JFK

John Forbes Kerry has just been confirmed by the Senate as our new Secretary of State.  The blog, Diplomad, summarizes my despondent feelings toward this depressing development just about perfectly ... see The Diplomad 2.0.  I suppose, even with the figurative projectile retching I am now experiencing toward our new highest foreign policy representative, it is a step up from what we just had.

Six Old Men on Entitlement Reform

Not the Real Signers

This blog entry is an user-submission by a reader (Brad Stroup).  I must relay the fact that Brad is generally of the liberal persuasion … as are most of his friends.  But this areopagitica is very conservative in its tone and purpose.  I will not divulge the other five signers of this pledge other than to indicate that their first priority is their country.  Here is their argument for entitlement reform: 

We six old men [all from Tucson, Arizona)] oppose the “me first” culture of the elderly who demand no reforms in entitlement especially in “retirement” states like Arizona.  Most of us over 65 have been guaranteed subsidies in the form of Social Security and Medicare for the rest of our lives that far exceed our contributions.   If we include the “baby-boomers” retiring in the next few years, we elderlies have more annual income than people our age have ever had, and yet we expect the rest of you to take care of us in our leisure years.  Thanks to the profligate generosity of our nation over the past 50 years, we have created an approaching train wreck no one wants to face.  

The AARP’s lobbying efforts to protect old people at everyone else’s expense make no moral or economic sense.  The nation simply cannot afford Medicare and Social Security without some cost reductions.  Medicare co-pays to patients should be increased; Social Security retirement ages should be increased to 67 or 70.  Both entitlements should be means-tested so that those who have more do not take from those whose needs are great.  If we don’t reform these programs now, they won’t be there when younger people go to the window for benefits.

To my amazement, most of the return-e-mail dissenters to this pledge were usually liberals … often radical (and semi-famous) liberals … offering lots of AARP-inspired me-first excuses ranging from “I paid for this benefit and don’t you dare touch it” to “when defense spending is brought under control, then our entitlements will be affordable” (thinking defense spending represents “over 55% of Federal spending" – a liberal chimera.)  For the real facts, see: Heritage Foundation Analysis).  And, if you want to see how an uber-liberal mind works, please see the link I received back as justification for this original outrageous statement: War Resisters League Rationales.  I guess [too] many Americans believe Obama when he said [to Boehner], “[government] spending is not a problem.”

I have volunteered to Brad to be added to the “List of Six.”

Spooky Stuff

Don your tinfoil hats folks for a foray into the realm of the spooks.  Our journey starts with a reference on The Drudge Report which points to a story on WND (stands for World Net Daily, a conservative website) which states that a huge explosion at a deep-underground nuclear facility in Iran has caused a considerable disruption to its nuclear ambitions. I recommend that you read this story with a skeptical eye for, as they say, if something sounds too good to be true, it's usually false.  (See: WND Story).  But, on the chance that this sabotage reporting does turn out to be true, then our main-stream media echo chamber has failed us once again … I guess free contraceptives for women really is a much more important issue after all. Either that or the New York Times is finally listening to our government when it is asked not to publish sensitive intelligence information (ha-ha).

I also made the possible mistake of reading through many of the myriad comments attached to this story … some of which are scurrilous and even racist.  But, within these comments, I did pick up references to “secret” weapons which I had never noticed before and which the U.S. might or might not have developed to the point of deployment .  And so I Googled these weapon's names and found the following for HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project) … see: HAARP Story  and EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) Weapons  … see: Science Magazine Story.  

Both these weapons seem rather avant garde and scary ... particularly if some of our enemies have them also. And I'm sure we probably have other doomsday devices about which we haven't a clue. Now .. try to have a undisturbed sleep tonight ... and cross your fingers about that explosion in Iran.

Be a Sport

Societies were supposed to have created sports  to be the palliative of the masses. Romans watched gladiators kill each other so they would not overthrow their corrupt emperors. Coming up on the Big Football Game (I’m not allowed to use the protected  term “Super Bowl” … if I did, I think I would be used as a tackling dummy for Ray Lewis), it is interesting to note how passions are aroused by a few men kicking a ball around a big field … even to the point of giving up one’s life.  Just recently 74 soccer fans died in Egypt at a riot over a grudge match there. (see: AP News Story )  Then 21 fans and security personnel were sentenced to death for their part in this melee while another 52 will go on trial in March.  These death sentences next set off another riot in which an additional 37 fans were killed and 110 injured … apparently when the funerals for the previous martyrs morphed into more sports-fan protests and then into a political riot … chanting slogans against Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi.

