Rewarding Bad Behavior

When governments reward bad behavior ... they get more bad behavior ... this is the cold hard reality of life. Germany and the European Union are relearning this ages-old lesson as a result of the crisis in Greece where this country had been propped up by it neighbors as it went on a multi-year spree of excessive pensions and tax cheating ... with the natural result of digging itself into a financial hole from which there is no logical outcome except default ... see: Boomberg Story. This same scenerio is being repeated here in the United States as Puerto Rico is also teetering on the brink of bankruptcy ... see: New York Times Story. And let us not forget Detroit.

How is it that we keep forgetting this well-defined lesson? The parameters of fiscal responsibility are so obvious that ignoring them cannot be accidental. Political poltroons have to know that they are laying land mines for their predecessors when they offer multiple freebies to voters in order to get elected ... yet they continue to exhibit this bad behavior ... usually without consequences to themselves. And this is the rub. There is no claw-back for such fiscal irresponsibility ... and there should be. Perhaps, whenever a political entity goes bankrupt, all the previously responsible politicians (and their heirs) who caused this catastrophe should lose all their government-acquired assets, pensions and any other government perks that they still enjoy.

Is this so difficult?

Afterward: And now a prediction from the Ghost of the Christmas Future: Washington Examiner Story.

Bro

Best Man

Malik Obama, Barack's half brother isn't the most complementary of his part-sibling. He recently said that the president is a ...

"schemer. He’s not been an honest man . . . in who he is and what he says and how he treats people."

Not that Malik himself is a paragon of virtue. He recently sold a letter from his half-brother, along with an annotated editor's copy of the president's first book for apparently big bucks ... see: New York Post Story. Malik Obama, the Kenyan-born son of Barack's father and a different mother,  is also the international finance minister of the Muslim Brotherhood ... see: WND Article. Can we ever have the scales fall from our eyes about such blood-connections, Bro?

reddit Gallery CCCXII -- More Oddities

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

1000 Dollar Bills

Cyclist's Legs after Tour de France

Uranium Glass

Donkey

400 million year old Trilobite

Ride 'em Cowboy

reddit Gallery CCCXI

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!

Uluru Waterfalls, Australia.

Soap Bubble Surface

Biker Hearse

Cat on a Lap

Mirror Lake

Anything Goes

Cole Porter was on to something when he wrote this song about changing morality in 1934 ... only his laments in this ditty seem so tame by today’s standards:

Times have changed And we've often rewound the clock Since the Puritans got a shock When they landed on Plymouth Rock. If today Any shock they should try to stem 'Stead of landing on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock would land on them.

In olden days, a glimpse of stocking  Was looked on as something shocking.  But now, God knows, (now sung as “heaven knows”) Anything goes.  Good authors too who once knew better words  Now only use four-letter words  Writing prose.  Anything goes.  If driving fast cars you like,  If low bars you like,  If old hymns you like,  If bare limbs you like,  If Mae West you like,  Or me undressed you like,  Why, nobody will oppose.  When ev'ry night the set that's smart is in- Truding in nudist parties in Studios. Anything goes. 

When Missus Ned McLean (God bless her)   (see: Wiki Entry) Can get Russian reds to "yes" her,  Then I suppose  Anything goes.  When Rockefeller still can hoard en-  Ough money to let Max Gordon  Produce his shows,  Anything goes.  The world has gone mad today  And good's bad today,  And black's white today,  And day's night today,  And that gent today  You gave a cent today  Once had several chateaux.  When folks who still can ride in jitneys  Find out Vanderbilts and Whitneys  Lack baby clo'es,  Anything goes.  

If Sam Goldwyn can with great conviction  Instruct Anna Sten in diction,  (see: Wiki Entry) Then Anna shows  Anything goes.  When you hear that Lady Mendl standing up  Now turns a handspring landing up-  On her toes, (see: Wiki Entry) Anything goes.  Just think of those shocks you've got  And those knocks you've got  And those blues you've got  From that news you've got  And those pains you've got  (If any brains you've got)  From those little radios.  So Missus R., with all her trimmin's, (R = Roosevelt) Can broadcast a bed from Simmons  'Cause Franklin knows  Anything goes.

