Saturday, May 26, 2012
Friday, May 25, 2012
Fundamentally Flawed
Sometimes you simply gasp at the ridiculousness of the crap that is put forth as a technological improvement. Then you ponder it for a moment and suddenly you realize that the concept being touted is incredibly dangerous. That's where this goes in a hurry.
First take a look at this and see if you can see a violation of the most fundamental rule:
First take a look at this and see if you can see a violation of the most fundamental rule:
That's right fans! Booger hook off the bang switch until ready to fire. Now go read the whole concept here:
Had you been wondering how the Confiscation Corps was going to harvest all of the millions of guns in the possession of law-abiding Second Amendment fans? With gadgetry like this it suddenly becomes a lot easier to simply shut down the opposition doesn't it?
Private or Public?
The news of the last week has been about the President's decision to focus on Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital. The characterization is that the operation was a rape/pillage/plunder shop which bought up distressed companies, displaced thousands of workers, destroyed what was left and somehow made immense profits from the activity. Disgruntled former workers have been dredged up to look pathetic and rail against evil capitalists.
We've already discussed the economics of the situation. Sometimes you simply can't find a market for buggy whips any more and have to let those specialists go. But private equity operations don't make big bucks by operating corporate estate sales. They succeed by being successful in reshaping a company and making it profitable again.
To be fair that is also what occurs with corporate bankruptcies quite often. The company has lost focus, the debt has piled up and a time-out to reshape the operation results in an improved and more efficient business model. So far a case can be made that is what is shaking out in the Government Motors dealing. Not all of the story has been written at this point, but GM may survive. Chrysler remains to be seen.
The Washington Post takes the time to aim the mirror back at the administration on the question of equity investments. If it is fair to look with skepticism at Bain Capital and lay job losses at Romney's doorstep, then what about the prominent government involvement with public funds over the last three and a half years?
It would not be fair to resurrect the Solyndra, Volt and Fisker stories here. We all know them already. But we shouldn't be surprised to find a few more skeletons in the Messiah's financial closet:
Public Equity Bamster Busts
When a private equity operation succeeds or fails it is really the business of the investors. When you are given control of the nation's treasury then success or failure is a valid measurement of your stewardship. Piling up lists of bad investments in which public dollars are squandered to allow political cronies to grab the cash and run makes worthy news in a political season.
We've already discussed the economics of the situation. Sometimes you simply can't find a market for buggy whips any more and have to let those specialists go. But private equity operations don't make big bucks by operating corporate estate sales. They succeed by being successful in reshaping a company and making it profitable again.
To be fair that is also what occurs with corporate bankruptcies quite often. The company has lost focus, the debt has piled up and a time-out to reshape the operation results in an improved and more efficient business model. So far a case can be made that is what is shaking out in the Government Motors dealing. Not all of the story has been written at this point, but GM may survive. Chrysler remains to be seen.
The Washington Post takes the time to aim the mirror back at the administration on the question of equity investments. If it is fair to look with skepticism at Bain Capital and lay job losses at Romney's doorstep, then what about the prominent government involvement with public funds over the last three and a half years?
It would not be fair to resurrect the Solyndra, Volt and Fisker stories here. We all know them already. But we shouldn't be surprised to find a few more skeletons in the Messiah's financial closet:
Public Equity Bamster Busts
When a private equity operation succeeds or fails it is really the business of the investors. When you are given control of the nation's treasury then success or failure is a valid measurement of your stewardship. Piling up lists of bad investments in which public dollars are squandered to allow political cronies to grab the cash and run makes worthy news in a political season.
Stumbling
Politico is not a particularly right-wing blog. They tend to be moderate, occasionally supportive of the left and frustratingly balanced for those who demand ideological purity in their news sources. In other words they report what they find. That gives a lot of folks reason to hate them and gives me reason to respect them.
