A Certain Madness

Here's an interesting item in the local Montgomery County, MD newspaper The Gazette.

Headline:

Area Americans Hope For Best But Prepare For Worst
Many fear hate crimes after Fort Hood shooting

The opening graphs read:

At the quiet Community Center in Silver Spring [MD] where even the local ping pong ace is said to avoid unncessary attention, community center regulars say they are facing constant news trucks at the front gates and a fear of retaliation against Americans in a post-9/11 world.

When Maj. Nidal M. Hassan, a Muslim Army psychiatrist, allegedly opened fire on a crowd of people at Fort Hood in Texas Nov. 5, killing 13 people, Americans at community centers, theaters, malls, waiting lines at the DMV, pumpkin stands, grocery check out lines, bus stops, Home Depot parking lots, town squares, farmers' markets, ball fields, playgrounds, street fairs, block parties, marathons, restaurants, business conferences, gas station pumps, Disney World, tailgates, camp grounds, stopped at red lights, monuments, and in their homes have been once again thrown into the spotlight as they try to understand the violence behind Hasan's outburst.

Of course that's not really what the article says. Here's what it really says:

Headline:

Area Muslims Hope for Best but Prepare for Worst
Many Fear Hate Crimes After Fort Hood Shooting

At the quiet Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring [MD]where even the holy leader is said to avoid unncessary attention, worshippers say they are facing constant news trucks at the front gates and a fear of retaliation against Muslims in a post-9/11 world.

When Maj. Nidal M. Hassan, a Muslim Army psychiatrist, allegedly opened fire on a crowd of people at Fort Hood in Texas Nov. 5, killing 13 people, Islam had been been once again thrown into the spotlight as Americans try to understand the violence behind Hasan's outburst.

"I don't think it's right to relate it to his religion, because people do crazy things regardless of their religion, whether they're Christian, Jewish, whatever," said Imam Mohamed Abdullahi, the center's holy leader.

"Why is it that whenever Muslims are involved in a crime, it's because of religion?" asked Arshad Qureshi, chairman of the center's board of trustees. "It's a double standard."

Now, here's where it gets crazy:

It's a double standard that center members are quick to dismiss, with worshippers such as center member Abdoulah Oyola bringing up other crimes, such as the recent discovery of 10 bodies and a human skull at a Cleveland sex offender's home. These crimes aren't linked to religion, he said.

Some members questioned how Hasan could even commit such an act, saying they question the reported accounts of what happened.

"To this day, I'm still not convinced this man did it," Oyola said. "I can't fathom it. I [used to] see this man every day." He questioned how Hasan could have fired so many shots during the attack without stopping to reload.

Whew, that is a deep, profound uncrossable river of denial.

But the concern of the article is the oppression committed daily upon the Muslim community following these non-religious-oriented attacks by what must be serial rapist-killers whose Jihadism, communications with extremist imams and Al Queda, and powerpoint slides on the proper decapitation of infidels are minor contrivances of a nationally hostile to Muslims mainstream media.

But the fear of vandalism, threats and other hate crimes lingers at the center and among many Muslims in the county.

Yes, and it lingers among Americans at community centers, theaters, malls, waiting lines at the DMV, pumpkin stands, grocery check out lines, bus stops, Home Depot parking lots, town squares, farmers' markets, ball fields, playgrounds, street fairs, block parties, marathons, restaurants, business conferences, gas station pumps, Disney World, tailgates, camp grounds, stopped at red lights, monuments, and in their homes.

At the center's regular Friday services, Abdullahi spoke out against hate crimes, saying he had heard from one person who received a threatening phone call. Non-Muslim Debbie Shankman, who regularly attends services at the Muslim Community Center, said one of her friends at the center told her she would not go to service Friday because she and her husband were scared.

Well, the evidence is incontrovertable - an annecdote about a person receiving a threatening phone call but without any detail as to the actual threat. Was it Comcast calling about a late payment? And a further annecdote, provided by, for lack of a better term, a groupie, about a couple running scared and being prevented from worshipping. Where's the Justice Department when you need it?!? Fortunately, according to the article:

Immediate statements from the Islamic Center of Washington and other Islamic groups were sent out, denouncing [Hasan's] purported attacks. The Muslim community learned to be more involved in the community and proactive about speaking out against violence.

Well, just going by the first quotes in the article, Mission Accomplished!! Muslims are speaking out about imagined violence against Muslims following a mass murder by a serial-rapist killer murderer who just happens to be a Muslim but is probably not the killer because questions linger as to how one person, particularly someone in the Army, could handle two semi-automatic handguns without apparently reloading while in a room full of unarmed men and women.

Officials from the Islamic Center of Maryland in Gaithersburg released a statement cautioning Muslims to be careful when visiting religious facilities or wearing clothing associated with Islam. The center also recommended that parents discuss the shooting with their children and what to do if they experience harassment at school.

But there is hope. There is always hope. Because it turns out that depiste the fear and self-pitying and basically made up bullshit about Americans driving Muslims underground . . .

As much as Muslim communities say they fear for the worst, many say they are overwhelmed by the support they have received over the past week.

Obligatory Emily Litella insertion - Nevermind!

"I think the media, the government and our military were very positive about this, " Abdullahi said. The center hasn't received any threats, he added, "But you have to understand, after 9/11, everybody is scared."

Oh, indeed, Mr. Abdullahi, indeed.

"There have actually been more expressions of support in the past rather than these isolated incidents [of hate crimes]," Ahmad said of the Islamic Center of Maryland. "The problem is that one incident can cause a lot of harm."

Ah, if it were only just one incident.

Happy Birthday, Marines!

234 Years

Read the Names

Peter Fechter, Age 18, Shot Dead, Berlin Wall, Aug. 17, 1962

Chris Gueffroy, Age 20, Shot Dead, Berlin Wall, Feb. 6, 1989

In the years between the murders of these two men, hundreds, some say thousands of others - no one is really sure how many - joined them. Their one quest - reach freedom on the other side of a barrier.

On one side of the barrier, an act of heroism. On the other side, an act of treason.

Today, U2 will play a concert; pols will make speeches; artists will use government funds on installations teaching us what it's really all about; the putative leader of the free world will not show up; idiots will think everything was better before; and American high school students will ask, "What wall?"

Read some of the Names. Just read the Names.

