Do You Feel Motivated Yet?

On more than one occasion, my friend DG has challenged me to "write something nice about Al Gore".
I've tried and tried. The outline of a nice, nice, nice Al Gore post is waiting in my head. It's centered around the 1993 Gore/Perot NAFTA debates, which you can see in this YouTube clip around the .40 mark. Brilliant.

But every time I get ready to give St. Albert his overdue dose of nice, something unpleasant intervenes.

Here's what did it to me this time:

Christopher Buckley, the son of the late William F., has started writing editorials for National Review. Here's an excerpt:

Remember those wonderful Soviet Five Year Plans? ....that wheat output in (the) Ukraine will quadruple over the next five years?

(Applause! Yay. Lenin! Yay. Stalin! Whoopee! You guys totally rock!....)

Buckley continues, saying that in the Soviet Union there was....

"no Congressional Budget Office pointing out, five years later, the "inconvenient truth" that the Ukraine had produced exactly enough wheat to make one six-pack of blinis. "

He then states that George H.W. Bush (Buckley's former boss) once pledged to balance the budget by the middle of the next decade. We all know how that worked out. Buckley then wonders if people down at the general store even comment on John McCain's goal of building 45 nuclear reactors by 2030 (when McCain will be 94 years old).

He finishes the editorial by stating that....

"sometimes goals are reached. Reeling from the Bay of Pigs disaster, President Kennedy changed the subject by announcing that the U.S. was going to put a man on the moon 'Before this decade is out.' " And what do you know, American astronauts were playing golf in the Sea of Tranquility by the end of the decade. So I'm with McCain. I personally plan to lose 40 pounds by 2030."

I read that editorial about a week and a half ago, keeping an eye out afterwards for politicians throwing out silly goals with arbitrary deadlines.

Nothing happened for a few days. And then, rising from the pack, St. Albert The Goracle of Music City Tennessee had to have a Kennedy moment and get into the National Courageous Goal Business.

Al Gore has challenged us to abandon all fossil fuels within ten years. Yep. 10 years. This is from Canada's National Post:

On Thursday, former U. S. vice-president Al Gore delivered a major address calling on his country to abandon all fossil fuels within 10 years. By 2018, U. S. electricity and fuel should come entirely from "renewable energy and truly clean, carbon-free sources," he said. Tickets to the event encouraged attendees to "please use public transit, bicycling or other climate-friendly means" to reach the lecture hall.
So how did Mr. Gore and his retinue arrive? In two Lincoln Town Cars and a full-sized SUV that sat idling with the air conditioners blasting while the Gore party was inside.
It was 34 C in Washington. Al Gore can't be expected to get into an overheated vehicle after he's worked up a sweat telling others how to save the planet.

If you're trying to make it through a long, long study hall at school, or if you're serving a long, long prison sentence, you can click here to read 9 months worth of me venting about similar stunts commited by The Goracle. I've really tried to get past this. I have failed.

What angers me about this stunt is that it's such a blatant money grab. Kleiner Perkins is going to pay Gore several Tennessee mansions' worth of plunder if he can get enough climate change/energy saving mandates in place. These government mandates, of course, will benefit Kleiner Perkins' alternative energy startup funds.

When Kennedy challenged us to get to the moon within ten years, Kennedy didn't already own large chunks of unreachable lunar real estate and he wasn't hoping to make a killing by selling crater-side condos to astronaut colonists. As best I can tell, Kennedy's family didn't have any investments in the aerospace industry.

Heck, what other Big Hairy Audacious Goals could we shoot for?

McDonald's challenges America to double its Big Mac consumption by the end of this decade ! ! !
Barack Obama courageously challenges the U.S. to elect an African American president by 2008 ! ! !
Betamax double dares you to bring back videocassettes, but in a different format ! ! !

I'm sure there are other ones out there.

Carnival Of The Libertarians #10

Chris at the Counting Cats In Zanzibar blog has recovered his health, and now has the 10th edition of Carnival Of The Libertarians posted.

Please check it out, and wish him good luck in his physical and financial recovery. (See Carnival for details.)

Kevin Colby is hosting the next one. Pick out your best post, go to the widget to your right, and send it to him.

And By Their Bumperstickers, Ye Shall Know Them

I went to the Tarrant County Libertarian meetup in Grapevine yesterday.
First things first....
The meetup was held at Tolbert's Restaurant. I didn't realize going in that this place was the brainchild of Texas Chili-Cookoff legend Frank X. Tolbert. They had the best chili I've ever eaten. End of story.

