We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Consider romantic Lord Byron, who had spent the previous Summer in a villa in Switzerland ruminating with other literaries about the issues of advancing science (which led to cohabiter Shelley’s Frankenstein), writing this drivel poetry the following December, Christmas eve 1816, in support of the Luddites:
As the Liberty lads o'er the sea
Bought their freedom, and cheaply, with blood,
So we, boys, we
Will die fighting, or live free,
And down with all kings but King Ludd!
When the web that we weave is complete,
And the shuttle exchanged for the sword,
We will fling the winding-sheet
O'er the despot at our feet,
And dye it deep in the gore he has pour'd.
Though black as his heart its hue,
Since his veins are corrupted to mud,
Yet this is the dew
Which the tree shall renew
Of Liberty, planted by Ludd!
Today’s self-declared intellectuals and media wannabes, similarly, extol the stand-against-the-machine OWSers in the parks. An essay from novelist Thomas Pynchon, maybe appropriately written in 1984, expresses the hope, “Is it OK to be a Luddite?” Pynchon traces Ludditism to belief in miracles against the “machine,” of modern life, then steps forward to today.
Machines have already become so user-friendly that even the most unreconstructed of Luddites can be charmed into laying down the old sledgehammer and stroking a few keys instead. Beyond this seems to be a growing consensus that knowledge really is power, that there is a pretty straightforward conversion between money and information, and that somehow, if the logistics can be worked out, miracles may yet be possible.
But, garbage in, garbage out. Now as then, retreat to fantasies misstate and contradict realities of how machines free labor to be more productive and remunerative, not only to investors but to the daily lives and liberties of workers. Now as then, it takes capitalists to exert practical imagination, risk capital, and bring to fruition and everyone’s table the produce. Not fairies.
See Polling the OWSers: "...the Occupy Wall Street movement reflects values that are dangerously out of touch with the broad mass of the American people." And with reality. They are miracle fairies for President Obama who will make disappear from consciousness all his abject failures and misdirections. Dream on as you drive into the wall of reality, President Obama. But, please spare the rest of us being further injured by your reckless driving.
First off, before the peanut gallery pipes up with "Not another debate, already!", I should note that the last debate was solely about economics, and that the previous debate was a month before, so it's been a while since we've heard Perry claim that Social Security is an illegal Ponzi Scheme and thus should immediately be disbanded, or Ron Paul screaming we should BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW! to thunderous applause from the Paulbots in the audience. Good times, good times.
As far as the current status of the election goes, I suppose the primary question is, can Cain actually, really, for-sure, possibly, maybe, somewhat, somehow beat Obama? Because if he actually, really, for-sure doesn't have a snowball's chance in Hell, then the next Morning Meeting at MSM Headquarters post is going to be full of self-congratulatory remarks as the gang pats each other on the back for the plethora of Cain Would Beat Obama In Face-off, Poll Says headlines that have been floating around recently.
Remember, as I noted in my very first election post, the plan is to always push the 2nd- or 3rd-place Republican contender in order to diminish the person holding the #1 spot, thereby keeping the masses in a state of flux. One thing we don't want is for anyone to actually be making any decisions out there. Keep 'em unsettled, keep 'em guessing, right up to the day of the election. Then, the American voter might still be so undecided when they hit the voting booth that they think, "Oh, maybe I'll just go ahead and vote for that nice Mr. Obama. He's so articulate!"
Utah readers, you'll be crushed to learn that Huntsman is boycotting the event because of the possibility that Nevada might move its caucus up on the schedule. That sounds a little thin, but the two states do abut each other, so there's bound to be a little rivalry between them and there might be more to this than meets the eye. An article on the debate is here.
Ana, for one, said she voted for Obama last time, but will now be supporting the Republican nominee, whoever it is.
"I don’t want promises," she said.
Short and sweet.
Tonight, 8 pm EST, CNN. Democratic lapdog Anderson Cooper is moderating, so it's possibleprobable inevitable that the questions just might will be slightly biased tilted dramatically in order to get the group to throw bombs at each other, but after last week's calm, measured round table debate, much of that early rancor might be gone.
Perry/Cain/Gingrich 2012?
(Hey, big businesses have more than one VP — why not us?)
While at first glance this might appear to be 'old news', I can assure you it isn't.
