Come for the Politics, Stay for the Pathologies



Monday, December 27, 2010

What Goes Around, Comes Around, Part I

imagesCAL6ELK4

 

Note to Al Gore: It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature. Perhaps that’s why she’s spent the last 3 years turning you into a punch line.

In a delicious case of cosmic kismet the “Al Gore Effect” – the manifestation of record cold temperatures whenever and wherever global warmists convene – occurred again at this year’s United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change  in Cancun. This “unexpected” and “unprecedented”  turn of events would prove embarrassing were it not for the mental dexterity and flexibility of global-warmist spin meisters. Their explanation will be cut of whole cloth, fabricated entirely of artifice. They have deemed the record cold and snow to be the result of record warming elsewhere on the planet. Or something.

Despite the Top 10 Bad Developments for Global Warming Alarmists (from The Other McCain via Right Network) the warmists amongst us still believe we are killing the planet with our carbon footprints. This despite the fact that number 11 on the Top 10 Bad Developments for Global Warming Alarmists would be the quiet dissolution of Algore’s  Chicago Carbon Exchange, once touted as the path to global warming salvation.

The death of the exchange was due to lack of interest: no one wanted eco-brownie points badly enough to pony up actual money to purchase them. What a blow that was to Al’s dreams of cooling the overheated planet. Not to mention his dreams of incredible wealth. (Oh but wait: St. Al gives all his money away. Right?)

Al will probably be holed up in his beachfront home for awhile, waiting for the oceans to rise and the embarrassing spell of colder than normal weather to pass. This should give all the other propagandists time to roll out the current make-it-up-as-you-go-along scientific explanations for this anomaly.  These explanations are geared to assuage any concerns of  true believers when confronted by seemingly counterintuitive data. The agitprop must sound plausible, but it doesn’t matter how improbable it is: the cult is inclined to believe.  Cognitive dissonance makes them so uncomfortable. So the current explanation is that “cold and snow today is due to excess moisture caused by extraordinary heat (?!) in sub-tropic Africa yesterday.” And it helps, especially if you’re explaining this to a doubting Thomas, to throw in “you f***ing idiot!” or “why can’t you Neanderthals seem to grasp this simple concept!” Or at least I presume these are persuasive  arguments because I see them so often on lefty blogs trying to explain the phenomenon.

The propagandists  job is to keep the the dream of a dying planet alive, in order to convince everyone else to reduce their carbon footprint. A climate crisis allows them to pursue their dream, driven by financial or ideological motivation -or both, to spread the wealth around. The dream of a One World Order is alive and well, and doubt it at your own peril. It’s still premised on the “we’ve got more than our share” Marxist belief system, and it still demands that the  industrialized west needs to subsidize the development of the non-industrial third world. A carbon tax on developed nations would accomplish that quite effectively: a willing surrender of wealth and resources in order to make the world more “fair.” After all, the wealth and resources  of western countries were by and large ill-gotten to begin with, so reparations are in order.

Thank goodness, some sovereign countries are finally beginning to come to their senses.

But why must it always be a zero sum game with these people?  Allow me to answer that: for the ideologues, that’s just a basic tenet of of their belief system: you don’t create wealth; in order for you to have more, someone else must have less. For those just in it for the money, they don’t believe it at all, but their well being and wealth accumulation depends on you believing it.

So you see, once the believers reject the dogma of the Church of Global Warming,

 

thumb-Nat_Post_Al_Gore

the gig is up for those with high stakes in the game.  The fact that Mother Nature herself is conspiring to defrock these charlatans is the textbook definition of irony.

Besides, wouldn’t we furless creatures need to use a whole lot less carbon based fuel if it wasn’t so damn cold all winter?  I say, bring it.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

A Christmas Blessing 2010

Christmas greetings to you and yours from Team Dewey & the flatsimile team. Please click to zoom in on our card for a reminder of what has been sacrificed to ensure that we remain free to celebrate the day in the religious tradition (or not) of our choice.

Photo Mosaic by Flatsimile Studios

Fallen Heroes  photos via Washington Post.

Mannheim Steamroller: Stille Nacht

Blessings to all of our troops and their families during this season of real hope. Drag to re-center and zoom into other areas.

Originally posted December 25, 2009

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Christmas Week Distractions

Christmas is just days away and, as usual, I’m not ready. I could run around in a frantic and useless effort to “get ready,” but instead, this morning I’m cruising my favorite sites on the interweb looking for answers and smiles.

On RIGHTNETWORK, this smile from Hope n’ Change Cartoons creator Stilton Jarlsberg:

Paper%20Trained

Stilton’s accompanying essay is also worth a read.

 

Next, also on RIGHTNETWORK, my favorite blogger, MOTUS with the solution to those last minute Christmas gifts: Michelle Obama’s Last Minute Winter Holiday Gift Guide.

5

 

No, I’m not RIGHTNETWORK’s publicist, but another from RN’s Editor-in-Chief, Gerard Van der Leun: Yes Virginia There Is a Santa Claus.

ayesvirginiaillo

 

On hopenchangery, Christmas 2010 … with a wild video:)

hopenchangery

 

Finally, from BigFurHat on iOwnTheWorld, the chance of a lifetime Contest-Ice Mail Ask Hunk.

CELEBRITYGUESTJUDGEtemp1

Act now because

This contest will be open until tomorrow, 11:59 PM. The winner will receive an assortment of 3 authentic New York candy store candy bars, hand-selected at the peak of flavor by BigFurHat, or a Baracky Horror Show greeting card signed by an office lacky pretending to be BigFurHat. Your choice!

What better way to while away your remaining few hours before Christmas?

Lastly, but by no means leastly, enjoy this beautiful hymn from Jewel via American Digest:

 

 

And if that doesn’t do it for you, nothing will.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

It Was All a Fish Tale

smelt

If it weren’t the holiday season, this would just really P*** me off (from Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit):

 

Oops… Federal Judge Rules Liberal Fish Study That Forced Officials to Cut Off California Water Was Based on Junk Science

 

The San Joaquin valley’s water was cut off in 2008 to “save the delta smelt.”

congress_created_dust_bowl2

 

Thousands of acres of what had been some of the state’s most productive farmland has lain fallow for 2 years, creating some of the highest unemployment in a state rife with unemployment.

It has also ruined hundreds of farmers, destroying their livelihoods and causing irreparable harm to their families. Dead almond trees are not easily or quickly replaced. Neither are two years of lost income. So although it appears they won their lawsuit, as liberals are fond of telling us, “justice delayed is justice denied.”