They also have some great live entertainment scheduled during the next few weeks, including 3 Fools on Stools, A Hard Nights Day (Beatles Tribute) and plenty of others. I'll be returning to Tolbert's.

The other thing that always impresses me about the Libertarian meetups is that the people who attend are readers, not watchers or listeners. One gets the impression that the attendees generally develop their political opinions from books and newspapers, not Larry King, Lou Dobbs, or Rush Limbaugh. I love talking to these folks.

John Spivey, the Tarrant County Chairman, had some good info for us on the TCCC/Trinity River Vision boondoggle. I'm afraid that if I start diving into that mess it'll take over my life. The $$$'s that John was throwing around were terrifying. As wise investments go, this one is starting to make Alaska's Bridge To Nowhere look like Microsoft in the 80's.

Wednesday night, I'm probably going to go to a Meet And Greet in Dallas for Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr. I want to test the validity of his Damascus Road Experience, and in the unlikely event he's read any of the mad ravings on this site, it might be awkward.

Bumperstickers from Libertarian Girl and Buddy Stone.

Barack Obama Shoots A 3-Pointer In Kuwait

Here's a YouTube video of Barack Obama at a meet and greet for the troops in Kuwait.
The sound quality isn't good, but fast forward to the 2:50 mark and you'll get to see our potential Commander In Chief sink a three-pointer under intense pressure.

Doctors Against Sharp Pieces Of Metal That Don't Have A Blunt Round Nose

First they came for our rifles.
Then they came for our pistols.
Then they came for our kids' playground equipment.
And diving boards at public swimming pools.

Then they came for our sharp pieces of metal that don't have "a blunt round nose".

HT to Alissa In Wonderland, via Nick M.

Fill In The Blank

The Libertarian Party Of Colorado blog recently linked to a Rocky Mountain News story about Colorado's rising unemployment rate.
But the news hasn't been bad for all sectors of the economy.....

"Although employment growth has been positive, it has been too modest to absorb the state's expanding labor force," Donald J. Mares, executive director of the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, said in a statement.
The state labor department said the largest contributor to job growth has been the ____________ sector, which showed a gain of 10,200 jobs and accounted for roughly one-third of net job gains since last June.

If you're a regular reader of this site, you probably don't need to hit the links to fill in that blank.

Don't allow yourself to think about how much unemployment that the ____________ sector creates while preserving its own growth rate.

The mind recoils.

Photo from Cactus st8 on Flikr

Brent Rinehart's Comic Book - I need a copy

Where to begin, where to begin....

According to the Associated Press:

OKLAHOMA CITY — Some Oklahoma County voters can expect to receive comic books in the mail soon, but the subject matter will have a serious tone.
The 16-page publication prepared by Commissioner Brent Rinehart's re-election campaign lampoons gays and criticizes Rinehart's political opponents.
It also features an angel who supports the embattled commissioner and Satan, who supports his critics."It's more or less a story of my experiences of the last four years of being the county commissioner of District 2," Rinehart told The Oklahoman, which obtained the comic on Wednesday.Toga-wearing gays, political figures, trench coat-clad henchmen, concerned residents and Rinehart make up the rest of the comic's characters.
In one sequence, Satan says: "If I can get the kids to believe homosexuality is normal!"
The angel replies: "Hey Satan, not with Brent around you won't!"

Someone has posted the entire comic book here. Do yourself a favor, hit the link. Please. You'll walk around happy and laughing for the rest of the day. I plan on getting to work bright and early this morning, so I can print a limited edition of this thing to mail anonymously to unsuspecting friends and family. I really can't tell you how much I love being alive in a time and place that produces stuff like this. Can you imagine being a resident of The Great State of Oklahoma, Oklahoma County, District #2, and finding a hybrid like this in your mailbox from your freakin' county roads commissioner?

The president of the company where I work, known on this site as Marvel Variants, is a comic book collector.

Mr. Variants, if these things show up on Ebay, guess what you're getting for Christmas this year? You'll be one of the few collectors to own a Volume #1, Issue #1 from the Stan Lee of the Oklahoma County, District #2 Roads Department. (Oklahoma readers - please email me if you can get your hands on an autographed copy, good condition, in a plastic sleeve. Mailing label and postmark are ok, since they help guarantee authenticity. I'll pay more than market value.)

A few things worthy of comment:

-The AP article says that it took Rinehart two months to write this epic.

- Notice that the phrase "Liberal Good Ol' Boys" is used several times. I didn't know they existed. I know lots of liberals, and lots of Good Ol' Boys, but they aren't the same people.

