Pluckin' with power and fishin' backwards

I was just over at our pal Bustednuckles' place, Ornery Bastard. He had a heartwarming post about his Granny teaching him about food and it rang some bells in my brain, additional ones that is, and made me remember an old gent from my youth.

Scott W. McKendree of Klamath Falls, Oregon, was a business partner of my Dad's. He was in his '60s back in the mid-1950s so I'm sure it's OK to talk about him now without him coming after me.

Mr. McKendree was an outdoorsman and kind of a Gyro Gearloose who invented and marketed things, except that unlike Gyro, his stuff actually worked. One of his masterpieces was the McKendree Duck Picker (I paid $2 for mine at a garage sale). See his ad in the Sep '55 Popular Mechanics.

He was a gruff old curmudgeon, probably one of my role models as I think back on it, but he was very nice to me. He took me fishing when I was about 11 years old at the beautiful Lake of the Woods in Oregon. He taught me to tie everything to the boat so in case it turned over you wouldn't lose anything.

While we were out on the lake, the boat quit moving even though the outboard motor was running. The thing had lost its prop. Mr. McKendree rowed us to the boat dock (no power in an 11-year-old or he'da had me do it, I think) and bought a prop.

Now, he had a Johnson and the store at the dock sold Evinrude, or vice versa (Mox nix, they're one and the same today under Bombardier. Damn Canucks!). He installed the prop, fired 'er up and the boat took off backwards. The one brand of motor counter-rotated from the other.

I think it was faster to just run backwards than to try and run the motor in reverse and go forward, but in any case we finished our day of fishing. The kokanee were delicious!

Note: Kokanee are either salmon or trout or something else entirely depending on region and who you talk to. These were light brown fish that looked like and were about the same size as a stream trout. Boating them was a good fight for an 11-year-old.

One final stop on this trip down memory lane.

My Dad told me this exactly once and no one dared ask Mr. McKendree about it.

Mr. McKendree's father was murdered, shot to death, in some cattlemen versus sheepmen dispute in the early 20th century. The man who did it was later found shot to death, and the gunman was never caught. Rumor had it that Mr. McKendree avenged his father's death but nobody ever pursued it. Oregon isn't generally thought of as the Old West, but it sure as shit was. Still is.

I know how to pick my role models, huh?

The Conservative Constitution of the United States

Subtitle: Wingnuts' Wet Dream.

David Cole in WaPo.

We, the Real Americans, in order to form a more God-Fearing Union, establish Justice as we see it, Defeat Health-Care Reform, and Preserve and Protect our Property, our Guns and our Right Not to Pay Taxes, do ordain and establish this Conservative Constitution for the United States of Real America.

Article II. No person except a natural-born Citizen who can produce video, photographic or eyewitness evidence of birth in a non-island American State shall be eligible to the Office of President.

The President shall faithfully execute the laws, except when, as Commander in Chief, he decides he'd really rather not.

AMENDMENTS

1. Congress shall make no law abridging the Freedom of Speech, except where citizens desecrate the Flag of the United States; respecting an establishment of Religion, except to support Christian schools, religious apparitions in food products and the display of crosses and creches in public places; or abridging the free exercise of Religion, except to block the construction of mosques in sensitive areas as determined by Florida Pastors or the Fox News Channel.
...

12. No one may be required to do anything He or She does not want to do. Ever.

"Top Ten Little-Known Facts About John Boehner"

From January 6, 2011

From CBS.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

One of my favorites.

From Swiss TV 1991

Emmylou Harris ~ Leaving Louisiana

Thanks to 1000Magicians, UK.

Shopping Day

Gotta head ta The Big City fer supplies and breakfast.

Besides the pain, we're in fer two years of comedy gold so I'll leave ya with this:

From CBS via BuzzFlash.

And the hits ...

Just keep on coming. Can't you all just let us kill ourselves in peace?

In the days after Great Neck Village trustees banned smoking on sidewalks in the commercial district, Mayor Ralph J. Kreitzman fielded dozens of congratulatory messages.

Among those calling or sending e-mails Thursday were representatives of some other Long Island communities.

"None have said 'We're going to follow in your footsteps,' but a number of people, including mayors, have complimented us," Kreitzman said.

...

Thank god my shitbag town doesn't have sidewalks. Un-fucking-believable ...

In some municipalities, I'm not allowed to smoke, in my own car, if there's a kid in it at the time. Hold on to the roof rack real tight, Junior.

