Re the immigration bill vote yesterday (courtesy Wash Times):
In yesterday's vote, 33 Democrats, 12 Republicans and one independent voted to proceed with the bill, while 37 Republicans, 15 Democrats and one independent voted to block it.
As Otto has written previously, it's always been amazing how little diversity one sees on the Demmie side when it comes to votes of major import in Congress. Well, no more, at least on this vote.
16 out of 33 Democrats voted against (Bernie Sanders is an Independent in name only), which is a 48% defection rate from "the party line."
And yet I see all these stories today about how the Reepub/Conservative side is now "fractured."
That's fine. Be thee a conservative, or an evangelical, in Today's America, criticism just comes with the package. You get used to it.
Let's see how those renegade Demmies fare.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Sympathy, You Should Be The Superstar, That You Are...
So if I had like ten thou readers a day and I decided I HAD to weigh in on this whole immigration thang, I'd be killing myself right now, looking for links and opinions that made sense and statistics and dollar amounts and all of that other stuff that goes with the territory when you are a Responsible Journalist...
But I don't -- and the freedom accompanying that fact allows Otto to just toss out a whole bunch of random thought about what it all means, for the GOP (who according to The King is in danger of becoming extinct) and especially for Dubya. Let's start with The Man, and get to the party later.
Contrary to Popular Opinion (that of course being whatever the national media thinks), George W. Bush is not a fool. Neither is Cheney, or Karl Rove, or anybody else in the administration. You don't get to positions like that if you're a flat-out drooler. The people who think that's so are people who have never succeeded in any corporation, or haven't tried to. In business, as in politics, you have to have some slick, sure; you have to have some dealmaking skills, sure; but at rock-bottom you've got to work hard and have some smarts. If you don't believe that, you probably DO believe that The Whole System is corrupt, man. And I would say to you -- go smoke some more grass, then. That's your choice, and I'll leave you alone...but you're still WRONG...
Thus, the President and his core team have made a rational decision to back and produce new legislation on immigration. There can be only two reasons why: 1) They believe a new approach is needed; or 2) They have made a calculation that legislation won't pass, but it is in the long-term interest of themselves and their party to back it until it fails.
I think there are a ton of things that could support position 1, beginning with Bush's ties to Tejas and his real-world observations, both as a businessman and as governor, about Hispanic immigrants, both legal and illegal. But something, some gut feeling, tells me that position 2 is really what's going on.
Because, first, I hear all this chatter about "Bush squandering the few pennies of political capital he has left." Well, yes...exactly. What's the difference between leaving office with four pennies in pocket, versus nothing? Again: He's no fool. There are in my estimate four Big Things that he's spent large capital on during his 78 months in office. The War On Terror, Cutting Taxes, Getting Sane Jurists on the Supreme Court, and Social Security Reform. Three of out four have been payoffs. For you non-sports types, that's a batting average of .750 -- astronomical. So why not spend it all, before you leave?
In fact...in fact...what if he'd decided that getting the country to focus on the enormous costs associated with amnesty from a Social Security/Medicaid standpoint was the best way to move the ball forward on reforming those behemoth social programs?
In fact, what if he'd decided that forcing Congress's hand on immigration would result in large, large numbers of voters getting pissed about the whole damn bunch in Washington, cleaning House (so to speak) in '08? Speaking as a movement conservative, it wouldn't hurt my feelings one bit if Hagel, Lugar, McCain, Specter, Hatch...all of these entrenched, sometime Republicans, got the boot next fall. Shake the place up a bit, eh? Term limits without the legislation, eh? A massive forest fire, to clear the way for the Next Generation of new growth, eh?
In fact, what if he'd decided to exit with an approval rating so low that ANY Republican presidential candidate who gets the nomination could bill himself as The Candidate For Change, and have the latitude to separate himself from the past administration, thereby improving his chances? Clinton left office with some gargantuan poll numbers -- and did Gore benefit?
Lastly, in fact, what if he'd decided to pick this issue as the biggest, best way to show that The Federal Government isn't really capable of that much, at least on this issue, and get people thinking about individual state solutions instead? I mean, I don't hear that many people in Montana complaining about the immigration problem. Shouldn't the southern border states be dealing with this, first and foremost? Isn't it about time that people started looking somewhere else than freakin' Washington, DC for the answers to all of their freakin' problems?
And here again, I'm sure The Dope Crowd, The Sixties Movement, would have a major issue with this approach. So cynical. So Machiavellian. So manipulative. And I would say to them: Sober up, and grow up too, while you're at it. You do stuff like this every freakin' DAY. Like, your husband wants to buy a new sports car. Instead of saying no, flat no, you go along at first...knowing inwardly that the whole purchase process will get him to focus on finances, which he doesn't get involved with otherwise, and then he'll see how he needs to get a raise in order to make the nut on the car...which he does. Is that cynical? Is that Machiavellian? Is that manipulative?
