Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you

Call me paranoid, but....

We've learned that IRS employees have declined to approve the tax-exempt status of Tea Party groups and other conservative organizations.   Democrats are generally fond of the IRS and taxing and wasting - much more so than Tea Party groups and Libertarians.  Something like 95% of IRS lawyers consider themselves Democrats.

If you're going to have an IRS with lots of power, you gotta be prepared for them to abuse it.  That's what people do with raw, unaccountable power. 

I can't stop shopping with the IRS and start shopping with a competitor, in the way that I fired Long John Silver's seafood restaurants and started eating at Captain D's (after a bad, bad fish sandwich episode). 

The IRS has a monopoly. If I had a choice, I would treat them like Long John Silver's seafood restaurants, and not give the IRS another dime.

This action on the part of the IRS just may have been enough to give the state of Ohio to Obama in the last election.  The IRS was everything it could, legal or illegal to support their candidate.  There's nothing I can do about it.  I can't fire them. 

Call me paranoid, but....

We've recently learned that the NSA has been accumulating records of our calls and emails.  If I had a choice, I'd de-fund the bastards immediately.  They would join Long John Silver's, Wal-Mart's produce department, AT&T's telephones, General Motors, and a host of other companies that I've fired. 

If the NSA wasn't using this phone/email/wiretap info to help Obama, I'll kiss your ass on the courthouse steps and give you 30 minutes beforehand to draw a crowd to witness the event.  I can't fire them either. 

Call me paranoid, but....

I use Google's free Blogger/Blogspot website hosting program for this website.  I've always liked it.  It's free.  Easy to use.  Google puts ads on it and I get some of the revenue anytime you good folks click on the ads.  Google gets money anytime you click on them too.   

I can't prove this, but it seems that the great majority of political sites that use Blogger/Blogspot are either economically conservative, socially conservative, or small-l libertarian.  (Yeah, I know they cater the searches to your track record.)  But it seems that there are a lot more anti-Democrat bloggers than there are pro-Democrat bloggers.  Hell, the Dems already have almost every newspaper in the U.S. except for the Washington Times and maybe the NY Post.  Who needs the drunken ramblings of a Democrat Precinct Captain when you've already got the New York Times??? 

Google supports the Dems in general and Obama in particular. 

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Few Silicon Valley companies have ever embraced a political party as passionately as Google has. Its executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, has been described as a "kind of guru" to President Obama's campaign manager, and Google employees emerged as the No. 2 donor to the Democratic National Committee in the last election.....

....Google's affection for Democrats, especially the president, is long-standing. Schmidt stumped for Obama and joined other company executives in chipping in for the inaugural celebration. Employees and the company's political action committee gave $1.6 million to Democrats in the last presidential election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, but only $300,000 to GOP candidates. In 2008, Google's climate director, Dan Reicher, exhorted an audience at the Democratic National Convention to "get out the vote and let's get Barack Obama elected in November!"

Google has been hassled by the FTC about sending traffic to their own "products" instead of those of competitors.  That's nobody's business but Google's, in my arrogant opinion.  They shoulda told the FTC to go have sexual relations with themselves.   

But....If I were a high-ranking exec at Google, and I wanted to do my part to help The Obamessiah, I'd start by steering readers away from those anti-Obama websites.  Even if it meant steering a few readers away from the pro-Obama sites that I also "owned".  That, too, is nobody' business but Google's.  If you don't like Google, you can fire them with the click of a mouse. 

A LOT of my traffic used to come from Google.  No more. 

I like to think that I've served up high-quality rants in an entertaining manner several times a week since 2007.  I don't think that the quality has gone down.  There's probably been some competition from Facebook, where everyone I know is now a blogger.  And perhaps Google was correct not to keep sending me a ridiculous amount of traffic based on one picture of Macaulay Culkin. 

This is what the daily hits for this site have looked like from the beginning.  (BTW, I'm now grateful for the new search engine called Bing.  They're now sending me almost as much traffic as Google does, and are going to become my desktop's new home page as soon as I finish writing this rant.) 

