Relative Things

An astrophysicist was speaking to a woman's club about the future of our sun and how, in about two billion years, it would become a red giant star and burn our Earth to a crisp. After his talk was finished a woman of a certain age frantically accosted him and asked him if he had said two million years or two billion years. He replied, "two billion years," to which she sighed and responded, "thank goodness!"

Which brings us to a similar news story about the Catalina Island off of California's shores near Los Angeles. Apparently this island is eventually going to sink under the ocean causing a tsunami which could wipe out L.A. ... but this could probably take up to three million years ... see: Breitbart Article.

I don't think that anyone other than the matron at that woman's club and Al Gore should be lying awake nights worrying about such a possibility.

Puddin Heads

At the request of a reader and fellow global-warming skeptic, I offer the following link to a survey that, although poorly written, shows the younger you are the less convinced you are about the alarmists' manifesto regarding climate change ... see: Watts Up With That.

Now I would like to believe that this is because our young'ens are keen thinkers and able to separate the truth from all this hysterical CO2 chaff being thrown at them daily ... but, in the same batch of e-mails, I also received the following video from another reader showing that the students at Texas Tech are about as puddin headed about important topics as kids in kindergarten ... see: Texas Tech Video. But, as you will also see, they are geniuses at pop culture.

This kind of depressing revelation about our young people (except for the global warming stuff) has been repeated over and over by the likes of Jay Leno, Bill O'Reilly, and Jimmy Fallon. Perhaps, just perhaps, we might consider asking that Civil War question as a requisite for voting in the next general election? Just a thought ...

Out of Whack

The mayor of Baltimore, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, caused possibly hundreds of millions of dollars of damage in her city two nights ago by pulling back her law enforcement officers because ...  get this please ...  because she feared that many of the rioters were high school students and she didn't want them to be injured ... see: Baltimore Sun Article. She decided to give them "space to destroy." Forget the fact that 15 of her police officers, who had been told to stand down, were hospitalized much due to this asinine decision on her part.

Yet, if any of these same students are found to have bullied anyone else in their high school, the wrath of Khan is visited upon their heads.

I don't want to besmirch all liberals by painting with such a broad brush, but such left-wing notions seem all too commonplace and suggests a denial of reality. May I conclude that the mayor's tilt was predictably out of whack?

The Money Spigot

The Clinton Foundation has a large list of benefactors ... 181 at latest estimate ... all that occurred during Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State ... many giving enormous amounts, including the Gates Foundation, the Walton Foundation and Coca Cola ... see: Vox Listing for all the donors to this smelly "slush fund." What was the purpose of all this largess ... it clearly can't all be "for the children?" And since it has been reported that only 6% of the hundreds of million dollars of money that the Clinton Foundation received actually went directly for charitable purposes (see: Breitbart Article), there is even a greater appearance of how this foundation was operating on the far ethical edge during Hillary's term in Foggy Bottom ... and most likely still is.

When President Eisenhower left office, he warned ... in his farewell address to Congress ... of the military/industrial complex, This clearly has been supplanted by the government administration/charitable foundation complex ... not as short and snappy a phrase ... but probably far more insidious.

Afterward: And for even more to add to the dishonor roll see these disclosures ... Washington Post Article.

Balti-less

Both the mayor and police chief of Baltimore, Maryland are black ... but this didn't mitigate the rioting that has occurred in this city after the funeral of Freddie Gray, a black youth who was killed in police custody last week ... see: UK Daily Mai Story. Even the feckless mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, handled similar rioting there better than did the mayor of Baltimore  ... who essentially gave the demonstrators there permission to riot and "space to destroy things." What was she thinking?

And so Baltimore has a black black eye ... and many businesses there will have to think twice about rebuilding and reopening.

The futility of such mayhem escapes me and most civilized people ... but apparently this Freddie Gray tragedy somehow gives license for feral behavior on the part of enough of the city's youths to besmirch this city for years to come. What a pity ...