No, it's life. So, like, get one.
Again I say: History will prove out the good and great success that was the George W. Bush administration. He knew what he was doing, and he did it right. Book it. Out.
But I don't -- and the freedom accompanying that fact allows Otto to just toss out a whole bunch of random thought about what it all means, for the GOP (who according to The King is in danger of becoming extinct) and especially for Dubya. Let's start with The Man, and get to the party later.
Contrary to Popular Opinion (that of course being whatever the national media thinks), George W. Bush is not a fool. Neither is Cheney, or Karl Rove, or anybody else in the administration. You don't get to positions like that if you're a flat-out drooler. The people who think that's so are people who have never succeeded in any corporation, or haven't tried to. In business, as in politics, you have to have some slick, sure; you have to have some dealmaking skills, sure; but at rock-bottom you've got to work hard and have some smarts. If you don't believe that, you probably DO believe that The Whole System is corrupt, man. And I would say to you -- go smoke some more grass, then. That's your choice, and I'll leave you alone...but you're still WRONG...
Thus, the President and his core team have made a rational decision to back and produce new legislation on immigration. There can be only two reasons why: 1) They believe a new approach is needed; or 2) They have made a calculation that legislation won't pass, but it is in the long-term interest of themselves and their party to back it until it fails.
I think there are a ton of things that could support position 1, beginning with Bush's ties to Tejas and his real-world observations, both as a businessman and as governor, about Hispanic immigrants, both legal and illegal. But something, some gut feeling, tells me that position 2 is really what's going on.
Because, first, I hear all this chatter about "Bush squandering the few pennies of political capital he has left." Well, yes...exactly. What's the difference between leaving office with four pennies in pocket, versus nothing? Again: He's no fool. There are in my estimate four Big Things that he's spent large capital on during his 78 months in office. The War On Terror, Cutting Taxes, Getting Sane Jurists on the Supreme Court, and Social Security Reform. Three of out four have been payoffs. For you non-sports types, that's a batting average of .750 -- astronomical. So why not spend it all, before you leave?
In fact...in fact...what if he'd decided that getting the country to focus on the enormous costs associated with amnesty from a Social Security/Medicaid standpoint was the best way to move the ball forward on reforming those behemoth social programs?
In fact, what if he'd decided that forcing Congress's hand on immigration would result in large, large numbers of voters getting pissed about the whole damn bunch in Washington, cleaning House (so to speak) in '08? Speaking as a movement conservative, it wouldn't hurt my feelings one bit if Hagel, Lugar, McCain, Specter, Hatch...all of these entrenched, sometime Republicans, got the boot next fall. Shake the place up a bit, eh? Term limits without the legislation, eh? A massive forest fire, to clear the way for the Next Generation of new growth, eh?
In fact, what if he'd decided to exit with an approval rating so low that ANY Republican presidential candidate who gets the nomination could bill himself as The Candidate For Change, and have the latitude to separate himself from the past administration, thereby improving his chances? Clinton left office with some gargantuan poll numbers -- and did Gore benefit?
Lastly, in fact, what if he'd decided to pick this issue as the biggest, best way to show that The Federal Government isn't really capable of that much, at least on this issue, and get people thinking about individual state solutions instead? I mean, I don't hear that many people in Montana complaining about the immigration problem. Shouldn't the southern border states be dealing with this, first and foremost? Isn't it about time that people started looking somewhere else than freakin' Washington, DC for the answers to all of their freakin' problems?
And here again, I'm sure The Dope Crowd, The Sixties Movement, would have a major issue with this approach. So cynical. So Machiavellian. So manipulative. And I would say to them: Sober up, and grow up too, while you're at it. You do stuff like this every freakin' DAY. Like, your husband wants to buy a new sports car. Instead of saying no, flat no, you go along at first...knowing inwardly that the whole purchase process will get him to focus on finances, which he doesn't get involved with otherwise, and then he'll see how he needs to get a raise in order to make the nut on the car...which he does. Is that cynical? Is that Machiavellian? Is that manipulative?
No, it's life. So, like, get one.
Again I say: History will prove out the good and great success that was the George W. Bush administration. He knew what he was doing, and he did it right. Book it. Out.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
The Greatest Commandments
Well, The Malaise deepens...if you believe the latest poll/results from Gallup: Practically 9 out of 10 surveyed thinks the current Congress bites the big one.
Sure, as a movement conservative, Otto could gleefully point to that result and start chucking it in the face of everyone I know who rejoiced when the Demmies gained control last November. They in turn, probably, would heave back Dubya's current poll numbers. Heave, splat, heave, splat, on and on we go...
Some other point needs to be made, I think. And that has to do with gratitude. Or, obviously, the screaming lack thereof.
