Because Wal-Mart Gift Certificates Would've Seemed Tacky

I haven't been keeping up with She Whose Name Is Not Spoken. Turns out that she's been in Russia.
Here's David Cloud, writing for Politico.

After promising to “push the reset button” on relations with Moscow, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton planned to present Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a light-hearted gift at their talks here Friday night to symbolize the Obama administration’s desire for a new beginning in the relationship.

It didn’t quite work out as she planned.

She handed him a palm-sized box wrapped with a bow. Lavrov opened it and pulled out the gift—a red plastic button on a black base with a Russian word “peregruzka” printed on top.


“We worked hard to get the right Russian word. Do you think we got it?” Clinton said as reporters, allowed in to observe the first few minutes of the meeting, watched.

“You got it wrong,” Lavrov said, to Clinton’s clear surprise.

Instead of "reset," he said the word on the box meant “overcharge.”



Oh well, it's only the freakin' State Department. They shouldn't be expected to have any staff members who speak Russian.

There was another exchange of gifts going down....This gift swap was between President Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Brown.... gave the president and his children several uniquely historical gifts.
The first of which is a pen holder fashioned from the oak timber of HMS Gannet, a Navy vessel that served on anti-slavery missions off Africa.
Another treasure given to Obama is a framed commissioning paper for the HMS Resolute, a Royal Navy ship that came to symbolize British-American goodwill when it was rescued by the U.S. from icebergs and given to Queen Victoria. It is the sister ship of the HMS Gannet.
Finally, Brown gave Obama a first edition of Martin Gilbert's seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill, whose World War II partnership with President Franklin Roosevelt symbolized the U.S.-Anglo alliance.
For Sasha and Malia, Sarah Brown, the Prime Minister's wife, gave each an outfit from Topshop, a British chain of clothing stores, and selected six children's books by British authors which have yet to be published in the U.S.

Lordy, that's impressive. The Martin Gilbert 1st editions are to kill for, BTW. And what did we give the British Prime Minister?

President Obama on Thursday gave British Prime Minister Gordon Brown a set of 25 classic American movies to mark his historic visit to the White House.
Brown, the first European leader to visit Obama since his Jan. 20 inauguration, was presented with a "special collector's box" of DVDs during his two-day visit to Washington.
Downing Street, which reportedly tried to keep the present a secret, declined to say what movies were included in the set.
One reason for the secrecy might be that the gift seems markedly less generous and thoughtful than the presents taken to Washington by the Prime Minister," London's Evening Standard newspaper reported.

Well, yeah. Imagine giving someone a desk set whittled out of a legendary ship, and getting a copy of E.T. in return.

The Daily Mail, however, reported the movie set included ET, Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz and was produced by the American Film Institute on "special request" from the White House.

Produced by "special request" ? Horsecrap. I bet they sent an intern to pick them up at a Sam's Club.

Anyway, these are the people who want to take over medicine, the banks, more of education, Wall Street, GM, and the weather.

I'm sure they'll get it right.

The Debt Star - Demotivational Poster

Liberty For All

"Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground." - Frederick Douglass.

From R. Lee Wright's Facebook page. Here's a link to Mr. Wright's website, Liberty For All, now blogrolled to your right. Mr. Wright plows it nicely.

An Awkward Conversation With The National Maitre D'

Excuse me, sir.... May I have a word with you in private? This will only take a moment.
Did you enjoy your Sesame-crusted Tarp? Truly an excellent choice, and one of my favorites.

I apologize for taking you away from your guests. They seem to be having a grand time.

Shortly after some members of your party, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney I believe, ordered the first round of blackened stimuli garnished with hand-foraged collards for $152 billion, I took the liberty of running your card through our system, strictly as a matter of policy.
Your card was declined, but you've been such a good customer for so many years, I assumed that our computer was at fault.

So when your guests ordered the bottomless housing appetizer package of possum medallions with juice au jus drizzled over pulverized McCain nuts for $345 billion, the card was once again declined.
I'm told that you are over your limit.

In the meantime, to avoid any embarrassment, the staff agreed to bring Mr. Paulson his Wall Street bailout of dehydrated mineral water de Pelosi (with a bearish overtone and a hint of knotty pine) at $700 billion. We ran your credit card through our system once again, and I apologize for mentioning this, but I must now ask if you have any other means of payment.

You see, Mr. Geithner just ordered a newly-minted Federal Reserve guarantee d'fault (from Peking) for $4 trillion and, to be frank, Mr. Geithner is well known for avoiding his share of payments. May I be so bold as to suggest a separate check for Mr. Geithner?

Mr. Obama's behavior has been puzzling. On Thursday night he called in his order for a pork-stuffed stimulus with 8,600 sesame infused earmarks and insisted on a small partial delivery to your table by Friday.

He insisted that no one be allowed to read his order prior to delivery.

We don't understand the need for such haste when the majority of his entree won't be delivered until 2010 and 2011. Pork-stuffed stimulus often goes bad between election cycles, and our menu clearly states that we cannot be responsible for the appearance of this entree in the cold, harsh, light of day.



Is it possible for you to pay cash? Or should I bring everyone an individual check?

D.L. Hughley and Ron Paul

Here's D.L. Hughley and Ron Paul mixing it up.
Hughley repeatedly claims that Congressman Paul makes too much sense to be a Republican.
Heck, Michael Jackson now makes too much sense to be a Republican but most folks are too polite to point that out.
Enjoy.

The Big Blue Hand

Here's an old propaganda film from the late 1940's (?)
A lot of it seems timely. Especially the Big Blue Hand Of The State.


HT to (ahem...) The Gay Patriot.

Global Warming - I was wrong

Sometimes I get it all wrong. And on Global Warming, I've been wrong.

Half the the U.S. just had its mildest winter in years, with no sign of snow in many Northern states.
Most of the Great Lakes were ice-free this year.
Not a single Canadian province had a white Christmas.
There is a new study discussing a mysterious surge in global temperatures - a warming trend more intense than computer models have predicted.
Some scientists recently admitted that, because of a bug in satellite sensors, they have overestimated the extent of Arctic sea ice.

Oh....wait....never mind. The exact opposite of that has been happening.
It's been colder than a well-digger's ass.
I take it all back.

Most of this info came from Jeff Jacoby's article on "Where's Global Warming". Great stuff. Here's my favorite paragraph:

If all that (warming instead of cooling) were happening on the climate-change front, do you think you'd be hearing about it on the news? Seeing it on Page 1 of your daily paper? Would politicians be exclaiming that global warming was even more of a crisis than they'd thought? Would environmentalists be skewering global-warming "deniers" for clinging to their skepticism despite the growing case against it?

Dang right, you'd be hearing about it on the news. But the news and my daily paper aren't about reality, or climate, or anything that can be measured with a thermometer.
This is a power grab.
Please get that into your heads.
Global Warming/Cooling/Climate Change has nothing to do with the weather, and everything to do with control.

Moving on, if you can read this without laughing, you probably have stock in Kleiner Perkins.

A Global Warming protest was almost cancelled because of snow. Here is the official protest website. You've got to go there. You must go there for the pictures of people freezing while protesting the heat. Haven't they heard of irony? Shouldn't they be just a tad embarrassed?