A lot of you folks have been reading my stuff for a long, long time. 
Did I suddenly descend into drunkenness and become tiresome after December 2010 ? 
Did Google ignore their "Don't Be Evil" mission statement and roll over for the FTC and start spreading their search results around to more competitor sites? 
Or is my paranoia justified, and Google made a conscious decision to de-emphasize its Blogger/Blogspot program, the one that has all those anti-Obama guys typing away in their pajamas? 

What it comes down to is this....  Should I continue typing crap for Google and letting them make money (however small the amount) from my efforts?  Should I fire Google and get my own domain? 

Call me paranoid, but....

It would be a lot easier to decide what to do if those black helicopters that follow me all day didn't keep blowing away my tinfoil hat. 

On Privatized Prisons

One of the few legitimate uses of government power is for initiating the use of force. 
The government is supposed to have a monopoly on police, military action, courts and prisons. 

So, of course, that's what the government has been trying to outsource. 

(They want to educate our kids, control our lightbulb purchases, correct our diets, takeover the medical field, subsidize their campaign contributors, dominate insurance, regulate oil drilling, protect manufacturers from overseas competitors, prohibit recreational drug use, prevent me from purchasing some awesome fireworks, monopolize college education, prevent gays from marrying, hamstring the auto industry, inflate the money supply, rape the economy, run up our debts, and shoehorn their way into hundreds of thousands of other situations where they are totally incompetent.) 

But prisons?  One of the few things that really is their job?  That's what they're willing outsource. 

One of my employees has been recommending a blog called Grits For Breakfast.  Mr. Grits specializes in the failures of our justice system, and Lord Have Mercy, outsourced prisons have been one of failures.  There really are good reasons why the government should have a monopoly on initiating force. 

Here's Mr. Grits on an outfit called GEO, which runs some prisons in Mississippi:

In Mississippi, "the state's corrections commissioner on Friday said that [the GEO Group] would no longer operate three [private prison] facilities in the state, which held 4,000 inmates," NPR reported recently. Regrettably, Mississippi is seeking another contractor instead of taking their management in-house or downsizing youth facilities, as Texas has done.

Now to be clear, a state that, in the 21st century, voted 2-1 to keep the Confederate battle logo as part of its state flag (you don't really see it flying much in any of the come-to-Mississippi tourism commercials, do you?) doesn't really care what us Texans, DOJ, or anybody else thinks about them. They ousted Geo out of their own self interest, so as another of GEO's customers, Texas should naturally consider why.

The decision comes in the wake of legal setbacks for the company in federal court involving abuse allegations at a juvenile facility, though GEO insisted their departure is unrelated and adamantly denied the charges. Even so, "the judge's [March settlement] order ... said an investigation by the plaintiff's counsel 'uncovered pervasive violations of state and federal civil and criminal law and a wholesale lack of accountability by prison officials. For example, staff of the [facility] and those responsible for overseeing and supervising the youth engaged in sexual relationships with the youth; they exploited them by selling drugs in the facility; and the youth, 'handcuffed and defenseless[,] have been kicked, punched, and beaten all over their bodies.''"

To make matters worse,"Staff at the center failed consistently to report and investigate claims about excessive use of force, even though they witnessed many of the acts, the judge wrote. 'Given that the facility employs correctional staffers affiliated with gangs, no more can be expected.'" Finally, "The judge also noted a Justice Department report, which confirmed many of the allegations and said the state of Mississippi was 'deliberately indifferent' to the constitutional rights of the young inmates."

Whatever proximate cause anyone wants to attribute it to, when federal judges start saying things  like that about your government contract, it's understandable one might decide it's time to pack up and leave town!

Texas has closed many of its juvenile facilities and may soon end up closing the rest of them, shifting juvenile supervision wholly to the counties and more aggressive community-based programming. It's too bad Mississippi looks like it will continue  contracting management of these facilities instead of taking the opportuntiy to pull them in-house or, better, downsize. I'm not sure  just finding another profit-driven management contractor will solve the problems the judge chastised them over.

Related posts: From Texas Prison Bidness, "GEO Group subject of lawsuit in prison death at Central Texas detention center." Also, "GEO guard indicted for contraband at Val Verde Correctional Center."

The cartoon of a contractor whispering in the Mississippi governor's ear came from here.  The cartoon of the Statue Of Non-Liberty came from here.   The chart showing the prison population increasing, partly because of lobbying on the part of the prison industry, came from here.  The cartoon of the vicious cycle came from here. 