So how long ...

Do you think the Republicans will put up with this?

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday that the nation’s "extreme fiscal duress" now required him to call for cuts in the size of the Army and Marine Corps, reversing the significant growth in military spending that followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

...

Their "constituents" in the Military Industrial Complex will make sure full funding is restored tout suite. We have to go to war with Iran eventually; how can you cut the defense budget?

And that's why ...

America will sink farther and farther into Third World toilet-hood:

It doesn't matter what's happened over the past 30 years, there's absolutely nothing which can kill the media narrative of fiscally responsible Republicans.

As long as the Republicans have someone to blame for whatever financial mess they create, they will be "fiscally responsible". As long as the public buys into the "taxes = bad things" meme, the Republicans will be able to pull their shenanigans on their corporate patrons' behalf.

Just like last time ...

There are streets in Brooklyn and Queens that are still covered with snow and they're expecting 3" - 6" today. Good luck with that:

Some snow is headed to the New York City area starting tomorrow, and this is what Mayor Bloomberg had to say: "You can rest assured we’re going to go out there just like we did the last time. The public has a right to expect us to clean the streets and that’s exactly what we’re going to do." Um, thanks but no thanks? And where's the suggestion to see shows on Broadway?!

"Just like we did the last time" means NYC will be paralyzed for a week again. It's time to kidnap Gordon's "Berm Fairy". Heh ...

I wonder ...

How surprised "Superman's" family will be when they have to identify him in the local morgue:

AN elite band of superhero crime fighters have started patrolling a city in a bid to rid the streets of tyranny.

The band of do-gooders — decked out in the obligatory comic-book costumes — roam in search of injustice and intervene at the first opportunity.

The group's crusading antics perfectly mimic the hilarious campaign of a disgruntled school pupil in 2010 film Kick-Ass who decides to become a masked superhero.

...

Idiots. Grow the fuck up. Only in America. Hope them suits (reminds me of the Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village) are bullet-proof. It would work here in NYC; the crooks would laugh themselves to incapacitation and incontinence.

And then there's ...

The "walking through the front door fee":

Banks, in an attempt to wring more revenue out of customer accounts, are conjuring up new ways to raise fees on basic products like debit cards, cash machines and checking accounts.

...

Bend over, here it comes again.

Thanks to Chris for the link.

Ya can't make this shit up...

Birther Interrupts House Reading Of Constitution, Yells 'Help Us Jesus' (VIDEO)

O Lord, stop this pain in my...sides.

Law of the land

LATimes editorial:

On Thursday, the Constitution of the United States in its entirety will be read aloud in the House of Representatives, courtesy of the new Republican majority. The temptation, to which we succumb, is to regard the reading as a symbolic sop to the " tea party," whose adherents carry around pocket-sized copies of the Constitution.

Probably unopened. Like their Bibles. They don't need, or perhaps are afraid, to read them - they know what they want them to say.

Even so, there's no harm in a public reading of it. We only hope that those in the audience, whether tea partyers or their supporters in Congress, are willing to listen to the complete document. If they do, they'll find some of their small-government preconceptions challenged.

Their minds are made up and will not be swayed by facts or truth or reality.

Tea partyers and sympathetic representatives also should pay attention to language in Article 1 granting Congress the authority to enact "all laws which shall be necessary and proper" for executing its enumerated powers, including the right to regulate interstate commerce. We don't expect the mere recitation of this language to convert opponents of healthcare reform to the idea that an individual mandate is constitutional. But they might at least recognize that the Constitution gives Congress sweeping authority over commerce — more sweeping, perhaps, than they like.

Finally, we hope ears are pricked when the reader declaims Article VI, which declares: "This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof … shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding." It is impossible to reconcile this language with the belief, popular among some tea partyers, that America is a loose confederation of sovereign states.

Along with ordering the marathon reading of the Constitution, the Republicans will require that every piece of legislation refer to the part of the Constitution from which it derives its authority. If members pay close attention to the reading, they'll realize that's a pretty easy task.

Except for things they and their corporate masters don't like.

John Boehner's Big Gavel Is Flaccid

I guess my theme today is "Boehnin' on down". El Rude-o chimes in:

So the demonstrably unstable Speaker of the House, John Boehner, took his new position from Nancy Pelosi by requesting a comically large gavel. Overcompensating to the hilt, he held his surrogate penis aloft and made a speech that left the Rude Pundit wondering a few things.