Nahhh. They have God and Gore on their side.

They chanted slogans like "Who is hot in here / There's too much carbon in the air" while huddling against the windchill.

I'm proud to say that I'm kin to these kids ! ! !

These are my cousin Darryl's kids, ages 14, 13, and 11.
Erica is named after Eric Clapton. Delaney is named after Delaney Bramlett (of Bonnie & Delaney fame) who was a huge influence on Clapton. Zachary is named Zachary because my cousin's wife didn't want a son named "Clapton".
Or at least I think that's the story.
All over the world, there are groups of adult musicians laboring in vain to blend as well as these kids do.
This is The Eagles' song "How Long".
Enjoy !

Here's what is going to happen next

In 1923, hyperinflation turned Germany upside down. Hyperinflation is a relentless rise in prices caused by the circulation of too much money in the economy.

By the second half of the year, virtually everyone in Germany was caught up in the chaos of hyperinflation:

* Most workers were paid daily and given time to shop before the value of their wages fell further.
* Housewives used small bills to fuel their ovens because they were worth less than wood
kindling.
* The German central bank printed larger denominations of bills almost every month.
* Depositors received letters from their banks informing them that their life savings were worth less than the administrative costs of maintaining their accounts.
* A retired minister might spend his entire annuity payment from his life insurance policy
on a loaf of bread and a jar of jam.
* Young women who had been setting aside money for their dowries saw their savings
evaporate, thus making a traditional German marriage impossible.
* A concert pianist would be paid with a suitcase of bills for his performance and ex-
change half of the bills for several sausages

Here's a chart of what's happened to the U.S. money supply in the last 6 months. There's no other way to pay for all the crap (bailouts, stimuli, banks, voters) that the government is currently purchasing.

Graph from Federal Reserve Bank Of St Louis.

Caption Contest - Strange Bedfellows Edition

I need a caption for this picture.

An anonymous commenter won last week's caption contest. Mr./Ms. Anonymous, you can claim your prize (chicken nuggets from McDonald's or an Egg McMuffin or a free dachshund) by identifying yourself.

The New York Times Is Decadent And Depraved

A friend of mine sent me this chart from the February 27 New York Times. It shows the gap between federal spending and federal receipts.
At first glance, the projected deficit doesn't look that bad, does it? We've been through worse, haven't we?



But after I looked at it for a few seconds longer, I saw what was wrong. Where is the Reagan revenue boom (and the Clinton/NAFTA) echo?
The chart shows the federal receipts, spending, and deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product. Hit the link above if you can't read the fine print.

We mustn't scare the New Yorkers, but....there are more honest ways to present that information, especially if you are going to display it beside a document entitled "A New Era Of Responsibility".

Here's what those numbers really look like in millions of dollars, instead of as a percentage of another number. Can you imagine the NYT printing this chart alongside the "New Era Of Responsibility" payoff pamphlet ?

The first question you should ask is "What the hell is happening to the value of the dollar?" (Answer: They're printing them as they go.)

The second question is "Why did the NYT go out of their way to make the latest giveaway/bailout numbers look less threatening?" (Answer: The hope and change thing.)

The third question is "What is the total of all this deficit spending?"
(Answer: Here's the national debt as of last year. I don't have an update for all the latest ladles of slop and neither does anyone else, but you get the idea.)


And people wonder why newspaper readership is declining.

From Marktaw.com

Marijuana legalization. Not just for politicians.

From Reason magazine. Brilliant.

A Cry For Help

I wish I'd never found this site.
It's like too much candy.

Someone please bring me food and water on Thursday.
It's been nice knowing all of you.

An Open Letter To China, Brazil, Japan, Luxembourg, and anyone else tempted to lend us money

Gentlemen, Ladies,

Thank you for your continued interest in lending money to the United States government. We appreciate your concern for us during this trying time.

I feel obliged to make you aware of the following:

We have no money to repay any more of your loans.
Our current options are to raise taxes, print more money, or default on your loans.

Raising taxes is politically unpopular, therefore none of our leaders will ever raise enough taxes to repay your money.
Printing money causes inflation, and you wouldn't want that devalued crap anyway. Plus, inflation is a guaranteed regime-changer, and our current Gang Of Thieves enjoys being in power.
Therefore, if you give us any more money we aren't going to give it back. It's that simple. We'll have to default.

(I've helped friends write similar letters to this one, usually involving their 16-year-olds and too many credit cards. Our present circumstances aren't much different.)

Thank you for your kind attention to this matter. If you have kids of your own, you know what it's like.

Sincerely,

http://thewhitedsepulchre.blogspot.com/

Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk is doing his part to end government waste !

Here's another nominee for "The Whitey Award". Blah blah blah. There are now so many nominees that it's become a chore to post them.

Next time a Democrat is elected president, all nominees for "The Whitey" are going to have to submit a petition with 500 signatures before they're eligible for consideration. This is freakin' ridiculous.

Anyway, here goes....

Former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk has tried to eliminate government waste. He's done this by not paying all of his taxes, and we as a nation should applaud his effort. That makes Ron Kirk, along with a great host of other Obama nominees, eligible for "The Whitey" award.

Hit the "Whiteys" tab below for more info on the prize. (yawn)

Milton Friedman on Enlightened Self-Interest

A friend of mine sent me this link in which the late, great Milton Friedman takes an interviewer to school.



If only our Messianic president, senatorial saviors, and congressional rescuers had digested this video prior to the unpleasantness of the last two weeks, every person in the U.S. would be, on average, about $15,000 better off.

If this info had been absorbed about 40 years ago, we'd all be at least $40,000 better off.
(Look at your share of the National Debt Meter to your right. Divide the total debt by 300 million Americans. I know, I know, it's fewer than 300 million, since Democrat officials don't seem to pay taxes.)

Instead, we're stuck with a bunch of voters who think that Big Brother knows best. "Only government can solve this government-created crisis, therefore we need more government."

Unbelievable.

Real Men Of Genius: Joe Biden

The great Nick Gillespie of Reason Magazine recently consented to be my friend on Facebook. (I'm now in there with about a thousand other Gillespie admirers.)
I found a link to this gem on Mr. Gillespie's home page. Enjoy.



It's good to see that some people aren't afraid to mess with Joe.



One other thing I found on the Gillespie Homepage.....They've come up with a Personal Stimulus Package Generator. If you aren't laughing out loud when you get the survey results, well, never mind. Most of the nation doesn't understand the ripoff anyway. Fill in the blanks, and then look for the yellow highlights in your copy of the stimulus bill.

Needed: A vetter for the vetters

There are several ways to reduce government waste. The best method, of course, is the one least discussed: don't give the government any of your money.

That's the spirit I've tried to honor with "The Whitey Award", a small trophy given for eliminating government waste by ignoring the tax code. Click on "The Whiteys" at the bottom of this post for a listing of all the nominees.

Now people are trying too hard to draw attention to themselves, and I might have to retire the trophy. This isn't supposed to be the Special Olympics. Everyone can't be a winner. It's not an honor if the entire democratic party gets one.