Reading the Race So Far
He's an incumbent president. He's got incredible assets at his fingertips. Romney is still reeling after a brutal primary race. But, the pompous pronouncements, the politically blatant pandering, the unmitigated class-warfare message don't seem to be resonating recently. Hard to reach any conclusion other than that the Bamster isn't doing well.
Could the American electorate be seeing the quality of the emperor's new clothes finally?
Reading the Race So Far
He's an incumbent president. He's got incredible assets at his fingertips. Romney is still reeling after a brutal primary race. But, the pompous pronouncements, the politically blatant pandering, the unmitigated class-warfare message don't seem to be resonating recently. Hard to reach any conclusion other than that the Bamster isn't doing well.
Could the American electorate be seeing the quality of the emperor's new clothes finally?
Thursday, May 24, 2012
The Machine In Action
Next week's New York Times Best Seller list will be led by a book that releases that week. It's the sort of think that isn't uncommon. J.K. Rowling did it several times with Harry Potter sequels and political memoirs like Bill Clinton's paperweight of note and Dick Cheney's droning recount of his years in the second seat. Opening at number one is powerful stuff, but it's been done before.
This book is "The Amateur" by Edward Klein. The title comes from a conversation between Bill and Hillary Clinton, folks who are obviously credible to comment, on the President of the United States. Bill calls the Bamster an amateur. That is the sort of comment that is influential, deeply critical, and obviously cannot be tolerated in America today. A book which fails to swoon over the incredible leadership of our campaigner-in-chief must be discredited. So, we get this:
NYT Shifts Title to Author
One can hardly put faith into the journalistic credentials of someone that the Gray Lady classifies as a hack. Make the messenger into a dull tool and the message can be comfortably ignored.
Who is this guy Klein? Where has he been and what has he done?
Edward Klein
What does it say about the New York Times if they classify their former NYT Magazine editor-in-chief as an amateur? Are they populated with amateurs there? Did an amateur do that hatchet job on Klein? How did Klein get them that Pulitzer?
How can we possibly believe that the mainstream media is in the tank for the Bamster? They are simply reporting facts aren't they?
This book is "The Amateur" by Edward Klein. The title comes from a conversation between Bill and Hillary Clinton, folks who are obviously credible to comment, on the President of the United States. Bill calls the Bamster an amateur. That is the sort of comment that is influential, deeply critical, and obviously cannot be tolerated in America today. A book which fails to swoon over the incredible leadership of our campaigner-in-chief must be discredited. So, we get this:
NYT Shifts Title to Author
One can hardly put faith into the journalistic credentials of someone that the Gray Lady classifies as a hack. Make the messenger into a dull tool and the message can be comfortably ignored.
Who is this guy Klein? Where has he been and what has he done?
Edward Klein
What does it say about the New York Times if they classify their former NYT Magazine editor-in-chief as an amateur? Are they populated with amateurs there? Did an amateur do that hatchet job on Klein? How did Klein get them that Pulitzer?
How can we possibly believe that the mainstream media is in the tank for the Bamster? They are simply reporting facts aren't they?
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Talent
They often use the phrase "making a song your own," but not many folks understand what that means. This young man does. It won't make much difference if he is one or two tonight. His future is assured.
Democratic Turmoil?
Primary elections occur whether or not a nomination for president is being contested. Folks tend to forget that primaries choose the down ballot candidates to represent the party as well as the top line on the ticket. There is a lot of voting being counted even when your party has the eligible incumbent in the White House.
Unfortunately that also presents an opportunity for embarrassment.
"Uncommittted" Nearly Whips Bamster
Across the country among the party loyalists, those committed party members who are involved in choosing the state representative candidates, the county clerks and commissioners, and the elected state court judges there is a deep dissatisfaction with the Messiah it would appear.
So far we've seen an incarcerated felon, an out-of-state attorney promising to repeal Obamacare and "None-of-the-above" all make strong showings.
Unfortunately that also presents an opportunity for embarrassment.
