Don’t eat the brown acid

I believe it was Tom Brokow who coined the phrase ‘The Greatest Generation‘ in reference to the generation of not only Americans, but Brits, Aussies, and Canadians (I believe we can safely remove the French from that group) who survived the Great Depression and fought World War II.  And I take nothing away from those hugely important and desperate times and tribulations.   But there are also a couple of other items that tend to get swept under the rug.

Among other feats of the Greatest Generation was the Vietnam fiasco, which by the end, caused millions of deaths (Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot anyone?), and abandoned their allies to the oppression of communism.  

But beyond any doubt, their greatest failure has been the raising of the baby boom generation.  In the name of complete disclosure, I too, am considered a baby boomer, having snuck in just under the wire by about 40 days.  By doting over their own broods and showering them with everything their little hearts desired, they created what I suppose some people fondly refer to as the ‘Me Generation‘. The boomers wanted it all, and they got it.  Devoid of any real suffering, hardships, or wants, they matured into the most self-centered, narcissistic, slobs who among other things gave us the Weather Underground, Charlie Manson, and the Black Panthers.  I could go on and on, but its too depressing.  

And the boomers are now running the show.  I know Clinton was hailed as the first baby boomer president, and he was, but boomers weren’t running the entire show, at least in my opinion.  We had adults like Bob Dole running the Senate.  And I also know the AP has declared Obama the first President to follow the boomers, but I’m younger than the President and if I’m a boomer, so is Obama.  And the boomers are definitely running the show these days.

And how does a generation raised on expectations they deserve everything, and they deserve it right now, hold the mantle of responsibility to lead and guide the greatest nation humanity has ever created?  Apparently the same way they ran the Summer of Love.  Which I’m sure is just fine and dandy for them, after all, fond memories are the best memories.  How ever, does anyone besides me remember how that ended?  Altamont Speedway ring any bells?

For a sneak peak, take a look at what passes for responsible government in New York state.  Staring down a projected $16 billion budget deficit, Wall street is in ruins, unemployment going through the roof, what did the responsible adult, mature baby boomers in Albany do?   Boost spending 9%.

That’s not plugging shortfalls, that’s not cutting services or consolidating to improve efficiency, that’s not biting the bullet to get through these hard times.  That’s opening up the wallet, seeing a moth fly out, and then grabbing the plastic and heading for the nearest mall.  Picture Wilma Flintstone and Betty Rubble yelling “Charge it!” as they head to the stores.  

Among the other little items in the budget, they’ve agreed to shit-can the relatively flat tax code in order to ensure the “rich” “pay” their “fair share.”  Rises hunting & fishing licenses, include more items under the bottle bill and cancels the STAR rebates.  

While the bottle bill jack up may seem like a good idea, Albany is not doing it to promote environmentalism and cut down on pollution.  As a matter of fact, I bet Albany is hoping the litter from these bottles increases about a thousand percent.  You see, when you pay a nickel deposit, you get the nickel back when you return the bottle.  What happens to the nickel for the bottles that get tossed out the car window?  The state government sucks it up like a Hoover vacuum.

The STAR rebate was a program the state came up with several years to combat the ever increasing school property taxes.  The state agreed to massive funding increase for schools, on the condition they curtail tax increases.  And to seal the deal, the state would send checks to home owners to compensate even more.  Which was a fiasco in and of itself.  Forget the fact the counties already have the tax rolls, so they know who we are, where we live, and what my tax levy is.  No, to make sure we all were 100% certain just who was responsible for this money from “heaven,” every property tax payer had to march on down to the county clerk’s office, wait in line and fill out yet another form.  

At some later date, we’d get a check large enough to not be insulting, courtesy of our beloved politicians.  Of course they could have done all that behind the scenes, made it a heck of a lot more efficient, and saved all the money wasted to follow this ridiculous maze.  But then again, the primary goal is to make us love and feel indebted to our politicians.  

And also probably means the state isn’t keeping their end of the deal with the school districts, which probably means the school districts have no incentive to keep their end of the deal to keep taxes increases to a minimum.  

