Quantum Of Solace and Casino Royale

Remember the scene in Fight Club where movie projectionist Tyler Durden splices frames from dirty movies into the reels of family films?
Last night I went to see "Quantum Of Solace", the new James Bond movie. Somewhere in all of that racing, fighting, exploding, and shooting, they may have spliced in a plot.
I'm not sure, since my eyes have a tendency to blink.

In the opening chase sequence (a Bond movie trademark), the editor only allows each scene to last for .09357 seconds. I had no idea what I was watching, which angle I was watching it from, or who things were happning to. But then, I'm old.....
Every now and then someone would pop in and mumble something about exploiting the workers to make T-shirts.
M's headquarters had a really cool screen that could almost do as much as CNN's Election Night map. Ever since Tom Cruise first used a similar screen in Minority Report, all government headquarters in movies are equipped with blue tinted glass walls where projected data can be manipulated with Leonard Bernstein-ish conductor gestures.
There was a lot of broken glass in this movie. Perhaps more than in all the other Bond films combined. Good subject for further research.
The bad guys had a hotel in the middle of the desert. Yes, a hotel in the middle of the desert, roughly modeled along the same lines as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. How does the hotel get power, you ask? From highly explosive hydrogen. (HINT: FORESHADOWING).

Remember the infamous scene in Goldfinger where the Bond girl is flea-dipped with so much gold that it doesn't allow her skin to breathe, and it kills her? Well in Quantum Of Solace, it happens with oil ! Motor oil ! Black Texas crude ! Get it? Get it? They're making a political statement ! OIL IS THE NEW GOLD !

It was nice, though, to see a Bond villain hiding behind a bunch of phony Green "Save The Planet" virtue. I don't know who that reminded me of.

But enough about Quantum Of Solace. I'd only give it a 4 on the 10 scale.
This is an email about what happened a couple of years ago when I went with my daughter to see "Casino Royale", the previous James Bond film. I've cleaned up some of the grammar and deleted a few names. Other than that, this is what really happened.....

1) Late Monday afternoon, I was in our main office talking to our company President and one of the owners. They mention that one of our factories is missing a box truck that was being used on an installation job in Mississippi. This is the factory that could lose The Concorde if it didn’t make a lot of noise, so I figure the box truck will turn up. I don’t worry about it, although it’s part of my job to worry about it. The factory in question is bi-polar, and has family of origin issues. (In case you're wondering, the factory mentioned here has been cleaned up, straightened out, and has new management. The manager who presided over this mess two years ago went on to be an Involuntary Guest Of The State. Huntsville Prison, I think.)

2) Later that night, my daugher, The Future Aggie, decides she’s willing to go see Casino Royale with me. This is a rarity, since she’s reached the age where she wants all her friends to think she was raised by wild dogs in the forest, or that she was conceived like Athena springing forth fully formed from the forehead of Zeus. I’m excited by the opportunity to go with her. She makes me put on different clothes and she also invites a friend, so as to inoculate herself against any un-coolness should she be seen by any of her other Paschal High School friends.

3) The opening credits - where the Bond silhouette is shooting the playing card people, and they bleed hearts and spades and clubs - that was impressive.

4) The flashbacks to his 1st two kills were well done. It apparently takes two kills to achieve Double-O status in the British Secret Service.

5) The chase scene through the snake/mongoose gambling pit, the aerobic workout in the construction site, and the fight in the embassy were all way cool. I can’t imagine Pierce Brosnan pulling that off.

6) Judi Dench starts chewing on James Bond for getting caught on film at the embassy. Then I get a call from the Yazoo City, Mississippi police department. (Of course, I had politely turned my phone on vibrate.) I leave for the lobby of the theatre. They want more info on the truck. They think they’ve seen it. We converse, and I tell them things they already know.

7) I come back into the theatre. Bond has apparently won a sportscar and the sportscar’s former owner’s wife. Bond works on bedding the wife, but gets a phone call and has to leave the wife. I get another phone call and have to leave the movie. It’s our Plastic Shop plant manager, who shouldn't have anything to do with this mess. He says the Hood County Sheriff’s Department has been trying to get in touch with me. I explain that I was on the phone with the Yazoo City police department, and Yazoo City thinks they’ve seen it. What the hell is Hood County doing in the picture? Isn’t Hood County what surrounds Granbury, Texas? I take the phone # and go back to the movie.

8) I get back into the theatre. Bond has moved onto another hottie, and this one is supposed to be an Accountant (sorta like the Bond move where Denise Richards was supposed to be a Nuclear Physicist…..snicker snicker.) They’re going to defeat terrorism by winning at Texas Hold’em, which makes about as much sense as defeating terrorism by invading Iraq, I guess.

9) The cell phone rings again. I’m mad enough at this point to achieve Double-O status in the British Secret Service. Two kills would be just the beginning. It’s the Hood County Sheriff’s department. They think they have our company’s truck. But the make and model don’t match. Then the lieutenant I’m talking to has to hang up to handle an emergency call. I leave the lobby for the theatre again. My child is pissed. She will no longer catch me up on what’s been happening in the movie. I turn my phone off, because the battery is dying.

10) James Bond loses 10 million righteous and holy dollars, apparently because he mis-reads a bleeding eye “tell”. The Future Aggie’s phone goes off about 8 times. The Future Aggie, unlike her father, doesn’t answer her phone during movies. The calls are coming from home. From her mother. Finally, her mother text-messages The Future Aggie something like TELL YOUR FATHER TO CALL ME NOW ! ! ! ! The hottie accountant won’t give James Bond 5 million more as a buy-in.

11) I go back to the lobby (by this point, I’m quite friendly with the mentally deficient guy that they’ve hired to tear the tickets) and I call Mrs. Whited Sepulchre. She has had conversations not with the Hood County Sheriff’s department, but with The Granbury Police department, and wants to tell me about these conversations in laborious detail. I start finishing all of her sentences for her, and tell her that I’ve got it covered. Mrs. Whited Sepulchre is pissed. She wants to fully experience the True Crime Moment.

12) I go back in the theatre. Something has happened with poison, a cell phone, and a glove compartment defibrillator. Bond has somehow gotten money to get back in the game. Everybody raises the pot to ridiculous amounts. The River, The Flop, and The Other Thing I Can’t Remember are aces and eights. The large African dictator puts down a full house, two aces and 3 eights. Someone else has the same thing, but with three aces. (I’m sure I’ve gotten this wrong, because I’ve already named 5 aces.) Then Bleeding Eye puts down 4 of a kind. I’ve forgotten to turn my phone onto vibrate, and it goes off louder than an A-rab funeral. It’s the Granbury Sheriff’s Department. They have our box truck. Positive I.D. this time. Instead of politely leaving for the lobby, I discuss all of this inside the theatre. Everyone around me is pissed. They want me to return to the Trailer Park from whence I came, since I obviously don’t know how to act in a movie. But I get to see James Bond fill an inside straight, which is impossible, and can’t be done.