"Uncommittted" Nearly Whips Bamster
Across the country among the party loyalists, those committed party members who are involved in choosing the state representative candidates, the county clerks and commissioners, and the elected state court judges there is a deep dissatisfaction with the Messiah it would appear.
So far we've seen an incarcerated felon, an out-of-state attorney promising to repeal Obamacare and "None-of-the-above" all make strong showings.
Facing Fad Failure
Remember the "Dot Com" crash? It was the '90s and the market was booming over the Internet. Something very unusual was going on with regard to investments. The simple model had always been that a company had capital. That capital was very tangible. It could be audited as equipment and facilities. Storefronts and factories with inventory and customers could be counted then divided up into shares with a measurable value. You could look at receivables to evaluate sales and future revenue. You could see the debts and balance that against the equity held. There was some actual "there" there.
Then came the Internet. Suddenly you've got intellectual capital and a business model based on information which might be mined for a profit somehow. People would interact for free in this grand information exchange and along the way drop little tidbits that could be gleaned for profit. The business plans were complicated and as things developed, largely imaginary. Suddenly venture capital that had been dumped on these schemes evaporated as many could not figure out how actual profit would ever emerge. The Dot-Coms collapsed.
A few survived and thrived but across the market there was a disaster. For every Amazon or Google there were a thousand pie-in-the-sky programs with no value. Lessons were learned...and now apparently forgotten.
Facebook went public this week. The IPO was hyped and investors lined up to beg, cajole, plead and whimper to be a part of it. There was that exclusiveness cachet about only the walruses being able to buy-in on day one. Anticipation grew and estimates of what would happen as the stock soared stumbled over each other in creating a Camelot. Zuckerberg smiled at the thought of taking his billions to the foreign shores to escape the Bamster's confiscation squads. He went so far as to make his live-in a respectable woman.
Two days later we've got a slide into yesteryear. The initial price rapidly declined and the search for value seems futile.
Facebook Fade Fuels Future Pessimism
Possibly the scariest line in that analysis is the estimate that Facebook must grow revenue by 41% annually(!) for the next five years to avoid "cratering". That simply isn't possible in a real world.
Then came the Internet. Suddenly you've got intellectual capital and a business model based on information which might be mined for a profit somehow. People would interact for free in this grand information exchange and along the way drop little tidbits that could be gleaned for profit. The business plans were complicated and as things developed, largely imaginary. Suddenly venture capital that had been dumped on these schemes evaporated as many could not figure out how actual profit would ever emerge. The Dot-Coms collapsed.
A few survived and thrived but across the market there was a disaster. For every Amazon or Google there were a thousand pie-in-the-sky programs with no value. Lessons were learned...and now apparently forgotten.
Facebook went public this week. The IPO was hyped and investors lined up to beg, cajole, plead and whimper to be a part of it. There was that exclusiveness cachet about only the walruses being able to buy-in on day one. Anticipation grew and estimates of what would happen as the stock soared stumbled over each other in creating a Camelot. Zuckerberg smiled at the thought of taking his billions to the foreign shores to escape the Bamster's confiscation squads. He went so far as to make his live-in a respectable woman.
Two days later we've got a slide into yesteryear. The initial price rapidly declined and the search for value seems futile.
Facebook Fade Fuels Future Pessimism
Possibly the scariest line in that analysis is the estimate that Facebook must grow revenue by 41% annually(!) for the next five years to avoid "cratering". That simply isn't possible in a real world.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
The Gang That Doesn't Shoot Straight
It is getting comical. We could laugh if it didn't involve the President of the United States. The man who holds the office which once was universally recognized as the most powerful position in the world now seems to be unable to ever act without taking serious wrong steps first.
The administration speaks long before thinking. The voices are not as one but tend toward a random order in which the components apparently have never held a face-to-face decision conference first. One department says something, another says something different, Jay Carney parses language and then Joe Biden gets "over his skis." The Prez does his best Mussolini chin-up pose and speaks to the hand-picked audiences.