The only real suggestion that I have is that there are enough cell-phone pictures and news coverage that dozens of rioters and looters can be identified and arrested. The justice system in Baltimore should be swift and tough on these miscreants. If the governance there were so inclined, perhaps ... just perhaps, this might assuage such future criminal behavior.

In the end, justice should be served ... else it will be subverted.

Afterward: There are some reasonable law-abiding parents in Baltimore ... see:ABC News Video. Good for her!

After Afterward: And here is a picture of the good Baltimore citizens lining up to protect their police force:

From reddit

Mega-Grifters

Leaders of the Clinton Foundation

I'm at a loss as to how the Bush's can be so friendly to these bunco artists.

Missiah Complex

What is it about politicians with their enormous egos ... believing that they can change the beliefs of millions with a wave of their grubby little hands? Hillary Clinton now is preaching, in her own inimitable screechy way, that the world's religions need to change their views on "reproductive health care" (the liberal vernacular for abortion) ... see: Daily Caller Article. Does her pontification also apply to Muslims?

Perhaps if Hillary could just take a few small steps ... walking on water?

Save Nepal ...

Before and after ... fom reddit ...

... after its massive earthquake ... see: New York Times Recounting.

Keep out the Clinton Foundation!

reddit Gallery CCCI

Another excursion into the world of reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Do yourself a favor and click on pictures to enlarge them. Enjoy!

Recent Chilian Volcano

Unlikely Friends

Tahitian Black Pearls

Barreleye withy Transparent Head.

Yosemite

Coffin Nails

President Obama is apparently continuing to lose weight ... he has developed that Shakespearean  "lean and hungry look" ... see: Yahoo News Picture. When I first saw this picture I immediately speculated to myself that his smoking of cigarettes or even his possible cocaine use are the cause ... but then I read the comments on this Yahoo piece and was surprised to see AIDS repeatedly mentioned. Peruse these comments yourself for some disturbing speculations.

But, believing that I am a grounded person (no snickering, please), I do think that coffin nails are the probable culprit for our overly-lean POTUS.

I write the following paragraph with some trepidation ... however, I did noticed the name of Larry Sinclair in these comments ... and Googling his name came up with the following detailed documentation  ... just a bit unnerving ... see: WND Article. One might suppose that these rumors of Obama's supposed gay lifestyle have been so completely suppressed (this was my first whiff of same) that this could well hint at something deeper lurking there. I suppose we will have to wait many years to know the truth.

Afterward: Yet Hillary's attack dog, James Carville can attack with impunity the "Clinton Cash" author, Peter Schweizer as an "anti-Disney, gay bike bar Glenn Beck" (see: Breitbart Video) ... whatever that means.

Hit Pieces

First the New York Times ... see: New York Times Story, then the New York Magazine ... see: New York Magazine ... have written hit pieces on the Clinton's ... with the obvious intent of submarining Hillary's chances of being the Democrat candidate for president in 2016. There can be only a few motivations for such chicanery; either they are concerned that Hillary has so much smelly baggage that will come out during the actual campaign and cause a Republican to win the White House ... or they (read the Obama administration) would prefer a different candidate heading up the Democrat ticket ... say Elizabeth Warren. There is actually a third, far less likely motivation ... and that is to air these scandals early enough so that, come next year, they can be called "old news," But the current coverage is so vitriolic that this option seems far fetched.

If this controlling Democrat inner-circle gets its way and Elizabeth Warren eventually gets the nod, will they then be able to cover up her scandals too? Or perhaps the Clinton campaign might beat them to the punch?

Updated Communist Manifesto

Vladimir Lenin

The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them."

Vladimir Putin

"The United States will sell us the uranium with which we will annihilate them."

(Thank you ... Bill and Hillary Clinton ... see: New York Times Story.)...

Petrobras

There's an awful lot of oil in Brazil ...  and an awful lot of scandal. Petrobras, that huge Brazilian oil company, has just been exposed as chock-a-block full of cronyism and corruption ... all mostly tied to the current government there ... read the details here: Bloomberg Story. However, after reading most of the sordid bribery and kickback details of this clearly criminal enterprise, note that there is one key detail that was not mentioned ... and that was that President Obama, in an unprecedented move,took an executive action to lend Petrobras and Brazil  2+ billion dollars in 2009 to develop its offshore oil resources.

