reddit Gallery CLIV

Another excursion into the world of reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Click on pictures to enlarge them.  Enjoy!

Last Surviving Roman Shield

Woman in Blue

Blood Moon

Tiny Toolbox

Great Blue Hole in Belize

Power of the Purse

Desperate to counter the profoundly negative effects of Obamacare on this year’s upcoming Congressional elections, the Obama administration is attempting to bribe as many voters as possible.  This includes trying to extending unemployment benefits, forgiving the penalties for neglecting to sign up for Obamacare, expanding the food stamps program (see: CNS News Story), (over)using the canard “equal pay for equal work (for women)” and now abandoning attempts to collect hundreds of million of dollars of past Social Security overpayments … see: CNBC Story.

As long as President Obama has the power of the purse … and can capture two minutes of every nightly TV news broadcast with these saccharine promises, it will be a more difficult for the Republicans to make significant headway in this November’s elections. The term “buying votes” really does have meaning … and the Democrats seem to know most of the old tricks.  Alexis de Tocqueville famously said that “the American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” He clearly neglected to include the President in this insight.

But stay tuned … over the next six months I am certain that this administration will discover and propound even more voter bribes. Watch and wait.

Language

Retail stores are going to school on our political establishment. They have learned that language or even just words can be used to influence the masses. Recently I received a brochure from Kohl’s that listed “performance tops” for $19.99 whereas its T-shirts were listed for $9.99. Essentially the same garment, Kohl’s has found a way with words to extract another $10 from its gullible customers.

Of course politicians learned this legerdemain a long long time ago. The “Affordable Care Act” (Obamacare) is anything but affordable. The only adjective that the Democrats seem to use is “extreme” or their noun is “extremists.” A number of years ago Republicans realized that “liberal” was a political killer and it was used to help defeat Dukakis’s presidential hopes. Rifles magically become “assault weapons.” When “global warming” started to lose its ability to sway, it was morphed into “climate change” … which was harder to debate. Such words are opinion-panel tested to a fair-thee-well and then disseminated to their apparatchiks to drum into the American psyche. The sad truth is that it works … facts be damned.

I have often opined on this subject under the term “Orwellian” … see: Red Flags, More Newspeak and Weasel Words. Once one’s ears are attuned to this political ruse, one cannot watch or hear a newscast or read a media message (mine included) without being bombarded with such subliminal syllabic slyness. “Illegal immigrants” become “undocumented workers.” (What happens if they are not working?) A terrorists attack at Fort Hood becomes “workplace violence.” Attempts to stop voter fraud becomes “voter suppression.” The Tea Party is besmirched (even by our President) with the smirked slur “tea baggers.” I sometimes wonder if Noam Chomsky is not on the Democrat payroll?

All I ask of you, dear reader, is please learn to filter out and ignore such blather.

reddit Gallery CLIII

Another excursion into the world of reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Click on pictures to enlarge them.  Enjoy!

Back When There Was No FDA

Zumwalt-class Destroyer

Namib Desert Meets the Sea

Not So Smart Car

Russian Bear Dog

Act of Love

Former Florida Governor, Jeb Bush, has created a bit of a huff and puff with his comments about those immigrants who come to this country illegally because they want to do well by their families. As per Bush, their breaking of the immigration laws of the United States is actually done as an “act of love,” an obviously unwise generalization … see: Breitbart Commentary.

Of course, in many instances … who knows the exact percentage … he is correct. But there are also many other nefarious reasons why our porous borders are breached by those who are less family-affectionate … the sex trade, drug smuggling, gang member recruiting, terrorist activities, those looking for our government’s handouts, those escaping criminal prosecutions at home, etc. The trouble is that there is no filtering process on this illegal immigrant influx to try to exclude such undesirables.

And even if 100% of these illegal immigrants were acting out of familial love, there still is the problem of America eventually becoming overrun with everyone in the world who is devoted to one’s own … there must be billions of them. The United States cannot possibly absorb all such caring people without imploding. Therefore, Jeb Bush has crawled out on an emotional limb which is easily pruned with simple logic.

Blanket amnesty cannot be the solution to the years of lax enforcement of our immigration laws … even if it is well-intentioned. This issue is now so thoroughly wrapped up in political motivations that it cannot be solved by naive utterances by would-be presidential candidates … of any party. I believe that the American people, in general, understand the conundrum we face … and such simple answers will not suffice.

