Christmas 2012

My Christmas status report...

Well, it seems we are all still here, Mayan calendar not withstanding.  I kept telling people that their calendar stopped because they ran out of numbers!

I've been living here for about a year and a half now.  Doc Deb was gracious and invited me to move in when I lost my job last year.  I'd been doing maintenance stuff in exchange for my keep, until she lost her job in March.  She decided to move down to Texas to be with her parents, who are getting a bit frail.  I'd pulled the pin on my retirement benefits (such as they are), so now I'm staying in the house, making the mortgage payment.

The last three months have been exciting - I started working as a contract writer for a company called Remilon.  I'm writing on-line classes on programming for them, for starters.  The idea is, you could take a full class on one of many subjects for free, and then take the CLEP exam, and get college credit for the class.  It's an inexpensive way to clear out a lot of undergrad requirements, given that the cost of a CLEP exam is usually under $100.00.  My first lesson is finished, and I just uploaded the video for my second one yesterday.

Given that I live at the main crossroads in Red Lion, there is a *lot* of traffic, and traffic noise, which makes recording my lessons pretty much impossible.  I went to the local library, and asked if I could use one of their conference rooms as my recording studio.  I wound up talking with the director, Don, about it.  One thing led to another, and I wound up hanging a projection screen in the board room for them.  We are working on starting some computer skills classes there.  I use the library as my office sometimes, as it gets me out of the house and away from potential distractions (like Baxter helping me type).

Got the heater working, and think I've located the leak that flooded the basement.  It's not the boiler, nor is it the water heater.  I believe that it's in one of the pipes going through the cellar wall to the heater in the kitchen.  That means, the kitchen floor will have to come up in order to locate and repair said leak.  Fun.

I got an estimate on getting the old siding replaced.  The Home Depot guy (also named Don) was mostly worried about the sagging laundry room.  I did a little poking around, and it looks like there is no really code-grade footing for it.  The floor will also have to come up for diagnosis and repair, and possible jacking/shoring.  Yay.

Christmas... I'm going to get the place picked up and cleaned up this weekend.  My plan for Monday is to bake.  Current projects are to be two pumpkin pies and weapons-grade fudge topped brownies.  (I may do soft oatmeal cookies before that, just to get me through the weekend.)  Christmas day will be my Christmas movie marathon: The Ice Harvest (John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Connie Nielsen), The Holiday (Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jack Black, Jude Law), Scrooged (Bill Murray, Karen Allen), and a new one, the 200th episode of NCIS.  I think of as a take on "It's a Wonderful Life", with Gibbs taking George Bailey's place in the center of things.  And maybe, if I can find them, the "Eureka" Christmas episodes, too.  Dinner will be turkey tamales and Caesar salad.  And french vanilla ice cream laced with brandy (from the book "Ice Cream Happy Hour").  And, of course, I hope to chat with my daughter.  She is on the road from L.A. to Billings, Montana as we speak.  She expects to arrive today, and will be staying with my cousin and his wife until she can get situated.

Update - pictures!!

Living room with tree, candles, and Baxter

Dining area/work area

Bar, red hat, and Dakota

Kitchen work station, with pie!!

Close-up, workstation and pie!  Kitchen composting happens in the green bins on the left.

And that's about it for year end here in PA.

Merry Christmas to all!

Steve...

...is unwell.

Go and offer sympathy and condolences!

"We're screwed..."

...okcupid has a wicked sense of humor!!

We’re screwed. You should be too!

This was in my in box right now, followed by a link to a potential match.

Oh, my!

Muir. Nail. Head. (and Nibbles)

No assembly required.

"Safety" and "the children" are the "nibbles" that are and will be used to diminish our freedom, one victim (and one nibble) at a time.

Gotta say, I say I saw this kind of thing coming back in the 70's, when the park rangers banned BASE jumping and hang gliding from the top of El Capitan in Yosemite, because someone got themselves killed. I did not connect the dots from that to basic constitutional rights, though, nor did I see malicious intent behind it.

And they used to call me "cynical".

Update:  Joan of Argghh, who is posting at Primordial Slack, has this:

My comment there:

A few years back, the school I worked at had a near miss with this – neighbors complained about one of our students who lived in their apartment complex, cop came out to the apartment, and discovered that our student was planning a shooting spree at the school. The BCPD came out and talked with us a couple of times – the gist was, lock door, lights off, gather (he didn’t say “huddle”) in a corner out of the line of sight from the window by the door (each classroom had one). He clearly told us not to run, because of the possibility of being seen by the shooter or a potential accomplice.

And yes, we were a “target rich environment”, er, “gun-free zone”.

Mike, Meet Mr. Griffin

I'm thinking that Mike and Robert Griffin III should get together for a chat, based on Mr. Griffin's remarks in USA Today:

 "For me, you don't ever want to be defined by the color of your skin,'' Griffin said at the end of Wednesday's post-practice news conference in reference to a question about Martin Luther King, Jr. "You want to be defined by your work ethic, the person that you are, your character, your personality. That's what I've tried to go out and do.

"I am an African-American in America. That will never change. But I don't have to be defined by that.''