[...] In other words, of course, what if Democrats acted like Republicans did during the last time the "people" voted for a monumental shift in power way back in, you know, 2008? (Note: Democrats won't do it because Fox "news" will be mean to them.)

FOXPAC will be mean to them whether they do or don't. Note to Dems: Do. Fat chance.

[...] And here's a funny one: why does it seem there will be no amendments allowed on the health care reform repeal? Is it because everyone knows the vote is just a symbolic act of worthless protest that they just want to get over with as soon as possible? A waste of time, money, and energy in order to toss a bone to the new teabagger representatives? (Hint: Yes.)

Snowball, meet Hell.

[...] So why is one of the first things Republicans are doing is crawfishing away from one of the pledge's planks on cutting spending? Is it because the whole "Pledge" bullshit was just a way of hoodwinking teabaggers into voting for the GOP and now having to actually act on it is going to prove impossible? (Hint: Yes.)

So, cool, the shiny, new House opens with a series of lies and hypocrisies, with the craven traditional Republicans trying to keep the lid on the just-elected nutzoids so they don't fuck up 2012. As for Boehner, he walked out of today's boring-ass reading of the Constitution to have a press conference. And there's all you need to know about how very serious these serious new people are in their symbolic gestures. A giant, novelty gavel, after all, is just a giant, novelty gavel.

A giant novelty penis would have been much closer to what the Repugs wish to do for to the "will of the people".

Headline of the Day

Why Is Jeff Sessions Blocking A Child Sex Trafficking Bill?

Because he's an ignorant fucking obstructionist right-wing asshole is why.

Constitutional Lessons For the New Congress

From Laura Flanders at GRITtv (video):

It might seem amusing for government officials to read a government document as proof that government is the problem, but instead of laughing, people of the progressive bent might do better to read along.

While that people's democracy of Adams and Jefferson is still a work in progress, Republican legislators don't own the Constitution. In fact, they should be held accountable to it: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare...” Oh my! All that talk of of Common, General, and "We the People" -- don't tell Glenn Beck --it sounds like a front for socialism.

Shit, reality sounds like socialism to Miss Becky.

Right-Wingers Claim Muslim Brotherhood Has Infiltrated CPAC

The title of this post should have been "Liquid Alert!". Sorry...

TPMMuckraker

The right-wing site World Net Daily and conservative columnist Frank Gaffney came up with a new reason this week to hate the Conservative Political Action Conference, arguing that it has been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood thanks to Grover Norquist, the Republican group Muslims For America, and Ex-Bush staffer Suhail Khan.

Too bad it's not true. It could only improve CPAC, bring it more to the center.

Gaffney has been a go-to shariah "expert" on the right for some time -- he even testified against a proposed mosque project in Murfreesboro, TN, and then said on CNN that the purpose of mosques "is to destroy western civilization from within."

"Every one of his assertions is completely untrue," Khan said, adding that Gaffney "doesn't want to let a few silly facts in the way of good story."

Khan also described how Gaffney has "become completely marginalized in the conservative movement," and describes the article as a "tempter tantrum given that he is being ignored."

Gaffney ignored? Too bad that's not true either. He gets on TV all he time and not just FOXPAC.

The one thing I agree with him on is that we both hate Grover Norquist, but Gaffney thinks Norquist's too far left.

Gaffney's the wingnut whackjob of which there's no whackjobier. The clown is so far right, he's on his own left. World Net Daily is a good place for him. One round can get 'em all.

The Crying Shame of John Boehner

Go read Matt Taibbi on John Bœhner:

The Democrats have plenty of creatures like Boehner. But in the new Speaker of the House, the Republicans own the perfect archetype — the quintessential example of the kind of glad-handing, double-talking, K Street toady who has dominated the politics of both parties for decades. In sports, we talk about athletes who are the "total package," and that term comes close to describing Boehner's talent for perpetuating our corrupt and debt-addled status quo: He's a five-tool insider who can lie, cheat, steal, play golf, change his mind on command and do anything else his lobbyist buddies and campaign contributors require of him to get the job done.