So here we are, at the metaphorical beginning of the second Summer of Love.  It’s spring, the future is wide open before us, we’ve got a brand spanking new President, and it’s time to party like there’s no tomorrow.  Bratty teenagers always want to party like there’s no tomorrow.  They don’t have to worry about what comes next because there are adults to clean up the mess and sort through the rubble.   The only problem is we are now the adults, and we’re supposed to be the ones making sure what needs to get done, gets done.  Heaven help us.

The only thing I can say is Gimme Shelter.

Political homers

 

It is amazing how in the midst of madness, some times things become crystal clear.  

I’d heard it before, from my blog editor (yep, that’s right, I have an editor.  Do you?), but it didn’t click as the answer to so many questions posed by contact with modern liberals (idiotus gargantuas).  Rush said it again this afternoon, and the pieces started falling in place.  Drudge just sealed the deal.  Now I get it.

 By now most people have heard of the off-the-cuff comments by our Commander in Chief concerning the Special Olympics.  

The economy is in shambles, markets are frozen by lack of confidence, millions of Americans across the fruited plains have been shown the door, trillions of dollars that don’t even exist yet has been pissed away, protests are popping up from sea to shinning sea.  The President, in conference with his most trusted advisers, asks what can be done to save the day.  And from somewhere in the back, a voice chimes in “I know, Leno!”  And here I thought Joe Biden would be a silly choice for VP.  How’s that for a chilling thought?  Who makes Joe Biden sound look like a trusted and wise adviser?  President Obama.

So the leader of the Free World, Commander in Chief of the world’s sole remaining superpower, symbolic face of the United States of America, climbs onto Air Force 1, swings by Burbank and does a little face time with Jay Leno. Nothing against Leno, but don’t you think the President could have been at least that attentive to the Prime Minister of Great Britain?  I’m mean, come on, a state gift to leader of our greatest ally is a box of DVDs encoded with the protocols fro North American DVD players?  Did you hear what happened?  Brown tried to watch one of them and the White House got a call from his staff saying the only thing on the Tely was “WRONG REGION.”

But I digress.

In an attempt at improv humor – by which I mean, an attempt to make endlessly rehearsed material seem improvisational – the President basically said his bowling game is like watching the Special Olympics.  Funny?  Maybe in a bar after several rounds of tequila.  But from the President of the US?  

President Obama should just give in and admit his teleprompter is correct, and he should never, ever, ever, ad-lib again.  

But I’m still digressing.  

Here’s the great final piece of my mental puzzle on how the modern liberal brain works.  From Maria Shriver, California’s first lady, sister to Tim Shriver who helped to create the Special Olympics released a press statement condemning the tacky joke.  

The AP attempts to make things clearer for us:  “Maria Shriver says President Barack Obama’s joke comparing his poor bowling score to that of a Special Olympics athlete was hurtful, although she is sure he didn’t mean it that way.”

He “didn’t mean it that way.”

He “didn’t mean it that way.”

That explains it all. 

Modern liberals will never, ever, unless pushed to the absolute limits, offer anything that could be construed as even constructive criticism.  My editor explained it as a “team mentality” as in, my team is great no matter what they do, because they are my team, and your team sucks because it’s not my team.  He was right.  Today Rush said President Obama could do anything he wants, present Oscars, walk red carpets, say any gaff, make any mistake, insult anyone, and no modern liberal would ever say a thing bad about it, because “he’s one of them.”

In my opinion, one of the smartest people in America today is Dr. Thomas Sowell.  This little gem from a recent column: “Perhaps the best way to try to understand these reactions is to recall what Eleanor Roosevelt said when she first saw Whittaker Chambers, who had accused Alger Hiss of being a spy for the Soviet Union. Upon seeing the slouching, overweight and disheveled Chambers, she said, ‘He’s not one of us.'”

 Had Chambers been “one of them,” Shriver would have been quoting Roosevelt when she said “[A]lthough she is sure he didn’t mean it that way.”

 That is why logic, reason, facts, figures, equations, and plain damn common sense don’t work on modern liberals.  Because we aren’t ‘one of them.’  And the only way it will change is to become one of ‘them.’  Which means it ain’t never going to end.  

 The time for non-modern liberals to believe that we can reach these people if we just use logic, and try to be nice, and polite is over.  We need new tactics.

A confederacy of dunces

This is getting absolutely ludicrous, and I ain’t talking about any hip-hop nation. 