Aapparently, ESPN's Rob Parker doesn't like the sort of honesty and forthright talk that Mr. Griffin delivers.  NRO quotes Parker as saying

" ...'my question, which is just a straight honest question, is [Griffin] a brother, or is he a cornball brother?'"  

That was Sunday.  Today, CBS DC reports:

 "(Those comments)  led to the commentator’s suspension.  Shortly after Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch broke the news of Parker’s suspension via Twitter, ESPN made a statement on the issue.

“Following yesterday’s comments, Rob Parker has been suspended until further notice,” ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys tweeted. “We are conducting a full review.”

Good man 1, urban plantation 0.

Heh.

Mike Explains It All

Stolen from Gerard.

I've been thinking lately that we should seriously consider replacing the word "race" with the word "culture".  Not all blacks are professional victims.  Not all Moslems are Jihadists.  But there is a culture of victimhood prevalent in black society.  There is an alarming culture of brutality and murder in the Moslem world.

Gerard. Park. Out of... (Updated)

...and the park is Yellowstone!

Go.  Read!

(Update - got the frikkin' link right.  Sheesh!)

Elevating Thought

 It's been a month since the election, and I'm still trying to re-group.  What upset me the most (after the outcome)  was the encroaching lack of civility and clear, useful journalism on the Right as well as the Left.  I find that disheartening, since one of the Big Deals we made about the Left was and is their lack of civility, and the mendacity of the MSM.

One writer who comes to mind is John Nolte, at Breitbart.  Here is his opener on the Zimmerman/NBC suit:

"Though it might feel like a hundred years ago, it was only last April when the media joined Barack Obama's cynical crusade to gin up his base in Florida through the artificial inflaming of racial tensions. And there was no question NBC News was the worst of these co-conspirators after the network was busted editing a 9-1-1 call to make Trayvon Martin's suspected shooter, George Zimmerman, look like a racist. Today, Zimmerman filed suit against the Peacock Network."

Now, I gather that his basic assertion about NBC editing the sound track of the 911 call is factual.  But I don't think anyone would deny that the inflammatory nature of the paragraph.  I'm not suggesting that Mr. Nolte do anything differently - he has his "bully pulpit", the editors must like the way he's writing, and the First Amendment applies.  You go, John.

But I think this kind of writing only helps to maybe put an up-tick in the pitch fork, torch, tar, feather, and rail markets.  Which I don't think is really helpful at all, even in the short term.

My metaphysics training has taught me to stand guard at the doorway of thought.  In a nutshell, this warning is based upon the idea that we see and become what we think and believe.  If we don't pay attention to what we are admitting into our thoughts, we can start to slide downhill.  A practical example - repeat a lie often enough, and it (seems to) become true.

My distress is in no small part to my own slippage.  Looking back over my pre-election and near-post election posts, I'm struck by how they could have been less, well, vulgar, and more informative and thoughtful.  Fortunately, Gerard turned on a light for me, and gave me a glimpse of what I've been seeking.  It has apparently been wending its way thru the web.  One full copy of it is at The Thinking Housewife.  I'm excerpting the first section here:

A Plan for Traditionalists

AT The Orthosphere, Kristor offers a reasonable guide to survival and affecting the culture. In the immediate future, he recommends:

1. Resolve to pay no more PC jizya (beautifully spelled out in the Solzhenitsyn essay that has been discussed a lot lately in the wider orthosphere). Tell the truth, and call a spade a spade: calmly, politely, and without being obstreperous about it, but nevertheless firmly. Without making a big deal about it or calling attention to yourself, fail to appear for the public rites of Moloch. If you must thus appear, quietly fail to meet the requirements of the rite.
2. Write, read, blog, talk: join a book club, an apologetics roundtable, a bible study group. Learn the arguments for reaction, for Christianity, for theism; learn the arguments against them, and how they may be defeated. Speak up: fearlessly, scandalously, but always humbly and politely.
3. Live a virtuous, upright life, at home and in business. Speak the truth, and do the right thing. Whatever it happens to be, don’t let it be about yourself; let it be about the True, the Good, and the Beautiful.
4. Beware; and be prepared to move, quickly. Get rid of stuff that you don’t need or that is not positively beautiful to you in some way – especially debt and belly fat, which are likely going to cost you as the financial and medical sectors of the economy devolve over the next ten years.
5. Maintain tradition in small things: e.g., dress more formally than is customary these days, practice old-fashioned manners, refrain from swearing; read old books, and then discuss them around the family dinner table; join together in regular and serious family prayer, if only to bless each meal; remember your family holiday traditions, and observe them gravely and with joy.
6. Pray without ceasing. Pray whenever your attention is not wholly consumed with the task at hand. Work toward praying even when it is. Nothing is so convincing as sanctity, or so attractive, or so authoritative. Without it, personal rectitude can seem like Pharisaical arrogance (and risks becoming just that). You can’t push sanctity. But you can work at allowing it to happen.

 (Debt isn't the huge problem it was five years ago.  The belly fat, though continues to be tough.)

There's more, all worth read, pondering, and incorporating into our lives.  Go!

The New Revolutionary War

The ever-suave and lucid Steven Green has a post up about Michael Cannon's article in the LA Times.  The gist is, many states are not implementing the exchange infrastructure required to make Obamacare "work" (sorry).  He posits that this will make the true costs of the monstrosity visible  to all, causing massive sales in torches, pitchforks, rails, tar and feathers.  (OK, he didn't say the part about increased sales.  But it's a happy dream... .)