13) I leave for the lobby, talking to Granbury cops all the way. Some guy left our box truck on private property near Granbury. The landowner thought he recognized the driver, but not the truck. The Landowner went to question the driver. The driver put a large padlock on the back door and ran away. Drugs are probably involved. I make mental arrangements to go to Granbury on Tuesday morning, not just to get our truck back, but to have the first pick of the drugs. I return to the theatre, where three rows of people hold me in total contempt. Bond is nekkid and Bleeding Eye is beating the daylights out of Bond’s privates with a knotted rope. I can sympathize and empathize. Nobody will sit with me.

14) I settle into my chair. The phone rings. Again. Loudly. A lady three rows down reaches levels of pissed off that I didn’t think were possible. I’ve once again forgotten to turn it back on vibrate. Nobody else comments, since no one else remains close enough to my violence-plagued seat to notice.

15) I go back into the lobby. It’s the manager who runs the factory that loses box trucks. He explains that the box truck was sent with an install group on a job to Mississippi, the install group stopped at the Casinos in Shreveport (not to be confused with the James Bond Stylish Casinos in Montenegro), and everyone did well and behaved themselves except the truck driver, who lost all of his per diem money gambling. He also had a hard time getting up the next morning (drunk), and was no good as a worker for the rest of the trip. He got sent home (to Texas) early. The idea was to get him home with the truck and then fire him. But he stopped in Vicksburg and charged a lot of stuff to his Company Credit Card at the Casinos there. Shoulda been home Friday in the truck. He and the truck weren’t missed until Monday. The driver was probably just depressed. I explain that I’ve got it covered, hang up, and go in the theatre. Bond is resigning his job via email, something I considered immediately.

16) The Hood County Sheriff’s department guy returns from his emergency call, and immediately calls me. I go back to the lobby. We discuss things. I ask about his family. The Hood County guy gets my whole story. He tells me that he has relatives in Yazoo City. I tell him that my mother is from Yazoo City, Mississippi, and I’ve also talked to people from there tonight. We make lots and lots and lots of small talk. Screw the movie. I hang up, and play video games in the lobby until the movie ends. The Future Aggie and her friend liked the movie a lot. I can’t wait to see it.

P.S. – I got the box truck back this morning. No drugs in the back, but LOTS of empty beer cans in the cab. Huge disappointment.

In case you're wondering, when I went to see Quantum Of Solace I left my cell phone in my truck.

Caption This Awkward Picture

I need a caption for this picture.
Dr. Ralph won the contest last week.

The competition committee has spoken.
And while I have not always agreed with Dr. Ralph, or those he supports, I want to be the first to congratulate him and encourage all Sepulchre readers to celebrate his captioning victory, whether you are a Libertarian or a Big Government Statist Who Never Saw A Big Government Program He Didn't Love.
This victory has been a long time coming.
Twenty years ago, Democrats weren't even allowed to use the Comment Fields on this site, mostly because it didn't exist. But that's not going to stop me from wallowing around in some fake emotion.
When I got word of the competition committee's decision, I openly wept.
Seeing Dr. Ralph win the caption contest sends a message to our nation's youth that all things are possible, regardless of your race, income, or political affiliation.
Only at http://www.thewhitedsepulchre.blogspot.com/ is Dr. Ralph's story possible.
This is a great day to be an American.

Milk And Mises (Ludwig Von)

Here it is, boiled down into a five minute clip.
If you don't understand it, that's okay.
If you don't understand it, don't email the guy who made the video.
Just do us all a favor.
Stop voting.



The Department of Energy has a 24 BILLION DOLLAR BUDGET?
AND 16,000 EMPLOYEES?

If you want to know more about Ludwig Von Mises, click here.

More On President Obama's Cabinet

A couple of days ago, I had a good time suggesting personnel for the Obama Cabinet. I made it as ridiculous as possible in an effort to get in some cheap laughs.
A friend of mine sent me this link today, and after further research, I'm afraid that it is legit. Banish children from the room before clicking on the link. Take off your glasses before clicking on the flow chart. Move all drinks away from your keyboard.

Al Gore as potential "Climate Czar"?
John Kerry as Secretary Of State?
Colin Powell, who is experienced at State and Defense, in Education?
Dick Gephardt and Tom Daschle as anything at all?
Caroline Kennedy at the U.N.?
Howard Dean at Health And Human Services?

Max Cleland and Larry Summers are good folks.

But Lord have mercy, what a crew.
I think my list would do less harm....

Where Will Malia And Sasha Obama Go To School?

The Obama kids will soon be going to a new school.

Unless their parents are rich, they will have to go to the Washington D.C. public schools, which are among the worst-performing in the nation.

Fortunately, the Obamas are very rich. Barack has written multiple best-sellers and Michelle made $121,000 as V.P. Of External Affairs at a hospital. As soon as Barack was elected senator, Michelle's salary was re-evaluated, re-assessed, reconfigured, deemed totally inadequate for a person of her obvious skills, and bumped up to $316,000. (It had nothing to do with Barack winning a Senate seat.)

But I digress. The Obama children currently attend a private school in Chicago.

Jimmy Carter was the last president to put an actual living, breathing child into the Washington D.C. public schools. Bill and Hillary announced early on that Chelsea would be attending the Sidwell Friends School, and were denounced in some quarters for not following Jimmy's lead in supporting the local public school system. Here's an excerpt from a 1992 article in the Washington Monthly:

The Gores send their children to private school. So do the Quayles. So does Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander. In fact, none of the 67 top education policymakers in the Bush (Sr.) administration sends his or her kids to D.C. public schools. Instead, the Clintons will be hearing well-deserved praise of the academics at the National Cathedral School, of the sincere service ethics of Quaker philosophy at Sidwell Friends School, of the respect for individualism at Georgetown Day School, among others.

Nobody held this private school decision against the Clintons for very long, since Carter sending his daughter to the public schools was considered the act of a madman.
But we're paying for these schools, aren't we?
The question is, why?
And if the overwhelming majority of high ranking Washingtonians in government have abandoned the public schools, why not privatize all of them, give D.C. residents a voucher (for about half of what the schools currently cost per pupil) and end the charade?

Here's the Washington Post on the cost per pupil in the D.C. schools....We're often told that public schools are underfunded. In the District, the spending figure cited most commonly is $8,322 per child, but total spending is close to $25,000 per child -- on par with tuition at Sidwell Friends, the private school Chelsea Clinton attended in the 1990s.

$25,000 per child. Texas Freakin' A&M doesn't cost that much for tuition, room, board, other food, books, snacks, fees, parking, and tickets to football games to watch the Aggies lose.