Actually, Joe Keenan did update these lyrics a few years back ... see: Studio 360 Entry. But even this attempt at modernity still seems a little lame ... perhaps the pace of our decay is now exponential?

Afterward: I seem to remember that one stanza in this song ends with "silly gigoloes" ...

Obama Fatigue

I am in a bit of a funk over the Obama administration's two recent victories ... obtaining fast track trade authority from the Senate (the precursor to greater power for it to pursue its world government agenda) and its SCOTUS victory permitting Obamacare subsidies for states not providing health-care exchanges. This fatigue is exacerbated by the vindictive war on our South by this administration and the national media.

President Obama obviously has a great many scalps hanging from his belt ... particularly considering his obvious incompetence and indifference to popular opinion. He has lived a bit of a charmed life ... hopping from ice floe to ice floe ahead of the pursuing racist hounds (yes, Sheldon, this is sarcasm.)

To add to my ennui, the Supreme Court has just legalized same-sex marriage. Once again I am on the wrong side of history. I guess the millennials (that group who can't name our vice president) now totally rule.

Iconoclasts

Now that the Confederate flag has been banished from our national psyche, is it time for other icons of America's checkered past also to be eradicated? Ashleigh Banfield, a lightweight anchor at CNN, has just suggested the the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC might not be a fitting tribute to our third president who owned slaves ... see: LA Times Article. In the current liberal frenzy to erase our past, I'm reasonably certain that such idiocy may soon be seriously considered.

And as long as we are expunging all traces of slavery's history, can we now force William Jefferson Clinton to change his middle name?

U.S.--S.R.

I understand that ridicule is the way that the left gets away with suppressing criticism, but I am old enough not really to care about such tripe. So when I see that Judicial Watch has uncovered close ties between Valarie Jarrett's family and the Communist Party in the United States, I feel I must pass on this information.

Valarie Jarrett has been called the "Shadow President" for the impressive influence she wields at the White House. In fact there are some who think that she issued the "stand down" order during the attack on the Benghazi consulate ... when President Obama was somehow otherwise indisposed.

This woman was born of ultra-lefty parents in Iran and is a big proponent of the Muslim Brotherhood ... despite all the Middle-East mayhem this fanatical Islamic group has caused. She is also claimed to be the connection to that convicted Chicago felon, Tony Rezko, and the Obama's (read the sleazy details here: WND Story) and may well have been the real power behind Obama's meteoric political rise.

I think we still have yet to learn all the sordid details behind this modern-day Hedda Gabler ... but here are a few new juicy tidbits ... see: Judicial Watch Revelations.

reddut Gallery CCCX

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!

A Stile in Sweden

African Sunset

Apollo Metalmark Butterfly

Argentinian Glacier

Devil's Tower

Sapient Window

I have previously coined the term "sapient window" when discussing the possibility of communicating with life elsewhere in our universe ... see: Cosmic Silence. This term is meant to define the period when life on a planet has progressed far enough scientifically to understand its uniqueness in the continuum of space and time. In other words, without superstition, being able to define enough of the essential realities of the universe to fathom that there is other life elsewhere out there ... is the essence of a sapient window.

It is difficult to say when the sapient window opened here on Earth, but a good guess would be with the publication of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity in 1916. Thus our sapient window seems at most to be about 100 years old. This is a vanishing small percentage of our Earth's 1.3 billion years of age which is about 10% of the age of our universe. The more difficult task is estimating how long our sapient window will remain open ... may I be optimistic and propose another 10,000 years? (I think Charles Krauthammer is more pessimistic in the article above-referenced.) What will cause this window to close is anyone's guess ... a pandemic, a natural disaster, another Dark Age, self-annulation, etc.