The awards may have gotten the attention of The White House, since Obama's cabinet walls were starting to look like the Trophy Room at Notre Dame. Here's Politico:

The White House has dramatically tightened its vetting process following embarrassing revelations of past tax problems by several nominees, according to two officials familiar with the process...."A narrative was building, and the president asked us to be more vigilant in the vetting process," said a source involved in the vetting.

Dang right, a narrative was building. And the narrative stated that The Obamessiah's disciples weren't tithing, despite advocating more spending by The Church Of Big Government. It was becoming an embarrasment.

So White House counsel Greg Craig has taken over vetting ! ! Here's The Washington Post:

Now, amid a series of embarrassing personnel stumbles that have bogged down the administration's attempt to move swiftly to its legislative agenda, Craig is assuming control of the vetting process for nominees. That portfolio includes helping shepherd the next choice for secretary of health and human services, who will replace former senator Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) after his decision to step aside because of tax problems, and making sure the nomination of Rep. Hilda L. Solis (D-Calif.) as labor secretary does not fall victim to the same fate after tax liens against her husband's business were revealed yesterday.

Well, that's admirable.

There's just one little problem. Click here to see an online ad for Noyes Graphics, a design business run by someone named Derry Noyes. Note the business address.

Then click here to see if Derry Noyes, or anyone else, has applied to run a business from that address. (It's a private residence.)

Click here to read the Wikipedia article on Tax Evasion.

Click here to see who Derry Noyes married.

Congratulations, Greg Craig ! You are in charge of making sure no one else in the Obama administration wins a Whitey ! And now you're a winner ! You sneaky son-of-a-gun.

Astounding. Truly astounding.

Who is going to vett the vetters?

The Texas Tea Party, Cowtown Bar and Grill, Fort Worth Texas, February 27, 2009

Yesterday I was able to spend a couple of hours at the Texas Tea Party, the anti-stimulus, anti-bailout, anti-campaign donor refund, and anti-bank recovery protest. It was held at one of my regular hangouts, Fort Worth's Cowtown Bar and Grill.
Having this event spontaneously erupt at my favorite watering hole is like a dream. One of those What-If-I-Ran-The-World dreams. I halfway expected to go to the Camp Bowie Starbucks this morning and have the barrista give me Anti-Al Gore literature.

The crowd was about 75% Republican, 10% Libertarian, 5% Undercover Democrats who wanted to infiltrate the opposition, and 10% bewildered regulars who were wondering what had happened to their favorite bar and why it was so hard to find parking.

My biggest regret is not getting there before the event started. (Work, work, work....) There was a long line of people along Camp Bowie holding up signs and waving flags. Most of the speechmaking and politicking was already over. I set up shop in back, and started handing out Nolan charts and doing my best to explain what the Libertarians are all about. The wind was blowing too hard to set up any kind of a backdrop, but it was time well spent.

It was my first time to represent the Libertarians at any public event, and it was enlightening. (For me. I don't know what it was for my victims.)

The Nolan chart/quiz is a set of 10 questions that does a reasonably ok job of defining your political beliefs. One of the questions is whether or not you favor drug legalization for adults.

People were stymied by this question, and agonized over it more than any other. The reason why? They know that if marijuana is legalized, the government will be able to tax it. They don't want to give anything else to the government ! ! !

These are MY people, and I love them.


If someone's survey defined them as "Conservative", I tried to steer the conversation to the part of the stimulus package that is 40% Republican pork. Then I typically veered off into the conservative opposition to drug law reform and gay marriage as a red herring.

I ran into several Democrats (including one co-worker). I usually told them to put all their drinks on my bar tab, since that's what their lords and masters in Washington were doing to us already. A couple of hundred dollars more shouldn't matter. Only two of them got the joke.

A few people didn't even bother taking the test. Based on previous experience, they just took a sticker and placed it on the very top of the Libertarian portion of the chart.

It looked like 300 people attended. No one threw anything at me. None of the (few) Democrats I spoke with had any rational way of justifying the recent spending abortions. None of the (many) Republicans could justify their continued support of the party of Snowe, Collins and Spector, or the Bush/Reagan/Bush budget busting.

The libertarians all had a fanatical gleam in their eyes. Our day is coming. I loved every minute of it. I want to do this again.

Pics came from here.

"Tea Party" protest at the Cowtown Bar And Grill in Fort Worth ! ! !

To: Fort Worth residents who have been paying attention
From: Me


Tired of giving your money to people who couldn't pay an $800,000 mortgage on a $25,000 salary?
Tired of watching your dollars buy less and less because The Fed is printing too many of them?
Tired of the current Billions For Bankers Bailout?
Boy, do I have the event for you ! ! !


This is from Craigslist.


"TEA PARTY '09."


Let "the man" know that you're mad, and you're not going to take it anymore!! Bring your protest signs and indignant taxpayer attitude with you to the rally at the outside stage at The Cowtown Bar & Grill on Friday, the 27th of February, from 3pm to 7pm, located at 7108 Camp Bowie Blvd, Fort Worth, TX 76116 (817) 570-7910

We hope to have a guest speaker there from KLIF radio. The "Desert Son Band" will be performing on the outside stage with their original music and some covers appropriate for the rally. Food and drink will be available for purchase.

This bar is right around the corner from my job. It's not quite a home away from home, but it's at least in 3rd or 4th place. A fun time WILL be had.


This is how they did it in Boston in 1773.




This is how they're doing it in Fort Worth in 2009.

If I can get finished at work by 6:00, I'm going to buy a bottle of alcohol-free beer and pour it out on Camp Bowie. (Wouldn't want to waste anything good on a protest.)

Here are a few more links with info about the event, including one where some idjit writes in to Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show", suggesting they show up with a camera crew to film "the rednecks" for the comedy potential. As if there could be anything dumber than the blatant giveaways we Texas rednecks are protesting against.

Hope to see you there !

************************

In the previous post I featured some student activists who were, to put it gently, not quite competent.

They could take a few lessons from these kids. This is brilliant. Enjoy !

A Consensus on the Kimmel Center student takeover at NYU, with notes on Corporate Water

This is the saddest thing I've ever seen.
It's sadder than "Dog Day Afternoon". It's more depressing than "Midnight Cowboy".
This is sad.
Just wanted to warn you.
A group of NYU students, no doubt intoxicated with the romantic 1960's campus takeovers, took over their student center cafeteria. After a few hours, they realized they'd forgotten to take over a toilet.
Potty breaks were eventually negotiated (through non-violent confrontation).
My God in heaven, this is sad.

They're taking these kids, pumping them full of theoretical bullshit, teaching them how to sprinkle a few Smart Words into every sentence, and then releasing them, untethered, into the Post-Marxist Mist, where they flounder about trying to define the hierarchy in their consensus space. (You'll understand that sentence later on. I promise.)

The video begins with some campus official looking over the barricades and asking the students for some identification.

:27 Idiot: "We're using Democratic Process here; I don't know if you guys understand that....We're using consensus here, and the way that works is they need to come back and report to us what the disciplinary measure are....We need to collectively decide how to proceed."

This was in response to the cops asking for their student I.D.'s. It gets better.

1:22 Idiot: "YOU MAY NOT COME IN HERE ! THIS IS STUDENTS' FREE SPACE ! EXCUSE ME !"