Here's Nick Gillespie at Reason magazine, generally the source of all things good and holy:

Mother Jones has a letter from a Washington, D.C. resident pleading with President-Elect Barack Obama that he "seriously consider sending your kids to DC public schools—and not a charter school, either, but a full-on traditional neighborhood public school."

Stephanie Mencimer notes in passing (and with strange forgiveness) that Obama's kids attend private school in Chicago, and she grants that D.C.'s public schools are "crappy" and complains about lack of resources without mentioning that the schools spend more money per pupil than just about anywhere else in the country. "I understand," she writes, "that choosing a school is fraught with anxiety and it's the most private of decisions."

In an update, she says:
At Barack Obama's first press conference as president-elect, Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lynn Sweet asked whether Obama would be sending his children to private or public schools in Washington. He replied that no decision has yet been made and that he and Michelle would be "scouting out schools."

More here. Which is another way of saying, Hello Sidwell Friends! or one of the other ultra-exclusive and ultra-expensive D.C.-area private schools.

Which is to say that Obama (as he has already demonstrated via his own kids) is in favor of school choice, at least when it comes to his family (he has said a variety of phoney-baloney platitudes about not "walking away" from public schools and creating more charters, etc.)

With that in mind, and as a parent with two kids in public schools, I'd like to write a letter to Obama too:

I understand that choosing a school is fraught with anxiety and it's the most private of decisions. Please extend and expand the same educational choice you and your family exercise with ease by giving school-age children more and better options. Making every school voluntary by giving vouchers equal to the current average spending per pupil that can be cashed at any educational institution you would be willing to send your own kids to.

This is, of course, not going to happen. Indeed, look for the Obama administration to follow in the footsteps of the Bush administration and further centralize and federalize control of the K-12 system. In fact, Obama has spoken repeatedly about the need for universal, taxpayer-funded preschool, which will have the added bonus of straitjacketing a thriving and decentralized and choice-driven industry.

I'm incredibly conflicted on this subject. Many hardcore Libertarians believe that there's no legit reason for the government to be involved in education. The less extreme view calls for government issued vouchers that could be used at whatever school the parents choose. I know a lot of public school teachers, and they all, without exception, agree that the administrative costs of their schools are ridiculous.

On the other hand, having grown up in a private (segregationist) academy, I took a lot of pride in finally getting my daughter into a Fort Worth public school. Sending her to the local public school on Fort Worth's East Side was out of the question, though. That place is a Gladiator Training facility. Some strings got pulled, and she went to the public school near TCU.

On the other hand, when she came home from school each day, I asked her what she had learned. The answer was invariably "Nothing. We sat through this period, watched a movie in this class, hung out in the gym during this class, and I worked Sudoku's during this class." Or words to that effect.

On the other hand, she made a lot of minority friends.

On the other hand, diversity is not the point of an education, no matter what those people say who send their kids to Sidwell Friends in D.C.

On the other hand, I got to enjoy a warm fuzzy feeling of righteousness. Perhaps this deluded feeling is what left-wingers experience all the time.

Anyway, Clarence Page has a great editorial about the Obama education options, and he's much calmer than I am. Mr. Page wrote the best of the bunch. Please try to read it.
Here's Bob Parks at Black And Right.
Here's a brief excerpt from Investor's Business Daily: He (Obama) recently told an interviewer that he opposes school choice because "although it might benefit some kids at the top, what you're going to do is leave a lot of kids at the bottom."
Not being left behind are Obama's daughters, who attend the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. There, tuition ranges from $15,528 for kindergarten to $20,445 for high school. When asked about it during last year's YouTube debate, Sen. Obama responded that it was "the best option" for his children. They had a choice Obama would deny others.

Ron Paul, The Fed, Confederate Money, and Inflation

"Inflation is an increase in the money supply" - Ron Paul

A group of Libertarians is meeting in Dallas on November 22nd to protest outside the Federal Reserve Bank.

It's not quite as easy to understand as a protest outside The White House, or a nuclear power plant, or Lockheed-Martin.

Let me try to explain.....

This is Confederate money.
It was "backed" by cotton.
Back in the day, the idea of paper currency that wasn't redeemable for any commodity seemed a bit silly. Without a government guarantee that you could swap the paper for something rare, currency was just a piece of paper.
Confederate money was essentially a Gift Certificate for a set amount of cotton. (Various members of the rebellious planter class contributed the cotton.)

The South lost the war, and the money lost its value (the Union blockaded the Southern ports, killing the cotton market, plus England saw the war coming and had stocked up on plenty of cotton ahead of time). By the end of the war, people were wallpapering their houses with this stuff; the Confederate printing presses were running 24/7 from trying to cover all the debts and pay all the soldiers.
Backing a currency with cotton didn't work out very well since the Confederacy eventually gave in to the temptation of backing their currency with cotton that had not yet been planted. These dollars were "worth 95 cents on the dollar in gold when first issued, (then) Confederate currency dropped to 33 cents by 1863, and 1.6 cents by Appomattox (April 9, 1865). May 1, 1865 was the last active trading in Confederate notes at 1,200 for 1."

In other words, Confederate dollars became valueless. But here's a Confederate dollar selling on ebay for $40. Even though this dollar can no longer be swapped in Atlanta for a bale of fiber, it now has value.
Why?
Because it is scarce.
They aren't printing any more of them.


Here's a 1923 Silver Certificate. Note the text below George Washington's picture...."One Silver Dollar Payable To The Bearer On Demand". This piece of paper was a Gift Certificate for a piece of silver that was worth (in 1923) one dollar. You can't take it to the bank and redeem it for silver any longer, but it still has some value.
Why?
Because 1923 silver certificates in mint condition are scarce. Collectors want them. This same bill in mint condition sells for almost $50.00 (adjusted for inflation, that's roughly what a dollar was worth in 1923 !)

Here is a Nolan Ryan/Jerry Koosman 1968 baseball card.

Unlike the Confederate currency and the Silver Certificates, these things didn't have any real value when they were printed. Either they were a freebie with the bubble gum, or the bubble gum was free with the baseball cards. However, one of these in mint condition now sells for $1600.00
Plenty of kids had them in 1968 and threw them away because Nolan Ryan hadn't gone into the Hall of Fame, or pitched his famous 7 no-hitters. Back then, Nolan Ryan had to work at an Alvin, Texas gas station in the off-season.

Now these cards are very scarce. You could say that a Ryan/Koosman mint condition rookie card is like a Gift Certificate for $1600.00, right?
But what would happen if someone was exploring in the basement of Jerry Koosman's mother's house, and found 20,000 of these and suddenly released them into the marketplace?
Could each of them still be swapped for $1600.00? Or do you think their worth would decline?