Rendell on Booker on Bamster on Bain
When your ads are so inane and puerile that even your own party says they nauseate, you've got a problem!
Does anybody in the Messiah's camp really think the American people don't understand basic business concepts? Sorry. That was a rhetorical question and the answer is apparently that a lot of them think we are that stupid. That is a serious under-estimation.
The Bain business is a perfect example. What does Bain do? They buy low and sell high. What do they buy? They buy companies that are in trouble and hence on the final clearance table at the market. The capitalist then goes in, revamps the company to make it profitable and then sells it for a gain.
When a company is in trouble there can be many reasons. It could be bad management or bad products. It might be quality issues or marketing. It might be staffing or overhead. Changes are going to be made and in the process that means some folks might lose their jobs. If you aren't essential, you are extraneous.
Bain and similar companies don't succeed by sympathetically keeping unnecessary or unproductive workers on the payroll. They succeed by getting lean and mean. In the process some folks get hurt and some get rewarded. New people with different skills get jobs. Dead wood gets pruned.
The guys who go laid off are not going to be effusive in their praise of the company that took over and let them go. Making political commercials with them is easy but also ingenuous.
American voters and apparently even senior Democrats are smart enough to know that.
The administration speaks long before thinking. The voices are not as one but tend toward a random order in which the components apparently have never held a face-to-face decision conference first. One department says something, another says something different, Jay Carney parses language and then Joe Biden gets "over his skis." The Prez does his best Mussolini chin-up pose and speaks to the hand-picked audiences.
Rendell on Booker on Bamster on Bain
When your ads are so inane and puerile that even your own party says they nauseate, you've got a problem!
Does anybody in the Messiah's camp really think the American people don't understand basic business concepts? Sorry. That was a rhetorical question and the answer is apparently that a lot of them think we are that stupid. That is a serious under-estimation.
The Bain business is a perfect example. What does Bain do? They buy low and sell high. What do they buy? They buy companies that are in trouble and hence on the final clearance table at the market. The capitalist then goes in, revamps the company to make it profitable and then sells it for a gain.
When a company is in trouble there can be many reasons. It could be bad management or bad products. It might be quality issues or marketing. It might be staffing or overhead. Changes are going to be made and in the process that means some folks might lose their jobs. If you aren't essential, you are extraneous.
Bain and similar companies don't succeed by sympathetically keeping unnecessary or unproductive workers on the payroll. They succeed by getting lean and mean. In the process some folks get hurt and some get rewarded. New people with different skills get jobs. Dead wood gets pruned.
The guys who go laid off are not going to be effusive in their praise of the company that took over and let them go. Making political commercials with them is easy but also ingenuous.
American voters and apparently even senior Democrats are smart enough to know that.
The Joke Is On Me
I wound up as a political science major when I was in college through no fault of my own. (No, it wasn't George Bush's fault either!)
Early in my life I knew I wanted to fly jets and that meant I needed to get an AF commission and that required a college degree. To get to the end goal I had to fill the intervening path. I didn't get into the Air Force Academy on my first try so I went to a school that had AFROTC. I could get my degree and my commission at the same time. What would be my major course of study? It didn't make much difference, so I drew upon my mis-spent youth playing with my Gilbert chemistry set in the basement. Test tubes and flasks with bubbling liquids changing colors were cool.
Little did I know what was involved with being a chemistry major, particularly in the years when cars, girls and beer competed for attention with differential equations and semi-micro quantitative analysis. I failed miserably by the end of my sophomore year.
Fortunately for me, the Professor of Air Science and the Dean of Students took mercy upon me and gave me the choice of leaving their school forever or switching to a liberal arts major. The only liberal arts majors offered at Illinois Institute of Technology were business, history and political science. I didn't like economics and number crunching. I didn't see myself in an archive exploring dusty manuscripts then possibly teaching sixth graders. That meant political science.