Now, I’ve heard of hooliganism on the part of English soccer fans, but these Egyptian uprisings seem a little over the top … particularly in that Morsi became a target of the sports fans … when such contests are supposed to assuage such feelings.  Imagine the Baltimore Ravens' fans charging the field in New Orleans next weekend … insisting that President Obama make Beyonce actually sing the words to the National Anthem … and then the 49ers' fans cornering Governor Jerry Brown … forcing him to retract  the recent income tax increases in California.  The Baltimore cheerleaders would then have at the San Francisco pom-pom wavers … to the point where all the half-time TV commercials would be scrubbed in order to televise this lascivious girl-on-girl wrestling.  Even without any fatalities, this would result, the following Monday, in a number of camera-grabbers in Congress (e.g., Chuck Schumer?) calling for the banning of “this grotesque, violent sport” (see: Breitbart Story) … or at least eliminate all the festivities therein … and all football fans should be registered and fingerprinted.

Or perhaps I'm daydreaming again?

What’s in A Name?

Would a rose still look so red?  Hillary Clinton wrote her mini-opus, It Takes a Village,  propounding her political meme that self-determination is bad and collectivism is good. And I just re-read the poem, “No Man is an Island” by John Donne (see: The Poem ) in an e-mail by a “progressive” thinker of a close friend … as a way of showing the way to his nirvana (“It tolls for thee”).  

Now Van Jones, one of Obama’s original Socialist henchmen (and now a MSNBC contributor no less) has coined a new portmanteau term “communitarian” as a way of camouflaging his hard-leftist theology … see: Breitbart Story.  Even Obama’s inaugural address dances around the notion that rugged individualism in the United States is now passé:

Through it all, we have never relinquished our skepticism of central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all societies [sic] ills can be cured through government alone. Our celebration of initiative and enterprise, our insistence on hard work and personal responsibility, these are constants in our character. [Hey, sounds good!} 

[But, wait!] For we have always understood that when times change, so must we, that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges, that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action. [The ideological curtain is raised]

I am constantly awed by how persistent a failed political movement can be.  Thirty years ago, we thought Communism was dead.  It had proven itself to be a precursor to totalitarianism over and over again (Pol Pot, Stalin, Castro, Mao, Sukarno, etc.).  Yet on-the-make politicians seem continually to trek back to drink from this tainted trough so as to rally their naive proletariat to a cause that seems so magnanimous and Christ-like.  And, only when the hook in firmly planted in the tender mouths of these fish, do they realize, too late, that they are not to be fed, but to feed.

Amaze Your Friends …

Royal Straight Flush

And even yourself with this card trick.  This is really a “mathematical” trick in the sense that there is no real magic involved.  If you follow the instructions to the letter it will work out almost all the time.

First the scenario:  This is best performed with a new deck of cards (less the jokers and other extraneous cards).  If not, then set up the deck with each suit in ascending sequence (two, trey … king, ace) and then the suits likewise (clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades).  This is to be a seven-player, five-card draw poker game.  No need to actually have seven players there, but if you do, it is even more dramatic.

Start by having each player cut the cards.  (Thin cuts are discouraged, but I’m not sure this trick fails if they are performed.)  If you don't have seven players, some players can cut the cards multiple times ... but only for a total of seven cuts ... ending with you the dealer.  Make these real cuts and don’t try to fake people out by restoring the card deck after each cut.

Next deal out seven hands and then the second card to each of these hands … only when you come to the dealer’s hand, deal the card from the bottom of the deck … not trying to hide this fact.  Then deal the third cards, dealing the dealer from the top of the deck.  Then deal the fourth cards, again dealing the dealer from the bottom of the deck.  Finally deal the fifth cards legitimately.

At this point announce that one of the players has seen the dealer dealing from the bottom of the deck and that he has to throw in his cards and get five new ones … which he does.  At this point turn over each player’s hand in sequence.  They will all be full houses!  Except the dealer’s hand which will be a straight flush (which beats a full house)!   If you are lucky, the dealer’s hand will be a royal straight flush (to the ace)!

Don’t be discouraged if this trick fails … it happens every once and a while.  But I’ve only had it fail a couple of times in all the years I’ve performed it.