Ron Paul's campaign disrupted by Occupy Wall Street

You'd think that a politician who has been sounding the alarm about the relationship between Washington and Wall Street for a few decades would get a pass on this, but....

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police arrested more than a dozen Occupy protesters Thursday in Iowa who are targeting Democrats and Republicans just days before the state's closely watched lead-off presidential caucuses.

Five protesters were arrested outside the Iowa campaign headquarters of presidential contender Ron Paul in Ankeny before the group moved on to the Iowa Democratic Party headquarters in Des Moines, where 12 more were taken into custody. All were ticketed for trespassing and released.
The protests are part of an Occupy the Caucuses effort launched this week in Des Moines that has attracted activists from around the country. Many of them have promised to interrupt campaign activities, and organizers promised more confrontations on Friday with campaign offices of Republican presidential hopefuls.

Here, according to Patrick at Popehat, are the reasons the Occupy Kiddies could've been upset with Ron Paul's platform:

1. Abolish the Federal Reserve Bank – oops, already on the platform
2. End federal payouts to banks - oops, already on the platform
3. End federal payouts to large corporations that aren’t banks - oops, already on the platform
4. End foreign aid to Israel (and for that matter every other country) - oops, already on the platform
5. End the war in Afghanistan - oops, already on the platform
6. Withdraw American troops from Kuwait, South Korea, and Germany - oops, already on the platform
7. Abolish the Transportation Security Administration, along with a number of other federal departments and agencies - oops, already on the platform
8. End the War on Terror - oops, already on the platform
9. End the War on Drugs - oops, already on the platform
10. Establish a National Drum Circle on top of Mount Rushmore – not on the Ron Paul platform

Popehat.  You really should read these guys every day. 

Later on in the AP article, someone claims that Paul got occupied because of his opposition to the EPA. 
Well, there is no bigger friend to Big Business than the EPA. 
Here's one of the Popehat commenters on Paul's rationale for shutting down that gaggle of unelected Warmist kickback artists:

....the problem with the EPA is that its unclear as to how much of their protections are actually effective. You see quite frequently how well connected companies get extensions and exceptions to rules where smaller companies are held to very strict or even non-existent standards. I used to work for a soil and water testing facility, and it seemed a very random process that the agency had for going after businesses, a gas station with a minor leak could be fined heavily within a month, but an industrial facility would be far out of safety ranges for the better part of two years and not get much more than a strongly worded letter. The agency standards seemed very divorced from any reasonable threat assessment.


The concept of a federal agency, which has power at its sole discretion to shut down, fine, or harass any business without judicial oversight is pretty glaring constitutional issue. In many cases the day in court doesn’t come until after the damage has been done and the victim has lost their business and in some cases much more.

None of this is saying that environmental protections are unnecessary, just that the EPA as vehicle for fairly enforcing the laws (which themselves are pretty obtusely written, but that’s a separate issue) has been very bad at it. The fact that many of it’s powers are unconstitutional is Ron Paul’s primary concern with the agency.

Yeah.  What he said. 

I am the 99%

Ken Jennings, the guy who first won big on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" (I think) has a new blog. 

Go here. 

Here's a pic from the site:

The Grouchy Old Cripple makes it into The Urban Dictionary

My friend Denny has made it into The Urban Dictionary. 

The first time I read Denny's stuff at his "Grouchy Old Cripple" site, I knew that I was going to start a website.  I've now had the privilege of partying with Denny twice. 

If you disagree with Denny's politics, you are free to comment and argue with him.  A couple of rules, though....
You have to stay on-topic, and you have to address Denny's points.  Otherwise, he edits your comments and you'll wind up telling 5 or 6 thousand people how much you enjoy eating boogers, or that you still wet the bed during thunderstorms, or worse. 

His site, his rules. 

So here's the Grouchy Old Cripple entry in the Urban Dictionary:

An ultra-partisan blog where posts that contain dissenting opinions are distorted by the administrator in order to buttress the shaky foundation on which his simplistic world view is founded. In this twisted microcosm, the humiliation of dissenters is achieved by distortion rather than by a display of superior logic or a greater mastery of the facts. The resultant dearth of posts with opposing viewpoints preserves the echo chamber that is essential for maintaining a thriving culture of ignorance. In this enclave of ill-informed demagogues, people with a shaky grasp of science and history take undeserved pleasure in congratulating themselves on being smarter than professionals who possess advanced degrees dealing with these subjects.