By now every one and their mother’s heard the moral indignation being hurled at AIG executives.  Either that or you’ve been under a rock for the last several days, in which case, why are you reading this on the internet?  I mean, don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the fact that you think our humble blog is THE source for breaking news, but I’m highly skeptical of that  ego boost, so let’s assume you know some of the background.

To begin with, AIG said it was going under.  The feds said “say it ain’t so Joe, say it ain’t so.”  And then wrote them a specially designed check long enough to hold a bunch of zeros. 

Then AIG said, not enough, we’re going down for the second time.  So Uncle Sam got all teary eyed, and cut another check. 

Then AIG said, this is it bro, we’re getting tazed.  So the democrats and President Obama crammed it into the grossly bloated stimulus package.

So AIG has all that money (and are eying up some more), when they did exactly what companies are supposed to do, work.  And part of that is paying their employees.  Which they did, with gross, over-the-top bonuses for executives in the division that tanked, financial products.  

Then the fun started.  Some one either leaked the info, or inadvertently misplaced something, but whatever happened, the MS dived on the story like a buzzard circling the US economy.  The MSM just loves stories like this, it has everything.  Good guys in white hats, bad guys in black hats – very easy to determine.  Toss in several wheelbarrows full of class warfare and envy, sprinkle in some outraged democratic demagoguery, cram it down the throats of viewers, they’re done for the day, off to happy hour.

Then things started getting interesting. 

It turns out all the politicians, both breeds, the carps and the suckers, who’d been screaming outrage over AIG’s dirty, rotten, filthy, reprehensible actions, learned, AIG was simply following the law that congress had written, and the President signed.  You remember the stimulus bill, don’t you?  The one Obama practically hyperventilated over trying to convince American voters had to support 100% without having the slightest idea what was in it, because if it didn’t pass immediately, oh, I don’t know, the apocalypse ala South Park. 

So the good Obamatrons lined up like sheep, dutifully scared any member of Congress who might somehow have escaped the President’s charm, and was wavering, and we avoided the end of the world.  This time. 

Well guess what happens when politicians hide behind closed doors, and rushes something through without any public input?  You get wonderful little clauses slipped in that do all kinds of wonderful things.  Like this one, that told AIG to honor its contracts.

When that little ditty came to light, of course democrats in Congress had the gaul to publicly state the bill that they wrote, they voted for, they sent to the President, has their fingers all over it, they had no idea how that happened!  Why if they knew that was in there everything would be different!

Then it got better.  CSI: Potomac Swamp got involved, and they found one set of fingerprints, one particularly reprehensible slime ball, Chris Dodd D-eranged had gotten caught with the sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-section. Predictably, Dodd was outraged, he would never do such a thing, perish the thought!

Then the next day, ‘oops, sorry I guess I did do it.’  But – and this is a huge but, because it supposedly absolves Dodd of all blame – but, he was told, asked, cajoled, conned, kidded, sweet talked into doing it by Geithner over at the Treasury department.

Hold on there on cotten-pickin’ minute says Geithner, he had nothing to do with it at all.  He didn’t even have time to do it because he was too busy writing checks to the IRS in order to pay his back taxes.

And today it just got more interesting.  Now Geithner says he did ask Dodd to slip that into the bill.  I can’t wait to hear how it’s not his fault because………..?

Normally I would love to just sit back and watch all this unfold, I can’t get enough of blow hard politicians getting their comeuppance.  But this is different for a variety of reasons.  First off, it’s obvious we’re being governed by buffoons who make the Three Stooges look like Einstein.  Funny?  Yes.  Until you realize that also means we are being governed by buffoons. 

Secondly, this fourth rate comedy ensemble is simultaneously preaching to us daily that government and government alone – and further more – government alone, in the hands of these Laugh-In rejects – can save America.  So, we all need to get on board their ‘Hope & Change Express’ and pay no attention to their shredding of the Great American Experiment.

If that’s not enough to depress the hell out of some one, they’re still high on their Obama ecstasy pills. 

But one last thought anyway. 

Normally I don’t give a rat’s ass what other nations think of America.  The more they say they hate us, the more proof it is to me that America has succeeded in helping them survive.  After all, dependence breeds contempt.  I consider it a sure sign it’s time to start extracting ourselves from Europe’s petty feuds.  And the other countries that say they really hate us?  Actually it’s their ‘Dear Leader’ who hates us, queue the riots, and make sure you keep the soldiers with guns forcing them to riot out of the camera shot this time.