Even with this, the Earth's sapient window would still be but a snap of the fingers compared to the age of our planet ... and just a blink of the eye relative to the age of the universe ... as, I assume, it would be for other exo-planets.Therefore, assuming a meaningful concurrence of the sapient windows between any of the billions of possible life-supporting exo-planets is a bit of a stretch ... even ignoring the unfathomable distances involved.

The Stars and Bars

The confederate flag has passed from being a symbol of pride for the many sacrifices made by the South in the Civil War into being an avatar of Republican racism ... all because that evil murderer Dylann Roof used it in some of his racist posts on his website. Never mind that Senator Fritz Hollings (D) once caused the stars and bars initially to fly above the South Carolina capital or that Governor Bill Clinton (D) did the same in Arkansas. It seems that our current president and the South-hating liberal media has finally drummed into the minds of our forever distracted public that this symbol ... as well as the anthem of the Confederacy, Dixie .    are evil and need disposing of ... as well they probably will.

Now for some important (and apparently forgotten) historical context ... after General Ulysses S. Grant accepted General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Virginia ending our bloody Civil War ... wherein he allowed the Confederate soldiers to keep their uniforms, side arms and flags and instructed them just to go back to their homes ... General Grant, in a gesture of reconciliation, had the Union band strike up Dixie as General Lee was leaving the courthouse and his soldiers were disbanding. Thus we see the stark contrast between political greatness and historically-blind puerile pandering.

The Trigger?

I have pointed out in the past as to how the Shanghai stock market has been quite frothy of late and might presage a general collapse of world bourses like what happened in 2008 ... see: The Next Bubble. Now this Chinese stock market has declined 15.2% in the last five trading days ... see the chart below:

To me this may be a disconcerting trigger to corrections in similar markets around the world ... particularly if this swoon continues in Shanghai for the rest of this week. I haven't yet liquidated my investments ... but I am sorely tempted.

The Pope's Hot Potato

On Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, DC claimed that Pope Francis was merely trying to start a debate or a dialog on global warming with his recent Encyclical. However, it appears that, at his recent climate summit at the Vatican, global warming doubters were not invited ... see: Washington Post Story.

So much for opening a dialog on this political hot potato.

reddit Problems

It is getting increasingly difficult to find interesting images of a quality deserving to be included in my reddit Gallery blog postings. Often I spend much frustrating time scanning the reddit/pics site and coming up with no suitable images to pass on to you readers. This is because the reddit site has become overpopulated with:

-        Last photos of beloved pets just before being euthanized

-        Banal landscape or sunset pictures taken with a smart-phone

-        Blurry or disoriented action pics taken with a GoPro

-        Pedestrian paintings/drawings by a girlfriend, uncle, etc.

-        Attempted reposing of family portraits taken years ago

-        Selfies taken with some B-movie actor

-        Railings (usually with the F-word) at some visual social slight

-        Many colorized historic snap shots

-        Lightning or aurora pics over some landmark

-        A visual parody of some other reddit posting

-        A boring travel-log of predictable pictures

-        Endless Comic-Con photos

-        Barista cream art on top of a latte

-        Albino animal pics

So, if there are fewer reddit Galllery posting in the future, you'll now know why.

Love Is All You Need

In a previous blog post I had expressed concerns about the possible dire consequences of the Charleston church shootings ... see: Snapped. Although President Obama's angry remarks were not specifically inciting, he did try to make political hay against the Second Amendment. And, so far, Al Sharpton has been pretty taciturn over this incident  Dylann Storm Roof, the white shooter, however has been caught and already plead guilty to trying to start a race war with his killing of nine black parishioners.

And how have the people of Charleston reacted to this act of terrorism? They have, for the most part, exhibited their Christian faith with love and forgiveness ... hear: CNN Audio ... in stark contrast to those in Ferguson and Baltimore. In a way this is a minor miracle ... one which may go a long way toward healing the racial divides that have been festering in this country after the election of our first black president. If this trend of gentle forgiveness in the face of evil continues, then there is still hope for an eventual reconciliation of our races.

