Hmm, Hmm, Hmm

I don't follow MMA but this one is pretty good:

I love the reaction of the ref: Is his name Barry?

Barry, One Smooth Dancer

Not!
ACORN to Play Role in 2010 Census

The U.S. Census is supposed to be free of politics, but one group with a history of voter fraud, ACORN, is participating in next year's count, raising concerns about the politicization of the decennial survey.

Payin' back the peps.

Obama White House bars press from press award ceremony

The president is to receive the award from the federation of black community newspapers in a White House ceremony this afternoon.

The Obama White House has closed the press award ceremony to the press.

Transparency? Openness? Not even close.

Obama Ashamed Of Old Glory? Hides Flag For Message To Iran

In the main, generic version, an American flag is plainly visible in the background. But below that there are links to other versions, including “.mp4 with Persian subtitles.” Persian is of course the language of Iran, so that is the version designed by the White House to be seen there.

Click on it and you’ll see that—poof!—the American flag has disappeared from the background.

Country, what country?

It's certainly becoming one that I find hard to recognize.

AIG Is Not The Problem

I originally posted this elsewhere, but I figure it's worth posting here too (with a few minor tweaks).

The AIG tax bill that the House passed is beyond ridiculous. It is outright unconstitutional according to Article 1, Section 9:

No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

A bill of attainder is "a legislative act that singles out an individual or group for punishment without a trial." The bills language is very tightly targeted to just AIG, and retroactive to previously allowed actions. I do not see how this will pass legal muster or either the attainder or the retroactive aspects. I predict someone will take it to court and spank Congress heartily, all at our expense.

I also find the utter hypocrisy of both the Congressional and Executive branches in this matter to be completely disgusting: Sen. Dodd Admits Adding Bonus Provision to Stimulus Package

In a dramatic reversal Wednesday, Sen. Chris Dodd confessed to adding language to a spending cap in the stimulus bill last month that specifically excluded executive bonuses included in contracts signed before the bill's passage.

Dodd, D-Conn., told FOX News that Treasury officials forced him to make the change.

furthermore,

Amid AIG Furor, Dodd Tries to Undo Bonus Protections in the 'Dodd Amendment' Rules

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday night floated the idea of taxing American International Group bonus recipients so the government could recoup some or all of the $450 million the company is paying to employees in its financial products unit.

The outrage being expressed by Dodd, Geinter and The One is completely bogus and two-faced. Two (or even three or four) wrongs do not make a right. Obviously neither does Congress or the President.

Alabama Tragedy

I'm sure most have heard about this by now. If not here's a page with links to stories about this tragic event.

Today I came across an article with more info on this tragedy: Town comedian hailed as hero in Alabama killings

On Friday, witnesses and authorities said Maloy, the 10th and final victim of Tuesday's shooting rampage by Michael McLendon, single-handedly tried to end the violence with his beat-up old pickup truck.

With gunshots still echoing through downtown Samson and the killer headed toward a bigger city 12 miles away, Maloy chased McLendon's dark red Mitsubishi out of town, ramming the vehicle at least once.

Maloy slowed down the killer briefly, and he may have given police and state troopers time to catch up to McLendon, said Geneva County Chief Deputy Tony Helms. But it cost him his life.

Stories like this make me wish more people could and would carry.

On a larger front, is it me or have there really been more news reports of people committing crimes with guns in the last few weeks since AG Holder announced his idea for a new weapons ban? I would be quite interested in any studies that have been or are being done that show or disprove any correlation between the reporting of gun-involved crimes and gun control-related announcements. I'm not claiming there are any conspiracies, but I also do not believe much in coincidence.

Geeks do the 2nd Amendment

As posted on an internet board:

The state doesn't give us anything. The rights were simply enumerated.

Your right to defend yourself is bestowed upon you when you are instantiated.

While I believe my base class to include this right as well, the state has thus far overloaded the 2A operator with a null pointer... As of yet the linter has not detected this and a segfault is occurring when the function is referenced...

LOL

Compare and Contrast

Steele no Steal

What the heck was he thinking?: Limbaugh's latest attacker: RNC's Steele

In a little-noticed interview Saturday night, Steele dismissed Limbaugh as an “entertainer” whose show is “incendiary” and “ugly.”

I'm not the biggest fan of Rush Limbaugh, but the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Michael Steele was supposed to be the great uniter for the Republicans, kind-of in the mold of The One for the Democrats. Comments like this are not the way to do it.

Obama Humor

From LawDog via Weer'd World Arrr:

Q: What's the difference between Jesus and Obama?

A: Jesus was a carpenter; Obama can't even assemble a cabinet.

*rimshot*

The last time I saw this many withdrawals, it was in the Detox tank at the County jail on a bad Saturday night.

LawDog

Truth

John Bolton on Barack Obama*:

Being inconsistent or deceptive is not the same thing as being a moderate.

Bwahahahaha

*from World Magazine Blog

The Rat Resurfaces

The rat that is Northeast Traders resurfaces again:

It seems that while every store in the state sells them. They are not on the approved Roster. I came into work last night to find them all locked up back in the cage.

