Mudgeon's Musings

Observations

2012-01-29T15:00:00.000-08:00

It's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.

All you need is ignorance and confidence, and success is sure.

. . . Mark Twain

Bad Luck/Tough Fall

2012-01-26T12:06:00.000-08:00

Not an Occupier

2012-01-26T12:02:00.000-08:00

Houston, We Have a Problem . . . and It's No Small Thing

2012-01-23T13:32:00.000-08:00

Our government and virtually all of our major institutions are run by, and under the control of individuals who are intellectually and morally retarded.

The Republican Contenders

2012-01-23T13:28:00.000-08:00

There presently are only two viable ones:

* Newt Gingrich -- Clearly a big and active brain, but also a guy with a history, and that history -- notwithstanding what he now is saying -- shows that he has been a friend and advocate of big and ever expanding government and government spending. He also is impulsive to the point of recklessness that may not be controllable by even the able staff that he undoubtedly would assemble were he to reach the White House.

* Mitt Romney -- Another big government guy and the favorite of the GOP establishment that bestowed two Bush administrations and the McCain candidacy on us. He strikes me as an attractive, decent, and even self effacing guy with a good head and administrative, business, and financial gifts though he seems to be ashamed of his achievements in these areas. And finally, he is as cautious and timid as Mr. Gingrich is daring.

Either would be less damaging than the creature we've got now, but I am hoping for a convention that deadlocks and then gives us someone like Paul Ryan.
______________

P.S. Nobody is perfect but me and thee . . . and sometimes, even ofttimes, I wonder about thee.

Sunshine May Be Breaking Through Wisconsin's Storm Clouds

2012-01-23T12:57:00.000-08:00

The badger state's governor continues to be under attack for having taken on Wisconsin's public employee union thugs, but the state is benefiting greatly from the courageous actions of its embattled chief executive, as spelled out in this report.

Disgustingly Two-Faced Penn State

2012-01-23T12:49:00.000-08:00

Penn State now is distinguishing itself as a prime example of the blatant dishonesty, politically correct moral cowardice and corruption, and the shameless hypocrisy of the nation's elite educational institutions.

It now purportedly is "honoring" Joe Paterno, the distinguished football coach who now has died after having been sacked by Penn State for failing to do what the guy who was his boss was responsible for doing.

A Shame Indeed

2012-01-23T12:37:00.000-08:00

That cruise ship captain has brought more shame than even the Olive Garden restaurants to the Italian people.

Insights

2012-01-21T08:46:00.000-08:00

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

. . . Mark Twain

The REAL reason the government jails people for theft is that the politicians don't want any competition.

Free Passes Produced President With No Achievements or Qualifications

2012-01-19T13:59:00.001-08:00

The hallucinatory process by which well intentioned and hopeful illusions combined with politically correct wishful thinking to make it possible for the empty suit that currently occupies the oval office to reach the White House is spelled out in this account.

Funnies

2012-01-19T13:34:00.000-08:00

President Obama took Michelle out to a steak restaurant for her birthday, marking the first time the words “Obama” and “well done” appeared in the same sentence.

Last week, a British Airways crew mistakenly told passengers that their plane was about to crash into the ocean but it turns out a flight attendant just had hit a wrong button. I don’t know what’s worse -- getting lied to about crashing into the ocean, or knowing it happens so often there’s a button for it.

. . . Edited Jimmy Fallon Jokes

An Inadvertant Contribution

2012-01-18T12:01:00.000-08:00

After three years in office, it appears that the current occupant of the oval office in fact has furthered the well being of our republic in one positive and important -- though completely unintended -- respect, according to this account.

Political Truths

2012-01-18T10:11:00.000-08:00

* The problem with political jokes is they get elected.

. . . Henry Cate, VII

* We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.

. . . Aesop

* If we got one-tenth of what was promised to us in these acceptance speeches there wouldn't be any inducement to go to heaven.

. . . Will Rogers

* Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.

. . . Plato

* Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.

. . .Nikita Khrushchev

* When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it.

. . . Clarence Darrow

* Why pay money to have your family tree traced; go into politics and your opponents will do it for you.

. . . Author Unknown

* If God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates.

. . . Jay Leno

* Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel.

. . . John Quinton

* Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.

. . . Oscar Ameringer

* The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it.

. . . P. J. O'Rourke

* A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country.

. . .Texas Guinan

* Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so.

. . . Gore Vidal

* I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.

. . . Charles de Gaulle

* Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.

. . . Doug Larson

* Don't vote, it just encourages them.

. . . P. J. O'Rourke

* There ought to be one day - just one - when there is open season on senators.

. . . Will Rogers

Are We There Yet?

2012-01-15T19:22:00.000-08:00

As democracy is perfected, the office of President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be occupied by a downright moron.

. . . Henry L. Mencken

Editorial in The Baltimore Evening Sun

July 26, 1920

Ultimate Hubris and Possibly Beneficial Warming

2012-01-15T09:13:00.000-08:00

Your not so humble blogger has long believed that the idea that human beings can determine the most beneficial temperature of the globe or the best climate for it and any of its regions is high on the list of the greatest possible conceits of our species. That idea assumes we possess a capacity for godlike wisdom even without getting into the mind boggling hubris of the belief that we can design and significantly impact any of these things.

Now there is an authoritative report that indicates that if the earth is in fact warming -- irrespective of whether human activities contribute to it -- that phenomena may be holding off the onset of another in the world's recurring ice ages and the devastating famine that inevitably would accompany it. One can read about the report here.

Targeted Threats

2012-01-15T08:41:00.000-08:00

It is worth noting who Obama threatens to cut off when it appears he may not get his way on raising the debt ceiling.

He threatens to not pay Social Security retirees, military retirees, Social Security disability benefits, and federal retirees.

He does not threaten to stop payments to illegal aliens,

He does not threaten to withhold such frivolous benefits as internet access for incarcerated criminals,

He does not offer to fire some of the thousands of superfluous federal employees,

He does not offer to curtail his use of Air Force One or to cut down on his or his wife's frivolous gallivanting and multimillion dollar vacations,

He does not threaten to not pay the senators and representatives or any of their staffs,

He does not threaten to withhold benefits from welfare recipients,

He does not threaten the food stamp programs,

He does not threaten to not pay foreign aid, or contributions to the UN, and

He certainly never threatens to cut back on anything that involves his base voters.

The list could go on and on. He is in full political re-election mode!

True Patriotism

2012-01-08T09:40:00.000-08:00

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.