I switched majors. I got interested. I made the Dean's List and managed to recover enough to graduate in four years, right on time. Later the AF gave me the chance to pick up a master's degree in political science and another in international relations. For many years I joked that the only thing a bachelor's degree in poli-sci qualified you for was to sell used cars. If you got a master's you could sell new cars. Proceed to a PhD and you were capable of teaching others to sell used cars.
Now I see this:
Wall St. Journal Analysis of Pay For Degrees
Yes, you can make more money as an engineer or scientist. But if that's not your bag then stay away from teaching, business, psych, social work and art. Get yourself a political science degree and be a success!
If only I had known!
Early in my life I knew I wanted to fly jets and that meant I needed to get an AF commission and that required a college degree. To get to the end goal I had to fill the intervening path. I didn't get into the Air Force Academy on my first try so I went to a school that had AFROTC. I could get my degree and my commission at the same time. What would be my major course of study? It didn't make much difference, so I drew upon my mis-spent youth playing with my Gilbert chemistry set in the basement. Test tubes and flasks with bubbling liquids changing colors were cool.
Little did I know what was involved with being a chemistry major, particularly in the years when cars, girls and beer competed for attention with differential equations and semi-micro quantitative analysis. I failed miserably by the end of my sophomore year.
Fortunately for me, the Professor of Air Science and the Dean of Students took mercy upon me and gave me the choice of leaving their school forever or switching to a liberal arts major. The only liberal arts majors offered at Illinois Institute of Technology were business, history and political science. I didn't like economics and number crunching. I didn't see myself in an archive exploring dusty manuscripts then possibly teaching sixth graders. That meant political science.
I switched majors. I got interested. I made the Dean's List and managed to recover enough to graduate in four years, right on time. Later the AF gave me the chance to pick up a master's degree in political science and another in international relations. For many years I joked that the only thing a bachelor's degree in poli-sci qualified you for was to sell used cars. If you got a master's you could sell new cars. Proceed to a PhD and you were capable of teaching others to sell used cars.
Now I see this:
Wall St. Journal Analysis of Pay For Degrees
Yes, you can make more money as an engineer or scientist. But if that's not your bag then stay away from teaching, business, psych, social work and art. Get yourself a political science degree and be a success!
If only I had known!
Monday, May 21, 2012
Journalism Help File
It must be tough to be a journalist these days. How are you to know what to ask, who to ask and when? I recognize that and I'm sympathetic. I'm here to help.
Take your video guy, go down to the NATO protesters in Chicago with their signs and chants and ask them these questions:
Take your video guy, go down to the NATO protesters in Chicago with their signs and chants and ask them these questions:
- When was NATO formed?
- Name five of the initial members.
- Who were the Warsaw Pact?
- Where are they today?
- Are they better off?
- Did NATO cause or prevent WW III over the last 63 years?
If you find a protester who can answer two of those questions, you've got a story. Otherwise you've got a collection of ignorant fools with nothing to do all day but make noise and wait for their welfare check.
Survived!
It's been quiet here at ThunderTales as I've been on the road at another year's River Rat Reunion. This time it was at the Wigwam Resort in beautiful Litchfield Park AZ, just a hop, skip and high-speed taxi down the road from Luke AFB, home of Viper school.
The usual suspects showed up, a bunch of fat, gray/bald, old men wearing name tags of people who I'm certain are a young, healthy, handsome and mission-ready as I am. But, when queried they knew the right answers to the tough questions to verify that they really were who the tag said they were. There also were a reassuring bunch of younger generation warriors grabbing the gauntlet to carry on the traditions for future generations. The organization is in good hands.