The cameraman is addressing a large security officer who has had to climb over an improvised barricade, and who is not amused. He doesn't seem to have much patience for spoiled little documentarians whose parents pay $48,000.00 a year in tuition, only to have Junior take over the Food Court as a Poli-Sci project. He doesn't seem amused at all. Plus, it's a privately owned school, BTW.

1:30 Idiot, in a panic: "YOU MAY NOT USE BRUTALITY HERE ! YOU ARE ON CAMERA ! DO NOT USE BRUTALITY !"

I believe the Spielberg wannabe might have glimpsed a taser at that point.

1:50 Our heroic cameraman briefly breaks character when he spots a competing cinematographer. He goes from whiny little consensus builder to "Dude ! I'm getting the same footage !"

2:17 Idiot: "Are they armed? Do they have tasers? As long as they don't have Devices Of Force, okay."

I don't think anyone was needing your approval, buddy.... But if they'd had Devices Of Force, this would be a much shorter video. And the world would've applauded the Force Device Wielders for ending it.

2:35 Idiot addressing his Trustafarian troops: "We have to be civil, let's be civil, this is civil disobedience...."

3:00 to 3:30 The University's designated Flak Catcher has to explain that this is not a negotiation. This is private property, and you will show us your school I.D.'s.

In the words of one YouTube commenter: What... what exactly are they supposed to be doing? I've taken part in many protests myself, but this is the first time I've ever been rooting for The Man. What a pathetic display of entitlement and... well, pissiness.

3:40 Idiot: "We need to use a consensus process to move forward. This is directly democratic, okay?"

At this point, all decent god-fearing Christians, Muslims, Jews, Scientologists and Seventh Day Adventists want to crawl through their computer screens and LET THE STRANGLING BEGIN.

3:55 Cop: "There is no cooperation. You guys need to leave."
Idiot: "We need to democratically decide on that."

4:10 Idiot: "We would like to democratically decide in a consensus area...."

More confusion while Idiot tries to get his troops rallied into a consensus area.

5:10 Idiot: "Who is the hierarchy here? Like, who is the top...."

5:15 "Guys, focus on consensus here, we have 10 minutes....we need to look at the situation here, the hierarchy here, the power relationship here, we need to decide if we're going to cooperate with their demands by force, okay? They're using force."

(Note to cameraman: You are freakin' surrounded by cops. Some are campus cops, and outside the building are the NYPD cops. And they don't like you. That is the power structure.)

5:40 Screaming erupts from stage right. One of the young ladies in a PLO scarf accuses the cops of touching her, and perhaps trying to throw her off the balcony. She's screaming "Don't touch me !" They don't make revolutionaries like they used to.

Every one of these police officers deserves the Congressional Medal Of Honor. For restraint. Normal humans would've gone Medieval on these people.

5:55 Idiot: "Ryan, Ryan ! ! ! WE'RE USING CONSENSUS ON HOW TO PROCEED ! ! WE HAVE 10 MINUTES TO DECIDE WHETHER TO COOPERATE WITH THEIR DEMANDS TO PROVIDE NYU I.D. !"

I guess this is as good a time as any to discuss their demands. There were 13 of them. The first one was the most self-serving (amnesty for all protesters, of course). The funniest one is that the school library should be open to the general public. The most contradictory? They want to rebuild the University of Gaza, provide scholarships for 13 Palestinian students, and (ahem) lock in tuition fees at a fixed rate. Nothing was said about a free pony.

6:30 Idiot: "We have to decide....can we have some space where we can discuss in private? We can take this space and discuss what's going on and....We need to have a consensus ! Freddy ! Freddy ! We're going to decide without you !"

I think Freddy might have decided to abandon censensus-building principles, and embrace a more libertarian world view in a more remote space.

7:20 Idiot: "We can negotiate in private. We're going to talk in private. We use consensus process, right? We're going to use this space to privately discuss....They're not going to let us have four of our people to consensus.... " (One glorious shot of a kid with dreadlocks, giving up, and picking up his skateboard to go home.)

7:35 Idiot" "We're going to use this space to privately discuss...."
Cop: "No, stay over here, please."
Idiot: "Well, you'll have to use earmuffs. Ok, just pretend you can't hear us."

Get ready for my second-most favorite line of dialogue. Let me set the stage. Rome is burning. There are barbarians at the gates. And what does our Che Guevara wannabe have to say?

7:50 Idiot: "Okay, who wants to be facilitator? Who wants to facilitate at this point? I have markers."

At the 8:00 mark, our cameraman cuts away to the backpacks. He's apparently looking for contraband, maps of the Pentagon, incriminating evidence, the weapons stash, weed, or anything else that the authorities could use to force the consensus-builders to miss The Big Game or Serve Detention in Study Hall.
He finds iPods, MacBooks, various laptops, and he's using a nice video camera. Got that? He shows iPods and Mac computers on his video. iPods. Macs.

8:30 Idiot: "Water bottles. I don't think they want (our) water bottles. I bet they drink Corporate Water."

The End. Except for....

9:22 Idiot: "I guess we're converging back into this space...."

Barack Obama's address on the economy to both houses of Congress, and Lousiana governor Bobby Jindal's response

Meh....

.

Caption Contest - Easter Pageant Gone Wrong Edition

I need a caption for this picture.
Fembuttx won last week's contest, which is what I deserve for selecting a picture like that one.

Welcome Back Kotter, and Carter

T-shirt available here.

We're "A Nation Of Cowards", and here's the reason why....

Eric Holder, the new Attorney General, says that we are a "nation of cowards" when it comes to discussing race.

Eric Holder has taken a lot of heat for this, but he is 100% correct. We don't talk about race, except in the most guarded terms. Then we change the subject as quickly as possible.

Here's the reason why. This is from The Huffington Post:

A cartoon likening the author of the stimulus bill, perhaps President Barack Obama, with a rabid chimpanzee graced the pages of the New York Post on Wednesday.
The drawing, from famed cartoonist Sean Delonas, is rife with violent imagery and racial undertones. In it, two befuddled-looking police officers holding guns look over the dead and bleeding chimpanzee that attacked a woman in Stamford, Connecticut.

At its most benign, the cartoon suggests that the stimulus bill was so bad, monkeys may as well have written it. Others believe it compares the president to a rabid chimp. Either way, the incorporation of violence and (on a darker level) race into politics is bound to be controversial. Perhaps that's what Delonas wanted.

Of course it's bound to be controversial. Hell, I can't believe I've gathered up the nerve to write anything about it. But let's start with a few obvious facts:

1) The cartoon isn't very funny.
2) Delonas has an editor who approved the cartoon's publication.
3) Look at the Huffington quote in italics above. They said "on a darker level", as if to imply that light is good and dark is bad. Silly, isn't it? But I find myself avoiding phrases like that all the time. If someone really wanted to make a racial issue of that sentence, they could easily do so.
4) The symbolism used in the cartoon is waaaay out there, especially in terms of the racist symbolism that was often used in the Deep South.
5) But the cartoon provides a muted commentary on the quality of the stimulus bill. A million monkeys at a million typewriters for a million years couldn't have produced anything as bad as that abomination.
6) Al Sharpton and Julian Bond and plenty of others are issuing critical statements attacking the New York Post, calling for the cartoonist's head, and doing whatever they can to get back in the limelight somewhere far away from the Obama glare.
7) Anyone who dares to talk about race in a public forum is insane. That includes Eric Holder. That includes me. There are a lot of sociologists who predict that within the next 20 generations or so there won't be any "races" left. This would eliminate racism, tribalism, and a host of other harmful isms, wouldn't it?
8) But getting back to the subject at hand....if I were a monkey, and someone drew a cartoon about me writing the stimulus bill? I'd be angry.