But those countries don’t seem to hate America as much as they used to.  Did you ever wonder why?  Because they are laughing at America.  Right now, those snickers you think you might be hearing?  Well, you’re really hearing it.  And even that’s not too bad.  The ones that I’m concerned with aren’t snickering at the moment.  They are planning and executing.  I don’t just mean their government “re-educating” dissidents. 

Keep an eye on Iran, Syria, China and especially Russia.  Iran is going nuclear, Syria is slaughtering democratic activists left and right through out the middle east in general, and Lebanon in particular.  China is tripling the size of their navy, and buying decrepit old nuclear subs from Russia.

And Russia.  You know, I don’t think they ever got over the crow they ate when the entire card house of communism disintegrated.   It’s their own fault.  Did they actually believe Uncle Joe Stalin when he declared the Soviets would bury America and capitalism?  After 50 plus years of that, they deserved a fair share of shame.

Russia is flexing military muscle, and in a big way.  They are threatening Ukraine, they’ve invade Georgia, they’ve cut off – and continue to threaten to – energy pipe lines to Europe.  They’ve announced they are rebuilding their nuclear stock pile, they’re flying strategic bombers 24 x 7, and now their dealing for air bases in Venezuela and Cuba.  Now of course they aren’t gearing up for world war III.  Wars aren’t fought like that anymore. 

They sense a power vacuum caused by Obama’s Keystone Cops routine.  And they are moving into fill it.

The money changers

*** Warning **** Contains Religious Material ***

Allow me to explain myself, before digging into the meat of the subject.  While I am a fairly religious person, I have no intention of commenting on religious subjects on a regular basis.  The only reason religion is even tangential to the subject matter is because I believe it may provide a possible solution to my question.  So relax, grab your favorite beverage, and have a read.  See if you agree with me.

One of the periodicals I subscribe to is Reason magazine.  I absolutely love it.  I look forward to every new issue.  Every time I finish an issue I feel like I just completed a mental triathlon.  So many subjects new to me, so many varied ways of looking at issues, I highly recommend it. 

The current issue has an interview with John Stossel, possibly the only member of the MSM I have any respect left for. In a way, he reminds me a little of me, we’re both recovering modern liberals, surrounded by people who can’t even begin to fathom why great-sounding liberal ideas are so destructive. 

In the interview Stossel discusses one subject that I’ve been pondering for some time myself: why do so many Americans despise success and prosperity?  Well, except when it’s themselves who are succeeding and prospering. When that happens, well, hell, then capitalism and free markets are just dandy.

Why do Americans look at someone who’s worked their ass off for years, has a nice home, maybe a couple of cars, possibly a pool, why are these people vilified?  No one seems to have much of a problem if a sports star is bringing down the major bucks (as long as his team is winning), or a movie star pretending to have a life.  But let Joe down the street drive home in a brand-new, gas-guzzling, globe-warming SUV and everyone wants to string him up by his huevos.  He’s a tax cheat, he hates the poor, the dirty rotten bastard!

Why do we think like this?  It’s certainly not logical, or reasonable, it’s pure emotions.  And not very nice ones at that.

Here’s where I need religion to help make my point.  Don’t worry, I’m not going to try to convert anyone. 

I’ve often thought it has some connection to good old-fashioned screwed up New England puritan values.  You know the kind, stretching all the way back to the pre-revolutionary war times.  Hard work six long days a week, followed by hours and hours of prayers all day long Sunday.  The idea, at least in my opinion, is simply ‘idle hands are the devil’s tools’.  Keep people’s nose to the grindstone and they won’t have the time or the energy to think about sin. 

And these people were very serious about it too.  I remember reading one account of textile mill in New England at least a couple of hundred years ago.  Most of the workforce was indentured female servants.  The man who owned the mill and the indenture contracts was telling his wife about possibly having the girls work 5 12 hour days, spend all day Sunday in prayer, and they’d have Saturday to themselves.  The wife wouldn’t hear of it, far too much idle time for the girls to get into trouble, no, the best thing was keep them in the mills as much as possible, and in Church all day Sunday.  Much safer that way.

