Coercion? Of Course!

The "closing of Gitmo," the buying of an empty prison in his home state, the immediate Mirandizing of the singing Christmas Jockey Short Jihadist, the change of venue of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and friends to New York City are just a few of the incredibly naive mis-steps of the Panderer-in-Chief with regard to securing this nation from terrorists.

Do you think this situation is going to work out well when the trial and justice show arrives in New York? Here's a glimpse into the future:

He Was Coerced. The Evidence is Flawed.

The guy was captured on a bloody battlefield. At that moment he is an illegal enemy combatant, not a prisoner of war and not a criminal in the United States. He has actionable intelligence and people will be dying in the very near future if that information is not harvested. Do you think he might have been placed under some duress? You bet your buns he was.

That is inevitable. To extend that and say that future statements cannot be proven to be "untainted" by the earlier coercion is ludicrous liberal claptrap. This is not going to end well. It is going to become an accelerating exercise in which continually increasing handicaps will be placed in the path of prosecutors. Eventually these wild-eyed savages will be freed and standing in the ticket line at an airline counter near you.

Saturday Morning Guitar Solo

I guess when you grow up on the road with the Allman Brothers, watching dad on drums and Dickie Betts doing his magic with Duane, you'd learn a bit about music through osmosis:

It Goes Without Saying

If I say something and you know that I said it and we both know what I mean even though I have not explicitly used the word, have I said it at all? Can I replace an offensive word with a code that everyone knows therefore it isn't coded at all and thereby render it inoffensive? If I say it, you know I said it, we both know the word is offensive, then how can I make it less offensive? And if you can say it without it being offensive to you and your friends but if I say it you are deeply offended, is it offensive at all? You know what I'm talking about here, don't you?

"Heart of Darkness" Author Bowdlerized In Public

Whether it is Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain, Alex Haley, Alice Walker, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison or Joe Bagadonutz, when I write a book and I use a word that's because the bloody damned word has a meaning and a message. The title that Conrad put on the book 105 years ago was "Nigger of the Narcissus" that means that's what the author meant it to be.

Mukasey on Abdulmutallab

New Paltz Journal recommends reading this WSJ op-ed by former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and I do too:

Ineptitude Becomes Its Own Reward

This is going to get worse before it gets better. What is the long term impact of staffing the highest level of government with quota-selected political hacks and as pay-offs for vote delivering?

Alice in Wonderland World

As I get older I am more often surprised by what I don't know. I've labored under the terrible misconception for many years that when I earn something, save something, buy something or make something that it is then mine to do with as I wish.

Now, I know that to live in society there are costs. What those costs will be is determined by a political process. Different societies implement that process in different ways but usually it involves a determination of acceptable level of fair burden that the citizens will allow to be imposed upon themselves. If the benefits of government are deemed worthy, the tax load is accepted. If the tax load becomes excessive or the benefits of the government are indadequate then the deal is renegotiated.

Accepting that, I concede to paying a portion of the fruits of my labors as a tax. But after I've paid that tax, I then like to believe that what is mine is mine. Fair is fair, isn't it?

So, this morning I'm enjoying the first cup of coffee and reading this item on the economy in the Dallas Morning Fishwrap:

The gift of family loans
For the rich, rock-bottom rates could help their heirs save millions on interest costs, hefty taxes

Estate planner Richard Behrendt helped his client make $5 million loans to each of his children last year, avoiding gift taxes of 45 percent and saving them as much as $837,000 apiece in interest.

Rates for intrafamily loans have declined as much as 53 percent since 2008. “The timing of it was clearly tied to the rock bottom of these rates,” said Behrendt, who works for Robert W. Baird & Co., based in Milwaukee.

The loans may have been the perfect holiday gift to help relatives last year, according to Carol Kroch, head of wealth and financial planning at Wilmington, Del.-based Wilmington Trust. For wealthy taxpayers, they can be used for estate planning purposes, because gains earned will be free of estate and gift taxes.

That’s because low interest rates and depressed asset values mean there’s a greater possibility that investments purchased with an intrafamily loan, such as stock, will appreciate more than the loan’s cost, Kroch said.

The rate for an intrafamily loan made this month for less than three years is 0.57 percent. The rate is 2.45 percent for a loan of three years to nine years and 4.11 percent for a loan of nine years or more, according to the Internal Revenue Service, which sets the rates monthly.