I'm guessing that whoever wrote this is working on a Masters in Sociology.  Just a guess on my part. 

Let's take this definition one sentence at a time, shall we? 

An ultra-partisan blog....

Of course it's ultra-partisan.  CNN is ultra-partisan.  So is Fox.  So is the Sunflower County Weekly Wiper.  That's why they have an audience.  That's why Denny has one of the top 100 Conservative Blogs. 
It wasn't until the 1990's Republican Revolution that people started using the word "partisan" as an insult.  Before then, the Dems pretty much controlled Congress.  When the Democrats finally got some opposition, "Bi-partisanship", or "working together to screw the citizenry" became the new ideal. 

....where posts that contain dissenting opinions are distorted by the administrator....

Not if you stay on point, and not if you know how to argue. 

....in order to buttress the shaky foundation on which his simplistic world view is founded....

Denny, as best I can tell, is a right-leaning libertarian. 

His opposition, the Statists, have us in 5 wars, 14 trillion in debt, with a school system that turns out illiterates, a Post Office that can't deliver Sports Illustrated, a Federal Reserve that is printing money to pay debts, and a desire to take over our healthcare system (since they've been so succesful at everything else). 

And Denny's worldview is shaky and simplistic? 

In this twisted microcosm....

Five or six thousand hits per day (for a one man operation) isn't a microcosm, dude.  Get linked by Denny, and you get something called a Crippleanche. 

....the humiliation of dissenters is achieved by distortion rather than by a display of superior logic or a greater mastery of the facts.

See everything written above. 

....The resultant dearth of posts with opposing viewpoints preserves the echo chamber that is essential for maintaining a thriving culture of ignorance....

No, no, no. No.  People post opposing viewpoints all the time.  Some of them become legends.  And they keep coming back.  They're like kittens who keep hopping into a cage with the Pit Bulls. 

In this enclave of ill-informed demagogues....

Bullshit.  I've gone to Blogger Meetups with these ill-informed demagogues.  (And BTW, you don't really call a blogger and his commenters "demagogues".  A blogger would be the demagogue, and his followers would be "disciples" or "toadies" or something.  But I'm quibbling about semantics here.)  If you want to talk politics and history with well-informed people, hang out with Denny's friends. 

....people with a shaky grasp of science and history take undeserved pleasure in congratulating themselves on being smarter than professionals who possess advanced degrees dealing with these subjects.

Oh for the love of God. 

Ben Bernanke, who is screwing our economy eight ways from Sunday, has a Doctorate in Economics. 
Timmy "The Tax Dodger" Geithner has a Masters in Political Science. 
She Whose Name Is Not Spoken has a degree in Political Science. 
Al Gore has a B.A. in Government. 
The Teleprompter Jesus has a law degree, and at one point actually taught Constitutional Law.  You either think that's funny, or you don't. 

Those people could screw up a brass donkey.  Whatever they learned in school is deeply and profoundly wrong.   

Anyway, I read this definition and thought it was the funniest sprinkling of Smart Words over a thin layer of stupid that I've ever read.  Especially to the people who know Denny. 

One other thing.....  I usually get together with Denny and his friends in Bandera TX for a Blogger Meetup every year.  But our economic and political situation, because of professionals who possess advanced degrees dealing with these subjects, is so screwed up that a lot of us can't afford to go this year.  We've had to cancel the event. 

If our country could be run by this particular enclave of ill-informed demagogues, I don't think we'd be having these problems. 

One million hits

Sometime in the last few days (it's hard to tell because of the unfortunate Blogger/Blogspot programming meltdown) this little site got its one millionth hit. 

I'm glad this thing has found a little bit of an audience.

Please remember, other people are not your property.  Their property is not your property.  In the words of this guy:

They are not yours to boss around. Their lives are not yours to micromanage. The fruits of their labour are not yours to dispose of.