Junk science, the pinnacle of relativistic “logic” (there’s a classic oxymoron for you) has given politicians the power to control yet another aspect of people’s lives. In this case, environmentalists and their lawyers ginned up a case to force the end of water diversion to the valley and prevailed in court up until now.

Thanks to the triumph of liberal educational propaganda, junk science can now be used in conjunction with abusive governmental power to push a progressive agenda. And the agenda is fairly comprehensive: everything from global warming and all of its attendant BS to Michelle Obama’s breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner “Healthy, Hungry-free Kids” school program.

Perhaps we can stop worrying about junk food and focus on junk education, junk science and junk litigation – all funded by our junk government with increasingly high levels of junk-grade government bonds.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Trusted Fellow Travelers

From Doug Ross at Doug Ross@Journal:

Worried that foreign travelers -- especially those entering the U.S. from Mexico -- will be insulted by intrusive security pat-downs in airports? Well, rest easy: Janet Napolitano is on the job.

As violent drug cartels take over Mexico and expand their criminal enterprises north, the United States has signed a “trusted traveler” agreement that allows pre-screened Mexican airline passengers to bypass lengthy airport security checkpoints... Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano claims it’s a way to enhance information sharing and mutual security in the face of “ever-evolving, multinational threats.”


About 84 million Mexicans are expected to qualify for the trusted traveler program [who] will get the perk through the U.S. government’s Global Entry Program... Applying is easy. Candidates fill out an online application, provide valid identification and answer a few questions from a Customs and Border Protection officer.
While Napolitano was in Mexico finalizing the trusted traveler agreement this week, she also took the opportunity to sign a “letter of intent” to develop a plan for protecting immigrants from criminal attacks as they cross the border—illegally—into the U.S. Mexican officials have long complained that American law enforcement officers stand by as illegal immigrants are robbed, killed or violently beaten. Napolitano has committed to reducing the risk to life and security of migrants, according to the
Mexican minister.

Doug suggests that “Napolitano will refer to this program as "Skipping the Airport Screenings Americans Won't Skip." Prescreened. What a joke. We can’t even keep bedbugs out of the country.

We have met our Neville Chamberlain: and she is not just a moron, she is also a collaborator. 2012. Faster, please.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Barack Obama’s Day Off

ferris-buellers-day-off-282Ferris and friends: Poseur’s at the Chicago Art Institute

It was like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and the Happy Days jumping the shark episode rolled into one.

Yesterday, Washington’s stage offered up some of the best fare of the year, in a year chock full of good theatre. Even the most creative minds in Hollywood would be hard pressed to come up with two metaphors for this administration that were more perfectly honed.

First, Obama - the most dubiously qualified man to ever serve as President of the United States – held a bizarre press conference with Bill Clinton to have him persuade Democratic legislators (and the media) to support the deal Obama struck with Republicans to extend the tax cuts and unemployment. Not only did he abdicate his presidential responsibilities by turning the reins over to Bubba, but he managed to come off as the very inferior, very junior executive at a corporate retreat who’s been asked to introduce the legendary CEO.

Then Barry excused himself due to a previous commitment. What could be more pressing than preventing everyone’s tax rates from going up in the middle of the worst recession in most people’s lifetime? A party, of course.

time to go

Well looky here, it’s time for me to go already!

Bubba played his lines straight, and managed to keep the farce afloat.

Then we get this: Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner turns himself in for kidney stone surgery on Friday afternoon.

We have a financial system suffering from calcification, and a president contemplating abdication. What next? Stagflation? Why not, let’s bring Jimmy back to run the show for a few months too.

jimmy%20carter%20stern%20face

He and Hugo have some ideas about how the American economy ought to work.

jimmy-carter-hugo-chavez

As they say in Hollywood, “you can’t make this stuff up.”

 

imagesCASVWFEB

Monday, December 6, 2010

When Dogs Attack

Subject: General pubic notice


Please be advised I am sick to death of receiving questions about my dog who mauled six illegal's wearing Obama tee shirts, four stupid Democrats wearing Pelosi tee shirts, two rappers, five phone operators who asked me to press #1 for English, nine teenagers with pants hanging down past their cracks, eight customer service desk people speaking in broken English, three flag burners, and a Pakistani taxi driver.

FOR THE LAST TIME...THE DOG IS NOT FOR SALE !!!

But I’m currently breeding some that will go after green weenies if you’re interested:

dogs attack

H/T GABpantherfan

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Not so much a socialist, as a fascist

Have you been wondering how to spend your time now that Dancing With the Stars is over for another season? Well, if you have 26 minutes, may I recommend you spend it listening to one of the most intelligent men in America? Here is Thomas Sowell on nuclear Iran, federal intervention in the great depression, the Stimulus, socialism, immigration, gay marriage, liberalism and tax “cuts.” Not a bad deal for your investment.

 

 

If you want to watch in a larger format, go to the Right Network link.

If you’re really pinched for time, just advance to around the 9:25 minute mark to hear Mr. Sowell explain why President Obama is not technically a socialist, but more of a fascist.

Monday, November 29, 2010

“What Doesn’t the President Know, and When Didn’t he Know it?”

OBAMA/ The image of the image that thought he was Obama

Brain Damage: Pink Floyd

Spengler  contends that there’s not much in the WikiLeaks that you couldn’t have noodled out on your own by snooping around the internet. Never-the-less, he lays it out in a fashion that will chill you to the bone.

Napoleon was a lunatic who thought he was Napoleon, and the joke applies to the 44th United States president with a vengeance. What doesn't the president know, and when didn't he know it? American foreign policy turned delusional when Barack Obama took office, and the latest batch of leaks suggest that the main source of the delusion is sitting in the Oval Office.

and this…

The initial reports suggest that the US State Department has massive evidence that Obama's approach - "engaging" Iran and coddling Pakistan - has failed catastrophically. The crisis in diplomatic relations heralded by the press headlines is not so much a diplomatic problem - America's friends and allies in Western and Central Asia have been shouting themselves hoarse for two years - but a crisis of American credibility.

 
Not one Muslim government official so much as mentioned the issues that have occupied the bulk of Washington's attention during the past year, for example, Israeli settlements… while a solution to the Arab/Israeli conflict would be a great achievement, Iran would find other ways to cause trouble
.