- Rinehart is involved in some kind of campaign finance lawsuit. His job is to keep the roads in good repair, and to build new ones. Therefore, the comic book is about gays, Satan, liberals, the cross at the county fairgrounds, and pedifiles (sic).

- I'll admit to throwing up some goofy spelling, grammar, and sentence structure on this site. I usually post things in a hurry. However, I'm not trying to defend myself in a lawsuit. I'm not printing my drivel and mailing it to every voter in my home county. Couldn't Rinehart find a talented seventh-grader to spellcheck that thing?

- If you don't get a kick out of the drawings of toga-clad, pan-flute playing, limp-wristed gay protesters, then there's obviously no room for joy and happiness in your life. I've known several gays and lesbians from Oklahoma, and none of them dressed like refugees from a pastoral poem.

Here's more from the AP article: "I do not know who the good ol' boys at the courthouse are," said County Assessor Leonard Sullivan, a Republican who has had public disagreements with Rinehart."I've really encouraged him on more than one occasion to get professional help. He really needs it," said Sullivan, who is not depicted in the comic.

If Brent Rinehart were to receive professional help, he'd be like Faulkner without alcohol or Hunter S. Thompson without drugs. Would Van Gogh have done any interesting paintings if he had gotten professional help? I hope Rinehart declines any treatment so the world can have more of his work. God made plenty of talented writers, gifted artists, and people who can spell.

But he only made one Brent Rinehart.

Here's the Re-Elect Rinehart website. HT to the incomparable Radley Balko of Reason magazine for bringing this to a wider audience.

Update from July 24th. I've gotten about a jillion hits from this thing, so maybe someone can help me.... This would be the ideal collectors item. Is there anyone at the courthouse who could get one autographed by Drew Edmondson, Jim Roth, Sheriff Whetsel (with the pencil-thin moustache), Jim Dickinson, Brian Maughn, and J.D. Johnston? For historians, would this not be worth its weight in gold?

Here's a YouTube of Rinehart on CNN:

Happy Cost Of Government Day !

I hope everyone had a pleasant "Cost Of Government Day" yesterday.

(For those who are unfamiliar with the concept, Cost Of Government Day is an American holiday that slides further and further back on the calendar each year. It's the day that reflects how long Americans have to work each year to pay for our federal, state, and local government. Read more by clicking here.)

The chart above shows how COGD has slid from June to July during the last nine years.

To celebrate all this increased government spending, I did the following:

* I hit the snooze button on the alarm clock 5 times before getting out of bed. I know that I should work to pay for things I purchase, but I'm going to pass this work on to my child. Deficit spending should be counterbalanced by deficit work, don't you think?

* I went to Starbucks and took up a collection for orphans in Burma, to be paid when the orphans retire at age 65. If it appears that the orphans will live past 65 and the funds are running low, I can always push back the retirement age.

* I took part of the orphan money and bought a double espresso. I paid $25 for it, which some of you might think is too much. That's none of your business. Starbucks was a major contributor to my Burmese orphan fundraiser, and this is how I give back to the community. Plus, I have to protect American jobs by paying too much. To do less would be unpatriotic.

* Since I work in the transportation industry, I have a vested interest in keeping the cost of fuel as low as possible. I purchased several farms worth of wheat, and converted the wheat to ethanol. Not only is this bad for the environment (which gives me an opportunity to set up more programs to protect the environment), but when I convert food to fuel it also helps create more orphans in places like Burma ! More orphans = more fundraisers !

* My employees are, without exception, a bunch of badasses. So I've set up a program where I have my employees stationed in 135 other companies, just to keep things stable. Helps me keep an eye on things. This costs a lot, but I'm not the one paying for it.

*Shortly before lunchtime on COGD, I used Eminent Domain legislation to tear down a Burmese orphanage and put a Wal-Mart in its place. We'll see a huge increase in tax revenue from this move. This will allow us to spend more than ever.

* Then I took a congressperson to lunch and worked on getting subsidized. We discussed how much I would contribute to his campaign. We discussed how he could keep foreign competitors out of my industry. We chatted about creating some burdensome regulations that would prevent newcomers from starting their own businesses that could someday compete with mine. It was time well spent.

We didn't talk at all about what kind of work I do, since it doesn't really matter. What matters is that I pay him. Then he subsidizes me with an even greater amount of money. Your money.

Thank you for this gift. I want you to know that I'm not spending it wisely.

But I'm protecting American jobs.

* After lunch I checked on some of the schools that I support. The kids there don't read and can't write, despite being promoted every year. (I have to teach my own classes at work on HOW TO READ A TAPE MEASURE !) Then I followed up with my congressman to ensure that school voucher programs don't make any headway. I'm a passionate believer in all of America's children receiving the same level of education, even if that level is "none".