It seems someone came into the store, I was told, on Saturday to return a 22A that he bought from Bass Pro.

From what I was told yesterday by several different people...

He went into Northeast Trading and was talking about the 22A he bought from Bass Pro. He was told by someone there that it was a felony to own the pistol, and he needed to take it back.

So, he came back on Saturday, as I posted above, and was freaking out that he was going to go to Jail and demanded that we take it back.

So, we took it back, we removed them from the shelves.

As I've said before with regard to their history, Northeast Trading is a lying, scum of the earth dealer who is an enemy of gun owners in Massachusetts and should be boycotted by us all. Just so you know who he is here is the address and contact information:

Northeast Trading Company
Rt. 152/580 Kelley Blvd.
North Attleboro, MA 02760
508-695-4852 or 800-473-3006
sales@northeasttrading.com
http://www.northeasttrading.com/
Read, heed and avoid

The First Skirmish

The White House does it's best "General Gage":

and the colonists respond*:

*found via Oraculations

Revolution

Taxes? We don't pay no sticking taxes! We just print money and spend it.
George Stephanopoulos’s Buddy Rahm Emanuel in Possible Tax Trouble

The Washington Times and New York Daily News, among other news outlets, have reported that, as a member of Congress, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel received rent-free accommodations from Representative Rosa DeLauro for five years, raising the question of whether Emanuel properly complied with gift rules for House members and whether he should have paid taxes on the imputed income of the gift.

Another Obama administration appointee or official has tax issues.

Government accountability takes yet another combination to the body:
The RAT hiding deep inside the stimulus bill

In the name of accountability and transparency, Congress has given the RAT Board the authority to ask “that an inspector general conduct or refrain from conducting an audit or investigation.”
...
The language means that the board — whose chairman will be appointed by the president — can reach deep inside a federal agency and tell an inspector general to lay off some particularly sensitive subject. Or, conversely, it can tell the inspector general to go after a tempting political target.

There appears to be some confusion on the part of the current administration about the differences between power, independence and transparency.

In the end, when you have a nation of farmers and merchants that is where their revolution begins. When you have a nation of capitalists where does that revolution begin? Here's one possibility:

Heartwarming

From Gonzo’s Bar & Go-Go Grill (found via Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler):

When I first opened my old computer repair shop, it was a part time weekend and evening thing, a one man operation. To this end, I bought an old service station which had been converted to a pizza shop, both businesses of which were defunct...

Imagine my surprise when I go there the other night and find that there are people parked there...

As I walked in, I had opportunity to look at the bumpers of the cars parked there.

“Obama ‘08.” “Hope. Change.” “Obama/Biden.” All three cars belonging to LIBERALS. One loaded down with pithy little bumpersticker philosophies that Liberals so love.

On my [bleep]ing property...

Read the rest for the heartwarming part.

Done Deal

I've not blogged on the stimulus bill because there was more than enough information out there for anyone who wanted to know. There wasn't much I felt I could add to the debate. Also it was pretty clear it was going to pass regardless of what anyone said.

Interesting though is the fact that it did pass given there was much public hue and cry about the fraud, waste and abuse in this bill. Furthermore, I've only met a few people that were for the bill, and they're involved in our local government which will be receiving money from this bill. Much of the reporting and public opinion was critical of this bill, yet it still passed. Why?

For example, back in 2007 immigration reform legislation was introduced with strong support from the President and the leadership of both parties, yet that legislation failed spectacularly. Public opinion at the time was very divided but it seemed to me that there was more public support for that legislation than there was for this bill. Why did that one fail and this one pass?

I suspect either people were not contacting their Congress-critters this time around to express their displeasure; or, more likely, Congress simply ignored the opinion of their constituents and did what they wanted this time. Yet another example of politics as usual.

For those of you who what to do something about the politics as usual here are links to the roll call votes in the House and the Senate:
Initial House vote
House vote on final compromise bill
Vote to end debate (filibuster) in Senate
Initial Senate vote
Senate vote on final compromise bill
I encourage you to look up your Senators and Representative and express your opinion of them regarding this bill in word and at the ballot box.

"W" Now Equals "N"

Today I learned that "wetback" is the new "n" word. I knew it was an insulting term to some people, but not having spent much time in areas of the country with large Hispanic populations I did not realize that etymological evolution had raised the "w" word to offensive equality with the "n" word. Live and learn, I guess.

This got me thinking that we Caucasians are losing the cultural war because we don't have a universally-recognized offensive appellation for ourselves. Some candidates that come to mind are "whitey", "honky", "cracker" and "yankee". The first two tend to only have applicability in black-on-white interactions. The last two tend to have geographic constraints. Someone from the Northeast is not likely to be much insulted to be called a "yankee": Similarly someone from the Southeast being called a "cracker".

Obviously the answer is to put them all together; whitey-honky-cracker-yankee becomes "whonkeree": That ought to be insulting enough for everyone.