Does that surprise you at least a little bit? I had believed, mistakenly, that if junior came to dear old dad and said, "Pops, I want to buy a car, an education, a business, a home, or whatever..."

Dad could then discuss conditions under which he might front the bread for the deal. It could be as simple as, "If I buy you a new iPhone, you'll repay me by mowing the lawn all next summer once a week." Or it might be as complex as, "I'll loan you the money to buy a house and rather than you dealing with the mortgage company and paying interest at the current rate, you'll repay me at 2% less than the current market. You can pay the balance any time you feel ready or you can simply pay me...let's see, $873.65 per month."

Either way, it is Dad's cash and it has already been taxed.

So, aren't you a bit stunned that the IRS is setting interest rates for what happens in living rooms of families between next-of-kin? And, all along I thought the inheritance tax was the most ludicrous levy ever devised. I can only suppose at this point that there are many more of which I'm unaware.

At least we know it goes to a good cause, like Murtha Municipal Airport or similar.

Revised TSA Procedure

In response to the attempted Christmas Eve bloomer bomber, the TSA announced a total revision of their passenger screening procedures:

Policing The Chicago Way

The credentials of the Bamster and his Chief of Staff rely heavily on the experience they gained in Chicago politics. Certainly becoming a functionary in one of the largest American cities would be a qualification for executive leadership, wouldn't it? Well, here's an example of managerial innovation that should make the citizens of my childhood home rise up and demand action:

Improve the Force By Removing Any Qualifications

That should fix your diversity problem in a heartbeat. Why would anyone want a cop to be able to read, write, understand the law or even be able to add up his pending court appearances? The important thing is get the force properly darkened, even if it means abandonment of any criteria for service.

Did you get that part about only one in four being African-American? Are African-Americans more than one-quarter of the total city population? I doubt it, but it might be close. But only one in twelve of lieutenants is of color (that's a delightfully modern euphemism, isn't it?) Do you suppose that is because of prejudice? Or qualification? Or that exam for service entry which is being abandoned? If that's what you get WITH an exam, imagine how it will work without.

Then how do you manage a police force that is 2000 members under strength? How soon will you correct that at a pace of hiring 46 officers this year? Why are they totally dependent upon federal funds to hire in the first place? What is Mayor Daley doing about this? What happened to Chicago tax dollars? They certainly impose enough taxes on the citizenry that they ought to be able to man the police force.

Hey, if it works for the City of Chicago PD, why not adopt the no testing for admission policy across the nation. Let's apply it to the military, doctors, engineers, airline pilots, universities, Congress...oops, we already do apply it to Congress. Well, you get the idea. It is absurd.

Picking Up the Torch

With the patron saint of submerged Oldsmobiles gone who is left to fight the good fight against the encroaching of green energy wind turbines into the pristine views of the elite of Massachusetts? Well, accoring to the NYT it is the oppressed Native Americans of Martha's Vineyard:

Our View is Obstructed By the Proposal and This Whole Bloody Island

As a resident of the wide open spaces of Texas, I've seen what those damned wind turbine farms look like. I don't like them at all. They are huge and lack totally the charms of La Mancha's faux dragons for Don Quixote to tilt at. They are noisy, ugly and inefficient. Seeing one of the complexes will usually stun you with the unreliability of the things. At least a third of them will always be unfunctional. They are expensive and they don't do much generating either.

But what's up with this tribe? They claim a need to "unobstructed view" but a check of the map shows that they are on the wrong side of Martha's Vineyard to see the sun rise. They claim "sacred grounds" but it has been underwater for centuries. They hypocritically claim that their tradition mandates an unobstructed view but that doesn't sound like a legacy of generations of oral history carried forth. It's simply too legalistic.

The hypocrisy of the Greenies in demanding these defacings occur in someone else's neighborhood defies my belief.

Led Bluegrass Pair

O Brother Where Art Thou takes the one-time classic which all school children read a half a century ago, the Odyssey, and sets it in depression Oklahoma/Texas. The encounter with the revivalists gives us one of the most hauntingly beautiful applications of Allison Krause' voice:

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

So, you're out in your stealth-fighter style speed boat going for a little recreational cruising in the Antarctic waters when you have a problem:

Why'd De Do Dat to Us?