Where in the hell did this line of thinking come from? 

Anyway, I digress.  My point being this visceral hatred for success might have some roots in religious traditions. 

Enter the season of Lent.  One of the usual favorites for Gospel readings during Lent is Jesus clearing the money changers out of the Temple.  I remember when I was a kid in CCD, they sometimes referred to it as “Cleansing the Temple.”  Wicked, evil, rotten, vile capitalists doing business in the sight of God.  Of course Jesus couldn’t stand for that.  Off with the filth of money from the sacred seat of G_d. 

Or was it?

I have a book that I bought, and mostly read, Isaac Asimov’s Guide to the Bible.  Another book I highly recommend.  Asimov tackles the Bible from the historical record perspective.  What in the Bible can reasonably found in ancient history.  There’s some really interesting things in there.  If there’s something in the Bible that is not supported by the historical record, somewhere, he skips it entirely. 

One item made it into his book, though I’m not sure why, but it’s his book, he can write about it if he wants.  Jesus driving the money changers out of the Temple.  And Asimov writes that he’s puzzled by the story.  In those days, the Commandment against idol worship was so strictly enforced, it even covered money.  As we all know, political leaders love to have their face on display.  The ancient world was no different.  Except in Judea.  Their currency had no images stamped on it, so it could be used to pay the annual Temple tax.  Jews living in surrounding provinces, rules by gentiles, did not have Temple currency, so they needed to change their local money, with their local ruler’s face on it, for Temple currency in order to meet their religious obligation.  The money changers were no vile, evil, rotten capitalists – okay, maybe they were, but there’s nothing in the Gospel that spells that out.  They were performing a community service for pilgrims visiting the Temple. 

I posed that very question to our brand-spanking-new Parochial Vicar (fresh out of seminary).  I thought that would keep him busy for a while, I was wrong.  Very soon I got a response that was quite illuminating.  Jesus wasn’t cleansing the Temple of these evil people, he was trying to disrupt the daily cycle of the Temple.  They were part of that cycle, exchanging money.

A whole lot of people have spoken and written an awful lot about Jesus.  One thing Jesus definitely was, was far sighted.  He correctly predicted the Romans weren’t going to put up much longer with the Jew’s periodic rebellions and would put an end to Judea altogether.  Which they did some 30 years later, destroying the Temple, wiping out Jerusalem, even going so far as to build a Roman city on the ruins.

Jews at that time believed the Temple was the actual seat of G_d.  Literally, there was a room with a rock in it, and that was it.  Right there.  Want to commune with G_d, that’s the place.  What would happen to Jews if the Temple was no more?  Jesus believed they would not survive as a culture without the Temple.  So he decided to start wrecking the place himself in order to start the process of Jews believing God exists in every individual’s heart, not a stone building.  

That, by the way, really pissed off a lot of important Jews, they started grumbling, so the Romans got involved and we all know how that turned out.

Here’s my point.  The vast majority of Christians I know misinterpret that Gospel story.  We were originally taught as children Jesus tossed out the rotten, evil, vile capitalist, when that wasn’t his point at all.  He wasn’t “cleansing the Temple” he was trying to destroy it.  Granted, this interpretation isn’t as nice and easily taught as hating capitalism and businesses, but isn’t the point to know the truth, no matter how much it might contradict what we want to believe? 

There are plenty of other examples where Jesus goes up one side and down the other of wealthy people.  No shortage there.  But why the different interpretation in this one single case?

My guess is because it’s just too darn sweet an image to pass up by anti-capitalist Christians throughout history.  It’s the only incident in all four Gospels where Jesus actually gets physically violent.  And who does he appear to open up his can of holy whoop ass on?  Money changers.  Key word money. 

You decide if my theory holds water, leave a comment and let me know.

Racist is you do, racist if you don’t

File this under you can’t make this stuff up.

By any even semi-honest account, the vast majority of the sub-prime mortgage debacle was caused by butt-headed modern liberal politicians telling lending institutions ‘either you make loans to people who can’t afford it (read minorities) or else we’re going to sue the crap out of you.’  Lending institutions pointed out if they give money away to people who can’t pay it back, they will go broke.  To which the fecal munching rectal wart modern liberal politicians replied ‘don’t worry about bad loans, we know a couple of guys (Freddie MAC and Fannie MAE) who will take care of the bodies.  Trust us, we’ve got the tax payers by the onions.  It’s covered’  

So who do the modern liberals do?  Start the entire entropic, downward cycle all over again. 