Conversations resumed as though not another year had passed. Long-lost Rats reappeared and folks I hadn't seen for decades proved they still are as great in person as I thought they were. There were a few of my old students from the pilot training days who seem to have survived my instruction and gone on to become highly skilled fighter pilots, even rising to the general officer ranks. There were some folks I'd flown Downtown with on hunter/killer missions who showed up for the first time. And one of the fighter-chicks that I've been friends with for at least ten years is about to become the first female Viper squadron commander--and deservedly so. She's fully qualified for the task.
Damn but it's good to be among such great Americans. It almost makes you able to forget for a few days the ignorant scum disrupting traffic on the streets of Chicago this week without a big picture clue.
The usual suspects showed up, a bunch of fat, gray/bald, old men wearing name tags of people who I'm certain are a young, healthy, handsome and mission-ready as I am. But, when queried they knew the right answers to the tough questions to verify that they really were who the tag said they were. There also were a reassuring bunch of younger generation warriors grabbing the gauntlet to carry on the traditions for future generations. The organization is in good hands.
Conversations resumed as though not another year had passed. Long-lost Rats reappeared and folks I hadn't seen for decades proved they still are as great in person as I thought they were. There were a few of my old students from the pilot training days who seem to have survived my instruction and gone on to become highly skilled fighter pilots, even rising to the general officer ranks. There were some folks I'd flown Downtown with on hunter/killer missions who showed up for the first time. And one of the fighter-chicks that I've been friends with for at least ten years is about to become the first female Viper squadron commander--and deservedly so. She's fully qualified for the task.
Damn but it's good to be among such great Americans. It almost makes you able to forget for a few days the ignorant scum disrupting traffic on the streets of Chicago this week without a big picture clue.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
The Defense Rests
I wonder what Rev. Sharpton will do with this data:
Black Eyes (2), Broken Nose, Lacerations
Apparently Mr. Zimmerman was injured while attempting to break Trayvon's knuckles with his face.
Black Eyes (2), Broken Nose, Lacerations
Apparently Mr. Zimmerman was injured while attempting to break Trayvon's knuckles with his face.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
They Wouldn't Dare!
The tongue of the writer seems to be firmly planted in cheek, but when it is New York writing about a monument one must be cautious. There is always the possibility that someone might take it seriously and then where would we be?
There is simply no telling what could happen. It was not that long ago that some fool suggested that baseball could be played under lights. Well, sure it could. But that would mean you hadn't planned the first pitch time very carefully. Or maybe you weren't considering how cold it can get in April or October when the night wind blows off the lake. Maybe even it would be the result of extra innings in a hard-fought close game. But, for that eventuality there is still the Scarlett O'Hara dictum, "I'll think about that tomorrow."
Baseball is for relaxing in the sun. Give me a hot dog and an Old Style and I'll be happy on a sunny afternoon. But they went ahead and put lights up, didn't they? So, consider this suggestion and then discard it before anybody with any authority gets to see it. Those towers deface the otherwise classic facade of a early 20th century ball-park and shine into the eyes of CTA elevated train operators every game.
Try not to notice the absence of any of those practical parking lots around this place. It simply is what it is. Get over it. Somebody would steal your car anyway.
WSJ says: Destroy Wrigley?
Well, if they did destroy the old girl then what would come of the investment of these fine entrepreneurs on the Waveland and Sheffield avenues? These folks have committed to the Cubs without any contracts but a glassy eyed stare and no threat of a handshake. What about their season ticket holders?
It wouldn't be worth winning. It just takes faith and prayer and maybe an unhittable closer. Where would they build a new ballpark? You can already see the suburbs lining up to bid on the project. Then you'd get some aberration of a team name like the Los Angeles Angels at Anaheim or Invesco Field at Mile High or even The Ballpark at Arlington. Could you really cheer for the Chicago Cubs at Mount Prospect?
I suppose the new park would have some sort of new-fangled digital technology to show humongous videos of batters, great catches, botched plays and busty girls eating kielbasa sandwiches in the stands.