For I abso-freakin'-lutely guarantee you that some percentage, and quite possibly a large percentage, of those folks polled by Mr. Gallup are on government assistance of some sort. It could be Social Security. It could be Medicare, or Medicaid. It could be AFDC, or Head Start, or food stamps. It could be any number of the other social programs administered to the tune of billions, tens of billions per year.
You would think that the recepients of these payments would have some level or degree of thankfulness, of gratitude, for this assistance. Based on this poll, you would be wrong. Very wrong.
And so Otto is compelled to ask: What's up with that?
We are all base creatures, is my take on things. Base and extremely selfish. If we get a slice of cake, we start looking at the whole damn thing, the rest of it, as being ours too. Assuming it's good cake. If we get ourselves a house, invariably we start thinking about bigger houses. Or multiple houses. I'm pleading guilty straightaway on this. I'm definitely not immune.
Some on my side of the political aisle have said and are saying that Dubya isn't doing a good enough job -- or, like, isn't doing it AT ALL -- communicating the good times we're currently enjoying. Take interest rates. Everybody all freaked out now that they've gone above 6 percent. Anybody want to take a guess what they were back in 1979-81? I mean give me a freakin' BREAK here. There's high interest rates, and then there's HIGH interest rates. So maybe people forget the really bad times.
I'd be very tempted to take a different tack, and pull a stunt that is generally acknowledged as political suicide: Give the voters a little tongue lashing. Give 'em some Bobby Knight. Tell 'em in no uncertain terms what a bunch of spoiled babies they've turned into.
But the best way out of this, The Current Malaise, is the best way out of any and every bad situation you face in your life. Religion. Jesus Christ, specifically.
When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandments were, what was his answer? Loving God, with all your heart and soul and might; and...loving your neighbor as yourself.
What does that have to do with anything?
Here's my short answer.
Loving God means giving him thanks and praise and glory for all of the good and great things He's done for us. In other words, it means GRATITUDE. Isn't that what worship is?
Loving your neighbor means helping out, cooperating, and just basically downplaying their idiosyncracies, which all of us have.
When we're grateful, we're more likely to be happy with what we have.
When we cooperate, we get along better and are happier about the place where we are.
Would YOU want to be a Senator or Representative right now? Hundreds of people calling or writing or e-mailing you every day, asking or even demanding that you fix their problems...and then turning around and STILL calling you a bum when some pollster contacts them?
The problem is not with Congress. The problem is US. We, the people. We are the problem. Christ is the solution. Book it.
Sure, as a movement conservative, Otto could gleefully point to that result and start chucking it in the face of everyone I know who rejoiced when the Demmies gained control last November. They in turn, probably, would heave back Dubya's current poll numbers. Heave, splat, heave, splat, on and on we go...
Some other point needs to be made, I think. And that has to do with gratitude. Or, obviously, the screaming lack thereof.
For I abso-freakin'-lutely guarantee you that some percentage, and quite possibly a large percentage, of those folks polled by Mr. Gallup are on government assistance of some sort. It could be Social Security. It could be Medicare, or Medicaid. It could be AFDC, or Head Start, or food stamps. It could be any number of the other social programs administered to the tune of billions, tens of billions per year.
You would think that the recepients of these payments would have some level or degree of thankfulness, of gratitude, for this assistance. Based on this poll, you would be wrong. Very wrong.
And so Otto is compelled to ask: What's up with that?
We are all base creatures, is my take on things. Base and extremely selfish. If we get a slice of cake, we start looking at the whole damn thing, the rest of it, as being ours too. Assuming it's good cake. If we get ourselves a house, invariably we start thinking about bigger houses. Or multiple houses. I'm pleading guilty straightaway on this. I'm definitely not immune.
Some on my side of the political aisle have said and are saying that Dubya isn't doing a good enough job -- or, like, isn't doing it AT ALL -- communicating the good times we're currently enjoying. Take interest rates. Everybody all freaked out now that they've gone above 6 percent. Anybody want to take a guess what they were back in 1979-81? I mean give me a freakin' BREAK here. There's high interest rates, and then there's HIGH interest rates. So maybe people forget the really bad times.
I'd be very tempted to take a different tack, and pull a stunt that is generally acknowledged as political suicide: Give the voters a little tongue lashing. Give 'em some Bobby Knight. Tell 'em in no uncertain terms what a bunch of spoiled babies they've turned into.
But the best way out of this, The Current Malaise, is the best way out of any and every bad situation you face in your life. Religion. Jesus Christ, specifically.
When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandments were, what was his answer? Loving God, with all your heart and soul and might; and...loving your neighbor as yourself.
What does that have to do with anything?
Here's my short answer.
Loving God means giving him thanks and praise and glory for all of the good and great things He's done for us. In other words, it means GRATITUDE. Isn't that what worship is?
Loving your neighbor means helping out, cooperating, and just basically downplaying their idiosyncracies, which all of us have.
When we're grateful, we're more likely to be happy with what we have.
When we cooperate, we get along better and are happier about the place where we are.
