Brave New World

This is the future. It isn't pretty. It is about "security zones" and metropolitan evacuations. It is about heavily armed patrols and closures of major business centers. It is about potential violence, terrorism and concurrent government repression. It is the future and the land of the free.

NATO Conference Portends "Inconvenience"

There is a lot in that news item. Why is SEIU making public statements regarding such an event? Why is the Secret Service doing anything more than Presidential security? Why is a non-profit agency like the Red Cross dealing with evacuations of Chicago residents to Milwaukee? Why is a protest group conducting press releases regarding security issues before the conference?

And where is Abby Hoffman in all of this?

In Case You Were Wondering

Get up, read the paper, pour the second cuppa coffee and then face the....Noooooo! Not.....

Even Maher and Pelosi Notice

Sometimes we don't listen to people because they don't agree with us politically. We hear their name and then we tune them out or turn them off. Sort of a reverse Timothy Leary.

You wouldn't think Nancy Pelosi's daughter doing a regular gig on Bill Maher's show would be very noteworthy, but this is worth watching. This is America. This is what we've become and this is a tribute to the President who is accelerating us on this path. These folks know it.

Keeping Score

Longtime online junkies will remember Usenet. It was a network of hundreds of groups of common or exotic topics which supported threaded discussions. Many of the groups sprang up and never drew an audience so they languished as a blank space in cyber-land. Others were active and vigorous areas that fostered exchange of lots of information. Some were polite, courteous and valuable resources while others were cesspools of trolls and flamers.

Usenet is pretty much history now. The fools have gone to YouTube comments and anonymous commenting on blogs. Serious trolls spend their days tweeting their every flatulence certain that the world awaits eagerly. Social networking is Usenet with color graphics. It can be a valuable tool or a pustule on the butt of the Internet.

Isn't it inevitable that people would keep score?

How do you know if you truly have value in the grand scheme of things? You must be rated and you must grow your score so you can exchange high-fives with the other dweebs in your Google+ circles. That's where Klout comes in.

Likes, Comments, Retweets & Shares

Can you imagine the shattering of the fragile psyche as you discover you are virtually without influence? What could you do to get the world to take notice? How could you generate value to yourself. Maybe fire up Foursquare so everyone can know where you are. Check in and then you can LinkIn with all of your buddies. But, what if they take your location and use it to avoid you? How would you know?

Maybe this is the better solution. Evaluate your "asshattery" quotient.

Klouchebag Measures Your Worthlessness

Yep, there is something to aspire to. I've got somebody in mind and I think they would really knock it out of the park, score-wise.

Here's the criteria:

To pinpoint your score, Klouchebag judges your tweets based on four criteria:

• Anger: “profanity and rage.”
• Retweets: “‘please RT’s, no or constant retweeting, and old-style.”
• Social Apps: “every useless checkin on foursquare or its horrible brethren.”
• English Usage: “if you use EXCLAMATION MARKS OMG!!! or no capitals at all, this’ll be quite high.”

Go for it!

Never, Well Hardly Ever

Hoist upon a petard, we find Jay Carney with a conspicuously elongating proboscis. It's very Pinocchio-ish.

I Never Lie--Except These Examples

Would we call this application of situational ethics? His rationale that he often knows things which he is not free to comment upon is totally reasonable. But the examples go well beyond that sort of national security justification.

Show and Tell

This is going to get good...

Raptors Nesting

Oh it was gorgeousness and gorgeosity made flesh. The trombones crunched redgold under my bed, and behind my gulliver the trumpets three-wise silverflamed, and there by the door the timps rolling through my guts and out again crunched like candy thunder. Oh, it was wonder of wonders. And then, a bird of like rarest spun heavenmetal, or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now, came the violin solo above all the other strings, and those strings were like a cage of silk round my bed. Then flute and oboe bored, like worms of like platinum, into the thick thick toffee gold and silver. I was in such bliss, my brothers.

Saturday Morning Rocker

There had to be some recreational pharmaceuticals involved in this:

Shoulda Woulda Coulda

Frankly I don't see the President as a great military tactician. I don't see him as a grand strategist either. He's a lot more Machiavelli than Sun-Tzu or Von Clauswitz. The closest he's come to the military is a neato leather jacket with his name on it when he rides around in the big jet. But, as Harry Truman so eloquently advised us, "the buck stops in or around my office if my press secretary can't deflect it or Debbie Wasserman-Schultz has the weekend off."

But this is a bit over the top:

Bamster Acted Where Mittens Wouldn't

That is a bit disingenuous to say the least. Can Obama take credit for authorizing the DevGru raid that got Osama? Sure! That level of action is going to have presidential awareness and approval.

Was Romney right in his comments in '07?

"It's not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person."

Yes again. The focus on a single individual was never reasonable except in the minds of the media. Wars, whether international conflicts or clashes of civilizations are not dependent upon a single person. Bin Laden was symbolic, but not pivotal. The post 9/11 reaction of the Bush administration in Afghanistan drove Bin Laden to ground and the following campaign slowly emasculated the al-Qaeda network. Killing Osama Bin Laden would have certainly been satisfying at any point, but focusing of our resources on simply finding the individual would not have been productive.

That does not equate with making a decision when intelligence offers a high probability of  locating the target. With Bin Laden located even Jimmy Carter would have found testicular residuals to approve the raid.

If we want to talk about decisive military action maybe we should be looking at "leading from behind" in Libya. Or possibly the waffling as thousands die in Syria. Could we take a glance at policy in Iran as Israel twirls slowly in the wind? Should we point at keeping a leash on the 25-year-old kid with a nuclear toy in North Korea?

