Pirates Have Rights, Too!

... maybe we should even allow them to marry each other. Following the siezure of the MV Sirius Star, an article on the siezure of an Iranian grain ship leads to this bit of information.

Analysts said, however, that the seizure of the Sirius Star exposed the use of foreign warships as “a sticking plaster” that would not solve the problem. “Maritime security operations in that area are addressing the symptoms not the causes,” said Jason Alderwick, a maritime defence analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies*.

Roger Middleton, a Horn of Africa specialist* at the Chatham House think-tank, said that the capture was a crucial escalation. “Now that they have shown they are able to seize an enormous ship like this, it is beyond a military solution. You won’t fix this without a political solution.”

I love it. For the pirates, the only solution is military. For us, it isn't. It's like we live in two different realities. For them, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher is their tool of choice. For us, it's a briefcase.

Operations undertaken by the coalition fleet are fraught with legal difficulties, ranging from restrictive rules of engagement to rights of habeas corpus, as the British Navy discovered when it detained eight pirates after a shootout last week. Yesterday the detainees were passed on to Kenya, where efforts to prosecute them will be closely watched for precedent.

Well, that tears it. We need to increase funding for international law experts! After all, the US has a proud history of engaging in courtroom battles with lawless states.

In May, 1801, the United States refused to succumb to the increasing demands of the Pacha of Tripoli; in return, the Pacha declared war against the States. While Tripoli was not a strong power and little effort was necessary to watch and blockade it, the fear was that the other Barbary powers would join against the United States. The United States sent naval squadrons into the Mediterranean under the slogan of "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute!" Under the leadership of Commodores Richard Dale and Edward Preble, the Navy blockaded the enemy coast, bombarded his shore fortresses, and engaged in close, bitterly contested gunboat actions.

On 16 February 1804 LT Stephen Decatur led 74 volunteers into Tripoli harbor to burn the captured American frigate The Philadelphia. British Admiral Lord Nelson called the raid "the most daring act of the age".

See? That's the peaceful, enlightened, political solution to the problem. Err, or something like that.

We need to address root causes. The root cause here is this guy has an AK-47 and he wants to take your money.
* Jason Alderwick and Roger Middleton later had to change their trousers due to unseemly moisture in certain areas. In a joint press conference, they denied reports that they still wet their beds.

A Little Feline Nostalgia

The audio is authentic from the era, but the video is recent. Still, I like it.

How many of you remember these 9 Lives ads?

More on the Tanker Piracy

The Strategy Page has an interesting tidbit on the Somali siezure of the tanker and Somali piracy in general.

The pirates have been very clever in not harming any of the sailors on the hijacked ships. This makes it difficult for foreign countries to justify the use of force to take back the ships (not to mention the risk of the rescuers killing some of the hostages). This media/political logic also makes it difficult to authorize attacks on the half dozen Somali port towns and villages that serve as bases for the pirates.

The Romans had a solution for this kind of problem. It typically involved lots of swords and fire.

Supertanker Update

OK, so now that they've got the supertanker, what do the Somali pirates do with it? They anchor it close to shore and (probably) demand a ransom.

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Pirates who seized a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million in crude oil anchored the ship within sight of impoverished Somali fishing villages Tuesday.

With few other options, shipowners in past piracy cases have ended up paying ransoms for their ships, cargos and crew ...

In Somalia, people on shore were stunned by the sight of the gigantic Saudi-owned vessel -- as long as an aircraft carrier at 1,080 feet.

"As usual, I woke up at 3 a.m. and headed for the sea to fish, but I saw a very, very large ship anchored less than three miles off the shore," said Abdinur Haji, a fisherman in Harardhere.

"I have been fishing here for three decades, but I have never seen a ship as big as this one," he told the Associated Press in a telephone interview. "There are dozens of spectators on shore trying to catch a glimpse of the large ship, which they can see with their naked eyes."

The pirates must be celebrities now. And why not become pirates? No one is coming to get the ship.

NATO said it would not divert any of its three warships from the Gulf of Aden and the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet also said it did not expect to send ships to try to intercept the MV Sirius Star.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!

Arrr!

Now That You've got it, What do you do With It?

Somali pirates have captured a supertanker.

DUBAI -- The U.S. Navy said pirates commandeered a Saudi-owned supertanker bearing more than $100 million worth of crude a few hundred miles off the Kenyan coast, an attack that sharply increases the stakes in an effort by governments and militaries to protect the world's energy-supply lines.

U.S. Navy officials said the hijacking was unprecedented for its distance from shore and the size of its target -- a ship about the length of a U.S. aircraft carrier. The attack appears also to be the first significant disruption of crude shipments in the region by pirates.

The thing is massive, the size of an aircraft carrier. The heist seems to be phenomenally stupid to me. It's like a gang of robbers sneaking into a Beverly Hills mansion and choosing to make off with the 20' tall statue of the Winged Victory of Samothrace instead of the jewelry in the bedroom.

I can only see two alternatives and that is blackmail or kidnapping. They must be planning on holding it for ransom and threatening to sink the thing somewhere if they don't get their money. It's not like they can drive it into Mombasa and sell the oil. I doubt they've got anyone on board who can pilot the beast.

Alternatively, they might just kidnap the crew and hold them for ransom. That's much more typical for these creeps. If that's the case, will the tanker be set adrift? That could prove interesting.

Wild.

Guys like this ...
... hijacked this supertanker. Now what?

Your Little-known American History Fact for the Day

The War for Texas Independence was actually fought over mathematical concepts.

No, really, it's true! Don't you remember the famous slogan?

"Renumber the Alamo!"

The Press + a Political Party + the Government

= Il Duce!

Perhaps it was the announcement that NBC News is coming out with a DVD titled "Yes We Can: The Barack Obama Story." Or that ABC and USA Today are rushing out a book on the election. Or that HBO has snapped up a documentary on Obama's campaign.

Perhaps it was the Newsweek commemorative issue -- "Obama's American Dream" -- filled with so many iconic images and such stirring prose that it could have been campaign literature. Or the Time cover depicting Obama as FDR, complete with jaunty cigarette holder ...

(W)e seem to have crossed a cultural line into myth-making.

Here, the press covers an Obama speech to impoverished proles ready to get started in the new, green economy.

Cheezburger of the Day

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Last Night's Sunset

... over Mission Bay was quite nice.