OK, you're towing a rope designed to foul the screws of a large ship. Innocent fun, I guess. Nothing problematic about rendering a huge vessel immobile in freezing ocean water in a violent storm-prone area. Just good clean fun.

And you come to a stop, dead in the water right in front of the large unwieldy ship. The ship runs into you and cuts the nose off your Bat-Boat. Excuuussseee meee! You could have got out of the way. You're in a bloody speed boat!

I think these fools got what they deserved. Now for a healthy breakfast of whale meat and eggs...

Puns Intended?

Really, could anyone believe this just happens? It's got to be a staff of comedy writers somewhere in the bowels of the White House (no pun intended.)

Apologies in advance at this point, but fair warning that those easily offended or without sense of humor should not proceed beyond this point.

Obama Appointee Displays Cunning Lack of Class

So, we've got a Presidential appointee interviewing with a major network news outlet. At what level in our culture do we stop using language like "Being the first sucks..."? Is that supposed to be sort of cementing the relationship with the core constituency?

Is it somewhat tongue in cheek to say things like, "Someone has to be the first..." or "I'm well qualified to deal with anything that comes up..."? Is it bragging to say "I win people over with what I can do..."? The mind boggles at the imagery.

That whole news item is literally crammed, err, make that stuffed with double entendres that make even an old fighter pilot blush.

She will monitor export of US weapons technology. Isn't it stunningly bad taste to put a trans-gendered individual in a position of dealing with foreign nations who may still harbor benighted cultural attitudes toward such surgical artistry?

I'm imagining a Monty Python skit about the Ministry of Incredibly Absurd Appointments.

The Death of Transparency

The basic rule of Bamster-watching remains intact. If he says something you can be certain that he will do the exact opposite. He promised a new era of openness and transparency in our governmental activity coupled with bipartisanship and he is delivering the darkest legislative process and strongest majority party dictatorship we have ever seen. It is nice that we still have some things upon which we can depend. He is as good as the opposite of his word.

When the sausage makers reconvene in two weeks they will have two healthcare reform bills on the table; one in the House and one in the Senate. That means the two bills will need to be resolved and that is traditionally done in a conference committee. Senior legislators from each chamber will assemble to resolve the differences. Here's a refresher course:

The Work of a Conference Committee

But what will this Congress do? Here's how it is shaking out:

Healthcare Bill May Avoid GOP

Not only will the minority party not get to discuss the bill or have an input, they won't even be privy to the discussions or have a vote to cast during the pseudo-conference. That sort of moots the purported advantages of a bicameral legislature or even the concept of a representative democracy. But, do you want more? How about this:

Democratic aides said the final compromise talks would essentially be a three-way negotiation involving top Democrats in the House and Senate and the White House, a structure that gives unusual latitude to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.

A "three-way negotiation involving...the White House..." Wasn't there something in the Constitution about separation of powers? What is the White House doing sitting in on a legislative activity? Isn't this beginning to look a bit like a parliamentary process rather than a presidential republic? Or worse, isn't it a bit reminiscent of a monarcy or dictatorship in which the supreme leader directs the legislative council on how the law should be written.

C-SPAN Wants to Watch

Where is the outrage?

A Rant of True Artistry

My email box this morning had a link to a blog. Since this good friend tends a bit toward the extreme side of the spectrum with a soupcon of conspiracy and a half-bottle of paranoia thrown in, I didn't immediately go there. Then this afternoon I found Warrior Class offering the same item from the same blog as a "must read."

I read and it is:

Cant of Thieves

You'll also find Jaded Haven added to the Regular Stops list on the right. This is the way the word on blogs with something to say gets out.

He's Got a Point

Other than a little bit of apprehension about his trigger finger positioning in handling these, this is a pretty good song:

You Got a Lotta 'Splainin' to Do

I'm not fan of basketball. Sorry, while I can alibi about soccer that I don't watch because I didn't grow up with the game. In the case of basketball it is simply because I don't understand it. I don't see the tactics or the plays or do I even comprehend the entertainment value of watching a bunch of seven foot tall guys pushing each other for 48 minutes until the last twelve seconds of the game with six timeouts when two or three intentional fouls decide the outcome. Sorry, I don't get it. I don't like the squeaks of the shoes on the floor either.