Vodkapundit doesn't think this has much of a chance.

This all got me to thinking (uh-oh), which started to coagulate what's been ricocheting around my cranium since the election.  Here's my comment:

"I've been contemplating may navel since the election, and I'm coming to the conclusion that the only way to stop this frikkin' nightmare is to fight and beat it at the state level.  (And by "frikkin' nightmare", I mean the whole greedy, bloated Federal Government!)

State laws prohibiting state enforcement of Federal mandates.

Lawsuits, lawsuits, lawsuits.

States, start to wean yourself off the Federal dime.  Keep your own tax money.  Don't send any money to Washington.  Pay for your own schools and roads.

Keep as much activity and business in-state as you can, to circumvent the commerce clause.

Make yourself business-friendly.  Low taxes, right-to-work.  Train literate and numerate workers - teach them reading. writing, arithmetic, history and computers; art, literature.  Yeah, world art & lit, but make sure there's a solid foundation in American and Western history, lit and art.  Give the kids their heritage, not someone else's.

It doesn't have to be a shooting war, but it is a war."

If we aren't going to start a shooting war, which, I think, is a really bad idea, we need to entrench and start resisting through the "system" at the state level.

But we must fight back, because it is a war.

Like I said...

"...God, family, friends, country."

Getting The Poverty

Sippican has a post up about splinters and poverty, which prompted me to comment.  As often happens, my comments are turned into posts...

I too have caught the poverty. Ten years ago, I was a well paid contractor at a Major Aerospace Company in Southern California.  Now, I'm trying to get along on Social (in)Security and what little pension I have from said Major Aerospace Company; renting my friend's house in SE Pennsylvania from her so she doesn't get foreclosed.

I love it and wouldn't trade it for anything, except, perhaps, to hear from my daughter on a more regular basis.

Updating a bit, from a second comment:

A further thought.  I infer from the comments here, that we all are relatively safe and dry (if not as warm as we might like).  I presume we have enough to eat, lights in the house, and (obviously) the interweb.

We are not impoverished, just broke.  Yes, the lack o' cash does focus the mind, as V-man says.  It seems to focus it on the more important things, like God, family, friends and country.
 

Caught on Tape...

I particularly like the guy who tackles the robber.  Did something like that, once.

I was working in the note department at the local bank, when I heard, from the teller area, some guy shout "Put the money in the bag!!"  I looked up, and saw a guy take off out the door next to our area.  Being young, stupid and immortal, I hit the alarm and took off after him.

About a block later, I came around a corner, and there he was.  My first thought was "Oh great.  Now what?!"  I think I yelled at him to stop.  Just about that time, the LEOs rolled up and apprehended him.

When I got back to the bank, I was thanked, and told never to do that again.

Benghazi Four

I'm bumping this one, in the wake of the election and Petraeus' kerfluffle.

Keep your eye on the ball... Eisenhower had a mistress during WWII.  So the fuck what?

Click == Bigger

Via Pundette

Blogs for Mitt...

...should have had a final post that just said:

"Well, shit."

But I'm sure they won't.

Be funny, tho...

OK... (Updated)

...more than a little gin.  (Ouch.)

Impeach him??

I'm going to take down the yard signs and re-arrange the furniture.

Wal-Mart has a decent price on .45 ACP - $39.95/100 Winchester, 230 grain.

Gotta get a few more clips, too.

(Update!)  Mags..., I mean mags!

Punting Election Night

Music.

A little gin.

Occasional look at the news on line.

Voter Turnout...

...in S.E. Pa:

I arrived just after 11 AM.

I guess signage around the  place is OK?  This isn't L.A. County, so I don't know.

Quiet as a church yard.  Oh, wait...

No pictures inside, of course, but they were doing a steady business.  One gentleman was waiting patiently for something to get cleared up so he could cast his vote.

There were only six items on the ballot: president/vice president, U.S. Senator,   U.S. Congressman, State Representative, Attorney General, Auditor and Treasurer.

Voting machine appeared to register my vote correctly...

Time to Focus on Tomorrow (Updated)

Click == Bigger

'nuff said.

Via Rodger

P.S. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Public Secrets has the definitive post on who was solely able to and responsible for sending a rescue team into Benghazi.  (Hint - he's running for president, and his name isn't Mitt Romney).

Obama hung those people Out. To. Dry.

Thank God Bush Isn't In Charge... (Updated & Bumped x3elebenty

...or Ray Nagin.

Update VI:  Jewel, over at Gerard's, tells a great story:  

"Today, my husband witnessed a wondrous act of resourcefulness. A man with a horse trailer hitched to his truck was filling up individual 5 gallon jugs of gas in order to transport them back to New Jersey. He went out into the wide world of American plenty that lies just beyond disaster. He didn't wait like a hopeless fool in a line of idling cars for gasoline that is rationed by the spoonful. His neighbors hired him because he had a big, gas eating truck, and gave him money and jugs and sent him to Lancaster County to go shopping. He brought back not only gasoline, but food, water, clothing, blankets, batteries, and other things they might need. Those people are heroes, because they used their God-given talents and brains and didn't go crying to the cameras, asking for the government to come and help."