Veep Biden told us yesterday that the Bamster's got a big stick. Apparently Joe forgot the other part of Teddy Roosevelt's advice, "speak softly." It's the application of the stick, not the blustering about it, Joe.

About the War

Another turn on JetHead Live, this time talking about the air war over North Vietnam. The focus is on contrasting the early days in the F-105 as a petrified young lieutenant with the end days and being unleashed for Linebacker as an experienced flight lead. Along the way we get to talk about the political issues and the constraints of trying to keep a conventional conflict from escalating into a major power nuclear confrontation.

Listen here:

JetHead Live Podcast

Signature Legislation Smeared?

In case you haven't noticed, Mr. Van Winkle...and good morning to you, sir...this is an election year. That means one party is trying to regain power and they will do that through proposals for doing things better while simultaneously pointing to failures of the incumbent.

The incumbent administration will make promises for an even better future while pointing with pride at what they have achieved in their first term in office.

OK, it won't be as exciting as end-of-season episodes of Real Housewives of Wichita Falls, but there is still potential for drama.

We already know how proud the Bamster is for shepherding the Affordable Health Care Act through Congress. That's is the one which we have been funding for two years now and which promises to start doing some healthcare stuff in another two years. Along the way it has taken college loans out of the hands of private banks which doesn't seem to have a whole lot to do with cancers, heart attacks or contraceptives for Ms Fluke. That is already working out well as interest rates bump up against non-payment, bad-investment reality in a few months. It's sort of Fannie Mae meets transgender central African studies major with debts.

That pride-and-joy seems destined for a collision with the Constitution over the individual mandate. The power of our vaunted "limited" government to compel us to buy products we don't want from third parties, who may or may not be supporters of the incumbent party looks as though it will be flushed from the body politic.

Now, we've got this pending decision:

Enforcing Federal Law May Be Within Authority of Federalism

Wouldn't that be amazing if the Supreme Court found that when a federal law exists and the federal government blatantly refuses to enforce it, that a state suffering damage through that malfeasance may act to protect itself?

Do you suppose the American people are foolish enough to re-elect a President who despite asserted but undemonstrated credentials as a Constitutional scholar touts policies regularly demonstrated as beyond the authority of our core document?

Knowing Who is Real

There are some things which real people know and understand. I grew up in Chicago and I know them and understand them. I lived there when Chicago had two NFL teams. I presented the colors on opening day for two baseball seasons. I went to stock car races in Soldier Field where there was a half-mile track around the football field. The Black Hawks played in Chicago Stadium and there were only six teams total in the NHL.

That is why I hear the clinkers when the President expresses his Chicago fan credentials. I know that the baseball stadium on the north side of town has always been Wrigley FIELD and the ball park on the south side was Comiskey PARK. The terminology establishes our credentials. The Bamster probably doesn't know about the curse and he's never been to the Billy Goat Inn.

But, I know and understand what these guys are talking about:

Business is Too Good For Some

Hard to believe in these tough economic times that a bank would be arbitrarily turning away old customers who are dealing in legal products guaranteed and supported by the Constitution of the United States:

“We have to assess the risk of doing business with a firearms related industry.”

I've got your risk right here, buddy. It's the risk of losing business across the nation from people who value their rights.

Appreciation For the Game

Knowing the rules of a game can increase one's appreciation. I've never really been cognizant of the nuances of rugby and I'm sure many of my readers aren't either. So here is a summary of the important points of the game:

Remember

You can remember the Alamo if you choose, but today is the anniversary of San Jacinto. That is what folks need to remember when they think of Texas history:

Lifting Another Rock

These people proliferate and we expose them. Something flawed in their character leads them to make these claims but that is not an excuse. They take something precious from those who earned it and such theft cannot be tolerated.

Non-POW Runs Into NamPOWs and Loses

What is most despicable about this episode is that the Veteran's Administration "honors" this slug despite lack of documentation to substantiate his claims with the Department of Defense. How ignorant or malicious are those bureaucrats? Gen Shinseki, would you like to comment?

Conspiracy?

How does one get on the mailing list to get invited to conferences like this one? University professors from major American schools gather to discuss the gross injustice of a free market capitalist system in a nation which is conspicuously hostile to the United States and our erstwhile ally, Israel:

Occupy the Corporations Planning in Iran

Pathetically, this will go unnoticed in the US and parents will continue to eagerly write those checks for $35,000 a year to educate little Biff and Buffy regarding how vile America is. And alumni will continue to endow the festering cistern of our demise.

Saturday Morning Rocker

From deep in the archives:

Maybe Some Real Evidence?

Might the story George Zimmerman has been telling and which seemed to satisfy the Sanford police for a month before the race-baiters got into the picture actually be true? He claimed he was departing the area as instructed by the 9-1-1 operator when Trayvon Martin attacked, knocked him to the ground and was beating his head against the pavement. Up to this point we've only seen a surveillance video at the police station taken several hours after the events and after emergency medical personnel have treated Mr. Zimmerman.

Is this corroborating evidence? I won't say definitively. The blood looks too red and I don't see a prominent wound, however the source is major news media so that would seriously reduce the probability of some wild-eyed right-wing blogger PhotoShopping a smoking gun item. 

Here is the ABC news story and a video clip:

Evidence Begins to Emerge

GPS locating on the photo verifies it comes from the scene and the date/time stamp indicate it was taken three minutes after the shooting. Sounds pretty valid at this point. 