Rudolf Urban, age 47, August 19,1961 Injured while escaping, later died
Günter Litfin, 24, August 22, 1961 Shot swimming across Humboldt Harbor
Ida Siekmann, 58 August 22, 1961 Leaped from fourth-floor apartment
Unknown Male, August 29,1961 Shot swimming across Teltow Canal
Axel Brückner, 25, September 3, 1961 Shot
Olga Segler, 80, September 25, 1961 Died from injuries suffered after jumping to a rescue net from a third-floor apartment
Bernd Lünser, 22, October 4, 1961 Shot while trying to escape on a clothesline strung across the wall. Jumped to his death
Unknown Male, October 4, 1961 Beaten to death on roof, presumed to be accomplice of Bernd Lünser
Udo Düllick, 24, October 5,1961 Drowned after being shot while swimming across Spree River
Unknown Male, October 5, 1961 Shot trying to swim across Spree River
Unknown Male, October 13, 1961 Shot escaping on a freight train
Werner Probst, 25, October 14, 1961 Shot swimming across Spree River
Unknown Male, October 18, 1961 Shot escaping on a freight train
Unknown Male, October 27, 1961 Shot while crossing barbed wire
Unknown Male, October 31, 1961 Shot
Unknown Male, November 17, 1961 Drowned in Spree River
Lothar Lehmann, 20, November 17, 1961 Drowned in Havel River
Dieter Wohlfahrt, December 6, 1961 Shot
Ingo Krüger, 21, December 10, 1961 Drowned in Spree River
Dorit Schmiel, 20, February 19, 1962 Shot
Heinze Jercha, 27, March 27,1962 Shot while trying to help others escape by tunnel
Philipp Held, 20, April 11, 1962 Drowned in Spree River
Klaus Brüske, 23, April 18, 1962 Shot trying to escape in a truck
Peter Böhme, 19, April 18, 1962 Shot
Horst Frank, 20, April 29, 1962 Shot
Lutz Hablerland, 24, May 27, 1962 Shot
Axel Hannemann, 17, June 5, 1962 Shot while trying to swim across Spree River
Erna Kelm, 54, June 11, 1962 Drowned in Havel River
Unknown Male, June 22, 1962 Shot
Siegfried Noffke, 22, June 28, 1962 Shot in attempt to rescue his family by tunnel
Unknown Male, July 29, 1962 Shot
Peter Fechter, 18, August 17, 1962 Shot. Left to bleed to death by East German border guards
Hans-Dieter Wesa, 19, August 23, 1962 Shot
Ernst Mundt, 41, September 4, 1962 Shot while climbing over the wall
Unknown Male, October 8, 1962 Shot trying to cross Spree River
Ottfried Reck, 18, Late November, 1962 Shot
Unknown Male, Late November, 1962 Shot
Two Unknown Males, December 6, 1962 Shot and drowned after falling through the ice on Griebnitz Lake
Hans Raewal, 21, January 1, 1963 Shot and drowned swimming across Spree River
Horst Kutscher, 32, January 15, 1963 Shot
Peter Kreitloff, 20, January 23, 1963 Shot
Unknown Male, January, 1963 Shot by Soviet Military patrol
Wolf-Olaf Muszynski, 16, April 1, 1963 Found dead in Spree River
Unknown Male, April 16, 1963 Drowned trying to cross the Teltow Canal
Unknown Person, April 16, 1963 Drowned in Spree River
Unknown Male, April 26, 1963 Shot trying to cross Teltow Canal
Klaus Schroeter, 23, November 4, 1963 Shot swimming across Spree River
Dietmar Schutz, 24, November 26, 1963 Shot
Dieter Berger, 24, December 13, 1963 Shot
Paul Schultz, 18, December 25, 1963 Shot
Adolf Philipp, 20, May 5, 1964 Shot
Unknown Male, June 22, 1964 Shot
Hans-Joachim Wolf, 17, Nov. 26, 1964 Shot swimming across Britzer Zweig Canal
Unknown Male, January 19, 1965 Drowned in Spree River
Christian Buttkus, 21, March 4, 1965 Shot
Hermann Döbler, 42, June 15, 1965 Shot crossing Teltow Canal
Heinz Sokolowski, 47, November 25, 1965 Shot
Heinz Schöneberger, 27, Dec. 26, 1965 Shot when group attempt to escape by car failed. Three companions were arrested. Schöneberger was shot as he ran towards West Berlin. He made it but later died of his wounds
Willi Block, 32, February 7, 1966 Shot
Unknown Male, March 19, 1966 Shot
Michael Kollender, 21, April 25, 1966 Shot swimming Teltow Canal
Paul Stretz, 31, April 29, 1966 Shot
Heinz Schmidt, 46, April 29, 1966 Shot
Two Unknown Males, ages 10 & 14, 1966 Shot while attempting to escape. Due to the young ages East German authorities informed the parents one boy died of drowning and the other was struck by lightening. The bodies were then cremated. This dark secret was uncovered in 1997.
Max Willi Sahmland, 37, Jan. 27, 1967 Shot swimming Teltow Canal
Unknown Person. November 16, 1968 Killed in shoot-out while trying to escape
Werner Kuehl, 22, July 24, 1971 Shot
Horst Kullack, 23, January 1, 1972 Shot
Klaus Schulze, 19, March 7, 1972 Shot
Peter Kreitloff, 20, January 23, 1973 Shot
Manfred Gertzki, 30, April 27, 1973 Shot
Burkhard Niehring, 23, January 5, 1974 A border guard, Niehring was shot when he took another soldier hostage and tried to escape at Checkpoint Charlie
Marietta Jirkowski, 18, Nov 22, 1980 Shot
Lothar Freie, age unknown, June 4, 1982 Shot
Unknown Male, December 1, 1984 Shot
Name Withheld, November 21, 1986 Shot or killed in truck attempting to crash through border
Unknown Male, November 24, 1986 Shot
Lutz Schmidt, 28, February 12, 1987 Shot
Name Withheld, August 11, 1987 Shot (Death occurred in 1984 but was not made public for several years.)
Chris Gueffroy, 20, February 5, 1989 Shot
Winfried Freundenberg, 32, Mar. 3, 1989 Died in crash landing of homemade gas balloon

Government vs. Private Sector

Here's some tasty research:

Incentives and Creativity: Evidence from the Life Sciences

by Pierre Azoulay, Joshua Graff Zivin, and Gustavo Manzo

Despite its presumed role as an engine of economic growth, we know surprisingly little about the drivers of scientific creativity. In this paper, we exploit key differences across funding streams within the academic life sciences to estimate the impact of incentives on the rate and direction of scientific exploration. Specifically, we study the careers of investigators of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute HHMI), which tolerates early failure, rewards long-term success, and gives its appointees great freedom to experiment; and grantees from the National Institute of Health, which are subject to short review cycles, pre-defined deliverables, and renewal policies unforgiving of failure.

Using a combination of propensity-score weighting and difference-in-differences estimation strategies, we find that HHMI investigators produce high-impact papers at a much higher rate than two control groups of similarly-accomplished NIH-funded scientists. Moreover, the direction of their research changes in ways that suggest the program induces them to explore novel lines of inquiry.

So, the institution started by a mad man is more successful and productive than the institution run by mad men.

Quel surprise.

About those elections . . .

Great!

Now listen Christie you fat fuck and McDonnel with your Bob Forehead Hair and you small pikers in those super wealthy NY counties and burgs: don't fuck it up by being all centrist and buddy-buddy with Democrats. They hate your fucking guts. And the voters that voted against you do too. So fuck them, too. And the independents who voted for you this time, fuck them as well. Govern by your principles. Conservatism is by definition unpopular and so you will barely break 50 percent by the end of your first terms. Why? Because you won't be handing out candy, right? You won't be glad handing special interest groups, right? You'll be cutting government operations and vetoing bills "for the children," right?

Repeat after SBD: limited constitutional government, smaller government operations, low taxes, law and order; veto every fucking nanny state transfat, anti-smoking, cellphone hating, eco-scolding piece of legislation that comes to your desk.

If you claim to be a conservative, then, goddamnit, act like one. Sign not one bill that raises one further penny for any government operation of any sort. Sign only bills repealing bureaucracy. Sign executive orders returning freedom to citizens to do what they please to build small kingdoms of entreprenuership for themselves and to maintain their happiness. Tell your citizens that they are responsible for themselves and you are going to help them get there by getting out of the way. Willy-nilly cut government employees 10 or 15 percent. Throw them into the street. Enforce the laws that matter, crush the gangs.

Stick to common sense and stay the fuck out of our lives.

Be the anti-Obamas.

Hey, it's Sunday, so the President must be golfing

Diversity Lane

On Capitalism

J.T. Young on capitalism:

Capitalism straddles today's globe. Every economic competitor has fallen before it - predecessors, feudalism and mercantilism, and would-be successors, communism and socialism. It is the greatest wealth generator in history, and it has done, or is doing, so on every continent and in every culture.

In the broad span of its ascendancy, the current economic crisis is barely a blip. Yet many on the left seek to advance the dubious argument that capitalism precipitated this crisis. Even more preposterous is their assumption that planned economies are devoid of crisis.

Those systems choosing planning overcapitalism exist in perpetual disequilibrium. They are distinguished not only by their reliance on the state, but in an inability to right themselves. As a result, they move to ever greater disequilibrium.

As with a body, the fundamental health of an economic system lies not in never getting sick, but in its response to contagion. The current financial crisis apparently has ended in less than two years. Compare that to the continuous degeneration of communist and socialist systems.

[...]

Communism's response to capitalism offers two versions of the same tale. In the late 1980s, communism imploded across Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The rot of communism sapped the economy, the state collapsed, and capitalism rushed in.

[...]

The West, having first received capitalism, now faces its own reckoning as its entitlement societies increase their tax and debt burdens and decrease their competitive advantages. The first nation to resolve this will reap an enormous advantage. Those that fail or that deny the necessity to resolve it need only look back to the history that is rapidly gaining on them.