Ersatz

It was recently reveled that Beyonce lip-synced the national anthem at President Obama’s just-passed inauguration … with the Marine Band pretending to play the associated music … see: Telegraph Story

Let’s see … President Obama reads someone else’s words from his ever-present Teleprompter, Beyonce mimes the Star-Spangled Banner, global-warming data is still being faked (see: Powerline Blog), and Michelle Obama is now sporting a black-banged wig.  Is everything ersatz these days?

Someone please pinch me.  I’m hoping that the last four years were also just make-believe … our huge deficit spending, Obamacare, and the Arab Spring never happened  … and were all just bad dreams.  Perhaps I might also wake up and discover that Mitt Romney is now the President?

Skating

Bespeckled in her horn-rimmed glasses and looking very much like she did when she attended Wellesley College over forty years earlier, Hillary Clinton testified for five hours yesterday in front of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.  She pretty much skated through what was supposed to be a grueling cross examination and got away without having to answer many hard questions about the circumstances surrounding the killing of four Americans at the American Consulate in Benghazi last September 11^th (see: Weekly Standard Story).

I say testified for five hours, but for only half that time was she interrogated by Republicans.  The Democrats in both Houses asked her either softball questions or queries that were so off the subject as to cause one to doubt the purpose of this inquiry.  So that was really a two and one half hour “grilling” by Republicans, each limited to five minutes apiece (another strategic win for Hillary).  And she started each session with about a five minute statement (choking up in the Senate about meeting the next-of-kin of those killed) which cut out another 10 minutes of questioning.  Now most of the questioners prefaced their queries with effusive praise for Ms. Clinton’s service as Secretary of State and her round-the-world  travels.  With her demurred thanks, this tete-a-tete usually took at least one minute or 20% of each questioner’s time. 

Then, being politicians, each Republican invariably prefaced his or her questions with about a two-minute soliloquy pontificating about the tragedy of the Benghazi  massacre … another 40% of misspent time.  So now, reduce this 2 hours and twenty minutes of questioning by 60% which leaves just 56 minutes of true grilling … usually working out to one or two questions per Congress-person.  Now, Hillary being loquacious, would generally answer each question with long-winded explanations of some State-Department process irrelevant to the question … eating up most of the few precious minutes left.  And, if  the questioner did, for some strange reason, stumble onto a good question, Hillary either went on the attack (a fearsome sight) or claimed no knowledge (quite likely a lie).

So Hillary Clinton skated through what was supposed to be her Waterloo … not telling us who were the survivors of this massacre; why have they been held incognito for five months; when and where can they be interrogated; how could Hillary have not seen the requests for more security from Ambassador Stevens; what conversations has she had with the President before, during, and after this affair; did she tell the father of one of the dead Americans that “we will get that video maker;” and many other follow-up questions to her many evasive answers. 

Perhaps next time (and there surely needs to be a next time) these Congressional panels should hire a cross-examiner (Mark Levin?) like what was had in the Watergate hearings and he/she might find out “what difference [Benghazi], in fact, makes”?  And then maybe network television might also just deem to broadcast such hearings?  Or will the American people rise up in protest and protect their next President?  I think I know the answer.

Delusions of Grandeur

Joe Biden is a clown … a clown that, I’m afraid, is losing the few marbles he has left in that plugged head of his.  I’m kinda certain that that crafty politician, President Obama, chose Biden as his running mate both times so that Congress would not be tempted to remove His Royal Highness from office (see: Michelle Malkin Story) no matter how far afield he wanders from the Constitution.  Now, Washington’s court jester, Biden, is having delusions of grandeur.  He believes that, in four years, it will be his turn to wear the crown.  He even recently had one of his frequent Freudian slips and said “I’m proud to be President …” (see: GretawireVideo).

I will not chronicle all of Ole Joe’s gaffs and malapropisms here, but over the last year it was at least one a week … to the point were I really doubted that he would be Obama’s running mate this time around (see: Good-news Bad-news).  But I do wish that this motley fool, Biden, gets the Democrat nomination for President in 2016 … since I doubt that he could be elected no matter who the Republicans nominate.  But, wait a minute, I didn’t think that Obama could get re-elected!  Given the divisiveness and lack of acumen on the part of the American public, Joe Bite-me might then just skate into the White House.  Wouldn’t that be special?

The Road Ahead?

