No legacy is so rich as honesty - William Shakespeare

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Read this story about a man who broke into Auschwitz.  It’s inspiring.

(H/T: Radley Balko)

Monday, March 01, 2010

A while back on one of the discussion topics someone brought up the Antrax attacks that happened after 9-11 as proof Bush and his administration had no iead what they are doing. Recently the DOJ colsed its probe on this case and while the MSM did its best to hide some of the more juicier things, those that seek shall find. I am not surprised to discover two things: this idiot was a super freak obsessed with “TheWon” and fearful of Darth Cheney. This guy was unhinged bigitme. And how insulting is it that he commited suicide by Tylenol overdose, when he screwed so many with his little Anthrax thing. I am not usually one to judge people on what they do in the privacy of their own home or bedroom, but it is interesting to me how many of the sickos out there seem to also be into real sick things.

Despite the failure of that WH PR stunt around the government takeover of healthcare last week, it looks like, at least to Pelosi, the donkeys are thinking they should move ahead and force that monstrosity on the people. According to Nancy, the problem is the republicans, not the fact that the majority of the people do not want this thing.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Sunday that Republicans have left their mark on the healthcare bill and should accept that the bill will go forward. “They’ve had plenty of opportunity to make their voices heard,” she said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday morning. “Bipartisanship is a two-way street. A bill can be bipartisan without bipartisan votes. Republicans have left their imprint.” The public option, for example, has been stripped from the bill because Republicans were so adamantly against it, she said. “They’ve had a field day going out and misrepresenting what the bill says,” Pelosi said. “But that’s what they do.”

I especially loved that bipartisan bit. As I have always contended, to democrats bipartisan means “you choose to do it my way”. Queen Nancy has decreed that the problem isn’t the cost or all the lies from the people pushing this disastrous proposal, and it certainly isn’t the objection by the people to it and other costly and insane collectivist policies pushed by congress and the WH, as the last 3 elections culminating with the Scott Brown victory for what once passed as a given democrat senatorial seat, but the republicans! They have had their say. Heck, the left even gave up the immediate government takeover option – the public option – and settled for a long term approach that will produce the same anyway. So there!

These collectivist have literally calculated that while this move will crush them in November, that nobody will dare roll this crap back. Thus in the end, they win, as the social expansion takes the biggest jump it has in decades and even more people become accustomed to the “free ride”. I think the idiot donkeys forget that this monster isn’t supposed to do anything but steal more of our money for the next 4 years before it delivers a single service. If they lose big enough though, that assumption might prove erroneous. But they are gambling that they are not going to lose big enough, and that even more importantly, there will be nobody with the guts to roll this back in the next 4 years, especially with Obama c*ck-blocking for them, it looks like. Lets hope they fail either way. Not because I hate this sort of colelctivist crap, but for the sake of the American people which have already beeen badly screwed over by these demcorats in but 1 year.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Chile just got hit by an 8.8 earthquake, one nearly 800 times stronger than the one that hit Haiti, with tsunamis expected to go all the way across the Pacific.

While they will certainly need some help, the country remains functional and I predict that they will weather this far better than Haiti did.  I’ve been to Chile many times and been impressed by its people and its productivity.  Each time I have visited, new developments and business were going up.  Their government has privatized their social security system and is very pro-free trade (although they still have some issues with building roads that last more than ten seconds).

Draw your own conclusions about the difference between the awful kleptocracy that runs Haiti vs. the capitalist democracy that runs Chile and how that translates in the safety and survival of their respective peoples.

Update: Amazing pictures of the devastation in Concepcion.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

I was just having a discussion with some immigrant friends of mine and remembered this wonderful post from our late resident genius.  Enjoy his revelation on a stint of jury duty.

I’ll tell you one thing, though.  As part of voir dire everyone had to give a basic personal history, including your name, where you live, your marital status, the occupation of you and your spouse, your children, and any occupation your children may have.  In the room were a number of immigrants—like any major city, LA is full of foreigners—and a number of minorities (blacks and Hispanics) who were probably not that well to do.  Most of these immigrants were from third world nations, Africa and Asia and the Middle East, but they were all citizens.

When they listed their jobs the immigrants listed the usual litany of immigrant-level work.  They were security guards or worked in catering at a hotel or did janitorial work, mostly unskilled labor, or had started as unskilled labor and moved into supervisory positions as they got experience.  Most of them were older than me, with grown children.  Almost without exception their kids were substantially better off than their parents, listing jobs like doctors or lawyers or nurses or graphic artists or software engineers, all highly-paid, educated, skilled labor.  A couple of them mentioned that their kids were enrolled in PhD programs.  And I thought, ‘What a great country America is.”