Which brings me to Marvel Variants....My boss is getting rich because he took his childhood obsession with comic book collecting and used it to wisely invest in something called "variant" comics. The details are too tiresome to go into here, but Variant Comics are rare. My boss has them. Very few other people do. Ten years ago. very few people even knew what they were.
But every time someone finds the "Kid Colt Outlaw" mint condition "Variant"comic book at a garage sale, has it evaluated and puts it on the market, the value for that particular title declines a bit. The "Kid Colt Outlaw" variant isn't quite as scarce as it was on the day before the garage sale.

Speaking of things that are no longer scarce.....the dollar bills shown below were once more difficult to find than they are now.

The U.S. Currency used to be the worldwide benchmark for something called "The Gold Standard". Wikipedia, as usual, has the most succinct explanation for how it was supposed to work with our currency and the financial systems of the rest of the world: After the Second World War, a system similar to the Gold Standard was established by the Bretton Woods Agreements. Under this system, many countries fixed their exchange rates relative to the US dollar. The US promised to fix the price of gold at $35 per ounce. Implicitly, then, all currencies pegged to the dollar also had a fixed value in terms of gold, However, under the fiscal strain of the Vietnam war (AHEM), President Richard Nixon eliminated the fixed gold price in 1971, causing the system to break down.
In my early childhood, one of these dollars could be exchanged for 10 Coca-Colas. Then we totally disconnected the currency from any gold price. The paper in my wallet isn't backed by anything other than goodwill. Now it's difficult to find a vending machine willing to swap 2 Coca-Colas for a dollar.


Now these damn things are everywhere. Every one of them that my parents saved is now worth 50 cents.
Here's a Reddit discussion page where some bewildered people are wondering why 12 packs of Coca-Cola have disappeared, only to be replaced by 8 packs at the same price. None of the commenters get it. They try to blame it on the grocery stores !
Unfortunately, the supply of Coca-Cola has remained more or less the same. The money supply has increased. Coke, therefore, is worth more. Dollars are worth less.

Here's Texas Congressman Ron Paul:

The root of our current economic malaise, the weak dollar, the high price of oil, and the collapse of the housing market, comes about because almost no one understands what inflation is. Inflation is an increase in the money supply, which occurs by various methods, the printing of currency, low reserve requirements, Federal Reserve open market operations, etc.

But why would the government want to print more money?

Until the cause of inflation is understood, no effective strategy can be undertaken to combat it. The problem, however, is that the government does not want inflation to be done away with. Inflation benefits debtors and harms creditors, and the United States government is the biggest debtor of all. The United States government, the banking monopoly under the Federal Reserve System, and politically-connected firms and industries are the first entities to take advantage of new money injected into the system, before prices increase.

And who does this hurt the most?

As the increased supply of money begins to chase the same number of goods, prices rise, and the average American suffers. Poor and middle-class Americans are always the hardest hit by inflation, as the weakening dollar makes the imported goods that many Americans depend on more expensive.

So exactly how much money have they printed since Nixon shut down "the gold window"?

Good Lord In Heaven.
What has ending the Gold Standard and shutting "the Gold window" and printing all this paper done to the value of a dollar?


And that's why a group of Libertarians are gathering to protest outside the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas on November 22nd.

They're stealing from you, but you never notice anything missing. Things just cost a little more than they used to every month, but you don't get a bill from them in the mail. You'll never hear the burglar alarm go off.

Wake up.

Suggestions for President Obama's Cabinet

There's been a lot of speculation about the makeup of President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet.

Since Obama will probably surround himself with former associates, Democratic party lifers, and a couple of token Republicans who have reached waaaaaay across the aisle, the following candidates are a best case scenario, pending Congressional approval:

Secretary Of State: Reverend Wright would be an excellent choice. Since so many other nations have spent the last eight years saying "God Damn America", why not send out a representative who shares their viewpoint?
Secretary Of The Treasury: Let's go with senatorial candidate and former Saturday Night Live funny man Al Franken. Despite advocating more government involvement in just about everything imaginable, Franken neglected to pay $70,000 in taxes to the various states where he worked as a comedian and guest speaker. He overpaid by a similar amount in New York and California. Do you think Franken might be irritated and embarrassed enough by this episode to simplify the tax code? Probably not, but it's worth a try.

Secretary Of Commerce: Nancy "Greater Tuna" Pelosi. If she can exempt her donors and constituents and (ahem) stock picks from troublesome regulations, there's no telling what she could do for the rest of the country. Secretary Of Housing And Urban Development: By default, it should go to Chicago slumlord Tony Rezko, the guy who increased Obama's Urban Housing by 10 feet.

Secretary Of Education: Vice President is too limiting for a man of Joe Biden's obvious intellect. He should share his gifts with our children.


Secretary Of Agriculture: Despite his stated fondness for the ethanol/biodiesel boondoggle, Willie Nelson would make a great Secretary Of Agriculture. The man has studied weed for most of his life.

Secretary Of Defense: William Ayers. No contest here. For those who want to shrink the size of the military, what better choice than someone who once plotted to blow up the Pentagon?

Secretary Of Transportation: Ted Kennedy. Who do you think of when you hear about cars and bridges?

Secretary Of The Interior: A no-brainer. Al Gore. Parachute him into the middle of the Nevada desert with some thermometers, some pens, and a legal pad. Ask him to record his findings and get back to us in 8 years. Attorney General: Let's bring John Edwards out of his self-imposed exile. He might not be the best lawyer, he might not be the smartest lawyer, but dang it, he'd look good....

Secretary Of Homeland Security: This Department needs someone who has previously defended The Motherland From The Alien Invader ! Someone who has defended our wives and daughters from those who would do them harm ! Someone like the former "Community Organizer" for the Ku Klux Klan, West Virginia Senator (D) Robert Byrd !
I don't have a feel for the Departments of Energy, Health And Human Services, Labor, and Veterans Affairs.
I'm sure that you people have some suggestions....

Veteran's Day Poster

The picture came from here, the misquotation of George Orwell came from here, I made the poster here, and edited the picture here.

None of these activities had to be approved by anyone.

Plus all of it was free, thanks to services provided by free-market capitalists who want me to see their advertisements.

These services, among other rights and freedoms, were fought for and defended by my father (Army), his four brothers (Army and Navy), and my father-in-law (Army).

Happy Veteran's Day

The Libertarian Purity Test

This is a good one.

Click here to take The Libertarian Purity Test.
Interesting stuff, interesting questions.

Please pay attention to the preface where he distinguishes between Privatization and Sub-Contracting.
Please note his assurance that this isn't some sort of McCarthyite purging device to separate the sheep from the goats.

I scored a 91, although I might have only scored an 89 if hooked to a lie detector.
The questions begin with common sense statements like "Is Government Spending Too High?" (Doh!) and end with "Should The State Be Abolished?" (Hmmmm....What other entity would protect me from Fembuttx, or my other enemies?)

Post your results in the comments.