Of Regulations, Red Tape, and the Trade Deficit

The great economist Frederic Bastiat, one of the guiding lights of this blog, worked as an exporter. Here's some more info on his career from Mises.org :

Bastiat was orphaned at age ten, and was raised and educated by his paternal grandparents. He left school at age seventeen to work in the family exporting business in the town of Bayonne, where he learned firsthand the evils of protectionism by observing all the closed-down warehouses, the declining population, and the increased poverty and unemployment caused by trade restrictions.

I work in the shipping and logistics industry. I've seen the same "evils", and this is one of the many reasons I've started supporting the Libertarian Party.

My friend and fellow blogger Stephen M. Smith works in the shipping and logistics industry. I mentioned this to him about a month ago, and asked for his thoughts on why people in the shipping industry often have Free Market leanings.
This is what I got back from Stephen.
(Please bookmark his website - A Beginner's Guide To Freedom. In a just, rational world, Stephen's words would be carved into marble.)

Of Regulations, Red Tape, and the Trade Deficit
- by Stephen M. Smith

A number of pundits lately have declared that the recent housing-related chaos in the financial and banking sectors is proof that deregulation doesn’t work, or that markets can’t regulate themselves. Clearly, they argue, what we need is more government regulation and oversight. Evidently the same government that specifies the size of the holes in Swiss cheese and mandates the number of toilets each building must have just isn’t doing enough in the area of regulation.

The people calling for more red tape obviously don’t work in logistics. If they did, they would understand that the United States is already the most heavily regulated society in the history of man. The finance and banking industries are without a doubt the most heavily regulated sectors of the most heavily regulated society, but I suspect the logistics and transportation sectors aren’t too far behind.

Granted, my evidence is anecdotal rather than empirical, but given the fact that my entire job is dedicated to regulatory compliance, I think I speak with some authority. When I’m not busy annoying socialists with free-market blog posts, I spend most of my waking hours making sure my company complies with all of the relevant federal regulations covering exports.

And there are a lot of them. So many, in fact, that the bureaucrats hold a conference in Washington, D.C. each year just to review the changes in the regulations. The conference doesn’t cover all the regulations, mind you, just the changes from the previous year. But even that takes three full days. Last year there were well over a thousand attendees (and they were just the ones who managed to get in - demand for the conference routinely outstrips capacity). That’s at least 24,000 man-hours of lost productivity just so we can understand what’s different this year from last.

One of the many focus areas of the latest conference was a new electronic filing requirement mandated by the US Census Bureau. You probably thought that Census only existed to count the number of people and identify the languages spoken in your household once every decade. But it turns out that they are also responsible for compiling all of the statistics that go into those weighty government reports that are ignored by your elected representatives as they vote to separate you from your money.

But the boys and girls from the Census bureau were all fired up for this latest conference. And why were they so excited to see us this time? Because their new regulations increase the penalties for errors. In the past, the most Census could fine a violator was a paltry $1000 per mistake. Now, though, the penalties can include fines of up to $250,000 and - this is where it gets really exciting – jail time! The folks at the Census Bureau couldn’t be happier. They finally get to throw people in jail, just like the big kids in the other branches of government.

Now I know a lot of non-libertarians just roll their eyes when they hear us yammer on about the “gun of government,” but I can assure you it is not an exaggeration. Seriously – the guy with the gun actually gave a one-hour PowerPoint presentation about all of the terrible things he was willing to do us if we stepped out of line. Ironically, he was the most engaging and entertaining speaker of the entire event.

So what could be so important about this new filing requirement that they’re willing (and eager) to put people behind bars over it? It’s not about national security – that’s covered by a whole host of other government bureaucrats (who also carry guns). As I mentioned earlier, the Census bureau compiles statistics. And one of their most important (in their minds, at least) functions is to calculate the trade deficit. The fact that the US has been running a trade deficit for years is a horrible state of affairs according to the bureaucrats in D.C. To correct this “problem,” they drop a thousand pages of new regulations on our desks each year, threaten us with fines and imprisonment if we screw up on any of them, and then tell us we should export more. And at the end of the conference, they give us pocket calculators made in China. No kidding.

A lot of people get all torqued up about the trade deficit, of course. Take Lou Dobbs (please). Lou has made a fortune complaining about the trade deficit, but at least he’s not pointing a gun at anyone to make it go away (as far as I know). I’m not sure why the trade deficit evokes such a fierce reaction in so many people, since any first-year economics major can tell you it’s a completely meaningless number. To see just how ridiculous the whole thing is, allow me to summarize an illustration originally provided by my favorite economist, Frederic Bastiat. (It seems they were torqued up about the trade deficit in 19th century France as well).

A French merchant ships goods valued at €200,000 to the United States. After freight, insurance, and cost of goods sold, the merchant clears €40,000. He then imports American goods valued at €320,000, which he turns around and sells for €400,000. Foolishly, he believes that he has made a profit of €120,000 from these two transactions - €40,000 from the first shipment to America, and another €80,000 from the sale of the imported American goods. To the layman, this may seem like a pretty good business model and the kind of thing one might wish to continue. But there’s a problem, you see. France now has a trade deficit with the United States – after all, she wisely exported €200,000, but then foolishly imported €320,000. All the politicians start whining that France has “given away” €120,000 to foreigners.

Later, the same merchant ships out another €200,000 worth of French goods. But the ship is lost at sea. For some strange reason, the merchant records this as a loss of €200,000. But how can that be? After all, the trade deficit is now greatly improved. French Customs recorded €200,000 of exports, and there were no corresponding imports. Not only has the previous trade deficit with the United States been erased, but France now finds itself in the eviable position of having a trade surplus of €80,000.

Based on the logic of the balance of payments, it becomes obvious that France can easily double its capital at any moment. All the French have to do is load their goods onto ships, and once they’ve cleared Customs, dump them into the ocean. France will gain all that the sea swallows up.

With Bastiat’s illustration in mind, worrying about the trade deficit doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. So does it make any sense to threaten people with jail time over it? And even if we were to accept the primitive notion that exports are good and imports are bad, why would we wish to increase the regulatory burden associated with exporting from the United States? If the trade deficit were the demonic force most people believe it to be, then surely we would want to reduce the costs associated with exporting, not increase them.

The regulatory burden is by no means limited to the export sector. All areas of economic life in the United States are burdened by miles of red tape – to a far greater degree than most people realize. Every one of these regulations increases the cost of doing business in the United States. Presumably we should be looking for ways to cut the cost of doing business in this country so that we could afford to do more of it. This should be standard practice even in the best of times, but given the depressed state of the economy these days, it is more important now than ever.