But the pre-ordained winner of the Noble Peace Prize will hear none of it. He’s too busy building a new world order in his image and likeness:

How do we explain the gaping chasm between Obama's public stance and the facts reported by the diplomatic corps? The cables do not betray American secrets so much as American obliviousness. The simplest and most probable explanation is that the president is a man obsessed by his own vision of a multipolar world, in which America will shrink its standing to that of one power among many, and thus remove the provocation on which Obama blames the misbehavior of the Iranians, Pakistanis, the pro-terrorist wing of the Saudi royal family, and other enemies of the United States.

Unfortunately we live in dangerous times, where naiveté carries a steep price,  and failure to control escalating hostilities has grave consequences:

…Iran has had two years to enrich uranium, consolidate its grip on Syria, insert itself into Afghanistan, stockpile missiles with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, and build up its terror capabilities around the world. The window is closing in which Iran may be contained. Covert operations and cyber-sabotage might have bought some time, but benign neglect of Iran has reach its best-used-by-date.

Yet Obama is convinced he can end nuclear proliferation through his stupid START tready, and ultimately rid the world of nuclear weapons. After all, he wrote an opinion on a nuclear free world while still in undergraduate school, and hasn’t changed his mind since. Not everyone reaches the pinnacle of their intellectual development while still and undergraduate like Obama did. The fact that he still believes what he wrote then is  considered an indication of his brilliance and a mark of his consistency. Yet he feels free to chastise middle-Americans for clinging to guns and religion. Because that’s stupid, misguided, dogmatic and inflexible. Totally different from clinging to the naive ideology that he was raised with. Marxism is enlightened. A nuclear free world (aka “Putting Pandora back in her box”) just requires the leadership of a visionary leader. 

Unfortunately the Free World continues to be headed up by a President who is so clueless that he plays golf and basketball in the midst of domestic crises, and calls a press conference to report a fake federal government pay freeze workers when all hell is breaking loose on the international scene. He seems forever out of step with reality.

As Spengler concludes:

The cables, in sum, reveal an American administration that refuses to look at the facts on the ground, even when friendly governments rub the noses of American diplomats into them. Obama is beyond reality; he has become the lunatic who thinks that he is Barack Obama.

 

Brain Damage - lyrics

The lunatic is on the grass.
The lunatic is on the grass.
Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs.
Got to keep the loonies on the path.

The lunatic is in the hall.
The lunatics are in my hall.
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And every day the paper boy brings more.

And if the dam breaks open many years too soon
And if there is no room upon the hill
And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.

The lunatic is in my head.
The lunatic is in my head
You raise the blade, you make the change
You re-arrange me 'til I'm sane.
You lock the door
And throw away the key
There's someone in my head but it's not me.

And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
You shout and no one seems to hear.
And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.
"I can't think of anything to say except...
I think it's marvelous! HaHaHa
!"

Sunday, November 28, 2010

We don’t make spooks like we used to

There was a time when the WikiLeaks dump would have meant that the perpetrator who enabled the dump would have met with a certain and deadly “accident.”

Now? Not so much.

Our spooks are busy shutting down websites that “facilitate copyright infringement” – counterfeit handbags.

seized

 

Can we possibly get our heads any further up our rear end?

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Dancing with High Crimes and Misdemeanors: Al Gore in Finals

I’m introducing a new feature, a monthly contest of Dancing with High Crimes and Misdmeanors. This month’s contestants – TSA, Al Gorical, and  Government Agency Estimates -  are too talented at their craft for me call a clear winner, so I’ll report, and you can decide for yourself.

backscatter-safety_3 

First up, in the Wasteful Spending of Taxpayer’s Money: day late dollar short category is the TSA. From USA Today:

The companies with multimillion-dollar contracts to supply American airports with body-scanning machines more than doubled their spending on lobbying in the last five years and hired several high-profile former government officials to advance their causes in Washington, records show.

The TSA jumped right on the threat first posed almost a year ago when the Christmas day panty bomber nearly took a plane down over Detroit  with plastic explosives planted in his privates.  Of course, the terrorists have likely moved on to other methods and targets by now (say, a car bomb at a Christmas tree lighting in Portland, where no one would ever expect it?) but we continue to play catch up with the shadow over our shoulder. And the costs continue to escalate as the TSA continues to metastasize into yet another government growth industry.

The actual contestant for the prize? All the usual suspects. Some think the terrorists are the real winners here. The only thing clear is that we, the people, are the losers. Unless of course you feel safer having your privates patted down.

 

corn-worse-than-oil-california

Second entry, same category: Al Gorical speaking from Mt. Olympus:

It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for (U.S.) first generation ethanol," said Gore, speaking at a green energy business conference in Athens sponsored by Marfin Popular Bank.

"First generation ethanol I think was a mistake. The energy conversion ratios are at best very small.

"It's hard once such a programme is put in place to deal with the lobbies that keep it going."

He explained his own support for the original programme on his presidential ambitions.

"One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president."

A decade late and $7.7 billion – that’s per YEAR - short.

Environmental green savior of planet earth to the U.S. taxpayer: “Whoops! Do-over!” Now you tell us. After I traded my underwater carbon credits for ethanol futures.

I wonder if Big Ethanol will eventually challenge Big Oil for most hated corporate interest in America? Probably not. Although it’s an expensive energy source, and a foolish waste of food product, it is “renewable” - a characteristic second only to godliness. No make that second to nothing. 

Geeze Al, I cannot imagine how you lost that 2000 election! Pea brain.

Or maybe I should say “corn pone” aka “hoe cake.”

"You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I'll tell you what his 'pinions is."


I can never forget it. It was deeply impressed upon me. By my mother. Not upon my memory, but elsewhere. She had slipped in upon me while I was absorbed and not watching. The black philosopher's idea was that a man is not independent, and cannot afford views which might interfere with his bread and butter. If he would prosper, he must train with the majority; in matters of large moment, like politics and religion, he must think and feel with the bulk of his neighbors, or suffer damage in his social standing and in his business prosperities. He must restrict himself to corn-pone opinions--at least on the surface. He must get his opinions from other people; he must reason out none for himself; he must have no first-hand views.                

Mark Twain. Read more

bp

A favorite entry in this month’s contest is “ Miscellaneous Federal Government Agencies” for their quick footwork in estimating the magnitude of the BP oil spill. As Bill Lehr of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration acknowledged in emails obtained through a FOA request, (obtained 7 months after the spill) the estimate of the magnitude of the spill was “just a guess.” Really? Well, yes, that’s how we do science now.