The following was submitted by a reader and old friend (Charlie Radigan) and is recommended for your perusal and reflection:

  

Trying to make sense of the 2012 election results, I soon realized it all makes sense when discovering quotes from important people from our past.  The position we are now in has been predicted. For example, Alexis de Tocqueville in the 1800s said, "The American Republic will endure until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money." Thomas Jefferson said, "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." Phil Steffen said: " Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups." Samuel Adams said, "When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the Republic." 

There are many more quotes that accurately predict the economic and political mess we are now in and what lies ahead for America. My favorite has been attributed to Alexander Tytler  professor of history at the University of Edinburgh in the late 1700s.  He reportedly wrote: "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.  A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."  

Is that what lies ahead for America? Often the outcomes of complicated problems become easily predictable when the problems are reduced to simple forms.  It is frightening to me what lies ahead for my children and grandchildren because of "the power of very stupid people in large groups" who gave us the sideshow we now have in Washington. A housecleaning in 2016 is our only and last hope, if it is not already too late.

Ned Crockett

Irvington, VA

(Reprinted from the The Rappahannock Record)

Obama’s Legacy

Heads of state are aptly remembered for what they had accomplished while in office … their legacy if you will.  There are big legacies and not-so-big legacies.  Clearly those Presidents who are memorialized on Mt. Rushmore have left big legacies … winning important wars, freeing the slaves, establishing for posterity firm democratic guidelines, ridding our nation of malignant structural forces, curing economic malaise, setting high ethical and moral standards, etc. According to the Associated Press, Obama wants his legacy from his second terms as President to be the following:

 - “an immigration law that would deal firmly but compassionately with millions of illegal residents”;

-  “an economic model that demands more money from the rich to shrink the debt;”

- “a tax system that is fairer and simpler for families;”

- “a bigger emphasis on education,”

- “more made-in-America energy,” and

- solving our “old problem of gun violence.”

See: A.P. Story

If one actually believes these pronouncements, our current White House occupant has not carved out for himself the loftiest of goals.  These stated objectives, to me, seem short-term and opportunistic … ignoring many of the gigantic economic, social, cultural, infrastructure, and geo-political conundrums that we face as a nation. And, truth be told, he has not, in the first half of his tenure, accomplished very much even toward his previous picayune pronouncements … other than through his rhetoric (which is all too often hollow and divisive).

So, seeing that we have to live with this man for the next four years, it sure would be nice if his upcoming inaugural address on Monday were to set a higher standard for his next four year than what we are being shown in the quoted Associated Press piece.  And it would be even nicer, were he to do so, I and the rest of the country would find ourselves nodding our heads in belief and enthusiastic agreement.

Race to the Bottom

The world is taking a dangerous and rocky path to universal monetary collapse.  Japan is now following the United States's Federal Reserve in devaluing its currency ... in order to give its economy a shot in the arm, see: CNBC Story.  The U.S. Fed’s Chairman, Ben Bernanke, has been pushing “quantitative easing” (QE) for the last three years in order to sop up all the debt that this country is forced to issue to cover it’s fire-hose federal spending … to the point where it has expanded our money supply (and its balance sheet) by $3 trillion.  And, in order to keep this crushing debt burden from sinking things further, it has kept generic interest rates artificially low with its banking muscle.  It has been able to run the monetary printing presses night and day without setting off crushing inflation because our economy is still so weak …  reflected in our poor employment and wage-increase statistics.

But one economic “benefit” of this monetary expansion is a weak U.S. dollar which tends to help export markets and crimp importers.  Given how poor the U.S. balance of payments actually is … image what a disaster it would be without the Fed’s dollar deflationary measures?  However, our trading partners are losing patience with us and, as indicated in the referenced article, are now mimicking Bernanke’s strategy.  The European Central Bank (ECB), China, Great Britain, Japan, and even Switzerland (for heaven’s sake) are falling over one another to try to devalue their currencies with their own QEs.  A U.S. Dollar slide begets a Chinese Yuan slide which begets an Euro slide which begets a Japanese Yen slide which begets a British Pound slide which begets a Swiss Pound slide.  This is all a very dangerous race to the bottom.