Because no more than a week ago I was reading some article and the guy was listing out all of the bad things our government has done in recent years (granted, it was a long article), and stuck right in the middle of his list was "lying us into an unnecessary war". This refers to Iraq, and how Bush 'lied' by telling us Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, or WMD. As the lefty meme at the time declared, Bush lied, thousands died!
And, much like global warming, the 'Bush lied us into war' meme has become so ingrained and believed that even a conservative writer might include it on the list without even thinking about it. Either way, I couldn't fault the guy.
Below the fold is the single greatest collection of quotes I've ever seen, regardless of subject. They were stuck in the comments of some throwaway article a while back and I hate to see the effort go unnoticed.
One quote deserves particular attention:
"He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983."
- Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Adviser, Feb, 18, 1998
Yes, Saddam had literally tons of WMD in his possession at the time. Bush and the CIA and the British, French, German and Israeli intelligence services were entirely correct. Estimates vary, but he'd already gassed somewhere between 100,000 and 350,000 Kurds with deadly Sarin gas and the like. The problem is that the anti-Bush MSM took 'WMD' to only mean nuclear at some point, ergo, if they didn't find any nuclear weapons in Iraq after the invasion, then Bush lied.
And, yes, we found tons of WMD, in the form of Sarin gas, in Iraq — but you never heard about that in the MSM, did you? Power Line was the one who broke the story, about eight months after the invasion. The army had found over 1,500 shells of Sarin gas in one underground bunker alone.
I don't expect you to be particularly interested in the list, but I'd like you to keep this post in mind the next time you see the 'Bush lied' meme dragged out and wish to respond. This is one of those things that simply cannot be refuted.
Neither in good times nor in bad does the middle class have a narrative nearly as compelling as those between which it is sandwiched. And it suffers accordingly.
Driving around today I heard this cut from Adele and had to crank up the sounds, almost to Rolling Stones decibels. It's a driving tempo, and if you remember "high" road trips it is driving music.
I wish the media would go down to Union Square and interview all the happy young people there. Here's my comment for these envious and hate-filled kids and their media-invented movement - self-important kids and superannuated kids who somehow have time to do street theater which I am sure must be fun and somewhat gratifying if you have no responsibilities in life:
To predict the demise of Capitalism, that is. Adam Smith did, too. So did my favorite economist, Joseph Schumpeter. Each one had different views on how it would end.
Marx foresaw the proletariat rising up and seizing the means of production. We all know how well that worked out.
Adam Smith believed an accumulative class would eventually collapse upon itself. Smith felt accumulation drove the market forward, but also felt accumulation for the sake of accumulation was wrong. He felt eventually, there would be nothing left to accumulate. Somewhat Malthusian in nature, and very unlikely based on his own concepts of markets and value.
Schumpeter went to great lengths explaining exactly why both these great minds were wrong. He felt Marx completely misunderstood the nature of markets. Schumpeter put the innovator, the entrepreneur, at the center of his economic model. It is the driving force of creativity and the desire to improve that keeps Capitalism and markets healthy. The value provided by this group of people helped offset the underlying problems of labor described by Marx.
Capitalism existed as a force for change, not a static system which was essential for Marx's system. Schumpeter was unabashed in his support for, and love of, markets and capitalism. He sought to destroy Marx's arguments, and did so in impressive manner.
The OWS people have a very minimal impact on NYC. We went down to the city yesterday afternoon with friends for matinee theater and dinner, had a little time to kill so wandered around Union Square Park and Broadway.
Happy parks filled with young happy people do not make the news. These are the people Obama should be celebrating. More people here enjoying a lovely October day than in Zucotti Park.
It was Sukkot, so there were plenty of Hassidim around with their citrons and palms. They ask you "Are you Jewish?" and if you are, they will wish you a good Sukkot.
Same as in Washington Square, these speed chess guys with their tables set up will play you for money.
Replacing the YUPPIES, AOL hits the irony jackpot today, naming the 2010s young generation the DUMPIES, downward mobile, unemployed, poor.
Of course, relatively few of last decade's young were Yuppies, and relatively few of today's are Dumpies. But the Dumpies appelation does seem to fit well the Occupy Wall Streeters. Besides the most common fecal meanings of "dump" as displayed by the photo of a protester defecating on a police car, there's more definitions found at the Urban Dictionary that fit their OWS scene:
*To refer to a place or setting that is in poor condition or standards.