I have previously offered my thoughts on this issue … see: Carrying Water in a Sieve. I believe that any real solution to this problem needs to stop the bleeding by strict enforcement of our existing immigration laws … including exporting of criminals and  those who overstay their visas … tighter inspection of amnesty claims … and an unbreachable barrier on our southern border. If this were done, maybe in twenty or thirty years this national problem would naturally dissipate ... without the granting of impassioned amnesty.

And I firmly believe that politicians who claim that they will enforce our immigration laws and then don’t ... are not acting out of love of country or compassion for those “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” They (yes, you know their names) are craven and self-serving.

Taxing Issue

Apropos to the upcoming April 15^th tax filing deadline, President Obama and his wife, Michelle, have disclosed their 2013 tax returns.  They paid a total of $98 thousand in federal taxes on an income of $482 thousand (a tax rate of 20.4%). Their refund totaled a little north of $19 thousand which they applied to this year’s estimated taxes … see: CBS Story .  They also generously gave $59 thousand to various charities.

All well and good. However, the fundamental issue that I have with this disclosure is … what about the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars of benefits-in-kind that this duo receives from the U.S, taxpayers when they and their extended family and guests indulge themselves with their many globe-trotting vacations ... that are not part of official business.  This includes Air Force One and Marine One travel, the most luxurious hotel accommodations, five-star dining … and all the many other accouterments that they feel that they deserve … see: China Blossom for just the first quarter of 2014’s junkets. 

I realize that the first family receives a $100 thousand tax-free travel reimbursement as part of the President’s benefit package … but this is but a drop in the bucket relative to what they obviously palm off on us taxpayers. Where is this full-disclosure accounting for these sums?

I do believe that President Obama must have a friend at the Internal Revenue Service.

reddit Gallery CLII

Another excursion into the world of reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Click on pictures to enlarge them.  Enjoy!

Rolls Royce Phantom Riviera Town Brougham 1929

Satellite Image

B52 Boneyard in Tuscon Arizona

Misty River

Follow Me

Gang Sign?

Hillary Clinton

At first I thought it meant that my bangers will ice your elephant homies ... but, on closer inspection, how about, "I'm a loser?"

Hog Tied

Joni Ernst has jumped into Iowa politics with a bang-up commercial which has pushed her to the front of the pack of Republicans vying for the nomination to replace, if elected, the retiring Tom Harkin in the U.S. Senate … see: Washington Post Story. She claims in this “break-through” television ad that she grew up on a Iowa farm castrating hogs and so she will know how to “cut the pork” in Washington.

I must confess that she is a compelling candidate just on the basis of her chutzpah, great smile and her vow for fiscal austerity. However, I too have spent some time on a farm as a youth … and, as I recall, the castration process for hogs did not involve any cutting. The way that it was done in Pennsylvania was to place a very strong, tight rubber band around a shoat’s scrotum which cut off the blood supply. After a few weeks this piglet’s testicles turned black, dried up, and fell off.  Nice and neat … and bloodless.

So perhaps, if Ms. Ernst is nominated and elected, she might take a goodly supply of strong rubber bands with her to Capitol Hill.  Nah! Most males at that venue are eunuchs anyway.

reddit Gallery CLI -- Driftwood Sculptures

Another excursion into the world of reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Click on pictures to enlarge them.  Enjoy!

Horse

Lion

Giraffe

Eagle

Elephant

Buddy

It wasn’t too long ago when an United States Army General started an answer to Barbara Boxer’s question with, “Ma’am.” He was quickly reprimanded by Ms. Boxer (appropriate last name) with the strident request that she be addressed as “Senator” as she had worked hard for that title … see: YouTube Video .

Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder retorted to a Congressman’s comment that he doesn’t seem to be too concerned that the U.S. House had held him in contempt of Congress (for his unresponsiveness to its request for documents in the Fast and Furious investigation) with “You don’t want to go there, Buddy!” … see: The Daily Caller Video.

Can anything be more contemptuous than to call a Congressman, “Buddy?”

I Scratch My Head ...