Sideshow Freaks

Remember the bearded lady, the sword swallower, the human skeleton, the chicken-head-biting geek, etc. of yesterday's circus midway? Pretty much all of them are gone. Yet with this passing of carnivals, there still seems a fundamental need for people to view the weirder side of humanity ... the sideshow freaks.

Never fear, modern media has stepped into this vacuum with the likes of Kim Kardashian (Bubble-Butt Lady), Caitlyn Jenner (Half Man-Half Woman), and Rachel Dolezar (The Human Negative). I fully expect now to see over the next months and years a replacement repertoire of these old sideshow freaks resurrected though the phenomenon of our new media outlets. The only real difference is that these neo-freaks will live not on the edge of society as they once did ... but now near its center, making millions of dollars.

Afterward: See what I mean (from reddit):

 

Back-Door Firings

The culture of Japan is such that it is humiliating and therefore difficult to fire people. So the interesting solution there is to create a subsidiary and move all of a company's dead wood into this spin-off. Then, being that there is little to no talent there, this subsidiary invariably goes bankrupt and all of its employees find themselves out of work ... with these back-door firings. Problems solved ...

So this back-door solution may be also what NBC has found for Brian Williams ... transfer him to MSNBC as a working partner of Al Sharpton, Chris Matthews, and Special Ed Schultz ... and then let the devil take the hindquarters. MSNBC is now on life support with its ratings plummeting on a regular basis ... see: Politico Story. So when this network eventually sinks under the waves, Brian Williams and his fat multi-million dollar contract will be obviated in kind.

Pipe Dreams

Pope Francis has issued his Encyclical which endorses Al Gore's pipe dreams on global warming ... see:  New York Times Story ... among other liberal chimeras. I've decided to accept these Divinely-inspired scientific insights of the Pontiff ... just as soon as he decrees that Christ never really changed water into wine ... or that sacramental wine is not really the blood of Christ ... or that the idea of the virgin birth is apocryphal ...  or that Christ never really walked on water.

I'm waiting ...

And since Saints must perform at least one miracle before they are beatified, perhaps this Pope, in order to enter his heaven more easily, can solve all the problems he outlines in his Encyclical with a simple wave of his jewel-encrusted golden scepter ...

The $10 Bill

The United States has decided to replace or diminish Alexander Hamilton's visage on the $10 bill ... see: Breitbart Story. And since this a decision was made by the Obama administration, may I assume that this new replacement portrait will be of a liberal feminist? (Wouldn't that be special!) Assuming so, let us weigh some of the options:

- Susan Sarandon
- Jane Fonda
- Gloria Steinem,
- Rachel Maddow
- Hillary Clinton
- Sheila Jackson Lee
- Monica Lewinsky
- Michelle Obama
- Candy Crowley
- Rachel Dolezal
- Barbara Walters
- Barbara Boxer
- Oprah Winfrey

Enough already!

I know, I know ... the woman selected to replace (or diminish) Hamilton is supposed to be deceased.  However, since the replacement might not happen until 2020, it is certainly conceivable that, by then, one or more in the above list may no longer be vertical..

Afterward:

From Powerline Blog

Snapped

A white man in his early twenties clearly snapped yesterday ... going into a black church in Charleston, South Carolina last night and shooting and killing at least nine worshipers ... see: Washington Post Article. The suspect, as of this posting, is still at large, therefore the exact motivation for these murders is not clear ... although one must surmise that there is a large racial component to them.

Is this tragedy a tipping point in the seven-year deterioration of race relations in the United States? I surely hope not ... but I can clearly foresee the coming storm of protesters and pundits trying their very best to make it so ...  to include Al Sharpton and maybe even President Obama (if he behaves true to form). In contrast, the national media did very little to inflame people after the Fort Hood massacre ... with a larger number of victims. They know well how to perform their craft.