Pelosi Models Her Halloween Mask

House of Representatives Majority Leader Steny Hoyer compliments Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on her Halloween mask at the Annual Congressional Health Scare Party.

A Wrong and Despicable Thing

Obama's first foreign policy "success" - Honduras:

On October 28, Robert Micheletti’s interim government and ex-president Manuel Zelaya reportedly agreed to a formula that should restore “pariah” Honduras to the ranks of normal states. It should also permit Hondurans to elect their next president on November 29 without the international community breathing down their necks.

[...]

Since the Hondurans removed Zelaya from office for violating the constitution, the Obama administration has mismanaged the situation. It sided with the Chávez-influenced Organization of American States; it called Zelaya’s legal removal a military “coup;” and it threatened not to recognize the winner of an election process begun well before June 28.

The Obama team did an excellent job of undermining the Honduran economy by cutting off economic assistance, throttling tourism with travel warnings, yanking visas away from Hondurans, and creating a climate of massive uncertainty that spooked U.S. investors and businesses. The U.S. embassy in Honduras did yeomen’s work watching out for the interests of the Zelaya clan, leaving many to wonder which side it was pulling for.

In short, against a small, friendly, anti-Chávez ally, the administration mustered the sort of muscle it would never dare use against Iran, Russia, or Venezuela.

A Right and Honorable Thing

A rare moment during which President Obama appears to understand the burdens and responsibilities of his Office.

Obama goes to Dover to receive U.S. dead

As the nation slept, President Obama received home the bodies of 18 U.S. military and law enforcement personnel killed Monday in Afghanistan, participating in a solemn and ceremonial process in which he prayed over each flag-draped "transfer case" and saluted as they were removed from the plane at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

Update: There is, of course, always something to be suspicious about with this man.

But Not Anytime Soon

Nouriel "Nostradamus" Roubini on your future:

IU.com:When you say “stay away from risky assets,” many people hear that and think, “Aha, gold!”

Roubini: I don’t believe in gold. Gold can go up for only two reasons. [One is] inflation, and we are in a world where there are massive amounts of deflation because of a glut of capacity, and demand is weak, and there’s slack in the labor markets with unemployment peeking above 10 percent in all the advanced economies. So there’s no inflation, and there’s not going to be for the time being.

The only other case in which gold can go higher with deflation is if you have Armageddon, if you have another depression. But we’ve avoided that tail risk as well. So all the gold bugs who say gold is going to go to $1,500, $2,000, they’re just speaking nonsense. Without inflation, or without a depression, there’s nowhere for gold to go. Yeah, it can go above $1,000, but it can’t move up 20-30 percent unless we end up in a world of inflation or another depression. I don’t see either of those being likely for the time being. Maybe three or four years from now, yes. But not anytime soon.

Hmmm. A world of inflation. Or depression. Maybe in three or four years. But not anytime soon.

Well, then there's time to run up a few more credit cards, isn't there?

Yeeeeeeehaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!

One True Thing about the Swine Flu

Sydney Brillo Duodenum can tell you one true thing about the swine flu - after six days of it, you still don't want a beer.

It's an evil, accursed affliction.

Get your shot, friends, get your shot.

Rumination

**


Good order results spontaneously when things are let alone."

-- Zhuangzi



**

How's the driver?

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from Sydney's posterous

The March of Science

From Communications Daily [subscription only], the following groundbreaking research is announced to be published in "Applied Cognitive Psychology:"

People walking and talking on their cell phones are more than twice as oblivious as those not on their phones, according to a new study by Western Washington University Psychology Professor Ira Hyman.

Hyman hired a unicycling clown and found that just 25 percent of those using a cellphone noticed when the clown passed them as they walked. Half of those not talking on a cellphone said they noticed the clown.

Of course, the purpose of this research is to enlarge the Nanny State:

"If people experience so much difficulty performing the task of walking when on a cellphone, just think of what this means when put into the context of driving safety," Hyman said. "People should not drive while talking on a cellphone." Hyman said cellphone users "walk more slowly, change directions and weave more often and fail to notice interesting and novel objects."

So, now, presumably, cell phones are to be banned from the sidewalk, lest we miss out on the stream of clowns flowing past us on unicycles and fail to notice other novel and interesting objects, like psychology graduate students hiding in vans with clipboards. Of course, it's everyone's favorite supposition that any jackhole gabbing into a small piece of plastic while weaving a line in front of us on the sidewalk is just a preoccupied twit, a clown, right? You know, the kind preoccupied with their wife or kid or boss or client. The kind taking care of their business.

SBD's own sidewalk research is that no one walks precisely at the pace and in the direction that he walks and is then by definition a clown, in the way and should be tossed in front of a bus. SBD's murderous intentions are actually lessened when that clown is talking on a cell, giving excuse to his meanderings.

SBD is interested in research on people who spend all their time while on a sidewalk paying attention to other people as they go about their lives and wonders how many "interesting and novel objects" they are missing out on because they aren't minding their own fucking business.

Let Them Party . . .

. . . and decrease the surplus population.

From the Center for Disease Control H1N1 "Questions and Answers" page:

What is CDC’s recommendation regarding "swine flu parties"?

"Swine flu parties" are gatherings during which people have close contact with a person who has 2009 H1N1 flu in order to become infected with the virus. The intent of these parties is for a person to become infected with what for many people has been a mild disease, in the hope of having natural immunity 2009 H1N1 flu virus that might circulate later and cause more severe disease.

CDC does not recommend "swine flu parties" as a way to protect against 2009 H1N1 flu in the future. While the disease seen in the current 2009 H1N1 flu outbreak has been mild for many people, it has been severe and even fatal for others. There is no way to predict with certainty what the outcome will be for an individual or, equally important, for others to whom the intentionally infected person may spread the virus.

CDC recommends that people with 2009 H1N1 flu avoid contact with others as much as possible. If you are sick with flu-like illness, CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. (Your fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.) Stay away from others as much as possible to keep from making others sick.

Hillary Clinton's Reaction to Nobel Awarded to Obama

Maryland

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from Sydney's posterous

The World Has Spoken and . . .

. . . Chicago is out of the running for 2016.

Clearly,

THE WORLD IS RACIST!!!

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Home Sweet Mother of Mercy Home

Chart of the Day:

Today, it was reported that the median price of a single-family home dropped 2.3% in August. The stock market sold off on the news. For some perspective into the all-important US real estate market, today's chart illustrates the US median price of a single-family home over the past 39 years. Not only did housing prices increase at a rapid rate from 1991 to 2005, the rate at which housing prices increased – increased. That brings us to today's chart which illustrates how housing prices are currently 30% off their 2005 peak. In fact, a home buyer who bought the median priced single-family home at the 1979 peak has seen that home appreciate by a mere 4%. Not an impressive performance considering that three decades have passed. Over the past two months, single-family home prices have resumed their decline and remain (until proven otherwise) in an accelerated downtrend.

A Brief Word About . . .

Patrick Swayze. Here he is in all his awesome badness.



Swayze is most appreciated for his ability to wear size 28 jeans and kick-fu hick ass in the film Roadhouse (1989). But the plain truth is that no one watches Roadhouse because Swayze convinced anyone he was a tough guy. For god's sake, his character's name is "Dalton." Oooh, scary. We didn't keep coming back to the movie because of the delicious and glorious throatectomy performed on one of Gazzara's henchmen. We don't even watch it for the Ben Gazzara caricature of Ben Gazzara as an actor doing a caraciture of himself.

We watched -- nay, watch - Roadhouse for one simple reason: Kelly Lynch has one tight bod. And that's it.

Swayze's true accomplishment, though, is his consistent ability to sport a mullet hairstyle. Even when he is playing a chick, he's got a mullet.

Whether he was more successful with that look in The Outsiders or Red Dawn or Roadhouse we will leave to the Eburts and Rogers and Roepoerts of the world. For SBD, a movie is either great or crap. Swayze and his mullet made his films great.

Except for Ghost. Crap.

Could Be Moments

Sydney Brillo Duodenum sauntered across this headline . . .

Irish real estate tycoon found dead, suicide suspected

. . . and immediately thought Sen. Chris Dodd had fallen on his own sword.

Our Bad Mood Day

Today is not a day of service.