Post normal science dictates that scientists tell people what they need to hear in order to get them to do what they think is in the best interest of the herd.

So you may now use, as an operating assumption, that any “official” proclamation you hear is 1) for your own good and 2) “just a guess.”

Other operating examples that employ the “just guessing”  algorithm of post normal science include:

  • unemployment numbers
  • Number of jobs created or saved
  • Amount of money saved by implementing Obamacare
  • Iran’s and North Korea’s nuclear capabilities
  • Any health related reports regarding salt, fat, carbohydrates, alcohol, hormones, or testing procedures.

and … special commendation for supreme high crime and misdemeanor guessing:

  • Global Warming/Cooling/Climate Change. The biggest ass guess, and gamble, in the entire history of “science.”

2007-10-21Gore

So Al: if you’ve already admitted that cornAhol was a mistake - and since apology tours seem to be in vogue these days with members of the liberal left - why not go all the way and clear your conscience of all your sins and be saved? Admit that your made up religion of Anthropogenic Global Warming is just a scam to sell carbon credits. We won’t make you give back the billions you’ve already made. Just apologize, grab a broom and help us clean up the mess. It’s the Democratic way.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Sure Obama’s brilliant. But can his IQ compare to Joey Biden’s?

Joe Biden told GQ that the reason President Obama appears aloof to some is because he’s, well, brilliant.

obama-umbrellaHolding the umbrella “aloof,” brilliantly

And did I mention clean and articulate?

I did?

OK. Never mind.

joe_biden“Brilliant – it’s a 9 letter word.” 

 

As Jonathan Strong put it: “When Joe Biden calls you smart, you know you’re still breathing.”

Friday, November 19, 2010

The Gettysburg Address. Still Relevant.

gettysburg

The Gettysburg Address was delivered on this day, November 19, 1863 in the midst of the most horrible war in America’s history.

Every child in America was once required to memorize this address, as it encapsulates the American Idea. But that was back when schools were used for education rather than propaganda conduits.

Here, in Abraham Lincoln’s own words, is the reason for American exceptionalism. It seems to have fallen out of vogue, American exceptionalism that is, but maybe if we remember it’s origin we can revive it. Maybe in the 2012 election.

The Gettysburg Address:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Gerard Vanderleun expounds on the Gettysburg Address as America’s Credo:

The credo tells us that we -- if we are to bear true faith and allegiance to all those who have built, stone by stone, poem by poem, word by word, and life by life, the city on the hill that is America -- must always be dedicated to the unfinished work that is always before us. The credo requires that we "highly resolve" to leave our nation in a greater state of liberty than we found it. And to leave our Union entire and intact as "the last best hope of Earth."

Islamo-fascism, an evil political-religious philosophy of subjugation, is waging a war against us and our political philosophy of liberty on a world wide basis. It would be good if the left and right factions within our country, while agreeing to disagree on just about everything else, could at least agree to fight against the real enemy in order to preserve the American Experiment.

“that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

H/T Abraham Lincoln

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Divorce, American Style

This is an oldie - but still viable - concept. It arrived recently in an email, and I pass it on, in case you haven’t read it yet. Sometimes D-I-V-O-R-C-E is the answer.

It’s unclear who John J. Wall is, or if he even exists. As with most of these items, odds are good he is a conceit, but the concept is certainly worthy of consideration: I’ve added a couple of tweaks, highlighted in red.

 

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists  and Obama supporters, et al: 

We have stuck together since the late 1950's for the sake of the kids, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a  divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of  future generations, but sadly, this relationship has clearly run its course. 

Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right for us all, so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.

Here is a model separation agreement: 
Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a similar portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure  our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets  since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes. 
 
We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military.  We'll take the nasty, smelly oil industry and you can go with wind, solar and biodiesel.  You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell. You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them.

We'll keep capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have your beloved lifelong welfare dwellers, food stamps, homeless, homeboys, hippies, druggies and illegal aliens. We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and rednecks. 

We'll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood . 

You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help provide them security. 
 
We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values. You are welcome to Islam,  Scientology, Humanism, political correctness and Shirley McClain. Especially Scientology.

You can also have the U.N. but we will no longer be paying the bill. 
 
We'll keep the SUV's, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can find. 
 
You can give everyone universal healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors. We'll continue to believe healthcare, like electricity, heat, water, cell phones and cable TV is a commodity, not a right, that like many “necessities,” must be paid for. Generally by something we’ll continue to call “work”

We'll  keep "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "The National Anthem." I'm sure you'll be happy to substitute "Imagine", "I'd Like to Teach the World to  Sing", "Kum Ba Ya" or "We Are the World". 
 
We'll practice trickle down economics and you can continue to give trickle up poverty your best shot. 
 
Since it often so offends you, we'll keep our history, our name and our flag.  
 
Would you agree to this?  If so, please pass it along to other like-minded  liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete.

In the spirit of friendly parting, I'll bet you answer which one of us will need whose help in 15 years. 
 
Sincerely, 
John J. Wall 
Law Student and an American 
 
P. S. Also, please take Ted Turner, Sean Penn, Martin Sheen, Barbara Streisand, & Jane Fonda with you. 
 
P. S. S.  And you won't have to press 1 for English when you call our country.

H/T Lee Alexander

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Economics 401

Here, in just under 7 minutes, the complete coursework for Econ 401: everything you need to know about the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke and “Quantitative Easing.” You may not think that you have 7 minutes to kill, but trust me, it’s educational. And good for a laugh – who doesn’t have 7 minutes for a good laugh?

Besides, if you take this course, you will have the equivalent of a masters degree in economics.

 

 

video from Cole Helfrich via Paul  R.Smiley-Oyen

Red-headed Irish dwarfs

30dowd MoDo

Q: If red-headed Irish dwarfs declared war on us and flew commercial airliners into buildings, do you think we would be body scanning African-Americans and Middle-Easterners?

Would we be patting down Indian Sikhs? 85 year old wheelchair-bound women? Screaming three year old little girls?

A: Yes, if the Left was still in charge of the TSA. They are bound to a secular creed which places “political correctness” second only to “diversity” on the list of attributes to live by.

 

Obama_Poster_Hopey_Dwarfgraphic: ThePeoplesCube

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Let’s Grope the Nun, But Hands off the Muslims in Burkas

What more is there to say?