... to Each According to Their Need

Barack Obama on the mortgage crisis:

In a campaign fact sheet, President-elect Barack Obama says he "recognizes that the real victims in the subprime mortgage crisis are not the lenders, but the millions of borrowers who followed the rules and whose only crime was taking out mortgages that lenders told them they could afford."

Meanwhile, in Iceland, they have many more toys than they can afford, the poor dears, and now the meanies they owe money to are asking them to pay up.

You can't have Atlas Shrugging without this kind of pro-consumer, anti-producer culture.

I Think I'm Worth More Alive

Thanks to our Official Artist, we have this quiz to share with you.

$4000.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth.

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Hoist the Fasces and Salute!

What do you get when you combine the press, a political party and the government?

The election is over, but the Joe the Plumber case is not.

Ohio Inspector General Tom Charles said his office is now looking at a half-dozen agencies that accessed state records on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher.

The Beacon Journal has learned that, in addition to the Department of Job and Family Services, two other state offices — the Ohio Department of Taxation and Ohio Attorney General Nancy Rogers — conducted database searches of Joe the Plumber ...

Kohlstrand said that the AG's office wanted access to the records so they could turn over to the national media lien information that was a public record in Lucas County. He said the national media did not have reporters in Toledo, so the attorney general's office was helping them out with public records.

Il Duce!

Watching a Soccer Team Deflate

Yesterday my daughter had her penultimate soccer game in our club team's outdoor season. We're in 3rd place in a league of 6 teams, but that doesn't tell the tale. We won almost all of our early games and haven't won a game in the second half of the season. In recent weeks, we've come to root for ties.

Our team has 11 girls in a sport where you need 11 to play. Many weeks we've only had 10 show up and we've had to play 10 vs. 11. For example, last week our goalie was sick. She begged her parents to play, but she had a severe flu and they didn't let her. The team has that kind of spirit. The girl who filled in for the goalie did a valiant job, but it wasn't the same and we lost 2-1 in a game where we should have won 1-0 had our regular goalie been present.

In spite of these setbacks, the team has kept up its energy and enthusiasm. Until the end of yesterday's game.

We had a full team and were playing a team that was mediocre at best. We scored the first goal, but gave up one at the end of the first half to one of their bigger players. The score remained tied for most of the second half and you could feel the energy and enthusiasm in the parents, coach and players. We might just pull this one out. We were playing at their end of the field and were getting some shots on goal.

All of a sudden, they got a breakaway. One of their defenders blasted the ball out to about midfield and one of their forwards took the ball and raced down the right sideline. From 40 yards out, she shot.

40 yards is a ridiculous shot. No one makes those kinds of shots. Unfortunately, our goalie, who is one of the best in the league, had spaced out and was on the far left side of the goal, thinking about something other than soccer. By the time she realized what was going on and raced over to scoop up the gently rolling ball, it had gone in.

It was like watching a balloon deflate. We went from being a modestly competent team who tried hard to a group of girls and fans who were beaten, not just for the game, but the season. In one 5 second segment of time, the world changed completely.

No one blamed the goalie. It wasn't like a pack of dogs turning on each other, it was a black cloud of gloom that settled down upon all of us, coach and parents and players and extinguished everything. The score ended 2-1 and after the game, the players did a half-hearted cheer for the other team and shuffled out to shake hands. Similarly, the parents lined up to high-five the team as they came back with no enthusiasm. There was almost no noise at all.

I've managed 3 baseball and 2 soccer teams. I've coached on a bunch more. I've never seen anything like this in my life. There was an exact moment in an entire season when the team deflated down into a shriveled balloon.

The girls, each and every one of them, deserve much more. Every one of them have played every minute of every game they've been able to attend. They've never given up. Even when injured, they refuse to come out of the game and keep playing while limping and crying. We've played on some scorching days, too, where the heat is withering and the girls have run and played their tails off the whole game. The other teams all have subs and can rest their players, but our girls have managed to beat or tie them many times. We've only been blown out twice.

We've got one more outdoor game and then a full season of indoor soccer. My girl is typically oblivious to the mood of the team. None of this will carry over to the next game for her. Every day the sun rises and the birds sing for my girl. I'm going to work with her just a little more this week and see if she can provide the spark for the next game.

Can a deflated team be reinflated?

Iceland Is Bankrupt, But What About Their Creditors?

In a post today, Paul Kedrosky links to a long article detailing the sad story of Iceland's fall into bankruptcy and financial ruin. It's a sympathetic look at what the people of Iceland are facing.

Easy access to 100 per cent mortgages has seen a change to the traditional pattern of young Icelanders living with their parents until their mid-twenties. The suburbs of Reykjavik have grown by a third in the past decade, most of it housing for first-time buyers. Whole new neighbourhoods have emerged. New streets house young couples, many with children, most with two cars in the drive and furnished with the best that Ikea can provide. All bought with 100 per cent loans, many in foreign currencies.

It's all falling apart and the people of Iceland are in deep trouble. While their tale is pitiable, does the article have the situation exactly reversed?

With 100% credit, the Icelanders imported real goods and built real houses. In exchange for the products of others' labor, they paid them off in what are now worthless pieces of paper. I wonder if there will be repo companies coming over from, say, Germany, to reposess the BMWs. If an Icelandic family defaults on a Japanese loan, will the Japanese kick them out of their home and send a family over from Tokyo to move in?

The people who are really getting the short end of this are the ones holding on to the payments and loans from the Icelanders. Unless fleets of bulldozers show up in Reykjavik and start flattening the place, the Icelanders will still have those homes and their creditors will have nothing.

The people of Iceland imported more than they paid for. I'm not sure if they're the ones we should be crying over.

Gas Prices are Historically Low Right Now

Dig this:


The text discussing this chart can be found at the Carpe Diem blog.

Pit Bulls Everywhere

Yesterday, on a whim, my daughter and I visited the Humane Society / County Animal Shelter. The two of them are connected where we live. We looked through all of the dogs that were up for adoption. We must have seen 100-120 of them.

Over 50% were pit bulls or pit bull mixes. Another 10% were boxers or boxer mixes. Of the non-attack-dogs, I saw one cute beagle (which had two holds on it from people wanting to adopt it), but nothing else of interest. There was one Irish Setter and one Lab, but no Bassets or Golden Retrievers. It looked like the reject bin from the local dog fighting club.

Which, I'm sure, it was.