Others in Washington see Boehner not so much as a bloodless partisan but as a clueless yutz, one who rose to power through a combination of accidents and bureaucratic inertia. "He's just sort of like, 'Oh, how did I get here?'" says one Democratic aide. "I think of him sort of as a big Saint Bernard to [new Republican Majority Leader] Eric Cantor's yapping Chihuahua." Boehner is the butt of a lot of jokes around the Hill, with his wino eyes, perennial Crayola-orange tan and phallic surname providing even members of his own party with endless comic material. (George Bush, famous for giving colleagues nicknames, called Boehner "Boner.") His pseudo-acceptance speech on the night in November when Republicans retook the House was brilliant clown theater, a Wayne's World version of a right-wing political rally. At the very moment when millions of GOP voters were celebrating their ouster of the great socialist enemy Obama in the name of patriotism and liberty, Boehner was tearing up over what an awesome job he had finally scored for himself.

Boehner, in short, has for most of his career been a Bush Republican, i.e., a corporate schmoozer and a remorseless spender of taxpayer money for whom the notion of small government is just something to say when the cameras are on, or when the public money in question might go to poor people or immigrants or other such unlikely golfers. This was a fine way to be during the 2000s, back when America was still unfucked enough to enjoy a phony real estate boom and launch recreational wars of conquest in the Middle East — but in this new decade, post-Bush and post-crash, there is serious doubt on the Hill that a reflexive favor-churner like Boehner will be able to keep delivering Republican votes to lavish taxpayer money on his industry pals. Money is simply too tight now, and people are too pissed off.

Things are different now. America is so broke, there's no longer really any money in the Treasury to give away — the job of overseeing corporate handouts that used to belong to the leaders of Congress has now moved to the Federal Reserve, which itself is so broke that it has to invent dollars out of thin air before it can give them away to influential billionaires. This leaves congressional leaders with nothing to do but their ostensible jobs — i.e., fixing the country's actual problems — and few of the current leaders have any experience with that, Boehner being a prime example. The new speaker represents an increasingly endangered class of Beltway jobholders who know how to raise money and get elected, but not much beyond that. He now finds himself the party's last line of defense against millions of angry voters who, for the first time in recent memory, are at least attempting to watch what Congress is up to. The tee times are over.

A teachable moment ...

If the Rethugs were capable of learning, something might rub off:

The new Republican majority has ordered that the United States Constitution be read on the floor of the House of Representatives on Thursday, the day after new lawmakers are sworn in. Congressional historians say they believe this has been done only twice before.

...

But, in the end, it'll probably be just a whole lotta hot air.

The great impending OMG of 2011

If it's Wednesday, it's Morford looking back at 2010.

It was, to my slippery and wayward mind, one of the wonkiest, wobbliest, most sputteringly interesting years in ages, full of sound and fury and shrill, insufferable conservatism signifying nothing, but in a way that makes it seem like, you know, everything.

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens was killed in a plane crash. Dick Cheney still refused to die from another heart attack. A leathery hunk of confused hate named Terry Jones didn't burn the Koran outside a rancid little "church" somewhere in Florida, but not before he got the attention of the president himself, which is bizarre and disorienting in a way that makes you sort of cringe. And then shrug, sigh and move the hell on.

We have a name for this whipsaw socioemotional glop in journalism. It's the same one they use in fiction, in poetry, in TV, in skywriting and greeting cards, call-in radio and cave paintings, Facebook status updates and homoerotic text messages sent from Gucci-clad Atlanta pastors to young boys in heat.

We call it storytelling.

[...] Still, pan far enough out, it's all just a spectacularly vain extravaganza. Just ask the graveyard.

Much, much more. Do not deny yourself. Go read.

Question of the Day

Daily Mail, UK

Transatlantic passenger plane forced to make emergency landing... because the pilot spilled his coffee all over the instruments

What, a big expensive piece of gear like a 777 doesn't come with goddam cup holders?!!!. Yeesh, what a ripoff.

Headline of the Day

Rep. Darrell Issa: "I Will Investigate Why I Like to Fuck Penguins"

Teabaggers to denounce Founding Fathers...

...when they finally find out that the Constitution does not say what they want it to.

From YubaNet.

Naval Gazing

From YubaNet.

Word reaches me from my unimpeachable sources in the enlisted men's head in the Pentagon that Captain Honors will be allowed to retire as planned. He will spend the intervening two years issuing volleyballs at NAF Adak which was BRAC'd 14 years ago.

Just a thought ...

After having just watched John Boner Boehner getting sworn in and his subsequent speech. That is the friendliest you'll see Orangina toward the Dems for the next two years. You know he cried afterward because his hardon was cramped against his zipper.

The Ol' Gunny Waffle Stomps His Pecker

Raw Story, with video.