*One who wallows in their own laziness.
*A very lazy, trashy person, often smelling of foul body odor and looking like an all-around ragamuffin.
*A word used to describe a person/object/situation that is definitely not even good. Often used in a situation where a boring person makes a boring statement or is just generally being a fail.
*To whine about one's problems and let out many emotions to any unfortunate person who has to listen.
*Noun; to be someone who's annoying or stupid and annoying.
In case you don't know what Wonkette is, it is — by far — a blog site full of the biggest Lefty fruitcakes in existence. "Frothing at the mouth" would be an adequate description. Following is a selection of their posts and links from just this past week.
Remember, folks, if you want the latest anti-right screed, then you want Wonkette!
Quite the list, eh? And that's just from one week! As I said, if you want the latest in hard-core right-wing defeatism, then you want Wonk-
Oh, wait a sec. Damn it!
Sorry, everyone. I've made a terrible mistake. Those were last week's links from Hot Air, the "leading conservative blog for breaking news and commentary."
And just why is the "leading conservative blog for breaking news and commentary" so incredibly defeatist? I have no idea. But hey, this was the blog site that had more anti-Palin links than pro-Palin links during the 2008 election, so who knows what's going on behind the scenes? If anyone out there has the scoop, please let us know in the comments. It's all quite the little mystery. After founder and ex-boss Michelle Malkin wrote her anti-Perry HPV article a month ago, Hot Air promptly ran twenty anti-Perry headlines in a row over the next two weeks. Twenty.
The kicker is that Hot Air is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the California-based Salem Communications Corporation, owner of over 1,650 sites, and the "bloggers" are actually compensated writers.
In other words, they were paid for the above.
Again, I apologize for my grievous blunder, and I promise to be more careful in the future.
A specter haunts America: downward mobility. Every generation, we believe, should live better than its predecessor. By and large, Americans still embrace that promise. A Pew survey earlier this year found that 48 percent of respondents felt that their children’s living standards would exceed their own. Although that’s down from 61 percent in 2002, it’s on a par with the mid-1990s. But these expectations could be dashed. For young Americans, the future could be dimmer.
Atlanta: Unlike the Tea Party these protestors do not seem to have jobs to attend or families to take care of. They have time on their hands. And they are becoming more emboldened.
On my next trip out there, I plan to stock up on more old oil and kerosene lamps. We lose power so often that flashlights just don't do the job. The junk shops out there are full of them, interesting ones - the Amish use them, and there are lots of Amish out there. Mennonites, I think. They live off the grid, in many ways.
There are no Mennonite blogs, as far as I know. "Tis a gift to be simple..."
InstaPundit Glenn Reynolds, author of Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths, which "hails the emergence of a new entrepreneurial class resulting from the democratizing power of technology" according to Publishers Weekly, preceded the Occupy Wall Street protests. But, OWC is a different kind of protest. OWC is a big media promoted event, one that fits its liberal-left memes, organized by radical "community organizers", funded and added manpower from government-union thugs (just look at the size of the OWC bouncers). Struggling to find any allies, President Obama clings to the OWCers ranting at anyone "wealthy", who have avoided facing Obama's crony capitalism -- funding him and he funding them in return with taxpayer dollars 50% supplied by the wealthiest 1% -- that is the real core of our and their economic complaints.
As Glenn Reynolds comments about major media coverage of OWC protests, "When lefties want to make the Tea Party fit their preconceptions, they have to make things up. When righties want to exercise their preconceptions about the Occupy movement, on the other hand, they just have to take a picture." Reynolds includes this quote from a columnist:
The mainstream media's cameras can't get enough of these pierced protesters, with their crudely written signs proclaiming their unfocused discontent and general anger at society's selfishness in failing to satisfy their every want and desire.
Of course, those cameras discreetly turn away when the placards demanding socialist revolution and blaming the Jews come out. The protesters' function is to demonstrate inchoate outrage simply by being there. When they start talking, they start alienating the normals.
These are Potemkin protesters, community organized by government worker unions to allow liberal Democrats a way to triangulate to the center next year. Only the rebel media outfits will actually stick a mic in the protesters' dirty faces and let them talk.