Recall Obamacare. Recall Obama’s czars. Recall Obama.

shameonamerica HT Vanderleun

Shameful. We have met tyranny, and it is us.

Obama Unglued

Just because I think you should know what “other critics” are saying… this from Wade Madsen Reports,  an investigative reporter who’s been around the beltway for a long time. And his reporting is usually accurate. But I report. You decide.



Subject: Fwd: President Obama slowly being exposed


President Obama was urged by the few White House insiders from whom he still takes advice to leave the country on his ten-day Asian trip, his longest trip abroad since becoming president, in order to not inflict any more damage to the Democratic Party in the wake of one of the worst electoral defeats for the party of an incumbent president in recent history. According to sources close to the White House, who put themselves in great danger by even talking to members of the media, the plans to have Obama leave for a visit to India, Pakistan, Indonesia, South Korea, and Japan are an attempt to get Obama out of the country while top Democrats can sort through the political disaster created for the party by Obama's increasingly detached-from-reality presidency.

Virtual political guerrilla warfare has broken out between Obama's inner circle on one hand and senior Democratic officials, including outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Party strategist James Carville, former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, and, behind-the-scenes, Vice President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton, on the other.

Top Democrats are still reeling from Obama's bizarre behavior at a $7500-a-plate fundraiser at a stately mansion at Brown University in Rhode Island on October 25. The fundraiser, organized by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, was supposed to highlight Democratic Party unity. However, while Obama endorsed Democratic House candidate David Cicilline for outgoing Representative Patrick Kennedy's seat, the president failed to endorse Democratic gubernatorial candidate Frank Caprio over Republican-turned-independent former Senator Lincoln Chafee. Obama's lack of an endorsement for a Democrat over a former Republican prompted Caprio to tell a radio show host that Obama "could take his endorsement and really shove it as far as I’m concerned."

Later that day, Obama briefly appeared at the fundraiser at Brown University, where Democratic loyalists paid $7500 to hear Obama speak, but departed after only twenty minutes, telling the assembled guests that he had to go back to the White House to "tuck in my daughters, walk the dog, and 'scoop the poop.'" The Democratic faithful were appalled and shocked at Obama's quick departure and one of the three reasons he gave for it: to scoop up dog turds as if the President of the United States actually performs such tasks with a phalanx of White House staff and Secret Service agents at his disposal.

Vice President Biden knows too well about Obama's lack of attention to his daily tasks of being president. The details of the fiasco at Brown soon were conveyed to Biden by his two old Democratic Senate colleagues from Rhode Island: Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse. Biden was not amused about Obama's dissing of the Democrats in Rhode Island. A week later, Chafee defeated Caprio for the Rhode Island governorship, thanks largely to Obama's less-than-neutral stance in cutting a secret deal to support Chafee against Caprio.

White House leaks about the ineffectiveness of Obama's presidency are expandng beyond the revelations attributed to a former high-level Obama administration insider and which have been reported by a blogger named "Ulsterman." Some White House staffers have described a "reign of terror" in the White House over continued leaks and a troika of leadership that is making decisions without any input from the president. The troika reportedly consists of First Lady Michelle Obama, presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett, and the president's mother-in-law, Marian Robinson, who resides in the White House.

Not to be deterred, some White House staffers have sought out journalists and have arranged to meet them at nearby Starbuck's cafes to discretely convey to them inside information about the current disarray within the Obama administration. Some staffers have personally borne the brunt of Obama's temper and witnessed his extreme narcissistic behavior. WMR has also learned from White House sources that Obama is taking prescription anxiety medication.

Vice President Biden, under intense pressure from some Democratic Party officials and Cabinet members to invoke Article 25, Section 4 of the Constitution and have Obama temporarily or permanently removed as president because of his mental incapacity to fulfill his constitutional oath as president is reluctant to take such drastic action. Biden feels that the country would "become unglued" after such action and he doesn't want to be the one who would be responsible for "picking up the pieces," according to a source who works within Biden's office.

Some staffers have said on deep background that the revelations by the ex-White House official to "Ulsterman" are not even half of the story about what is actually occurring in the White House.
However, Biden and other Democratic and administration do believe that if Obama were to display some of the same reckless behavior publicly as many White House personnel have witnessed privately, there may be wide support for enactment of the provisions of the 25th Amendment.

Such a public display by Obama that could trigger succession action might involve a public outburst, including the use of foul language or a statement that Obama believes there is a conspiracy against him.

On October 5, Obama was addressing Fortune magazine’s “Most Powerful Women” summit in Washington, DC. During the middle of Obama's speech, the presidential seal fell off the podium. Publicly, Obama took the incident as a joke, but WMR has learned from White House insiders that Obama went on a tirade after the incident, accusing White House staffers of purposely not anchoring the seal to the podium. The White House supplies all the podiums and seals at all presidential addresses and the seal is usually well-anchored with four screws affixed to the podium. Obama reportedly "freaked out" and accused White House staffers of engaging in a conspiracy against him. The presidential tirade over such a trivial matter was not lost on senior administration officials who have witnessed Obama's lackadaisical behavior during the consideration of much weightier issues, for example, the war in Afghanistan.

Although some observers believe African-Americans would react negatively to the invocation of the 25th Amendment, WMR has learned that members of the Congressional Black Caucus would reluctantly go along with such a move. Many in their ranks, including outgoing House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers (D-MI) were outraged over Obama's lack of interest in Haiti after that nation's devastating earthquake. For many black caucus members, it was their first indication that there was something very wrong with Obama and his grasp of reality.

With Obama intent on running for re-election and seriously considering sending White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to replace former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, the potential Democratic challengers to Obama in 2012 are beginning to stir. WMR has learned that former DNC chairman Howard Dean is seriously considering a challenge to Obama as is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who will reportedly depart Foggy Bottom after Defense Secretary Robert Gates leaves his position, possibly in January.
Several top Democrats consider Obama's chances to keep the White House in 2012 as slim and they find it fanciful that White House policy adviser David Axelrod is moving back to Chicago to work on Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, an effort many Democratic officials find a "fool's errand."
Obama also is disengaged from the plight of his former Senate Democratic colleagues in the wake of their near loss of the Senate with a much-reduced majority. There is pressure on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to step down as Majority Leader. However, Charles Schumer (D-NY), who has been mentioned as a replacement, reportedly has let it be known that he will not carry Obama's water as Majority Leader and may not want the job after all. The Majority Whip is Dick Durbin (D-IL) but he is seen as part of the Obama Chicago Mafia and almost every Democratic senator agrees on one thing: they do not want Durbin as their Majority Leader. Obama, the titular head of the Democratic Party, has refused to weigh in with any effective leadership as congressional Democrats pick up the pieces and lick their wounds.