The foul-mouthed, hard-nosed drill instructor made famous by Stanley Kubrick's classic war film "Full Metal Jacket" ruffled some feathers early last month for commenting at a charity event that President Barack Obama wants "to bring this country to its knees" and institute "socialism."

His proposed solution: "Rise up" and "stop this administration" from "destroying this country."

Now, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman -- the character which has carried the career of R. Lee Ermey -- is doing the unthinkable: apologizing.

This one hurt me to the core. I liked Ermey. He's made a career out of portraying an over-the-top caricature of an old-time Marine Gunnery Sergeant. It's not a true representation by any means, but old Marines like me just fuckin' love it.

He's not a real Gunny either. He was medically retired as a Staff Sergeant after a crate fell out of a helicopter on him, or something like that, in Vietnam. He holds an honorary rank of GySgt conferred on him by the Marine Corps largely because he's gung ho on the Corps' behalf. That's good. In my day Gunnies were cool, Staff Sergeants were all pricks. Besides, the rank of Gunny has a mythology and cachet about it that no other rank has. It's part of the tribal lore of the Corps.

This time he stepped on his dick with lies and calumny towards the Commander-in-Chief while wearing a uniform he's only actually entitled to wear while playing a role. He's no more an active duty Marine than I am.

Good thing, too. What he said is in clear violation of Article 89, possibly shoehornable into Article 88 since a Gunny is an officer in a non-commissioned status, maybe even Article 94 for the 'rise up' crack, of the Uniform Code of Military Justice which us old servicemen were all too familiar with. Active duty personnel do not have the civil rights and freedom of speech that us civilians do. If Ermey was a real Marine instead of just playing one on TV, he'da gotten rid of a few stripes and maybe got some brig time. McChrystal got sacked for saying a lot less and he was a fucking General.

There's an absolutely hilarious great line in several articles in the UCMJ - "penetration, however slight, is sufficient to complete the offense". Ya done stuck it in the woodchipper this time, Gunny.

I'm glad he walked his ignorant lying wingnut comment back a little ways, but the damage is done. Ignorant gullible wingers fall for those talking points like nobody's business.

Ermey didn't make his remarks on behalf of GEICO for whom he's a spokesman, but that's where I'm going to hit back the best I can. My GEICO auto insurance expires in March. I'm going with Progressive (who insure my bike) and I will make damn sure GEICO knows why.

Quote of the Day

Ralph Nader in a letter to the NYT that ought to be to the media in general:

...have your public editor look into why flagrant, often bigoted right-wingers are given so much time and space compared with fact-based progressive leaders committed to the “equality and welfare” that your editorial espouses.

At High Noon ...

The crazy begins. Put on your tinfoil hats and prepare for 2 fucked up years:

What are we to make of the fact that two of the top priorities for the 112th Congress, convening for the first time today, involve an irrelevant charade and an irresponsible threat?

...

Yet even Obama, the Commander-in-Compromise, must understand the difference between bargaining for a mixed deal and meeting halfway between responsibility and total, deranged lunacy.

...

Ya think? See my first post of the morning.

See yas ...

And don't let it hit ya in the ass:

Glenn Beck may be one of the hottest talk show hosts in the country, but he apparently left New York's WOR cold.

WOR (710 AM), one of the city's two biggest talk radio stations, said this morning it is dropping Beck's syndicated show as of Jan. 17 and replacing him with a familiar New York name: Mike Gallagher.

"The reason is ratings," said WOR program director Scott Lakefield. "Somewhat to our surprise, the show wasn't getting what we wanted."

...

I'd like to thank my conservative neighbors for coming to their senses ... partially.

Great thanks to our pal Comrade Misfit for bringing the good news.

Sometimes I wonder ...

What the fuck is wrong with this guy:

...

During a surprise visit to the press cabin aboard Air Force One on his way back from his vacation in Hawaii, Obama said he hopes to build on the progress made during last month's lame-duck session.

"My hope is that John Boehner and Mitch McConnell will realize that there will be plenty of time to campaign for 2012 in 2012. And that our job this year is to make sure that we build on recovery," Obama said.

...

I'm just praying he's not that naive. If he is, it's gonna be a long two years.

Update:

Exactly.