Today is not your day of service.

Today is not My Good Deed Day.

It’s not a day to recycle more.

Today is not the day for “rekindling the spirit of service, tolerance, and compassion that unified America and the world in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.”

It’s not the day to go to the grocery store and finally buy that cloth grocery bag you’ve been admonished to keep on your person every time you shop.

Today is not the day for signing up to be a AARP Tax Aide Volunteer.

Today is not the day to volunteer at your neighborhood soup kitchen.

Today is not the day to make a “simple food donation to Project Open Hand in Columbus, Ohio [which] is dedicated to meeting the nutritional needs of people living with HIV/AIDS"

Today is not the day to “be at my county animal shelter, working with dogs that have been abused, neglected, or abandoned and helping them become loving, faithful companions.”

Today is not the day we turn everyone into little community activists.

You can do all that tomorrow.

Today is not the day to remember a tragedy.

A volcano did not explode.

An earthquake did not bring down a city.

A hurricane did not scrub beach front property.

Today is not a day of national tragedy.

What happened today was not an act of God.

What happened today was the mass murder of thousands of Americans.

Men did that.

Those people are still out there. They’re not done.

Today is not the day we think of giving back.

We didn't take anything.

Today is a day of remembering our taken, our dead.

Today it's OK to house some quiet rage, to grind your teeth, to have tunnel vision.

It's not a day to feel good about yourself for petty acts of kindness.

You do more for this country by sitting in a room and stewing for a few hours.

Harden your heart today. Go cold for a bit.

You're an American and so you're inclined to help your fellow Americans anyway or the soaking child in tsunami ravaged village on the other side of the globe. You have 364 other days this year to make it your Good Deed Day.

Don't waste this day thinking about making yourself feel better about you.

Review of Obama Health Scare Speech

YOU LIE!








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NASA Shoots Its Load

Another diminution of American greatness:

A White House panel of independent space experts says NASA's return-to-the-moon plan just won't fly.

The problem is money. The expert panel estimates it would cost about $3 billion a year beyond NASA's current $18 billion annual budget.

"Under the budget that was proposed, exploration beyond Earth is not viable," panel member Edward Crawley, a professor of aeronautics at MIT, told The Associated Press Tuesday.

The report gives options to President Barack Obama, but said NASA's current plans have to change. Five years ago, then-President George W. Bush proposed returning astronauts to the moon by 2020. To pay for it, he planned on retiring the shuttle next year and shutting down the international space station in 2015.

All those deadlines have to change, the panel said. Space exploration would work better by including other countries and private for-profit firms, the panel concluded.

The panel had previously estimated that the current plan would cost $100 billion in spending to 2020.

Former NASA associate administrator Alan Stern said the report showed the harsh facts that NASA's space plans had "a mismatch between resources and rhetoric." Now, he said, Obama faces a choice of "essentially abandoning human spaceflight" or paying the extra money.

[...]

The panel also urged NASA to pay private companies to develop spaceships to ferry astronauts to the space station and low-Earth orbit. That may be riskier, but it would free up NASA to explore elsewhere, the panel said. Elon Musk, chief executive officer of SpaceX, said within a few years he could send astronauts to space for about $20 million a person, less than the $50 million Russia is charging. He hopes to launch his private rocket, Falcon 9, later this year or early next.

NASA should encourage other countries to join the U.S. in exploring space beyond Earth orbit, the panel said.

"If after designing cleverly, building alliances with partners and engaging commercial providers, the nation cannot afford to fund the effort to pursue the goals it would like to embrace, it should accept the disappointment of setting lesser goals," the report said.

If this country can't find the means to send a man to the moon (again), then how the hell can it subsidize healthcare for every man, woman and child? The total moon shot cost of $100 billion is the amount lost to Medicare/Medicaid fraud and mismanagement every year. Imagine the "savings" under a fiat system! Interestingly, the moon panel calls for expanding the effort by coordinating with other countries and involving more private for-profit firms. Sounds almost federalist in nature.

Our Shameful Past, Present and Future

This opinion letter in the Philadelphia Inquirer perfectly exemplifies this country's shameful past and illuminates our country's current shame, which will serve to frame our future shames.

Dear Attorney General Holder:

I read with dismay the inspector general's report concerning enhanced interrogation techniques used by the CIA to extract information from al-Qaeda terrorists. Buzzing power drills, gunshots, threats - all utterly appalling.

I write not to add to the informed legal opinion that supports your decision to investigate the CIA for these atrocities. Instead, I am asking that you expand the scope of your investigation to include similar horrors that occurred right here in the United States.

I am referring, of course, to the mistreatment I and millions like me suffered while undergoing Catholic primary and secondary educations in the period from 1950 to 1962 (hereinafter "The Reign of Clerical Terror"). I cannot begin to catalog all the violence inflicted on me and others by the nuns and priests who taught us. But a few examples may be instructive.

In 1955, I was a fifth grader in Catholic school (hereinafter "Indoctrination Center X"). One day, while in the cloakroom adjacent to the classroom, I was engaged in a creative, albeit nonacademic, pursuit - i.e., preparing a spitball that I intended to use as a means of self-expression by splatting it on the back of Dave Beckley's head. (Beckley was a known collaborator with those who ran Indoctrination Center X.)

I was almost finished chewing the paper when either Sister Mary Mark or Sister Margaret Mary - it was dark in the cloakroom, and they all dressed alike, so I'm not sure which - grabbed me by the throat, slapped me hard across the face, and made me swallow the spitball. This not only caused me a great deal of physical discomfort - I experienced a simulated choking sensation not unlike that caused by waterboarding - but it also denied my right of self-expression.

Similarly, at my all-male Catholic high school (hereinafter "Indoctrination Center Y"), the priests subjected us to daily assaults with paddles, drumsticks, closed fists, open hands, books, or anything else that was heavy, handy, and capable of getting our undivided attention when applied with force to our heads.

Put aside that most of my classmates went on to outstanding careers in business and the professions. This inhumane treatment undoubtedly stifled our creativity and deadened our sensitivities. I mean, how many choreographers, lyricists, and poets were lost in the cauldron of abuse and suffering that was Indoctrination Center Y?

Mr. Holder, my fellow internees and I would have gladly traded getting slapped or whacked with paddles for someone merely buzzing a power drill at us or making some other empty gesture. You see, unlike the CIA, the nuns and priests actually delivered on their threats. And sometimes they delivered spontaneously - without making any threats at all.

American principles and basic humanity demand that you expose the Reign of Clerical Terror.

Respectfully,
L. George Parry, Esq.

P.S. It occurs to me that, if these al-Qaeda guys stop talking, you may consider having them spend some quality time with Sister Margaret Mary. She is getting along in years and may have lost some of her wallop, but I am sure she would still be up to the task.

Behold: The $4,800 Punching Bag

Get yours today at Lineaus Athletic Company

Or, have children.

A Wing and A Prayer

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Our Green Future

There is some common theme here, but Sydney Brillo Duodenum can't quite put his paw on it.


From Autoblog:

Ever hear of neodymium? How about dysprosium or yttrium? Thulium or lutetium? These are just some of the metals that China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is considering either banning the exportation of, or at least severely limiting the amount that it will let leave the country. These precious metals are used in manufacturing new (and sometimes green) technologies, and China wants keep the goods available for its growing domestic use.

[...]

every Toyota Prius you've ever seen contains 25 pounds of rare earth elements.

[...]

Right now, China mines more than 95% of the rare earth minerals that are taken out of the ground.

New York Times: More Sun for Less: Solar Panels Drop in Price:

For solar shoppers these days, the price is right. Panel prices have fallen about 40 percent since the middle of last year, driven down partly by an increase in the supply of a crucial ingredient for panels, according to analysts at the investment bank Piper Jaffray.

[...]

Until recently, panel makers had been constrained by limited production of polysilicon, which goes into most types of panels. But more factories making the material have opened, as have more plants churning out the panels themselves — especially in China.

H/T: Sweetness and Light

WSJ: TCP to Sell Bulbs With Its Name in U.S.

Ellis Yan, the founder and CEO of fluorescent-light maker TCP Inc., said his company will begin selling TCP-branded products in North America this fall and plans to open a factory near Cleveland in about a year.