I’ve often been curious as to why that race-baiter and supposed Reverend, Al Sharpton, has lived such a charmed life.  In the late 1980’s he defamed a police officer and a prosecuting attorney with the Tawana Brawley rape accusation, eventually losing a few hundred thousand lawsuit to the prosecuting attorney (later paid by others). He also instigated a riot in Harlem in 1995 which ended in the Jewish-owned store, Freddie’s Fashion Mart, being torched … causing the death of seven innocent people. The list of Sharpton’s scum-bag actions and utterances goes on and on … see: His Wikipedia Entry ... yet nothing seems to bring him down.  In fact his life keeps getting better. But now we possibly know why. Not only has he been an FBI informant against the mafia but he also appears to be a bosom-buddy to our President, Barack Obama … read all the details of their close relationship here: The Smoking Gun Story

Another of our President's close friends and frequent White House visitor, the rapper Jay Z (Beyonce's main squeeze) is also causing a ripple in the media with his apparent support of an organization called the Five Percent Nation which openly suggests that all white people are devils. Read how the media downplays this affiliation here: Huffington Post Entry or how it doesn't here: Washington Times Story ... interesting contrast.

I guess I am, once again, behind the times … and it’s now all right for our President to be so chummy with so many people who are clearly bigoted against white “folks” (remember Obama’s long-time pastor, Jeremiah Wright?)  This, to me, bizarre phenomenon eventually will be analyzed and put into perspective by historians.  But, till then, we clearly are living in interesting times when such obvious circumstantial evidence of presidential prejudice is repeatedly broomed under the rug by our liberal media. I scratch my head …

reddit Gallery CL

Another excursion into the world of reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Click on pictures to enlarge them.  Enjoy!

Path in the Woods

Very Large Liger

Bonsai Tree House

I Love You Mommy

Torino

Cowed

The new president of Dartmouth College, Phil Hanlon was recently initiated into the ways of hyphenated student protests when the “Concerned Asian, Black, Latin@, Native, Undocumented, Queer, and Differently-Abled students” aka, Freedom Budget (a name as nutty as these students), recently occupied his office with a list of 72 demands … which apparently include some knee-slappers. For instance they insisted that Dartmouth must include one "queer studies" class in every department (such as “Queer Projective Geometry” and “Queer Inorganic Chemistry”). I say “apparently,” because I started doing research, trying to find their full list of 72, but then said to myself, “why should I indulge these children with my efforts? Isn’t this protest just an infantile cry for attention … which they clearly don’t deserve?” So I didn’t.

Anyhow, this was not a shining moment for Dartmouth’s pixy prexy … a Dartmouth-graduated math major like myself. He did not literally kick these militant students out of his office and have them sent to Coventry. Instead he and his Dean of the College, Charlotte Johnson, pampered these wing-nuts with negotiations and then let some of them bivouac in his office for 48 hours. How humiliating for him and for Dartmouth College … not a shining start for his new presidency. If you want to read more on this tempest in a teapot see the following from the Wall Street Journal.

I think that the real lesson to be drawn from this disruption … and other recent travesties … like the forced resignation of Mozilla’s CEO, Brendan Eich, for a single political donation (see: Information Week Story) … is that acceding to the irrational demands of those hyphenated groups only makes matters worse. Arthur Miller had it right when he compared the McCarthy era to the Salem witch trials in his play, "The Crucible." There are times when an illogical fervor grabs a society’s psyche and, if nobody pushes back, can result in very scary consequences. The unwillingness of us (I’m talking about you and me, friend … and President Hanlon) to push back against such blatant silliness only causes more silliness … and eventually, if not checked by some courageous souls, much more dire consequences.

My suggestion to Dartmouth’s Phil Hanlon is don’t be cowed … do your best to purge your campus of such “diverse” detritus and start emphasizing a new diversity … a diversity of true liberal (small “L”) thought. Encourage rational and studied debate on any subject … but do not pamper the childish confrontations and loopy demands of any hyphenated radicals. It’s pretty easy to tell the difference.

Afterthought: Some might say that all this carping on my part is easy since I do not have to deal with a self-perpetuating and incestuous Board of Trustees who might deny me my next budget request. True, but then, if those in lofty positions are not willing to stand on principle, then their imagined positions are really not that lofty after all.

Cotton Candy

My grandfather had a term for cotton candy at the carnival … “gap and get nothing.” In case you haven’t noticed in this blog, I am not a fan of the Clinton's, particularly Hillary Clinton ... who is, to me, nothing more than cotton candy … non-nutritional pap designed to appeal to the impulse buyer … but clearly not good for one’s health.