The whole place was a death camp for pit bulls. They came by the trainload into the front door and after a few weeks were gassed and discarded.

Update: Here are some corroborating stories.

From SFGate:

Not long ago, pit bulls occupied about three-quarters of the dog kennels at San Francisco's Animal Care and Control shelter. Now, only about a quarter of the unwanted canines at the shelter are pit bulls.

The numbers of pit bull terriers and pit bull mixes abandoned and euthanized in San Francisco have fallen drastically since the city implemented a law 18 months ago requiring that pit bulls be sterilized, animal officials say.

From Pit Bull Rescue Central:

It is estimated that up to 200 Pit Bulls are killed EVERY DAY in Los Angeles County, CA, shelters alone because there are not enough homes for them. Imagine the number across the entire United States...

The pit bull population has now risen to 40% of all the dogs in 12 shelters in Los Angeles.

From DogsBite.org:

KiroTV (Seattle) reported the average number of pit bulls euthanized.

Between 2002 and mid-September 2007, Seattle euthanized a total of 3,407 dogs
1,762 (52%) were non-pit bull breeds and 1,645 (48%) were pit bulls
Average: about 300 pit bulls euthanized annually

The GM Bailout is the Worst of all Worlds

Charles Krauthammer has a great piece on the GM bailout proposed by Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress.

The point of the Democratic bailout is to protect the unions by preventing this kind of restructuring. Which will guarantee the continued failure of these companies, but now they will burn tens of billions of taxpayer dollars. It's the ultimate in lemon socialism.

Democrats are suggesting, however, an even more ambitious reason to nationalize. Once the government owns Detroit, it can remake it. The euphemism here is "retool" Detroit to make cars for the coming green economy.

Liberals have always wanted the auto companies to produce the kind of cars they insist everyone should drive: small, light, green and cute. Now they will have the power to do it.

This is the worst of all worlds - it is Soviet central planning for domestic industries while allowing endless competition from foreign companies that have no such restrictions. If we go through with this, Ford and GM will be managed by Federal political appointees and will produce what Obama thinks we ought to want. Toyota and Nissan will produce what we do want. Because there will be no labor renegotiations from bankruptcy, GM and Ford will continue to overpay for labor.

Higher costs, cars designed by bureaucrats and competition from true professionals all while the government feeds GM and Ford an endless stream of money from the taxpayers. Hooray!

The Lada. The kind of car you should be driving instead of that dreadful Nissan Altima.

All Supervisory Personnel Report for Duty!

... and then do your jobs. Laying around watching other people work.

Here, our Maximum Leader keeps an eye on her minions.

Haven't We Evolved Beyond Pop-up Ads?

I regularly use the Merriam-Webster online dictionary to look up words. It's a wonderful resource and I'm glad they made it available on line.

It's also incredibly annoying. I don't mind ads and I'm fine with plastering them all around the site, but for the love of Pete, why do they still use the pop-up ads? Argh! Every time I look up a word, I get another window bouncing onto my screen advertising this or that. Stop it! Go away! It makes looking up a word take twice as long.

If you've got a dictionary resource that doesn't do this, please let me know.

Human evolution. Apparently, it culminates in pop-up ads.

A Gnat's Digestive System

During a meeting at work yesterday, someone made a comment about the chances of something happening being smaller than a gnat's rear end. I began to wonder about a gnat's rear end. Just what does a gnat's digestive tract look like? I did some research, and this is the best resource I've found so far.

The only diagram I've come up with is this one of a female gnat pupa. Click on it for a better, more readable version.


The digestive tract is a straight-through tube from mouth to anus. There's not a lot of surface area there to digest complicated foods, so I doubt the thing can do much to compound sugars like starches. Here's another article on gnats that I found. Their diet? Blood!

Eye gnats will regularly land on or around ones eye and nose; black flies or buffalo gnats will land anywhere they can find skin on which to suck blood. Essentially that is all the females want; blood. They will seek this from any mammal they can find and people will often times be their prime target.

I'm not sure I buy this. The gnats I'm thinking of can't possibly have mouth parts big enough to penetrate skin and get to the blood. OK, so here's a more reasonable source that claims that gnats eat fungus. That's more believable.

Fungus gnats eat mainly fungus but can also eat root hairs and initiate root rot, which can kill plants. These pests are common in interior environments. They are small (2-3 mm) mosquito-like flies with one pair of wings. If they have infested potted plants in the home it is not uncommon to see them flying around your computer screen or even a can of pop. They are attracted to carbon dioxide; which people, cans of pop, and plants release.

I'd love to delve into the biochemistry involved. Just what is it in the fungus that gnats digest and how do they do it? I imagine they're just licking the fungus. They don't seem to have mouth parts capable of biting.

I'll bet the Backyard Arthropod Project (which, by the way, is the reason the Internets Tubes were invented) has more to say on this subject.

The Next Best Thing to Flying, Carnivorous Spiders

This is an inside joke with our Missionary to the Frozen, Northern Wastelands, but the video is still awesome.

What Will It Look Like After He's Fixed It?

Apparently, the public is willing to wait for their tax cuts while Obama fixes the economy.

WASHINGTON (AP) — People want the tax cuts promised during the presidential campaign, but may be willing to wait while President-elect Obama takes on the larger issue of fixing the economy.

This sounds like a very complicated job, one that is not understandable by us average folks. I think we should all take off work and sit quietly in our homes until he's got it fixed. We wouldn't want to get in his way as he goes around fixing things, you know.

A product of the last government who tried to "fix" their economy.
If you want a foretaste of what it will look like once the press and the politicians finish convincing all of us to let the government fix the economy, take a look at this.

Scott Ott Discovers the Perfect Bailout for GM

Here it is.

(2008-11-13) — The White House today unveiled a rival version of a $25 billion Democrat bailout for the Big Three U.S. automakers, which it said would yield immediate benefits for some 625,000 Americans.

George W. Bush, who is president of the United States, said he has called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to “humbly suggest that instead of lending $25 billion to GM, Ford and Chrysler, or risking more taxpayer money on their flimsy stock, why don’t we just purchase a brand new 2008 vehicle for every citizen of Washington D.C., all members of Congress and their staffs, and all the employees of the executive branch and the Supreme Court?”

There's more. Lots more!

Hilarious!

In The Know: Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?

Cheezburger of the Day

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Search This Article for the Word "Profit"

... and you'll find it once. Try it. Here's where it occurs.