Mystery Explained

Birds are falling outta the sky in Arkansas and Louisiana. Is it the end times? Pollution? A hailstorm? The answer is in an old country song (1:36) and it's no coincidence that it's happening in the nether regions south. That region is covered in bird droppings anyway:

My Uncle Bill
Has a still on the hill
Where he runs off a gallon or two
The buzzards in the sky
Get so drunk they can't fly
On that good old mountain dew

It's obvious to me: Obama is having ATF swat 'em for snortin' untaxed whiskey fumes! And maybe the FAA for doin' it in US airspace without getting groped first. Damn socialist...

It's that time ...

Much as I love my wife (more than anything in the whole wide world), she can be a nosy broad. That, and, after 20-odd years of being together, she knows, just by looking at me, when I'm hiding something or have a secret. Now, normally that's not a problem because I don't have secrets from her. When it does become a problem is when I'm trying to surprise her with something (a birthday gift or something like that).

So, it's that time of year when we start putting our vacation schedule together. We had booked a cruise last year when we we in the Baltic, a transatlantic on Holland America Line's Eurodam for the end of August this year. After the big anniversary celebration in the Baltic, followed by a crossing on Queen Mary 2, we only planned to do one cruise this year (that and our friends Chris and Terry from Wales are coming to stay with us for a week over July 4th). We sat down this weekend, took a few hours, and planned all our shore excursions so we could make the reservations before they sold out. All done and we impressed ourselves we got it done without much arguing. Heh ...

All that said, Happy Birthday, baby.

Leading conservatives call for Obama to back terrorist group

Yeah, they'd love that. As soon as Obama did that, all of a sudden they'd call it a terrorist group instead of an 'opposition' group.

Raw Story

A group of prominent Republicans may have actually committed a crime last month when they traveled to Paris to speak to an Iranian opposition group that the US has deemed to be terrorists.

As far as I 'm concerned, Repugs commit a crime by getting up in the morning.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, former national security adviser Fran Townsend and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey all attended a forum organized by supporters of Mujaheddin-e Khalq (MEK).

The MEK is a communist group that helped Saddam Hussein carry out attacks against Iraq's Shiite population in the 1990s. The group attacked Americans in Iran in the 1980s and helped with the 1979 takeover of the US embassy in Tehran.

Giuliani and the former Bush officials, however, sided with the group due to their opposition to the current Iranian regime.

Go read the rest. Giuliani's a fuckin' idiot.

Nothing new really. We've sided with many criminal/terrorist outfits over the years and helped install and maintain them in power. Iran may be the best example and we've done it over everything from bananas to oil to promising to be on our side during the Cold War (which means accept our money instead of theirs).

Now they're doing it because Iran wants to be the top dog in the Middle East and is talking back and talkin' smack.

If I was in charge, I would simply tell Iran to go ahead and make their nukes, and if they ever use 'em in a first strike the rest of the nations with nukes will turn their whole goddam country into a self-lighting glass-surfaced parking lot by the close of the business day. I would like that to apply to any nuke country that uses nukes first on any other.

After that promise, I'd arrange a Time-On-Target* fireworks display over Tehran, really high up so it could be seen from a long way off, from all the nuclear powers. It would simply spell out in various languages something like "We can do this for real" or "This won't be as pretty next time".

*TOT: artillery fired from various locations and distances and timed to arrive on the target simultaneously.

"The Force is strong in that one."

I have referred to President Obama as a 'Stealth Ninja Jedi'. The world is catching up and I am alone no longer. This is pretty funny. Via Raw Story:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Barack Obama Is Luke Skywalker
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> The Daily Show on Facebook

We don't need ...

No stinking regulation:

The natural gas boom gripping parts of the U.S. has a nasty byproduct: wastewater so salty, and so polluted with metals like barium and strontium, that most states require drillers to get rid of the stuff by injecting it down shafts thousands of feet deep.

Not in Pennsylvania, one of the states at the center of the gas rush.

...

Free-market! No big government! USA! USA!

The day I believe the claims of corporations that their operations pose no risk to the general public is the day I buy that pretty brick bridge over the East River. I'm sick and tired of governments applying regulations after the fact. Can we once have regulations in place before the public health is threatened?

Great thanks to our pal Montag for the link.

Hopefully ...

I'll be on a beach somewhere, lying in the sun, with a stiff drink in my hand. Christ:

Harold Camping lets out a hearty chuckle when he considers the people who believe the world will end in 2012.

"That date has not one stitch of biblical authority," Camping says from the Oakland office where he runs Family Radio, an evangelical station that reaches listeners around the world. "It's like a fairy tale."