. . . Samuel L. Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain)

The Ventriloquist

2012-01-04T11:33:00.000-08:00

From the Late Night Comics

2012-01-04T11:16:00.000-08:00

Funny Sad Truth from Jay Leno:

2012 is supposed to be the year the world ends. Have you seen the national debt? If the world doesn't end, we are so screwed.

. . . and Snobbishness from Conan, the Oh So Superior Snot:

Political analysts are saying that Mitt Romney is having trouble generating enthusiasm among Iowa voters. Now, ladies and gentlemen, you know you have a problem when people in Iowa find you dull.

Iowa is a state in the Midwest that manufactures pigs, corn and old people.

Today are the Republican Iowa caucuses. Or, as it's also known, “old white guy Mardi Gras.”

Well Founded Foreboding

2011-12-21T08:17:00.000-08:00

And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever.

. . .Thomas Jefferson

Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 18

1781

Best Political Season Quote To Date

2011-12-19T13:32:00.000-08:00

Perhaps the single most repellent feature of the political class that has served America so disastrously in recent decades is its shameless venality in parlaying "public service" into a guarantee of an eternal snout at the trough.

. . . Mark Steyn

Proper Government

2011-12-19T09:14:00.000-08:00

[A] wise and frugal government ... shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.

. . . Thomas Jefferson

First Inaugural Address

1801

More Misery Ahead: The Sad Truth About the 2012 Election

2011-12-18T13:45:00.000-08:00

Not one of the viable candidates for election to the presidency next year is worthy of the office or deserving of a positive vote.

Each and every one of them is a proponent of big and ever expanding government and thus of further curtailment of individual freedoms, liberties, rights and responsibilities. They all have and are promoting a government solution for any and all real and imagined problems.

On the other hand, it is unlikely that any of the Republicons would do as much damage as the incumbent holder of the office were he to be reelected. You ain't seen nothing like what Obama would do in a second term during which he would be free to act as he wishes without the restraining prospect of having to face the voters again for return to another term in office.

Despite the admirable efforts of the Tea Partiers, they have lost out, defeated by the prevailing political establishment autocrats.

The bottom line is that citizens who believe that the size and scope of government should be cut and confined to the limits prescribed by the Constitution again will be without a candidate for whom to vote. Instead, we again will be forced to seek to defeat the worst candidate by casting our ballots for the one likely to do somewhat less harm.

Obvious But Unspeakable Truths

2011-12-14T17:10:00.000-08:00

The chattering class -- made up of those with the fools' names and fools' faces most often seen in public places (as well as the media) -- is noisily atwitter again . . . over, this time, Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich having said that "Palestinians" are an "invented people," meaning that they are indistinguishable on any objective basis from other Arabs.

Mr. Gingich's statement is, without question, absolutely correct.

The uproar is about his temerity for having uttered such a self evident but politically unacceptable truth. To do so was so de classe . . . so de rigueur . . . so gauche.

Calls to mind the same reaction the same oligarchs had when Ronald Reagan had the bad taste to state publicly that the Soviet Union was an "evil empire."

Such self evident truths apparently are not to be uttered openly in polite society . . . or at least the society inhabited by the chattering lackwits.

That explains why they so loathed John Bolton and Jeane Kirkpatrick, who as America's representatives to the U.N. routinely spoke truth in and to that body that most of its members went to great lengths to keep hidden.

Californians Poised to Hose Themselves Again

2011-12-14T16:25:00.000-08:00

Poll results this week indicate that California's lotus eating majority is likely to approve its moonbeam governor's proposal to increase -- supposedly temporarily -- the state sales tax and the income tax rate on those earning a million dollars or more a year. The increases are being promoted as "necessary" to avoid spending cuts the pols can use to best frighten and stampede the voters.

Hiking the sales tax, which already is the nation's highest, will be a bonanza for retailers in neighboring states and those engaged in doing business on the internet. And, as other states -- but not freeloaders always willing to benefit at the expense of others -- have learned, increasing income taxes on high earners almost always yields less than projected because some of the targeted productive citizens can and do relocate to other jurisdictions.

At some point prior to the scheduled expiration date of the tax increases, the economy will improve, tax receipts will rise, yielding a surplus, which the politicians of course will spend . . . and commit to continue spending on new and expanded programs that of course will come to be seen as vital. So the hosing will come five years down the road, when taxpayers will be asked to make the increases permanent to avoid having to eliminate or cut the increased spending that will have come to be seen as essential. The arguments will be that continuing the 'temporary' rates will just continue what already exists and therefore not constitute a tax increase.

. . . and so goes the perpetual upward tax and spend ratchet/racket.

Spreading the Scorn

2011-12-14T15:00:00.000-08:00

Iran is now in possession of an American drone. When I heard that I thought, "Oh, my god, they captured Joe Biden?"

. . . Jay Leno

Newt Gingrich released a statement promising he would not cheat on his wife. Even better, he said he wouldn't cheat on his next wife either, or the one after that

. . . Conan

Jon Huntsman tried to . . . Wait, who is Jon Huntsman?  

. . . Late Show

This guy [Donald Trump] is something. He's committed to the debate, he's not committed; he's running, he's not running; he's in, he's out. What does he think this is, one of his marriages?

. . . Jimmy Kimmel

Self Evident But Worth Keeping In Mind

2011-12-12T11:02:00.000-08:00

Good sex, like good air, is consciously recognized as a vital necessity only when one is not getting a sufficient quantity.

Only In the U.S.

2011-12-10T16:25:00.000-08:00

Only in America do people order

double cheeseburgers,
large fries,

and

a diet Coke.

Nailing It on Our Current Politicians and Government

2011-12-10T12:49:00.000-08:00

Don't Stop to Think; Just Keep Blindly Following

2011-12-08T08:27:00.000-08:00

Donations for Congress

2011-12-07T14:29:00.000-08:00

A driver was stuck in a traffic jam on the highway outside Washington, DC. Nothing was moving. Suddenly, a man knocks on the window.

The driver rolls down the window and asks, "What's going on?"

"Terrorists have kidnapped Congress, and they're asking for a $100 million dollar ransom. Otherwise, they are going to douse them all in gasoline and set them on fire. We are going from car to car, collecting donations.

"How much is everyone giving, on average?" the driver asks.

The man replies, "Roughly a gallon."

Coincidence ? ? ? ?

2011-12-06T13:55:00.000-08:00

In the coming year, 2012, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address will occur on the same day.