The Detroit Three depended for more than a decade on profits from gas-guzzling sport-utility vehicles and pumped up sales with cheap credit, while rivals Toyota and Honda Motor Co. more aggressively pursued advanced technology vehicles and business strategies that allowed them to make money on a broader range of models.

Nowhere in the rest of the article does it say anything about profits. It's all about pouring money into them and putting government stooges on their boards and getting them to produce environmentally-conscious cars.

How much did we discuss profits during the election? How much of that was in a positive way? All I remember was that the politicians blamed each other for trying to give oil companies bigger profits.

Why do we need profits anyway? What have corporations ever done for us? We must give to the needy and take form the people who are making those profits!

How will we get out of this mess? Who is John Galt?

Congressional Democrats Consider Giving Heroin to Drug Addicts

... or is that cash to GM? I can't tell which.

Anyway, here's the story.

Democratic leaders in Congress said Tuesday they will push legislation next week to use the $700 billion Wall Street rescue fund to bail out Detroit auto makers, and President-elect Barack Obama ordered his transition team to look at ways to aid the car industry even before his inauguration.

There are no rules, there are no processes, there is no structure left in Washington, there is only politicians panicking and running about, waving blank checks. The money that was set aside to buy up troubled loans is now going to be thrown at GM and Ford, both of whom are hemorrhaging money.

The moves come as General Motors Corp. has warned that it could face a debilitating cash shortage by year's end. On Tuesday, GM stock fell an additional 13%.

GM faces a cash crunch because they spend too much and take in too little. Handing them another $25B or $50B will change ... what? If you want to see why this isn't affecting Toyota, take a look at this.


The big 3 automakers pay far more in labor costs than Toyota. Sounds like UAW has finally killed the goose that laid the golden eggs. What's the solution? Pour more money into the front of GM and watch it flow right out the back. Meanwhile, Barack Obama is looking at effectively nationalizing the auto industry.

Mr. Obama, after some initial hesitation to become publicly involved, is pressing the Bush administration to immediately free up funding through the Treasury, the Energy Department and the Federal Reserve. It is also studying other options, including installing new board members at car companies that receive assistance to ensure compliance with the strings attached to a bailout, including the adoption of a more advanced, fuel-efficient product line.

Once government stooges are in place in the board rooms, GM will return to profitability!

Or something like that.

My Excuse for Today

... is that I slept in. I was dreaming I was vacationing in El Salvador.

It didn't look like this in my dream. It was a lot more jumbled and it was one of those dreams where you are incredibly tired throughout.
Photo used without permission from Travel Wizard.

How to cut up a Chicken

I like to use "best of fryer" for many of my recipes, but I've had a hard time finding them in the stores these days. I spent a little time looking for an instructional video on how to take a whole chicken and make my very own best of fryer. Chef Jay NC tells us how to do it.

Why the Republicans Lost the Election

They were incompetent and corrupt.

Proposition 8 was not About the Government

... it was about the cultural definition of the word "marriage."

Over at Classical Values, one of my favorite blogs, they have completely missed the point on this. They take up the issue using a narrow, libertarian analysis where they decide that the government shouldn't meddle in such things. To them it's all about the tiny details of the laws. It's all about licensing.

Well, licensing is, after all, a government restriction. When people speak of marriage as a "right," they really are not speaking of a right to marriage, but a "right" to a marriage license. Yet true rights (such as freedom of speech and freedom of religion) are not -- and by their nature cannot be -- subject to licensing.

If marriage were treated as a right, it would not be subject to licensing.

Emphasis in the original text.

Licenses are meaningless outside of the larger context, a context apparently invisible to the libertarians. We're not at war over a right, we're at war over a cultural definition of a word. It's not a trivial one, either. One side wants to erase all differentiation between heterosexual and homosexual unions, the other doesn't. The marriage issue is a part of the deal, not the final goal.

The Boy Scouts have been under attack by the gays because they differentiate. The demonstrations against the churches recently were for the same reason. Anyone who makes a distinction between the two relationships will come under attack. The marriage issue is just one battle in the war.

Once they win the marriage issue, public schools will begin teaching that there is no difference between gay and straight relationships. It's no coincidence that one of the biggest opponents of prop 8 were the teachers. An underlying theme of this teaching will be to tie differentiation of sexual orientation to racial discrimination (this is already their primary theme), thus claiming that most major religions are havens for bigotry.

This is much, much bigger than just what the government does or doesn't do. Put the government aside. Is there a meaningful difference between hetero- and homosexual relationships? Is there a meaningful difference between men and women?

Cheezburger of the Day

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You Smile Now!

You! Stop sitting there! Click here! You go smile now! No more frowning, you see super happy lucky smile site and smile now!

Studying is a Personal Decision

Dig this.

Education spending and reading scores are clearly not strongly coupled. Click on the chart for a better view.
A friend of mine used to work in IT at a school district where the dropout rate was high and the students' performance was terrible. Money poured into the school and was spent like water. Nothing changed. Why?

Studying or staying in school is a personal decision, it is not a collective one. If a student and their parents don't care about school, then all the money in the world isn't going to change anything. If you're the kind of parent who doesn't go to report card night and talk to the teachers, the school could have a helipad and an astronomy observatory and you still wouldn't go. If you're a student and you smoke weed at lunch in the parking lot, the school could have holograph-generating computers teaching chemistry and you'd still be getting high with your stoner friends.

What the chart above shows is that we passed the point at which investment affects performance long, long ago. Everything added on from here on out is just a waste of money.

Chart used without permission from an article on school choice from the Heritage Foundation.

Where's Nancy Pelosi Going to get the Money?

So Nancy Pelosi's first budget was $162B in the red, her second was something like $406B in the red and this next one is supposed to be around $1T (that's right, one trillion dollars!) in the red. Who has that kind of money to lend to the government? And it's not just our government, it's governments all around the world who are having to borrow like mad. Dittos for states and counties and cities.

I'm really scratching my head on this one and wondering what to do with my money because of it. It seems to me that this level of borrowing is going to utterly dominate the financial world in the next year. I can only see two alternatives. Interest rates may go way up as the demand for money will outstrip the supply. The other possibility will be wild inflation as the Federal government prints money to make up the difference.

Fortunately, these kinds of developments don't happen overnight and one ought to be able to see them beginning. As I read through the financial blogs, I'm keeping my eyes open for just which way this is going and will continue to post updates and links here.