The real date for the end of times, he says, is in 2011.

...

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives begins "work" tomorrow. Just warming you up for the crazy. Heh ...

Navy Probes

Navy probes racy onboard videos by carrier chief

Harrumph! Where were the lewd videos when I was in a carrier and they could have done some good? Oh, that's right, we didn't have 'videos' in those days. We had a TV studio and receivers throughout the ship so we coulda had live action. But there weren't any women on ships in those days. The terms "Navy probes" and the ship's motto of "Swift and Bold" take on a whole different meaning, the visual of which is disturbing...

Never mind.

Suicide Is Painless*

*Theme from M*A*S*H

From the 'Incompetent Establishment' dept. at Think Progress, with video:

On ABC’s This Week, conservative columnist George Will responded to Republican opposition to raising the national debt ceiling and the threat it poses to the fiscal solvency of the nation:

I know of no other developed nation that has a debt ceiling. This is a purely recurring symbolic vote to make people feel good by voting against it.

The trouble is it’s suicidal if you should happen to miscalculate and have all kinds of people voting against it as a symbolic vote and turn out to be a majority. Because if the United States defaults on its sovereign debt, the markets will be — well, it will be stimulating.

For once he's right.

Will’s analysis echoed remarks made earlier by Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, on ABC’s This Week. “The debt ceiling is not something to toy with,” stated Goolsbee. “If we get to the point where you’ve damaged the full faith and credit of the United States, that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity.” [...]

I almost wish the teabaggers can manage not raising the debt ceiling. See the post just below this one. It will be unpleasant, but it will be the end of them.

Bush tax cuts and the decline of U.S. as a serious world power

Excerpt from a commentary at McClatchy:

No country can be great if its citizens are unwilling to pay for it. No country will remain great if it neglects the health and education of those citizens who lack lobbyists. The tax cuts may have assured the President’s reelection, but they also ensure America will grow more separate and unequal, not unlike the proverbial banana republics. As a result the U.S. will slowly slip from the leader of the First World to an honorary member of the Third, unless Americans stop believing their exceptionalism stems only from their virtue and requires no sacrifice.

To quote Heinlein: TANSTAAFL. We'll find out, and wonder how "they" let it happen.

Headline of the Day

Legal Schnauzer

The Scnauz is an Alabama lawyer who's on Rove like stink on shit in the wake of the Siegelman case.

The Rove/Assange Story Hits the International Press in Sweden

Contains a Google translation from the Swedish. I left him a comment, remains to be seen if it gets 'moderated' in or out.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Ivory Coast's President Refuses to Step Down Despite Losing Election
On advice from five U.S. Supreme Court justices.

Every Obama District Court Nominee Opposed by All GOP Senators on Judiciary Committee Was Person of Color
Due to remarkable coincidence.

For those ...

Not wanting to get up and go to work this morning, check out this little guy. It'll either motivate you or send you back to bed. Heh ...



I've gotta head up to the shop this morning to service the Mrs. car and take care of some errands I've been putting off since Christmas. See yas later ...

The only photo of me'n Fixer known to exist

Disaster in our wake, but leading the pack!

From Cars 2, video.

Winter Wonderland ...

Speaking of my little town, my cousin sent* me these pics the other day. The top pic is the Old Church, built in the 1700s, and the cemetery behind. The bottom pic is the original chapel for the town, built in 1215. The kids in the pic are my little niece Amalie and one of her rugrat friends.

*The reason she sent them is because I was bitching to her about our snowstorm the other day.

Crazy people ...

Drunk or crazy, I never got the Polar Bears. We ain't the only ones (the local chapter takes a dip off Coney Island in Brooklyn on New Year's) with a corner on the crazy market. Our European cousins are just as nuts (video at the link).

What did you do on the first day of 2011?

Well, whatever it was, you would certainly have needed some Dutch courage to join 10,000 or so swimmers near the Hague in the Netherlands.

...

And, of course, leave it to the Germans to go hard core:

...

But this year’s award for daring has to go to Germany where even the brass monkeys were wincing when Berlin bathers took a New Year’s Day dip. Apparently, it is good for the health.

Es ist Gesund!* The little town I come from in Germany is a "spa town". They use, in their bathing pools, water directly from a mountain spring. I've experienced it in the summer and I would swear it was just above freezing. Took a week for my testicles to descend again. Heh ...

*It is healthy!