It's easy to get "wrapped around the axle" in a mess like Sandy.  Jewel's post is a wonderful reminder that everything you need is available a couple of hours away.

Update V:  Daily Caller reports that the IBEW sent a letter to the Florida electrical utility demanding that the emergency workers join the (damned) union.  Class act, brothers!

Not to be out done, nanny Bloomberg answers THS's question.  Seems he disapproves of the National Guard's policy of carrying weapons, particularly guns.  He's afraid of "martial law". (Ed Driscoll at Instapundit)

Did I mention that truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction has to make sense?  Yeah, 's true.

Update IV:  Tree Hugging Sister over at the Coalition asks:

FEMA Is Out of Water Redux ~ Anybody Ask the Army Corps of Engineers for Help?

Seems they are waiting to be activated, but none of the super-geniuses in charge have thought to do that.  So supplies that are pre-contracted (like water and ice) are gathering dust while everyone waits for FEMA to get a contract out.  Tomorrow.

And this, from the New York Post: "Some Rockaways residents who work as firefighters in The Bronx and Manhattan were fuming yesterday — sitting idly in their firehouses while their neighbors and family members miles away struggled to get help."


Update III:  The proverbial $64.00 questions that need asking are, "Why weren't Cuomo and Bloomberg setting up relief sites two weeks ago?  Why weren't they pre-positioning bottled water, MREs and blankets?  Who says you have to wait on FEMA to do it??  WHO??"

They have let down the people who have (foolishly) trusted in them.

Update II:  You have to, HAVE TO  be ready to live in isolation for at least a week after something like Sandy or Katrina or the Sylmar quake.  There just aren't enough Official First Responders to come and wipe your nose!!  So far, the only real assistance in Rockaway or Staten Island has been neighbors helping neighbors.  And that is how it happens - you take care of yourself, your family, and your neighborhood.

Update: Mary Katherine Ham at Hot Air has a great piece up about Federal vs. local disaster recovery management, and (of all things) "The Waffle House Index".

Previously:

From Drudge:

I am willing to bet that I am not the only one who was paying attention to the news, particularly the weather, in the last two weeks or so.  I made sure the truck had a full tank.  I made sure that I had propane for the camp stove, batteries for flashlights and camping lamps, a well-stocked freezer and fridge, a clean bathtub full of fresh water,

 Here's the money quote from nanny Bloomberg:

“We are, over the next few days, going to have to work out some procedures to make sure people can get food,” Mayor Bloomberg insisted.

Let that sink in.  Like New Orleans in Katrina, whose disaster preparedness plan amounted to "We should have one".

Yup.  He obviously took lessons from Nagin.

Sunday Funny

I miss those two!

Via Gerard

Keep Calm...

Via Gerard

Las Vegas Review Journal...

...is apparently not endorsing Obie:

EDITORIAL

Benghazi blunder: Obama unworthy commander-in-chief

 The takeaway line:  

"This administration is an embarrassment on foreign policy and incompetent at best on the economy - though a more careful analysis shows what can only be a perverse and willful attempt to destroy our prosperity."

Go.  Read!! 

 

Via Breitbart. 

More Tech Politics

Via Morgan

Not Under the Bus...

...He's Throwing Us Under Water!

Update:

The NYT has a scare article about Romney wanting to privatize FEMA.  Only 'big government' can save us, apparently.  They obviously know nothing about disaster services.

The best part: " ...President George W. Bush, ... neglected it, subsumed it into the Department of Homeland Security, and placed it in the control of political hacks. The disaster of Hurricane Katrina was just waiting to happen.

Previously:

Internet only emergency contact info at White House and FEMA web sites.

When asked where folks should turn for information if they have no power, a FEMA worker said, “Well, those people who have a laptop with a little battery life on it can try that way. Otherwise, you’re right.”

“President Obama is giving out the Web address only is because you normally don’t hear him saying anything before a disaster strikes,” Fuller said. “So they might be getting a little ahead of themselves. What they don’t want to do is give out a phone number and have people start calling if a federal disaster declaration isn’t even declared for their county.”
The problem with that, Thome said, is that it’ll be too late to provide the information once the disaster is under way.

As always, go, read!

Politlco, via Drudge.

Sandy

I'll be blogging Hurrican Sandy over at Window on Red Lion.  (That's something I never expected to say!!)  If you are interested in how south east Pennsylvania, near York is doing, I'll keep you posted for as long as possible.  I expect to be without power (lights, heat, cooking and computers) for a fair while.  I think that water will be OK, but I'm going to stockpile, just in case.

See you there!

Compare and Contrast...

...a lesson in humor.

For something to be funny, there needs to be a) truth, b) a surprise, be it a sharp turn, an inversion of said truth (irony), or logical and probably unlikely extension of said truth.

First, Mr. Muir:

Then, Mr.Doonesbury:

Solution is  left as an exercise to the student.

Democrat Campaign 2012...

...summed up in pictures. 

This is it.  Less than 2 weeks, and this is what  they bring.

This from his Oneness' tumblr page:

 

And the re-worked Putin ad:

Both at Drudge

Humility...