Meanwhile, a team of ex-CIA officers are traveling the globe assembling a dossier of documents on Obama's past, including his education, passport, travel, and residency records. The team has scoured Kenya, Indonesia, Pakistan, and other countries collecting documents that are not already maintained in the CIA's own files on Obama's past. There is a possibility, according to WMR's sources, that any "smoking gun" documents may be released while Obama is in Asia in order to elicit a public and, perhaps, irrational enough response from the president to prompt the public to begin raising questions about Obama's suitability for office. Such an incident would make it easier for Biden to begin the succession process that was previously considered when President Richard Nixon was drinking heavily and taking prescription medication during the final days of his administration, twice during the Ronald Reagan administration -- after the attempted assassination and in 1987 when he demonstrated early stages of Alzheimer's Disease, and during the Bill Clinton administration, when Clinton's self-destructive sexual antics had Vice President Al Gore considering taking similar steps.

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

Wayne Madsen (Washington)

And there’s more. Much, much more. Don’t go anywhere. Now is not the time to stop paying attention.

HT Mommy Life

Monday, November 15, 2010

Pauly’s Walnuts

Is there anyone left who still believes Paul Krugman has either a brain or a soul? Aside from the New York Times Editorial staff?

Here he is recommending increasing taxes and matter-of-factly instituting death panels (hmmm – who was it that first mentioned the existence of “death panels” associated with Obamacare? And was ridiculed by the legacy media as an idiot? Oh yes - that was Sarah Palin. Well, apparently Paul Krugman agreed with her all along.)

Beginning around 4:13, and again at 6:25 you can hear Pauly in his own economist-words- of-wisdom proclaim that the real solution (the “final solution?”) will come down the road a bit in the form of “death panels and sales taxes.”

This man is just an effing economic genius. Let’s vote for him! All he’s missing on his resume is a stint as community organizer.

krug and cat Aside from the hair (his and his cat’s) they bare a striking resemblance to Dr. Evil and Mr. Bigglesworth

dr eviland bigglesworth

Saturday, November 13, 2010

First, They Came For the Children

And we let them have them.

orwell1 Math-magicals from AgitProp Devices

Saturday’s must-read from  the American Thinker via Curmudgeonly and Skeptical: Ten reasons conservatives shouldn’t be celebrating the election results. 

Here’s the short version:

10) The aristocracy is still there in Washington.

  9) The bureaucracy in Washington has never been more powerful.

8) The Federal Reserve still remains unchecked.

7) The spending obligations are still there, and the economy is still bad
  6) The unions still have control of the government

  5) The Republican Party hasn't become conservative yet

  4) They still are neither reading nor writing their own legislation

3) It is still impossible to obey the law.

  2) There is no animal quite as dangerous as a lame duck

1) The socialists and Marxists still have your children.

 

horowitz
BTW, if you have any interest in homeschooling, Mommy Life is a great blog with much information and mega-resources on the topic – along with a whole lot of other interesting items.

Monday, November 8, 2010

No blogging in the hospital zone

Sorry, no blogging this week: I’m on family hospital duty in a strange city, as my bro is recovering from a major surgical, uh, intervention. Anytime “aortic aneurysm” is involved in the diagnosis, you don’t really want to know much more.

He’s doing well so far. Prayers are always welcome and appreciated.

This has been a really sucky year. Except for the mid-term elections.

Back again when my brain has re-established connections with the outside world.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Welcome to McDonald’s. Would you like a toy with that meal?

Did the evil fast food companies trick you into buying an unhealthy meal that your child couldn’t afford to eat? Did they throw in a toy that deluded you into believing that the “happy meal” was something that would actually be good for your child?

What a nightmare. It’s just like the sub-prime mortgage mess all over again: ignorant consumers tricked into buying a house they couldn’t afford by evil bankers. And we’ve all seen where that ended. This is a national disgrace.

But thank goodness, the liberal citizens of San Francisco are mad as hell and they’re just not going to take it any more. So they went to the polls en masse last Tuesday to permanently outlaw those seductive meals with toys.

An astute reader at Michelle Malkin suggests: “McD’s sells the toy for 1 penny. You can buy a Happy Meal for $2.30 without a toy or $2.31 with a toy.The gov’t cannot ban Mc’D's from selling a toy as a separate item.”

I’d go one step further. How about “ buy a toy for $2.30, get a Happy Meal free, including a delicious fried apple pie; or buy the Healthy meal without the toy, but with good-for-you carrot sticks and apple slices for only $2.90.”

If that doesn’t work, there’s always “Quantitative Easing” aka “getting less for your money.”

MiniHappyMeal

The Feds forecast it’s going to work real well for the rest of the economy.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

I Have a Scheme…

Cripes Suzette brings us the last word on the feelings of the electorate today:

 

scram

 

I think we’re going to have to take her balloons and eyebrow pencils away. She’s a wicked woman, that Suzette.

The Polls are Open: Cast Your Fate

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up. -- Hosea 8:7

man begging to obamaBe careful who you pray to

The Sidelines at American Digest comment of the week: Please remember it when you go to vote today.

Scott M’s reaction to  Side-Lines: The Autumn of President Putz:

Luckily for Obama, and the other dedicated Marxists seeking American punishment, their opponents will not even knock over a trash can no matter what the Marxists do to this country.

Drive across country and stand at the Lincoln Memorial for hours listening to speeches about playing by the rules, check.

Picking up your trash and carefully driving back home, check.

Complaining to your neighbor as the ACLU drives the Boy Scouts out of business, check.

Avoiding any place or institution that is predominately liberal, double check.

Moving away while the liberals left behind take over, oh yeah double super-check.

Liberals want to take over the world and conservatives want to be left alone. You have to go on offense against the liberals and take over their turf and be willing to "punch back twice as hard."

Resolve to not convict anyone resisting liberal tyranny and elect local politicians willing to nullify unconstitutional measures from above.

Don't hide behind standing on formality while the Marxists take it all away from you.

Make every commie-lib that opens their pie hole sorry they ever open their mouth about politics.

They know what they are doing, do you?

Copies of Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals are available on Amazon for $10.08. If you still haven’t read it, you should. We’re playing by there rules, whether we like it or not.