But, you must have seen this in the news section of the paper:

Just a Little Locker Room Hijinks

Now if I've got the story right, this is the Washington Wizards NBA basketball team. They play in Verizon Center in Washington DC. Washington DC has the most handgun prohibitive laws in the nation. There is simply zero tolerance for the Second Amendment. Two players in the locker room pull out guns on each other. How can that be?

The issue is purportedly a disagreement over some gambling debts. Wait a second! This is a professional sports locker room. It isn't even off-duty time. Why am I flashing on Pete Rose being banned from baseball for life?

The headline says "Wizards Player Will Meet With Authorities..." If they had guns in the locker room and it is Washington DC aren't they lawbreakers? Why do they "meet" with authorities? Why aren't they under arrest? And, what's with the gambling?

Are there different levels of law for different people in Washington DC? That's a rhetorical question, of course. We know that the "rule of law" business went out the window years ago.

The Unconstitutionality Issue

I'm not alone and the beat is getting louder:

The Rationale of the Unconstitutionality Issue

The Dallas Morning News, a rag not noted for their conservative stance, had an editorial comment this morning comparing a mandate for citizens to purchase a product from private companies under penalty of law to being told that you must buy a Chevy Malibu to stimulate the economy or be fined an amount equal to the purchase price. Yep, it's that logical.

Then one might also question what business an elected Senator representing the citizens of a state in the federal legislature has interfering with an executive officer in the state government. Does he possess some sort of imperial power or does he only think that he does?

Call Off The Dogs, You're Making Me Look Corrupt

Unfortunately the issue of constitutionality of a legislative act cannot be considered in advance. We'll have to wait for the corruptocracy of Washington to complete their midnight acts of malfeasance before someone can challenge the law. Based on the current makeup of the Supreme Court, I would think there would be a good chance of over-turning it. But if we wait much longer we might begin to see the shenanigans of the Bamster's administration manipulating the Court for their nefarious agenda. Roosevelt failed in his effort to pack the court with a half-dozen additional left-wing judges because he didn't have enough clout in the Senate at that time. With Reid, Schumer, Boxer, Clinton, et. al. in place the outcome this go around could be different.

Economics Reality Check

What happens to cost-of-living-adjustments (COLA) when the cost of living doesn't go up? If you get an adjustment because costs have risen that isn't a "raise" in pay. It is a legislated mandate to maintain your purchasing power. That is a violation of essential free market principles, but it gains a lot of political traction for pandering politicians who are giving people something for apparently nothing. An underlying assumption is that if COL has risen then receivables for the typical business have risen in response to the price increases so it really isn't even a tax on the business owner. That may or many not be true depending upon complex interactions such as cost of raw materials for the business, transportation of products, maintenance/acquisition of production materials and inevitably the market's response in terms of demand for the product of the company.

But this past year the COL has dropped. In some areas the cost decrease has been dramatic. That means a rational COLA would be a reduction in wages to maintain equivalent purchasing power. But, in a populist, panderer driven system that can't be allowed, so many COLA laws only allow increases not decreases. Colorado, however, seems to have overlooked that possibility.

No Cut Cuts to Minimum Wage

When is a cut not a cut? Why that happens when your cut authorized by state law will then be lowering below federal law. A good capitalist at that point would be asking why either the state legislature or the US Congress is intervening between a buyer and seller of labor in a free market. But that no longer happens in America.

I've got no dog in this hunt. I've never worked for minimum wage in my life. But, maybe that is because I've worked hard at what I've chosen to do and I've prepared myself to compete for jobs that pay well above minimum. That always seemed like a no-brainer in this land of opportunity.

"It is hard to make it, hard to get by," said John Mullen, 50, an out-of-work construction worker waiting for a bus on a bitterly cold New Year's Eve in Denver. Mullen said he remembers making minimum wage at a factory and having enough for small comforts.

"You'd get paid every Friday, have enough money to go catch a poker game or take your girl out to a dinner," Mullen said. "But the law is the law. What can you do?"

I can't get sympathetic for John. By the time you are 50 years old you should be able to get a job for more than minimum wage. You should have saved some as well so that if your work is seasonal, as is construction, then you can get buy during lulls. And, when you find yourself working for minimum wage, you might want to forego the poker game and plan some home cooking. Sorry. I don't even want to ask what the temperature in Denver at the bus stop has to do with the minimum wage story.