How will this end?  With all this quantitative easing, the world will be, in short order, awash in money.  The balance sheets of the central banks will have reached unsustainable levels … probably the ECB first; and the only way out will be for them to let the dogs out … allow inflation to reduce the carrying-cost pain of their excessive debts.  And, this time, run-away inflation will not be as localized as it was in Germany in the 1920s.  It will be world-wide and will engender political upheavals that are likely to be quite painful.  (At this point Bernanke will not look quite so angelic.)  So be forewarned and be prepared … own real hard assets (not cash) and owe lots of money … and live in an area of relative political sanity.

Contrast

Tonight Democrat Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, in his State of the State Message, is going to push for his proposed change in his state’s income tax rate from 5.25% to 5.66% … almost an 8% increase.  Allegedly he wants to use the extra annual one billion dollars of revenue that this rate increase would generate for important transportation and educational projects (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).  For more on this see: Boston Globe Story . 

Also, the stick-it-to-em voters in California (run by Democrat Governor Jerry Brown) recently voted to increase (retroactively) the income tax rate for those making $250,000+  from 9.3% to 10.3% and those earning $1,000,000+ from 10.3% to 13.3%. (I would opine that these are confiscatory rates and, as such, few of the California glitterati end-up actually paying these taxes.).  Also the low-information voters there voted in a sales tax increase from 7.25% to 7.50%.  (Surprisingly, this is a regressive tax ... proving that those assenting voters were really low-information ones.)  See: Fox News Story

Contrast with these two Democrat-pushed tax-rate increases, two Republican governors, Dave Heineman from Nebraska and Bobby Jindel from Louisiana, have both recently proposed that their states eliminate their state’s income taxes altogether … see: Reuters Story. 

And to better emphasize this political-party contrast, I suggest that you visit the following website to see how taxes are imposed on a state by state basis across our nation … Retirement Living Story.   I would love to have the time to superimpose on this data an indication of which of these states are run by Democrats versus by Republicans … but I believe that you can pretty much figure out these checkerboard results for yourselves.  Perhaps you might even be able to rationalize this disparity.

AFTERWARD:  I was wrong ... Patrick actually proposed last night to raise the state income tax to 6.25% (a full percentage point) and reduce the state sales tax from 6.25% to 4.5% ... spoken like a true tax-and-spend Democrat.

Bending the Curve

The words keep echoing in my head from Obama’s rhetoric surrounding the passage of Obamacare … “With this law we are bending down the health-care cost curve.”  Now anyone with enough sense to tie their shoes knew then that this was a lie.  How could the country pick up the cost of health insurance for 16 million more people, insure children on their parents’ policies up to age 26, and force insurance companies to accept any new policyholder even with a preexisting condition … and have this all cost less?  Now guess what?  As this legislation is being phased in (conveniently after our last Presidential election), American health-care insurance premiums are skyrocketing ... in some states by as much as a 100% … see: Wall Street Journal Story,  ABC News Story, and Forbes Magazine Story  (Read as many of these as you can up until the time you start crying.)

There is a new term circulating on the right ... the “low information voter” which is a polite way of recasting what Stalin used to call a “useful idiot.”  Yes, the cold light of dawn will eventually reach those people who believed our “Bullsh..tter-in Chief” and they will then wonder what happened to them.  But it will be too late.  As they say … you can’t unscramble an egg.  So we will have to try to live with one more crushing social entitlement program … up until the time when we can’t.  And then the fiscal cliff and debt ceiling brouhahas will appear as though they were nothing more than tremors prior to the 9.5 fiscal earthquake that will swallow up this country … except, that is, for that little oasis somewhere near Chicago.

Silence!

Has anyone but myself noticed the recent decline of talk radio?  Last week in Boston, the FM talk station, WTKK, went to an (atrocious) all-music format.  It had been almost exclusively talk and mostly right-leaning talk ... except for Margery Eagan and Jim Braude in the morning hours.  They had had a conservative Michael Graham filling up the drive-time slot and that occasional righty, Mike Smerconish in between … see: Gaulitics.com.  Even that power-mouth Rush Limbaugh, after a little over a twelve month move to AM’s WXKS Talk 1200 from the feeble-AM-signaled WRKO 680, recently was forced to move back … just a little humbled (see: Boston Radio Watch ).  WXKS then went to a silly all-comedy format.