Armchair art lovers, you don't need Bird Dog's notes anymore to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) in New York. Plus, you'll save airfare, high hotel and meal costs, cab drivers who cuss at you in some tongue while smiling, stepping over winos, and other joys of visiting New York.
The Met's website is a free ticket to its entire collection of over 340,000 objects, including those in storage that onsite paid ticket buyers don't get to see. It's easy to navigate by various criteria, periods or locations, and each photo is accompanied by an interesting explanation of the piece, its history, context, and so forth. The search engine is also easy and will take you anywhere in the Met's vast collections, without having to get out of your jammies or put on shoes. Plus there are guided tours and videos of Met experts on diverse subjects and on their own artistic passions.
Let's take for example the unicorn from the Unicorn Tapestries at the Met's Cloisters, miles uptown in Fort Tryon -- a seedier part of town -- that Bird Dog posted about today. Here's the Met's website page for that. See for yourself what its about and compare to what you didn't learn from Bird Dog.
Have at it. Occupy The Met and throw off the yoke of the capitalist-running-Bird Dog. Non-Bird Dogs of the world, Unite!
My wife had knee surgery recently, and our medical group has a wonderful facility nearby. We arrived at 6:30 AM, checked in, she was brought into surgery at 7, and I went home. The drive being only 15 minutes, I was able to return, get something to eat, do some work, and return in time to pick her up. We left at 9:00AM.
It was only arthroscopic surgery, something I've had several times over the last 12 years (anyone playing sports is likely to have had it at least once). But it amazes me how quick these have become, showing the huge productivity gains in the medical community.
I've had my knee, my elbow, and my back all scoped. The amazing thing is all of these were done at ambulatory care centers. In 1985 I had work done on my knee which today would have been done utilizing arthroscopy. The work was done in a hospital, requiring an overnight stay.
It's amazing so many of these surgeries, which at one time required opening up a good portion of the joint, are now barely invasive. It's also incredible that you can literally walk away from many of them. My wife is already limping slightly, and should be moving fairly well by Monday (Friday surgery).
When we talk about the rising costs of medicine, we never talk about the improvements that have accompanied the price increases.
I've seen enough cloisers and cloister gardens in Europe to occupy my brain for a lifetime, but we went down to The Cloisters yesterday with friends to go on the Medieval Gardening tour. The museum overlooks the Hudson River near the northern tip of Manhattan, not far from where Alexander Hamilton's farm and country house was located.
Good fun. 1 1/2 hrs. Excellent docent, clearly loves her topic. She spent 15 minutes on the plants in the 15th C. unicorn tapestries besides going outdoors to discuss the medieval gardens. (I think most people go to the Cloisters just to see the unicorn tapestries, the subject of which is a symbolic mingling of romantic and sexual love with Christianity but it is difficult to understand them without an informed introduction to them.)
A Hortus conclusus is an enclosed garden, taken by monks from the Roman enclosed gardens, with a Christian symbolic gloss. (As I always say, if you want to understand the Romans, one must look at oneself. We of the Anglosphere are Romans.)
It's taken me many years to learn one thing: Wwherever you go, Always Take The Tour first. Be humble and learn.
Presentation matters, in dress as well as in attitude, comportment, and, of course, useful skills and ability.
"One of the saddest sights in the hotel conference hall is not so much the sloppily dressed interview candidate, as the ineptly dressed interview candidate — the one in the brand new, too-cheap, shiny, ill-fitting suit with too-short sleeves and too-long pants, rushing through the halls clutching a fake-leather briefcase. That person smells of desperation. Don’t let it be you."
I do a fair amount of interviewing and don't give a darn about how people are dressed as long as it shows some respect for themselves and for my time. Most people care about these things more than I do. However, one must sell oneself, not just to get a job but also to keep a job.
As evidence, ladies and gentlemen of the jury of history, I present the undisputed fact that on the evening news shows of NBC, ABC and CBS this week not one — NOT ONE — mentioned the unprecedented subpoena by a Congressional committee of information regarding the entire top echelon of the Justice Department in the Gunwalker Scandal.