Would YOU want to be a Senator or Representative right now? Hundreds of people calling or writing or e-mailing you every day, asking or even demanding that you fix their problems...and then turning around and STILL calling you a bum when some pollster contacts them?
The problem is not with Congress. The problem is US. We, the people. We are the problem. Christ is the solution. Book it.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
A Stacked Bob Vila
So today it is time to pay tribute to Otto's Amazing Wife.
Amazing Wife is amazing on many levels, but I am compelled to log her amazingness because of the way she has stepped up her game lately around the house.
Here are the things she accomplished yesterday:
-- Finished the painting, caulking, and woodworking on the downstairs basement
-- Performed drywall repair on the stairway leading to the basement
-- Repaired the fence gate in the back yard
-- Painted a lamp that Daughter will be taking to her apartment in Morgantown this fall
Here are the things she accomplished the day before yesterday:
-- Repaired the sliding-glass door in the basement
-- Repaired the handrail in the stairway leading to the basement
If I were a single man, but still living in our present abode...well, I would not have had the first clue how to go about doing ANY of the above. Any of it. I would have looked at these things, day after day, in their sorry and broken conditions, and tried to ignore them. Except when I had to deal with them. Which, in some cases (like the sliding-glass door) would have been nearly every day. You needed the strength of The Incredible Hulk to move that door after it got busted -- hoisting and tugging and straining, cursing all the while -- and while the blow-it-off part of the male brain kept saying "It's no big deal" the other, bigger part, the one that deals with problem-solving and orderliness and that stuff, was having a Quiet Riot. Remember George Bailey's face, every time that doo-dad would pop off the top of the staircase thingy? Anger and despair.
So when God arranged to have my Amazing Wife and I meet, and then marry later (after I kept trying to screw up the plan), He knew that I had no skeels in the home improvement department. Not only no skeels, but no interest in developing any skeels. He also knew that my wife was about exactly the same way vis a vis cooking. He brought us together so we could fill each other's deficiencies. He is a great God in that way, and many others.
My Amazing Wife finds fulfillment in home improvement projects. I mean in actually DOING home improvement projects. Here are the two items she asked for and received three weeks ago, on her 52nd birthday:
A compound miter saw and a circular saw. That is what my Amazing Wife wanted for her birthday.
Let it not or ever be said that Amazing Wife's talents are limited to home improvement alone. No, verily, for she has made about half a dozen quilts, 50 birdhouses, 10 afghans, 13 sets of custom pillowcases, and a whole bunch of other stuff just in 2007. She has also lost 24 pounds in the past year and looks about as shapely as she did when I first laid eyes on her. She is a stacked Bob Vila, a Martha Stewart with a clean record, an HGTV Hero...
AND...she puts up with me. My moods, my sometimes potty mouth, my former drinking, my unhealthy habits, and all the other stuff that Otto is not so proud of. She puts up with it, bucks me up, loves me well and greatly, and laughs at my jokes. She IS The Original, OldSkool, Champions Tour Amazing Wife Of All Time. I am very blessed to be able to share my life with her. Selah.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Congratulations, I'm Sorry
The King had linked to a StrategyPage article yesterday, which I read this morning, which caused me to browse the site a bit more, and I wind up seeing this:
June 9, 2007: The government has backed away from a plan to legalize prostitution. A cleric has advocated using an old Shia custom of "temporary marriage" which, in effect, made prostitution, or shacking up, legal. Of course, you needed a cooperative cleric to sign off on the deal. This usually required a fee. The proposal was meant to placate the many impoverished young Iranian men who cannot afford to get married, and are rather restless as a result. There is already a lot of prostitution, and the new proposal was seen as another ploy by the corrupt clerics to extract more money from the people, in this case, horny men. As a result, the government has backed away from the proposal. Many ultra-conservative clerics want to maintain the ban on prostitution, and the clerics running terrorism operations don't want illicit sex interfering with the recruiting of suicide bombers (who are assured of 72 willing girls in the after life).
That's about it, eh? The human condition, neatly summed up in less than 150 words. Guys who want chicks, but can't get chicks because they have no kwon, and what in the H are we gonna do about that? The gubment as usual is helpless, and the church should help but it's been corrupted by power-lust...and what we're left with is the same old, same old...I caint GIT no, I caint GIT no...
It's comforting to Otto -- and not that surprising, either -- that life in the good ol' People's Republic of Iran is about the same as everywhere else. I think that simple factoid gets lost on a lotta folks. I hear them explaining to We, The Supposedly Ignorant that these are different CULTURES, you see, with different MORES and different PRACTICES and different PARADIGMS, and how dare we attempt to apply our own particular TEMPLATE on them. The key is UNDERSTANDING, you see, and the path to that is through DIALOGUE, you see, and we pursue war and violence instead and that's so WRONG, you see...
And I reply: There's nothing to see here. Nothing new under the sun. Guys want to bust a nut. Don't overthink this.