It doesn't matter how wise or marvelous or useful it would be for other people to do whatever it is you'd like them to do. It is none of your business whether they wear their seatbelts, worship the right god, have sex with the wrong people, or engage in market transactions that irritate you. Their choices are not yours to direct. They are human beings like yourself, your equals under Natural Law. You possess no legitimate authority over them. As long as they do not themselves step over the line and start treating other people as their property, you have no moral basis for initiating violence against them – nor for authorising anyone else to do so on your behalf.

Now I've got to go to work.  It's time to boss some people around. 

The sign was lifted from The Idiot Speaketh and Pedalith site. 

Testing....1,2,3,....Testing

Something goofy is going on with the Google/Blogspot system.  Can't post regularly. 
Two days worth of comments have disappeared.  (all 8 of them!!) 

Will resume the rants as soon as regular service has been restored. 

Andrew Marr fears socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed young men who can type

From a British civil service lifer named Andrew Marr, who feels threatened by amateur typists....

Mr. Marr is the former political director of The BBC, which would sink like a stone if the British government allowed a true competitive market in broadcasting. 

"A lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed young men sitting in their mother's basements and ranting. They are very angry people," he told the Cheltenham Literary Festival. "   "....the so-called citizen journalism is the spewings and rantings of very drunk people late at night."

Marr is wrong, wrong, wrong.  I'm not young ,socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed. spewing out drunken rants late at night. 

I'm fairly old and married.  The late night drunken rants are produced at my own dining room table.   

Here's a little more on the BBC, where Andrew Marr is still employed.  This is courtesy of Wikipedia  (Yeah, Wikipedia.  I'm in a hurry.  Gotta get a lot of work done early so I can get drunk tonight and start typing....)

. The BBC is an autonomous public service broadcaster that operates under a Royal Charter.  Within the United Kingdom its work is funded principally by an annual television license fee which is charged to all United Kingdom households, companies and organisations using any type of equipment to record and/or receive live television broadcasts;  the level of the fee is set annually by the British Government and agreed by Parliament. 

Good Lord, can you imagine the self-righteous crap we would have to endure if National Public Radio and Public TV were 100% supported by the Feds with some help from involuntary "donations" from every U.S. household?  And no real competitors were allowed ?
Hell, the hardware stores would instantly sell out of torches and pitchforks. 

I keep wondering how much longer the Brits are going to put up with this. 
Be afraid, Andrew Marr.  Be very afraid.  We're angry, pimpled, inadequate, and drunk.  And we're proving that ANYBODY can sit down and start typing. 

The picture of Andrew Marr's pasty Brit complection (that doesn't show his baldness level) came from here. 

Camp Blownstar - calmer, but still kinda weird

I just got back from the Camp Blownstar Blogger Meetup in Bandera.
This year's meetup was a lot calmer and mellower....
....but still kinda weird. 

Picture by Harper.
Hair by God.

I'm the Taxman

Very well done. It helps to know the Beatles song.


A coat of Whitening to The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, the first blogger I ever read. (It scared me so badly, I didn't go back for 6 months.)

Grouchy Old Cripple in skiing accident - Get well soon, Denny !

My friend Denny, of the Grouchy Old Cripple site, was in a skiing accident a few days ago and suffered a subdural hematoma.

A crippled guy in a skiing accident? Well, you haven't met Denny. Look at the third pic from the top of his site.
Now that it looks like Denny will be ok, I'd like to make the following obervation. If you hit this link, it lists these symptoms of a subdural hematoma:

Confused speech
Difficulty with balance or walking
Headache
Lethargy or confusion
Loss of consciousness
Nausea and vomiting
Numbness
Seizures
Slurred speech
Visusal disturbances
Weakness

Those are the symptoms displayed by just about everyone who attends Denny's Camp Blownstar blogger meetup ! If anyone at a Grouchy Old Cripple event had a Subdural Hematoma, how could they tell ??

Get well soon, buddy. Heaven's not gonna have you, and hell is full of liberals progressives.

Saturday Morning Links

We live in such a Target-Rich environment, it's hard for me to focus sometimes. Here's what some of my favorite typists are sounding off on:

Harper explains why our employment numbers are a mess, and she rips into The Teleprompter Jesus for giving unions a free pass on the "cadillac" insurance tax (because unions are so much more wholesome than the rest of us).