Scores would be displayed with LED colored lights and there wouldn't be any sweaty bubba in a torn white T-shirt hanging out of an empty frame on a hut summer day in August. Just think of all the displaced rodents infesting that edifice!
Tell those New Yawkers to butt out and look for the Polo Grounds. See how that worked?
There is simply no telling what could happen. It was not that long ago that some fool suggested that baseball could be played under lights. Well, sure it could. But that would mean you hadn't planned the first pitch time very carefully. Or maybe you weren't considering how cold it can get in April or October when the night wind blows off the lake. Maybe even it would be the result of extra innings in a hard-fought close game. But, for that eventuality there is still the Scarlett O'Hara dictum, "I'll think about that tomorrow."
Try not to notice the absence of any of those practical parking lots around this place. It simply is what it is. Get over it. Somebody would steal your car anyway.
WSJ says: Destroy Wrigley?
Well, if they did destroy the old girl then what would come of the investment of these fine entrepreneurs on the Waveland and Sheffield avenues? These folks have committed to the Cubs without any contracts but a glassy eyed stare and no threat of a handshake. What about their season ticket holders?It wouldn't be worth winning. It just takes faith and prayer and maybe an unhittable closer. Where would they build a new ballpark? You can already see the suburbs lining up to bid on the project. Then you'd get some aberration of a team name like the Los Angeles Angels at Anaheim or Invesco Field at Mile High or even The Ballpark at Arlington. Could you really cheer for the Chicago Cubs at Mount Prospect?
I suppose the new park would have some sort of new-fangled digital technology to show humongous videos of batters, great catches, botched plays and busty girls eating kielbasa sandwiches in the stands.
Scores would be displayed with LED colored lights and there wouldn't be any sweaty bubba in a torn white T-shirt hanging out of an empty frame on a hut summer day in August. Just think of all the displaced rodents infesting that edifice!
Tell those New Yawkers to butt out and look for the Polo Grounds. See how that worked?
Seven Lies About Terrorism
Across the transom this morning we find an interesting dissection of familiar pronouncements on terrorism. It lists seven lies of the left which we are urged to embrace with regard to the war on terror:
- Killing terrorists only turns them into martyrs.
- We can't kill our way out of this.
- Terrorists have rights
- Formal trials will show them the superiority of our system of justice.
- The only path to peace is negotiations.
- It's not about religion
- It's about us.
The details are elaborated here:
Frankly, I can't find much to disagree with in that. One can only wonder how the apologists can continue to embrace the obvious falsity of their statements.
Feeling Secure?
I'm going to encounter TSA tomorrow, so I'll have to wear clean underwear, avoid shirts with metal snaps, skip my boots and go with slip-ons, and wear pants tight enough that they don't fall down when I've got my arms up in supplication to get nudie scanned. Then I'll feel secure because we've got folks like Bimbo on the job:
Failed Screening Finally Shows
There is so much wrong with that you hardly know where to start. How does an illegal immigrant get a job in security? What sort of pre-employment screening doesn't stumble at the point of I-9 review for legal residence?
Then we've got him rising to supervisory responsibility, never having been discovered as a non-resident alien. Do you suppose he might have helped a few other illegal Nigerian immigrants climb the security career ladder? Any opportunity for airport infiltration from a nice peaceful place like Nigeria?
But there seems to be only a superficial effort to hide his dual identity since the news story had no problem with finding evidence of both Bimbo and Jerry residing at the same place.
Of course he gets discovered after a mere twenty years. That is simply because he was using a fake ID. Not really a problem you see because the previous owner was a murder victim. He didn't need it any more.
How does one get an ID from a murder victim? I'd say Jerry becomes a "person of interest" on this.
Hey, Secretary Napolitano, got any Bimbos working at DFW?
Failed Screening Finally Shows
There is so much wrong with that you hardly know where to start. How does an illegal immigrant get a job in security? What sort of pre-employment screening doesn't stumble at the point of I-9 review for legal residence?
