CLIFF
NOTES …
POSTPONING THE INEVITABLE …
WHY OBAMA IS WHAT HE IS
POSTPONING THE INEVITABLE …
WHY OBAMA IS WHAT HE IS
Summarizing the (pending) “fiscal cliff” deal:
Obama 1 (Won)
Republicans 0.
Elections DO have consequences.
Prepare for the flood when the inflation dam breaks, as it inevitably will. At which time the lumpen proletariat (a fine old German term which could be defined as modern-day Democrats) will moan, “What happened?”
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It's astonishing that a man with such a colossal ego, while cherishing the opportunity to blame Republicans in the House short-term for his total screw-up of the economy, can fail to see that in the longer term, this period of U.S. decline will not be remembered as the “Boehner administration,” but the “Obama administration.”
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Obama went on “Meet the Press” over the weekend and claimed he'd cut federal spending in 2011 by over a trillion dollars. The White House Office of Management and Budget says he increased spending by $147 billion.
Who's more credible? Take your choice. Mine is prompted by the ancient axiom about politicians: “If his lips are moving … “
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Bernard Goldberg surveys the sheer idiocy of a nation – this one – borrowing upward of forty cents out of every dollar spent and suggests that Republicans find a spokesman who can deliver this message more effectively …
"If we continue spending money we don't have, before you can say The Great Depression we will be in one, except this one will be worse than the first one.
"We won't have any money for the Army, the Navy, the Air Force or the Marines. We won't have any money for the FBI. No money for interstate highways or national parks. No money for anything except paying off the Chinese and everyone else who loaned us money.
"And this president either doesn't get it or doesn't want to get it. Since he doesn't understand anything about growing the economy, he's happy just to 'spread the wealth around.' Except there won't be any wealth to spread around.
"He will never cut spending in any serious way. He thinks government is the answer to everything.
"The only way out is to cut spending and then cut some more. This president won't do it. He's counting on you — the American people — not to understand how serious this problem is.”
And so far he's been right.
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Circulating on the internet …
“In 2013, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address will occur on the same day. This is an ironic juxtaposition of events. One involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to an insignificant creature of little intelligence for prognostication.
“The other involves a groundhog.”
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Burt Prelutsky strokes his beard and metaphorically puts Obama on the psychiatrist's couch ...
"When I hear Obama insisting to the Republicans in Congress that when it comes to taxes and spending, it’s his way or the highway, I understand what people mean when they refer to sore winners. Perhaps it’s because in his entire Affirmative Action-coddled life, he has never been forced to accept the inevitable losses that lead to maturity, he remains, even in his 50s, as blissfully unaware of his numerous shortcomings as your typical spoiled teenager.
"My friend, Don Melquist, otherwise known as the Pride of Green Valley, Arizona, recently pointed out to me what a huge role bossy black women have played in Obama’s life. The ladies include Oprah Winfrey, Susan Rice, Whoopi Goldberg, Valerie Jarrett and Michelle Obama. But, it occurred to me that he has also surrounded himself with bossy Jewish men, such as Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod and George Soros, and assorted bossy ne’er-do-wells, such as Bill Ayers, Frank Marshall Davis and Jeremiah Wright. Whoever it was who first observed that when you lie down with dogs, you’re very likely to get up with fleas, must have had someone very much like Obama in mind."
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Argus Hamilton --
"O.J. Simpson is openly complaining in prison that they're after the gun owners, and tomorrow it'll be the knife owners."
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Bumpersticker:
“I MAY BE SCHIZOPHRENIC, BUT AT LEAST I HAVE EACH OTHER”
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At the risk of disillusioning some folk, allow me to lift the veil from a piece of folklore.
Spending much of my childhood in rural America, I heard that one way of becoming physically stronger required a baby bull calf. Lift him once a day, every day, the theory went, and when he was a husky 2,000-pounder you'd still be able to lift him.
The flaw in the plan revealed itself long before Toro reached his maximum weight. The problem was not the poundage, per se, but it is not in the nature of a growing young bull to allow himself to be manhandled, however good the cause.