I don't like racism, or racist language. It does nothing to make things better. Never. Ever. Race, like eye color, left-handedness, or hair color, can't be helped. Now that I've thrown all those politically correct caveats in there, let me just say that my friend Paul is working through some issues. Yeah. I started it. My bad. It was like throwing gasoline and napalm on hot ashes.

The Humble Libertarian continues to explain Freddy Bastiat's "Broken Windows" concept. This time it's about the false benefits attributed to Food Stamps.

Francis over at Food and Fort Worth has a hapless, overwhelming post about "feckless". Francis does have hap, and he often whelms with his feck.

Dr. Ralph got to go hear Matt Weiner, creator of Mad Men, last night at Casa Manana. The Good Doctor's insights on the nature of people who ask questions at public Q&A's are worth a look. (Typical preface to a question at these events: "Mr. Doe, I've read all your work on the subject of mayonnaise packaging, and referenced some of your magazine articles while working on my masters degree in retail marketing, and as a mother of two, and the wife of a food transport specialist, and the owner of two collies who can tell the difference between Mayo and Miracle Whip, I wanted to ask you a question that came up during our last weekend on our 40 acre spread in Aledo, where we often use mayonnaise while entertaining all the public officials and movie stars that we've met as a part of our Aid To Haiti relief initiative....and it goes on and on before they get over themselves and get to the point.) Mad Men is GREAT, by the way.

William Grigg, over at Pro Libertate, has the best thing I've ever read on American Fascism. Mr. Grigg makes me look downright minimalist. Be warned. But it's worth it. Go there.

End The War On Freedom wonders about the life expectancy of politicians.

Uncle Fester adds to John Stossel's discussion of Ayn Rand.

NickM at Counting Cats beat me to the punch on Danny Glover, Global Warming, Earthquakes and Religion.

T. Christopher on abortion

Here's T. Christopher on abortion.
This is a topic that I seldom post about, other than the Libertarian position that it's a 10th amendment issue (for the states), and that no government money should be used.

T's main argument is about the labels and language we use, and their tendency to obscure what both sides are trying to say:

What if a conservative came along? Lets just call him Thomas Jefferson. He was a champion of individualized Principle protected by the 1st Amendment, so we will use his name here. Jefferson dismisses the Pro-Choice argument and believes abortion is murder. What if Thomas Jefferson, relying upon his own 1st Amendment protected list of principles, which were only loosely “religious” in nature, believed that life began at birth? His religion, or more accurately, his guiding principles led him to believe life begins when a baby is born. This would certainly disqualify him from the Pro-Life camp in the 21st Century, but would it make him any less “conservative?” Perhaps more importantly, would it make him Pro-Choice or dare I say Pro-Abortion? Maybe it makes him something else.

He concludes with:

I genuinely believe that the conventional “conservative” position is anything but conservative as it is expressed in contemporary politics. I believe it is merely an expression of personal beliefs masked in the legitimacy of “conservatism.” I believe this endeavor discredits true conservatism with every word that is uttered in its name. I believe that real progress will not be made on this issue until ALL conservatives can admit that their position is rooted in religious, social, and moral beliefs rather than an ideology which would never intend to make any of those compulsory. Conservatism is about principled governance, but it is not about choosing those principles for American citizens, and being Pro-Life is about saving the lives of the innocent – not about telling our fellow citizens where that Life begins.

T. Christopher. The busiest man on the internet. Go here to read the entire post.

T. Christopher has been busy

T. Christopher has been busy.

Velociman and Scribbler Spiders

During the last Camp Blownstar Meetup, Denny recommended a guy who blogs under the name Velociman. I don't understand why he's got the Spaghetti Western picture of Eli Wallach at the top of his site, but that's ok.
Lord have mercy, that man can type. Here are some excerpts from something Velociman wrote about seeing a Scribbler spider, a variety known for webs that look like handwriting:


I should take her appearance as a portent of Good Things, that I will find the ability to write something, anything, of value. I believe there is a direct relationship between the fullness of one's soul and the desire to put fingertips to keyboard. Even as the well of the soul is dry, so does the inkwell of ideas empty for me. And my inkwell of late has been as encrusted and moistureless as a sclerotic old artery.