Baylor, Apparent Ropes Resembling Nooses, Free Speech, Mission Statements, and William Cowper Brann

Apparent noose, burned Obama signs found at Baylor U. on Election Day
officials decry acts
By Associated Press
6:27 PM CST, November 5, 2008
WACO, Texas (AP) _ Baylor University officials said they are investigating an apparent noose hanging from a tree the day Barack Obama was elected the nation's first black president. Campus authorities also responded to a barbecue pit fire where several Obama campaign signs were believed to have been burned, interim president David E. Garland said. "These events are deeply disturbing to us and are antithetical to the mission of Baylor University," Garland said in a statement Wednesday. "We categorically denounce and will not tolerate racist acts of any kind on our campus." On Tuesday afternoon at the world's largest Baptist university, some students notified officials that a rope resembling a noose was in a campus tree, Garland said. Campus police took the rope and are investigating.
"We believe that the incidents on our campus yesterday were irresponsible acts committed by a few individuals," Garland said. No students had been taken into custody as of Wednesday afternoon, Baylor spokeswoman Lori Fogleman said.

Ok, I hope that the delicate citizens of Jerusalem On The Brazos recover from the rope made into an apparent noose, and the outrage of Obama signs believed to have been burned. And whoever wrote that article with all those weak weasel words should be strung up with something resembling a noose.

I got two, count 'em, two phone calls from people wanting me to write something about this. Unbelievable.

One possible angle to take: the possible, apparent noose; the signs believed to be burned. Did something really happen or not?

Possible angle number two: We've had San Francisco sewage treatment plants named after George W. Bush. We've seen people drive tractors over Dixie Chicks CD's because of The Chicks' anti-Bush statements. A guy named Chad Morisette in West Hollywood hung an effigy of Sarah Palin in his yard for Halloween. The apparent rope that Chad used resembled a noose.
You can get more attention changing your own flat tire than you can with a flag-burning.
So....is burning campaign signs "protected speech" or not?

Angle number three: David Garland's statement that "these events are deeply disturbing to us....and are antithetical to the mission of Baylor University."
True Dat. The mission of Baylor University is to produce preachers for county seat Baptist churches, winning football teams, and alcohol-free tailgate parties for alumni. The kids don't need the distraction of politics.

Angle number four: Here's someone almost irrelevant to this story, but I found myself thinking about him a lot today after the phone calls. William Cowper Brann. Brann would've had a good time with this non-story. He woulda loved it. Would've had it three meals a day, plus rolled some of it into his cigars.
Brann was a journalist who published "The Iconoclast", one of the largest newspapers in the U.S. in the late 1890's. He was based in Waco, and spent most of his time giving Baylor University hell.
Baylor students once tied him to a tree (with an apparent rope) and horsewhipped him. There had been some unexpected pregnancies among the foreign exchange students, and someone in the Baylor President's family was thought to be the Baby-Daddy. Brann claimed that these female foreign "students" were nothing more than unpaid kitchen help, recruited by missionaries with the promise of a free education. Most of these young women came from South American Catholic families, and Brann remarked on the remarkable efficiency of producing two Baptists with only one Catholic as raw material.
At one point Brann was dragged by the neck through the streets of Waco (with something resembling a rope), and he later died in a gunfight with Tom Davis, a Baylor supporter.

Why did Davis shoot Brann? His motives were not clear. He had a daughter attending Baylor, and he had expressed his hatred of Brann on many occasions. He was also thought to have political ambitions, counting on his attack on Brann to win for him the sizable Baptist vote.

Fort Worth's Jerry Flemmons used to do a One-Man Show about the life of Brann called "O Dammit". Here are a few excerpts (all quotes from Brann) that demonstrate why Brann should have seen it coming:

I'll wager a scholarship at Baylor University that there are not in the entire Baptist ministry 100 men - not hydrocephalic - whose heads are big enough to fill a #7 hat.

The dreadful scandal at Baylor suggests that we do not hold our Baptists under water long enough.

I noticed in one of the local papers that "Dallas wants Baylor" $50,000 to $70,000 worth. Doubtless I'm a hopeless heretic, but I don't believe a damn word of it. Dallas doesn't want Baylor even a little bit. There isn't a town in this world that wants it except Waco. It is simply another Frankenstein monster that has destroyed its architect. Baylor spends no money here that is worth mentioning. Its students are chiefly forks-of-the-road yaps who curry horses or run errands for their board and wear the same underwear year round. They take but two baths during their lifetime - one when they are born, the other when they are baptized. The institution is worth less than nothing to any town. It is the alma mater of mob violence. It is a chronic breeder of bigotry and bile. As a small Waco property owner, I will give it $1,000 any time to move to Dallas, and double that amount if it will go to Honolulu or Hell.

And people claim that bloggers use a lot of unnecessary invective, and are contributing to the decline of our political discourse! (Full disclosure: My three siblings all went to a Baptist college, I'm employed by Baylor graduates, but I went to a state school. Therefore, I've been muckraking stuff like this for a long, long time.)

Anyway, if you made it this far, I apologize for not coming up with a distinct point of view on the apparent rope resembling a noose and the burning of what some believe to be campaign signs.

It's a target-rich environment.

Paragraphs That I Didn't Finish Reading....

How Obama Rewrote the Book
By Nancy Gibbs, Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2008
Time Magazine

Some princes are born in palaces. Some are born in mangers. But a few are born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope. Barack Obama....


New York Magazine
Daily Intel

One day, I was loitering on the steps of the law-school library, when a mutual friend walked over with him and introduced us. I don't think we shook hands, because I was busy clawing into a pack of Marlboro reds. We both just nodded, and Obama said, in a tone that struck me — or so I'll tell people from this day forward — as eerily presidential, "Hey, you mind if I bum one of those? I'm dying for a smoke....."

Shar'iah Law

There are beliefs that expand freedom and happiness.
There are belief systems that don't.

I started reading things about this about a week ago, and I've come to believe that this account is accurate.

Of all the belief systems invented by man, this one might just be the worst.

There. I've said it.

Barack Obama - #44

We could've done much, much worse.

Yeah, he's another Democrat, but he's made comforting noises about being a Free Trader.
Yeah, he's got a Chicago background (with all that THAT implies), but other than Tony Rezko, there don't seem to be any other sleazy deals in his background.
He's got a law degree, but seems to have done no harm with it.
He's never really had to run anything, but he put together the most efficient campaign in U.S. history.

We could do much, much worse.

Today's editorial pages will probably be filled with crusty old farts telling stories about when black America didn't have the same legal status as white America.
Here are some of mine:
In the Deep South, there was something called "The Code", a set of largely unwritten customs designed to keep whites at the top of the food chain. For instance, white people usually came into town to do their shopping on Saturday morning. Black people had the afternoon. This helped avoid the awkwardness of both races waiting in the same checkout line.