* I fired a kid for sending an important package via the U.S. Postal Service instead of FedEx or UPS. What an idiot.

* I wrote a check to pay for the private security service at the gated community where I live. Then I wrote another check to a lobbying group called "Moms Against Guns".

* There wasn't much going on after that, so I went to see the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. I like to get drunk and eat too much while watching athletes try to carry leather bags of air across arbitrary lines on the ground. I like it when vendors pay for me to have this experience. I'm delighted that they can deduct this expense from their taxes, so people like you will have to pay even more taxes for the benefit of people like me. I love for cities to build huge sports arenas at your expense so people like me can enjoy these spectacular events.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

* I had a wonderful Cost Of Government Day, and hope you did too. Let's try to celebrate in August next year, ok? Vote for Democrats, whose stated goal is to increase the size of government. Vote for Republicans, who claim to favor smaller government, but spend more than Democrats.
Work harder, not smarter.

Caption This

I need a caption for this picture.

Congratulations to Gar of HeyGar's Random Ramblings, winner of last week's caption challenge.

A two dollar donation has been made in his name to The Whited Sepulchre Outreach Ministry And Social Club For Bloggers Who Can't Get Digg Icons To Appear On Their Posts.

Thanks to SpartanTailGate for the picture

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends, Right Wing Edition

Here are some of the best posts from the people who are so far to the right that they make me look like a Marxist humanities professor.


Blackfive has a link to the story you'll never hear about elsewhere - an AP photographer filmed the Taliban's execution/murder of two women. Not for the faint of heart, and don't watch the video if you're faint of anything.

Blackfive is the best military blog I've found so far. Most of the authors are current or retired military officers.

After the 5-4 Supreme Court decision upholding 2nd Amendment rights, The New York Times ran an editorial that was just begging to be ripped apart. Fighting For Liberty beat me to it. He took a different approach than I would've, but it's a good Fisking.

GrEaT sAtAn'S gIrLfRiEnD has a post on Nazanin Afshin-Jam, 2003's Miss Canada. Afshin-Jam is now an outspoken advocate for Women's Rights in the Middle East in general and Iran in particular. (And anytime I link to GSG-friend, I have to explain that the U.S. is known as the Great Satan, therefore Israel is Little Satan. It takes a while to learn and understand GSGirlfriend-speak.)

Barack Obama has created some controversy by speaking in front of a Seal Of The President Of The United States that has his "Yes We Can" slogan translated into Latin. The Grouchy Old Cripple has a more appropriate suggestion.....

The Heartless Libertarian proves here that his blog is poorly named.

Iowahawk has a message from the Al-Qaeda's director of quality control. Kinda like my message from the Jihadist Safety Consultant, but funnier.

Last Of The Few has a video which proves that some of our military guys have WAY too much time on their hands.

Pajamas Media is still the best Republican Blog aggregator.

Patterico's Pontifications did a link to The New Yorker cartoon cover of Barack and Michelle O. in Muslim garb. As of Monday, July 14th at 11 p.m., it had 131 comments, some of which are brilliant, some are dumb, and some are hilarious.

Red State explains why Bush is calling the Dem's bluff r.e. offshore oil drilling. Madame Pelosi comes if for the usual abuse.

Right Wing News features an interview. An interview that explains Global Warming. No, wait a minute, Global Cooling. Aw heck, let's just call it Climate Change and cover all the bases.

The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler is the first blog I ever read. An acquired taste. Not for the easily offended. He's got good stuff to say about the relationship between biofuels and rising fuel prices worldwide. Check out the cartoon in the comment field.
The Anti-Idiotarian has added another feature that I think is brilliant. Whenever two commenters are spatting back and forth at each other, he opens up something called The Imperial Colosseum - a place where they can go at each other until one party or the other gives up. This one is between Hoghead and Southern Libertarian.

Aurora at The Midnight Sun has a post about the brutality of Al-Qaeda.

The answer to The New Pundit's question is "Yes".

I already link to everything Wolf Howling does, via that little rolling post thingy in the bottom right corner. But this motivational poster deserves special attention.....

That's all I've got. Hope you enjoy the posts.

Prediction Update

A couple of months ago, I went out on a limb and made a few predictions.
It's time for an update. If you're so inclined, check out the link and come back. Or don't.

Prediction #5:
Bush is trying to open up more of our coastlines to oil rigs.
He is currently opposed by Ms Pelosi, whose supporters apparently have faith in the future development of Perpetual Motion machines.