To me, this transaction was quite unusual and suspicious when it was announced ... see: Wall Street Journal Article ... but has largely gone unnoticed and un-commented-on since it occurred. Even the Bloomberg article referenced above does not cite this Obama commitment. This pledge then seemed very odd to me in that Obama had a well-documented aversion to carbon-based sources of energy.

Humm ... I wonder if the Clinton Foundation received any significant donations from Brazil or Petrobras around the time of this Obama largess? Hopefully that new exposé book, Clinton Cash, will shed some light on this possibility.

Afterward: For another wrinkle on this Obama deal read this later article in: Forbes Magazine.

After Afterward: And now a Clinton Foundation connection ... see: Wall Street Journal Article. Since this WSJ article is behind a paywall, I include a key quote from it here:

OAS has been in the news because it is caught up in a corruption scandal centered on Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras. In November Brazilian police arrested three top OAS executives for their alleged roles in a bribery scheme involving inflated contracts and kickbacks. OAS denies the allegations. Closer to home the 2013 OAS donation to the Clinton Foundation deserves attention because of the power that Bill Clinton has in Haiti, where OAS has been awarded IDB contracts.

Rules of Engagement

President Obama once played the me-too game in Afghanistan. After he took office, he said that Afghanistan was the "good war." Then after months and months of feckless indecision, our fearful leader sent a "surge" of troops there but effectively disarmed them with very constrictive rules of engagement. As a consequence, these additional 30,000 troops ... see: New York Times Story ... became targets of Islamic (read Taliban) green-on-blue assassins who killed hundreds of unsuspecting American and allied troops  ... including one general. All in all, during this puny presidential pugilistic posing, the United States lost over 1,100 troops with another 15,000 or so wounded ... see: Antiwar Blog ... many more than under President Bush's war there  ... with essentially no progress to show for all this sacrifice..

And of course we all remember when Obama drew a red line with Syria over its use of chemical weapons ... which he promptly forgot when challenged. Now, President Obama is again flexing his military flab ... sending an aircraft carrier and flotilla of naval ships to intercept the Iranian navy  escorting a suspected shipment of arms to the Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen ... see: Fox News Story. But wait! Now it seems that our fearful leader has once again got cold feet and is now saying that this show of American naval power is there just to insure "freedom of navigation." Am I to suppose that his new constrictive rules of engagement for the U.S. Navy there might be to help the Iranians offload their weapons cargoes.

What's the term Rush Limbaugh often uses? Our fearful leader seems to have a "linguine spine?"

Barf!

The Boston Marathon

To recognize that today is the 119th running of the Boston Marathon, I offer the following attempt at humor. This piece was originally published in my blog Purple Prose almost five years ago and has received mixed reviews ... some find it very funny ... some are offended. I apologize to any of you who are offended, but please note that, in the end, Rosie is honored for her courage.

(stock photo)

Rosie Dispozishen laced and re-laced her sneaker as she edged closer to the starting line of the 53rd Boston Marathon. At this time, the departure point of this increasingly-famous race was not a very big berg ... only about 4,000 souls. However, on Patriots’ Day every Spring, it more than doubled in size as runners from around the world assemble there for this great grandmother of all long-distance races.

Rosie knew that she was in for a tough race. She had competed against all of her low-number rivals at least once before and fully realized that they had the tremendous edge ... they all had two legs. Not that one leg hadn’t served Rosie well in the past. She and her two-legged partner, Butch Dykstra, had won almost every three-legged race in the country. She also did extremely well in foot races as opposed to feet races. But two legs just always seemed to work out better in a marathon, and Rosie knew that her work was cut out for her. So she sidled up to the starting line by leaning on, and then elbowing out of the way anyone who showed her the slightest sympathy. By the time the gun sounded, a beaming Rosie was leaning on her crutches in the front row of runners, somewhat incongruous with her four-digit seeding number pinned to her chest.