TCP already is the largest manufacturer of CFL bulbs sold in the U.S., according to industry players.

It produces 300 to 400 million CFL bulbs per year in China, selling many under brands such as GE Lighting, Osram Sylvania and Philips Lighting.

The Freedonia Group Inc. in Cleveland expects U.S. demand for advanced lighting products -- LEDs, CFLs, halogen lights and other products that will replace traditional incandescent bulbs -- to grow nearly 11% a year to $6.8 billion in 2013, driven by legislation that bans the sale of incandescent lamps starting in 2012.

Financial Times: BYD to sell electric car in US in 2010

BYD, the upstart Chinese car company backed by US investment guru Warren Buffett, said on Monday that it would start selling its e6 all-electric sedans in the US next year, a year ahead of schedule.

[...]

BYD is a global leader in rechargeable battery technology, but only a recent entrant to the Chinese car industry. Mr Wang, an engineer-turned-entrepeneur, plans to combine batteries with cars to spearhead a green revolution in electric vehicles, with the help of Chinese government subsidies.

Feeling Safer Every Day

Breaking News From Your Department of Homeland Security:

For Immediate Release

Office of the Press SecretaryContact: 202-282-8010

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano and more than 25 senior DHS officials today received training in medical emergency preparedness and response by instructors from the American Red Cross.

“Emergency preparedness requires both large-scale planning and personal readiness,” said Secretary Napolitano. “Learning these critical skills is fundamental to our preparedness efforts and the safety and security of all Americans when disasters strike.”

Secretary Napolitano was joined by newly-confirmed DHS Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Alexander Garza, who assisted in leading the session and emphasized personal responsibility for all emergencies in advance of National Preparedness Month in September.

The training covered basic skills essential to helping in an emergency until professional responders arrive. During the two-hour session, Secretary Napolitano and her staff received hands-on training from Red Cross instructors in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), basic first aid and use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs)—recommended for use in all federal buildings.

This marks the first year the Red Cross has provided this type of training to federal officials in Washington, D.C. Last week, Deputy Secretary Jane Holl Lute and approximately 20 additional DHS senior staff members received the same training.

Here's a suggestion: train Ms. Napolitano and her staff on the use of night vision goggles, desert terrain navigation, field maintenance and assembly of the H&K P2000 and M4, and horseback riding, and then send them to the U.S. southwest border.

Today's Probing Question

Dad, when you were little and you got new shoes, did you wear them out of the store?

But, but . . . his heart was in the right place . . .

From Sweetness and Light, we are reminded how some men of power and high regard are so blinded by their passions and self-righteousness that they will commit treason.

The Crusader – Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, Paul Krengor

Appendix

TEXT OF KGB LETTER ON SENATOR TED KENNEDY
_________________________________________
Special Importance Committee on State Security of the USSR 14.05. 1983 No. 1029 Ch/OV Moscow
Regarding Senator Kennedy’s request to the General Secretary of the Communist Party Comrade Y.V. Andropov

Comrade Y.V. Andropov

On 9-10 May of this year, Senator Edward Kennedy’s close friend and trusted confidant J. Tunney was in Moscow. The senator charged Tunney to convey the following message, through confidential contacts, to the General Secretary of the Center Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Y. Andropov.

Senator Kennedy, like other rational people, is very troubled by the current state of Soviet-American relations. Events are developing such that this relationship coupled with the general state of global affairs will make the situation even more dangerous. The main reason for this is Reagan’s belligerence, and his firm commitment to deploy new American middle range nuclear weapons within Western Europe.

According to Kennedy, the current threat is due to the President’s refusal to engage any modification on his politics. He feels that his domestic standing has been trengthened because of the well publicized improvement of the economy: inflation has been greatly reduced, production levels are increasing as is overall business activity. For these reasons, interest rates will continue to decline. The White House has portrayed this in the media as the "success of Reaganomics."

Naturally, not everything in the province of economics has gone according to Reagan’s plan. A few well known economists and members of financial circles, particularly from the north-eastern states, foresee certain hidden tendencies that many bring about a new economic crisis in the USA. This could bring about the fall of the presidential campaign of 1984, which would benefit the Democratic party. Nevertheless, there are no secure assurances this will indeed develop.

The only real threats to Reagan are problems of war and peace and Soviet-American relations. These issues, according to the senator, will without a doubt become the most important of the election campaign. The movement advocating a freeze on nuclear arsenals of both countries continues to gain strength in the United States. The movement is also willing to accept preparations, particularly from Kennedy, for its continued growth. In political and influential circles of the country, including within Congress, the resistence to growing military expenditures is gaining strength.

However, according to Kennedy, the opposition to Reagan is still very weak. Reagan’s adversaries are divided and the presentations they make are not fully effective. Meanwhile, Reagan has the capabilities to effectively counter any propaganda. In order to neutralize criticism that the talks between the USA and the USSR are non-constructive, Reagan will grandiose, but subjectively propagandistic. At the same time, Soviet officials who speak about disarmament will be quoted out of context, silenced or groundlessly and whimsically discounted. Although arguments and statements by officials of the USSR do appear in the press, it is important to note the majority of Americans do not read serious newspapers or periodicals.

Kennedy believes that, given the current state of affairs, and in the interest of peace, it would be prudent and timely to undertake the following steps to counter the militaristic politics of Reagan and his campaign to psychologically burden the American people. In this regard, he offers the following proposals to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Y.V. Andropov:

1. Kennedy asks Y.V. Andropov to consider inviting the senator to Moscow for a personal meeting in July of this year. The main purpose of the meeting, according to the senator, would be to arm Soviet officials with explanations regarding problems of nuclear disarmament so they may be better prepared and more convincing during appearances in the USA. He would also like to inform you that he has planned a trip through Western Europe, where he anticipates meeting England’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and French President Mitterand in which he will exchange similar ideas regarding the same issues. If his proposals would be accepted in principle, Kennedy would send his representative to Moscow to resolve questions regarding organizing such a visit. Kennedy thinks the benefits of a meeting with Y.V.Andropov will be enhanced if he could also invite one of the well known Republican senators, for example, Mark Hatfield. Such a meeting will have a strong impact on American and political circles in the USA (In March of 1982, Hatfield and Kennedy proposed a project to freeze the nuclear arsenals of the USA and USSR and pblished a book on the theme as well.)

2. Kennedy believes that in order to influence Americans it would be important to organize in August-September of this year, televised interviews with Y.V. Andropov in the USA. A direct appeal by the General Secretary to the American people will, without a doubt, attact a great deal of attention and interest in the country. The senator is convinced this would receive the maximum resonance in so far as television is the most effective method of mass media and information. If the proposal is recognized as worthy, then Kennedy and his friends will bring about suitable steps to have representatives of the largest television companies in the USA contact Y.V. Andropov for an invitation to Moscow for the interview. Specifically, the president of the board of directors of ABC, Elton Raul and television columnists Walter Cronkite or Barbara Walters could visit Moscow. The senator underlined the importance that this initiative should be seen as coming from the American side.

Furthermore, with the same purpose in mind, a series of televised interviews in the USA with lower level Soviet officials, particularly from the military would be organized. They would also have an opportunity to appeal directly to the American people about the peaceful intentions of the USSR, with their own arguments about maintaining a true balance of power between the USSR and the USA in military term. This issue is quickly being distorted by Reagan’s administration.

Kennedy asked to convey that this appeal to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is his effort to contribute a strong proposal that would root out the threat of nuclear war, and to improve Soviet-American relations, so that they define the safety of the world. Kennedy is very impressed with the activities of Y.V. Andropov and other Soviet leaders, who expressed their commitment to heal international affairs, and improve mutal understandings between peoples.

The senator underscored that he eagerly awaits a reply to his appeal, the answer to which may be delivered through Tunney.

Having conveyed Kennedy’s appeal to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Tunney also explained that Senator Kennedy has in the last few years actively made appearances to reduce the threat of war. Because he formally refused to partake in the election campaign of 1984, his speeches would be taken without prejudice as they are not tied to any campaign promises. Tunney remarked that the senator wants to run for president in 1988. At that time, he will be 56 and his personal problems, which could hinder his standing, will be resolved (Kennedy has just completed a divorce and plans to remarry in the near future). Taken together, Kennedy does not discount that during the 1984 campaign, the Democratic Party may officially turn to him to lead the fight against the Republicans and elect their candidate president. This would explain why he is convinced that none of the candidates today have a real chance at defeating Reagan.