Letter of Explanation

I have it on good authority that this letter is moving up the chain of command among those who were involved in the Cartagena events. Clearly we may not have understood exactly how events transpired there:

Sir,

In your icy, indeed hostile, telephone call of yesterday, you requested
a report about the alleged proceedings involving my soldiers. As the
reports from the local authorities and the head of the Australian
legation were undoubtedly a complete fabrication, I welcome the
opportunity to put the truth of the matter forward. .

Your kind offer to "buy a round of drinks" for the troops at the end
of the deployment was taken and the CSM ensured that appropriate
quantities of libation and food were purchased against your credit card
, with festivities being held in my hotel suite. An enjoyable evening
ensued but insufficient supplies had been obtained, so several members
of the company left for further purchases at a local bar.

In a truly magnanimous gesture, ten bar girls from that establishment
helped carry the beer back to the hotel. To demonstrate our
appreciation of their assistance, we served them some cool drink. They
then offered to show us some local culture, and, in order not to
offend, we allowed them to dance.

The banging on the walls of my room had, by now, quite honestly, become
invasive, and it was disturbing the dancers, so we arranged an amusing
little deterrent. LT Brown's impersonation of a Police Officer was
quite clever as he goose-stepped to each room and harangued the
occupants with a very witty diatribe about disturbing hotel guests. I
personally heard nothing of his alleged threats to life or limb in as
claimed by the sister of the local Police Chief whose room was,
unluckily, next door.

I suspect that this woman was the sneak who called security and hotel
management but I absolutely refute that the shout "Stand To, enemy
approaching!" was made. The simple coincidence of security arriving
just as we stood the double bed on its side across the door to make the
dance floor bigger is obvious. The major damage to the room occurred
when a group of gatecrashers, whom we could not know were hotel
security, forced their way in just as most of us happened to be leaning
against the bed watching the dancing.

The subsequent events in the foyer of the hotel are an equally vicious
distortion of the facts. I was explaining the importance of the post
activity celebrations to the General Manager of the hotel, and stating
that other guests were obviously fabricating their stories of the noise
and drinking, when CPL Smith and several others from HQ Coy (in keeping
with their pursuit of physical fitness) organised the race up the drapes
which hang along the foyer wall. It says little for the workmanship that
the fittings were torn from the wall before most of the company was
even halfway up.

At this stage SGT Williams, our Orderley Room SGT attempted to rescue
the situation with her depth of knowledge of local culture. Her
rendition of the Fertility Dancing Maiden in the foyer's 'Pool of
Remembrance' was nothing short of breathtaking. Normally this dance is
performed wearing just a sarong skirt but SGT Williams' extra step to "
Au Natural" was a bold step forward. Unfortunately, during one
intricate step, SGT Williams slipped and fell beneath the fountain, but
we were lucky that SSGT Johnson had the great presence of mind to strip
to avoid getting his uniform wet, leapt in to help.

The tiles of the pool were very slippery and it took nearly ten minutes
of threshing about before he could actually complete his rescue. Such
concern was there for these two exemplary member's safety, that the
many of company jumped in to assist, and I deny that this massed rescue
attempt could be construed as a 'Water Polo' game!

Order had nearly been restored when the fire started. I prefer CPL
White's version of events that the drapes had caught fire from being
against a light fitting, and that he dropped his cigarette lighter
whilst trying to escape the flames. Had hotel management fulfilled
their responsibilities and used fire retardant material instead of
velvet, the fire would not have spread to the rest of the hotel.

The responsible attitude shown by my soldiers in assisting the bar
staff to carry out drinks from the cocktail party is to be commended,
not condemned, and the attempt by many male members to extinguish
pockets of fire using natural means has been totally misrepresented in
some quarters.

I made an official protest about these matters when the head of the
Australian Legation visited us at the Police Station the next morning.
However, not only did Ambassador Downey not attempt to refute the
preposterous allegations made against me and my soldiers crew, but also
failed to secure our release immediately.

I trust that now I have outlined the correct version of events, we may
allow ourselves a discreet smile as to the lack of social
sophistication of some of these developing nations and put all this
behind us. In my opinion my soldiers and the agents in question behaved in accordance with the
finest US military traditions.

Woof Woof

H/T to Joan of Argghh:

Political Ad

Where I Live

Here's a picture of where I live. It's all woven into a song, but it is very real and honestly isn't too bad.

The Elusive "Fair Share"

Anybody who itemizes deductions and uses a tax software such as TurboTax has to come away from the experience amazed, impressed, repulsed and disgusted at the convolutions of our tax code. Not a page of the EasyGuide that walks you through the process is devoid of special carve-outs and exclusions. Got a hybrid car? Here's a pay-off. Live in a hurricane site, here's some money back. Work for a railroad? Take care of someone else's children in your home? Teacher who bought some paper and pencils for students? Do you have to dry clean your work outfits? Do you cooperatively own farm equipment? Did you put new windows in your house? It goes on and on and on. At the end, I still had to send in a very substantial check. My retirement and Social Security puts me in a pricey bracket apparently. Ditto for SWMBO.

Yet, it is impossible to turn on the telly and not encounter the Bamster stirring the pot of class envy. One should not be "too rich" in America and he is just the guy to determine where they line is drawn. He has help from the media with probing interviewers like Diane Sawyer who asked Mitt Romney this week-end if he was "too rich".  Where was she when John Heinz Kerry was running for President?

So here are some meaningful numbers to keep in your hip pocket when one of the 99% seek more of your money to pay their bills:

51% of Tax Filers Paid Nothing

If they truly want economic equality then let's get serious about stripping all of the detail out of that 3.5 million word tax code. Let's get it down to a five page pamphlet. Take your income, calculate a flat and low percentage, pay that as tax. Everybody! No exceptions.