...the other guys should try it.

"I’m 100% convinced Mitt Romney was shaken to his soul right then and there.  I think at that moment it was sinking in he might really be the next American president, and it humbled him right to his core, in every nerve of his body.  And as he was saying that little prayer, you could hear the sound of thunder from all those thundersticks outside. Like this huge low rumble that just surrounded all of them at once.  A quiet little prayer, and the sound of thunder."

For some reason, I'm reminded of the scene in Camelot, where Vanessa Redgrave's Gunivere angrily counsels Lancelot to try "Hoo-mil-ee-tay!"  Someone should have done that to Obie a long time ago.  And made it stick, too.

Go.  Read.

Via The Ulsterman Report, and of course, Gerard

Grab 'n' Go

"Grab 'n' Go" Bags" are you first line of defense in a disaster.  They should be in a place where you can grab them on your way out the door.  These are from the Huntington Beach CERT organization, which I belonged to for a couple of years.  Their purpose is to keep you going if you have to evacuate on short notice.  The contents of these are based on the Southern California environment, so adjust accordingly.

 I sent these to Mr Bingley at The Coalition of the Swilling, and decided that with the approach of Sandy, I put them up here, along with my comments to Mr. B.  (Click for full size)

Sone notes:

Adult, left column: 

• Radio - I have one that runs on its own solar cell, batteries, or juice from its hand crank
• Money - change, $1s, $5s, and $10s.  If you don't break down your $20s, you'll find that everything costs $20.00
• Whistle - make sure it's a damned loud one, not a cheapo toy store one.
• Okay/Help signs - 8 1/2" x 11", 72 point print, red text "Help", green text "OK"  Put the appropriate one in a street-facing window - lets first responders know how you're doing.
• Out of state contact - I expect you might be that for your family down south.  If they can't raise each other, they call you, and you relay messages.
• Important docs - old driver's license/passport
• First aid - no kit is too big.  I like the ones at Sam's - $20.00, great for BLS.  I'd make sure I had tubes of anti-biotic and cortisone creams as well.  Eye drops/wash.  Low dose aspirin, just in case.  Written first aid guide.  

Right column:

• TP - the new cash.  Need I say more?
• Good book - bring some of your favorite adult spirits along w/ the books and cards
• Blanket/tent, etc - I have my camping gear backed in a couple of large plastic storage boxes.
• Dust mask - I can't use the disposable ones - they fog my glasses when I exhale.  I broke down and got an inexpensive (not "cheap") respirator at Home Depot.  Works much better...
• Tools - I have an old catalog case that I keep my hard hat and misc b & e tools in (I was the CERT ligtht urban search & rescue team leader for a year.)

 

Pets - most of the first aid items listed are in a good first aid kit (like the one from Home Depot)

 

Car

• Get an inverter that will run out of the cigarette lighter - this will allow  you to charge things like laptops, that need a 110/120 v AC outlet.  Got mine at Sam's.

 

Random Notes:

• I have "FirstAid", "iTriage" and the "U.S. Army (sorry, Marines) Survival Guide" apps on my 'Droid. 
• Keep a phone charger in your car!!
• Make sure you have an extra phone charger for each phone.  Radio Shack and Office Depot both sell chargers that have interchangeable plugs, so you can use 1 charger to charge several phones (mine plugs into the wall, the cig lighter, and even take a 9v battery!)
• Or just get a cigarette lighter powered USB outlet.  (Apple people, YMMV)

 A good practice is to check the batteries on your smoke alarm, and inventory your survival stuff twice a year, on the day the time changes (or on New Year's Day and the 4th of July if you don't switch to/from Daylight Savings Time).  Make sure batteries are fresh (or charged), rotate water and other perishables.

A bottle or two of your favorite Adult Beverage is not a bad thing to have on hand, either.

"Don't look behind you...

...something may be gaining on you".

Satchel Page

Arming Jihad

"In short, it seems President Obama has been engaged in gun-walking on a massive scale. The effect has been to equip America’s enemies to wage jihad not only against regimes it once claimed were our friends, but inevitably against us and our allies as well. That would explain his administration’s desperate and now failing bid to mislead the voters through the serial deflections of Benghazigate."

Go read the whole thing!

Eleven days to go.

Frank Gafney, Jr, Washington Times, via Rodger

Virus Warning (and cleaner)

Heh.  Something for us techies!

Via mojo at Sondrakistan

Foreign Policy

...

Click == Bigger

Drudge's irony/juxtaposition fu is God-like!!

Go see Drudge!

Giggle du Jour...

...and yes, this is in NYC.

Heh.

Via Hookers and Booze (!)

Adult in Charge

Soon!!

Mr. Muir does it again!

 Maybe the libs will understand this one.  They won't like it, but maybe they'll understand...

20 Only In America Ironies

1) Only in America could politicians talk about the greed of the rich at a $35,000 a plate campaign fund raising event.

2) Only in America could people claim that the government still discriminates against black Americans when we have a black President, a black Attorney General, and roughly 18% of the federal workforce is black.

3) Only in America could we have had the two people most responsible for our tax code, Timothy Geithner, the head of the Treasury Department and Charles Rangel who once ran the Ways and Means Committee, BOTH turn out to be tax cheats who are in favor of higher taxes.

