Thursday, October 28. 2010
Via Legal Insurrection:
True � The statement is accurate and there�s nothing significant missing.
Mostly True � The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information.
Half True � The statement is accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context.
Barely True � The statement contains some element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression.
False � The statement is not accurate.
Pants on Fire � The statement is not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim.
In the political world, there are all sorts of truth. In the real world, only one sort. In the real world, a half-truth is a lie.
Via Hot Air.
I think everybody knew that, but the Dems refused to admit it until now. I think Obamacare needs to be destroyed, and re-thought. Reforms are needed:
1. tort reform (half of what docs and hospitals do these days is to avoid lawsuits)
2. some sort of coverage reforms for the uninsurable
3. legalizing interstate sales of medical insurance: free markets and free choice of
plans and options
4. expansion of medical savings plans
5. some sort of support for the return of Major Medical insurance instead of
insurances that cover every flu and bug bite
6. portability of insurance plans
7. adjust Medicare reimbursement by income and assets
Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury comic strips have been featured on newspapers� funnies pages for four-decades. Some newspapers have moved the strip to their editorial pages, since their theme is often � aside from unfunny � starkly and one-sidedly political.
In a Slate interview, Garry Trudeau unknowingly satirizes himself.
Slate: How does the current political era stack up against eras past? Is it more or less funny? Is there more or less material?
Trudeau: I no longer compare them. Each era is the best of times, worst of times. Besides, I'm a pointillist, just working my tiny little piece of the canvas. I'm not so good at perspective.
Having said that, I can tell you that there have been some periods when cartoonists were definitely in clover. Watergate was the perfect subject, because every day brought fresh outrages. Everyone was on his game, and we felt unconstrained, because Nixon's wounds were self-inflicted. Monica was good for cartooning, but it was only one running joke. Bush's misrule�accidental war, torture, Katrina, etc.�provoked great cartoons, but there was so much associated tragedy, there wasn't much fun in it.
Then,
Slate: Who's the hardest politician to satirize, and why?
Trudeau: Believe it or not, Obama's very tough for business. The contradictory characterizations of him as fascist or socialist only serve to confirm the truth�he's a raging moderate. And satirists don't do well with moderates, especially thoughtful ones. In addition, Obama rarely makes gaffes and has no salient physical or temperamental features. And sinking popularity isn't a critique. Even SNL's main rap on him is his unflappability, hardly a vice in a world leader.
Trudeau says in the interview that �Any obvious satirical target I pass up is usually spared because of a failure of imagination.�
The interview would make a good comic strip, wouldn�t it?
From a distance, I figured this was a flock of turkeys in an Ohio hayfield outside Mount Vernon last Saturday.
Nope. Vultures. Since I could not see any red on their heads, and because of their apparent sociable habit, they might have been Black Vultures. Or Maybe Turkey Vultures assembling around a corpse. Did not have my binoculars.
Not sure whether Black Vultures are regular in central Ohio.
What sorts of petty vandalism did you engage in on Halloween?
 I got in trouble for chalking somebody's driveway with vulgar words one time.
As an adult, I also got in trouble with my wife one year when a neighbor and I escorted our young kids, and we ourselves trick-or-treated our friends and neighbors for cocktails and beers. We got too many. Not our fault for being overserved.
From Sheby Steele's A Referendum on the Redeemer:
...isn't the tea party, on some level, a reaction to a president who seems not to fully trust the fundamental decency of the American people? Doesn't the tea party fill a void left open by Mr. Obama's ethos of bad faith? Aren't tea partiers, and their many fellow travelers, simply saying that American exceptionalism isn't racism? And if the mainstream media see tea partiers as bumpkins and racists, isn't this just more bad faith�characterizing people as ignorant or evil so as to dismiss them?
Our great presidents have been stewards, men who broadly identified with the whole of America. Stewardship meant responsibility even for those segments of America where one might be reviled. Surely Mr. Obama would claim such stewardship. But he has functioned more as a redeemer than a steward, a leader who sees a badness in us from which we must be redeemed. Many Americans are afraid of this because a mandate as grandiose as redemption justifies a vast expansion of government.
From the report:
The persecution of Egypt's Coptic minority is taking an ironic, and dangerous, turn: Islamist leaders are now projecting the worst traits of radical Islam onto Egypt's Christians. A psychological phenomenon first described by Sigmund Freud, "projection," is defined as "the attribution of one's own ideas, feelings, or attitudes to other people." As such, consider the following excerpt from this recent report:
In the last month various fundamentalist groups held ten demonstrations [in Egypt], each after coming out of mosques following Friday prayers, against the 86-year-old ailing Coptic Pontiff, in which he was accused of being a US agent, an abductor and torturer of female Muslim converts from Christianity, of stockpiling weapons in monasteries and churches to carry out war against Muslims, and of plans to divide Egypt to create a Coptic State.