We await instructions.

President of the committee

V. Chebrikov

About That Kennedy, II

The News Hour with Jim Lehrer provides today's ration of nauseating Kennedy hagiography. Let's inspect the closing sentiments from the Deans of Washington Conventional Wisdom, Mark Shields and David Brooks.

Lehrer: [paraphrasing] final words on Kennedy?

Shields: Kennedy leaves a legacy of bipartisanship in the Senate, which is factious (sic) and fractured, and an unpleasant place. [He represented] an ability to stand firmly for what you believe and, at the same time, to see in those with whom you disagree a humanity and a capacity for compromise and consensus.

Brooks: He could exercise great anger, when he disapproved, but it was not resentment, and so it never got quite as personal, so for conservatives in the wilderness that is a model for them, to find the best in your tradition and to follow it the way he followed liberalism when it was in the wilderness during Reaganism.

Really?

An ability to stand firmly for what you believe and at the same time to see in those with whom you disagree a humanity and a capacity for compromise and consensus?

Really?

Not resentful and never personal?

Really?

1987 – Floor of the United States Senate:

Mr. President, I oppose the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court, and I urge the Senate to reject it.

In the Watergate scandal of 1973, two distinguished Republicans — Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus — put integrity and the Constitution ahead of loyalty to a corrupt President. They refused to do Richard Nixon's dirty work, and they refused to obey his order to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. The deed devolved on Solicitor General Robert Bork, who executed the unconscionable assignment that has become one of the darkest chapters for the rule of law in American history.

That act — later ruled illegal by a Federal court — is sufficient, by itself, to disqualify Mr. Bork from this new position to which he has been nominated. The man who fired Archibald Cox does not deserve to sit on the Supreme Court of the United States.

Mr. Bork should also be rejected by the Senate because he stands for an extremist view of the Constitution and the role of the Supreme Court that would have placed him outside the mainstream of American constitutional jurisprudence in the 1960s, let alone the 1980s. He opposed the Public Accommodations Civil Rights Act of 1964. He opposed the one-man one-vote decision of the Supreme Court the same year. He has said that the First Amendment applies only to political speech, not literature or works of art or scientific expression.

Under the twin pressures of academic rejection and the prospect of Senate rejection, Mr. Bork subsequently retracted the most Neanderthal of these views on civil rights and the first amendment. But his mind-set is no less ominous today.

Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists would be censored at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is often the only protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy.

America is a better and freer nation than Robert Bork thinks. Yet in the current delicate balance of the Supreme Court, his rigid ideology will tip the scales of justice against the kind of country America is and ought to be.

The damage that President Reagan will do through this nomination, if it is not rejected by the Senate, could live on far beyond the end of his presidential term. President Reagan is still our President. But he should not be able to reach out from the muck of Irangate, reach into the muck of Watergate, and impose his reactionary vision of the Constitution on the Supreme Court and on the next generation of Americans. No justice would be better than this injustice.

And did I mention that the nominee is a pedophile, eats puppies, sleeps with farm animals, worships Satan on the corpses of nuns and priests, and is incontinent? And he does not wash his hands after using the toilet.

This speech is credited with changing the tone of Washington and introducing the politics of personal destruction. Perhaps. Sydney Brillo Duodenum is highly dubious that Sen. Kennedy’s speech represented anything new in Washington polemics. That’s to argue that Joe Kennedy, Sr. was a saint and his son was the bad seed that changed the world. Perhaps what was new was the brio and lust with which the media, then fully aghast at the presumption of the Reagan Presidency, took the Kennedy harangue and used it to further indict Reagan and conservatives. Chickens and eggs.

In any event, the speech is a slice of the Edward Kennedy style. Yes, yes, he was a man of passion and belief in his causes, and you can’t fault him for consistently staying on message, but so often his advocacy was advanced by impugning the morality and intentions of his policy adversaries. A disagreement about the precise amount to increase the minimum wage is actually a discussion of undeserved gross corporate profit for heartless elitists versus a husbandless mother of three trying to make enough money to earn bus fare to take her to the ritzy part of town so she can search through the garbage bins of fancy restaurants.

In private, in the company of sycophants and fawners and Camelotians, he let bare the prime Kennedy signature. Some years ago, your host penetrated the Lion’s sanctum sanctorum, the Senator’s Embassy Row mansion, to attend a “Literary Night” PTA fundraiser for SBD’s child’s school (the literary draw being the Senator himself on the occasion of the publishing of one of his books on the policy route out of the supposed conservative hell that had been imposed on Washington).

The common image of Senator Kennedy is of a bloated, red-faced, tottering boulder in tweed and tiny loafers, screaming spittle into the well of the Senate chamber. But at that point in his purgatorio, Senator Kennedy had actually slimmed down, his face had lost its bulberous aspects and gin rumminess, his hair was not yellow, his eyes almost white and bagless, and he appeared to be holding steady with a simple Chardonnay. He looked somewhat svelte, healthy and chipper. But when he tacked into the welcoming hot gusts of wide eyed admiration billowing off the faces of Washington’s most elite and insufferable, in the living room of the Kennedy mansion, next to a piano on which sat a silver framed black and white portrait of the Kennedy clan playing football on the lawn in Hyannis, it took only minutes for him to transform into the red-faced, screaming spittle lion of the Senate, impugning his adversaries and practically questioning whether they deserved to live to see the next day. He denounced Bush. No surprise, really. But he accused him of literally destroying the country and ruining public education in the United States with No Child Left Behind, because it still wasn’t enough money and was framed by the canard of holding schools accountable. Kennedy accused Bush of doing so out of spite and absolute indifference to the future of children. Kennedy promised the assembled that he would not stop until education received the funding necessary to make this country great again. And he tied it to the minimum wage and abortion choice and civil rights and the entire Liberal Litany. This received many righteous head nods among the 20-something teachers in attendance as well as the parents. Strange, heaving stuff, particularly considering that Kennedy had worked so closely with Bush on crafting NCLB and appeared a the bill signing and glad handed all around. At one point, Kennedy simply appeared as a giant red balloon looming over the gathering, with all awaiting its explosion.

Brooks is absolutely wrong. It was personal and there was a great deal of resentment. Shields is absolutely wrong. Kennedy ascribed no humanity to conservatives. Whatever it was they had agreed to, though, it was apparently not enough; it was not fair. The impression was that compromise was and always would be unacceptable to this man, and any agreement or bipartisanship was something akin to a hudna, a tactical moment of peacemaking, during which you work to defeat your foe during the disadvantage occasioned by the weakness he showed in agreeing to a compromise.

In any event, it should come as no surprise that "Washington" would eulogize with more lies and misrepresentations of Kennedy. It's how they conducted themselves when he was alive.

Behold: The KFC Double Down Chicken Sandwich

Available only to lucky bastards in Rhode Island and Nebraska.

About That Kennedy

Sydney Brillo Duodenum's Catholic stringer Saul Menowitz weighs in on the passing of the Irish Chieftain .

Sorry, but I just can't get all weepy about his passing. My only real concern is that BHO not be able to use this "tragedy" to push death care through.

How should I feel about this? Ted is responsible for the death of a young girl, which, so far, has not been mentioned by the MSM, to my knowledge. It should be the lead in his obit.

He is a traitor to his faith, having caused great scandal in the Church, as the term scandal is used in the Church - causing confusion and leading people away from the Truth. He was a fanatic pro-abort pol.

His vision of America is contrary to mine in almost every way. He was a tax cheat, or at best used whatever legal means he could to avoid taxes, while advocating raising taxes on peeps like me.

He never ran a business, but traded on his family's name. He was a hypocrite - using his wealth and power to prevent a wind farm off of his Hyannis Port home, while promoting environmentalism regardless of the cost to the average, hardworking American.

That being said, he suffered greatly - having to witness the assassinations of his two brothers and identifying the remains of his nephew, who was supposed to bear the torch for Camelot. But then again, he probably got to hear firsthand accounts of what Marilyn Monroe looked like naked from his brothers. But I digress.