Ten percent of $10,000 isn't that much. Ten percent of $1,000,000 is quite a bit. But we'd all feel that there was fairness, unless of course we sought punishment rather than equality.

Watch the Technique

As the campaign season heats up there will be a lot of opportunity to observe debate styles. Of course we will get to see several presidential debates, but the really telling observations will come from the lesser functionaries. Watch the methods used by the representatives of the two competing parties.

Some things to look for:

Time Dominating: Seeking to grab the biggest chunk of the time allotted to discussion so the other side cannot provide their message and rationale.

Interruption: After taking their turn, they will then hover and repeatedly interrupt as the opponent attempts to speak. This disrupts the flow of a rebuttal and often will lead to a total inability to complete a statement.

Talking Over: The speaker will breathlessly ramble on and on, oblivious to efforts by the host to moderate the discussion. This relates to time dominating.

Talking Point Adherence: There are a list of memes which the true believers embrace. Regardless of the topic, the speaker will return repeatedly to the soundbite. Some examples are, "the economy we inherited" and "balancing on the backs of middle-Americans."

Descent into Name-Calling: When all else fails simply go to ad hominem attack. Attack the messenger and not the message. This works best if done with inflammatory terminology and will quite often descend into pure profanity. An example might be, "too lazy to get her ass out of the house for a real job."

So, if someone were to suggest that the federally funded baby-sitting service for welfare mothers titled Head Start were unsuccessful, a money-pit, and a feel-good program with no results observable the response might be like this:

You Don't Know What the F*** You're Talking About

This, of course, comes from a renowned educator...or not. The same guy who a few weeks ago was praising the casting of notorious traitor, Jane Fonda, as Nancy Reagan while simultaneously accusing all Vietnam veterans of being war criminals.

I think it is time for Beckel to be put out to pasture.

A Record to Run On

There are many reasons for making a voting choice. Some people  vote ideologically. They recognize whether they are liberal or conservative and then relate that to the candidates. The party platforms help make the linkage clear. One party seeks to have government regulate, coordinate, allocate and support solutions to societal problems. The other party and ideology asserts that free market forces, individual responsibility, and restriction of governmental roles in life will get the problems taken care of.

Others vote on an evaluation of individuals. They claim to support the "best person" without regard to ideology or party. That sounds wonderful but with a little bit of probing proves totally impractical for the many down-ballot decisions which will need to be made on election day. Then the vote becomes a measure of what name sounds good or which candidate had the most campaign signs on the street. Not a good criterion.

And, a large number of voters are retrospective. They vote on what an incumbent has done. If they like what has been achieved, they vote to retain. If they are unhappy with the performance, they vote to oust the perpetrator.

So, here's a record to run on:

Senate Laziest and Least Productive in Decades

That would be the Democratically controlled Senate; the one under the august leadership of Harry Reid who simply ignores any of those pesky bills seeking to cut spending, pass a budget or deal with critical issues.

It's a good thing the country is enjoying a booming economy, full employment and a world filled with peace and love.

Hire a Better Class

Boys will be boys. Just watch the videos that come out of the resort communities during Spring Break. They act immaturely, the hormones rage, the alcohol flows and idiocy reigns. But you don't hire boys to be Secret Service agents. You hire men, hopefully men with a level of intelligence and maturity. When they demonstrate their capability they may get selected for the Presidential security detail.

So what do we make of this:

Eleven Indian Maidens and One Remained

A drink to unwind? Sure. Maybe a chat-up with a lady? Possibly. A discrete "meaningful relationship" with full understanding of the hotel rules, your position, and the contractual obligations implied in the activity? Apparently not within the capability of that bunch.

What does it all indicate? Some pretty lax leadership for one. Some really cheap guys for another. Some really bad judgment for sure.

Maybe they should have gone to Texas.

Technology Marches On

I never thought I would consider giving up my iPhone. The apps seemed to offer it all, but progress is inexorable. When this one showed up at my dealer, I had to have it even if it means extending the contract for another two years:

Shell Game

This is simply beautiful. Stand before the American people pointing your long, manicured finger at the "wealthiest 1%" and the evils of success while simultaneously doing a little side-step again:

Two Daughters, Two Parents, 48 Large Tax Free

As duly noted, it is perfectly legal under the tax code. Just another line or two in the millions of pages designed to keep the common man guessing and the politically connected well funded.

But would it be fair to ask to see if the two fortunate young ladies have some lock-box accounts where that money REALLY is found?

Bamster Policy in Tatters

Analysis which is objective, realistic and not tempered by fawning over the genius of his leadership isn't readily available in the USA. But the Guardian can cut to the very core:

US-NK Policy Becoming Demo of Incompetence

How inept can we be if we can't wield sufficient power to forge a meaningful policy to defuse a one-horse backwater that can't feed the people?

Saturday Morning Rocker

As I face my fifth day grappling with TurboTax and thinking about my duty to pay my fair share so all of the slugs in the Bamster's neighborhood can get their 99th week of unemployment checks, I feel a bit like this:

The Unspoken

By now the ill-advised comments by DNC representative and hard-working adoptive mother of two with her "partner", Hillary Rosen have been suitably disclaimed by the Bamster Denial-o-mat (a Ronco product you can have for just two payments of $19.99) She mis-spoke. Bamster loves women. Jay Carney never heard of her or maybe there are too many women of the same name. And, the ever-popular "What the Captain means is..."

Anatomy of a Gaffe

What has been over-looked in all of this "War on Women" kerfuffle is the question for these Democrat talking-heads, "Why must women with children go to work to support their families?"