All of these accusations are as inapplicable to the Coptic Church as they are applicable to Islamists...
 These misguided bozos want to control the weather: Prozac for the Planet
Fantasizing about a Global Climate Control Center
Improving men:
If women married men for who they actually were, there would be far fewer marriages.
Effusive praise for Jane Eyre
The elections:
Every Democratic president from here on out will have to reckon with the possibility that an ambitious liberal agenda in his/her first two years is apt to produce utterly crushing losses in the House.
They don't care. They got what they wanted.
Ariz. Law Requiring Voters Prove Citizenship Is Struck Down
Why not let everybody on the planet vote in our elections?
How they do elections in Illinois
How they do elections in Las Vegas
VDH: Obama is the Great Divider
Related, Post-Racial President Offering Up Racially-Charged Dog Whistles For Black, Hispanic Voters
Disgusting.
Robin tries to have a calm, rational discussion with a Lefty:
I read something a while back about the Dalai Lama, which I thought was fascinating. He was asked what he says to "his enemies," to persuade them; that is, those who disagree with him about Tibet. He said that he doesn't argue with his enemies. That surprised the interviewer, who asked why. The Dalai Lama answered that it was a waste of his time and his energy. He doesn't want to absorb their aggression. I thought this was a profound lesson, and one that I have tried my best to follow ever since.
The DL got that right.
Obamacare doomed to fail, by design
Correct. We've been saying that for over a year.
Who do Lefties hate most? Their fellow Americans.
Correct. We have also been saying that for years.
Democrats' game plan: fake tea party candidates.
There is hardball and there is sleazeball.
Voting Liberal is genetic?
Balderdash.
Coyote: Way Past Time to Open Up to Cuba
Driscoll on Nazis, via Fausta:
...we’ll linger in Hollywood just a bit for some comedy gold from Rob Reiner. Yes, the actor turned director turned anti-smoking obsessive quasi-government official gets his inner Garofalo on and has the Orwellian — and staggeringly clapped out — observation that the folks who want to shrink government and reduce its interference in our daily lives are secretly the folks who in the 1930s built one of the most massive welfare states of all — and I don’t mean FDR.
National Socialists is what they were. Why it's called "right" I do not understand. Nazi Germany was a socialist police state, and every bit as deserving of the Left's repect as Mao, Pol Pot, or Fidel.
Univision Set to Become Top U.S. Broadcast Network
The Globe goes to bat for Barney Frank
Of course.
WSJ: The EPA wants to take away 7% of U.S. power generation.
Climate Craziness of the Week: Save the planet, combine your emails into longer messages
Or why not just have the government charge 37 cents per email? That would be good for Gaia.
Roughly one-quarter of Americans say they receive some form of cash benefits from the government, and most are not willing to sacrifice any of that money to help cut the size of the federal budget.
The Amish breed Standardbreds, trotters and pacers, for transportation. They are longer and heavier than Thoroughbreds.
It's a delight to see an Amish trotter weaving through the strip mall traffic in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, head held high, prancing along, and mostly keeping up with in-town traffic.
This one was tied to a lamppost while the couple shopped at GoodWill.
Another below the fold -
Continue reading "Standardbred"
Wednesday, October 27. 2010
 It's taken me many years to realize that I can really only take in one piece of art per day. One painting - not a gallery-full. One poem, not a collection of poetry. One dance, not a whole dance concert. One piece of classical music, not a whole concert. One Chippendale highboy, not a room full of Chippendale.
Maybe it's my limitation in what I am able to process. Maybe it's my ADD, or maybe I am slow, but to me a wonderful thing is like a found jewel, or like finding an ancient coin washed up on a beach.
I assume that the people who make these things put a lot into them, and they can demand the same of me.
Thus one very special thing per day is plenty for me. I do not like to linger in museums - I prefer to hit and run.
Correggio, Venus with Mercury and Cupid, c. 1520
How does Garrison Keillor know me this well, without having ever met me? This describes me to a T:
[Republicans have] transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic fratboys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong�s moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newt�s evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk. Republicans: The No.1 reason the rest of the world thinks we�re deaf, dumb, and dangerous.
Truth is, I am a registered Repub but think of myself as a Conservative, despite my always testing out as "Centrist." Why is Gary so angry? Why are Lefties always angry? I am almost never angry, but often cranky and indignant.
Why does Gary hate me? I have enjoyed his humor very much over the years, but his politics are puerile and hyper-emotional.
I should add that I am a "know-noting flat earther" too. Yep, that's me: an Ivy Chem major and dumb as a post, clinging to my Bible and guns for dear life.
My brother took this snap off his back porch in CT yesterday morning. His attached email suggested "Hope you all will host T'giving again this year."
Yes, we will. It's usually 20 or so people, meaning two turkeys. One in the oven, the other on the grill.