I wish I'd said that.
The only thing I might add? If an American firm purchases something from China, what are the Chinese given in return?
Little green pieces of paper with Benjamin Franklin's picture on them.
What is the only use for these green pieces of paper? Where can they be redeemed for something else?
Thank you, Stephen. The world is a better place with you in it.

Robert Earl Keen at Billy Bob's

The Aggie talked me into taking her to Billy Bob's tonight to hear Texas A&M alum Robert Earl Keen.
I didn't require a lot of persuading. Great show.
The band was the same as you'll see here, minus the banjo:



Rich Brotherton, the guy playing the guitar solo at the 1:20 mark, probably isn't human. Or he's made a deal with Satan.

I think The Aggie turned down two different cowboys who wanted to dance. She claims that she shot one of them down because he had on a University Of Texas shirt.

I could've listened to REK all night. Great, great show. Go hear him if you ever get a chance.

The Angry Mob Playset

Here's MSNBC's Rick Santelli getting his 15 minutes of fame.




In slightly related news, the group ACORN (which recently got a few jillion stimulus dollars for community organizing) is now breaking into homes as a protest against "the forclosure crisis".


After snapping a lock with bolt cutters, ACORN member Louis Beverly told supporters "this is our house now."ACORN staged the demonstration to protest the foreclosure crisis sweeping the nation.The home in the 300 block of Ellwood Avenue used to be owned by Donna Hanks. She lost this home in September, after owning it since 2001. When things got tough she struggled to make her payments.
Her mortgage? $1995 a month.
Her income? $2200.

Out of all the possible foreclosures ACORN could've chosen, they're using this as one of their test cases? Isn't your house payment supposed to be no more than 1/3rd of your income?


"We feel that it was unjust, we feel as though she was strong armed robbed, we feel that Wells Fargo could have modified her loan and that is what we are asking for right now," says Beverly.


There's a warm place in my cold, cold heart for ACORN (hit the tab below), and nothing in this surprises me. But wait, there's more !


ACORN says that they will move Donna Hanks back in despite the fact that she no longer owns the house. During the taping of this story a man by the name of William Lane told ABC2 News that he owns the house currently--and plans to sue Acorn.


What William Lane should remember is that ACORN will soon have its share of the 3 or 4 billion stimulus dollars allocated for Community Organizing. They will own enough lawyers to fill up hell during an expansion year. Good luck, buddy.


One other thing.....I'm predicting increased sales for The Angry Mob Playset & Action Figures. Don't know why. It's just a feeling.

If Obama and McCain had NASCAR uniforms

A writer named Bob Bader has a proposal in the Lodi News-Sentinel:

....for the sake of simplicity we should more clearly identify the primary players, their partners and sponsors. To start with, the various individuals who have their snouts in the public trough should be obliged to wear uniforms of a sort. The politicians' clothes might resemble those worn by NASCAR drivers and their crews, hard hats and all. Their political affiliation should be clearly marked by big "Rs," "Ds" and "Is" displayed on their chests sort of like the big red "As" that outed some less-than-distinguished persons many years ago. The politicos' sponsors' logos would be prominently sewn on their clothes and caps. That way, when you are out hustling their favors and votes on one matter or another, you'd know who else is kissing their rings to garner favors — it'd say so right on their uniforms. That way, you could temper your ardor based on the competition or lack thereof.

This is similar to something I once saw in "Good" magazine a couple of months ago.
Here's a picture of Obama and McCain with their NASCAR-style logos:

Click here to see the full-size original. Look at the logos that appear on BOTH uniforms. Bailout/bankrupt companies, one and all. Billions worth.

And people say that corporate sponsorship doesn't pay off....

Take The Liberal Test

To your right, just below the "About Me" verbiage, is an invitation to take a test. Hit the green button, and get back to me.
Here's a direct link, just in case I ever move the button to someplace else.

If you don't score at least 40% on this test, please lean back from your computer. (All that dripping saliva harms the keys....)

Fortunately, many of the people who ruined the word "liberal" in the U.S. are now calling themselves "progressives", since words aren't the only things those people screwed up.

For more links on how the word "liberal" has been corrupted, you can click here.

Liberal. It means "one who is willing to leave everyone the hell alone". It comes from the same root as Liberate, Liberty, Libertine (heh !), Libertarian, and several other currently unfashionable terms. A good, solid, honorable word.

HT to Chris with the Feline Enumerators for the link.

Barack Obama's Accomplishments As President Of The United States Of America

Before I get to Barack Obama's Accomplishments As President Of The United States Of America, I want to send out a thank-you.
Thanks to Coalla (sp?) King, my 11th grade typing teacher at North Sunflower Academy, I can type for hours and hours. A lot of my posts are waaaay too long.

So back in September, just as a joke, I wrote some posts that were nothing but headlines.

Barack Obama's accomplishments as president of the Harvard Law Review.

Barack Obama's accomplishments as a community organizer.

Barack Obama's accomplishments as a law professor.

Barack Obama's accomplishments in the Illinois State Senate.

and finally,

Barack Obama's accomplishments in the U.S. Senate.

The joke was that instead of my usual logorrhea, there was nothing at all beneath the headlines. Obama hadn't done much of anything other than reach for the next rung on his career ladder.



Dr. Ralph, who I keep expecting to appear on these pages morphed into some kind of bald, cat-stroking James Bond villain, gamely wrote comments under each post as fast as he could, I ridiculed The Doctor's contributions as quickly as I could, the fun lasted for a few days, and now those posts are among the leading Google results for Obama's accomplishments as lawyer, senator, teacher, organizer, and Messiah who came to save his people from their sins.

So..... 20 to 30 years from now, middle schoolers will have to write about Barack Obama's Accomplishments As President Of The United States Of America. They will go to the internet, or its future equivalent.

The internet is the first draft of history. Start commenting....

The New Quentin Tarantino Movie

Inglorious Basterds.
That's not a typo.
It's the new Quentin Tarantino movie.
Yes, that's Brad Pitt.
Other people play Hitler, Churchill, Joseph Goebbels, etc.
I'll probably see it in the theatre twice, and then buy the DVD.

Happy Presidents Day

Happy Presidents Day

Here's a list of the United States presidents and first ladies that I've seen, along with the circumstances. I've given each encounter a numerical grade based on nothing more than the general vibe of the experience.

Let's start with the most recent president. In February of '08 I saw Barack Obama when he spoke at Reunion Arena in Dallas. This was the infamous appearance where he got applause for blowing his nose. Having re-read my post about the event, I'm proud to say that I didn't get suckered in, although I had a lot of respect for his rhetorical skills. I'm also proud that I contributed $12.50 to help him defeat She Whose Name Is Not Spoken in the Democrat primary. But Godalmighty, he's an economic disaster.

Score: 7

I used to manage the Bookstop store at Preston & Forest in Dallas. (We were bought out by Barnes & Noble, who eventually closed all the locations or converted them to B&N stores.) This store was in the same shopping center where one-time presidential candidate Ross Perot got his infamous $10.00 haircuts. In 1992, Perot was often in our store saying things like "Ahm lookin' fer yer books on guvment waste !" We'd go find whatever he was looking for, and two nights later the little man would be quoting the books on television. We were drunk with power.