This is the American dream.  You’re not going to come to this country with no skills or education and make a million dollars (though that does occasionally happen).  The American dream is that you can come to this country with nothing and within one generation your kids can be solidly in the middle class.  There are very few societies where this is likely, or even possible.  In much of Europe this isn’t the case, immigrants end up ghettoized and isolated from mainstream society.  But not in America.

What a fantastic statement on what this country has to offer the world.

This will remain true, no matter what our politicians do.  It’s ingrained into our society to a depth that no political scrub brush can reach.

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

All of us know the people of Haiti are suffering, but some are doing more about it than others:

Scantily clad dancers were the draw at a downtown men’s entertainment club over the weekend for an event that raised nearly $1,000 for victims of the earthquake in Haiti.Marilyn’s on Monroe, 715 Monroe St., billed Saturday’s affair as “Lap dances for Haiti.” Although the billing may be misleading - lap dancing is illegal in Ohio - the intention isn’t. General Manager Kenny Soprano said Sunday the club donated all the money from the day’s regular $10 cover charge to International Services of Hope, or ISOH/IMPACT, of Waterville.

Now, I am not surprised to see the name Soprano as the manager of a strip joint - it would have been kharmic if it was called Badabing - and I am glad they raised money to help the unfortunate. Maybe they can take it a step further, and take the dances to the poor people of Haiti. After all, after Katrina, one of the biggest morale boosters was the $2K government credit cards so many used to get themselves some lap dances. Lap dances work....

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Ta-Nehisi Coates demonstrates why he’s my favorite liberal blogger. He’s talking about physically disciplining kids and throws out some wisdom that I think people of all political stripes can agree with.

This is hard for a lot of people to hear, but in my family, in my neighborhood, and in my community this is what part of what parenting meant. If you weren’t feeling the edge of the sword on your ass, then you were responding to the possibility of it. One thing I learned, while touring for my book, was that a lot of people consider this to be child abuse. It really was news to me and ultimately unthinkable. Almost everyone I’d ever known had come up the same way. My book editor would joke, while reading, the manuscript about his grandmother coming up from the South and making him go search for a switch. In Harlem.

Which isn’t to say I, or people who came up like me, are without a critique. I smacked my son’s hand until he was four. And then spanked him until he was seven. Most of this was about him sucking his teeth at his mother, or some such. We’re done with that now, and at least in my presence, he doesn’t exhibit that kind of disrespect.  When he’s staying with my people in Baltimore he doesn’t earn any immunity, and he’s subject to the same threat of the sword as his cousins. I get the argument against corporal punishment. But there’s something elemental in me, that recoils at modern parenting. I was on the train the other day and watched a kid repeatedly say to his father, “Daddy, you’re a jerk.” Wow. I confess that my immediate thought was, “that kid need his ass whipped.”

Read the whole thing, which talks about his relationship with his father.  Ta-Nehisi is making the important point that it’s far more important for your kids to respect you than to like you.  And that respect has to be earned; it doesn’t just magically appear.

I’ve said this many times, but I do feel we’ve gone too far on the sensitivity side in this country.  Corporal punishment (which a recent study has show is likely beneficial to younger children) is just one example.  There’s also the repugnant self-esteem movement, which is producing legions of kids who are ignorant and lazy, but feel good about it.  And far too many parents and teachers are concerned with their charges’ opinions and feelings than their morals, their knowledge and their discipline.

We’ve talked about all that before, of course.  But I’m going to riff on this in a different direction. It is my opinion that this molly-coddling is one of the reasons our political culture has become so diseased.  We have generations of Americans, including me, who have rarely seen real evil, who have never really experienced bad times. Their schools have told them how wonderful they are no matter how lazy or stupid they get. And their parents aren’t willing to smack them when they starting whining and complaining.