This is an ironic juxtaposition of events.

One involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to an insignificant creature of little intelligence for prognostication.

The other involves a groundhog.

Barney Frank's Career Change

2011-11-28T10:45:00.000-08:00

Congressman Barney Frank, the truly Reprehensible Demorat from Massachusetts, today announced that he will not run for reelection next year.

Word on the street has is that (i) he is opting for one of the open athletic coaching jobs at Penn State or Syracuse, and (ii) other members of Congress are looking forward to resuming use of the showers in the U.S. Capitol's bathrooms.

20-Year-Olds: Then and Now

2011-11-27T18:24:00.000-08:00

More Evidence of Fraud by Climate Alarmists

2011-11-27T18:06:00.000-08:00

Climategate scientists DID collude with government officials to hide research that didn't fit their apocalyptic global warming. See the evidence in this new report.

Best Scientific Theory of All Time

2011-11-27T17:50:00.001-08:00

The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline baggage.

Stark Truth About Our Arcane Tax Rules and Why They Are An Inescapable Labyrinth

2011-11-27T13:44:00.000-08:00

As followers of this blog are aware, General Electric was able to avoid having to pay any taxes on the more than $14 billion that it earned in 2010. Its approximately 57,000 page tax return claimed and took advantage of many -- but by no means all -- of the tens upon tens of thousands of credits, exemptions, deferrals, and special deals unavailable to, and mostly unknown by most American and smaller business enterprises.

Only the very big and powerful qualify for such deals. They can and do hire the high priced lobbyists who get the obscure breaks enacted into the nation's tax laws and regulations, and the equally expensive legal and accounting experts who know about their existence and how to take advantage of, and use them.

Don't expect Congress to change the system or to simplify it. Its complexity serves the interests of the lawmakers in two ways.

First, it is the stock in trade of our politicians. In exchanges for campaign contributions and many other favors they enact multiple obscure provisions to benefit their rich and powerful supporters as well as cudgels to punish their foes, or they authorize their bureaucratic minions to do so. In addition, they swap supporting votes with their fellow lawmakers to do the same.

Second, the magnitude and complexity of the entire structure, the overall system, makes individual amendments of, and additions to it too insignificant to notice. It thus shields what is being done from public notice even though the cumulative effect of such minutiae has created and is inexorably expanding a monstrosity.

To expect our "public servants" to give up this stock in their perfidious trade is about as realistic as expecting one's local supermarket to forgo the food business.

Fictional Phone Call With Truely Revealing Message

2011-11-27T12:39:00.000-08:00

Hi. This is the President. Is Senator Lieberman in?

Not today, Sir. This is Yom Kippur.

Well, hello, Yom. Can I leave a message?

This Says It All

2011-11-20T09:49:00.000-08:00

Everything one needs to know about our government and system of taxation is that bailout recipient General Electric reported earnings in excess of $14 billion in 2010. It paid no federal taxes on that income as GE filed an approximately 57,000 page return showing a tax obligation of zero . . . yeah, zip zero . . . nothing . . . nada.

Hey there fellow tax paying suckers, how about that? How about them apples? How cool is that? Is this a great country or what?

Miserable Options

2011-11-20T09:37:00.000-08:00

With the possible exception of Herman Cain, each of the pathetic politicians seeking to be elected to the presidency next year has demonstrated, in his or her own way, unworthiness and unfitness for the office.

None of the pitiful crowd is as reprehensible as the clod who currently occupies the White House -- when, that is, he is not sumptuously globe trotting, vacationing, or out on some swank golf course. However, we again are reduced to trying to choose the least objectionable of the various candidates -- the one likely to inflict the least damage on us and the country.

Concentrating Financial Power

2011-11-20T09:13:00.000-08:00

The government on Friday seized and shut down two more small banks, further increasing the market share and concentrating the financial power of the major monopolistic financial institutions that have been favored and buttressed with bailout funds.

While the Occupy crowd is highly objectionable in many ways, its members are on to something in recognizing that things have gone very wrong in the U.S.

The big and powerful get taxpayer money funneled to them through the public treasury and/or by having it printed for them by the Federal Reserve. Lesser institutions and individuals are left to fend for themselves and if they don't go belly up they are forced to pay for the whole shebang.

The fat cats have a good thing going with socialism for the rich, the big, the powerful, and the politically well connected, and free enterprise privation for everyone else.

Has this become a great nation or what?

Brisk Breezes of Wyoming

2011-11-20T08:55:00.000-08:00

No Wonder Our Slimey Overlords Hate Sarah Palin: They Recognize Her As a Real Threat to Their Pillaging Privileges

2011-11-19T16:15:00.000-08:00

With millionaires making up almost half of the congress, it's not surprising that the legislators do little or nothing for, or even understand ordinary Americans.

And how, one might ask, did so many dim bulb politicians get so rich while supposedly serving the public?

They did, and are continuing to do so by engaging in practices that would land their constituents in a penitentiary. Although they're mostly lackwits, the scumbags have contrived ways to take care of themselves and one another. Their extraordinarily profitable shady practices are protected by exemptions they have enacted for themselves from laws they've imposed on the rest of us.

Of course the brazen pols and their lackeys take every opportunity to besmirch, demean, demonize, and seek to destroy Sarah Palin, an ordinary citizen who has had, and rejected opportunities to join the oligarchy -- the layer of scum at the top of the nation's political rain barrel. Furthermore and even worse, with reports such as this one, Ms. Palin is providing a look behind, if not destroying, the curtain behind which the nation's shameless ruling class corruptly wheels and deals to serve itself. Such exposure threatens the pols' ability to continue to conduct business as usual -- in accordance with what has come to be a gangster like modus operandi.

Ms. Palin is particularly terrifying to, and loathed by the overlords because of her demonstrated ability to connect with huge numbers of American citizens. She is clearly explaining how what used to be the peoples' government has been transformed into a cosa nostra kind of an institution. It sucks the life blood from everything it touches for the exclusive benefit of the godfathers who control it and their minions. Expounding that reality has the potential for rousing the common rabble to undertake corrective actions.

Given the depth and pervasiveness of the corruption of our institutions, effective corrective actions might well necessitate going beyond the ballot box. Even tar and feathers might not suffice. An increasing number of awakening citizen are stating that their ire is past that point and that they now are very close to gallows and guillotine angry.

Dim Bulbs Inside the Beltway Actually 'Think' Like This

2011-11-18T16:52:00.000-08:00

While they are capable of exercising some real ingenuity in coming up with a more palatable name, the idea of halting their spending spree will never occur to, or be entertained by them.