My NFL Teams all Stink

... so please help me pick someone to root for as we head towards the playoffs. My Saints, Packers and Chargers are all lousy this year and it looks like none of them will get into the playoffs. So as not to be a total front runner, I need to pick someone new to root for, but just for this year. Next year I go back to my normal teams.

Leave your suggestions and lobbying in the comments.

A Better way to go John Galt

"Going John Galt", derived from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, means to remove your talents and skills from the economy in response to the ever-increasing burdens, restrictions and guilt imposed on you by popular culture and the government. In the book, the innovative and highly-skilled people of the country gradually drop out of the rat race and the country falls apart.

It's an interesting idea, but it's way too passive and destructive for me. Instead, I suggest you starve your enemies of the resources they need and instead give them to your friends.

Case in point: my parish's Catholic school sent me a request for a donation that would provide scholarship money to low-income families that want to send their kids to Catholic school. That donation will be tax-deductible and accomplishes the intent of going John Galt with many added benefits.

First, it takes the fruits of my labor away from the government. If they want to fund the NEA to put crucifixes in urine or fund public schools to take field trips to lesbian weddings, they can do it without that much of my money. Am I a villain because I've worked hard and am doing fairly well for myself? They can't have my money.

Instead, I'll give it to organizations that will stand up and fight against moral equivalence and secular humanism. They can yap all they want in public school that all cultures and all family structures are equally good while Oakland falls into anarchy, but they can do it without that much more of my support. My money can go to an organization that teaches the kind of morality that would enable the people of Oakland to live happy, successful lives.

It's not enough to quit. That's a cheap and easy way out. It's not enough to engage in politics. The Republicans are not the answer. (See also: Stevens, Ted.) You've got to simultaneously starve your enemies of resources and give them to your allies.

Well, at Least now I Know

... but it's never been one of my top career choices.

49%

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Thanks to our Official Artist for pointing this one out. Stop by and see how well he did!

Iowahawk Urges us to Celebrate the Obama Victory

... as opposed to my sour view of the whole thing. Here's a tidbit.

Yes, I know there are probably other African-Americans much better qualified and prepared for the presidency. Much, much better qualified. Hundreds, easily, if not thousands, and without any troubling ties to radical lunatics and Chicago mobsters. Gary Coleman comes to mind. But let's not let that distract us from the fact that Mr. Obama's election represents a profound, positive milestone in our country's struggle to overcome its long legacy of racial divisions and bigotry. It reminds us of how far we've come, and it's something everyone in our nation should celebrate in whatever little time we now have left.

Read the whole thing.

A Happy Cat

She doesn't want her belly rubbed, she does this as an expression of joy and contentment. It always makes me smile.

Dinner Last Night - a Preliminary After Action Report

So last night I made Cornish game hens with cornbread and crawfish stuffing from my Paul Prudhomme cookbook. How did it taste? Delicious! Nom nom nom nom!!!! Here's what it looked like:


More later.

Apparently, My Kids Have Committed Some Kind of Crime

... because they're being sentenced to 50 hours of mandatory community service.

The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year.

I guess this has been airbrushed away and required has been changed to recommended and there's now a reward that goes with it.

Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by setting a goal that all middle school and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year and by developing a plan so that all college students who conduct 100 hours of community service receive a universal and fully refundable tax credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of their college education is completely free.

The fundamental problem here is that if the products and services created by the kids in their 100 hours of community service aren't worth $4000, then the remainder will have to be made up by taking the money away from the people that actually produce things of value. How will we afford this? Who is John Galt?

By the way, $4000 for 100 hours of service equals $40 an hour. How many adolescents produce $40 per hour worth of value to anyone? We're guaranteed to be getting far less than $40 per hour from these kids, so the productive people better start working even harder. Redistribution takes many forms, comrades! Perhaps after just a bit more of this kind of "change" we can even do away with that icky, militaristic national anthem we've got now and replace it with this one.

Aside: That YouTube link has the single, all-time greatest comment anywhere, ever. Commenter withoutcompare says this: "I think before the collapse of Soviet Union, Soviet Union should have attackted on The USA (sic). Love from Turkey." Translation: "I wish we'd had a full-scale thermonuclear war! Love from Turkey."

Hilarious!

No Time to Blog

... busy cooking!

We're doing Cornish game hens with cornbread and crawfish stuffing. Photos tomorrow.

Just remember, dear readers...

It's all about the taste!

Always Keep a Camera With You

... especially if you like to photoblog.

Yesterday, I was on my way home from Costco, driving along Mission Bay. The sun had just set and there were no clouds to give a dramatic sunset. I had seen this before I had left home, so I left my camera at home. Instead, there was no wind and the water was like glass on Mission Bay, reflecting the orange glow of the sunset with palm trees all around as accents. It would have been simplicity itself to have pulled over and snapped a few shots.

Argh.

I'm thinking of getting an inexpensive point-and-shoot camera that I'll keep in my glove box for occasions just like this.

It looked like this, only without the clouds and closer to the water and cool reflections of the palm trees on the water and the sun had already set and ... Oh, who am I kidding? It didn't look anything like this at all. I really wish I'd had a camera with me.
Update: If you want to see a photo done right, check this one out. It looks like the mountain is leaning into the wind.

The Raiders Cut DeAngelo Hall, Plan to lay Down Like Dogs for the Rest of the Season

That Al Davis, he's one crafty fellow!

ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP)—The Oakland Raiders’ decision to waive DeAngelo Hall just eight games after signing him to a $70 million contract brought surprised reactions from his teammates who now wonder even more about the future of the franchise.

“I’ve never been in a situation where you cut one of the best players,” said safety Gibril Wilson, another of the team’s offseason acquisitions. “That’s strange to me. It’s almost like we’re throwing in the towel.”

Huh?

The Markets Rally in a Massive Obama Bounce!

... at least I think it's a rally. It is, isn't it?

Hope! Hope and change!
I wish I'd cashed out on election day.

Update: This might have something to do with it.

Meanwhile, House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank said in an interview that he is weighing tougher rules on shareholder rights and stricter conditions on the $700 billion financial rescue package.

Mr. Frank added that a central point of Democrats' plans would be the creation of a "systemic-risk regulator." It could have unprecedented powers over a wide range of financial institutions, from insurance firms to hedge funds ...