Or, asked another way--the more truthful one: "Where are the men who should be supporting these children and giving the mothers the option to choose whether to hold a job or work in the home raising the kids?"

A two-parent household with responsibility gives a woman a lot of options.

The Fact of the Matter Is...

When you hear that phrase, you can with certainty state that the next words will be anything but the fact of the matter under discussion. Anyone who has watched the full campaign mode of the Bamster for the last eight months and the full extravagance mode of the First Family is not worried about Secret Service or that the chief executive travels to state functions on AF-1. It is about the abuse of the perks while there are clear needs for policy prescriptions.

Naivete

Don't you simply love the Kumbaya crowd? Peace as the natural order of things? LBJ's plaintiff appeal to "reason together" or even Obama's global apology tour--fourteen nations, fifteen grovels, five days--so that the rest of the world stops envying success, achievement, technology and a twenty-first century standard of living.

Hillary Clinton (I wouldn't have added the surname three days ago, but even Jay Carney is confused by the number of Hillarys in the world these days,) warns the North Koreans in the strongest possible terms. Ban ki-Moon, leading that bastion of global pressure, the Untied Nations (no error), warns that really, mean sanctions might follow...and of course they cave....

Well, NO! We Don't!

It would seem that at some point the peace-and-love crowd would begin to get the clue that a cookie and promise of more TV will not make the unruly child compliant. If the brat wants to run with scissors, maybe sometime it is a good idea to let them run a bit.

So, Hillary get ignored. She should modify her behavior. She should take a lesson from Maggie Thatcher or maybe Golda Meier.

And Kim? He should maybe get concerned about feeding the people, joining the booming economies of the Pacific Rim and get over the failed Communist dream that everybody except Castro, Ozzie Guillen, Hugo Chavez and the Bamster have abandoned.

Ooopsie! My Legos Came Apart!

Now to deal with Iran. Hillary, got any ideas?

Detwaddling

I used to be a regular reader of Fred on Everything. He was iconoclastic, a curmudgeon of exalted rank, and a damned insightful commentator on the human condition. I somehow dropped the habit. He went through a period where his postings were not very frequent and I tend to drop those blogs off the Regular Stops list.

Fortunately I've got a good friend who routes exceptional Fred stuff to me. The friend is one of those guys with an addiction to adrenaline. He's a retired fighter pilot, who didn't follow my Mario Andretti meme about former race drivers working for Greyhound; he earned a retirement as an airline pilot as well. Along the way though that didn't meet the adrenaline Jones requirements, so he became a reserve cop in a major metro area. Made sergeant, SWAT team etc. Did a bit of duty with a county sheriff and still keeps the edge off with some district attorney investigator gigs that give him a real cool looking badge and the Freudian fulfillment of semi-concealed, blatantly open or guess if you dare weapons carry. He knows about this:

Bang-Bang Your Banana Got You Killed

We're talking about the legally empowered good guys here, not Neighborhood Watch captains. We are talking about split-second decisions that deal with life and death. We are talking about the tossing of race into the mix and the irresponsibility we are immersed in as all of the usual suspects bleat about fairness and justice and revenge and freedoms. Think about what Fred says.

Journalism 101

I try to emphasize that students should question everything. See a survey? Look at the questions, the sampling, the conclusions. Read a newspaper story? Look for the key facts and question whether the language is neutral or directing you to a conclusion. Does the source agree with your preconceived notions? Look for something that refutes it. Does a media outlet challenge your beliefs? Consider them for a moment and see if they might be correct.

That's why this item is so instructive about America today:

Twit Tweets Tax Tale

It isn't amazing that some foolish blogger (is that redundant?) would attempt an inflammatory blast to the world to drive traffic. Traffic to the blog is what it's all about!

What is amazing is the life which the tweet spawned. What is incredible is that supposedly authoritative new sources should embrace the fable.

One of the first lessons of journalism, shortly after the abandoned principle of putting the who/what/where in the lead, was the commandment to get double verification of every essential fact. If you read or hear a remarkable event, search high and low to validate the truth before you put it out under your byline.

Anything else is rubbish.

A Harvard Education

Only the best and the brightest get to attend Harvard. That is why the material which they study is so penetrating, critical and crucial to understanding the world around us. When you've got a Harvard education you are among the elite thinkers of the nation, if not the entire world.

This is the sort of thing you will find in your curriculum:

Understanding Obama 101

Yes, indeed, I need a fellow-traveler radical professor to explain to me how the President's faith has impacted his policy. I need to have a socialist race-baiter guide me in exploring the politics of the Messiah's enlightened policies.

It is critical that the next generation be firmly indoctrinated in understanding the means and methods by which revolutions occur, empires are humbled, and economies are collapsed.

I hope the course will be offered online as well.

Pathetic

This woman is a US Congress-critter. Of course she is from California, so that excuses her somewhat. But when you are such an airhead that you have to look down at your crib-sheet to remember the sound-bite you've been told to repeat incessantly, you simply look stupid:



How do you get a trillion dollars from bringing troops back from Afghanistan for ten years when we've already determined the troops will be out in a year? And what does Cold War and nuclear weapons have to do with the Buffett Rule, tax policy and corralling the deficit?

Valley Girls rule!

Tweaking

Once I get to tinkering under the hood, stuff evolves. With the excursion into a new theme that failed, i.e. "Dynamic" where most of the stuff didn't work and Blogger should never have released it, the bug has gone viral. So now we've gone back to a static theme, titled for no apparent reason "Ethereal", I'm into tinker mode.