Prediction #4:
Yesterday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram had the Cowboys ranked as the #1 team in the NFC.
They usually are.
Unfortunately for the Boys, the City of Arlington is shocked, (shocked !) to discover that they have somehow paid 60% more for land than anticipated. Eminent Domain lawsuits are still grinding on. Basically, this means that Jerry Jones will not have the football gods on his side this season. #4 still looks safe.

Prediction #3:
This one isn't possible to update. It'll either happen or it won't.

Prediction #2:
I'm not thrilled either way, but check this out. Obama and McCain are almost tied.

Prediction #1:
There are still no signs that Barack Obama has totally lost his mind.

Barack Obama and Michelle Obama on the cover of The New Yorker

Here's the drawing of Barack Obama and Michelle Obama now on the cover of The New Yorker magazine.


Let's see....we've got what looks like a picture of Osama Bin Laden over the fireplace, which has an American flag burning inside.

Michelle has an Angela Davis-size afro going, and there's a machine gun strapped to her back.

Barack is wearing a turban, robe and sandals.

They're standing in the Oval Office, doing their fist bump.


Here's The Huffington Post:


The illustration, by Barry Blitt, is called "The Politics of Fear" and, according to the NYer press release, "satirizes the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the Presidential election to derail Barack Obama's campaign." Uh-huh. What's that they say about repeating a rumor?
Presumably the New Yorker readership is sophisticated enough to get the joke, but still: this is going to upset a lot of people, probably for the same reason it's going to delight a lot of other people, namely those on the right: Because it's got all the scare tactics and misinformation that has so far been used to derail Barack Obama's campaign — all in one handy illustration.

Anyone who's tried to paint Obama as a Muslim, anyone who's tried to portray Michelle as angry or a secret revolutionary out to get Whitey, anyone who has questioned their patriotism— well, here's your image.

We Can't Change The Weather, No Matter What Pat Robertson And Al Gore Say

Here are the non-scientific reasons that I am an AGW (Anthropogenic Global Warming) skeptic.
Define anthropogenic: adjective - meaning that it's all your fault.

1) It's a fashionable belief. Most fashions fall from favor quickly. We'll see.
After a while, though, the list of things sloppily attributed to Global Warming becomes unintentionally hilarious.

2) When I was in elementary school, I remember a group of my uncles discussing Hurricane Camille, the devastating hurricane that hit the Mississippi gulf coast in 1969. There had been several other severe storms and hurricanes in that time period.
One of my uncles floated the idea that the weather patterns had been severely altered by our exploration of space during the Apollo missions. After all, it seemed that "every time we went up there" there was a storm afterward.
I couldn't yet articulate the concept that correlation is not causation, but I knew that sending up spacecraft wasn't causing hurricanes.
People have a need to believe that everything is about them. It's nice to believe that you're the center of the universe, that God stays up late to admire you, that gays and lesbians in New Orleans could cause Hurricane Katrina, and that we can change the weather. I don't think we could change the weather even if we tried, much less change it by accident.
Why is it ok to ridicule charlatans like Pat Robertson when they threaten to bring down tornados and hurricanes on Disney World and Dover, but when Al Gore threatens to raise the sea levels, he gets a free pass from people who should know better?

3) I remember sitting in the North Sunflower Academy library in the mid-1970's, and reading reports, perhaps this one, about the dangers of Global Cooling. Yes, Global Cooling. Scared the hell out of me.
This article has been reprinted numerous times by other skeptics and mockers who enjoy throwing rotten eggs at Al Gore's chapel.
I love the last paragraph as much, or more, than anything ever printed. Remember, this is about Global Cooling:

Climatologists are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change, or even to allay its effects. They concede that some of the more spectacular solutions proposed, such as melting the Arctic ice cap by covering it with black soot or diverting arctic rivers, might create problems far greater than those they solve. But the scientists see few signs that government leaders anywhere are even prepared to take the simple measures of stockpiling food or of introducing the variables of climatic uncertainty into economic projections of future food supplies. The longer the planners delay, the more difficult they will find it to cope with climatic change once the results become grim reality.

Yes, we need to act quickly. We need to melt the Arctic ice cap. We need to panic. The sky is falling, the sky is falling.

4) Speaking of panic, the primary evangelists of man-made climate change are set to make a fortune if we panic and Congress subsidizes their alternative energy start-up companies. Hell, they're going to make a fortune just doing the lobbying and doing shakedowns of the existing manufacturing companies. It's a win-win.