Excellent. More centralized control from the people that brought you the crisis in the first place.

Cheezburger of the Day

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I should have cashed out on election day.

Elections are a Measure of the Culture

Quick aside: In the last few days, the 'Post has been blowing up. Yesterday, we received nearly 2,000 visitors, almost all of which went to our political posts. Yay! If you're a repeat visitor from that avalanche of hits, welcome and thanks for stopping by.

Actual post: I'm coming to the conclusion that elections are a quantifiable measure of the culture. In this election we had two candidates who did not recommend that we take control of our spending and pay for what we bought. Both had economic plans that were guaranteed to lead to higher deficits. After going through a debt-induced crisis, neither could comprehend that the problem was borrowing when you couldn't pay. For that matter, our current president and the challenger from the last election don't have a clue about it, either.

In the debates, the moderators from the press showed no hint of urgency in dealing with the problem. Instead, all of the questions were about how the government was going to guide the economy and create jobs. That, of course, is nonsense.

In the end, we vote the way we live.

No Honeymoon Period Here

Lots of conservative bloggers are going on and on about yesterday's election being historic and how there's a silver lining in the loss because it shows how broad-minded America is and how they pray for Obama's success and blah blah blah.

There will be none of that here. Just where people are getting their hope from is beyond me. We just elected Robert Mugabe, plain and simple. If you think he's going to lose any more elections, you're high on weed. When you can take money from anonymous contributors in untold amounts, have thugs outside of some polling stations, get the press to investigate your opponents like they were the gestapo and get your supporters to vote multiple times all when you're not the incumbent, imagine what you can do when you are.

It's a historic moment! Yay!

Camaro LS7

Are the glory days of the Camaro coming back? Maybe. Dig this.


More pictures here. More information here.

Welcome to Zimbabwe, Part II

The amazing thing is how the reporter just breezes past the admission of voter fraud. He just covered an admission of multiple voting with a line of people going off into the street who have voted who knows how many times already and he treats like it's no big deal. He was clearly looking for a hole to crawl into so he didn't have to do any follow up questions.

Well, That Didn't Take Long

... Bill Ayers ran off to attend Barack Obama's victory rally as soon as the polls had closed.

"I didn't do anything," Ayers added. "It's all guilt by association. They made me into a cartoon character. They threw me up on stage just to pummel me. I felt from the beginning that the Obama campaign had to run the campaign and I had to run my life."

Ayers called today an "exciting moment" and said he planned to attend Obama's evening rally in Chicago's downtown Grant Park.

Really now. Let's all be open-minded. He didn't do a thing wrong. Those molecules were going to violently chain-react anyway. He's no cartoon character at all.

Imagine portraying this man as a cartoon character. It's outrageous, I tell you!

China Takes the Lead!

... in video game farming.

Last year China banned the sale of virtual currency in an effort to shut down "gold farmers" -- businesses that hire young Chinese to play video games all day and sell the proceeds (in the form of game currency or magic items) on eBay or online ... In December 2005 the New York Times estimated 100,000 Chinese were employed full-time in the gold farming industry

Fantastic! An entire industry where Chinese kids sell fantasy objects to American kids for real money.

What would they charge to sell me a high score at Space Invaders?

Welcome to Zimbabwe

Dig this.

Update: There's more. Lots more. Try this one on for size.

Rain in San Diego Likely to Suppress Voting

... we'll probably only end up with 108% of all living humans voting.

Thanks, ACORN!

I'm Going to Miss the Political Campaigning

... I think. My SiteMeter hits have just been blowing up in the last few weeks. This post suggesting that Obama was closer to Bush than McCain was has been picking up massive numbers of hits every day.

I wonder if the hits will keep rolling in even after the election is over. I hope so. It's gratifying to see that many eyeballs come across the blog.

Sometimes you can Want it too Badly

... particularly when you have your followers cheat and steal. And cheat some more.

If Obama wins, just what will he have won? A chance at national unification, perhaps?

Perhaps not.

Cheezburger of the Day

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A Bailout for the MSM

... is probably on the way. The always entertaining Mark Steyn connects some dots pretty powerfully regarding the way the SF Chronicle buried Obama's assertion that he would bankrupt new coal power plants.

(T)hey chose to bury not only the lead but the entire dog: "Obama's Straight-Ahead Style". Why not just call it "Nothing To See Here, Folks. Another Direct-To-Birdcage Production"?

There is no explanation for the Chronicle's action if they're in the newspaper business (ie, in attracting readers, selling copies, etc.). But it makes perfect sense if they're in the ideological PR business in hopes of electing politicians sufficiently grateful to include them in the next $700 billion bailout.

Obama Will be Turning off the Lights all by Himself

Well, this won't take long. There's a part of Atlas Shrugged that deals with the loss of electrical power because the system breaks down as the productive people bail out of society. If elected, Obama will short circuit the whole process and turn the lights out himself.

What I’ve said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else’s out there ...

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.

Do not pass go, do not redistribute $200, go directly to blackouts.

A satellite image of the US and Mexico at night after Obama is elected. For those of you who recently graduated from public school, the US is the one on top.

Another Lean Six Sigma Success Story!

... well, sort of*.

Drilling deeper, we discovered that mobilizing large and costly squads of black belts in some cases actually slows performance improvement efforts. Managers are unsure how best to deploy the Lean Six Sigma experts, and too often black belts treat all problems, big and small, with the same approach, resulting in less-effective solutions. Moreover, they fail to prioritize the improvements that will make the biggest difference.

* - actually, this isn't a success story at all.

A Review of Atlas Shrugged

I just finished listening to the unabridged Atlas Shrugged on 42 (!) CDs. I'll admit I abridged the thing myself as portions of it were rather tiresome, but I would bet that I heard about 90% of the book.

Premise: If you haven't read the book, the general theme is that as the government increases the tax and regulatory burden on the productive to serve the needy, more and more productive people opt out of society (going John Galt in modern parlance). They recognize that they are becoming beasts of burden for everyone else and they simply quit and disappear from society. The end result is catastrophic.

Summary: For me, the book is a classic. The themes within it are timeless and as I read it, I saw applications of it throughout my life. At work, at home, in the elections, the concepts of Atlas Shrugged are everywhere. I consider myself pretty well-read, but this book revolutionized the way I see many things. Despite its immense size, I highly recommend it.