I have previously done a serious appraisal of Hillary’s term as Secretary of State and have come up nearly empty … see: Ship of State Disasters. But now, in preparation for a possible run for the presidency in 2016, she is beginning to slyly critique the very failed policies she helped put in place … particularly in the Middle East and toward Russia.

In retrospect, even the Democrat establishment seems hard pressed to list her actual good deeds when she was at the reins in Foggy Bottom … other than she traveled a lot … see: Hillary's Accomplishments. But they still idolize her and want her as their leader.

But now even the pink Duchess herself can’t find the words to list her winners while she was Secretary of State … other than meaningless blather … see: Capitol City Project. If she actually runs to replace our feckless leader in 2016, she best sit down with her extensive and well-paid posse and make up some fibs to put in her pre-election book … which will have a compelling title but which few will read … and to answer such an obvious question.

For, in reality, Hillary Clinton is clearly gap and get nothing …

reddit Gallery CIL

Another excursion into the world of reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Click on pictures to enlarge them.  Enjoy!

Beauty and the Beast

Blowing Sahara Sand

Russian ICBM

Antarctic Flowers -- Pearlworts

Istanbul Spice Shop

Limburger Cheese

I have always thought that there was considerable voter fraud being practiced in this country … mostly by Democrats … be it dead people voting, illegal aliens and felons voting, people voting in multiple states (especially students), rigged voting machines, abuse of absentee ballots, people voting multiple times in the same state, and ballot box stuffing (remember the “hanging chads” in Florida). And just recently we hear that in California, people who have signed up for Obamacare have been sent voter registration cards with “Democrat” pre-checked. I am also reasonably sure that there are other ruses that go undetected. But now we have some more hard evidence to support this contention.  In North Carolina, it has been discovered that tens of thousands of voters recently cast their ballots in at least two states … see: National Review Disclosure.

I have written many times about such a blatant abuse of democracy in the past … see: Voter Fraud, Down We Go, Representation without Taxation, One Man One Vote, The Fix, and Grapenuts.  But the example that convinced me that such malfeasance is clearly widespread, particularly in the inner cities, was in the recent 2012 Presidential election where 100% of the registered voters in 59 Philadelphia voting districts voted for Obama … see: Voter Intimidation. This is absolutely impossible. There must be a few people hospitalized or deceased. There might even be a few free-thinkers who would have voted for Romney. But exactly 100% of almost 20,000 registered voters in 59 precincts in Philadelphia vote for Obama … balderdash!

But, equally dangerous is the campaign by this country’s lefties and lefty media to pooh-pooh concerns about voter fraud. I can’t help but wonder why this is? The accusation of “voter suppression” is constantly used to suppress any valid effort to reduce voter fraud. Can nobody see through this throwing up of a phony smoke screen by the left? The more I hear such objections, the more I am convinced that this practice is widespread. You can’t get on an airplane or cash a check or rent a car or buy alcohol without showing a picture ID.  Why should this not be a requirement to vote? And why should voter registration be tied to more and more processes that don’t check for one’s citizenship? I truly believe that the Democrat party is actively involved in perpetuating massive amounts of voter fraud.  Otherwise how come this party controls the White House and the Senate when the clear majority of Americans polled consider themselves to be Conservatives?

Something stinks and it isn't Limburger cheese …

Sticks and Stones

Recently I have been using diminutives to describe President Obama …“puerile,”  “child President” and “toddler President.” This was mostly because of his infantile way of dealing with our many exploding world crises.  But recently our “leader of the free world” has been validating these appellatives by using language more fitting for kindergarten recess taunts. Yesterday he called Senator Paul Ryan’s proposed budget a “stinkburger” to the cheers of the assembled academia … see: Washington Post Story.

I guess that such a mocking tone has become popular with American slope-heads because of “The Daily Show” and Jon Stewart’s emotive imitation of a news anchorman.  Now President Obama, not to be outdone by this comedian, is also emulating such a hammish form of expression. I suppose that this is the way he best communicates with the base of the Democrat party … but it is unlikely that this elevates his stature among anyone who uses a napkin and eats with a fork.

I cringe when I hear the resident of our White House debase himself with such childish and boorish expressions. What is next? Is he going to call Rand Paul a “poo-poo head?”