You can blather on about "oversimplification" all you want, but The Real Deal in all these shitehole parts of the world is about guys and kwon and chicks. To make kwon, you need a job. The social and governmental structures in places like Iran and the Sudan are absolutely incapable of providing them. So you have large numbers of idle males, slogging around and fully aware of their worthlessness, but still wanting chicks...who are fully second-class citizens, flying economy and wanting nothing more than a guy with some kwon who can provide a little comfort, and a dwelling, and kids, and all or most of the basic Good Things in life...but there are no jobs and no kwon...and that's when guys turn to violence and buy into about ANY harebrained set of ideas...
Bitch about the downsides of capitalism all you want, but the fact remains that it employs large, LARGE numbers of males who would otherwise act out violently.
The greeting of capitalism to a male, all males, is: Grab a shovel, get to work, and let's make some kwon.
The greeting of all other socio-economic models, including the weird sort of feudalistic cult that is the Present Day Arab Middle East is: Congratulations, I'm sorry. We have nothing for you except hate and loathing. Get used to it.
June 9, 2007: The government has backed away from a plan to legalize prostitution. A cleric has advocated using an old Shia custom of "temporary marriage" which, in effect, made prostitution, or shacking up, legal. Of course, you needed a cooperative cleric to sign off on the deal. This usually required a fee. The proposal was meant to placate the many impoverished young Iranian men who cannot afford to get married, and are rather restless as a result. There is already a lot of prostitution, and the new proposal was seen as another ploy by the corrupt clerics to extract more money from the people, in this case, horny men. As a result, the government has backed away from the proposal. Many ultra-conservative clerics want to maintain the ban on prostitution, and the clerics running terrorism operations don't want illicit sex interfering with the recruiting of suicide bombers (who are assured of 72 willing girls in the after life).
That's about it, eh? The human condition, neatly summed up in less than 150 words. Guys who want chicks, but can't get chicks because they have no kwon, and what in the H are we gonna do about that? The gubment as usual is helpless, and the church should help but it's been corrupted by power-lust...and what we're left with is the same old, same old...I caint GIT no, I caint GIT no...
It's comforting to Otto -- and not that surprising, either -- that life in the good ol' People's Republic of Iran is about the same as everywhere else. I think that simple factoid gets lost on a lotta folks. I hear them explaining to We, The Supposedly Ignorant that these are different CULTURES, you see, with different MORES and different PRACTICES and different PARADIGMS, and how dare we attempt to apply our own particular TEMPLATE on them. The key is UNDERSTANDING, you see, and the path to that is through DIALOGUE, you see, and we pursue war and violence instead and that's so WRONG, you see...
And I reply: There's nothing to see here. Nothing new under the sun. Guys want to bust a nut. Don't overthink this.
You can blather on about "oversimplification" all you want, but The Real Deal in all these shitehole parts of the world is about guys and kwon and chicks. To make kwon, you need a job. The social and governmental structures in places like Iran and the Sudan are absolutely incapable of providing them. So you have large numbers of idle males, slogging around and fully aware of their worthlessness, but still wanting chicks...who are fully second-class citizens, flying economy and wanting nothing more than a guy with some kwon who can provide a little comfort, and a dwelling, and kids, and all or most of the basic Good Things in life...but there are no jobs and no kwon...and that's when guys turn to violence and buy into about ANY harebrained set of ideas...
Bitch about the downsides of capitalism all you want, but the fact remains that it employs large, LARGE numbers of males who would otherwise act out violently.
The greeting of capitalism to a male, all males, is: Grab a shovel, get to work, and let's make some kwon.
The greeting of all other socio-economic models, including the weird sort of feudalistic cult that is the Present Day Arab Middle East is: Congratulations, I'm sorry. We have nothing for you except hate and loathing. Get used to it.
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Apply the Gitmo test
The latest Uniquely American Spectacle, the continuing manic obsession over all things celebrity, is of course Paris Hilton's forced return to the pokey. In and of itself, it's a sneeze droplet or small speck of dust on the radar of your life and Otto's. But the modern-day Left has chosen to step in -- again? yes, AGAIN -- and try to politicize it, and my Anger Meter spiked while reading the morning 'net news, and it's time to counterweigh those bastards.
As a short aside: I mean, is there ANYTHING that these people won't try to turn into The Next Great Struggle? I'm feeling a dump coming on here soon; is that in danger of being politicized? Yes, Otto, it already has -- ever heard of the enviro-toilet?
So we begin...with the old reliable vane, The New York Times:
The Most Right Highest Honorable Reverend Al Sharpton: "...decried Ms. Hilton’s release as an example of “double standards,” saying consideration was given to a pampered rich girl that would never have been accorded an average inmate."
The Breck Girl: "Even the presidential candidate John Edwards found himself drawn into the debate. When asked about Ms. Hilton’s release on Thursday he said, ''Without regard to Paris Hilton, we have two Americas and I think what’s important is, it’s obvious that the problem exists.”