D.C. View of Taxpayers

2011-11-18T16:36:00.000-08:00

Displaying Judicial Ethics

2011-11-18T16:34:00.000-08:00

Bipartisan Political Perfidy

2011-11-18T11:45:00.000-08:00

The senior political reporter at a newspaper for which I was beginning to work as a cub decades ago told me that a politician is a creature who would sell his mother into slavery for a vote. Nothing that I have seen, heard, or otherwise observed in the many years since then has given me any reason to doubt the accuracy of his description.

Two recent actions -- one by our Demorat president and the other by Republicon congressmen -- support the veteran newman's characterization of the political species:

First, there is the disservice of workers employed in the private sector, most of whom belong to unions that support him, by President Obama as described in this report.

Not to be outdone though, congressional Republicons are trying to help bestow more goodies on those who participated in creating and sustaining the real estate house of cards that took down the nation's economy when it collapsed . . . and, as is spelled out in this account, they're doing so sneakily, hoping that their unprincipled actions will escape notice by conservatives upon whose support they depend.

In each instance the duplicity is a result of pols endeavoring to ride two horses at the same time. Mr. Obama is throwing his unionized workers under the bus to avoid antagonizing environmental extremist activists. The Rublicons in congress are ignoring Tea Party adherents to act at the behest of real estate lobbyists.

Were he around today my veteran newsman mentor probably would describe a politician as someone who would regret not having more than one mother to sell into slavery.

Best Election Commentary To Date

2011-11-17T19:55:00.000-08:00

I haven't left my house in days.
I watch the news channels incessantly.
All the news stories are about the election;
All the commercials are for Viagra and Cialis.
Election - erection - election - erection
- - - either way we're getting screwed!

. . . Bette Midler.

Newt Nails It

2011-11-17T19:48:00.000-08:00

As an American I am not so shocked that

Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize

without any accomplishments to his name,

because America gave him

the White House based

on the same credentials.

Presidential Pace Car

2011-11-17T19:42:00.000-08:00

Economizing?

2011-11-16T23:00:00.000-08:00

President Obama cut $4 billion from his administrative budget, but will spend the money on other programs. I swear, if Obama were in a sinking boat, he'd drill a hole to let the water run out.

. . . Former senator Fred Thompson

Gems of Insightful Wisdom

2011-11-16T09:20:00.000-08:00

Don't miss today's postings by Lee Rodgers. To reach his blog, click here.

Cynical President Fumbles and Punts Economic Football

2011-11-12T14:40:00.000-08:00

     President Obama’s announcement that he will delay a decision on approval of the Keystone Pipeline until after the 2012 election typifies his feckless presidency. Torn between the need to create jobs, reduce the cost of energy and get our economy going on one hand, and the emotional biases of his environmentalist base on the other, Obama punted. I assume that if and when the time comes–post-election–Obama will do what he has wanted to do all along, and kill the pipeline.
     We have written about Keystone a number of times. In this post, we quoted a study that concluded the pipeline would moderate the price of oil and create between 250,000 and 553,000 permanent American jobs.
     If China does indeed replace the United States as the world’s pre-eminent economic power, the foolishness of American voters in electing Barack Obama president will be a major contributing factor.

. . . John Hinderaker in Powerline

Comment: Isn't the mantra that we can't wait for congress to act on jobs being chanted repeatedly by this very same hypocritical narcissist who, for his personal political purposes, now is kicking the economic/jobs can down the field?

Eric Holder's All Purpose Defense

2011-11-11T10:56:00.000-08:00

Shameless Journalice Shield Loathsome 'Leaders'

2011-11-10T12:14:00.000-08:00

America's community organizer-in-chief and his equally repugnant French counterpart recently exchanged disparaging comments about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which is hardly surprising as they must be enraged by the truth-telling Bibi's intellectual and moral superiority.

The dwarfish characters who harbor delusions of adequacy and lead the U.S. and French governments were oblivious to the fact that they were talking into open microphones and that their snide conversation was overheard by a bevy of journalice.

No matter though. The media shills didn't deem it necessary to report the shared mindset clearly reflected by what the pathetic faux leaders said to one another. The information came to light only because it was posted on an obscure French website, as is made clear by this account.

U.S. Tax Dollars, Infrastructure Projects Creating Jobs . . . for Chinese in China

2011-11-10T11:32:00.000-08:00

video platform video management video solutions video player

Voracious and Insatiable

2011-11-10T11:22:00.000-08:00

From The Wall Street Journal:

Fannie Mae said it would seek $7.8 billion more in U.S. government assistance after posting a wider loss in the third quarter as the housing market's troubles continued.
The Washington-based mortgage finance company on Tuesday posted a net loss of $5.1 billion in the third quarter, compared with a year-ago loss of $1.3 billion. It was the 16th loss in the past 17 quarters for the company, which nearly failed more three years ago and has been kept on government life support ever since.

The request for aid from the Treasury Department includes $2.5 billion to cover required quarterly dividends . . . .

. . . and at the same time, the Journal reported this:

WASHINGTON—U.S. lawmakers are seeking to rein in pay for executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance giants that remain on taxpayer life support, nearly two years after the government approved the firms' compensation arrangements.

The firms' continued losses, largely the result of loans that they guaranteed as the housing boom turned to bust, have resurrected calls from Republicans and Democrats to scrap the multimillion-dollar pay deals.

Their top executives received nearly $13 million in cash awards granted at the start of 2011 based on regulators' assessment of corporate and individual performance goals.

Comment: Their performance must be measured by their perpetual ability to consume an ever increasing number of taxpayer dollars.

21st Century Fugitive Slave Act

2011-11-09T17:05:00.000-08:00

Uppity individuals deemed by the progressive-liberal-democrat plantation's owners to belong on their plantation risk personal destruction if they dare to:

* Express views out of line with the plantation's orthodoxy,

* Seek public office as conservatives, and

* Connect, or evidence the potential for connecting effectively with a significant number of their fellow citizens.

Such undisciplined fugitive slaves will be set upon and, until ruined or silenced, they will be savaged unrelentingly by the popular press and its journalice functioning as the plantation's enforcers and shills.

Enforcement of this modern counterpart of the Fugitive Slave Acts has reached a new level of efficiency in the stereotypical onslaught being directed at Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain -- a plantation defying black man being accused of making unwanted sexual advances toward a bevy of white women. What could be more damning or racist?