Pic is a Dunkin in LaGuardia Airport
Jacoby begins:
THE HILLS are alive with the sound of liberal Democratic contempt for the electorate.
ObamaCare: What’s Ailing Democrats
Jay Cost looks at the impending damage to the Dems
Dr. Helen is Where the boys are
How to go to college without losing your mind
The New Road to Serfdom, by one of our heroes, the Brit Daniel Hannan
Krauthammer on Obama: "...his self-regard is quite infinite here."
Insty on the O:
"This kind of inflammatory rhetoric is dangerous. I don’t think we’ve ever seen its like from a sitting President."
Prager: This Is a Referendum, Not an Election
Fighting the Tea Party is like fighting the Taliban - asymmetrical warfare
Good analogy
Black guy looks for racism, cannot find any. He's angry anyway,
Maybe he's angry because he couldn't find any...
Biden:
"Every single great idea that has marked the 21st century, the 20th century and the 19th century has required government vision and government incentive...”
OK, Joe. Name three.
Tuesday, October 26. 2010
The new Queen Elizabeth. h/t, Theo.
She has the hull of a liner, but the superstructure of a Miami Beach hotel. Everything is quite elegant inside, but on ships like this you can too easily forget that you are on a ship at sea.
I prefer smaller ships, like many of the Holland-American line, that feel like big boats instead of like giant hotel-resorts.
Call me a snob if you want to. I like the Ryndam, below. I was looking at her because we need somewhere new to go to in 2011 - and I love ships 'n boats.
I cannot stand my confusion anymore.
The word is "cannot," not "can not." "Can't" always works informally, of course.
"Anymore" and "any more" are more confusing: "Any more (two words) means "no more"; anymore (one word) means "now," "currently," "at this time.""
 I suppose people would classify me as a member of the American "elite."
Like several of us Maggie's Farmers, WASP New England roots, prep school and double-Ivy-educated, fairly well-bred with a good pedigree, decent table manners when sober, a semi-entertaining but pedantic dinner companion, and in a supposedly-respectable profession. I am a member of blue blood clubs (and clubs that used to be), and I try to watch my grammar. I wear tweed jackets and a bow tie in order to emphasize my existence - and my adherence to tradition. I avoid a flashy life style, and buy my work clothes at good old, fashionless Brooks Brothers like my Dad and Grandpa. I am not wealthy, but relatively comfortable for now, with my kids through with college.
Yes, I am in some elite category, for better or worse. But not an elitist, I think.
In my life, since my arrogant youth, I have dedicated myself to learning new things every day. We isolated and insulated elites can learn a heck of a lot of wisdom, and a lot about life, from getting away from the elites. America has no class system. Wise and savvy people are found everywhere, in equal proportions. Fools, also.
Most people are like me, just another human: Part fool, part smart, part insane, and a teeny bit wise. The latter came from life, not school.
The regular American fellow with his boots on the American ground and struggling on the American soil knows more about life than any elites in Washington. The "problem" is that most regular American folks do not seek power over others - and thus do not seek political careers unless they are personally insecure or failures (there are rare exceptions).
The tea party warns of a New Elite. They're right.
Elites are the people who overestimate themselves and underestimate misunderestimate others.
"What happens in the cornfield stays in the cornfield."
Anon.
Pic is beautiful central Ohio, on Sunday.
 More links later. Server problems...
Pajamas: Time for Heads to Roll Over New Black Panther Dismissal
Falling in Love Only Takes About a Fifth of a Second, Research Reveals
That ain't love. That's called desire.
UNMANNED: Boys, Neuters, Thugs and Other Faux Men
Repressed aggression. Very sad.
Powerline: Independents poised to deal hard blow to Democrats
Cons need to keep an eye on those indies. Don't overreach, Cons.
The Shibboleth of "Fixing" Income Inequality
Russia fixed it. It worked out very well indeed. Everybody pretended to work.
Yes, yet another "deep swimmer" of the Left. They tend towards non-profits, where their productivity cannot be measured.
A quote via Thompson on public spending:
See, whilst many… are psychologically able to ignore, or excuse, or basically discount altogether the taking money from people bit of public spending, there are some of us that just can’t. One day it occurs to ask the question, “What exactly gives them the right to help themselves to whatever they want?” and the answer turns out to be because they can. Then you get a bit angry and frustrated, feel almost entirely helpless, then, just to make things that little bit worse, everyone else in the world comes and slaps you in the face for even daring to consider such heretical notions. The taking from me bit doesn’t count. I don’t matter. It’s the no longer giving bit that counts. Think about how people feel! Think about all the things they could do with that money, or that job, or learn from those people or achieve with the support of those others! Don’t you understand? Have you no feelings? Apparently not. I just keep thinking, “But it’s not your money. How can you live with yourselves taking it?”
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WSJ: 
Your tax dollars at work: 