The result?  Anytime something bad happens, we completely lose our shit.  As Gregg Easterbrook notes:

The Haiti earthquake, all too real as a crisis, ought to remind us how often the word “crisis,” and its synonyms, are overused. “Obama Takes Oath, and Nation in Crisis Embraces the Moment,” read the 48-point-type New York Times headline on the morning of the 2009 presidential inauguration. Crisis? America’s current problems are quite moderate by the standards of history, including of recent economic history—things were worse in the late 1970s. “The nation faces a calamity,” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said last winter. “We are on the verge of complete collapse,” David Obey, chair of the House Committee on Appropriations, said last year. The United States faces “an economic crisis, a health care crisis and an environmental crisis,” prominent columnist Paul Krugman declared last spring. Environmental crisis? In the United States, except for greenhouse gas emissions, all environmental trends are positive. The United States faces “catastrophe,” Obama said not long after taking office. In his first State of the Union address, Obama used the word “crisis” 11 times; Bill Clinton used this word an average of once per State of the Union address. America faces “an unprecedented crisis, the worst in our history,” Minnesota senator Al Franken said last year. Worse than the Depression? Worse than the Civil War? The word “crisis” has been so trivialized that a recent Times head read, “Crisis Stings Britons in France and Spain.” The “crisis” was that British citizens who own vacation homes in France are being inconvenienced by the pound-Euro exchange rate.

Liberals are, of course, the masters of “crisis” mentality.  But conservatives aren’t exempt.  The past year has seen Obama’s standard and stale liberal platform, the likes of which we’ve been seeing for forty years, greeted with hysterical claims about socialism, terrorism and fascism from the Right.  Maybe, now that the GOP has drawn a little blood in an election, the rhetoric will calm down.  Cooler heads need to prevail if we’re going to fix our nation’s problems.

The good news is that I feel like we’re turning the corner, culturally.  Attitudes like Ta-Nehisi’s are far more common among my generation and the subsequent ones.  I have had several long nights with fellow parents arguing about raising kids.  Typically, the ones who favor more discipline and less coddling were the younger ones.  And during the recession, I’ve noticed that people—of all ages—were a lot less scared and panicky than the media and our politicians.

I increasingly feel—and maybe I’m deluding myself—like we’ve passed the peak of the Age of Whining that started in the 70’s.  I don’t know if this will translate to politics, which always trails the culture and has never, in any age, been the domain of calm disciplined people.  But it’s possible that the constant sense of CRISIS and OUTRAGE that has characterized our political system is in a slow retreat.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Watch and be proud

And yes, that’s the Haitians shouting “USA!” More inspiring video from the LA firefighters here.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

I wonder if all those haters that took it serious when the French and other losers accused the US of being invaders will take note of the fact that despite their claims Obama would fix it all the French are now accusing the US again of being invaders? Yeah, yeah, I know. Bush was an evil bastard and he invaded, while Obama is a great guy and he means well. Spare me the stupid. I get enough of that from these French. Anyway, why are the French siding with Chavez and making this ludicrous claim? Check this out..

France accused the US of “occupying” Haiti on Monday as thousands of American troops flooded into the country to take charge of aid efforts and security. The French minister in charge of humanitarian relief called on the UN to “clarify” the American role amid claims the military build up was hampering aid efforts. Alain Joyandet admitted he had been involved in a scuffle with a US commander in the airport’s control tower over the flight plan for a French evacuation flight. “This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti,” Mr Joyandet said. Geneva-based charity Medecins Sans Frontieres backed his calls saying hundreds of lives were being put at risk as planes carrying vital medical supplies were being turned away by American air traffic controllers.

If Bush was in charge I am sure he would be accused of having ordered this to kill black people, but I wonder why the complete silence on this stuff for Obama. Puts things into perspective though. My personal opinion is that we should just tell the French Haiti is their baby anyway, and leave it all up to them. The French are already, as this ridiculous accusation points out, looking to lay blame elsewhere and to make themselves look better, so why not just let them run with the ball? The French have no logistical capability to deal with this and would crash and burn. The Haitian people would end up screwed hard, but then again, that’s been their lot in life for the existence of their country.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

CNN has a heart-breaking story from Haiti.  Open question: what should we do, long term?  Haiti simply does not have the medical facilities to deal with even a tiny portion of this tragedy.  If we park a navy ship of the coast, it will be the most advanced medical facility available, probably for decades.  How long do we stay?  How much authority do we take?  How much money do we spend?  Is this going to end up like our last occupation and last for twenty years?  Maybe it should so we can set that ruined nation to rights.  What do you guys think?

The real horror in Haiti was caused not by the earthquake but by a crushing poverty created by decades of incompetent government.  What do we do about that?  Prop them up until the next tragedy hits?

Oh, well.  At least Newsweek is on the case, publishing puff pieces from politicians. You see how CNN humanized this tragedy with that little girl being pulled from the rubble?  That’s reporting, assholes.