Over the last year here in Boston we have seen quite a parcel of other silenced right-wing voices … Lara Ingraham disappeared (and, in her last months, pleading for more advertisers) as well as Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Jeff Katz, Jay Severin, and Michael Savage. And, as of now, the only oral oasis for us crypto-Nazis here in Boston is WRKO (whose signal fades fast after sundown … very annoying in the winter time) which carries just the few voices of right-reason remaining -- Jeff Kuhner, Howie Carr, Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin.  (Of course there is still FM-radio’s NPR here in Boston (WGBH 89.7) … on which one can hear how to make Nina Tottenberg’s cranberry sauce, listen to Terry Gross castigate conservatives and learn about All [Liberal] Things Considered.)

But the real reason for this blog entry is that I sense that this shrinkage is not happening by accident.  I strongly suspect that there is an invisible hand at work behind the scenes that is somehow convincing advertisers (and station managers) that it would be better if they were not abetting this brand of right-wing political talk radio.  And when Rush Limbaugh offered up a derogatory name for Sandra Fluke after she “testified” to Congress about her need for free contraceptives, even this ratings giant lost significant advertisers.  President Obama has not minced words about his disgust over conservative talk radio and the messages that it conveys (see: American Thinker).  And as Joe Biden says, President Obama carries a big stick and, as we have seen, he is not afraid to use it.

And so, at least in Boston, the pond for conservative talk radio is rapidly drying up.  This was one of the few alternatives to the mostly-liberal Main Stream Media ... but has drawn the ire of both it and the party currently in power. As long as they are going after the Second Amendment to the Constitution, why not scuttle the First Amendment also?

Dubious Achievements

Since former President, Bill Clinton, has just been named “Father of the Year” by the National Father’s Day Council … see: USA Today Story, a dubious achievement if there ever was one, I thought I might also assemble a number of other recent winners of equally dubious honors.  They are:

Tim Tebow – “The Bronzed Bench” from the New York Jets

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – American Jewish Congress’s “Best Friend of Israel” Sash

Nancy Pelosi – the Plastic Surgeons’ Patient of the Year Award (the “Golden Scalpel”)

Harry Reid – Four gold-framed U.S. Budgets from the previous four fiscal years
Rush Limbaugh – Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year”

Elizabeth Warren -- Honorary Membership in the Cherokee Nation

Bashar al-Assad – UNESCO’s “Greatest Love of One’s Countrymen” Gold Medal

Joe Biden – Honorary Doctor of Philosophy from Harvard University

Anthony Weiner – Cosmo Magazine’s “Sexiest Centerfold” Award

Maya Angelou – the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Hillary Clinton – “Most Underrated Politician” Loving Cup from the U.S. House
Mohamed Morsi – the Muslim Brotherhood’s blood-framed “Sacred Oath”

Barney Frank – “Handsomest Couple of the Year” Award from Bride’s Magazine

Justin Bieber – People Magazine’s “Most Metrosexual” Honor

Mayor Tom Menino of Boston – the Demosthenes Award for Outstanding Diction

Barack Obama – the Nobel Peace Prize

Killing Killers

About a dozen killer whales (orcas) have been trapped by closing ice fields in northern Canada … see: Earthlink Story

Apparently, they did not get Al Gore’s global-warming memo … or he might have forgotten to send it … as he could well be distracted, spending the whole $100 million in oil-pelf that he just gleaned from the sale of his TV network to Al-Jazeera (see: Forbes Story) ... on full-body massages.

The New Second Amendment

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, In order to hunt squirrels, rabbits and other small varmints, the right of the people to keep and bear [non-scary] arms shall not be infringed.

K.B.I.

Hillary Clinton is expected to testify later this month in front of both houses of Congress about the Benghazi terrorist attack and weeks-long cover-up … before  she leaves her post as head of the State Department … see: The Hill Story. When I was in college many, many, many years ago, we had a short-hand expression of cynical derision … “K.B.I.” … whose translation was “Keep Believing It.” 

Re: Hillary testifying ... K.B.I.

I’m not necessarily saying that she won’t appear. But I am avering that I sincerely doubt that she will truthfully testify on all the outstanding issues surrounding this affair.  If I am wrong, then I won’t dis her any more on this blog for one full year.

Acolytes

Today President Obama is nominating three acolytes to fill three vitally important posts in his administration … John Kerry to State, Chuck Hagel to Defense, and John Brennan to head the CIA.  They are soon to replace, in this order, three much more independently-minded people … Hillary Clinton (in questionable health),  a burned-out Leon Panetta, and former General David Petraeus (who fell on his sword … possibly an unfortunate analogy) … see: Earthlink News. 