Then we've got him rising to supervisory responsibility, never having been discovered as a non-resident alien. Do you suppose he might have helped a few other illegal Nigerian immigrants climb the security career ladder? Any opportunity for airport infiltration from a nice peaceful place like Nigeria?
But there seems to be only a superficial effort to hide his dual identity since the news story had no problem with finding evidence of both Bimbo and Jerry residing at the same place.
Of course he gets discovered after a mere twenty years. That is simply because he was using a fake ID. Not really a problem you see because the previous owner was a murder victim. He didn't need it any more.
How does one get an ID from a murder victim? I'd say Jerry becomes a "person of interest" on this.
Hey, Secretary Napolitano, got any Bimbos working at DFW?
Monday, May 14, 2012
Outdoing It
Long ago in a galaxy far, far away when I was much younger we got our serious news from serious sources. The newspapers of a major city provided an objective panorama of what was occurring in the world around us. In Chicago we had four major dailies and each of them published several editions each day. Newspaper trucks roared through the streets with a "thrower" hanging from the tailgate, slinging bundles of fifty papers each out on street corners to the newstands which were our media outlet before the plastic boxes that gobble your quarters and refuse to open to deliver your paper. A guy with a truck-driver cap and a cigar stub in his maw handed you a folded paper and you gave him a nickel.
In-depth coverage came from the weekly news magazines. There were three major ones: Time, Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report. They sliced and diced the serious stories and few homes were without a subscription to at least one. They covered essentially the same major stories but their analysis varied and you chose your favorite based upon the writing style and photography.
Things have changed and this week they've accelerated down the slide into oblivion. It started with Time magazine's tacky cover shot of a statuesque blonde woman of questionable intelligence proudly profiled as her son, well beyond the normal stage of weaning, suckles from her left breast while standing upon a chair. The question asked is not whether such delayed maturity is good or normal, but whether we should all be getting our protein from the nearest mammary. Dare I note that it is a conscious attempt at titillation?
Now this:
In-depth coverage came from the weekly news magazines. There were three major ones: Time, Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report. They sliced and diced the serious stories and few homes were without a subscription to at least one. They covered essentially the same major stories but their analysis varied and you chose your favorite based upon the writing style and photography.
Things have changed and this week they've accelerated down the slide into oblivion. It started with Time magazine's tacky cover shot of a statuesque blonde woman of questionable intelligence proudly profiled as her son, well beyond the normal stage of weaning, suckles from her left breast while standing upon a chair. The question asked is not whether such delayed maturity is good or normal, but whether we should all be getting our protein from the nearest mammary. Dare I note that it is a conscious attempt at titillation?
Now this:
No, they aren't implying a sexual orientation of the chief executive. No more than the characterization of Bill Clinton as our first "Black" president.
Read the story here: Newsweek Enters the Sensationalist Wars
If you've been watching the interview clip, and it would be difficult to have missed it, you've already noted the carefully nuanced language. The Bamster was more than nudged into coming out on the topic. Joe Biden and Arne Duncan blurted out the issue ahead of their leader and he was now forced to elaborate.
He has "evolved" over time. See, that keeps it from being a flip-flop on a major moral question. He learned from his wife, family, friends and campaign finance bundlers where he should be standing. It is his personal view, not a statement of policy initiative. That gives him waffle room to do nothing until once again pushed by events which get away from his control. He can hold deep convictions but continue to govern in whatever manner he deems necessary to keep his poll numbers from plunging further.
But, maybe he should have paid a bit more attention to the two-to-one vote on marriage in North Carolina last week. Or maybe he should go back read the legislation enacted but not enforced a few years ago called the Defense of Marriage Act.
Of course not. He's not really bound by laws which are inconvenient to him.
And on the news magazine front, I can now comfortably pick up a copy of the Sun or Enquirer at the grocery checkout with full confidence that it is not much different than a well-respected news magazine like Time or Newsweek.
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