(CNN) — The NAACP filed lawsuits Friday against two of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders — HSBC and Wells Fargo — alleging “systematic, institutionalized racism” in their subprime lending. 

NAACP CEO Benjamin Jealous says, “We are not seeking damages; we just want them to fix the problem.”

“We have targeted these banks because we have gone through what we can get our hands on, and it seems like there’s a real problem here,” NAACP CEO Benjamin Jealous told CNN.

Jealous said the group wants “transparency.” “We want to see the books,” he added. “We are not seeking damages; we just want them to fix the problem.”

Both companies denied the allegations.

The audacity of hoping for failure

Rush Limbaugh is on vacation, some charity event and he’s got Jason Lewis in as a sub.  He’s been playing Rush’s big speech at CPAC from a little while ago.  I started to watch it on TV the night it was on, but my daughter came down to watch TV with me, and I knew even if she liked it initially, she’d soon get bored.  On the upside it would have meant I could watch it in peace and quiet.  But she’d had a pretty rough week at school, and the fatherhood kicked in, and instead we watched South Park Bigger, Longer, Uncut instead.  Don’t worry, she’s almost 16, has been a big South Park fan for years, and hears equivalent profanity at her Catholic high school hallways.  Though, I knew she’d be impressed at Parker & Stone’s sheer audacity.  She was, and we had a wonderful time.  I relaxed the no cursing law for the evening, and we spent it singing about Uncles doing unholy things. 

Rush is quite the public speaker.  I’d caught bits and pieces of it already.  But it was rousing to hear from start to end.  He improvises all his speeches, he says he never writes anything down, but I’d be surprised if he didn’t jot a few thoughts while preparing.  I know I do.  Getting hard to remember everything.  Most people believe the memory goes with age.  I wonder just how much of it has to do with how many experiences a human brain can remember.  But I digress.

He did a nice summation of his recent controversy on wanting President Obama to fail.  He explained it for those who hadn’t heard it, or might not understand what he meant.  I didn’t need it explained.  If some criminal is hell bent on breaking into my home, stealing my stuff, possibly injuring or killing my family or myself, your damn right I’m hell bent on his failure.  If he succeeds, I lose.  If I succeed, he loses.  I want to succeed so much that he ends up in jail for a very long time, pondering if it was really such a good idea to become a thief in the first place. 

It’s the exact same with the modern liberal democrats running the asylum we call Washington.  They want to take apart the Great American Experiment, which has worked pretty damn well for the last 230+ years.  Sure America has problems, has screwed up, making things even worse than before.  But it’s still the greatest nation humanity has ever produced.  Take America’s pluses and minuses and average them up and I know America has a hugely better batting average than than around 95 – 99% of all other nations.  I’m impressed.

They want to take this great idea, that here is one place in the world where government does not control us, we control government.  Unleash the talents of the unwashed masses, allow them opportunity to succeed, not all will, probably few if any will be totally satisfied, but with hard work, and perseverance, I’m willing to bet they stand a better than even chance of winning.  President Obama and his socialists want to end that because they don’t think it’s fair that some should fail.  Well guess what, I don’t think it’s fair I inherited both my grandfather’s hair (or rather, lack thereof).  

Get over it.

The only possible way for the socialists to succeed is for We The People to lose freedom.  I don’t want We The People to lose anything.  I want us to win.  That means President Obama and the socialists to fail.  The forces are diametrically opposed, and there is no way to reconcile that.  More government means less freedom.  More freedom means less government.  That’s all there is to it.

Get over it.

I feel like I’m taking crazy pills

At the moment I’m trying to figure out if I’m the only sane person left in America.

NPR is reporting this morning that business and lobbyists in Washington are supporting Democrats, President Obama, and speaking a new language of hope, change, blah, blah, blah. Which they note is a major change from 1994 when the GOP took over Congress and then business and lobbyists were all speaking the language of conservatism, free markets
and capitalism. And gosh darn it all, what a positive change it is when corporations are getting on board with communialism, socialism, and collectivism.