Afterward: Jonah Goldberg has a similar take on this same talk by President Obama at the University of Michigan ... calling it a stand-up routine ... see: New York Post Op Ed. The word that comes to mind for me to describe this presidential schtick is "snide." And ruminating on this description reminds me of many other similar modern-day comedians: David Letterman, Bill Maher, Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart (already mentioned), and now the suggested replacement for Letterman, Chelsea Handler (see: The Wrap Story) ... some crueler than others. I conclude that Obama may have discovered a new career for himself once he leaves the White House ...

Rigging

Full disclosure: I have owned the NASDAQ stock market’s common stock for a number of years

First a short story … when I was much younger working for a bank which did mutual fund clearing, the following gambit came to light. Apparently a computer whiz who had written a program for resolving mutual fund purchases had devised a scheme to divert fractions of cents (which would normally be rounded down in such transactions) into a special account over which he had control.  What was interesting was that this scheme did not violate the balancing audits for this program … nor did any particular mutual-fund purchaser suffer as a consequence. Over the months this whiz’s special account accumulated a sizable amount of money that this programmer could then withdraw at will. (He was eventually caught and prosecuted.)

I tell this story because it is analogous to the dust-up that is now underway regarding the “rigging” of the stock market as a result of the new book, Flash Boys, written by Michael Lewis … see: Reuters Article. Basically, this book makes the valid claim that electronic stock trading has enabled big investment banks to connect electronically to the stock exchanges computers and take microsecond advantage of trading patterns ("front-ending") to pull fractions of a cent per share profits on trades.  These small fractions when multiplied by the huge volumes of shares involved can generate large profits for these investment banks.  This Mr. Lewis claims is rigging the market … and I agree.

This process is not currently illegal and, in truth, is abetted by all the stock exchanges … which are now even allowing investment-bank stock traders to move their arbitrage computers closer to their stock exchanges’ trading computers so as to decrease even further the trading lags due to communication transmission delays (even at close to the speed of light). All this technology one-upmanship really doesn’t punish normal long-term stock purchasers … but it does grab profits from investment banks whose computers might be slightly slower or further away than their competitors. Yes, the public might pay a very small fraction of a cent more per share on their purchases … but not really noticeable given the small unit volumes involved.

This kerfuffle is causing consternation and lots of comment by the talking heads on cable TV … and, yes, putting pressure on the stocks of the stock exchanges. However, there is, I believe, an even bigger scandal waiting to break some day. That is, that there is a growing “dark pool" market for stocks.  This means that bank A contacts investment bank B and sells them a million shares of company Z at an agreed upon price … without this transaction ever being printed on a public stock exchange for all to see. This I contend gives these institutions much larger information leverage than is available to the general public. I believe that these transactions should be forced to be somehow disclosed to the smaller investors … to put them on an equal footing with the big institutions.

So we see, it can pay to be on the in on Wall Street ... where such questionable practices are winked at ...

U-turn

Supposedly Obamacare has now hit it’s initial target of 7 million enrollees … and according to its namesake … in a snarky Rose Garden address this afternoon … it now is the eternal law of the land and cannot be repealed … see: Powerline Comments.

Even if one is gullible enough to believe such Orwellian newspeak, I sincerely doubt that this law and all the damage it has done and will do … cannot be transmogrified or even rolled back entirely. I seem to remember that Great Britain nationalized its railroads, electricity generation, coal, and steel industries after the Second World War. And when Margaret Thatcher came into power in 1979 all this socialist malarkey was knocked into a cocked hat … as Maggie did a u-turn with her nation’s economy … fervently privatizing everything she could find.

And is not the current administration doing its level best to roll back an even bigger law of the land ...  our Constitution? 

So President Obama, I know that it may be difficult for you to digest or even understand … but you do not get to write your own short paragraph in the history books.

I wonder from what Nirvana well ... politicians, such as our current toddler-President, drink to get their over-sized egos?

reddit Gallery CXLVIII -- NSFW

Not suitable for work.  Another excursion into the world of racy reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Click on pictures to enlarge them.  Enjoy!

Brazilian Athlete

Body Art

Biking's Reward

Yvonne Strahovski

Russian Cook

April Fools?

Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas and friend

A new way to expand NFL attendance ... perhaps lap dances and maybe even Alice B. Toklas brownies? See: CBS Story.