And from a diarist on The Daily Kos: "There's a lesson to be learned from what is going on with Paris Hilton: Americans love it when the rich and powerful get served."
Rich. powerful. Two Americas. The same old tired shite, trotted out once again.
For starters, the Constitution guarantees you a day in court but it does not say a blessed thing about your right to have a five thousand dollar an hour defense attorney working your case. Why should it? In the same way, no one who is without health care coverage can or should expect their treatment from the Mayo Clinic or whatever. One of the reasons you work hard to get ahead and make more kwon is so that you can avail yourself of these high-end services if the situation ever arises. The best legal and medical help...for free? That's just a microwaved plate of leftover Communism, pure and simple.
So here's my suggestion, to be used on anyone you come into contact with the next couple of days who spouts off about Paris Hilton and the rich and the powerful and etc etc. Ask the person this question:
Do you think the United States is justified in holding suspected terrorists down at Guantanamo?
If the person answers Yes, then at least there's some consistency and stick-togetheredness in his/her thinking. A Law And Order point of view. Because that's the bottom-line issue here -- the safety of the community and our country. That's why Paris went to the pokey. That's why we punish people by using jail time. We make it safer for the law-abiding by getting and keeping the law-breaking off the streets, and at the same time send a message that further bad behaviors will lead to more and longer jail. It's safety, pure and simple.
But if the person answers No, then ask him/her to explain how we as a community and country are made safer by keeping Paris Hilton in jail and letting the Gitmo bunch free.
Otto's suspicion is that for this latter group, it's not about safety so much as retribution. Punish the rich and powerful. Punish America, even. It's a sickness of the mind that I'll be damned if I can explain...except to say that these people are just plain Haters.
So apply the Gitmo test. Identify the deranged. It'll help you safety-wise.
As a short aside: I mean, is there ANYTHING that these people won't try to turn into The Next Great Struggle? I'm feeling a dump coming on here soon; is that in danger of being politicized? Yes, Otto, it already has -- ever heard of the enviro-toilet?
So we begin...with the old reliable vane, The New York Times:
The Most Right Highest Honorable Reverend Al Sharpton: "...decried Ms. Hilton’s release as an example of “double standards,” saying consideration was given to a pampered rich girl that would never have been accorded an average inmate."
The Breck Girl: "Even the presidential candidate John Edwards found himself drawn into the debate. When asked about Ms. Hilton’s release on Thursday he said, ''Without regard to Paris Hilton, we have two Americas and I think what’s important is, it’s obvious that the problem exists.”
And from a diarist on The Daily Kos: "There's a lesson to be learned from what is going on with Paris Hilton: Americans love it when the rich and powerful get served."
Rich. powerful. Two Americas. The same old tired shite, trotted out once again.
For starters, the Constitution guarantees you a day in court but it does not say a blessed thing about your right to have a five thousand dollar an hour defense attorney working your case. Why should it? In the same way, no one who is without health care coverage can or should expect their treatment from the Mayo Clinic or whatever. One of the reasons you work hard to get ahead and make more kwon is so that you can avail yourself of these high-end services if the situation ever arises. The best legal and medical help...for free? That's just a microwaved plate of leftover Communism, pure and simple.
So here's my suggestion, to be used on anyone you come into contact with the next couple of days who spouts off about Paris Hilton and the rich and the powerful and etc etc. Ask the person this question:
Do you think the United States is justified in holding suspected terrorists down at Guantanamo?
If the person answers Yes, then at least there's some consistency and stick-togetheredness in his/her thinking. A Law And Order point of view. Because that's the bottom-line issue here -- the safety of the community and our country. That's why Paris went to the pokey. That's why we punish people by using jail time. We make it safer for the law-abiding by getting and keeping the law-breaking off the streets, and at the same time send a message that further bad behaviors will lead to more and longer jail. It's safety, pure and simple.
But if the person answers No, then ask him/her to explain how we as a community and country are made safer by keeping Paris Hilton in jail and letting the Gitmo bunch free.
Otto's suspicion is that for this latter group, it's not about safety so much as retribution. Punish the rich and powerful. Punish America, even. It's a sickness of the mind that I'll be damned if I can explain...except to say that these people are just plain Haters.
So apply the Gitmo test. Identify the deranged. It'll help you safety-wise.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Back to the well...
The wife and I went up to Carlisle, PA last Saturday for the annual All Ford event. I entered Luci in the show field, not because I thought she had a snowball's chance of winning anything but because I'd heard parking around the fairgrounds was absolutely brutal, ten bucks to go off-roadin' onto somebody's front lawn and then a half mile trek to the gate, stuff like that. For a show field price of forty-five beans, on-site parking and two admissions to The Show seemed a good choice. It was.