The race was on! Rosie quickly dropped her crutches and bounced along on one leg for about a mile before she could go no further in that mode. Then she plopped to the ground and started rolling. Since all the other runners had, by this time, passed her by; this was not the hazard it otherwise might have been. Other than making her extremely dizzy, this method of propulsion was relatively untaxing for Rosie. She had progressed for about another half mile this way before she rolled onto her rump and, putting her arms behind her, began to crab walk. However, her vertigo was, by then, so advanced that she waddled around in circles for a full five minutes before she was back on the bee-line toward Boston (where the race winner was just then crossing the finish line).

So it went for Rosie, alternatively springing forward on one leg, then rotating her torso, and then crab walking. By night fall she had reached Framingham and had acquired a police escort lest she be run over in the dark during her supine or prone race phases. And by early the next morning, a scratched and bruised Rosie was bouncing her way through Wellesley, almost unnoticed by the college coeds on their way to class. Then, she delayed rush-hour traffic in Newton for about two hours as she tried to revolve her way up Heartbreak Hill ... but kept rolling back down. Finally, around eleven PM that night, almost 36 hours after she had crossed the starting line, a thoroughly battered and humbled Rosie finished her most grueling marathon. However, by then she had been noticed by the press and the public. She was said by many to have had more courage than even Amelia Earhart.

And so to honor her one-legged spunk, the small town at the start of this great race rechristened itself as “Hopkinton.”

© Copyright   George W. Potts

A Good Walk Spoiled

A Japanese Golf Course

I better be careful here for my son is a golf aficionado and I myself have played a few rounds in my salad days. But Mark Twain was on to something when he called this links game "a good walk spoiled." I guess I didn't mind President Eisenhower playing so much golf as he seemed to get his other work done. But for some strange reason President Obama's obsession with golf gets under my skin. And President Clinton's constant use of Mulligans while on the golf course bothered my sense of fair play ... as did the man himself.

Now the Chinese leadership seems to feel the same way about golf as they do about prostitution, gambling, bribery, drugs and gluttony. Dozens of golf courses have been shut down for excessive use of natural resources ... and government officials in one province have had restrictions placed on their playing times. Golf is increasingly viewed as a "capitalist pastime" (shh ... don't tell Obama) ... see: CNBC Story.

The General Secretary of the Communist Party, Xi Jinping, seems to be behind much of this crackdown ... as he is against the other mentioned excesses in China ... even having some government officials executed for corruption. I don't know but I  have a sense that golf handicaps can be much better trusted in Beijing.

Left Hook

I can't let this news squib go by without comment ... the prostitutes at the Bunny Ranch, a legal brothel outside of Las Vegas, have come out, en masse, in favor of Hillary Clinton for president. Isn't that special! Now, if she could just enlist the Mexican drug cartels and the offshore gambling hucksters in her campaign, she would have a sin sinecure.

I wonder what convinced these slatterns to support Hillary? Perhaps to get Bill's attention?

Animal Wrongs

Animal-rights activists recently brawled with circus clowns and employees at the Ramos Bros. Circus in San Bernadino, California ... splitting the lip of the ringmaster ... see: NBC Los Angelo's Video. It seems that the activists engaging in such a violent confrontation must have forgotten that humans are also animals. Isn't this a tad ironic and a mite hypocritical?

reddit Gallery CCC

Another excursion into the world of reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Do yourself a favor and click on pictures to enlarge them. Enjoy!

Large Carbon Footprint

Frog Stack

A Rainbow Lonkeet

Sky Tug

1930;s Vision of the Future

Amazons

Amazon Warrior

That truth-teller nonpareil, Harry Reid, recently claimed that women are more patient and less inclined to wage war than men ... see: Breitbart Video. Is he trying to give Hillary Clinton's sagging campaign a boost?

Let me see ... there actually have been very few recent prominent female heads of state ... Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi and Margaret Thatcher come immediately to mind. Have they been doves?

