests - in order to be a great country. Obama wants even those countries who have declared us as their enemy to give us approval, and this will provide yet more evidence that America is great. And somehow, we need to compel schoolchildren to provide national service and tie college loans to 100 hours of service a year to the motherland, to be a great country.

No, America will not be a better country because it voted for Obama or McCain - or any candidate. Nor will America be improved by favorable reviews from our friendly competitors, our adversaries, or our openly declared enemies. Legions of schoolchildren, compelled into service for their country, will not make a better America.

America doesn't need to change - it needs to stop changing in the direction it has been.

I believe the Harvard-trained lawyer is conflating love of country with love of ideology. America is and has been a great country. America, as a country, will not be improved by any politician. It may be better managed, there may be better policies implemented, or reforms made, (considering both candidates' positions, probably not) but Obama's change message is fundamental. He actually wants America to change from whatever it was, to something he wants it to be. That isn't patriotism, it's ideology, and it has quite a strong tinge of fascism.

Don Imus ; Still a Witch

2008-06-24T12:03:00.000-04:00

Ever since the "nappy headed ho" flap I have been zeroing in on what I couldn't stand about Don Imus. That controversy goes to the core of his fatal flaw. I had heard him years ago in the Philadelphia area when he and Howard Stern were feuding, got interested for a while but saw through the artifice and manipulation and finally tuned them both out forever. Imus is always trying to pander, to be cool, to be cutting edge and somewhat shocking. This is what made him emulate rap-speak (cool) with shock (the content). But he didn't understand context and background. He didn't understand the target was not well placed.

And he didn't understand the racial shakedown industry, Imus added fuel to the fire by playing it badly. He conceded far too much power to Al Sharpton. Imus was 100% contrite, but as wrong as he was in his thoughtlessness, he should have stood up for himself and his right to say whatever and still hold his job. He should have asked the question; who was Al Sharpton to be the arbiter of his fate?

But Imus doesn't have the intelligence or the ability to think for himself well enough to do anything but roll over. He wants to attack people mercilessly and he wants to be popular. People who operate this way have only one possibility. Attack whatever is unpopular. Easy. You don't have to think to do that. It is the junior high school method; pile on the geek, the nerd, any accepted icon of uncool. He can't stand behind his words because there is nothing behind them - only a need to get attention for himself and his show.

But after he got another radio job WABC in NYC, he has has become a knee-jerk defender of all things African-American. Whatever popular myths the African-American community holds, Imus is right there carrying water. Somehow he believes it serves his interest. He is not a racist, really he isn't - seems to be the message. So Imus says something in sarcasm that is misconstrued and he is in trouble again!

I have to laugh. He has proven an easy mark. Having heard him I can attest that he was being sarcastic, trying to point out, Jon Stewart-like, that it was racial profiling that got this guy busted and nothing more. But it doesn't matter in a witch hunt whether or not the accused is a witch, just that someone burns for the crime, and it helps if the witch has been accused before. Imus doesn't understand this either.

I don't know whether racial profiling was involved or not, but for Imus' sake there better be some merit to the charge. Otherwise, where is his argument that he was being sarcastic, that is, without admitting that he made another knee-jerk pandering statement with no evidence?

Suggested summer reading for Don Imus; Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe but he won't (does he read books at all ?) - he'll just keep shooting his mouth off, which I have to say, is his right.

Don Imus says race comment was misunderstood - Yahoo! News

A bad review for the Review

2008-06-23T11:25:00.000-04:00

Encounter Books � Encounter Bids The New York York Times Farewell

It is sad to see a publication like the New York Times squander its credibility by engaging in ideological partisanship. Now more than ever the best journalistic model is credibility, credibility, credibility. It is the only thing that it can sell. You can get opinions anywhere. Descending into rank partisanship for the New York Times is like Chanel developing a line of clothing for K-Mart.