Friday, January 01, 2010

Looking back over the past year, I think it’s apropos that the most succesful film of the year is likely to be Avatar.  For our Congress, our pundits and our President seem to be living in their own virtual reality.  The world in which they live is no more real than Pandora; their image of themselves about as realistic as the Na’Vi.  The only problem is that their fantasy isn’t make money; it’s costing it.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Here’s hoping that our readers have a Merry Christmas with their families and friends.  While you spend the day opening presents, digging through snow or having a few let no government, no politician and no bureaucrat cloud your day.  They get every other day of the year; today is for us.

I would also like to take this opportunity, as I have in past years, to thank you guys for reading and for keeping me honest.  A big thanks is also due to JimK for maintaining the sites and allowing me to continue to spout my gibberish, even the gibberish he disagrees with.  And a quiet prayer for Lee, who got me into the business to begin with and whose loss has left a hole in the blogosphere that can never be filled.  If you find a quiet moment this Christmas, spare a thought and maybe a toast to him, wherever his spirit may be.

Monday, December 14, 2009

It’s a good thing we have those rational Democrats in power rather than those irrational religion-besotted conservatives with their crazy-ass ... excuse me?

A new study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reveals some startling differences between Republicans and Democrats on issues of spirituality and supernatural phenomenon.

...

“Conservatives and Republicans report fewer experiences than liberals or Democrats communicating with the dead, seeing ghosts and consulting fortunetellers or psychics,” the Pew study says. For example, 21 percent of Republicans report that they have been in touch with someone who is dead, while 36 percent of Democrats say they have done so. Eleven percent of Republicans say they have seen a ghost, while 21 percent of Democrats say so. And nine percent of Republicans say they have consulted a fortuneteller, while 22 percent of Democrats have.

There’s more. Seventeen percent of Republicans say they believe in reincarnation, while 30 percent of Democrats do. Fourteen percent of Republicans say they believe in astrology, while 31 percent of Democrats do. Fifteen percent of Republicans say they view yoga as a spiritual practice, while 31 percent of Democrats do. Seventeen percent of Republicans say they believe in spiritual energy, while 30 percent of Democrats do.

There are some areas in which the two partisan groups are similar. When Pew asked respondents whether they have had a religious or mystical experience, 50 percent of Republicans said yes, as did 50 percent of Democrats. But overall, there are sizable disparities.

This is not unprecedented or the result of a singe poll.  Here is some brilliance from our late lamented Lee on this subject, poring through the results of a different study that reach the same conclusions.

It’s easy to be like Maher and Klein and deride religious people as being conservatives, but the “morons who believe in stupid, unscientific, illogical, unprovable crap” group cuts across ideologies and other demographics.  I’ve been as critical as anyone on the subject of religious people, especially those in positions of political power who base governmental policy on their beliefs.  But, as I’ve stipulated before, not only don’t believe in God I also don’t believe in the supernatural.  I don’t believe in ghosts, fairies, angels, goblins, leprechauns, UFOs, or any other crap.  (On the issue of UFOs I’m willing to stipulate the remote possibility that they exist and that Earth has been visited by extraterrestrials, but I don’t believe it, which is the salient point.) I’d also mention that the lefties are more likely to believe in wild, asinine conspiracy theories, especially those involving corporations.  It doesn’t matter if there is any evidence, if there’s a six-degrees-of-separation connection to a corporation then, well, clearly the proof is there.)

Penn and Teller have a saying on their show—everybody got a gris gris.  Everybody has some piece of bullshit spiritualism to which they cling.  You sweep out the old religion and a new one slinks into its place.  For every shitwit group praying for low gas prices, there’s a numbskull group wanting everyone to have a simultaneous orgasm to create world peace.

(I heartily recommend trying the latter one.  Because even if it doesn’t—what’s their phrasing—“effect positive change in the energy field of the earth through conscious dedication of orgasmic energy to the vibration of Peace”—even if it doesn’t do whatever the fuck that is—hey, at least you got an orgasm out of it.)

Illogic and superstition seems to be hard-wired into our brains.  We’ve gotten to the point where we’ve minimized it: it’s not like we’re burning witches or anything these days.  But the fools, like the poor, will always be with us.  On Left and Right.

Update: A tip of the hat to Nuh-uh, who reminded me of this rare bit of insight from Roger Ebert on New Agers and Creationists.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

I am usually right up front when it comes to hammering the ineptness and stupidity coming form the left and the current crop of crooks running the show. But today I am going to actually do soemthing rare and praise Obama for doing the right thing. I am not even going to bother with therest of the stuff he said.