The attacks are overwhelming and well orchestrated, having been rehearsed in a limited and less sophisticated way when another conservative black man, Clarence Thomas, was nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court seat that he now occupies and more recently when Sarah Palin -- who, as woman, belonged in the plantation's kitchen -- had the effrontery to seek national office.

The startling aspect of the current spectacle is the contrast between (i) the alacrity with which the media is pursuing the sexually based accusations against Mr. Cain, and (ii) how the same journalice endeavored to avoid reporting anything about the White House peccadilloes of Blow Job Bill Clinton or the credible accusations by a reputable businesswoman that he had raped her in Arkansas.

The fourth estate and its denizens no longer have either scruples or any capacity for shame.

As for the accusations against Mr. Cain, their context and dubious nature are spelled out in this report as well as this one.

P.S. Similar repugnant efforts now are being directed at Marco Rubio, who is viewed by all of the Republican presidential candidates as a running mate. His being on the ticket would pose a threat to the leftists cabal by pealing away a significant number of Hispanic votes to which Democrats of course are entitled. Any such threat escaping from the plantation has to be targeted for demolition.

The Green Thing

2011-11-07T15:40:00.000-08:00

In the queue at the store the other day, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment."

He was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had a radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. If and when we got a TV it had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull we replaced the blades. But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

Please share this with another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a young person.

Remember: Don't make old People mad.

We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off.

Rewards of Clean Living

2011-11-07T12:05:00.000-08:00

Fabulous Entertainment from Days Gone By

2011-11-05T14:27:00.000-07:00

<br><br><br>Fab

James Cagney and Bob Hope at a Friar's Club Meeting back when actors were real performers.    At the time of this performance, Hope was 52 and Cagney was 56. For the young folks, here is something you probably have never seen before and, unfortunately, you may never see again. For the older folks, this is the best of the best, and we had it for many years!   This is a side of these two entertainers you rarely ever saw but it shows their enormous talent.   Bob Hope, one of the best of the comedians, and Jimmy Cagney, mostly cast as the bad guy/gangster in movies.

An Exemplary But Unfortunately Unfollowed Leader

2011-11-05T13:51:00.000-07:00

Harry Truman was a different kind of President. He probably made as many, if not more important decisions regarding our nation's history as any of the 42 presidents who preceded him. However, a measure of his greatness may rest on what he did after he left the White House.

The only asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which was in Independence Missouri . His wife had inherited the house from her mother and father and other than their years in the White House, they lived their entire lives there.

When he retired from office in 1952 his income was a U.S. Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an 'allowance' and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year.

After President Eisenhower was inaugurated, Harry and Bess drove home to Missouri by themselves. There was no Secret Service following them.

When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, "You don't want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale."

Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, "I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise."

As president he paid for all of his own travel expenses and food.

Modern politicians have found a new level of success in cashing in on the Presidency, resulting in untold wealth. Today, many in Congress also have found a way to become quite wealthy while enjoying the fruits of their offices. Political offices are now for sale (cf. Illinois ).

Good old Harry Truman was correct when he observed, "My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!

I say dig him up and clone him!

A Bit of Truth

2011-11-05T09:57:00.000-07:00

While millions of Americans are victims of unemployment, the government's own Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the number of federal employees has grown 12 percent since the official start of the recession in December 2007.

Clearly, the trend of an ever-expanding government is toward turning the private sector and its workers into serfs working to support a privileged government-employed hierarchy.

. . . from http://www.radiorodgers.com/

Sage Advice for Our Time

2011-11-04T10:16:00.000-07:00

Observation U.S. Is Confirming

2011-11-02T12:06:00.000-07:00

Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

. . . John Adams

Letter to John Taylor

1814

Halloween Trick or Treat at the White House

2011-11-02T11:02:00.001-07:00

Obama wanted people to like his Halloween costume, so he went as himself from 2008.

Cain Bumper Stickers

2011-10-29T12:30:00.000-07:00

Sixth and fourteenth ones are my favorites:

Real Change

2011-10-29T12:00:00.001-07:00

In the 60s, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.

Collected From Jay Leno

2011-10-29T11:59:00.000-07:00

We had President Obama on the show last night. I think the president enjoys visiting NBC because we're the only place that has lower numbers than he does.

A man from India has become the first 100-year-old person to run a full marathon. He’s 100 years old, but to be fair, he was 94 when he started the race.

We had President Obama on the show last night. I think the president enjoys visiting NBC because we're the only place that has lower numbers than he does.

Puzzling Question

2011-10-29T11:57:00.001-07:00

How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?

Two Classics, One Car: An Inspiration to All

2011-10-27T12:22:00.000-07:00

101-Year-Old Driving a Classic 81-year-old Car

This is priceless. Notice at the very end when she steps on a little red towel to get into the car so she won't dirty the running board, then picks it up and puts it in the car so she can use it when she gets out! This precious lady changes the oil and spark plugs herself!

For more of the story click here.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-27T12:01:00.000-07:00

Take a break from the misery of politics and our dismal economic situation and enjoy a really great Halloween card by clicking here.

Appropriate Observations

2011-10-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

. . . George Orwell

May 1945

Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants.

. . . Alexander Hamilton

Federalist No. 1, 1787

It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as they would be the sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please. Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given them. [The Constitution] was intended to lace them up straightly within the enumerated powers and those without which, as means, these powers could not be carried into effect.

. . .Thomas Jefferson

Opinion on a National Bank

1791

[D]emocracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man's life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few.

. . . John Adams

An Essay on Man's Lust for Power

1763

[D]emocracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.

. . . James Madison

Federalist No. 10, 1787

Elegant and Insightful Question

2011-10-24T18:44:00.000-07:00

If you think you have a right to force me to pay for your health care, then why don't you have a right to force me to pick your cotton?

. . . Picked up from the kindred Gunslingers Journal blog

A Not So Modest Proposal

2011-10-24T15:44:00.000-07:00

Proposed Amendment XXVIII

to the

Constitution of the United States of America

Section 1. Any decision by the Supreme Court against a claim by a private party of governmental infringement of the private party’s rights under the Constitution or invalidating as unconstitutional any state law and any such decision by an inferior court that the Supreme Court refuses to review shall, if at least [twenty percent (20%) or thirty percent (30%)] of the judges of the Supreme Court dissent from such decision or refusal, be subject to further review by the people of the United States as provided in this Amendment.