4) Only in America will you find people who burn the American flag and call America an "imperialist nation," but who get offended if you say they're not patriotic.

5) Only in America can we have terrorists kill people in the name of Allah and have the media primarily react by fretting that Muslims might be harmed by the backlash.

6) Only in America could someone drinking a $5 latte and texting to his friends on an iPhone 4 complain that the government allows some people to make too much money.

7) Only in America would people take rappers who brag about shooting people and selling drugs seriously when they complain the police are targeting them unfairly.

8) Only in America would we make people who want to legally become American citizens wait for years in their home countries and pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege while we discuss letting anyone who sneaks into the country illegally just become American citizens.

9) Only in America could the people who believe in balancing the budget and sticking by the country's Constitution be thought of as "extremists."

10) Only in America could the most vicious foes of successful conservative women be self-proclaimed feminists and the National Organization for Women.

11) Only in America could you need to present a driver's license to cash a check or buy alcohol, but not to vote.

12) Only in America can we have terrorists fly planes into our buildings and have some people’s first thought be "what did we do to make them hate us?"

13) Only in America would we think teaching kids at college is an appropriate job for communists, terrorists, and other dregs of humanity.

14) Only in America could people demand the government investigate whether the oil companies are gouging the public because the price of gas went up when for every penny of profit the oil companies make, the government tacks on roughly 24 cents’ worth of taxes.

15) Only in America could the first people asked to weigh in on the seriousness of a racial incident by the media be professional race hustlers like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Ben Jealous. In other words, it's like calling in a car dealer as a neutral source on whether or not you need to get a new car.

16) Only in America does airport security put its hands on your underwear....while you're wearing it.

17) Only in America could the government force a skating rink to have handicapped parking spots and Braille on the ATM machines.

18) Only in America could the government collect more tax dollars from the people than any nation ever has before in all of recorded history, still spend a trillion dollars more that it has per year, and complain that it doesn't have nearly enough money.

19) Only in America could the rich people who pay 86% of all income taxes be accused of not paying their "fair share" by people who don't pay any income taxes at all.

20) Only in America could the people who approve of slaughtering 25 million females babies via abortion accuse OTHER PEOPLE of waging a "war on women."

 John Hawkins, via Gerard.

When you've lost Bubba...

...,well.

Veep Debate

Went to a Republican "debate party" last night, held at a local sports bar.  They provided a relatively small corner of the place at the far end of the bar.  They also provided a small appetizer buffet.  And big-screen TVs.

The space was about all that was needed for the 20 or so people who showed up.  The wraps were good, but the hot appetizers were heated fresh from the box in the freezer.  The TVs were easy to see.

But I had a bitch of a time hearing much, between the sports commentary and cheers at the bar, and the distraction of the noise on the patio whenever someone went out to smoke.

As to the debate itself... Joe and Martha vs Paul.  I've seen some of the reviews, but the thought that comes to mind is the old saying, "Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill every time."

Pundette has this: Joe Biden's Inappropriate Affect

Laura Logan

I guess it's Video Week here at the place.  This time, Laura Logan:




Via Pundette

Time to Kick...

Click for Generation-Identitaire.com

...Some Unrepentant Hippie Asses!

Via Gerard

Something Wonderful: "A Declaration of War" - From the Youth of France

"Our generation are the victims of the 'May '68ers' who wanted to liberate themselves from tradition, from knowledge and authority in education. But they only accomplished to liberate themselves from their own responsibilities."

"It seems that the youth are revolting against their elders everywhere: In France, the kids are declaring war upon the hippies now ruling them." -- Jewel

From the Generation of National Identity: A Declaration of War
"We are Generation-Identitaire"
"We are the generation who get killed for glancing at the wrong person, for refusing someone a cigarette or having an 'attitude' that annoys someone."
"We are the generation of ethnic fracture, total failure of coexistence, and forced mixing of the races."
"We are the generation doubly punished: Condemned to pay into a social system so generous with strangers that it is unsustainable for our own people."
"Our generation are the victims of the 'May '68ers' who wanted to liberate themselves from tradition, from knowledge and authority in education. But they only accomplished to liberate themselves from their own responsibilities."
"We reject your history books, to regather our memories."
"We no longer believe that 'Khader' could ever be our brother. We have stopped believing in the 'Global Village' and the 'Family of Man'."
"We discovered that we have roots, ancestry, and therefore, a future."
"Our heritage is our land, our blood, our identity. We are heirs to our own future."
"We turned off the TV to march in the streets."
"We painted our slogans on walls. Cried through loudspeakers for 'youth in power' and flew our Lambda flags high."
"The Lambda, painted on proud Spartans'shields, is our symbol."
"Don't you understand what this means? We will not back down. We will not give in."
"We are sick and tired of your cowardice."
"You are from the years of post-war prosperity, of retirement benefits, S.O.S. Racism and "diversity", sexual liberation and a bag of rice from Bernard Kouchner."
"We are 25 percent unemployment, social debt, multicultural collapse,and an explosion of anti-white racism."
"We are broken families and young, French soldiers dying in Afghanistan."
"You won't buy us with a condescending look, a state-paid job and a pat on the shoulder."
"We don't need your youth policies. Youth IS our policy."
"Don't think this is simply a manifesto. It is a declaration of war."
"You are of yesterday. We are of tomorrow."
"We are Génération-Identitaire

Embarrassing - the French kids sound ready to kick ass, while the American kids are whining for More Free Stuff.