He continues:


What we have now is a different thing altogether. As different as that Scribbler and the dangersome Brown Recluse. I am free to impute ill will and bad faith to my opponents in this arena, as they are with me. I consider bad faith to be preferable to rank stupidity at any rate, so it's not that demeaning a charge.


And then:


The loyal opposition (Republican Party) is no help: they brought us to this tear in the fabric of our civilization in the first place with their free-whoring ways and glib repudiation of their constituents.
Perhaps I should have smashed that spider; not all omens are favorable, after all. And spinning a fabric of such unfathomable despondency is normally considered poor form, if not self-destructive. Fortunately, they haven't re-introduced Prohibition, so there's the John Barelycorn approach to the tip of Maslow's hierarchy. Perhaps I should just go self-actualize myself, two fingers at a time.


Velociman. He posts stuff like this about three times a week. Go there to read the whole thing. Hope he can make it to the next Blogger meetup.

"Don't Tax, But Spend Anyway" Republicans

In which the Republican Party attempts to start a blog....
This is from the Hot Air site:

Among the glitches on the newly redesigned GOP.com: The site password was visible for a time in the New York section and the “Future Leaders” page was left (temporarily) blank. Quoth the chairman: “It’s a beta site, meaning that there — we’re working out a lot of the kinks and the bugs… So the Dems can have their fun.”

And so they have. Way to score an own goal, pal, completely needlessly and amateurishly.

Today's video on the GOP.com website moans about the "trillions in new spending".

Folks, until The Teleprompter Jesus entered the Washington Baptismal Waters, the GOP held all the records in new spending.

Unbelievable.

We're truly in the best of hands.

Two Year Blogoversary

I almost let the two year Blogoversary of this thing pass by without comment.

The first post on this site went up on 9-28-07, and I had no real idea what the main focus was going to be.
Since then, I've made it into the Star-Telegram a couple of times. Once with an editorial and once in a feature piece on political bloggers.
I've made some great friends through the Camp Blownstar Blogger meetups.
Big Daddy John Spivey found the site, and got me involved in the Tarrant County Libertarian Party.
That got me involved in End The Fed rallies, a Gay/Lesbian Rights parade, and staffing pro-2nd amendment booths at gun shows.
I've been to more Tea Parties than Lady Astor.
Then people started linking the site on Reddit. Then Facebook. Then it got Twittered. (And Twixted. Whatever that is.)
See that little world map on the right side of your screen, under the incredibly pretentious "A Thousand Points Of Light" header? Click on it, or click here. Depending on the topic of the day, I'll get more hits from Europe and Australia than from the U.S.
Fun stuff, this internet.
Before I started blogging, Dr. Ralph and I knew each other, but didn't hang out together. We recently spent a couple of hours at his place, playing guitars, not talking about politics, and looking at his artwork. (He's got a show in Fort Worth this weekend, BTW. Hit the link. Dr. Ralph can paint.)

When I can get my A-game going, this thing is good for 700-800 hits a day. Whenever I post sub-standard stuff for three days in a row, it drops into the 300-400 range so quickly that it's depressing. You people have the loyalty of tomcats.

If you've ever considered doing something like this, I hope you'll give it a try. Use the right key words in your headlines, and you'll meet plenty of people who love what you love, care about your concerns, and who are fascinating to correspond with. Plus, I don't know how people can claim they know what they think, until they read what they've written for public consumption.

Your voice counts. Unless, of course, you are WRONG, WRONG, WRONG ! !

So many topics, so little time....

I have blogger friends who occasionally claim that they don't have anything to write about. I repeat....I have blogger friends who claim that they don't have anything to write about.

We've been dumped into the middle of the most amazing, hog-stomping, buck-raking, fleece The Sheeple circus anyone could hope for. Anyone that who can type should get out of bed in the morning thanking god for the chance to be alive in the year of our Lord 2009.

Here's everything I'd be ranting about at great length today if I had more time to do so.....

The Netroots folks who put the Democrats in charge of the House, the Senate, and The White House have been strangely silent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. What happened to THE FIERCE MORAL URGENCY OF NOW that we heard so much about until January? Write a post about how and where THE FIERCE MORAL URGENCY was lost, and the efforts of the White House janitorial and landscaping staff to find it. Photoshop a milk carton to show TFMU as a missing person.