Two of these nominees are long-time legislators (Hagel and Kerry) and such people usually don't translate well to administrative posts (I’ll comment more on this at some later date), but, to me, this CIA nomination is even more unfortunate in that Brennan has always appeared to me to put politics and his career ahead of his patriotic duties.  I first noted this in January, two years ago, when he botched the crotch bomber incident … see Head(s) Should Roll

Since then, Brennan, who is currently Obama’s assistant for counter-terrorism and homeland security, has appeared to be involved in numerous unsavory security leaks (such as those surrounding the killing of Osama Bin Laden) and national security screw-ups (e,gs,, the Benghazi fiasco/cover-up and the loss of a high-tech drone to Iran … see: Cyber Warfare).  Yes, but one could also argue he has also been in the forefront of the use of drones to take out much of al Qaeda’s leadership in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere… but he has also approved the selling of drones to Pakistan (see: Are We F...ing Crazy?) and giving F-16 fighter jets to Egypt … both silly bone-headed moves.

Putting Brennan in to head up the CIA makes me very uneasy in that he seems more politically active and willing to massage Obama's ego than is advisable in this post.  He (like Obama's two other neophyte acolytes) really does not seem to be up to the job.

Afterward: See also: Breitbart Story and His Remarks about Jihad and The Left Dislikes Him Too

Terms of Endearment

The following is a test of your perspicacity and political savvy.   You are herein asked (as a comment to this blog) to attach one or more of these terms of endearment to one or more of the following people: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bashar al-Assad, Joe Biden, Justin Bieber, John Boehner, George W. Bush, Dick Chaney, Hugo Chavez, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Barney Frank, Lady Gaga, Rush Limbaugh, Madonna, Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Mitt Romney, Mohamed Morsi, Bibi Netanyahu, Nancy Pelosi, Vladamir Putin, Tim Tebow  (NO PROFANITIES PLEASE!)

Ankle Pecker
Ass Wipe
Babinzo
Badonkadonk

Blaggard

Blatherskite

Boob
Bubblehead
Bumpkin

Charlatan
Chawbacon
Chowderhead
Clown
Cockalorum
Cockroach

Coxcomb
Creep

Curmudgeon
Despot
Diaper Licker
Dolt
Doofus
Drip

Dunderhead
Dweeb
Fliptwiddle

Fop
Fruitloop
Guttersnipe

Harridan
Hick
Honeyfugler
Horndog
Horse's Petute
Ignoramus
Imp

Jackanape

Jamoke
Knave
Kook
Leech
Lickspittle
Lout
Lowlife
Meathead

Misanthrope

Miscreant
Moonbat
Mooncalf

Mountebank

Mugwump
Muttonhead

Namby Pamby

Nebbish

Nimrod
Ninnyhammer

Noddy

Nudnik
Oinker
Peck's bad boy

Pecksniffian

Pettifogger
Pillack
Pipsqueek

Poltroon
Pond Scum

Popinjay
Puddin Head
Puke
Puzzlewit

Quidnunc
Quisling

Rapscallion

Rascal
Reprobate

Rogue
Rotter
Rumpswab
Scallywag
Scamp
Scapegrace

Schlemiel

Schmozzle
Schmuck

Schlub
Scoundrel

Shlump

Shmegegi

Shrew

Skellum

Slattern
Sleezeball
Snake Oil Salesman

Snollygoster

Sop

Troglodyte
Twerp
Twit

Varlet
Wack-a-doodle
Wisenheimer
Wingnut
Wise Ass
Wowser
Yahoo

Yenta

Yokel

The Debt Ceiling

Now that going over the fiscal cliff has been avoided through a tax rate increase on big earners, the next national financial crises are two-fold.  First Congress must address the increase of the debt ceiling sometime over the short term … and secondly, there is a massive mandated sequestration of government spending that was originally attached to the fiscal cliff legislation and has only been postponed by two months … see: CNN/Money Story.  It seems that the Republicans, with their typical political tone-deafness, have decided that they will stand and fight their spending-cuts battle on the field of the debt-ceiling increase.  Stupid them!

Why would conservatives fight such a battle over the debt ceiling when they know that they will be forced to surrender for no other reason than to maintain the bond rating of the United States?  In such a fight Republicans are obviously at a strategic disadvantage.  However, in a fight over spending sequestration, the Republicans hold the high ground.  This is because, by doing nothing, the administration will be forced into significant spending cuts because it no longer has the leverage of threatened tax rate increases.  Yes, these spending cuts are also very painful for the Defense Department … but I am reasonably certain that the Obama Administration will politically find a way to ameliorate those particular spending cuts … with the happy assistance of the Republican House of Representatives.