Boy were there some money Ponies in attendance! The 2005-07 era was best represented, by about a three to one margin, so we spent a good half hour going up and down the rows of The Greatest Generation of Mustangs. I cannot get words to completely convey how deep my affection and love is for these cars. All I have to do is see one, out on the road, and I smile. I still don't know what exactly has gotten into me.
Met one of the guys I've corresponded with on the AllFordMustangs forum, who has what I think is THE premier tricked-out '05 V6 in the whole country. Good times. Then spent about another half hour at the K.A.R. tent talking with owner George Waydos...an Ohio native, just like my wife, a believer, and lover of all things Pony. I told him I'd be buying one his cars someday. A '67 or a '70. His prices are so reasonable, I can't refuse. We had terrific conversation. Great times.
Saw some absolutely gorgeous Old School Stangers, one of which is below. Man, if the '07 Shelbys get down close to sticker, I'm gonna be tempted to get one of those too...
I just love these cars. Just love 'em. They make my heart sing. They make everything groovy.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
The hope that springs eternal...
Just finished submitting my lottery entry for next year's Ryder Cup, at Nicklaus's Valhalla course in Louisville, KY, and am already starting to feel the first pangs of Buyer's Remorse. One Large, One G, for two tickets, and then probably about another Two Large for a hotel for that week (unless we find something like a Sleep Inn in Hazard), plus meals and accoutrements, and it'll be the price of a freakin' Vortech supercharger...to likely witness the good ol' U S of A getting its arses handed to it, once again, by the Euros.
Jack fell in love with these "collection areas" around the greens, which are now All The Rage amongst the high-end daily fee courses. An example is above.
The deal is, with these tricked-up things: If you don't place your approach just so...the ball trickles off into the collection area, the almost-short stuff, where...you putt, you chip, you lob, you dissect the ball with a sand wedge, you take out your freakin' three wood and hit it like you were freakin' three years old or whatever...and time after time, the Euros will find a way to hit these shots stiff while our guys stare helplessly at a golf ball rolling back towards them. And I'll be standing there, probably in a cold driving rain, thinking, "I could have supercharged Dixi, and instead I chose THIS? Kelly, you f---ing moron..."
And etc...
In not too much longer, a U.S. win at this event is gonna be like The Miracle On Ice, Lake Placid, 1980. I mean it will be so contra to past outcomes, so improbable, that Being There will instantly place one among The Special, The Revered...
"You were there when we won? That's effing AWESOME, man! Tell me all about it..."
And etc...
So already it's The Hope That Springs Eternal From Within The Human Breast. A sad state of affairs, to be sure -- and one you can be sure I will be writing about, beginning a year or so from now, if that freakin' lottery entry strikes gold.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
A short, sinful rant
From a Drudge lead, courtesy ABC News:
Another figure underscores the public's broad grumpiness: Seventy-three percent now say the country's off on the wrong track, the most in just over a decade.
So, if those numbers are right -- and yeah, I know, a poll from ABCCBSNBC is oftentimes about as reliable as an opinion from a 2nd grader -- but let's just say they're right, or close to...
Then that means three of every four people you meet today, at work, in the burger joint, on the golf course, at the dry cleaners, wherever...three of every four people say the United States of America is on the wrong track.
So Otto feels compelled to say, to these threes: You're outta your f---ing minds. Get some f---ing help. Now.
Subgroup A, comprising probably about 35%, are the Pure Left, The Haters Of All Things Conservative, who probably would sit on the sidelines and cheer if Radical Islam invaded American and decided their first order of business was to execute all of the Christian evangelicals. Yeah, you heard me right. They'd cheer. These people, by and large as far as I'm concerned, don't consider themselves Americans -- no, it's just living in a country that happens to be called America -- and wouldn't give a damn if certain of their neighbors started getting rounded up. Look at how many of them are actually supporting Hugo (The Boss) Chavez, even as he's in the process of strangling free speech in Venny-zuela! These people are rootless, witless wimps -- they blather incessantly about "rights" but the fact of the matter is they don't give a shite about 'em as long as they got 'em. Basically, a lot of these turdbirds are Sixties Hippy MFs, and the country will get better and better once more and more of them start dying.
Subgroup B, probably about 25%, are Republicans who think Bush has sold them down the river on immigration. I got quick news for you folks:
1) Mass deportation of illegals is just NOT GONNA F---ING HAPPEN, in this lifetime or any other. It would walk and talk and feel and smell like Adolf: The Sequel. And really...do you want our police and military tied up in making that happen, when there's so many other Clear And Present Dangers around?