Let’s see. In 1994, businesses, lobbyists and corporations, wanting to purchase power through political donations were speaking the language of the party in power. In 2009, businesses lobbyists and corporations wanting to purchase power through political donations are speaking the language of the party in power.

And NPR is mystified. Maybe they’ll interview a Wiccan or what passesas a scientist these days to explain how global warming is involved.

Fighting climate change with….more taxes!

What an amazing news day! The number of issues spilling forth from the swamp in ex-Washington D.C. is over whelming. And overwhelmingly bad. Far too many issues to cover. So let’s pick one.

Cap and trade legislation is moving through the Congress. For those not familiar with the issue, the left has fallen hook-line-and-sinker for Al Gore’s hoax. Forget the fact the scientists are only beginning to understand solar cycles. Forget that scientific studies around the world are taking apart man-made global warming piece by piece. Forget that the measurement of the world’s temperature (the fact that any one believes there is a “world temperature” is scary enough) has been falling since at least 2008. Forget the fact that Al Gore took all of one science class in college, and only got a “C” in it. Toss all that out the window because, I guess Al Gore is Al Gore, so he must be right, on to the legislative process.

And what a plan they’ve come up with too! Officially it’s called “cap and trade“,  and what it comes down to is elected officials in Washington will arbitrarily decide what is the optimum level of carbon that should be emitted (see how this flies with cow flatulence), and they will “cap” it at that level. Oh, and corporations will pay through the nose for that privilege. Any additional emissions will require the corporations to trade (read: buy) emission levels that other more “progressive” corporations don’t need.

This fun and wacky program has been tried in Europe, and as predictable as Al Gore’s ever increasing expanding waist line, failed miserably. Corporations simply found other ways around the system. Australia has been toying with the idea, but they backed off after examining the EU’s failure. Imagine that? Politicians who actually look at facts before leaping off into the great wide open.

Here’s the really fun part. The idea is that taxes raised by this little shell game (in the neighborhood of $645 billion estimated) are supposed to somehow save the world from global warming. And just how is that accomplished? Thanks to the immature brats running the Congress and White House, that money will save the world by (drum roll please) going into the general fund.

That’s right sport’s fans! Buried deep within the bowels of the reams of budget and economic paperwork flooding out of the swamp of DC, that $645 billion is slated to pay for the day-to-day operations of the federal government.

And that is how modern liberals intend to save the world from man-made global warming.

Maurice

I’m sure most every voter out there who pays attention the consequences of actions has a long litany of politicians they love to hate.  I have one that I just plain hate.  My esteemed, distinguished member of Congress, the honorable Maurice Hinchey is a politician I hate, because he deserves it.  Perhaps ‘hate’ is the wrong word.  It’s not that it’s too strong, its that the hate leaves the impression of a strong emotional attachment – negatively, or course –  and I wouldn’t waste my time with this embarrassment to New York state long enough to develop emotions that strong.  I’ll have to work on finding the correct term that describes how I would feel watching some one lancing a festering boil on their own ass.

Let me give you a little example of the towering intellect of this guy.  I listen to talk radio while I’m working.  I can’t listen to music because I stop working and listen to it, but I can tune out talk radio when I need to.  A couple of years ago I was listening to Hannity.  Hinchey called in for an interview claiming he had proof positive that Karl Rove was guilty of some outrageous moral sin, which escapes me at the moment.  Hannity asked what the proof was, and this guy launches into some conspiracy laden rant about a totally different subject.  My guess is he was trying to assemble the usual stock of smoke and mirrors that’s more than sufficient enough to preach to any modern liberal in the choir.

Hannity says, no, that’s not what he asked him, answer the question.  Hinchey starts at the beginning of his rant again. Hannity cuts him off again, and then re-asks his original question.  Same thing. So Hannity cuts him off again.  And this goes on for about four or five minutes till Hannity tells him if he doesn’t answer the question, the interview is over.  In classic modern liberal moron fashion, Hinchey starts over again from the beginning.  Click, Hannity dumps him and continues with the show.