So the Tea Party members in Congress need to acquire some more political savvy and choose their pugilistic arenas somewhat more carefully ... and it should not be the debt-ceiling fight.

The Door to Hell

Around five years ago, Hugo Chavez said to the assembled U.N. members that, as a result of George W. Bush’s previously being at this same podium, there was still a lingering smell of sulfur.  In other words, Bush was the Devil personified.  I’ve always found it fascinating that many politicians try to cleanse their own souls by accusing others of their own transgressions … and I’m not just painting liberals with this sin … many conservatives have also been culpable. 

And so it is with Hugo Chavez.  His sins since grabbing power in Venezuela in 1998 have been rife … from corruption … to drug trafficking … to kidnapping … to anti-semitism … to despotism … even to murder … see: Curacao Chronicle.

Now Hugo Chavez appears to be on his deathbed in Cuba … and when he does succumb, I’m sure that there will be much donning of sackcloth and gnashing of teeth among the liberal glitterati of this country (Sean Penn, for example).  However, when this happens, I fully expect a fissure to open up in the earth somewhere near Havana … belching fire and the actual smell of sulfur … and Hugo baby being escorted, under the blare of out-of-tune trumpets, down to his fiery residence for all of eternity.   (Hopefully in tandem with Fidel Castro?)

Eating One’s Youngin’s

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has decided to eat some Republican youngin’s … at least figuratively.  He has blasted both barrels at John Boehner for not acting post haste and passing the $60 billion Sandy hurricane disaster relief bill that a generous Senate sent to the House last week … see: Washington Post Story

I think that trencherman Christie has grabbed his knife and fork a little too quickly in this case.  This Senate bill is chock-a-block full of unrelated pork (as emergency bills too often are) … and only about $9 billion of this money is really required for emergency relief.  The rest is open for debate … which is precisely what Boehner intended to do.  So now we see that fiscal-conservative Christie is really a RINO big-spender at heart … particularly when the money is coming from the other 49 states. 

Yes, disasters are a little special and this country has slipped into a modus operandi where the federal government makes everyone whole in such cases.  This really is our government assuming the role of a disaster insurance company that extracts no premiums from its clients.  In fact why would anyone buy flood or hurricane insurance when the Feds are just itching to give you money in such cases?  (Full disclosure … I too have received such unexpected largess). 

There really needs to be a set of rational and hard-and-fast rules established to deal with such disasters ... in order to keep our country from really falling off the fiscal cliff.  Or is this too much to ask of our self-serving lazy legislators and our ever-expansive Administration?

New Year’s Resolutions

1)      I’ve decided to stop calling President Obama “The Barry” … like we call Donald Trump, “The Donald.”  This is clearly a disrespecting appellative.  From now on, I occasionally might call Obama “His Royal Highness.”
2)      I will offer to drive any EBT card holders who have “lost” their EBT card to the Massachusetts state center to receive a new EBT card … as many times as are required (but no more than five times a month per holder).
3)     I will not “fudge” on my tax returns this year as I herein resolve to help His Royal Highness pay for his many lavish vacations, White House celebrations, and golf outings..
4)     I mean to keep my non-conforming political thoughts to myself … and only those discontents who read this blog.  At parties and other social gatherings I will echo the MSNBC talking points (especially Al Sharpton’s).
5)      I plan to lose 55 pounds by strictly following Michelle Obama’s diet regime = waygu beef, peacock tongues, and caviar (of course paid for by U.S. taxpayers.)
6)      I intend to install solar panels on my house’s roof and refuse any associated tax credits … and not laud it over my global-warming denier friends.  I also intend to exhale only half as much in order to reduce my carbon footprint.
7)      I will rent every Michael Moore DVD ever made and watch them over and over until I am converted fully to his warped way of thinking.
8)      I shall denounce my desire that the U.S. balance it’s fiscal accounts and will publicly revile anyone who does … feeling that our national debt is inconsequential at best.  This includes placing an iconic statuette of Little Timmy Geithner on my mantel.
9)       I no longer will watch anything on Fox News.
10)   I intend to start a "Hillary in 2016" political action committee.