Up until 1975, the doctor's office in my hometown had waiting rooms labeled as "White" and "Colored" until someone threw bricks through the windows. The windows changed, but the tradition continued until my doctor retired. Public water fountains would've been such a source of controversy that....we didn't have any.

I don't remember how I learned about this one, and I'm going to use it as a somewhat awkward analogy: It was once a major Code violation for black people to pass white people on the highway. Think about the symbolism in that one. No matter how slowly a white driver was travelling, black drivers weren't supposed to pass them.
Back in the late 1950's, a black man once passed the (white) patriarch of a family whose farm was near ours. The old white guy chased the black guy down, made him pull over, and explained to him that he'd lived 65 years without being passed by a black man (I'm using a euphemism here), and he didn't plan to start allowing it to happen anytime soon.

Barack Obama was up against a couple who owned the Democratic Party. Hillary thought the nomination was her birthright. The word "inevitability" was thrown around a lot, but Obama passed them.
Why?
Because he was the better candidate. That's all that it came down to. The Clinton's campaign manager was a little fuzzy on whether California was a winner-take-all state. They didn't have anything in place for the states after Super Tuesday. Bill wouldn't shut up. Therefore, Obama passed them.
Despite his P.O.W. status, and despite his experience in the Senate, John McCain was driving too slowly to stay in front of Barack Obama. Obama didn't just pass the old white guy, he passed him like he was going the other direction.
And while I don't think Obama will be a better president than McCain, Obama ran a much better campaign.

Here's the best thing about it....Barack Obama didn't run as The Black Candidate. He didn't go around the country saying "it's our turn". Other than one offhand remark that he didn't look like the presidents who are on our currency, he kept race out of the election as much as anyone could have.

His argument was that he was the one best suited for the job. And the fastest driver got to the finish line first.

Amazing.

On another note, I thought McCain's concession speech last night may have been the best of its kind. Incredibly gracious.

Obama's acceptance speech was good, but I didn't think it was his best. (This one is my favorite.) His rhetoric is part of what got him this far, and it's something we can look forward to hearing more of when he's president.

Overall, this is a good day. Obama's got a clean slate to work with, most of his opponents are going to be giving him the benefit of the doubt for at least a week, a shameful chapter of our history has come to and end, and....

I don't feel obligated to end any more posts with the words "Go Bob Barr !"

Last Minute Plea For The Libertarians

Ok, here's the last plea you'll ever read about voting for Bob Barr.


Can you look at this chart and tell when The Mommy Party (D) controlled Congress? Can you tell when The Daddy Party (R) elected a President? Or did they accomplish this through teamwork?


This is from someone named Kevin G. Hall, with the McClatchy Newspaper group.

WASHINGTON — As presidential candidates largely ignore the issue, looming fiscal challenges threaten to swamp the U.S. economy and erode America's superpower status, several of the nation's foremost experts on the federal budget warned Wednesday.
******************************************
Starting in 2017, Social Security will pay out more than it takes in from tax revenues. Over the next 75 years, that could add $4.7 trillion in present-day value to the federal debt.
However, that pales when compared with projected government health-care spending on retiring baby boomers, the more than 75 million Americans born from 1946 to 1964. Boomer retirement is projected to cost the Medicare system and state-managed Medicaid $33.9 trillion in present value over the next 75 years.
Unless changes are made to benefits and/or revenues, within the next three decades government spending on Social Security and Medicare could account for $1 of every $5 spent in the U.S. economy.

This is bigger than your fear that Obama is going to take away your guns. This is bigger than your fear that McCain will overturn Roe v. Wade. The BiPartisans are hammering away at wedge issues while this ticking time bomb is going to blow up and make everything else seem irrelevant.

Get ready.

Here are the same numbers upside down, just in case you had trouble visualizing us sinking into a pit. It doesn't account for the bailout, or the last two years of "George and Dick's Excellent Adventure".

No major presidential candidate has put forward a detailed plan to fix Social Security and Medicare's long-term finances.


Notice how Kevin G. Hall, of the McClatchy Newspaper Group, had to say "major"? That's because the BiPartisans have no way of fixing this mess without alienating all of their supporters who are lined up for swill and slops at the government trough. I love that sentence. Let's repeat it.




No major presidential candidate has put forward a detailed plan to fix Social Security and Medicare's long-term finances.

The Libertarians have a plan. It's called Starve The Beast. Shut down everything we can. Now. There is absolutely no reason to wait.

Many of them acknowledge that there's a pending problem, but they confine their remedies to vague goals they'll seek or modest halfway measures.

Yeah, a pending problem. A problem for our children and grandchildren. In other words, there's nothing that could interfere with this election. In the meantime, they're going to keep yammering about "investing in infrastructure" or "investing in education" or "investing in boondoggles". They never just spend any more. They invest.

Meanwhile, experts say, mounting pressures to spend ever more on health care, fewer active workers to pay taxes to sustain retirees' benefits and growing interest payments on the national debt all could combine to create an unparalleled economic crisis.
If spending on government retirement programs remains on its current course and revenues grow at their historical averages, interest on the debt could grow to nearly 30 percent of the budget by 2040, up sharply from around 9 percent now, the Government Accountability Office estimates.
******************************

Despite such weighty fiscal challenges, politicians driven by short-term election goals focus on short-term problems. President Bush touts the now-shrinking annual federal budget deficit, the amount that annual spending exceeds tax receipts. The deficit fell from a high of $413 billion in fiscal 2004 to about $163 billion in fiscal 2007.
But that masks what's happened to the gross federal debt, the sum of outstanding debt issued by the federal government. Since fiscal 2001, the federal debt has soared from $5.8 trillion to $8.9 trillion.
Ignoring debt offers a false sense of security, Walker warned. He said that unfunded liabilities — costs such as Social Security benefits that the government has promised boomers but hasn't begun paying yet — grew by $3 trillion in fiscal 2007 to $53 trillion.

Please consider voting for Barr and other Libertarians. We're not the ones who got you into this mess, and we're the only ones who have already presented the workable plan for getting us out of it.

Go Bob Barr !

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends - Bloggers Selected For The Star-Telegram Edition

Aman Batheja of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram called me one day last week to discuss this site.
He eventually wrote a column about Fort Worth political bloggers, which you can read for the next few weeks by clicking here.
For the edification of future generations, I've also saved it here. The Star-Telegram passeth away and withereth after a fortnight, but The Sepulchre abides forever.

They sent out a photographer to take my picture. This guy went to an unbelieveable amount of trouble to take the picture, download it to a laptop, have me hold the laptop, and then take my picture again. And they actually published this portrait, despite the possible drop in circulation.