"Yeah, it's 3 cents an hour. But that 3 cents an hour adds up at the end of 12 months," said 59-year-old Gary Foeller of Denver, a house painter who hasn't worked in weeks but usually earns more than the minimum wage when he has a job.

Maybe my math is a bit rusty, but a 40 hour week at 3 cents an hour less means you're $1.20 short. Is that an impact that can be felt? And, if you haven't worked in weeks and didn't work for minimum wage when you did have a job, why are you effected at all?

At a Dairy Queen restaurant in suburban Centennial, owner Mike Trinh pays his six year-round employees and eight summer workers $8 an hour. Anything less, and the workers don't stay, he said.

"You have to be competitive if you want them to stay on and do a good job," Trinh said.

Mr. Trinh is apparently someone who could provide some elementary business training to our state and federal legislatures on how a free market works and how a business thrives. Some union leaders could also sit in on Mr. Trinh's class and consider why that nasty old management bunch would be motivated without government intervention to pay a reasonable and appropriate wage to valued workers.

Starting The New Year

How much better does it get...Van Morrison and memories of Emma Peel aka Diana Rigg.

Simply Unbelievable

Last night at dinner we violated our usual cultural standards for the meal and had a bag of Doritos on the table. Nacho cheese flavor, if you must know. Like a cereal box sports hero or a milk carton missing person, the chips had a picture and a story on the back of the bag. Curiousity got the better of me, so I read it.

What's going on is that Frito-Lay, the parent company of Doritos, has teamed with an organization called "Do Something" to recognize young people who have done something remarkably "good." Whatever that means.

I'm not sure if I'm on board with that. Of course, it is difficult to be against "good." And it is equally difficult to oppose young people who get off their pampered butts and try to offer something to society. But, is this effort supporting charity and philanthropy or is it propagandizing? I don't know.

The bag I was reading told of a young man, currently 22 years old. He traveled to Uganda when he was seventeen. While there, he determined to do something good so he founded a school where he has led the effort to educate the people, raise awareness of global climate change, and attempt to eliminate poverty. Wow!

I considered the story for a moment and then thought to myself, do you know of any seventeen year old in America who when asked where he might like to go for Spring Break would reply, "Entebbe"? Was he studying the leadership of Idi Amin in high school? Did he want to investigate possible war crimes by the Israeli defense forces which freed a planeload of hostages in a remarkable raid that fostered two made-for-TV movies? Did he view Uganda as a cool place to pick up hot girls who are about 80% HIV positive? What are the odds?

Then, how does a 17-year-old found a school? What source of capital does he have? What educational experience? Who teaches? What does Uganda allow him to do in the fight against global warming? And on and on. The questions covered too much ground.

My curiousity piqued, I went to the kitchen cupboard where I knew another virginal bag of Doritos sat. Cool Ranch flavor, if you must know. There was another heart warming story of a young person who was doing something "good."

This one told the tale of a young girl who went back-packing in Asia at seventeen. While trekking through Nepal she noted the number of orphans so she determined she would not return to America. She remained in Nepal where she established an orphanage which so far has rescued and placed 200 Nepalese orphans in loving homes.

What responsible parent in America would allow a 17 year old girl to go back-packing in "Asia"? Could she maybe have chosen a narrower and more specific destination than the largest land-mass on the planet? How does a young girl get to Nepal with a back-pack? Who lets her simply "not return" to America? Did she get a visa extension and a refund on her round-trip ticket? How does she support herself, let alone start an orphanage? How is she dealing with language issues? Does she know how to arrange a legal adoption in Nepal or anywhere else for that matter?

I'm confused. The stories are so amazing that they defy belief. In fact, I don't believe them. Am I too skeptical? Should I continue to buy Doritos?

The Year in Someone Else's Review

I promise to spare you from either my review of the most important junk that happened in 2009 or my predictions for what may or may not happen in 2010. I'll simply offer regular observations as events unfold in the new year and in all probability continue to suck.

But, you don't get off scot free. Here's what the master of political satire remembers about the nearly complete year:

Dave Barry Goes Month-by-Month

As you read, remember that these events are based on what actually occurred, as ludicrous as they may seem. That should be sufficiently sobering.