There must be a lesson to be learned here ... which I seriously doubt will be heeded. And that is that racing baiting for whatever purpose is evil ... and likely to cause great societal dislocation. The radical Muslims can stir the pot enough to get Major Nidal Hasan to attack innocent soldiers at Fort Hood ... just like a backlash to the incidents in Ferguson and Baltimore probably caused a clearly deranged man to kill innocent worshipers in Charleston.

I passionately decry what just occurred in Charleston and my heart bleeds for the victims ... but I also condemn those wild-eyed crazies who would take this tragedy as an opportunity to incite violence as an appropriate response ... and believe me I expect a large parcel of such miscreants.

No Trump

Multi-billionaire Donald Trump again announced for the presidency yesterday and threw some red meat to the assembled crowd ... saying for one thing that he would build a wall on our southern border and make Mexico pay for it!. The Donald certainly doesn't lack for ego ... and this is the major off-putting aspect of his personality ... see: Daily Mail Article and Video. Surely Trump might do, as president, many of the things that need doing ... reasserting America's place on the world stage ... restoring our infrastructure ... bringing the American fiscal budget more in balance ... getting our economy moving (even promising 4% annual GDP growth) ... and making this country great again.

And, after eight years of lackluster rule by his current doppelganger, the American voter might be ready for such an offbeat solution ... even radio host Howie Carr here in Boston is rooting for The Donald. However, I somehow feel that Trump is in this race more for the ride and is unlikely to move the masses of the voting public to his side. I could be wrong. I've been wrong before ... predicting Ronald Reagan had no chance. But, if Donald Trump is the Republican nominee ... despite his already trashing of some of his Republican opponents ... I strongly suspect that enough opposition research will come out on him as to sink the very slim chance that he might have. He has lived a very fast and loose life after all.

But then again so has Hillary

Juxtaposition LVII

Faux African American

Faux American Indian

Rachel Dolezal and Elizabeth Warren ... the price of our diversity mania ...

Rag Doll

A Democrat talking head on Fox News this Sunday said that the national media had had a "slobbering love affair" with Barack Obama in 2008 when he ran against Hillary Clinton ...  and surmised that they will now switch their allegiance to their former rag doll, Hillary. Can the majority of this nation's media decide who is going to run this country after the next election? Obviously they think they can. The mere fact that the New York Times believes that it can sink Marco Rubio's chances with a couple of trivial hit pieces over the last week confirms the hubris of this former media giant.

Dressed appropriately in a royal-blue pants suit, Queen Hillary has just had the third debut of her presidential campaign on Roosevelt Island in New York City ... complete with a no-fly zone over this venue. I must confess that I could not stomach watching this scripted stilted selfie ... but I can direct you to some critical commentary by the Daily Beast ... see: Welcome ... and the Powerline blog ... see:All Our Yesterdays. Yet dispute this newest roll-out of her campaign, Hillary is still hiding from the media hounds ... in a way playing coy with her eventual suitors ... knowing that the more she keeps the details of her campaign secret, the more she will get credit for her perspicacity when she finally reveals herself (after, of course, multiple opinion panels.)

Anyhow, I hope that we are now done with these stiff stagings (resets?) of her destiny campaign ... and we can finally get some tough question answered from this rags to riches Rodham Hood (not my invention but indicative of her promise to rob the rich ... not herself ... and give to the poor.)  By the way, has anyone even noticed and commented on the strange habit that Hillary has ... that old Soviet Union style reflex of applauding herself at her rallies?

More Things I Don’t Get

Why:

-        Didn’t Bill Gates build fail-safe security into his software?

-        Do playoff series most often last for the full contingent of games?

-        Is rap music so popular?

-        Can't Vladimir Putin afford a shirt?

-        Won’t Muslim Mosques perform gay weddings?

-        Does some artwork often sell for eight and nine figures?

-        Does the Catholic Church shield child molesters?

-        Won’t the American government protect its borders?

-        Do fools fall in love?

-        Does magnetism manifest itself as flux lines?

-        Is college so God-awful expensive (given the outcomes)?