Random Thoughts

In the book, none of the main characters have children. This allows them to behave like children. Going full on John Galt and opting out of society is an act of petulant childishness that is possible only if you have no tie to the future. Children tie you to the future and force you to remain in society and try to make it as good as it can be. While I see the themes of this book being played out with greater and greater strength in the US, there is not much of a chance I would go John Galt in that way.

Of course, Tuesday may change all that. Who knows.

The conflict in the book is cultural, not personal. Society is divided into producers and looters. The popular culture within the book and within America today takes from the producers and gives to the looters. As the plot progresses, more and more is taken from the producers to give more and more to the looters. The majority of Americans, both in the book and in real life, speak in terms of "need" as the primary motivation for action and disdain those who produce.

Example: Millions of Americans are without health insurance. They need it. We must take from the producers and give to the needy that they may have health insurance. At no time is the concept of "What have they done to earn it?" ever raised.

In the book, producers can understand the looters' mentality, but not the other way around. Looters see producers as evil and greedy. This is like the popular view of Exxon in real life. Looters do not understand that producers are the key to civilization until enough of them drop out and society begins to fall apart. Even then, they cling to the concepts of rewarding need and punishing greed as they increase the load on the ever-dwindling set of producers.

Example: California today.

Discouraged by high costs and strict regulations, just under 60 percent of California business leaders interviewed for a new study said they have policies to restrict job growth in the state or move jobs to other locations in the United States....

The consulting firm [Bain] interviewed chief executives or senior managers of about 50 small, medium and large companies with extensive operations in the state.

About 40 percent said their companies have an explicit policy to move jobs elsewhere in the United States, with Texas cited as the most frequent destination. Not counting those companies that must stay in California, such as retailers or health care providers, the proportion of businesses that said their policy is to move jobs rose to 55 percent.

Hmmm. I guess there's more than one way to go John Galt. I have to admit, I have considered moving to another state when I retire...

Like I said before, the problem in the book is cultural. Even when confronted with the concrete results of their actions, the looters can't see the causes. As society crumbles they continue to speak in terms of what they need. The politicians continue to speak in terms of the government developing new plans to deal with one crisis after another when, in fact, the crises were created by government plans in the first place.

Example: The recent financial catastrophe was generated by the quasi-governmental mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac deciding to change their strict loan purchase policies and begin buying subprime loans. People needed to be able to buy houses and it was unreasonable to expect them to earn the houses. Now that mortgage defaults are skyrocketing, the government is working on mortgage bailout plans for needy borrowers who can't afford the homes they bought.

In the end, it is the looters' philosophy that fails. The collapse of society is a result of the doomed culture of consumption over production. All kinds of policies and government arrangements are tried, but nothing stops the inexorable decline of civilization because their mindset is centered around need.

If you go back and watch the debates, particularly the Democratic primary debates, I think you'll see this exact mindset on display.

In the end, the keys to success - hard work, thrift, skills and education, personal responsibility and so forth - allow the producers to escape the cataclysm. I won't spoil the book and reveal how. Here in the real world, a mix of Dave Ramsey, St. Thomas Aquinas and a solid set of valuable skills allow you to go John Galt in a variety of ways while the looters among us spiral downwards.

More on that in later posts.

Does it Matter When a Time Machine is Invented?

On our way to yesterday's soccer game, my daughter brought up the subject of time machines. She thought it would be cool to be the first one to use one. I started thinking about that and I asked her, "What does 'first' mean?" I could see a little crease of concentration on her forehead as she began to contemplate all the wonderful contradictions of time travel. The conversation led to a couple of points.

Does it matter when a time machine is invented? As soon as one has been created, couldn't you just build a second and take it back in time with you? If that doesn't work out, couldn't you just take the blueprints back with you? Wouldn't that be necessary if you wanted to get back to your original time, assuming the machine doesn't move with you?

If the machine moves with you, then there really is no such thing as "first" any more. Here's another brain teaser for you.

Hypothesis: A time machine will never be invented.

Proof: There is no one from the future among us. As soon as a time machine is invented, the chance to go back in time will exist. Since the time machine will exist off into the future from the point it is invented, the chance that someone from the future will visit our time asymptotically approaches 1. Of the set of people who would visit our time, there is a subset that would make themselves known as beings from the future and demand tribute / power / SpeedPasses at Disneyland. As time goes to infinity, the probability that such an event would occur asymptotically approaches 1.

It has not happened, therefore there will be no time machine in the future.

If you see Rod Taylor, run. Not that it will do you any good outside of the cardiovascular exercise you will get, but running always seems to be sound advice when involved in SciFi cataclysms.
Image borrowed from this post over at Riff Trax. The post is worth visiting, the comment thread is pretty funny.

Buying vs. Building

Russia, flush with cash when commodity prices were high, imported the consumer goods it needed. It did not develop its own industries to build them. Now that commodity prices, like the price of oil, are dropping, they're in a world of hurt.

Russia’s consumer economy has been built on the commodity economy. The great oligarchic fortunes are in oil and metals. Although domestic consumption has contributed significantly to growth in recent years, diversification away from commodities has barely started since the high price of oil strengthened the exchange rate and sucked imports into the retail sector, and oil revenues made it easier to posture as a great power. The downturn in the commodity economy will thus have a multiplied effect on the consumer economy and the Russian standard of living.

They're hurting for many other reasons, too, but if all you do is sell things you pull out of the ground, you'd better be able to eat and wear those things when no one wants to buy them any more.

Paso Rodentes

On our trip last week to Paso Robles, we stopped to have a picnic near the beach. While there, we met an entrepreneurial squirrel who was quite the ham. He was richly rewarded.

Because Friday is Catblogging Day

Elegance. Always elegance.

Cheezburger of the Day

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Don't be the Last one to the Loan Window

... because there won't be any money left to loan you.

Iceland is borrowing out of crisis. So is Hungary, from anyone who will lend them cash. Argentina, Greece and Italy are making their way to the bankers even now. At some point in time, there will be no more money left to loan and the latecomers will ... do what?

Parasites and Payday Loans

... go together like peanut butter and jelly.

WASHINGTON -- Lobbyists descended on Capitol Hill to push for an economic-stimulus bill that could cost as much as $150 billion...

Short synopsis: We will borrow money, to be paid back by our children, to fill the pockets of those best connected in DC.

Some of the projects being considered are roads and bridges. Ask yourself this question. "Would my business or the business I work for be able to make more of a profit if the roads and bridges were better?" Remember, profit is the only thing in the world that creates jobs.