OSLO (AP) - President Barack Obama entered the pantheon of Nobel Peace Prize winners Thursday with humble words, acknowledging his own few accomplishments while delivering a robust defense of war and promising to use the prestigious award to “reach for the world that ought to be.” A wartime president honored for peace, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president in 90 years and the third ever to win the prize - some say prematurely. In this damp, chilly Nordic capital to pick it up, he and his wife, Michelle, whirled through a day filled with Nobel pomp and ceremony.

The guy isn’t totally stupid. In fact, this was awesome to see from him, considering how the moonbats, both in that committee and here at home, will react to this news. Don’t take my word for it:

Greenpeace and anti-war activists planned larger demonstrations later that were expected to draw several thousand people. Protesters have plastered posters around the city, featuring an Obama campaign poster altered with skepticism to say, “Change?”

FU Greenpeace. I wish Obama was more steadfast on this stuff. It would make me feel a lot more comfortable that he wants to win, despite the fact that most of the moonbats want us to lose, and understands the stakes and consequneces.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

The last couple of years, I’ve given out my awards for “Turkey of the Year” (2008, 2007).  The idea of the award is not to slam political/cultural figures who are the most harmful or the most dangerous, which is why I won’t be tagging Obama or his Congress.  No, the idea is to acknowledge those whom are the most deserving of mockery, those whose non-stop silliness makes the world go around and give punch lines to talk show hosts.

Be sure to pony up your nominees.  But my 2009 Turkeys of the Year are:

1) Mike Steele.  I was very bullish on Steele when he was tapped to head the Republic Party.  However, from embarrassing attempts to appeal to young people, to a web page that quickly became a running gag to a Republican purity test that consists entirely of things Republicans oppose—no solutions to any problems—he’s been ineffective at best.  He’s even losing the party to the Palin wing, having let them blow NY-23.  Barack Obama represents the biggest challenge conservatism has had in forty years.  Steele is not up to the challenge.

2) Glen Beck: Thank you so much, Mr. Beck, for becoming a national joke.  Thank you for constantly responding to Obamaism in the most hysterical and Godwin’s Law-afflicted prose.  To be fair, you should share this reward with Fox News, who, by editing footage of past protests into recent ones, is slowly trying to make true every hysterical liberal accusation ever made.

3) The Clinton State Department:  From the “reset” button to a protocol office that can’t seem to decide whether Obama should shake the Japanese Emperor’s hand or suck his dick, they’ve been an ongoing laugh track.

4) Sarah Palin: From her bizarre resignation to her dicey relationship with the truth, she is coming to represent everything that’s wrong the GOP.  A “genuine American” who is as phony as a three-dollar bill.  And please, Sarah, could you stop using the baby as a prop?

5) Andrew Sullivan: I still read his blog, which is always interesting and relevant.  But I need to set my browser to filter out all Sarah Palin posts.  His bizarre vixation upon her and her uterus would make Ahab say, “Whoa, dude.  You watched Oprah? Let it go.”

Dishonorable Mention: Elliot Spitzer, Carrie Prejean, Michael Moore, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, Obama celebrity videos, the Mainstream Media, Joe Biden, Henry Louis Gates and James Crowley, the twerps caught up in ClimateGate.

However, it shouldn’t all be cynicism here.  In past years, I’ve also given out Golden Drumsticks to those who have me proud to be an American.  This year, I could really give it to the American people, who are paying closer attention to our government than the media whose job it is and who are weathering the economic storm with more grace, dignity and perseverance than a whole army of politicians.  But I’ll focus my kudos to:

1) The American Fighting Man.  They don’t care who is in Washington or what the politics are.  They continue to fight with courage, restraint and honor.  When history looks back, the US Armed Forces will stand taller than the Roman Legions.  The Fort Hood massacre was a stark reminder of how they represent the best of the nation.

2) Kimberly Munley and Mark Todd: These are the two civilian cops who stopped Nidal Hassan. And the amazing thing is that we have thousands of cops out there who would have faced down a killer with equal skill and courage.

3) George W. Bush: Yes, I’m as surprised as you are.  But he has been quiet in his post-presidency, unwilling to offer all but the most oblique criticism of his successor.  And his quiet and unpublicized visit in the wake of the Fort Hood tragedy was everything an ex-President should be.  I have the feeling that this will be a trend and that as bad a President as he was, he will turn out to be just as good an ex-President.

Have a safe and happy holiday everyone.