A short series of Google searches yields:

Golda Meir -- server as Prime Minister during Israel's Yom Kippur war

Margaret Thatcher -- served as Great Britain's Prime Minister during the Falkland Islands war with Argentina

Indira Gandhi - as Prime Minister of India, started the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971

And weren't all those infamous ancient warriors, the Amazons, women?

And a rubber exercise band snappied causing Reid's extensive facial and body injuries too ...

Afterward: I forgot Angela Merkel of Germany ... so far, she is holding up Harry's hypothesis ... to Putin's eternal pleasure.

Cheese

The only analogy I can conger up for Hillary Clinton's campaign for president is cheese. Her ghost-written book, Hard Choices, was Swiss cheese ... full of holes ... devoid of a recital of her accomplishments in government ... and also lacking a clear vision for what she wanted to do in the White House. Her book tour was equally cheesy ... so controlled as to make her look the fool. Her defense of her private e-mail server in that U.N. press conference was again lacking in substance and class ... Cheese Whiz if you will. And now her campaign announcement and listening-tour of Iowa in the black van "Scooby " was so hokey and degrading that it stank to high heaven ... like Limburger cheese ... see: Breitbart Article.

Now our queen in pants-suits has performed a clear act of rebellion ...  she has bolted from this Iowa and Nebraska fiasco and returned to her home in Chappaqua, New York as a coach passenger on a commercial jet ... a very strange and obviously unplanned move ... see: UK Daily Mail Story. This performance must be an expression of her anger and frustration at the poor press she has been receiving in her rennet-coagulated cream campaign so far.

My senses tell me that one of two things will happen next. She will likely fire her new 35-year old campaign manager, Robert Mook ... see: Mother Jones Story ... or gasp! ... she might even throw in the towel completely and return to private life. Wouldn't that be a fond surprise in the cheese fondue?

The Clinton Fog Machine

The nonprofit Clinton Foundation has set new records for charitable sleaziness and contributor opaqueness. Even that Pravda spin-off, the Boston Globe, cannot help but point out some of the miasma arising from this Clinton political swamp ... see: Boston Globe Article. Here are two key quotes from this article:

While Hillary Rodham Clinton was secretary of state, foreign donations sharply accelerated to this arm of her husband's charitable works, enabling its operations to grow by 75 percent from 2010 to 2013, according to tax forms reviewed by the Globe. Government grants, nearly all from foreign countries doubled to $55,9 million in 2013 from $26.7 million in 2010, according to the records.

and:

Yet, a lack of promised transparency at Clinton’s health charity generated a recent round of negative  news. The Clinton Health Access Initiative failed to disclose its donors from 2010 to 2013, violating an agreement Hillary Clinton forged with President Obama as a condition of becoming secretary of state, an omission first reported by Reuters. The foundation on Feb. 6 released an incomplete list of contributors that provides general ranges of support, but lacks specific dates and doesn’t reveal the identities of individuals who collectively contributed less than $1 million.

Of course the numbers from 2014 and 2015 are still being obscured by the Clinton fog machine. Does this not all reek of the "Clinton way?" Reading between the lines of this article also tells me that this organization is instrumental in keeping the Clinton posse well compensated and ready to do battle in Hillary's campaign for president. Oh yes, and they do have many meetings around the world discussing health-care issues ... one can host a whole bunch of discussions for $56 million a year in just government donations.

But who can really keep track of money and people sloshing back and forth between these two organizations? Certainly not the Obama administration's IRS nor the Unite States' voters ...

Paper or Plastic?

Last night at our local Town Meeting we were asked to vote to prohibit the use of single-use plastic bags at retail establishments. The preachy presentation in favor of this ukase, like is often the case for liberal causes, played on our emotions ... showing pictures of plastic bags littering fields, huge amounts of plastic flotsam in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and animals damaged by ingesting plastic. They also had a well-meaning high school student imploring us to do the right thing ... and pointed to California, the European Union, and Brookline/Cambridge, Massachusetts as examples of places which have already passed this eco-stricture.