Cheezburger of the Day

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Today's Word Problem

I know it's been a while since our last word problem, but things came up that delayed our release of this one. It had to be run past any number of quality control boards as a part of The Scratching Post's effort to embrace Lean Six Sigma quality controls*. In any case, we have another one for you today, but first, we need to answer the last one.

Answer to the last word problem: "Bleaurghworgs!"

Today's Word Problem

Chief Norkatonkle of the Wimizambo tribe wants to trade 15 goats and a basket of fish heads to Chief Brakkaglimble of the Shirewetsis in exchange for 12 squirrel pelts and 3 owl castings. The normal exchange rate is 1 goat for 30 ears of corn and 3 squirrel pelts per glass bead.

What does Chief Brakkaglimble write in the dirt with a stick in reply?

* - not a word of this is true. We just didn't write any for a long time, OK?

Why the Polls are Wrong

... because they only question each person once.

JACKSON, MS (WLBT) - Mississippi's voter situation is hard to believe. Places like Madison County have over 123% more registered voters than people over the age of 18.

Sue Sautermeister, First District Election Commissioner in Madison County, tried to purge the rolls, but ran into trouble when it was discovered it takes a vote of three of the five election commissioners and the purge cannot take place within 90 days of a federal election.

I predict that Obama will win 108% of the vote.

Sarkozy Proposes Directive 10-289

In the real world:

PARIS -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy unveiled a series of employment-boosting measures, including 100,000 additional subsidized job contracts, as new data showed a decline in European consumer confidence.

Mr. Sarkozy said his government will increase to 330,000 the number of subsidized job contracts it will finance in 2009. The figure is 100,000 more than originally proposed. He also warned employers not to use the crisis as a cover for shedding workers: "I won't tolerate any cynical or opportunistic strategies," he said in a speech, pointing to "those who might use the current crisis to justify reducing production and jobs."

In Atlas Shrugged:

Directive 10-289 provides the knockout punch to economic freedom in Atlas Shrugged. Its purported purpose is to stop the country's economic decline by freezing the economy in its present state. The directive employs comprehensive central government planning to freeze the status quo. It actually allows top government officials and politically-connected businessmen to retain power and enhance their own control of the economy. This directive mandates that all workers remain at their current jobs, that no business is permitted to close ... and requires firms to annually produce a number of goods identical to the number produced during the preceding year. In addition, the directive freezes all wages, prices, and profits, and requires every person to spend the same amount of money as he did in the preceding year.

Everyone knows that the best way to create jobs is to take away economic freedoms. Hooray for statism!

Here, the government constrains private entities for their own good. In exchange, private entities then produce things of value for all of society. It's a win-win!

Jobs Come From Profits

... it's really that simple. They don't come from anywhere else. They don't come from government programs or government mandates. They don't come from good wishes or kind thoughts. They come from profits.

Government jobs come from money taken by taxes from the profits of individuals or businesses. Private jobs come from businesses who have more money to spend because they made a profit.

When a politician claims they will create jobs, all they are saying is that they will take profits away from someone and spend that money themselves. The first unspoken claim is that they know how to invest profits better than the people that made the money in the first place. The second is that the fruits of your labor were never yours to begin with and they have the right and authority to take it away from you.

While some government spending, such as the construction of the interstate freeway system, has made higher profits possible, that spending did not create jobs. It made them possible. In the end, it was still the generation of profit by private enterprises that created the jobs. With the federal government spending $3T+ per year, it's hard to see just where additional spending is going to lead to a new version of the interstate freeway system.

Any politician claiming they are going to create jobs is a charlatan.

Captchadefs

Tonight we're going to try something new. Captchadefs! These are definitions for the anti-spam captcha words that you have to type in on some blogs when leaving a comment. Some generous readers have been leaving their captcha words and I've decided to perform a public service by letting you know what they mean.

Here we go.

vamisize (v) - to give a particularly generous donation at the blood bank. "Will it be the normal pint today, Mr. Schnerkwhistle?" "Heck, no, Howard. I feel generous. Vamisize me!"

bleropse (n) - an optical illusion caused by a foreign object in your eye, such as an eyelash or sand. "That's no gas station, Harvey! It's just another bleropse! I really wish you'd just let me give you those eye drops."

inisters (n) - people who look strangely disquieting, but are not actually dangerous in any way.

hersaya (n) - the closing arguments of a female trial attorney in court. "Thank you, Mr. Gorgonblatz, for that summation. And now, Ms. Trigglethorpe will have hersaya."

hyokedn (n) - the sound a large collar makes when being placed on a water buffalo.

There. That emptied the queue. Feel free to leave us some more and we'll see if we can clear things up for you!

It's Better to be Called Fat Than Old

... or at least that's what our Maximum Leader seems to be saying. She ran out of food recently. When I went to Petco to get her some more, I decided to try the Science Diet Senior instead of her normal Science Diet Light. She's about 9 years old and I wondered if she would like it more.

She most certainly did not. She did not like it one little bit. I think she took exception to me suggesting that she was getting up there in years.

I may be fat, but I'm not old!

On the Road This Morning

... so no time to blog. In the meantime, check out the cause

Much of the blogosphere is buzzing over a 2001 radio interview in which Barack Obama seems genuinely chagrined that redistributionist policies aren’t going to come from the courts ... it is fairly obvious that Obama was saying nothing extraordinary in his own mind. This is the sort of thing left-leaning “intellectuals” bandied about. It’s the outlook that underscored the bent of not just his closest comrades at the time ( e.g. Reverend Wright and Father Pfleger), but the activist organizations he and Bill Ayers supported through the Woods Fund. It is absurd, really, to write off all these associations as an aberration or exaggeration, or to ignore them as some imagining of paranoid conservatives. What comes through loud and clear was that Obama shared the classic anti-capitalist, redistributionist philosophy accepted as dogma by many on the Left.

and the effect

So, if Obama actually wins this election and delivers on even half of his promises, I'm vacillating on whether to pull a reverse John Galt and plug IN to the system ... I mean to look into every government assistance program Obama/Pelosi/Reid provides or funds. Even if I don't sign up, at least I'll have an idea where my money is going to. But if I do take an occasional sip from the public teat, consider it my own way of "spreading the wealth" back around to me.

Hmmm.

California Central Coast