Daily readers will maybe have noticed that the "Regular Stops" blog list is back and I've got it back to alpha-list rather than most recent. There's still a bug in the theme code that keeps me from editing out "The xxx" in titles to get them properly sequenced. So, you'll have to find some favorites in the "T" section.

Changed color to make link text stand out a bit more. After you visit a link they color will be a bit lighter. Wider main column to keep those videos and photos from over-hanging.  Some other text color changes as well. The mobile app theme is also consistent now for iPhone/'Droid users.

Comments?

Found on Facebook

Phantoms of the 469th TFS out of Korat RTAFB:

Economics

Let's say you have fifty people in a cooperative enterprise. They like beer and they agree that they will each pitch in one dollar a week to a fund. Then the fund will buy beer for the ten oldest members of the combine out of the contributions. Only the older members get the beer. Does it work? Sure! Fifty contribute and ten drink.

Everybody likes the program and hopes to one day qualify for that segment of the group that gets free beer.

Over time, more people manage to get into the free beer demographic and fewer newer people are joining the club at the entry level. Along the way beer goes up in price. What is going to happen to the club?

Maybe the club will only be able to subsidize the beer for the old folks. Some of the beer expense will be paid, but the old folks will have to pick up a bit of the tab themselves. To keep the beer taps open, it may be necessary to restrict what kind of beer can be purchased. No micro-brews or imports allowed. The younger folks will have to pay a bit more and they may have to wait a bit longer before their beer is subsidized.

The beer club is collapsing. It isn't working any more.

But wait! Here's comes a group of people, riding galloping black horses and with bugles playing a cavalry charge. They have a plan.

Here's what we are going to do. We are going to give beer to everybody, not just the old folks. We will give you all of the beer you want and it will be better beer than the current drinkers are getting. The contribution for better beer for everybody will be less than the current fee for economy beer for only old members. More, better, cheaper! What's not to like? Let's do it!

Let's Do the Debt Warp Again

Do the numbers add up? It makes sense to me. There is not now and there never has been such a thing as a free lunch. You can't get more and better for less in any rational universe. Is that partisan accounting legerdemain?

Who do you trust? Who would tell you the truth? Have they lied to you before? Does the story pass the common sense test?

Aging Gracefully

I saw Lord of the Dance at the peak of popularity. It impressed me then and it still holds much of the charm although the franchise being extended to the rest of the Flately family has caused a bit of deterioration.

Apologies to Marines

I wonder who gave this poll-watcher a USMC shirt?



"I'll be back faster than you can say 'furious'"---that's the funniest line in the piece!

A Brick or Two Short of a Load

When it comes to religion, there will inevitably be disagreement. How each individual deals with mortality, morality, and divinity is going to vary. But even within that rubric, there are some extremes that stand out.

When the Bamster ran for the Presidency, much was made about his attendance over the years at the church of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Chickens coming home to roost filled the airwaves and we all wondered if that was routine or exception. Well, now we may have confirmation:

Taking It To the Limits and Beyond

There is simply too much weird packaged in that to get my arms around. I'm not sure with so much to pick from what is most outrageous: Allah and Yaweh? The Italian Army in Palestine? Thomas Jefferson as pedophile?

Wright should get back on his meds.

Might be a Creedence Clearwater Tune in This

...Looking out my back door:

Love Letter From Leadfoot

So we can all appreciate the intellectual commentary and experience of Leadfoot, I'll give him the floor here with his latest:

ROTFLMAO Yep I love it when a plan works and mine did. You still have the same gang of synophants following you. The new blood just isn't arriving is it? I'll point out I did make a promise that if you continued the censorship you would have to go to moderation in a post that followed your guidelines. Your choice, not mine. I do find it sad however the man who so bravely faced everything Ho Chi Minh threw at him is now so afraid of a contrary view to his thoughts. Yep Ed it cowardice that keeps you at the censorship button. Like your dear friend Uncle Ho you can use censorship to make sure only your side of the censorship story gets out. Kind of like that the two majors who got Jack Broughton fired. Turns out the Soviet Freighter got shot up by AA not F-105's but like you Uncle Ho wasn't about to let something to the contrary of the story get out. So again you're with the experts Ho, Adolph, Mao and Stalin. Cowards who were afraid of the opposing viewpoint and printing on Poetic Justice

Only one question, Lead: How much time do you have over Haiphong harbor? How much F-105 gun camera film have you reviewed? How well do you know Jacksel Broughton? How have you demonstrated your bravery and where?

Nah, I don't expect an answer. Those are simply rhetorical.

Realization Sinks In

Finally it is beginning to look as though the last man is being convinced that Newt Gingrich will not win the Republican nomination. There will be no miracle, no last minute call from a super-natural governor, no brokered convention. The realities of dollars and vote tallies can't be denied.

Gingrich Speaking in Past Tense With No Regrets

The clear statement of suspension of the campaign has not yet been uttered, but the comments leave that as the only step still to take.

Coming on board now with a supportive message will help to heal the party and should insure a voice, if not a significant position in a Romney administration.

Replanning Vacation

I guess I'll skip the cracked crab and the trip to the East Coast this summer:


Beaten, Stripped, Robbed in Racist Attack

Can't wait for Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to express their outrage about this one. Apparently the Baltimore PD isn't very good at keeping tourists secure these days. But at least a few folks got a good laugh.

Simply disgusting.

Murder by Numbers

Figures lie and liars figure. Hard to deny it when we look at yesterday's job numbers.

By all estimates, the requirement to get back to statistical full employment of 5% unemployment rate is to generate at least 320,000 new jobs per month for five years. Every month for five years--no less.