Had this scandal involved John Ashcroft and the Bush Administration, does anyone doubt that the story would have led the nightly half-hour “puppet theater”? Or, that it wouldn’t have been covered like a blanket by all news departments from the moment the blood of Brian Terry dried in the desert sands of Rio Rico?
Big media complicity in the news blackout is a heavy indictment against modern journalism in America today.
96:1 O sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth.
96:2 Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.
96:3 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples.
96:4 For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be revered above all gods.
96:5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
96:6 Honor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
96:7 Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
96:8 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts.
96:9 Worship the LORD in holy splendor; tremble before him, all the earth.
96:10 Say among the nations, "The LORD is king! The world is firmly established; it shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity."
96:11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
96:12 let the field exult, and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
96:13 before the LORD; for he is coming, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth.
Please shave your beaver, or have the Korean ladies give you a Brazilian.
Why?
Why must men shave their faces in Western civilization? It is just one more annoying chore in getting ready to face the day, and it is surely "unnatural," and doubtless a contributor to global warmingcoolingclimate change whatever.
When I take a pass on this annoyance on the occasional weekend, She Who Must Be Obeyed tells me that I look like a bum. Well, I find taking showers a time-wasting burden too. I think I have an inner hippie, an inner Cave Man, or an inner Occupy Wall Street. Probably an inner Yankee Farmer.
If you shave your pet beaver, I will shave my face.
I don't really care if I look like a bum on weekends. Sue me. Good grooming is a hassle. When you reach maturity, hair grows revoltingly out of your damn ears and nostrils and everywhere else.
She is probably right that I need to conform to fit into modern society. I find it all tedious and tiring sometimes, but I have what it takes to keep on keepin' on. Happy wife, happy life, as they say.
If you haven't shopped for a replacement car lately, it has become -- pricewise -- crazier than ever. That's not because of the usual dealer tactics. In fact, with the Internet, the consumer has acquired added info with which to avoid being hornswaggled. It is because due to Cash-4-Clunkers removing so many used cars from the market and the recession reducing new car sales the past few years the price of used cars has increased by 25-50%, so a one or two year old used car -- even high mileage -- costs near as much as a new one. This has increased current new car sales, as why not?
That's what I found when searching over the past month for a replacement for my 2000 trusty Taurus, now having imminent engine and suspension problems that would cost me more than the car's value to repair. My wife's criteria was only that it be reasonably reliable and fit my 6-year old Gavin's bike or hold three or four large suitcases. After trying every old trick I knew, I was getting frustrated and furious. Then I found Truecar.com. It tells you the true dealer cost for a new car, thousands below MSRP and well below dealer invoice. It also tells you which dealer in your area is selling for close to dealer cost. So armed, I made my offer to several dealers, being rejected. Then, yesterday afternoon, a dealer agreed. I am now the owner of a new 2012 car.
I took 11-year old Jason with me as my tech advisor. Although I chose a bottom of the model, middle-class car, the new car has so many fancy, cool electronics for auto-diagnoses and warnings, communications, music, navigating, etc. (none of which I care about) that my eyes glazed over and my ears heard the seashore. But Jason took it all in immediately and promises to educate me. Almost as techy as Micky's new car.
Who cares? They satirize themselves. I have been bullied by these would-be police officers, who could never pass a police exam - or an exam on good manners. Trust me - I do not look like a shoe bomber.
“Over a period of two or three years they were running thousands and thousands of guns to the most evil people on earth. At the same time they were yelling ’90 per cent… of the guns the Mexican drug cartels are using come from the United States.’
Under terms of the February loan restructuring, two private investors—Argonaut Ventures I LLC and Madrone Partners LP—stand to be repaid before the U.S. government if the solar company is liquidated. The two firms gave the company a total of $69 million in emergency loans. The loans are the only portion of their investments that have repayment priority above the U.S. government.
Argonaut is an investment vehicle of the George Kaiser Family Foundation of Tulsa, Okla. The foundation is headed by billionaire George Kaiser, a major Obama campaign contributor and a frequent visitor to the White House.
Crony socialism and political payoffs. It's the Chicago Way. Nice.
Mead:The administration’s goal has to be to get this story off the front page and fast.
115 year old electric car
Where's the outrage? 
Image via 
Please shave your beaver, or have the Korean ladies give you a Brazilian.
Image via 