2) Can one of you please tell me how much this big wall, this fence, this booby-trapped, mine-laden, whatever that you say you want the government to build on BOTH the northern and southern borders of our great land, how many dollars this is going to cost? Maybe some quick math will help you out -- according to Wikipedia, the Border Patrol is responsible for patrolling 19,000 miles of land and sea border. Let's say the land borders are half of that, or 9,500 miles. How does a million dollars a mile sound? That's what it costs to do an interstate these days, and that's just freaking concrete on the ground. A million dollars times 9,500 miles is 9-point-five Billion with a B dollars. Then, to protect these walls, we've gotta have people manning them. Ten people per mile? Shoot, the way the gubment operates, it would be more like 100 people per mile. 950,000 new federal employees? That might or might not make the nut. Figure $100K in salary and benfits per year, or another 95 billion...per year. Forget Social Security, and Medicare, and all that other stuff you want so much. We're f---ing BROKE, on this road.
3) Get honest with yourselves for a minute, too, and ask yourself if you know any recent, legal Hispanic immigrants. I do. They are about the most grateful and supportive Americans I know, besides the Occidental Indians and Asians. If we gave amnesty to every freakin' ONE of these people tomorrow, and simultaneously rounded up and deported just a THOUSAND of the most suspicious Arabs walking our streets, the country would be a damned sight safer. A damned sight.
And, Subgroup C then, the remaining 15%...these are just The Disaffected Youth, who just naturally complain. If they get a free apartment and new Mustang GT from the parents, they would still consider things "on the wrong track" if they didn't have Wii. These nummies will grow out of it...just like I did.
So all of y'all should just shut the hell up, get back to work, and show a little f---ing GRATITUDE once in a while. Is that too much to ask?
Another figure underscores the public's broad grumpiness: Seventy-three percent now say the country's off on the wrong track, the most in just over a decade.
So, if those numbers are right -- and yeah, I know, a poll from ABCCBSNBC is oftentimes about as reliable as an opinion from a 2nd grader -- but let's just say they're right, or close to...
Then that means three of every four people you meet today, at work, in the burger joint, on the golf course, at the dry cleaners, wherever...three of every four people say the United States of America is on the wrong track.
So Otto feels compelled to say, to these threes: You're outta your f---ing minds. Get some f---ing help. Now.
Subgroup A, comprising probably about 35%, are the Pure Left, The Haters Of All Things Conservative, who probably would sit on the sidelines and cheer if Radical Islam invaded American and decided their first order of business was to execute all of the Christian evangelicals. Yeah, you heard me right. They'd cheer. These people, by and large as far as I'm concerned, don't consider themselves Americans -- no, it's just living in a country that happens to be called America -- and wouldn't give a damn if certain of their neighbors started getting rounded up. Look at how many of them are actually supporting Hugo (The Boss) Chavez, even as he's in the process of strangling free speech in Venny-zuela! These people are rootless, witless wimps -- they blather incessantly about "rights" but the fact of the matter is they don't give a shite about 'em as long as they got 'em. Basically, a lot of these turdbirds are Sixties Hippy MFs, and the country will get better and better once more and more of them start dying.
Subgroup B, probably about 25%, are Republicans who think Bush has sold them down the river on immigration. I got quick news for you folks:
1) Mass deportation of illegals is just NOT GONNA F---ING HAPPEN, in this lifetime or any other. It would walk and talk and feel and smell like Adolf: The Sequel. And really...do you want our police and military tied up in making that happen, when there's so many other Clear And Present Dangers around?
2) Can one of you please tell me how much this big wall, this fence, this booby-trapped, mine-laden, whatever that you say you want the government to build on BOTH the northern and southern borders of our great land, how many dollars this is going to cost? Maybe some quick math will help you out -- according to Wikipedia, the Border Patrol is responsible for patrolling 19,000 miles of land and sea border. Let's say the land borders are half of that, or 9,500 miles. How does a million dollars a mile sound? That's what it costs to do an interstate these days, and that's just freaking concrete on the ground. A million dollars times 9,500 miles is 9-point-five Billion with a B dollars. Then, to protect these walls, we've gotta have people manning them. Ten people per mile? Shoot, the way the gubment operates, it would be more like 100 people per mile. 950,000 new federal employees? That might or might not make the nut. Figure $100K in salary and benfits per year, or another 95 billion...per year. Forget Social Security, and Medicare, and all that other stuff you want so much. We're f---ing BROKE, on this road.
3) Get honest with yourselves for a minute, too, and ask yourself if you know any recent, legal Hispanic immigrants. I do. They are about the most grateful and supportive Americans I know, besides the Occidental Indians and Asians. If we gave amnesty to every freakin' ONE of these people tomorrow, and simultaneously rounded up and deported just a THOUSAND of the most suspicious Arabs walking our streets, the country would be a damned sight safer. A damned sight.
And, Subgroup C then, the remaining 15%...these are just The Disaffected Youth, who just naturally complain. If they get a free apartment and new Mustang GT from the parents, they would still consider things "on the wrong track" if they didn't have Wii. These nummies will grow out of it...just like I did.
So all of y'all should just shut the hell up, get back to work, and show a little f---ing GRATITUDE once in a while. Is that too much to ask?
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