Brookings Stats on Recovery Needs

We've been doing a bit less than 2/3 of that for the last four months and the Bamster has been crowing about his success. The Brookings numbers tell us that rate will take about 11 years to get us back where we need to be. Can you wait that long?

But this month the number came in at 122,000 new jobs. It is spring and this is when a lot of seasonal summer jobs come online usually. That apparently isn't happening.

Here is where the liars start figuring.

Despite that pathetic regression in job creation, the unemployment figure went down from 8.3 to 8.2%! Isn't that magical? How does that work?

A lot of people simply said, "Screw it! I quit."

America! What a country!

Saturday Morning Mellow Mood

H/T to Billy Beck for leading me to this masterpiece:

Poetic Justice

Regular readers will recall Leadfoot. He was a regular commentor here who posted as "Anonymous" and then would leave his secondary pseudonym at the end of his posts just in case his statements were not adequate clues regarding where he was coming from.

In the interest of free discussion, I let his comments appear and would occasionally refute them or allow others to point out the inanity or errors in his position. He was our token liberal, always in the wings to highlight the irrationality of the left-wing mind.

Then he found himself unable to express his ideas without resorting to street language. I corrected him and he found that was a challenge.

Each day he would post one or more comments and after several warnings, I simply started  deleting them when I dropped in to take a look at the blog. The removal of his comments led him to deluge the page with the sort of thing which would result in deletion and after two weeks of playing games with a fool, I simply chose to convert the comments section to owner moderated. That stifles discussion because it delays conversations and it necessitates more participation on my part than I might wish.

He gleefully commented that he had achieved his goal when the moderation policy was enacted. He had driven me to act and denied intelligent discussion for the rest of the readers. Typical immature adolescent thinking. If I don't get my way, I'll screw up everybody else's good time.

Leadfoot continues to read the blog. He continues to comment and his comments continue to be superficial, ill-advised, left-wing sound-bites and baiting. I don't need to see "Leadfoot" at the end of the post to recognize which Anonymous comments come from where. They get deleted.

Today, in response to Shedding Paper which is about GOVERNMENT censoring free speech, he whined that I shouldn't talk because I censor him. It gives me a warm fuzzy to know that he is reaping what he has sown. It also reinforces my belief that he is totally clueless if he can't tell the difference between a single individual on a blog and the force of government which is controlled supposedly by the Bill of Rights.

He wanted moderation of comments. He forced me to do it. He now gets moderated right off the page. And, now he is unhappy.

Gotta love it when a plan works out.

Shredding Paper

We didn't really deserve that Constitution anyway.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Those who understand that the clear goal is the defeat of the increasingly corrosive Obama administration in November begin to see an end to the self-flagellation of the Republican Party. The relentless rejection of the good in pursuit of the perfect with no two people seeming to agree on what is perfect may be about to end. Many will be disappointed but if there is any wisdom left among the battered warriors they will manage to come together and show a unified and coherent front to the nation by this fall.

Some hints in the news:

Gingrich Group Sans Gingrich Files Bankruptcy

Certainly there is demonstration of deep commitment when a successful entrepreneur mortgages his business to demonstrate his belief in his potential. But at some point the wise man says there is no hope. The boat is leaking, I can't see the shore, and my feet can't touch bottom. Maybe I should grab the life jackets and abandon ship. I like Newt. He's a very intelligent and articulate man. But he isn't going to be the nominee. He doesn't have to descend into poverty simply to prove he meant what he said.

The other barely standing contender isn't looking very strong either. Santorum was a prominent senator, yet when he ran for re-election he was soundly defeated in his home state. Many will say that was then and this is now, but evidence is mounting that his last gasp will be a futile one when the Pennsylvania primary comes around. He's been beaten by large and small margins in the last several contests. His message is not resounding. It is fading.

Santorum Urged to Get Out While Still Credible

Should Romney lose to Obama and if there is still a republic after four more years of Obama, then Santorum could have some viability as a candidate provided he does not get destroyed now in a last desperate bid in his home state primary. If he persists and loses in PA, he won't preserve that option.

Is Romney the perfect candidate? Certainly not. He's got baggage. He's too slick by half. There's Romneycare that won't go away and some even think his religion might play against him. But, unless we destroy ourselves, we could run Curly, Moe or Larry and beat the Bamster.

One need only watch his daily antics and the stumblings of his chosen team.

God, Guns, Guts and Pick-up Trucks

Calm, sensible, and correct. Hard to argue with that. The news-babe, on the other hand, not so good:

Failure to Communicate

We don't see much in the way of penetrating journalism these days. Most of the mainstream is dedicated to lobbying scripted softballs that the government talking heads ignore with impunity. The pundit asks how the weather is and the bureaucrat then replies with the menu of the day's talking points.

That didn't happen last night on Fox Report. Jay Carney, my favorite deer in the headlights, mumbled and bumbled but couldn't escape. Watch the video:

Bret Baier Wants to Stick to Facts

Seriously, Mr. Carney, how does a President fail to get even a single Representative of his own party to stand up for his budget proposal? Why can't a President in the lead get his own Senate Majority Leader to put a budget up for a vote, even if simply to get the Republicans on record as voting against it? How is responsible leadership going more than 1000 days without a budget for the government at all?

Are  these questions too tough?

ThunderTales

Interesting developments this morning. Blogger woke up dead, or at least terminally ill. The control panel disappeared. The capability to open the dashboard, post new additions, access comments, in short do anything as the blog-owner is gone.

It's not my computer or my browser. The same display occurs whether on my Windows 7 PC running Chrome (you would think Google Blogger and Goggle Chrome would play nice together) or Internet Explorer. It is the same issue on my iPad II running Safari or Dolphin.