Mr. Bingley...

...On. A. Roll!!

"I love how Sullivan, who 10 years ago I admired and supported, goes on about Obama’s “admirable record” and how he represents “reality-based government.”
Really.
Look at this chart and tell me again about “reality.”

What planet is he from?

How can any one, any one, look at the record of the past four years and say “this guy has done well”? You can scream about “Bush’s Two Unfunded Wars” as the cause of our budget mess; fair enough but then you need to look at the numbers: during the height of these wars our budget deficits averaged a couple of hundred billion dollars per year. Damn scary and unsustainable numbers I fully agree. So to correct this in a “reality based” way Obama has created deficits averaging 1.2 trillion, and the projections are for these types of numbers for the next few years at least. Furthermore his policies have destroyed US savings income, completely and totally. His economic team has forced everyone to invest fully in the Stock market. Remind me again who’s the Party of Wall Street? The economic security of seniors under his administration has been decimated, plain and simple, by their policy of suppressed interest rates. How anyone living on a fixed income could support this record astounds me.

Another complaint against Bush was the erosion of civil liberties engendered by the rise of Homeland Security, TSA and cries of an “Imperial Presidency.” Valid points all. Homeland Security and TSA should be eliminated. After four years of Hope and Change can anyone say with a straight face that Homeland Security, TSA or the Patriot Act in any way, shape or form have been in any way reined in? Not only have these agencies actually expanded their (over)reach in the past four years but we now also have a government agency that has directly caused the murders of hundreds of Mexican citizens and at least one US citizen via its Fast and Furious gunrunning operation. We have a government that wants to control information flow on the internet and have a kill switch on it. Speaking of Kill Switches and Imperial Presidents, we have a President who has asserted his prerogative to summarily order the execution of US citizens overseas. We have a President who is lauded by the press for his end-runs around Congress to appoint extra-Constitutional “Czars” to implement his policies, a President who refuses to meet with Congressional leaders of the other party then decries “gridlock and intransigence” and does what he wants via Executive Order. An Administration that has through its naive incompetence created the conditions that allowed an Ambassador and three other US citizens to be brutally murdered and then has obfuscated and seemingly disseminated a series of knowingly false stories to cover-up its involvement and actions.

Again, look at the record and tell me how this man, this Administration, this philosophy deserve another four years."

I have nothing to add.

Links du Jour...

A thoughtful Arab (yes, I'm sure there are many, but we never seem to hear about/from them), and Mitt's foreign policy speech.

Arab Spring and the Israeli Enemy

Mitt's Foreign Policy Speech

Go.  Read.

Addition to the Reading List

I've been an on again, off again reader of Velociman.  As a result, I haven't linked to him before, because he can be, well, a bit out there.  If not downright heated and sometimes vulgar (you have been warned).  On the other hand, I've noticed how this place is trending lately, what with the election and all.  I've been venting a bit, too. 

What changed my mind is his post on reparations for slavery.  It's stupid and idiotic.  (Reparations, that is, not Velociman's post!!)  Reparation is to repair the damage done by one's sins.  Give back things that are stolen.  Public apology for slander.  The death penalty.  But asking me to pay for someone else's sin of slavery is just plain stupid and wrong.  I've never owned any slaves.  I don't plan on owning any slaves.  No one in my family, as far as I can tell, has ever owned slaves.  So, fuck off!  (You see what I mean about how I'm trending... .)

Go read it, and his other good stuff.

(Updated! - Twice!!) Looks Like the New Yorker...

...is breaking ranks!

Via Gerard

Update

The thrill is gone.

Via Morgan

Update II

 I suppose this was almost inevitable:



Via Zilla

Pray and Act

The Manhattan Declaration and the 40 day fast for America.

I found this while reading through reader comments at Brietbart about  the AFP commercial I linked to in the post below.  The responder did not include any links, so, since Google is my friend, I found a bunch of posts about the 40 day fast for America.

I followed the link to the "Pray and A.C.T." page at the Renewing American Leadership (ReAL) website.  It describes the why and how of the fast.  It also directs you to the Pray and A.C.T. website.  as of today, the link fails, returning a "Server Not Found" error.  I'll poke into that when I'm done here...

The "ACT" part of the page asks that you go to the Manhattan Declaration webite, and read and sign it.  That link goes to the web page.  Here is a link to the declaration as a .PDF.

The declaration is about 4,700 words long, so get comfortable.  It is a clear and concise defense of life, marriage, and religious liberty from a Christian moral perspective.  Two thinks I liked the most about it:  first, it strongly and clearly emphasizes human free will, and the fundamental right and freedom to follow one's own conscience.  (I inferred that one might add "well informed" as a state of said conscience.  Or that could just be the Ghosts of Jesuits Past.)  Second, was the mini-lesson on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s from the Birmingham jail: "...citing Christian writers such as Augustine and Aquinas, King taught that just laws elevate and ennoble human beings because they are rooted in the moral law whose ultimate source is God Himself. Unjust laws degrade human beings. Inasmuch as they can claim no authority beyond sheer human will, they lack any power to bind in conscience. King's willingness to go to jail, rather than comply with legal injustice, was exemplary and inspiring."