Section 2. Decisions specified in Section 1 shall be submitted to, and affirmed or reversed by a majority vote of the people at the election of members of the House of Representatives next following the decision or refusal by not less than 180 days.

Section 3. Only the dissenting opinion or opinions in cases in which a court decision is reversed by a vote of the people may serve as precedents for any subsequent decision by the Supreme Court or any inferior court.

Section 4. This Amendment shall become effective immediately upon its adoption; provided, however, that there also shall be subject to this Amendment and affirmation or reversal by a majority vote of the people at the election of members of the House of Representatives next following adoption of this Amendment by not less than 90 days the decisions of the Supreme Court in: Kelo v. City of New London, No. 04-108, decided June 23, 2005; Gonzales v. Raich, No. 03-1454, decided June 6, 2005; Roper v. Simmons, No. 03-633, decided March 1, 2005; McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, No. 02-1674, decided December 10, 2003; Lawrence v. Texas, No. 02-102, decided June 26, 2003; and Grutter v. Bollinger, No. 02-241, decided June 23, 2003.

Warnings from Our Coal Mine Canaries

2011-10-24T15:07:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately for Jewish people throughout recorded history, virulent antisemitism has become widespread time and time again when -- and as a warning sign that -- a society is disintegrating. Jews provide easy scapegoats to blame for ills so pervasive that they are causing a society to collapse. Thus, the popularization of the world's longest standing hatred serves the same purpose as the canaries in coal mines that die of toxic gases before the level of those gases reach levels dangerous to human beings. Unlike coal miners, most people usually ignore the warning signs.

We have become accustomed to the hostility to Israel that is based on and reflects hatred of the Jews in and by an ever increasing number of the world's nations. Now we're seeing the same thing in a significant number of the Occupy Wall Street protesters. We can expect demagogic opportunist to seek power by seeking to lead and further spread the scapegoating even though the temporary success of such would be leaders inevitably leads to disastrous destruction.

Nevertheless, antisemitism among the OWS demonstrators is denied by the formerly mainstream media under the guidance and leadership of The New York Times, They also missed the same phenomena in Russia as the Bolsheviks were taking control and in German as the Nazis were rising there.

No Longer Prosperous, Powerful, or Free

2011-10-21T15:43:00.000-07:00

Our pathetic congressional pygmies are running in circles and mewing about taking action to counter what they claim is China's manipulation of its currency to the disadvantage of the U.S.

Like so much that takes place in the clown house atop Capitol Hill, this is a charade for the gullible.

The hard reality is that the Chinese will do exactly as they please and the U.S. is incapable of any effective action to prevent them from doing so.

That is the case because for all practical purposes the Chinese own us, They hold the whip hand and easily can cause us far more distress than anything we could conceivably do to them. They hold the debt that our government has incurred. They could dump their position, the ownership of our country's debt obligations onto the world market any time they choose to do so. Not only are we, as a nation, indebted to them, but our government is dependent on, and could not function without China's willingness to continuing to finance the U.S. government's ongoing deficit spending.

As a debtor, the U.S. is no more capable of influencing China than a slave is capable of influencing the conduct of its master. Our military might notwithstanding, our government's profligacy has transformed the nation into a pitiful helpless giant no longer sufficiently prosperous, powerful, or free to act as it chooses. For all practical purposes the U.S. today is an economic colony and dependent of China.

China to date has graciously permitted us to maintain the illusion that this is not the case. We ought not try their patience.

Real Plan for Restoring America

2011-10-21T14:42:00.000-07:00

GOP presidential candidate has a wonderful plan entitled "Restore America," He aims to cut $1 trillion in spending during his first year in office, in part by "eliminating five cabinet departments (Energy, HUD, Commerce, Interior, and Education), abolishing the Transportation Security Administration and returning responsibility for security to private property owners, abolishing corporate subsidies, stopping foreign aid, ending foreign wars, and returning most other spending to 2006 levels."

Some other elements include using block grants for states to solve their own problems with Medicaid and other welfare programs; cutting the federal workforce by 10 percent, as well as the pay of congressional members and the president; lowering the corporate tax rate from a crippling 35 percent to a more competitive 15 percent; eliminating the death tax; and repealing ObamaCare and Dodd-Frank financial regulations.

Thus, Mr. Paul in one year would cut federal spending by about the same amount that the woeful and misnamed congressional super-committee supposedly is struggling to cut in a decade. More importantly, the Paul plan would make a significant start on cutting the federal government back to the size and scope provided for by the Constitution.

Because he has no hope of winning the presidency or even his party's nomination for election to that office, the admirably Quixotic congressman is free to propose and promote an ideal program that would eliminate multitudes of sacred cows that none of his party's viable candidates are willing to take on . . . or even to discuss or mention. Accordingly, the best we are going to get is a bit of trimming at the fringes.

All this is spelled out in greater detail, along with a description of the magnitude of the federal government's still expanding expenditures and the pathetic efforts that pass for, and are bragged about as belt tightening in Washington, D.C. in this essay.

Credit the Prez

2011-10-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

The Chosen One unabashedly continues to claim credit for having "created or saved _____ jobs." The president and his minions can and do fill in the blank with any number they choose. You and everyone else can do the same. There's no way that it can be proved or disproved that the job of any employed American was or was not saved by the world's greatest teleprompter reader.

By the same token our glorious leader can claim credit for having warded off nuclear war, an infectious plague and a deadly meteor strike, none of which occurred on his watch . . . and therefore, as was noted in today's Wall Street Journal Best of the Web column, you can go ahead and applaud those accomplishments. Further praise will become due each and every day in the future that the earth continues to rotate on its axis and the sun therefore does not fail to rise.

On the other hand, don't ever entertain the notion that any job loss or other misfortune may be due to any action or lack of action by the administration.

Liberal Hypocrites: Ungenerous to a Fault

2011-10-20T11:42:00.000-07:00

According to Who Really Cares? by Arthur Brooks, conservatives give at least 30 percent more than liberals to charity; other sources put the figure as high as 100 percent. It appears that liberalism is a hypocrite's religion that, while preaching altruism, encourages its practitioners to outsource their personal obligations to taxpayers and, more effectively, to conservatives who really do practice the altruistic gospel.

Another Way To View the Debt Ceiling and the 2012 Choice

2011-10-19T10:45:00.000-07:00

Let's say you come home from work and find there has been a sewer backup in your home and you have sewage up to your ceilings.

What do you think you should do, raise the ceilings, or pump out the crap?