This post was created through a back door on the Blogger home page and may or may not show up.

Hopefully this will calm any worries that I got whisked away to Oz by the DFW area tornadoes yesterday. Nothing but reasonable rain in Texoma. The violent stuff stayed about 40 miles south of me.

Afternoon in Dallas

In case you can't tell, that is a semi-trailer in flight a couple of hundred feet over south Dallas about an hour ago.

No Lie Too Low

The average American knows precious little about his government. That makes him easy prey to the demagogue who will torture the truth and twist the facts into a tragic tale of the disaster that waits around the next election bend.

Here is the vice-President, on the tax-payer's dime, convoluting the federal system:

GOP Killing Cops and Fire Fighters

Yes, folks, that isn't a political speech, it is a governmental activity! It is the Veep's duty to warn the first responders that if they vote for Republicans they will be killed.

Test question: What level of government hires policemen and firemen?

If you answered municipal government go to the head of the class. If you added that most municipal elections are non-partisan, you get an A for the course.

But, it isn't the Monarch-in-Waiting who does all of the prevaricating. The Bamster is not at all averse to getting his mouth dirty if it suits his purposes.

The Sky Will Fall, Planes Will Crash, and You Will Be Poisoned

Republicans have held office before and all of those governmental tasks were handled. In fact, when the air traffic controllers went on strike, President Reagan fired them all and replaced them with willing workers. And the system didn't lose a beat.

Better that we go another 32 months without a federal budget. That way we won't have the Paul Ryan plan with this outcome, says our President:

 "We wouldn't have the capacity to enforce the laws that protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, or the food that we eat. Cuts to the FAA would likely result in more flight cancellations, delays and the complete elimination of air traffic control services in parts of the country. Over time, our weather forecasts would become less accurate because we wouldn't be able to afford to launch new satellites and that means governors and mayors would have to wait longer to order evacuations in the event of a hurricane. That's just a partial sampling of the consequences of this budget."

Would it be unfair to say it looks like he is exaggerating?

Elementary, My Dear Watson

One need only to do the math to deduce the explanation for this:

Nobody Buying Hybrids

Gas prices are high and likely to go still higher. Hybrids burn less gas. Why don't people flock to them?

The premium on some luxury hybrid cars is so high some drivers might never break even. The BMW ActiveHybrid 7 costs about $98,000 compared to the non-hybrid BMW 7 Series at roughly $80,000. At $4 a gallon, a driver would need 33 years to break even. With the Lexus LS 600h L that’s priced at $106,000, they’ll need a lifetime – 87 years – to break even when compared to the non-hybrid Lexus LS 460 that runs about $77,000.

So, do you know anybody who keeps a car for 87 years?

Really? A Constitutional Law Professor?

You've heard the background story about how the Bamster was editor of the Harvard Law Review and then a professor teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago. That would somehow indicate, at least to me, that he either knows what he is saying is a lie or he was one very pathetic prof.

Un-elected Court Shouldn't Overturn the Legislature

Is it possible that he doesn't know that the isolation from election which our forefathers established for the federal judiciary was precisely to free them from political pressure from an emotional electorate?

Is it possible that he doesn't know that Marbury v Madison (1803) established the principle of judicial review and that is specifically for the purpose of checking an over-reaching legislative and executive branch?

Is it possible he doesn't recognize the principle of constitutional supremacy in which the Constitution limits the legislature in the hierarchy of law?

Is it possible he doesn't accept that the rule of law takes precedence over the rule of man, and simply because a lot of people won't be insured in the event of an overturning of Obamacare the government is still limited?

Or is it simply that he knows these things but he holds the Constitution in such low regard and the electorate as so ignorant that he is lying and pandering to seek re-election?

Yeah, that's the ticket.

An Eternal BLT

The question that comes to mind is: If the Bride had been buried in this would she have fought her way out and go on to Kill Bill?

What's not to like about a BACON coffin?

I think the "bacon personal lubricant" might be a bit questionable though.

Castle Doctrine

My home, according to the English common law, is my castle. That means I have the same expectation of personal security from invasion by outsiders within my property as does the King in his castle. If I find someone in my house that is unknown to me in the middle of the night I am not obliged to flee from them or suffer grievous injury prior to defending myself.

That seems so incredibly logical that it is difficult to conceive of a situation in which it could be doubted. Yet in modern America we find it necessary to formalize the principle in statute. Lacking the spelling out in law someone apparently could doubt it.

Twenty-five states have some form of Castle Doctrine or "Stand Your Ground" law. Texas is one of them and following the rabble-rousing of Florida's Martin/Zimmerman engagement we get this:

Texas "Castle Doctrine" Up For Challenge

Here's a little chunk of the existing law:

The law states that a person has no duty to retreat from an attack in his home, vehicle or place of business. It provides a presumption that the force was “reasonable” if certain criteria are met, making deadly force more easily justified.

Got that? "In my home, vehicle or place of business."

Now listen to what this legislator says.

Coleman said he fought the “Castle Doctrine” bill in Texas on grounds that it would have disproportionate consequences on people of color. He said Texas law already allowed the use of deadly force to defend against deadly force if one could not escape the situation. He said he plans to press for legislation to return Texas law “to a balance that values human life.” 

Here's a tip to representative Coleman: I'm not racially prejudiced but it seems to me that if your "people of color" stay out of my house they will be protected from any disproportionate consequences. Why are you more likely to be shot for breaking and entering my property if you are a person of color? Trust me, I will shoot you just as readily if you are white, green or purple.

And if I am in my home, where would you suggest I go to "escape the situation"?

Who elects people like this?