5) Anthropogenic Global Warming advocates are starting to acknowledge that we're probably going to have a ten-year period of Global Cooling. This cooling is also supposed to be a sign of warming. I swear I don't sit around making this stuff up. I just copy it or link to it.


6) At the end of the last ice age, approximately 11,500 years ago, temperatures spiked upward 22 degrees (F) in 50 years. This didn't happen because Fred Flintstone's foot-powered SUV had an excessive carbon footprint. It happened because that's what our planet does. But I bet that various witch doctors were throwing virgins into volcanos in an effort to please the gods and stop global warming.

7) Speaking of Greenland, from the year 800 to 1300, it had a much calmer climate. The climate change at the beginning of this time period was not caused by Viking oil tankers.

8) Thousands of websites and editorials have predicted that it will be possible to navigate across the Arctic circle by the end of September, since the ice cap will be gone. I was going to bet $100 that it won't happen. This guy beat me to it. This is a new site, the guy is very very funny, and his site is already getting lots and lots of traffic. I hate him.
I'm still good for the bet if anyone wants to take me up on it.

9) The guy who runs The Coyote Blog doesn't think we're having an impact on the climate that is larger than the natural temperature swings. He's right about everything else, so I'm siding with him.

Gore cartoon lifted from Pete's Place.

Gonzo: The Life And Work Of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

Last night I drove over to Dallas to see "Gonzo", the new documentary about journalist Hunter S. Thompson.

It was worth the trip.

The movie doesn't give you any new info on Thompson. It doesn't keep you on the edge of your seat. You probably know going in that the hero dies by his own hand.

But it's fun to see unexpected guys like Jimmy Carter, Pat Buchanan, and George McGovern fondly reminiscing about a drug-crazed writer for Rolling Stone. (I already had a subscription to RS back when it was still published on unstapled newsprint, which would've made me about 14 years old. The magazine had great music and concert reviews, wonderful political writing, and would take chances on experimental projects by writers like Thompson and Tom Wolfe. It's been depressing to see the magazine decline into a support system for fashion and fragrance ads.)

The documentary doesn't spend much time on his childhood in Kentucky, but takes you ASAP to Thompson's coverage of the Hell's Angels biker gang. His gun fetish gets a lot of attention. His collaborative relationship with artist Ralph Steadman is fully explained. I was surprised by the amount of available Thompson TV and news footage.

The first Mrs. Thompson is, shall we say, bitter.

Jimmy Buffet is aging gracefully.

Gary Hart is aging gracefully.

Various Hell's Angels are not.

It was a bummer to watch home videos of the last few weeks of Thompson's life in Colorado, no longer at the top of his game (having lost some of his mental capacity to mescaline, coke, and bourbon), getting jowly, plinking around on an IBM Selectric, and writing a sports blog for ESPN.

Dr. (from a mail-order divinity degree) Hunter S. Thompson is what you get when the libertarian positions on gun rights, free speech, and opposition to drug and alcohol prohibition are carried to the extremes.

And that's how Dr. Thompson wanted to live his life. Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent And Depraved, and Fear And Loathing On The Campaign Trail are by themselves worth far more than any retired, healthy, Kentucky journalist.

Gonzo logo was borrowed from The Plastered Poets. The last sentence was borrowed from Faulkner. (Hit the "journalist" link.)

It's Mark Steyn, not Mark Stein, filling in for Rush Limbaugh

It's Mark Steyn, not Mark Stein, filling in for Rush Limbaugh.
Here's what you need to know about the guy:

1) He writes for MacLean's, a Canadian newsmagazine that is pure greatness. Some of his warnings about organized Muslim hyper-sensitivity got him and the magazine hauled in front of the Alberta Human Rights Commission - a group that makes kangaroo courts appear to have The Wisdom of Solomon. From a free speech point of view, these Human Rights Commissions are beneath contempt. End of story. If you're interested, check out this thread about a Canadian blogger named Ezra Levant.

2) Mark Steyn (not Mark Stein) began his career as a musical theatre critic.

3) He recently published the book "America Alone", about the U.S. being the last bastion of Liberal Tolerance. I'm only halfway through it, but the general theme is that a curtain of intolerance toward traditional liberal values - Free Speech, Women's Rights, Equality Under The Law - is descending over much of Europe and Canada.

4) The book seems somewhat alarmist until you realize that Canada now has the dreaded "rights" tribunals, England is drifting toward an acknowledgement of Sharia law, and, for the crime of pointing out this intolerance, Steyn's book will soon be banned in Canada. Because it is intolerant.

5) Hmmmm.

6) He's very funny. More of a Libertarian than a Conservative. Here's his website. Enjoy.