Where Greek Banking Crisis Is Headed

2011-10-19T10:06:00.000-07:00

. . . From Stratfor.com

Unbelievably Naive

2011-10-19T10:00:00.000-07:00

A former law practice colleague who follows this blog reports having encountered an individual who apparently actually believes (i) that the government's half billion dollar plus Solyndra loan guarantee never was discussed or even mentioned during all of George Kaiser's many visits to the White House, and (ii) that the government's even larger investment in Tonopah Solar also is just fine and dandy and has nothing to do with Nancy Pelosi's brother-in-law having an interest in the venture.

Mr. Kaiser was the Obama campaign contributor and bundler whose investment fund had a major interest in the solar industry venture that recently went bankrupt, leaving 1,100 employees unemployed and the taxpayers on the hook and holding an empty bag in a position subordinate to private investors in the company.

Solyndra Redux

2011-10-18T18:17:00.000-07:00

The solar thing keeps getting more interesting.

* The Tonopah Solar company in Harry Reid's Nevada is getting a $737 million loan from Obama's DOE.

* The project is supposed to produce a 110 megawatt power system and employ 45 permanent workers.

* That's comes to just over $16 million per job.

* A partners in the endeavor is Pacific Corporate Group (PCG).

* PCG executive director and number two guy is Ron Pelosi -- who just happens to be Nancy's brother-in-law.

Just keep movin' along folks . . . .nuthin' goin on here.

Today's Wise Observation

2011-10-18T14:26:00.000-07:00

Like so many people, in so many countries, who started out to "spread the wealth," BarackObama has ended up spreading poverty.

. . .Random Thought from this Thomas Sowell column

Theft Almost Renders World's Greatest Orator Speechless

2011-10-18T14:19:00.000-07:00

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — At least no one left the keys to Air Force One in the ignition.

In an egg-on-face moment for the government ahead of President Barack Obama's visit to Virginia, someone stole a Pentagon truck containing $200,000 worth of presidential seals, podiums, and sound equipment [and presumably including the essential ever present teleprompters] from outside a suburban hotel Monday, Richmond TV stations reported, citing unidentified police sources.

Authorities found the truck later in the day at another hotel near the Richmond airport, according to the news reports. But no one would say whether the items inside had been located.

Speech aids worth $200,000 plus cost of hauling them about ? ? ? ?

Seeing and Seizing Every Opportunity

2011-10-18T14:08:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)– The following is a letter released today by Lloyd Blankfein, the chairman of investment banking giant Goldman Sachs:

Dear Investor:

Up until now, Goldman Sachs has been silent on the subject of the protest movement known as Occupy Wall Street. That does not mean, however, that it has not been very much on our minds. As thousands have gathered in Lower Manhattan, passionately expressing their deep discontent with the status quo, we have taken note of these protests. And we have asked ourselves this question:

How can we make money off them?

The answer is the newly launched Goldman Sachs Global Rage Fund, whose investment objective is to monetize the Occupy Wall Street protests as they spread around the world. At Goldman, we recognize that the capitalist system as we know it is circling the drain – but there’s still plenty of money to be made on the way down.

The Rage Fund will seek out opportunities to invest in products that are poised to benefit from the spreading protests, from police batons and barricades to stun guns and forehead bandages. Furthermore, as clashes between police and protesters turn ever more violent, we are making significant bets on companies that manufacture replacements for broken windows and overturned cars, as well as the raw materials necessary for the construction and incineration of effigies.

It would be tempting, at a time like this, to say “Let them eat cake.” But at Goldman, we are actively seeking to corner the market in cake futures. We project that through our aggressive market manipulation, the price of a piece of cake will quadruple by the end of 2011.

Please contact your Goldman representative for a full prospectus. As the world descends into a Darwinian free-for-all, the Goldman Sachs Rage Fund is a great way to tell the protesters, “Occupy This.” We haven’t felt so good about something since we sold our souls.

Sincerely,
Lloyd Blankfein
Chairman, Goldman Sachs

Necessary Vocabulary Addition

2011-10-18T13:53:00.000-07:00

Ineptocracy (in-ept-o-cra-cy) - a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.

In Very Poor Taste

2011-10-17T16:01:00.000-07:00

Australia's Channel 9 brings us a grisly story from the South Pacific:

Forensic experts fear a missing German yachtsman was "hacked to pieces and burned" by cannibals while visiting a remote island in French Polynesia on the trip of a lifetime.

Ash remains, believed to be those of 40-year-old Hamburg man Stefan Ramin, have been found in a valley in Nuku Hiva, the largest of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia.

News you can use: If you ever dine at a French Polynesian restaurant, don't order the Hamburger.

From The Wall Street Journal's

Best of the Web Column

Political Humor

2011-10-17T08:58:00.000-07:00

* The Republican candidates are still looking for ways to stop Romney. See, it's hard to disagree with his positions — because as you know, he's taken every position.

* Joe Biden once again denied stories that he will be replaced on the ticket in 2012. He says he will continue to embarrass President Obama for another four years.

* Warren Buffett’s company reportedly owes the IRS a billion dollars in back taxes. When he said he wasn't paying enough taxes, he wasn't kidding.

. . . Jay Leno

Presidential Tantrum ? ? ? ?

2011-10-14T09:05:00.000-07:00

Don't know if this actually happened but it does capture the essence of The Chosen One we have put into the oval office.

The supposed but unverified story is that our ersatz president engaged in a bit of immature unpresidential behavior, picking up his toys and kicking a door open to storm out of a meeting with congressional leaders when Rep. Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, told him Republicans would not vote for the administration's proposed tax hikes.

On Our Veep

2011-10-12T15:31:00.000-07:00

The babbling delusional moron currently serving as the nation's vice president has elevated the office that FDR's first veep, John Nance Garner, defined as "not worth a bucket of warm spit*" into a wonderful ongoing comic act.
______

* Spit was not the word that Cactus Jack, a true Texan, actually used.

An Example of Sloppily Inaccurate Labeling

2011-10-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

Warren Buffett often is referred to by the media as a "businessman," which he is not.

A businessman is someone who produces or supplies goods and services for the public.

Mr. Buffett is an investor, and an extraordinarily successful one. He invests in businesses that produce or supply goods and services for the public but he himself is not and never has been engaged in doing so.