Of course this will require some selling to get it accepted as a terrible insult. All us white guys will have to go around calling each other "wonkeree" then raise holy cane when someone else starts using it:

W1: "Hey whonkeree, how's it hanging?"
W2: "Good, good. What about you whonkeree?"
W1: "Fine, fine." How's the wife and kids?"
W2: "They're well. And yours?"
W1: "Well too. Well, gotta go whonkeree, keep earning that dollar."
W2: "Me too whonkeree, me too"
NW: "What's that you be calling one another 'whonkeree'?"
W1&W2: "HOW DARE YOU USE THAT WORD. DON'T YOU KNOW IT'S TERRIBLY INSULTING TO US? Use that word again and we're going to call a news conference to tell the whole world how we're being persecuted and harassed by people using that word. Anyone who uses that word ought to be shamed and shunned by all society."

Get enough of us whonkerees doing this and the cultural field will be level again in no time.

Difficult Weekend

It's been a difficult weekend here. Our two senior goats died which has everyone upset.

Dawn was the matriarch. She was the first one we got and is the basis for more than half of our herd. She had not been in the best of health for a while but still it was shock when she passed way Friday night.

Gamble was the senior buck and the first buck that we got. The original plan had been to have no bucks on site because of their reputation for being smelly and aggressive. When Gamble came to visit to breed some of the ladies he was such a sweetie that when his owner offered to sell him to us we jumped at it. He too had been in poor health off and on the past year. He was with Dawn when she died which appeared to affect him. Coming so close on the heels of Dawn his death this morning was even more of a shock

All in all a tough weekend

Musings on Onions and MBIs

I ate out at an Outback restaurant the other evening while on a business trip. I was by myself and it was an interesting people-watching experience. Of the nine women seated in the same section I was in four of them were seriously overweight; not morbidly obese, but certainly overweight by more than 50 pounds. Two of the four were accompanied by men who where also noticeably to seriously overweight.

The most amusing couple was also the heaviest. It looked like they spent half the time that they were waiting for their food thumbing their Crackberries. One wonders who they might have been emailing; it certainly didn't look like one another.

As far as the meal itself that was decidedly mixed. The prime rib, steamed veggies and baked potato were very good, done just like I like them. On the other hand service was slow, and they screwed up the blooming onion, twice. The waiter told me the first one came out of the oven burnt. Then someone neglected to remove all of the outer skin on half of the second one. Unfortunately it was mostly the half I took back to my hotel room for a "midnight" snack.

So, what does an elevated average MBI of a restaurant's patrons indicate about said restaurant? In this case nothing, other than it provide some minor amusement to what otherwise would have been a long, lonely, boring, mediocre meal.

By Any Means Possible

Official: Gregg leading candidate for Commerce

Gregg's appointment to the post could give Obama and his Democratic Party a victory in the Senate, clearing the way for them to pass legislation without fear of a Republican filibuster.

I respectfully ask my northern neighbors to contact their remaining patriot Senator and express their strong desire to see him resist the siren song of The One and continue to serve their, and the rest of the Republican's party, interests as Senator. This blatant attempt to manipulate the legislative branch by the executive branch is manifestly disgusting.

This Whole Thing is Screwed Up

Follow-up to yesterday's crap. From the latest AP article:

The woman who gave birth to octuplets this week conceived all 14 of her children through in vitro fertilization, is not married and has been obsessed with having children since she was a teenager

...

Her daughter's obsession with children caused Angela Suleman considerable stress, so she sought help from a psychologist, who told her to order her daughter out of the house. "Maybe she wouldn't have had so many kids then, but she is a grown woman," Angela Suleman said. "I feel responsible and I didn't want to throw her out."

...

"She told me that all of her kids were through in vitro, and I said 'Gosh, how can you afford that and go to school at the same time?"' she added. "And she said it's because she got paid for it."

...

The news that the octuplets' mother already had six children sparked an ethical debate. Some medical experts were disturbed to hear that she was offered fertility treatment, and troubled by the possibility that she was implanted with so many embryos.

Now I'm all for large families, my wife and I have 9 children, but this is just all messed up on many different levels. There is no family here either for the mother or for her children, the mother sounds like she has mental/emotional issues, someone is funding her behavior, and the medical community is aiding and abetting the whole thing. This sure sounds like the ultimate welfare mother story.

Crap

Absolute utter junk full of evolutionary stereotypes. Here are some representative excerpts:

Eight kids at once. The mind boggles. The mind is also pretty creeped out by the thought of one tiny baby after another coming out of a woman as if she were a mouse.

...

And so the very nature of what it takes to be an adult human puts constraints on how many children a mother can have at a time.

...

Take a look at a naked woman and see for yourself how many babies a woman is designed to care for - two, at most.

...

It doesn't seem right to have that many kids at once because it isn't right in the evolutionary sense.

...

chances are it will be a very long time before that mother reproduces again

Meredith Small appears to have written quite a number of books and articles with parenting advice, and some things she says seems to make some sense, but following the evolutionary mindset toward its logical conclusion leads to this kind of crap. Then again IMNSHO getting parenting advice from a primate anthropologist is like trying to have your car repaired by bicycle historian.