Alisa In Wonderland

And now for something completely different....

Someone calling herself Alisa In Wonderland is a frequent commenter on two of my favorite blogs - Counting Cats and Samizdata.

Alisa's observations (in English) on these two sites are usually brilliant. Her blog (in Hebrew) probably is also, but I can't read most of it. She occasionally toggles back and forth between English and Hebrew. Or Yiddish. Or whatever it is.

She writes from Jerusalem.

I know from my hit counter that a lot of seminarians from SWBTS regularly visit my site on heresy hunting field trips. Perhaps you guys could go there and brush up on your Old Testament source language.

It's the best Israeli bilingual libertarian blog you'll ever be unable to read. I promise.

Please join me in encouraging Alisa to write everything in parallel translations.

Barack Obama's Manhood Is In Danger ! ! !

Several months ago, Newsweek magazine referenced Michelle Obama possibly being an "emasculating" influence on Barack Obama. Mrs. Obama denied any such ability. But Newseek used the same quote three times in one issue, an obsession which I thought strange enough to write about.

Now Jesse Jackson has expressed an urge to emasculate Barack Obama. The unfortunate Reverend Jackson was caught on tape.

What is there about Barack Obama's manhood that makes it such a highly coveted item?

When Lyndon Johnson ruled the Senate he claimed to know how certain colleagues would vote, stating "I've got his p***er in my pocket".

Is it just a matter of time before Obama's manhood winds up in the pocket of those who want to claim it as their own? And, if so, is the object in question entitled to additional Secret Service protection?

Addition from 9:00 p.m.... here's some video and sound of the Jesse Jackson Obama comments. This will turn into a Press Agentry/Publicist case study that will be studied for decades.

Caption This

I need a caption for this picture.

Congratulations to Pete Wann at West And Clear, winner of last week's caption challenge. A two dollar donation has been made in his name to The Whited Sepulchre Outreach Ministry And Social Club For Wayward Shipping Personnel.

Trucks In The Left Lane

I work in the freight and shipping bidness, and one of the recurring gripes that I hear from drivers has to do with the signs shown above.
The left lanes of Fort Worth's Interstate-30 were closed off to "trucks" a couple of years ago. This was supposedly done to improve traffic flow.

But, as one of my mentors recently told me, "if you ain't got the data, the chatter don't matter".
Words to live by.

Does this restriction make a demonstrable difference?

According to a study presented in (ahem) College Station, TX.... completed at a cost of $960,000.00..... and this doesn't include the cost of the signs or their installation....traffic has averaged a 1/2 mile per hour improvement.

Interstate 20 and Interstate 30 both got the signs and restrictions, and the data from both highways is lumped together as one number in the presentation.

Why? I'm betting that one of the highways had a meaningful improvement in speed, and the other one stayed the same or even declined.

But lets look at the methodology for a moment. The study compares what they call Phase 1 (August) to a similar time period in Phase 4 (January/February). Can anyone else in the trucking business (I don't want to be the spoiler) let us know how much difference there is in freight volume between August and January/February?

We're not comparing apples to apples, or even apples to coconuts. It might not even be apples to alligators. It's huge.

And a 1/2 mile per hour improvement? (Unless I'm mistaken, the decimals are rounded upward from here to here.) I think we're looking at static, white noise, and dissimilar time periods. These numbers aren't significant enough, in my opinion, to show us anything outside the margin of error.

Who is more likely to hop onto an interstate highway for just a few miles? The guy in a two-door compact, or the long-haul trucker? The left lane should be for those who are just passing through. Those going from exit to exit for a few miles should be in the right lanes. And they don't need 18-wheelers in their way.

Photo from Flikr

The Colombia Free Trade Agreement

A few months ago, The Clintons fired pollster and campaign strategist Mark Penn. Hillary had been speaking out against the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, and Penn had met with Colombian officials to strategize on how to get the bill passed.
I've been saving editorials ever since, waiting until an appropriate moment to put together something that might be worthy of your attention.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has been in the news lately for helping orchestrate a dramatic hostage rescue.
John McCain has been down there, trying to promote the Free Trade Agreement.

So let's get started. This is from Arianna Huffington:

(After Penn's resignation), then came word that Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson also has financial ties to Colombia via his involvement the Glover Park Group, a company founded by Clinton administration alum Joe Lockhart that has also been advising the Colombian government.

And that's not all. It wasn't just Penn and Wolfson and Lockhart. Someone else was taking money from the Colombian government in exchange for influence. Someone much closer to home. Someone who lived at home. One of the owners of the freakin' home.