U.S. Economy In Three Lessons

2011-10-12T15:10:00.000-07:00

Understanding the Progressive Crackup

2011-10-11T14:31:00.000-07:00

The left got what it wanted in 2008: a liberal president with a sweeping agenda and big Democratic majorities capable of enacting it. The result has been a great and failed experiment in progressive politics and governance. In due course, one hopes, the left will absorb some lessons--but for now, they seem to be suffering a nervous breakdown.

That is one way to understand why so much of the liberal establishment is rallying behind [New York Slimes columnist Paul] Krugman's Army, as the "Occupy Wall Street" protests are known. Everything they believe in has failed, so they are turning nihilistic.

. . . From this Wall Street Journal Best of the Web column

Degrading the Presidency

2011-10-11T12:56:00.000-07:00

It used to be chanted, almost as a mandatory mantra, by those expressing opposition to any president that although they disagreed with the president's political position they respected the office . . . the office of the president or the presidency.

That has changed with the office's current occupant.

Delivering speeches was the former community organizer's strong suit. But as president, the nation's current chief magistrate has misused his speech making gifts by delivering words with no clear meaning and making endless promises that he had no ability to keep.

He and his wife have demonstrated wondrous and unprecedented talents for vacationing sumptuously and often, and for taking full advantage of, and relishing, the full range of the perquisites and trappings of the office.

But lacking any administrative qualifications, he has been a disaster at actually governing. He has used the office to reward his political cronies and supporters at the expense of the general public. He has shown himself to be an economic ignoramus. On foreign policy he has followed in Jimmy Carter's disastrous footsteps by punishing America's friends and rewarding its enemies. And by making Chicago style thuggery a hallmark and instrument of his administration, he has created gangster government.

Finally, he has turned the bully pulpit that the presidency used to be into a platform for the dissemination of untruths. Even the quiescent and docile press has begun to question the accuracy of his public statements with even the formerly adoring and obedient Associate Press instituting a Spin Meter series in which this column notes a "disconnect" between the current president's rhetoric and reality.

Before the press became so sensitive that it bowdlerized the language to avoid offending anyone by clearly reporting news, the AP would have reported that "disconnect" as what it actually is: plain and simple lying.

The upshot of all this is that the current occupant of the oval office has degraded the presidency to the point that the office, the presidency itself, no longer commands or warrants respect. We can only hope that whoever succeeds the current occupant of the office will be able to restore it to its former stature.

Face the Facts No Matter How Unpleasant They May Be

2011-10-11T10:09:00.000-07:00

Unemployment is a symptom of a stagnant or shrinking economy. Consequently, if the Obama administration were serious about trying to create jobs -- something government really cannot effectively do permanently -- it would be treating only a recurring symptom and not the underlying causative problem.

Obama inherited a bad economy, and like the preceding Bush administration, it has been endeavoring to stem the decline. Had our governmental geniuses left things alone, the economy would have plunged, hit bottom, and (at some unknown rate) bounced back. This has occurred time and time again as market forces have wrung out the results of bad business and financial decisions and economic excesses. The most recent example of this was the short lived downturn that resulted from the bursting of the dot com bubble about which the government did nothing. Efforts to artificially interfere with that process always exacerbate and extend the duration of the problem. The depth and persistence of the downturn always is proportional to politically motivated efforts to make it appear that the government is capable of, and is doing something beneficial about the problem.

All this is irrelevant as Obama's so-called American Jobs Act was created and is being promoted by the administration not to do anything about either jobs or the economy. It has no chance of being, and never was intended to be enacted into law. In fact, Obama ally, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blocked a Republicon effort to bring the measure up for an immediate vote. The whole thing is a charade being staged to give the hapless Obama a campaign issue to bolster his fading chances to get reelected next year.

Focusing on campaigning is probably a wise course of action for the former community organizer. It's always a good idea to do what one does well and he is pretty good at giving speeches and campaigning. He is not anywhere near as good at the task of governing, and demonstrates mind boggling ineptitude whenever he tries his hand at such tasks as formulating or implementing public policies.

Our Very Model of a Dishonorable Attorney General

2011-10-10T21:46:00.000-07:00

Eric Holder is a reprehensible disgrace who has transformed the federal department that he heads into the Department of Just Us.

Even before being named to his present position, he disqualified himself for it by his having circumvented established procedures to grease through the pardon of the international financier and fugitive Marc Rich in the closing nighttime hours of the Clinton Administration. How his appointment came to be confirmed by the Senate is another story for another time.

His next notable achievement was to give a free pass to truncheon wielding New Black Panther Party thugs who had engaged in voter intimidation and to institute racist policies in his department to overlook similar transgressions -- black crimes against white victims -- throughout the United States in the future. Details of Mr. Holder's oversight of the current administration's reverse racism are spelled out by the estimable
economist and social scientist Thomas Sowell in this excellent column.

Most recently, he has engaged in a cover up of, and led efforts to thwart an investigation into his department having provided vast quantities of assault weapons to Mexico's drug cartels, members of which have used those weapons to murder American law enforcement officers. As is made clear by this letter from the head of the congressional investigation into this latest travesty, the only remaining question about Mr. Holder is whether he is (i) hopelessly incompetent, or (ii) a felonious perjurer.

Surfeit of Polished Fools

2011-10-10T15:16:00.000-07:00

Many of America's problems stem from an overabundance of individuals who have been schooled in excess of their respective capacities to absorb or benefit from an education.

Beyond the 12th grade, and in many cases beyond the 7th or 8th grade, they gain a great deal of unjustified self esteem and confidence together with some superficial surface polish. Thus, even though they have acquired little knowledge and even less wisdom, they often possess the ability to talk and perhaps even to write glibly and smoothly.

This process has transformed many of the nation's colleges and universities or a good many portions of those institutions into something akin to the finishing schools that used to train girls from well to do families for places in society.

Emerging from such schooling, many pretenders go on to careers as entertainers, and in academia, the media, and government. They dominate our legislative bodies at every level of government and even attain executive power in some cases -- such as that of the current occupant of the oval office or that of the moronic Carolina governor who would suspend elections so that the ruling elite could govern by diktat without fear of being ousted by citizens (whom her process would transform into subjects).

Journaloustic Inanity

2011-10-10T14:07:00.000-07:00

Your not-so-humble blogger's mind was boggled by a report broadcast over the past weekend by the San Francisco Bay Area's self-proclaimed news station on the death of Oakland Raiders boss Al Davis.

After relating that Mr. Davis had died at his home at the age of 82 in the presence of members of his family, the mindless news reader advised listeners to remain tuned in for this breaking news.

Were they expecting Mr. Davis to become more dead? Or to be resurrected?