This hand-wringing should have been enough to seal my negative vote (how are plastic bags from Natick, Massachusetts going to find their way to the middle of the Pacific Ocean?), but then I started thinking about the downsides of our now re-paving of the road to hell. What about all those plastic bags used to hold items in the grocery store produce section? What about the plastic bags used to keep our newspapers dry on our front lawn? What about Ziploc bags? What about the plastic bags covering our dry cleaning? What about all those nicely-scented plastic garbage bags? What about all those plastic leaf bags in the Fall? What about those heavy-duty plastic contractors' bags? What about the plastic bags used to line our waste baskets (often the very bags that are being vilified in this proposal)? What about the plastic bags to pick up dog doo (ditto)? What about plastic bags used to collect household detritus (ditto)? Will I be now forced to buy plastic bags to use for those things that I now re-use these plastic grocery store bags for?

Already many grocery stores in our area have mechanisms for recycling these "single use" plastic bags. Already there are many tree-huggers in Massachusetts (my wife included) who use the now ubiquitous multi-use shopping bags (to me, unsanitary). And Natick already has a outstanding curbside recycling program that, theoretically, disposes of much of our plastic waste.

And we know that, if such plastic bags are banned, the next step will be the paper bags. (Readers, I'll leave my railing against this proposal for next time.)

Coward that I am, I left this Town Meeting before all my liberal neighbors could see me voting against this nonsense. However, this AM, I read that this proposal was tabled for further study ... hooray! (at least for the nonce.)

Skirmish on Women

Carly Fiorina is making noises like she is going to run for president under the Republican banner. She has been taking pot shots at Hillary Clinton for her lack of accomplishment as Secretary of State. In many ways this is easier for her to do than any male Republican since Hillary plays the victim with Oscar-winning aplomb.

In retaliation, the Clinton campaign has put out talking points questioning Ms. Fiorina's metrics as a politician and when she was the CEO of Heweitt Packard from 1999  through 2005 ... see: Real Clear Politics Video? Every time I have seen Ms. Fiorina interviewed on television (even on Fox), she has had to answer attacks along this same set of tracks.

One question ... are the Democrats now indulging in a war ... or even just a skirmish ... on women?

Juxtaposition LVI

Iranian Ayatollah

Big Brother

Animal House

The Alpha Delta (AD) fraternity at Dartmouth has been derecognized by the college. For you of an age, AD was the fraternity which was the prototype for that very popular and raucous American movie "Animal House" back in 1978, This administration action was because of some hazing incidents that occurred there last fall and, by the tone of the indictment letter, it seems unlikely this fraternity will be reinstated ... see: Dartblog Story.

And if I were Dartmouth College, I would not be participating in any festive parades anytime soon.

Tax and Spend

The Democrats are nothing if not consistent. It seems that, in the first half of fiscal 2015, the Obama administration kept true to form ... taxing its peons to the hilt while still spending $430 billion more than it took in (which we will now go hat in hand to the Chinese for) ... running up a bigger deficit than this same period last year ... to the tune of an additional $17 billion ... see: CNS News Story. This is all as reported by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Seems to me I recall that President Obama was bragging not too long ago about how his economic policies were continuing to put our nation on a firmer financial footing. But at this rate the United States will accumulate a national debt of over $20 trillion before our fearless leader leaves office. It has been estimated the a national debt of $25 trillion would be so large that it would suicidal. Kinda like the United States of Greece.

Are you worried?  I am ...

Cops

"Whatcha goina do when they come for you?"

In the past, I have watched many episodes of "Cops" on reality television and realize the stress and dangers faced by our police every day. Just so far this year at least 36 cops have died in the line of duty ... see: Officer Down Memorial Page.

The police are like any other segment of society ... full of heroes and knaves. Obviously that North Charleston cop is a knave and deserves the full weight of the his punishment. That Ferguson cop was characterized as a knave by a bunch of knaves. And I'm a little conflicted by those Staten Island constabularies. They clearly used far too much force for such a petty crime. However, I suspect that Eric Garner was also probably too fragile health-wise to be in such a tussle.