So he’s taking other calls, or telling people how great his show is, babbling on, he gets a voice in his ear head phones.  He stops.  What?  He hung up on Hinchy, but Hinchy didn’t hang up, he’s still on his side of the call, still making his speech, and he doesn’t even realize no one is listening.  So Hannity puts him back on the air and says something like “I hung on you,” but Hinchey’s just babbling away.  It’s absolutely hilarious.  Hannity is ripping him to shreds, Hinchey is prattling on.  Funny!  Nearly fell out of my chair laughing.  Two things lept to mind: first this guy is such a dunce he didn’t even an intern in another room keeping tabs on how it was going.  And he couldn’t prevent some one like Hannity from making such a public fool of him.  I could beat Hannity in a debate, his style is that simple.  He frames the debate, then takes the upper hand by demanding answers to specific questions that lead you like trail right into his rhetorical trap.  Just refuse to allow him to lead you, and he’s done.

Back to the point.

For the first six years of the Bush administration, this whiny, fake, over-blown, self-delusional twinkie screamed daily to any news organization that would run slow enough for him to chase down and tackle how Bush and the Republicans were spending and borrowing America straight to hell.  Over and over and over this annoying face and voice in my local news, my local paper, my local radio.  It’s maddening.  I hate people who say there ought to be a law against something just because they don’t approve of it, but there really ought to be a law against this guy bothering me.  I wonder if maybe somewhere in the Geneva Convention?

And what do I see in this morning’s paper?  Hinchey screaming that the $418 billion piece of shit stuffed into a fifteen cent bag, and I quote:

“Given the country’s economic condition, it’s essential that the earmarks be put in there,” Hinchey said. “It’s up to the Congress to determine how the money be spent.”

You know what?  Before I lose my job, my house, what’s left of my retirement fund, and my freedom and liberty, I think it’s about time to go buy a tri-corner hat and a pitchfork.  (I’m not really that great with firearms, and flintlocks look particularly complicated).

These thieves have got to be stopped.

Just one more

Aw, you have to love populists. They get up on their soap box on corners and use fiery rhetoric to explain to the unwashed masses exactly why they are one hundred percent correct, no matter what their opinion, and the only thing preventing them from entering Valhalla – here on earth – is some rich guy who’s stolen everything they’ve ever wanted, including the digitally remastered, completely restored, gold edition of “COPS: The Early Years”. While pundits on both sides of the aisle (are there even two aisles these days?) debate what shade of socialism goes best with either the Capitol or the White House, We The People, thanks to the internet, have a real time teaching moment, on just what Washington DC is debating about how we will our lives in the neatly, socially-engineered future. Hugo Chavez offers a stellar example of what the modern liberals, democrats, Congress and the Obama administration would really like to do. Currently they’re working on how best to “lean” America in that direction, so that future generations will look back on them with awe, like Cameron Diaz’s loving gaze at her Che’ Guevera hand bag. With oil running about $140 a barrel, and money pouring in, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez was every man’s hero. A modern Christ figure, capable to show that nation’s poor how government could fulfill the ideals religion only hinted at. There is a reason Karl Marx took dead aim at religion. Communism sought to create a vacuum in the individual’s life, that was perfect for their ideology to fill. Wax on, wax off.

These days I can buy a barrel of sweet Iraqi crude for less than $50 a barrel off a street corner on my way home from Church on Sunday. Guess what that’s doing for the coffers of the New New (New?) World Order Hugo Chavez is hawking to whoever will (and an entire nation who has no choice) listen? He’s going after every segment of the free market he can take over. Now what other nation’s government is floating trial balloons on the same subject? Hugo Chavez just nationalized the Venezuela’s agriculture and food distribution systems. Which means the only people who are going to get food, are the people who tow the line. First he started with that nation’s oil industry. Then he went for the cement industry. (Who knew cement was such a scarce resource in South America?) Then he went after communications. I believe he’s already done the food distribution system. Now the food industry itself. Because, you see, this is what populists do. They explain, all they need is the authority to take over one, single, aspect of the private economy, and then everything will be right as rain. Okay, so they decide they need one more industry, then it will be utopia. Did they just say one more industry? They mean one more. And then one more. And then one more, all in an endless circle of promising just one more government take over, and that will be the final piece of the puzzle. Wait. Did they just say one more industry? Do you notice a pattern here?

Pay attention. Please, pay attention.