So my secret is out. Yes, The Whited Sepulchre is actually millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne.
Aman also posted more of his coversations with each blogger on the Star-Telegram's blog, along with some more pictures from my GQ photoshoot moment.
I don't think anyone will go there for our pictures, and I believe Brad Pitt's spot on the cover of GQ is safe for the moment. But a lot of these guys have some good things to say.

(Aman threw a couple more of my own in there that I didn't mention in the previous post. Here's what could happen if Creationists get their way and the Genesis story is taught alongside evolution in the schools. Aman also claimed that I "mocked" Obama's 30-minute infomercial. That is not true. I didn't mock it, I made fun of it.)

You can hit the link above to see which posts the Star-Telegram highlighted. Here are some of my picks....

The folks at WhosPlayin are Yellow Dog Texas Democrats. They've put together an online poll entitled Do You Support An Economic Rescue Plan? (I'll help you out....the only acceptable answers are #4 and #5. Vote for any of the others and your computer is immediately infested with viruses because, well, you deserve it.)

They also have an exhaustive analysis of Ken Leach's chances of defeating Michael Burgess in Congressional District #26, for those of you who think there's a significant difference in Republicans and Democrats.

The Idiot Speaketh is another Yellow Dog Democrat blog. This guy has an obsession with Sarah Palin. A life-endangering obsession. His hangups make my Al Gore fixation look like a slight nervous tic. My favorite of these posts is one that lists Palin's qualifications as compared to Kay Bailey Hutchison's, Condoleeza Rice's, and Liddy Dole's (we have TOTAL agreement on Elizabeth Dole's recent crimes against humanity). This lack of executive experience on the part of his Veep has been a huge drain on McCain, since he selected the only person on his Short List who had less executive experience than Obama.

According to the Star-Telegram, The Speaker is justifiably proud of this post, which now comes up as the #3 search result when you Google these words - Sarah, Palin, Idiot. (I'm #1 when you type in Richest, Vice, President, and I'm #2 on Al, Gore, Richest.) The fact that we know these stats is proof that The Idiot Speaketh and I might need some counseling.....

I really like this next blogger, a guy who posts at Liberally Lean From The Land Of Dairy Queen. (For those of you who don't live in Texas, Dairy Queen is a fast food burger restaurant that seems to thrive in small Texas towns.) He's been putting up anywhere from 6-10 posts per week since 2005. The posts are good, like this one about Time magazine hitting his desk. Nothing earth-shattering, but there's mention of a prayer vigil at First Baptist Church. This sent the Comment Field into a rapturous discussion about....whether Barack Obama is a Muslim.

Here's the best commenter:

11:58 - Obama is not a Muslim - you must be one of those brilliant 23% of Texans that think he is.

Unbelievable! You guys make Texas a laughing stock for the rest of the nation.

Here's a joke - I heard on late night TV - Barak Obama sat in a pew at Rev. Wright's United CHurch of Christ for 20 years, which makes him a Muslim.

John McCain doesn't go to church, which makes him a Christian.

Hardy Har Har....Seriously, make up your mind when judging Obama - are you going to bash him for being a member of Rev. Wright's church for 20 years?

Or you going to claim he's a Muslim?

Oh, I know - you'll do both.

Well said.

There's only one other site mentioned on the Star-Telegram blog - A Keyboard and a .45

I like guns. I think we have a right to keep and bear arms. But this blogger makes me look like Nancy Pelosi. I mean, damn.

Here's an excellent collection of editorials and blogposts that K&45 put together on voting. Each was written from a libertarian point of view. Great stuff.

Overall, I feel like I was in pretty good company. Everyone mentioned above is now blogrolled on this site in some appropriate category.

The Best That I Could Do

Today the Star-Telegram is supposed to feature this site in an article about political blogs.
I have no idea what angle they're going to take.

So if there are a lot of new people dropping in today, let me show you a few things so you'll have a general idea about what goes on here......

Here's a link to the Tarrant County Libertarian Meetup. My friend John Spivey runs the group, and it's the best way to learn more about the Libertarian Party and meet a lot of great people.
Here's a link to the Tarrant County Libertarian Party Website.

The following are links to the most popular things I've ever typed.

I've made five trips to China, and many of these next posts began their life as emails to friends and co-workers. Here's what it's like over there if your car hits a dog.
Here's what it's like in China if your washer/dryer is possessed by Satan and won't release your laundry.
Here's what it's like over there if your driver gets lost while driving you through a Typhoon.

I haven't written the one yet about getting intestinal parasites. The memories are too painful.

Lots of borderline heretical religious opinions are explored on this site. (I totally despise the influence of politics in religion and vice-versa.) Here's a representative sample called "Teaching Truth As Fact".
Here's a rant brought forth by Fox News Commentator Cal Thomas claiming that Barack Obama isn't a Christian.
If you make it that far, you may wonder if The Whos Really Can Hear Horton.
(If you found these posts even remotely interesting, opinions like these are tolerated every Sunday morning at 9:30 in room 306 at Broadway Baptist Church, just south of downtown Fort Worth. I'm in a class called "Exploring The Christian Faith". We have Deists, Theists, Apostates, and even a few traditional Baptists who meet there. If you think you've given up on the Christian Church, come give us a try. Sometime around Thanksgiving, we'll begin reading Why Christianity Must Change Or Die by John Shelby Spong. Great stuff.)

I run the shipping/freight operation for a Fort Worth manufacturing company. We have a safety consultant. One night I started wondering what would happen if jihadist martyrs had safety consultants. This is the result. I hope you enjoy it. Our safety consultant didn't.

One of the fundamentals of libertarianism is a respect for basic Human Rights. Here's my post for "Blog For Human Rights Day". It's the only thing you'll ever read that combines Norman Rockwell paintings with atrocity photographs.

Here's a test you can take on the subject of Global Warming. When you're finished with that, hit the label at the bottom for Al Gore. I'm obsessed with the guy, and my friend Dr. Ralph thinks I need to find a new boogeyman. But read this one about America's Richest Vice President. (Hint: it's not Nelson Rockefeller.)

Brent Rinehart, an Oklahoma County Roads supervisor, recently mailed out a gay-bashing campaign comic book to the voters in his district. It's one of the most wonderful things I've ever seen, and I don't mean that as a compliment.

Here's a post about the song "Dixie", and my great aunt Libba, and Confederate Memorial Day.

My first NASCAR race.

Here's an unlikely analogy that holds up well.

I believe that Jerry Jones, owner of The Dallas Cowboys Football Team, is one of the tragic figures of our age. He wants to be known as a football guy, not a finance guy. But he's only won Superbowls with Jimmy Johnson as coach - therefore Jimmy gets the credit, which is how it should be. Jerry Jones and the City Of Arlington have used Eminent Domain laws to build a monument to.....Jerry Jones. And as of November 1, 2008, the Cowboys are stinking up the field. Which is how it should be.

I hope you enjoy these. Hope you like the site. Check out the other bloggers in the column to your right. I think I've got a category for just about everybody.