Don’t think that changes if we win at the polls today.

Monday, November 1, 2010

My Work Here is Done

This is from Doug Powers at that other Michelle’s site, discussing the thousands of empty seats in the Cleveland auditorium where Barry and Joey spoke yesterday as they wrapped up the campaign tour-de-force. He notes the tangible “enthusiasm gap” in the All-Obama-All-The-Time party:

And that 8,000 “crowd estimate” comes from the DNC, so you know it includes area meter maids, janitorial staff and cockroaches.

The New York Times noticed the enthusiasm gap as well, but relayed the DNC spin:

Organizers noted the president was competing on a Sunday afternoon with church, football and Halloween.

Remember when you could pretty much experience all three at an Obama rally? Times have changed.

I think Vanderleun has accurately captured the essence of the moment:

myworkisdone-thumb

Oh yes, there will be dead-Dems-walking come Wednesday morning.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Because We Couldn't Be There Ourselves

Doug Ross has everything you need to know about Jon Stewart's Rally for Sanity. Each frame it's own little world of sanity.

15 Most Bizarre Photos From Jon Stewart's Rally You'll Never See in Legacy Media #fearofsanity #rallyforsanity #rallyfortyranny

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

The Right to Vote: Yes, it is Special

On Tuesday, residents of  Portland, Maine will vote on whether legal residents who are not citizens (student visas, green card holders) should be given the right to vote in local elections.

Meanwhile, across the country,  Roger Hedgecock reports that in California, many illegal aliens are routinely registered to vote. Thanks to ACORN, who took matters into their own hands, the current federal law that requires you to become a citizen before you get the right to vote, has been circumvented. And not just in California. Anywhere there is a significant illegal population – which is every major city. They decided that the federal requirements for citizenship - you must be a legal resident for five years, pass a test of English proficiency, demonstrate knowledge of U.S. history and government and swear allegiance to the United States of America - are too burdensome and unfair. So they waived them.

With ACORN’s registration system, all you need do is sign a document swearing you are a citizen. No one ever checks, and no one has ever been prosecuted for perjury in California. I’m not sure, but I’m willing to bet this is pretty much true across the country.

None of this makes any since on its face. The fact that some non-citizens pay taxes does not translate to a right to vote. I paid taxes from the time I was 14 until I was 21 without being allowed to vote (yes, that used to be the  legal age until the problem of drafting 18 year olds to fight and die in Vietnam, but not allowing them to vote, forced a revision).  Life’s not fair. Get in line to file your complaint.

If you’re not a citizen you don’t vote. Period. It’s one of the benefits of actually being a citizen, not a green-card holder, or an illegal alien working  and paying taxes with a stolen social security number.

So here’s the deal: until such time as I can go to Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Nigeria or France and vote in their elections as a non-citizen, I don’t want any of them voting for how to run my country either.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

The Idiot’s Guide to Driving off a Cliff

LINKED BY DOUG ROSS, THANKS!

What do David Brooks, Maureen Dowd, Thomas Friedman and Paul Krugman, all have in common? Aside from the fact that they all write unhinged opinion pieces for the New York Times.

Not a trick question: they’re all idiots.

For David Brooks and Maureen Dowd’s part, they’ve both recently demonstrated this fact so adequately in their own respective columns (The Flock Comedies, Playing all the Angles) that no further external analysis is required. But Friedman and Krugman deserve more formal external validation.

Thomas Friedman’s brand of idiocy was recently splayed out by Bookworm in her column Why Tom Freidman is an idiot.

I don’t think that there’s any doubt BUT that Tom Friedman is an idiot.  His worship for Communist China — which in typical Friedman fashion routinely takes the form of acknowledging its failings, yet nevertheless lusting after the same power that creates those failings — is manifest evidence of his idiocy.  He’s coy, but he can’t disguise his unwholesome passion for totalitarianism.

It’s not just his totalitarian yearnings, though, that make Friedman stupid.  It’s also his blatant inability to align facts and conclusions.  Friedman made his reputation as a fact guy.  He’s written lots of ostensibly fact-based books.  Certainly, he impresses the self-styled intellectuals on the Left with his mastery of facts.  But the reality is that, in his columns, he frequently ignores painful facts, fakes real facts, and misuses actual facts, all of which adds up to stupid 

Bookworm explains her burst of animosity towards the Hot, Flat Globalist of Record:

If you’re wondering why I’m harshing on Friedman with such venom this morning, it’s because of a column he wrote yesterday about Israel and the Palestinians.  The whole column exists in a parallel reality universe.  Taking his usual irritating, condescending stance of wise father lecturing recalcitrant children, he essentially demands that Israel just get with the Obama program and make concessions that will inevitably lead to the lion and the lamb lying in peace together...

Bookworm explains that, like so many others, Freidman didn’t start out as a complete idiot, but was – again, like so many others – caught up in the one-way feedback of a closed system:

Friedman wasn’t always such an idiot.  He was always a pedantic, formulaic writer, but twenty years ago, he actually used to make facts and theory mesh well together.  The problem is the bubble.  Friedman is encased in an ideological bubble, with no countervailing forces, that renders him the functional equivalent of an unpruned hedge:  he’s wild and ugly now, instead of neat and compact…Because the Times decided to remove comments, Friedman doesn’t have the reality checks that, in the stripper world, tell that gal to go on a diet and keep her clothes on; and that in the political world, should tell Friedman that he’s got his facts wrong, that he’s missing facts, or that his conclusions don’t make sense.

I’m not able to do the rest of her lovely, salacious commentary justice, so do read the whole article here. It’s a great piece on what happens when you are disconnected from reality. You simply can’t comprehend how it is that everyone else is such a dolt. It’s the Pauline Kael syndrome.

Next up, Stephen Spruiell  recently hammered Paul Krugman (the Hot, Flat, Economist of Record) along similar lines in his article at National Review Paul Krugman: Professor Ahab. He attempts to explain Krugman’s motivation and journey from author of left-leaning but mostly fair-handed commentary on all things economic to the vitriolic partisan he is now.

And then you have a writer like Paul Krugman… He has developed a reputation among liberals as one of the Bush administration’s most unsparing and effective critics. Conservatives, by contrast, tend to regard him as a crass and occasionally vicious partisan. But Krugman was not always this divisive: Though he never made a secret of his liberal views, most of his early public commentary (which predates his column at the Times) was devoted to cleverly debunking economic tropes dear to both Left and Right. His transformation into a bare-knuckled liberal brawler is a testimony to the perils of life on the high seas of opinion journalism. Let us reconstruct his journey.