Roger Kimball has latched onto the Yale University Press decision to censor the book about the censorying of the Danish cartoons of Muhammed. The plot is thickening. The book had already been vetted by Yale's legal staff, and some Islamic scholars had already approved of the book and its contents. But Yale has some financial relationships with some nasty places in the Middle East. Ye shall know the Veritas....

Ron Paul wants to audit The Fed. Copy the entire editorial onto this site. No snarky comments allowed.

George Will thinks the people who run the United States Lottery programs have no business moralizing about online poker. Write a post about the people who subsidize the lottery, vs the people who would contribute towards online poker. Or, God help us all, blackjack.

Charles Krauthammer takes up the idea that government involvement in health care would save money. He has a good time with it. But not as much fun as I would have, bringing up defense contractors, $800 screwdrivers, $5,000 toilet seats, the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, VA Hospitals, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Post Office, and every other government money pit.

Little Green Footballs 2.0 has a funny picture of Obama as The Joker as a Doctor. Follow up with this gem where they're saying that if you don't think the Obama/Joker posters are racist, you're a racist. Print it as is, but delete the text. Ask for captions.

It seems that people aren't dressing properly when they approach the thrones of their lords and masters at the Healthcare Town Hall meetings. How dare the serfs wear a ballcap while addressing a U.S. senator? Go Medieval. Explain for the 10,000th time that these are not our leaders. They are our employees. In a truly just society, electing a president or a senator would be like deciding whether to keep the old lawn service or hire a new one.

Ed Morrisey continues The Obamateurism Of The Week. Link to it, then "share it" on Facebook.

There's a new documentary about Saint Albert, The Goracle Of Music City and radical environmentalism. It's called "Not Evil, Just Wrong". Post the trailer. Clear the Comment Field for Cedric Katesby.

ABC's John Stossel is understandably puzzled by the Feds raiding medical marijuana dispensaries in California. What were you expecting from the new Hope and Change administration? Change?

Professor Bainbridge contrasts the Healthcare Town Hall crazies with previous crazies. Compare all of these groups to Martin Luther and the church door, various clerics who waited three days barefoot in the snow to see the pope, Buddhists igniting themselves during the Viet Nam war, and every other performance art protest. Sometimes a letter to the editor isn't enough.

From the Talking Points Memo, on The Family, the conservative Christian lobbying group....
The right-wing Christian Broadcasting Network does damage control for C Street, explaining that the real question isn't, how many affairs were covered up, but rather, "how many affairs were thwarted." These are the guys that Nevada's John Ensign, Mississippi's Chip Pickering, and South Carolina's Mark Sanford have been hanging out with. Quietly and calmly ask why The Family has a tax-exempt status, when all they do is lobby congressmen and senators. And provide meetup places for their administrative staff.

Send people HERE. Warn them that they will wander around in there for days.

Valarie Jarrett, one of Obama's spokesmuppets, was recently booed and hissed at a Netroots Nation conference. The Netroots people aren't happy that Obama has kept almost EVERY objectionable George W. Bush war policy and program in place. Write a breathless expose which proves that Obama is merely a front for Karl Rove. Dick Cheney is the guy who programs Obama's Teleprompter.

Joe Biden Said That ????

It was bound to happen.

There is now a website called Joe Biden Said That?

Camp Blownstar - Unplugged

This morning I got a chance to play some music with Denny, of The Grouchy Old Cripple blog. More and more YouTubes of this weekend are surfacing.

Don't ask why I'm the one in the wheelchair.

Don't ask why Denny is wearing a Mikhail Gorbachev hat with an "OBAMA 08" logo.

I've wanted to meet this guy ever since I started reading him three or four years ago. It was worth the wait. Denny is a great guy whose laugh comes from waaaay down inside and lasts for a long time. Last night, the owner-foreman of the ranch where we're staying in Bandera had Denny and me laughing until we cried.

Don't ask me about any of the dog jokes. Just don't. Don't ask why I'm holding a bottle of red "Leninade" beer. It came with the hat.

Don't ask. Just. Don't. Ask. I have laughed more in the last three days than in the last three years.

And if that's not enough....

Will post some of Denny's songs as Leslie posts them. BTW, check out Leslie's site when time permits. Leslie lives in Chicago, and has a site called Leslie's Omnibus. Interesting stuff.