And one other thing.....

Go Bob Barr ! ! ! !

Best Man Ruins Wedding

I don't know if this video is legit or not.
My boss, Marvel Variants, liked it enough to show it to me.
He can make my life a living hell, so I'm posting it.

Why A Vote For Bob Barr Is Not A Wasted Vote

I had to leave work early one day this week because my mother someone I knew was in an automobile accident. When I got to the scene of the accident, debris from the wreck was being swept away, the police cars were directing traffic around the wreck, and the ambulance attendants were tending to anyone who might need tending.

Most people need a few minutes to recover after traumatic accidents, but my mother my acquaintance saw my Bob Barr bumpersticker.

"Who do you think will be the next president?" she asked.
"Obama," I said.
"Do you think McCain has a chance?" she asked.
"No."
"Who are you going to vote for?" she asked.
"Barr."
"Well, I'm afraid you're wasting your vote."

There were police officers milling around, the ambulance had its lights on, and the primary topic was THE BOB BARR BUMPERSTICKER. I didn't know why Libertarians are that much of a distraction. I've had two people in the last two months stop me in parking lots to ask who I would vote for if a Libertarian wasn't running. When I tell them, they ask why I'm wasting my vote on a 3rd party candidate.

My friend Dr Liz at Zbeth's journal recently emailed me about Bob Barr, stating that she couldn't believe I was wasting my vote on a 3rd party candidate.

As stated earlier in these pages, I prefer to use the term "2nd party", now that warm fuzzy bipartisanship is seen as a good thing.

(By the way, did anyone else notice the word "partisan" suddenly being used as a smear after the Democratic faction lost control of the House in 1994? Up until then, partisanship had been standard operating procedure. Oh well.)

Please let me explain why a vote for Bob Barr, or any other 2nd party candidate, is not a "waste" of a vote.

1. John McCain is going to lose. Unless someone discovers Osama bin Laden underneath Saddam's palace with a stash of WMD's and some letters from Obama encouraging him to stay out of sight until Christmas, John McCain is going to lose. But millions of people are going to vote for him. Granted, this doesn't mean Barr has a hope in Hades, but is a vote for McCain "wasted"?
2. Barack Obama is going to lose Texas. Unless John McCain is discovered to be a University of Oklahoma alumni with a Washington Redskins bumpersticker on his Volvo (donated by OPEC), Barack Obama is going to lose Texas. But millions of Texans are going to vote for Obama, and because of our goofy electoral college system, those millions of votes won't help Obama win a single state. Winning states is what counts. Granted, two wrongs don't make a right, but if a Texan votes for Obama, is that vote "wasted"?

3. Thousands of BiPartisan Party (R,D) candidates will be defeated on November 4th. This is not a tragedy for one side or the other, since there is very little difference between the two factions. But if the Mommy Faction (D) wins more elections that the Daddy Faction (R) does that mean that all Daddy votes were wasted?

4. McCain has blathered on an on about how he has a proven record of "reaching across the aisle" to the other side. There are 75-year old Baptist ushers who haven't reached across as many aisles as John McCain. Why does he keep emphasizing this ability, and why does he seem to claim that there's no difference between himself and a Democrat? Because there's very little difference between McCain and the Democrats.

5. Obama does the same thing. And the Republican faction fears him because of it. Karl Rove is claiming that Obama hasn't truly reached across party lines. Yeah, Karl, your guy McCain is the only one who can genuinely compromise his convictions.... We understand now.

6. By working together as a team, reaching across the aisle, and lots of other kissy-kissy make-nice techniques, the BiPartisans (R,D,) have gotten us 10.3 trillion dollars in debt. They did this by working together as a team.
"Why refuse to compromise when there's spending to be done?" appears to be the slogan.
If you're an American citizen, your share of this debt is $33,000.00
According to Reason magazine, if the government had to follow the same accounting rules as a corporation, each household's share of the national debt would be $500,000.00 (It's something to do with Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare entitlements.) They're going try to get out of this hole by printing money. Look for that to be the big Ron Paul issue in the 2010 elections.

7. When the autopsy is finally done on our current financial mess (the historian who will write the definitive account is probably still crawling around in diapers), I'm betting that the blame will be placed at the feet of.... The Republicrats. People really do want a change of methodology. The Obama faction's pollsters have obviously done the market research on this topic, if all the Change signs at his rallies are any indication.

8. But imagine a debate between someone who liked McDonald's, and someone who really, really liked McDonald's. Wouldn't be very interesting, would it?
How about a debate between Tweedledee and Tweedledum? Ditto.
Imagine a debate about a situation where a nation is about to go bankrupt.
Imagine that the debate was limited to speakers whose factions caused the problem, and no outsiders were allowed to participate.
Oh, you don't have to imagine that? You've watched some of those debates?
Why do you think they don't want a 2nd voice added to the debate?
Is it possible that having a real choice presented to the voters might possibly lead to Change? Loss of power by the BiPartisans?
Well, we can't have that, can we..... No, let's listen to Obama and McCain debate whether the problem should be attacked with a scalpel or a hatchet. Instead of a nuclear warhead.

9. Therefore, if you want change, you have to send a signal. As long as you continue voting for The Greater Of Two Lessers, the BiPartisans will never, ever get the message that they need to change their ways. If you have genuine concerns about the mammoth size of our government, erosion of our basic rights, or our ridiculous levels of debt, there's only one real way to waste your vote, and that's by voting for one of the BiPartisans.

Go Bob Barr ! ! !

Caption This..... Pre Election Voter Fraud Edition

I need a caption for this picture....

Jonestein, The Browncoat Libertarian, won the caption contest last week.

Uh oh....wait a minute. The Competition Committee says that we have a problem. There were ballot issues (hanging chads) with last week's votes.

Plus, ACORN did a voter registration drive for The Browncoat Libertarian, and 119% of the eligible Ohio voters cast a ballot.

The entire Dallas Cowboys football team cast ballots from Las Vegas.

Fembuttx has been accused of intimidation tactics in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

We will go forward with this week's contest, and try to resolve last week ASAP.

We Finally Had A Bad Quarter ! ! ! ! !

It finally arrived.

After years of encouragement from the media, after two years of Mommy Party (D) candidates talking about "the failed economic policies of the past eight years", and after at least a year and a half of false predictions.....

We've finally had our first long-awaited quarter of negative economic growth.

From July through September, the American economy contracted by 3/10ths of 1%. Yes, 3/10ths of 1%.

But we can't relax yet! It takes two quarters of negative growth to make a recession! So get out there and get busy! Talk some more about "the failed economic policies of the past eight years." Lay off some employees, and make that recession happen so we can....

Oh, wait a minute.

We're about to have a different president. A new script is called for.

Hide and watch. The media's coverage of the economy is about to change dramatically.