Another celebrity of sorts often came into the same store to kill time. George W. Bush was then owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, and he often came in the store and spent a lot of time in the History, Current Events, and Biography sections. He always bought more than one book. You can say a lot of things about the man, but illiterate he's not. In person, he's a really nice guy. We had more than one conversation about how 3rd baseman Steve Buechele's batting average was improving. Somewhere in my house I've got an autographed GW Bush business card that I've been trying to find for about 10 years.

Score: 9

I've never seen the current Secretary Of State, or her husband.

Score: 10 (out of gratitude)

The guy before The Clintons was George H.W. Bush. I saw him throw out the first pitch at a Texas Rangers baseball game in 1991. Papa Bush was captain of the Yale baseball team, and played first base. But the pitch he threw made it only 2/3rds of the way to home plate before bouncing in the dirt.

Score: 4

My mother went to high school in Merigold, Mississippi, and graduated in a senior class of maybe 7 people. One of these 7 was a guy named Larry Speakes. After running a few newspapers, Larry became press secretary for senator James Eastland, and then worked his way up to press secretary for president Ronald Reagan.

Larry's now known for two quotes: "I would dodge, not lie, in the national interest," and "Those who talk don't know what is going on and those who know what is going on won't talk."

In 1981 or 82, my father bought a used Winnebago motor home for about $2,500.00
That was about $2,000.00 more than it was worth. We worked on it for a few weeks, and decided to take it on a shakedown cruise.
From Mississippi to Washington D.C.
My mother made arrangements with Larry for us to get a private tour of the White House. My father's farm co-op gave us a 50-pound bag of Mississippi Delta rice to take to the Reagans. Larry's father was still the town banker in Merigold, and he gave us two fishing poles that he wanted to give his grandsons as birthday presents.

So my parents, two sisters, brother and I drove a ramshackle motor home all the way to the White House parking lot, got out of it with a 50-pound bag of rice and two fishing poles, went through security, and carried the stuff inside. We didn't get to go into the Oval Office, but Larry took us to the press briefing room where they have all the news conferences. Somewhere there's a picture of me behind the podium looking very un-presidential.

We got to see Reagan's helicopter land in the back yard of the White House. He was a very tall, very healthy looking man. The helicopter prop wash was blowing everyone's hair all over the place, but Reagan's didn't budge. He waved at us. I don't know if Nancy ever cooked the rice.

Score: 8

Before I worked at Bookstop, I managed stores for a Mom & Pop company called Taylors Books. I once had to help work the door for a Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter book signing when they came to Dallas. They were publicizing their book "Everything to Gain: Making The Most Of The Rest Of Your Life". The line of customers zigzagged down every aisle of the store, out the front door, around the store, and into the back alley. Carter seemed nice enough, and Miss Rosalynn seemed mildly sedated. Their publicist would hand them a book, the former president would write "Jimmy &", and his wife would write "Rosalynn Carter". They could get it done in less than 8 seconds per copy.

We had plenty of copies of the book. Acres of it. But the Carters could only stay for about two hours. Even at 8 seconds per copy, some customers were going to be turned away.

This would have been in 1987 or 1988. Reagan had been in office for most of his second term by then. History had already passed judgement on the Carter presidency, and that judgement wasn't very kind.

The people waiting in line to see JIMMY CARTER OF PLAINS GEORGIA with their own two eyes? They didn't care. These were die-hard democrats, the last of the true believers. Jesus Christ himself was inside Taylors Books, turning water into wine, and I was the one who had to keep letting them in at the rate of only one customer every 8 seconds.

This was my first experience with The Herd Mentality. It wasn't pleasant when Jimmy and Rosalynn left us to do radio and TV appearances.

Score: 2

I never saw Gerald Ford, although I had one supervisor in the early 80's who thought I should go to his wife's clinic.

In April of 1973, my parents got us up in the middle of the night to go to the new Naval Air Station in Meridian, Mississippi. Richard Nixon was going to be guest speaker at the opening of the base. Daddy fired up the station wagon, Mama threw some peanut butter and crackers in the back seat, and we took off.
(This was near the peak of the Watergate scandal, and the only places that Nixon could appear without being booed were military bases in the Deep South.)
When we got to Meridian, we'd eaten all the peanut butter and there was already a mob in the open field that surrounded the podium. The best we could have honestly done for seats was about 75 yards away from the president. But we are not a shy family.
Daddy saw some empty chairs in the second row of the VIP area, and we started plowing toward them. The seats had signs on the backs, reserving them for assorted high ranking officers. My parents STEPPED OVER THE ROPE BARRIERS WITH THE SECRET SERVICE MEN WATCHING, and led us to the chairs.
We got to hear Nixon speak from about 10 yards away. When the speeches were over, my mother was impressed that Pat Nixon got down on her knees at the edge of the stage to shake hands with a woman in a wheelchair.
Daddy's theory on why we got away with it: The Secret Service knew that any family smelling that much like peanut butter couldn't be a threat to the president.

Score: 8

I never got to see LBJ, but I saw his wife Lady Bird get the BRIT International Award of Excellence for her work in preserving Texas plants and wildlife. Fort Worth's own Van Cliburn played the piano and sang for her. It was a great night.

Score: 7

That's all the presidents and first ladies that I've seen. Hope you enjoyed hearing about it. I've enjoyed remembering it.

The Octuplets, Part 2

Cartoon from here. I'd planned to burn several gigabytes of text comparing the cost per child of the octuplets to the cost per household of the latest stimulus giveaway. Never mind. The picture says it all.

Caption Contest - E.T.'s Finger edition

I need a caption for this picture.
Jos Metadi won last week's Caption Contest.
Many thanks to the Grammar Nazis for pointing out three errors in one sentence.
Apologies to Flee for misspelling her Blogger Name.
More apologies to everyone who knows me. I just couldn't help myself with this one. What the heck were they thinking?

The Octuplets, Part 1

Here's CBS on the now-infamous octuplets:

The mother of newborn octuplets and six other children collected almost $168,000 in state disability payments for an on-the-job back injury that she and a doctor said was worsened by pregnancy, according to state documents released Thursday.
Nadya Suleman, 33, became pregnant with all 14 of her children after a 1999 injury during a riot at a state mental hospital where she worked, state Division of Workers' Compensation documents show. She stopped working, but had the six older children during that time, notes Early Show correspondent Hattie Kauffman.
"There has to be some question," says CBS News Legal Analyst Trent Copeland, "about whether or not a woman who's disabled and collecting over $150,000 worth of disability payments is really authorized to receive those payments if she's too disabled to work, but not too disabled to have at least a half-dozen children."

But wait, there's more !

Experts say America needs legal restrictions, like some European countries have. "I really do think we need laws setting limits on the number of embryos implanted," said law professor Lori Andrews. Chung added: "The difficult part on putting restrictions on the number of embryos transferred is that it will limit the ability of the physician and the couple to individualize the care." But it's how to care for these 14 children that has so many concerned right now.

And even more, from The Pasadena Star-News !