Read the whole thing.  Sign it if you feel so moved.  Fast if you feel so moved.  And act, if you feel so moved.

Pax Vobiscum.

(Cross-posted at Window on Red Lion)

Presented without comment:

Via Breitbart

"Ishmaelites"...

...or "Saracens".

Mme Sherzo posts a goldmine!

Go.  Read.  It. All!

Why the Only Poll That Matters...

...is on November 6th, 2012!

Charlie Martin at PJ Media!

Read the whole thing!

Take on the debate...

...from Taiwan:



Put your drink down first!

From the PJ Tattler

Debate Drinking Game

Like the debate 'bingo' game floating around the innertubes, this one allows everyone to win, too!

(Be sure to have a designated driver!)

From Cheezburger.com/after12

I'm surprised that the ever suave Mr. Green hasn't noticed this!

Joe Biden...

...the gift  that just keeps on giving!

Biden tells audience middle class has been 'buried' last four years

That is all...

Faithful Citizenship

As I've mentioned before, I was raised Catholic, and abandoned the faith when I was about 20 or 21.  I honestly didn't agree with the teaching on birth control (I now have a grasp on the reasoning, but issues remain).  In any case, it has informed my spiritual and philosophic views of life, the universe and everything.  As I slowly come to some semblance of maturity, I'm beginning to find that the Church is starting to make more sense to me.

So, I was bouncing around the interwebs (as I do), and found a U.S. News and World Report on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB)  Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship .  The article discusses how there are "Faithful Citizenship" meetings in Dioceses across the country.  One of them, in Cleveland, Ohio, "...led in part by open Obama-supporter Karen Leith, downplay(s) abortion and religious freedom, issues of irreducible importance to Catholic voters."

I'd like to have a discussion with someone knowledeableon the issues, about personal adherence to no abortion in my own life (Ihave no problem with that), versus not making it legally available (life pre-Rowe vs. Wade)  I realize that women are going to have them, and I can't see forcing them into the proverbial dark alley to meet with someone who owns a coat hanger.  Am I morally obligated under the Church's teachings to opposing this?  Knowing that prohibition generally doesn't work, should we make abortion medically safe for the putative mother-to-be (a.k.a., the murderer-to-be)??

Anyway, follow the links, read the whole thing, and vote with a true heart.

And go read this at The Anchoress:  Teddy Roosevelt on how Republics Die…

Faith & Freedom Voter Guide

Click, read, vote your conscience!

Via Dave Brody.

Biting the Hand that Feeds Him...

...go Wiley!!

The future should not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.

We'll see about that...

Mohammed appeared on the scene about 600 years after Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ came as, among other things, the fullfillment of the Old Testament prophesies.  He was the Messiah.  He redeemed us from sin.

There was and is no need for any other prophet, since all Old Testament prophecies  were about the coming of the Savour, Jesus Christ

Therfore, Mohammed is not a prophet,  The Koran is not the word of God.  Allah is the name of something that is not the One, True God.

This Arab Spring shit is the continuation of a religous war.

Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.

Interesting Post(er)

...over at Gateway Pundit:

Trains in Space

A one-man, one-kid, one train space program!



Via Sippican Cottage at the BSBFB!

International Book Week

Joan of Argghh! was reminded by Mme. Scherzo that it's International Book Week.  So, what you do is:

The rules: grab the closest book to you, turn to page 52, post the 5th sentence as your text post. Don’t mention the title.

"lpd itself lasts as long as your Linux network is running, but it spawns duplicates of itself - one to handle each print job."

Two Words:

Clue.  Less.

This is an Official Obama Poster.  Really!  Kind of reminds me of commercial art that was trying to be hip in the late 60s.  And failing.

Only one thing to say:

Got that right.

Let Her Eat Cake...

...from the GOP.

The DC reports that the MassGOP sent a cake to Elizabeth Warren, the "Martiarch" of Occupy Wall Street, for their one year 'birthday':

Is this a great country or what??

Important Safety Tip

Via Public Secrets, who also has this:

Churchill on Islam
September 15, 2012
One of my favorite books is Winston Churchill’s “The River War,” about the Anglo-Egyptian campaign in Sudan in the 1890s. Among its many memorable passages is Churchill’s meditation the nature of Islam. Recent events make me think it’s worth dusting off:

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries!  Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.  The effects are apparent in many countries.  Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.  A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity.  The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property—either as a child, a wife, or a concubine—must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.  Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities.  Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die.  But the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it.  No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.  Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proseltyzing faith.  It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science—the science against which it had vainly struggled—the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.

Some on reading that will scream “racism” (1) and “Islamophobia.” Whatever. Looking over the events of not just the past few days, but the last 20 years, I can’t help but wonder if instead the future prime minister wasn’t sharp-eyed and wise.
Thanks to Steven Hayward for the reminder.

Footnote:
(1) Even though Islam isn’t a race, but a religion. But it’s a bit much to expect intellectual clarity from the Left; the facts are against them, so all they have left is invective.
(Crossposted