It wasn’t until “Presidential candidate Bill Clinton took to citing Krugman’s findings on the campaign trail” in order to prove a point that Clinton had been “trying to make for months” that middle class income had stagnated during the Reagan boom, that Krugman began to compromise some of his intellectual integrity.

… Bill Clinton made up his mind that the Republicans were to blame for income inequality before he read Sylvia Nasar’s article [which used Krugman’s data] on inequality. He “added the statistic to his repertoire” in order to bolster a claim that he had already decided was true. That’s okay — politicians are supposed to be hacks. But writers and economists aren’t. Krugman once was careful not to make the same leap Clinton did, writing in the early Nineties that “we don’t fully understand why inequality soared.” But as his celebrity as a political commentator grew, he added the “institutions and norms” theory to his repertoire, not because it was especially robust, but because it proved a point he’d been trying to make for years: Voting for Republicans causes the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. It just feels true, doesn’t it?

Spruiell then permits Krugman to be hoisted by his own petard:

In “How to Be a Hack,” (Krugman) wrote that “love of money is only the root of some evil. Love of the limelight, love of the feeling of being part of a Movement, even love of the idea of oneself as a bold rebel against the Evil Empire can be equally corrupting of one’s intellectual integrity.” One could certainly paint a picture of Paul Krugman as a man enchanted and corrupted by all of those things, if one wished. His harsh criticism of George W. Bush in the New York Times broadened his fame to the point that, as reported in The New Yorker, he got a dinner invitation from Paul Newman.

… and he leaves him there a while, wafting along in thin air:

Then there is his bald inconsistency. In 2002, the disappearance of the projected surplus and the sudden appearance of chronic deficits led him to wonder, quite sensibly, “What happens [when foreign creditors] lose their enthusiasm” for financing our deficits? But these days, when policymakers tremble at the truly staggering size of the deficit, Krugman mocks them for worrying about “invisible bond vigilantes.” The bond vigilantes were also invisible in 2002, when Krugman feared them. All that has changed is the size of the deficit: It has gotten much, much larger. Krugman’s justification for his inconsistency is that things are different now: Interest rates will stay low because creditors will continue to view U.S. Treasuries as a safe haven in uncertain times. But that’s an awfully big assumption for policymakers to rely upon. They have responsibility for the solvency of the U.S. government. Krugman has a newspaper column.

Spruiell concedes that Krugman did in fact simply grow more partisan over the years, but also notes another powerful driver in play:

But he is also a man caught in the grip of a powerful ideology he believes in his heart to be true — an ideology that came back into vogue for an all-too-brief spell before losing favor again for reasons Krugman believes to be unjust. His preferred monetary and fiscal policies appear in practice to have horrible unintended consequences and costs that are far out of proportion to the good they do, but he insists that this is because we’ve put the wrong people in charge.

Hubris, my friends. In short, Krugman, like Freidman, like the gang at Enron and the sitting POTUS all suffer from the same grand delusion: that they are the smartest guys in the room. They all came to this unholy conclusion in the same way. Their lives evolve around a feedback loop consisting of  sycophantic praise and a steady feed of carefully screened positive input. Negative feedback is deemed to be cynical, aimed at undermining the “team’s” agenda and therefore dismissed out of hand. All leaders, writers, actors and politicians foolish enough to follow this screed are guaranteed only one thing: eventual failure. Without allowing negative feeds into the inner sanctum where it can be analyzed and dealt with, it will destroy you. The only surprise is how many seemingly intelligent people make this foolish error of judgment. Sometimes even experienced players fall prey to these Sirens, but nearly all inexperienced players do. If this is your strategy, you better hope for a combination of  economic good luck and apathy on the part of your constituents – whomever they might be – if you want anything more than a short run.

From where I’m sitting, it looks like President Obama boarded the bus of idiots, previously piloted into a ditch by the Republicans, grabbed the wheel, tromped on the gas and managed to lurch it out of the gully and headed straight for a cliff. It doesn’t appear as though he’s got luck going for him, and the natives are surely anything but apathetic.

All Aboard!

Friday, October 22, 2010

Shovel Ready in the Promised Land

This may have been around the block a few times, but it’s new to me. I picked it up from Retriever, who lifted it from Jewel (who also has a link to an Oriana Fallaci tape, one of my personal heros, along with Geert Wilders who I see now they are going to retry) They are both excellent blogs.

And since it is a chain letter, by all means spread it around.

 

"Over five thousand years ago, Moses said to the children of Israel, "Pick up your shovels, mount your asses and camels, and I will lead you to the Promised Land."

Nearly 75 years ago,(when Welfare was introduced) Roosevelt said, "Lay down your shovels, sit on your asses, and light up a Camel, this is the Promised Land."

Today, the government has stolen your shovel, taxed your asses, raised the price of camels and mortgaged the Promised Land!

I was so depressed last night thinking about Health Care Plans, the economy, the wars, lost jobs, savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc . . . called a Suicide Hotline. I had to press 1 for English. I was connected to a call center in Pakistan. I told them I was suicidal.

They got excited and asked if I could drive a truck......"

The Man Just Wants to Keep His Shoes On

This man is my newest hero: “Pilot Refuses Full-body Scan, Says TSA Doesn’t Make Travel Safer.”

Finally, someone who dares speak the truth. Our multi-billion dollar “screening” program at airports is a sham. Wow! Who’d of thunk?

I wish we could clone this ExpressJet Airlines first officer, Michael Roberts, and send the clones to Washington to replace the clowns that currently inhabit the halls of Congress.

Roberts told The Commercial Appeal newspaper he wants to go to work and not be “harassed or molested without cause.” adding that he believes “TSA (is) a “make-work” program that doesn’t make travel safer.”

This is really a no-brainer. the TSA boarding procedures make about as much sense as taking guns away from law-abiding citizens. Yes, that’s right, just like you’ve heard: then only the bad guys have guns. Really, how hard is this stuff, people? Do you want to shuffle  through airports without your shoes for the rest of your natural life? This is not exactly forward progress.

So, a salute to First Officer Roberts. He’ll probably get fired, but finally - someone with the chutzpah to reveal the truth about the Emperor’s new clothes. It’s a start.

Let’s send him over to the White House next.

 

NOTE: This was inexplicitly cross-posted by MOTUS! Raj, can you check out my firewall?