The birth of octuplets to a Whittier woman could spur the creation of new state laws regulating in vitro fertilization.
State Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley, is considering introducing legislation that would prohibit the state from paying medical bills for multiples born using IVF and would regulate fertility procedures themselves to prevent multiple births.
"He's got a very big concern about the cost to taxpayers," said Aanestad spokesman Bill Bird.

Let's contrast all of the clamoring for more laws, more regulation, and more government interference in just about everything, with this next gem. Sorry, but I'm requring you to click here. Get back to me.

1) What would be the proper level of government interference in the life of the admittedly loony octuplet mom, vs. any person impacted by the last example?

2) Name 3 politicians you would trust to get it right.

A humane proposal for the benefit of Charles Ballard

Charles Ballard, a Rust Belt economist, believes that government spending can create jobs.

Of course government spending creates jobs. For government. And the friends of government who have contributed less to government than they hope to receive from government.

But at what cost to the big picture? And how many years until these jobs are created? There aren't that many of them that will begin this year - not in the rough drafts of the bill, anyway.

However, there is one worthy job that I would join hands with other taxpayers in creating.

To hell with whether or not it would stimulate the economy. Someone in a new government postition created specifically for this purpose needs to buy Charles Ballard a new suit.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant

Here's a link to some Obama statements about "transparency" in government.

Here's a link to an outfit called "The Sunlight Foundation", which is wondering why Congress is keeping their spending boondoggle shrouded in secrecy.

Now it's time for Texans to boycott Texas

We've got more problems in our peanut butter.....

(CNN) -- The Texas Department of State Health Services on Thursday ordered the recall of all products ever shipped from the Peanut Corporation of America's plant in Plainview, Texas, after discovering dead rodents, rodent excrement and bird feathers in the plant.

So in the spirit of last year's anti-China alarmism and calls for boycotts, I'm now calling for all Texans do the right thing and boycott all Texas-made products.

"It's For The Children"®

Senator Charles Schumer, on the subject of whether or not you care

Here's Senator Charles Schumer, on the subject of whether or not you care about the stimulus bill having more pork than the Chicago stockyards. (The video only lasts 16 seconds, unlike this Schumer quote, which I hope will last forever, and be widely mocked wherever caring people gather to give a damn.)

It's time to boycott Georgia

Here's CNN, on the congressional investigation into a Georgia peanut plant accused of knowingly covering up a salmonella outbreak:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The president of a peanut company and a plant manager accused of knowingly distributing contaminated food refused to answer questions posed by members of Congress on Wednesday, citing their Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.

The testimony of Stewart Parnell, president of the Peanut Corp. of America, and Sammy Lightsey, manager of the company's Blakely, Georgia, plant, before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee lasted less than 10 minutes.

Remember the good old days before trucking was de-regulated in the 1980's? It used to be more difficult and expensive to ship products across state lines into Texas. Back then, we didn't have to worry as much about contaminated peanut butter being shipped in from Georgia.

This salmonella outbreak is the legacy of "Free Trade". A loss of lives, a loss of jobs, and a loss of income for Texans. Do you think we'd have this problem with peanut butter if it had to be produced in Texas, with Texas inspectors reviewing the peanuts through every step of the peanut butter process? Wouldn't you be willing to pay more, just to know that your peanut butter was from Texas peanuts, grown by Texans, buttered by Texans, and inspected by our own Texas bureaucrats?

Because of Georgia's obvious Quality Control problems, don't you think it's time to boycott all Georgia products?

No?

Well think about that next time you read something like this.

An Octogenarian's Blog

Why couldn't this lady have been my social studies/history/economics teacher ??
Her site is called "An Octogenarian's Blog", and it is pure, undiluted greatness.

She makes me look like Al Freakin' Franken.
She name-checks Milton Friedman and Frederick Bastiat, both in the same post.
Her name is Anne Cleveland, AND SHE'S 80 SOMETHING YEARS OLD ! ! !
Wouldn't it be fun to sneak her into a Tim Geithner press conference, and then let her go medieval on him with the cameras rolling ?
Here's her "About Me" page. Here are the links to the newspaper articles written about her.

I love the internet. Love it, love it, love it.
Why do I get the feeling that if I live to be 80, I'll still be ranting to whoever will listen?

An Inconvenient Thermometer

We have a new record-breaking cold temperature in Maine.

It hit fifty degrees below zero last month.

This ties the record for coldest temperature ever recorded in New England, a record set in 1933.

Pics of global cooling from Freeborn John. Pics of schizophrenic Time Magazine covers from Globalwarming Lies.

Snowe, Collins, and Specter take a hit for the team

A group called The National Republican Trust Political Action Committee believes that there's a significant difference between The Daddy Party and The Mommy Party.

That's why they're trying to withold Republican campaign funds from (and support Republican challengers to) Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

Snowe, Collins, and Specter were the only three Daddy Party members to vote for the Senate's version of the stimulus package.

Well, to paraphrase Voltaire, if Snowe, Collins, and Specter didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent them. Sooner or later, the thing was bound to pass, and it had to have some Republican help to get there. If debate had continued, various Republican goodies under the stimulus Christmas tree would've been slowly nixed until we got a genuine "stimulus-only" bill, and that wouldn't have helped anybody's donors.

Snowe, Collins, and Specter don't run again for 6, 4, and 2 years, respectively. They represent predominantly Blue states, so they're most likely to come out re-elected, especially since most voters have the same long term memory capability as guppies. No one will ever know if they volunteered to slut themselves out this way, or if someone further up the pyramid pimped them out.

Keep an ear open for harsh and savage criticism of Snowe, Collins, and Specter from fellow senate Republicans. Listen closely. Have you heard anything yet?

Chances are, you won't hear a peep. You don't send three people out to take a hit for the team, and then publicly criticize them for their willingness to do the dirty work.

Once again, please repeat after me: There is no difference between The Daddy Party and The Mommy Party. None.

If your economy has "performance" issues....

This is from Reason magazine's audio/video club, and it's priceless.



With a tip of the hat to Tim Lebsack at the Dallas County Libertarian Party blog.

Rahm Emmanuel - The Latest "Whitey" Nominee

It's happening again.
It's Groundhog Day.

Can someone explain to me, using little-bitty words that I can understand, why it is that so many people near the top of the Obama administration don't believe they should have to pay taxes? Why do they all want to spend your money instead of their own?

(Ahemm.....) Could it be that they don't believe their own rhetoric? Maybe way down deep, they believe that they're the best judge of how their paycheck should be spent?

This time it's Rahm Emmanuel. He's been living at the home of a lobbyist, and not paying taxes on the "imputed income" from that arrangement.

(The lobbyist has Rahm Emmanuel listed as a client, along with Emmanuel's Mommy Party Congressional Campaign Committee. That's a secondary problem that everyone is too busy to worry about.)

This is becoming tiresome. When I created The Whitey Award for "Eliminating Government Waste By Not Giving Government Any Money", I had no idea that I'd need a playoff system.
So Rahm Emmanuel is now a nominee.
Remember when, just 3 weeks ago, candidates for this award could demonstrate some false modesty and say "Oh, it's an honor just to be nominated...." ???? Remember that innocent era?

Well, it's not that way any more. It's not an honor for anybody if we have to nominate everybody.