About the only thing I liked about him is that he was a drunk and Irish. But I can't say I'm sorry he's dead.

I'll pray for him. I'll pray that God's mercy overwhelms His justice, because I think Ted deserves to rot in Hell for his crimes. I'm not sorry he's dead, and I hope his version of America dies with him.

Clown Show

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Federal Reserve Board has chosen Denis Hughes, president of the AFL-CIO in New York, to become chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, to serve through the end of 2009. Hughes has been serving as acting Chairman since May.

The New York Fed chairmanship typically has gone to prominent Wall Street executives or academics. The ascension of a labor leader is a new twist for the New York Fed and a sign of the public pressure the Fed has been under to loosen its close ties to Wall Street.

The current brilliant financial tactician and Treasury Secretary Timmy Geithner honed his multiplication skills there.

Hughes is plainly and simply a hack. He is there to protect organized labor and shake down business. He has no history of acting outside of type. His appointment can do nothing but solidify the dysfunction and cynicism that has captured New York finance. He is the typical Obama appointee - a radical whose radicalism is somehow not indicative or emblematic of Obama's radicalism, who for some bizarre reason is still viewed as a go-go moderate. Oh, well Hughes represents organized labor, so he is not outside the mainstream. When organized labor represents but 11 percent of American workers, he most definitely is outside the American mainstream. He has no financial expertise to speak of. He's a shill and a jack boot.

Investor's Business Daily sums up the problems with this appointment:

Denis Hughes, president of the AFL-CIO in New York, has served as interim head of the New York Fed board since May. His ascent to one of the world's most important financial posts is another troubling sign of this administration's too-tight embrace of organized labor.

Understand, this is a time of great financial peril. That's the main reason why Bernanke was renominated. The idea of changing Fed leaders in the middle of a financial crisis was too much.

Bernanke has printed close to $2 trillion in new money to help refloat the economy. President Obama is no doubt happy — if for no other reason than it will let the White House claim its $787 billion "stimulus" is the real reason the economy's starting to grow again.

But the naming of Hughes as the top banker at the New York Fed is the real news. And it's quite astounding.

He has no significant finance experience. Nor does his educational background — "Brother Hughes," as the AFL-CIO's Web site calls him, has a B.S. degree from the Harry Van Arsdale School of Labor Studies at Empire State College — reassure us.

Of greater concern is his career as a bought-and-paid-for union official and political operative. The New York Fed chairmanship is hardly a place for a person whose entire career has been spent fighting and strong-arming the very people he'll now be regulating.

As American Thinker editor Ed Lasky put it, Hughes is someone "who may be more schooled in extracting concessions from corporate America than the intricacies of high finance."

Exactly. More to the point, can those on Wall Street who come before him in routine regulatory matters expect fair treatment? Will union issues become part of the New York Fed's agenda? Will banks find requests to expand or merge stymied because unions fear a loss of jobs somewhere?

These are more than just academic questions. The New York Fed is the primus inter pares, the first among equals, of all the Fed banks. It is the bank that executes the Fed board's will in the marketplace. It is the on-site regulator of Wall Street, playing, as its Web site says, "a leadership role in monetary policy, financial supervision and the payments system." Now it's headed by a union shill.

Putting this key Fed bank in the hands of a person whose experience suggests a bred-in-the-bone hostility to capitalism strikes us as bizarre at best and dangerous at worst. And it bears the unmistakable imprint of the White House. Just last week we wrote about plans to elevate former United Steelworkers adviser Ron Bloom from head of the auto task force to "industrial policy czar."

Putting so many union people in powerful positions of economic policymaking is a recipe for disaster. Since 1955, the share of the workers belonging to unions has plunged from 33% to about 11%. Still, though increasingly unpopular, unions have helped wreck two major industries: autos and steel. Not much of a track record.

But now, through politics, unions are getting rewarded with control of the economy — a very bad omen for American capitalism.

Perhaps there is hope in the limited nature of the appointment, as the Fed will choose 2010's replacement sometime in November or December. At the top of the list is the Fed's newly named Vice Chairman, Lee Bollinger. Bollinger is another leading financial expert and wunderkind, as evidenced by training as a lawyer, his tenure as Columbia University's 19th president, his abuse of affirmative action at University of Wisconsin, and his noted free speech advocacy, including ensuring that Iranian terrorist leader Mahmoud I'mmadinthehead was given a podium at Columbia University.

Isn't it bliss?
Don't you approve?
One who keeps tearing around
And one who can't move
But where are the clowns?
Send in the clowns

Last Day Dawning

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Dinner: the Dogfish Head Raison D'Etre

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Dinner

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Your Host Dresses Up After A Day On the Sand

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Vacation Jail

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Untitled

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Chart O' the Day

Says Chart of the Day:

One positive outcome of the financial crisis was that gasoline prices did plunge from their record highs – down 60% peak to trough. Beginning at the end of 2008, however, gasoline prices have surged and are currently 61% above their December 2008 lows. Today’s chart provides some perspective on the recent spike with a long-term view of the average US price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline. It is interesting to note that most gasoline price spikes were a result of Middle East crises and often preceded or coincided with a US recession. So while gasoline prices are currently well below the record high levels of 2007, this recent rally has brought prices to a level well above what was witnessed from 1984-2004 – a two decade span of relative energy price stability.

What's In A Name

So far this week, Sydney Brillo Duodenum has been called a Klansman, an astroturfer, a racist, a Nazi, a mobster, a pistol packing assassin, a nut, a minority, a militiaman, a southerner, un-American, an evil monger, fishy, un-democratic but well-dressed, an extremist, partisan, in the way, a bus passenger, an intimidator, a silencer of regular people, a high-level Republican political operative, a demagogue, a shouter, disrespectful, and a heckler.

The worst of it though was when Sydney Brillo Duodenum Junior called SBD "the meanest dad in the world."

Kids say the darnedest things.

First Taste - Dogfish Head Theobroma

Dogfish Head Theobroma

Brewer: Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Inc., Milton, DE

Location: Top of a Mayan pyramid in Bethesda, MD

Marketing BS: "Theobroma, or 'Food of the Gods,' is a re-creation of the premier chocolate beverage of the Americas, intended only for the gods, kings, and the elite. This liquid time capsule is based on the earliest chemical and archeological evidence of cacao in the New World, dating to before 1100 B.C., and enhanced by natural additivies of the later Mayan and Aztec drinks."

Other side of label: "Off-Centered Ales for Off-Centered People. As per the amazing molecular evidence, this ancient ale is brewed with honey, ancho chilies, ground annatto, Soconusco cocoa nibs and cocoa powder from our good friends at ASKINOSIE chocolate."

Marketing Translation: While on vacation at Copan during spring break, one of our summer brewing interns smuggled out some pottery shards, on which we found dried scum. We paid an intern in a molecular scientist's lab a lifetime supply of our winter seasonal brew to analyze the scum and make up a list of ingredients that, according to a Hollywood script, could constitute an ancient beer recipe brewed by chest slashing drunk ass Aztec priests.

Bottle/Label: This sucker's a pint of coiled danger. Makes your wife think you're drinking an entire bottle of wine. The label features a picture of a proto-Dora the Explorer popping out of a Mayan manhole cover.

Alcohol: 9%. Well, that certainly explains the non-stop bloody sacrifices, now doesn't it?

Method of Imbibation: A Guinness pint glass. Worked, as it held the head nicely and offered forth a full quafe of liquid complicity in pre-Columbian genocidal crimes against humanity.

The Pull: As silent as an obsidian blade making the final slash across the circumflex branch of some prole's left coronary artery.