And, of course, there is the Whitman sampler of Colombian goodies gobbled up by Bill Clinton, including: $800,000 in speaking fees from a Colombian pro-free trade agreement group; a "Colombia is Passion" award bestowed by Colombia's president Alvaro Uribe (who honored the former president as an "unofficial minister of tourism"); and a sweet Colombian oil field deal for a company Clinton pal Frank Giustra's investment firm had advised. Giustra is the mining magnate who has donated $31 million to Clinton's charitable fund, and whom Bill personally introduced to Colombian President Uribe (Giustra is the same guy Clinton helped land a uranium deal in Kazakhstan, but that's a Clinton story for a different blog post).

I apologize for the amount of sleaze in this particular post, and I hope the good people at blogspot.com don't censor all this. Ms. Huffington goes on to describe how the He-Clinton bundled an aid package, a giveaway for Lockheed-Martin, and other goodies in the same package.

I'm afraid that I've made the Colombian government sound like the villain here. That's not the case. They're merely the weak storefront on the block, forced to pay protection money to the guys with connections who run the rackets. At least that's what Kimberly Strassel says.

Critics will point out that all this smacks of a protection racket, as Democratic lobbyists and consultants cash in by offering to protect companies from their own party's agenda. There's undoubtedly some of that, but it's old Washington news. Many lobbyists and politicians take up causes with which they aren't entirely in tune. It pays the bills, and also siphons up cash for their greater political purposes. Talk to New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who last year stepped in to save private equity firms from a big tax threatened by his own party. In thanks, the industry coughed up for his Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is now working to add several Democratic seats to the Senate.

I love that line..."cash in by offering to protect companies from their own party's agenda".

Various opponents of the Free Trade Agreement point to a high level of violence against union officials. Not so, says The Boston Globe in the preceding link. President Uribe and the Colombian government know where their bread is buttered.

Others point to the quantity of coke and weed produced in Colombia, coke and weed that somehow makes it across our borders despite not being a part of anyone's trade agreement. They say this is harmful, and that the Colombian government doesn't do enough to stop the drug trade. Not so, says former U.S. president Jimmy Carter. Colombia works very hard, under the circumstances, to curtail the drug trade. According to former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, there are now more Latin American and South American deaths from North American tobacco than there are North American deaths from Latin and South American cocaine.

I know this is hard to believe. But yes, Jimmy Carter was once elected President of The United States.

Here's an editorial from Daniel Weintraub that explains why the chief benefit of a Colombian Free Trade agreement would be the elimination of the 20% tariff that Columbia currently has on American imports. (If you're a total geek, do some Googling on a concept called "The Lerner Theorem". It essentially states that a 20% tariff on imports is the same as applying a 20% tariff on your exports. This is something that everyone but Hillary and Barack have known since 1936. Yes. 1936. There are people in high places who rely on you being economically....dense.)

Finally, here's a John McCain press conference. I'm not wild about the guy, since he's a Republican, and the Republican Party needs to be punished. (As for as government spending goes, they've made the Democrats look like coupon-clippers who wear their socks twice to save on detergent.) But McCain's supports Free Trade, and seldom hesitates to say so. Heck, he went to Iowa and spoke out against the ultra-protectionist Farm Bill.

Let's go back to the Daniel Weintraub piece. Nancy Pelosi of California seems to be the primary obstacle with getting this bill passed. Here's Weintraub:
Pelosi could have been the grown-up on this issue, drawing on her own state's experience to show that globalization, just like technology, has made our economy more dynamic and robust, and, over the long term, healthier. Instead, she is playing to the worst impulses of her party and pandering to those who believe that economic nationalism is the road to prosperity. The best argument for free trade is a moral one: The government ought not use discriminatory tariffs to discourage two parties from buying and selling goods that otherwise would be legal. It shouldn't matter whether the trade is between a Californian and a Kansan or a Californian and a Colombian. It's a matter of free will.

So here's the problem..... Hillary's advisors have made plenty of money, taking Colombian cash for access to Congress. Bill has made money on the deal. The Friends Of Bill have made money on the agreement. Has no one thought to buy off Nancy Pelsosi? Or do the Democrats want to leave it out there, thinking the electorate is dense enough to condemn McCain for supporting it? Do the Republicans want to leave it out there, thinking that Obama's waffling on trade issues will hurt him in November?

The Colombians are moving heaven and earth in order to be partners with us, giving their citizens access to markets that doesn't involve the drug trade, and they've long been one of our allies in the region.

Why hasn't someone thought to pay Nancy Pelosi to get out of the way?