The obvious lesson to be drawn from all this cop-baiting rhetoric is that, if a law-enforcement officer asks you to comply with an order ... even if he is wrong ... do it. If you chose not to comply, you really are playing with fire. There are numerous remedies to be invoked later on if your rights have been abused.

Just call Al Sharpton, Bill de Blasio or Eric Holder.

Strange

What a cool and strangely impersonal way to tell the American people that you are running for president ... with an adviser's e-mail and a 2-minute video released on social media ... see: New York Times Story. Perhaps Hillary Clinton is trying to tell the younger voters that she is still hip ... but, at the same time, using electronics to keep her distance from any embarrassing questions ... even from her adoring media.

The only analogy that I can come up with is to compare this Clinton announcement with a couple exchanging their wedding vows using Skype. Am I the only one finding this venue strangely detached and hinting of hubris?

In the Hole!

Watching the Masters Golf Tournament today, I am again reminded how annoyed I get by those dunderheads in the crowd who are constantly shouting, "In the hole!" after every putt or short drive by the front-runners ... sometimes, even after their drives on par 4 holes. How utterly stupid! It's as though such post-shot encouragements might make a real difference in the trajectory of the shot or putt.

This inanity is equivalent to such dweebs parking on the line between two parking spaces or zipping down the breakdown lane during traffic tie-ups. Interestingly enough, I don't think I have ever heard a female make such a horse's ass out of herself. Perhaps polite decorum is built into the female psyche? Whereas grandstanding must come with almost every set of testicles?

Plastic Surgery

Chelsea Clinton has made the big time ... as she is now on the cover of Elle magazine ... see: Elle Magazine Story. Not only is this write-up an obvious puff piece ... trying to prepare her for some future political role for which her parents have ambitions ... but, to me, it sure looks like Bill and Hillary's daughter is more attractive than she has been in previous pics. Is this a bit of Photoshopping on Elle's part ... or has Chelsea had a few sessions with a plastic surgeon?

Which brings me to the real reason for this blog posting ... nothing is really what it is made to appear anymore. Almost everything is being media manipulated to look like something it really ain't. Viz:

- Senator Harry Reid's story about his facial injuries clearly does not fit the facts.

- The framework of an Iranian nuclear agreement is mostly smoke and mirrors ... as each side of this faux pact is describing it with totally different codicils.

- The brouhaha over Hillary Clinton's destroyed e-mails seems to have media partisans painting two entirely different landscapes.

- Senator Robert Menendez's corruption indictment is possibly justified ... but smells of the political swamp that is Washington.

- The Clinton Foundation is slowly being revealed as a ersatz eleemosynary institution created as a front for a Clinton super-PAC collecting illegal foreign money with the implicit promise of future influence in the White House.

- Even Olympic decathlon champion, Bruce Jenner, is slowly morphing into a woman ... an ugly one at that ... with the help of the nip and tuckers.

And there are many more examples than I can possibly mention here. Why has the American public gotten so jaundiced to these make-overs? Has television fakery, computer games, and movie special effects so blurred the line between reality and fantasy that standards of truth have totally disappeared?

To this blogger, it appears so ...

reddit Gallery CCXCIX -- Obama Album

Another excursion into the world of reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Do yourself a favor and click on pictures to enlarge them. Enjoy!

Baroque Obama

With Putin

With Grandfather

Sitting for Portrait

Killoy

With Mother

Obama's Motto

It really makes no difference what you do ... as long as you look good doing it.

Afterward: Or to put it another way ... see: Breitbart Story.

Freeman Dyson

Do me a big favor ... take twenty minutes out of your day to watch the following video of an interview with Freeman Dyson, that brilliant Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. His specialty is Physics and Mathematics and in this interview he discusses carbon dioxide and global warming. (He is not a full-throated denier.) If you watch this interview with an open mind, you just might become a bit of a sceptic concerning the current climate-change hysteria  ... see: Vancouver Sun Interview.