First Swig: Completely surprising in its banality, but then mass murder at the hands of a cult to honor bloodlusting deities is pretty banal. What is so surprising is how modern this craft brew is. Nowhere to be found is chocolate or cocoa or cacao or ancho chilies or chocolate cocao or ancho chocolate cacao chilies or cocoa chilies or annatto chilie cocoa cacao or Countchocula. There aren't even any Soconusco cocoa nibs to tickle with one's tongue. There is, however, enough honey to cover the daily factory run of the HoneyCombs cereal plant in Jonesboro, Arkansas. It's reminiscent of Dogfish's Aprihop but without the apricots and full bore hoppiness. Nevertheless, while presiding over one's den on a Thursday evening, fresh from a full day of humiliations at the hands of eager Obamanauts, this beer will salve your tender soul and convince you that you too are an elitist, who, given enough time, will be pitching the heartless torsos of expendable seniors down a flight of stone steps, all in homage to a delusion of grandeur and progress and hope.

Competition: Dogfish Head Midas Touch Golden Elixir; Kirin Brewery Old Kingdom Beer

Recommendation: Drink it because you'll get a sweet buzz, which will make it easier to watch the first game of the Washington Redskins preseason as they fall miserably to the Baltimore Ravens. There ain't no sacrifice big enough to save this team.

Sitting Quietly in Their Homes, Listening to Him

Dorothy Rabinowitz in the Wall Street Journal:

The president has a problem. For, despite a great election victory, Mr. Obama, it becomes ever clearer, knows little about Americans. He knows the crowds—he is at home with those. He is a stranger to the country’s heart and character.

He seems unable to grasp what runs counter to its nature. That Americans don’t take well, for instance, to bullying, especially of the moralizing kind, implicit in those speeches on health care for everybody. Neither do they wish to be taken where they don’t know they want to go and being told it’s good for them.

Who would have believed that this politician celebrated, above all, for his eloquence and capacity to connect with voters would end up as president proving so profoundly tone deaf? A great many people is the answer—the same who listened to those speeches of his during the campaign, searching for their meaning.

It took this battle over health care to reveal the bloom coming off this rose, but that was coming. It began with the spectacle of the president, impelled to go abroad to apologize for his nation—repeatedly. It is not, in the end, the demonstrators in those town-hall meetings or the agitations of his political enemies that Mr. Obama should fear. It is the judgment of those Americans who have been sitting quietly in their homes, listening to him.

A Fishy Letter

Sydney Brillo Duodenum's Denver connection has forwarded to him an open letter from a private citizen - a Mr. J.T. Townsend - that was addressed to the Fishmonger-in-Chief. The letter concerns the Fishmonger-in-Chief's effort to sell his plan to socialize America's health care system, including requesting that the Fishmonger-in-Chief's supporters provide directly to the White House the names of Americans whom they believe are misrepresenting the President's plan to socialize America's health care system. This letter is very fishy. It smells like a freshly caught Red Snapper, filleted on deck, and dashed with lime and lemon juice, sea salt, cilantro, and minced garlic, onion and tomato. Delicious.

August 5, 2009, approximately 6 hours after learning of the existence of this link on the White House home page:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things/


Dear Mr. President;

This morning, I learned of the existence of this link on the White House homepage: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things/

I was surprised, that in support of legislation that addresses what you consider one of the most important crises facing our nation – the current state of our healthcare industry - that instead of encouraging debate over solutions, you would allow your staff to create a website encouraging Americans to report to your White House “fishy” e-mails from their fellow citizens. To me, the existence of this site, and your encouraging of Americans to “get in the face” of those who disagree with your current view and proposed solution confirms that rather than engage in an active, intellectual debate regarding healthcare reform legislation, you’ve chosen to suppress and vilify the opposition. This is in direct contrast to your campaign rhetoric regarding cooperation and tolerance, and beneath the behavior of any principled leader.

During your campaign, you took on the mantle of high-minded principle, espousing your belief that a good leader needs to include everyone at the table, to tolerate ideas contrary to his own, and drive opposing sides to a workable compromise. Broadly, I agree with these premises. In execution, though, this website and your “in their face” comment abide by none of these principles. There are valid concerns regarding the healthcare reform legislation currently before our Congress. How does asking Americans to report their fellow citizens’ comments in opposition of this legislation to their White House, or telling them to get “in the face” of those who disagree, coincide with “tolerance”? Your actions demonstrate you do not value others’ opinions or debate.

American citizens have valid concerns about the legislation currently before Congress that coincides with your proposed solution for healthcare in the United States. The “Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things” website lists and dismisses three such concerns 1) the elimination of private coverage 2) control of personal finances 3) end of life care. The site coolly, but incorrectly, states that you have addressed all of these concerns. Indeed, the letter of the legislation does not eliminate a citizens’ current coverage, but it does affect their possibility of future coverage by a private insurer if they change employers or if they are an employer not currently providing health insurance. The ramifications of these measures on employment and wages have not been publicly articulated by you, and are the true heart of the concerns expressed in e-mails and editorials circulating the country.

As far as the control of personal finances, the taxes necessary to fund this program and its effects on the budget deficit have not been articulated by you to the satisfaction of this nation’s citizens. Numerous economic studies have been published in contradiction to the economic value you suppose will be created by a more efficient system, and you have yet to provide an accurate (GAO approved and independent private accounting firm) financial accounting of how much the program will cost and where the money will come from. This is a control of personal finance issue for every American citizen, as funds for government programs do not come from accounts generated by government revenues, but from the pockets of hard-working Americans.

Finally, I do not believe that you have addressed the end of life care issue, which is outlined in the legislation, and which you – in a nationally televised interview - dismissively said was not something you were aware of. It is not surprising you do not know that this provision is a part of the legislation. In fact, this and many other facts would be apparent to Americans if not for the existence of what is the most offensive part of the legislation that the website does not address – the current legislation before congress regarding healthcare reform is 1,100 pages long, and inclusive of hundreds of provisions and articles that you have never addressed publicly. Would you hold any other professional to such a low standard? You have not read the legislation in such a manner that makes you familiar with a provision that directly affects the pursuit of happiness of the citizens whose rights you are charged with protecting? Do you expect your military commanders to know the content of their written orders to subordinates? Do you expect the Federal Reserve to understand the contents of its written financial and economic reports? Do you expect businessmen to know the contents of the contracts they are signing? Do you expect doctors to know the contents of their patients’ files? And yet you present (as an adequate answer around legislation you say to be so important) that you’re not familiar with every bit of this legislation’s content? It is inexcusable that a President or any other government official would vote for or sign legislation without reading and understanding it in its entirety. If a law is so insignificant that it doesn’t need read to be passed, then it ought not to be passed at all.

I am ashamed that my nation’s highest-ranking, elected official discourages debate and has not articulated the ENTIRE content of legislation that will have such an intimate effect on my family and the families of my fellow citizens. The mantle of leadership in a true Republic is not demonstrated when the position is the vehicle by which you or any other leader promote your idea rough-shod over differing opinions. Instead, like any leader (and more so given the sanctity of your position), your responsibility is to convince by the eloquent presentation of facts.

I believe strongly one ought not to criticize without being prescriptive, so this is what I suggest you do to remedy the errors highlighted by the existence of this website.

Prescription for you, the President

• Act as a true leader – not a politician – and encourage active debate and deliberate consideration of the resulting legislation before it becomes law. The current “my solution is the only one” and rushing of congress to pass it as law is beneath any principled leader.

• Remove the facts are stubborn things website and quit actively encouraging Americans to “get in each other’s faces,” both of which are in direct contradiction to your campaign promises and rhetoric.

• Explain how this program will be funded – not with economically realized “value” – but accounting figures integrated into the current national budget.

and

• Do what the President ought to expect from every professional – fulfill your job responsibilities by knowing every fact of the documents (legislation) of your profession.

• Replace the “Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things” website with a site containing the proposed legislation and a personal note on every aspect of the bill and why you support it.

or

• Simplify the legislation to a digestible document that every citizen should read and consider.

• Present to the American people (article by article) the healthcare reform legislation in its entirety, and promise publicly that the plan includes nothing more and nothing less than what you have articulated.

Indeed, Mr. President, facts are stubborn things. Thus far, the facts are that you have acted contrary to your campaign promises and dismissively admitted you do not know the facts around what you’ve said is one of the most important pieces of legislation of our time.

I invite you to surprise me, because given your recent actions, I expect none of this to be done. Your website and “in your face comment,” are not indicative of a leader who would take these bold and difficult steps to gain support for your position.

Please, Mr. President, make me look the fool and live by your word.

Sincerely;


JT Townsend

Citizen