Things I Don’t Get

Why:

-        Are cats always on the wrong side of a closed door?

-        Does “global warming” cause brutally cold winters?

-        Are politicians so often corrupt?

-        Don’t religions of the world reconcile themselves with science?

-        Does having sex with another man make you want to talk swishy?

-        Do movie stars and professional athletes use so many illicit drugs?

-        Is there and inverse relation with a restaurant’s serving size and its expense?

-        Are the Clintons so popular?

-        After all these years, is there still no cure for the common cold?

-        Do people expose so much of their lives on social media?

-        Would someone buy an all-electric car that only goes a hundred miles on a charge?

reddit Gallery CCCIX

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!

Bliss

Original Sesame Street Gang

Petri Dish Bacteria

Mosaic Fish Illusion

Labradorite

A McKinney Lesson?

There was a bit of a contretemps in McKinney, Texas recently when a group of black teenagers crashed a pool party and police were called after fighting broke out ... resulting in another cell-phone video that purports to show police brutality against minorities ... see: Breitbart News Story.

This incident reminds me of an experience that I had in my distant past that might offer a lesson to these put-upon teens in McKinney:

In the late 1950's I was getting a ride home from college for Christmas vacation with a few classmates when we were pulled over in Vermont for speeding. The policeman directed us to a nearby justice-of-the-peace where the driver was summarily found guilty and fined $50 (a lot of money in those days.) During this proceeding we were acting like a bunch of teenage wisenheimers ... faking our ability to raise this money ... and behaving like stupid teenagers. This was annoying the judge and the policeman ... much more than I was able to decipher.

After we had paid the fine and were leaving the judge's chamber, I placed my hand on the policeman's shoulder and tried to smooth things over by saying, "Merry Christmas anyway." To my shock, this gendarme turned on me, grabbing me by the shoulders and threw me against the wall, saying that I was under arrest for assault. It took about 30 seconds before, even after my plea for leniency since these event was right in front of the judge, I was fined another $50. Fortunately we were even able to raise this additional amount and were then on our way ... a much wiser bunch of callowed youths.

I am white by the way, yet I still wonder if these black McKinney teens will learn a similar life-lesson? Probably not ... since all the rabid race-baiters around our country are coming to the defense of these doofuses. Instead of humility, they probably will be encouraged toward even more hubris.

The Next Bubble

Everyone loves to speculate about the next stock market bubble. Will it be the bio-tech industry? Will Greece lead the Euro zone economy down the toilet? Will the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank kick the stilts out from under the market when it raises interest rates this autumn? I think I may have the answer ... the Shanghai stock market seems the next possible tsunami that washes over our world's financial markets.

Shanghai Composite Index

As can be seen from the above chart, the Shanghai bourse has soared up over 59% on a year-to date basis and, over the last year, it is up a very frothy 153%. It is now sitting on its high of 5147 (up 2.2% today alone) with a current price-earnings ratio (P/E) of 22.9 and zero yield. Very recently it did suffer a one-day swoon of over 5% when the Chinese authorities raised margin requirements on stock-trading accounts. It has since recovered all this drop and then some.

Why is this market so bubbly? Given the very high P/E ratio and zero yield one can only conclude that this stock market has become a casino for the nouveau riche of China. I have heard that many brokerage firms' trading areas resemble horse-racing betting parlors ... with traders throwing all caution to the wind when following the latest hot tout.

When this market crashes ... and it eventually will ... will this affect other world stock markets? One can only speculate on this outcome ... but the U.S. stock-market crash of 1929 certainly did the same for other markets around the world. And I suspect that a Shanghai swan-dive might well do the same.

Afterward: An alert reader sent the following comment and chart relating to my above observations: "Your graph is a bit lame, I'd set the zero base on the chart and look back 10 years -- the run up to the global reset and what followed -- and volume. Like this one [below], excerpted from Google finance." 

I'm not sure that I am any more comfortable as a result of this wider vision ... does this mean that we're in for another "global reset" like in 2008?