I cannot reveal the research that went into this revelation.
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Realizing that the New Year will likely add to the total of human stupidity, my friend and one-time producer John Brennan forwards this collection to help immunize you against the plague. We are informed that these are reports of actual events as related by observers …
I went to McDonald's I saw on the menu that you could have an order of 6, 9 or 12 Chicken McNuggets.
I asked for a half-dozen nuggets.
“We don't have half-dozen nuggets,” said the teenager at the counter. We only have six, nine, or twelve.”
“So I can't order a half dozen nuggets, but I can order six?'
“That's right.'
I was checking out at the local Wal-Mart with just a few items and the lady behind me put her things on the belt close to mine.
I picked up one of those 'dividers' that they keep by the cash register and placed it between our things so they wouldn't get mixed.
After the girl had scanned all of my items, she picked up the 'divider', looking it all over for the bar code so she could scan it. Not finding the bar code, she said to me, “Do you know how much this is?”
I recently saw a distraught young lady weeping beside her car.
“Do you need some help?' I asked. She replied, 'I knew I should have replaced the battery to this remote door unlocker. Now I can't get into my car.”
“Do you have an alarm, too?” I asked.
“No, just this remote thingy,” she answered, handing it and the car keys to me.
I took the key and manually unlocked the door. It had never occurred to her.
Many of these people doubtless vote. Explains a lot, doesn't it?
BOEHNER'S
BONER ...
“CLIFF” POSTPONED, NO AVOIDED …
GUN BAN: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE
“CLIFF” POSTPONED, NO AVOIDED …
GUN BAN: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE
It should come as no surprise that Obama's idea of a “balanced” approach to dealing with our debt and deficit does not mean a dollar of government spending cut for every dollar of increased taxes. Instead, it turns out to mean $41 of increased taxes for every one dollar of spending reduction.
What else would any rational person expect from our Affirmative Action president, mentored by Marxists … a man who has never worked at a for-real job a single day in his entire life?
And who could be surprised that the Republicans caved in? They'll do it again when the next round of debate over increasing the debt ceiling plays out in about two months. Count on it.
Meantime, every dollar printed by the Ben Bernanke Federal Reserve, the world's largest ongoing fraud, makes every dollar you possess worth less … and eventually those two words become one.
Oh – and Happy New Year!
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House Republicans voted against the bill 151 to 85. Don't be surprised if Speaker John Boehner, who voted for it, soon finds more time to spend with his family.
Cong. Paul Ryan, the VP candidate, also voted for it … Senator Marco Rubio, against.
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What does it say about the future of that repulsive cretin Harry Reid, the Democrats' Senate leader, that Obama benched him in favor of Joe Biden to conduct final “fiscal cliff” negotiations with Boehner?
Boehner fired a final shot at Reid with a pointed, “Go (bleep) yourself!”
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"Mr. and Mrs. America, turn ‘em (guns) all in.” -- Senator Diane Feinstein on her campaign to disarm all Americans.
I wonder if Di-Fi still packs heat, herself?
Regardless, expect a massive and negative response that can be reduced to initials: "FFC." The first letter stands for "fat" and the last stands for "chance." Any GI can fill in the rest.
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Further ...
Civil Rights supporters believed (quite accurately) that “civil disobedience” – i.e., disobeying laws they thought unfair – was an effective tactic. Americans who were impressed then haven't seen anything unless/until the government tries confiscating privately-owned guns, the dream of Senator Feinstein and other leftist crazies.
By the way, does Di-Fi still carry a gun herself, as she was once forced to admit? Another two-faced liberal hypocrite …
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While the juvenile mentality that pervades in California finds comfort in a couple of thousand guns (many probably worthless; getting taxpayer money for junk is the history of such events) procured in a "buy-back" program in Los Angeles, they willfully overlook the far more likely factor in a lowered crime rate.
That factor is that gun sales in California have boomed (take it either way) in recent years -- especially since the virulently anti-gun Obama administration took office. Upward of 600,000 sold in California in the most recent year for which figures are available.
Think about it for two whole seconds: Which is more likely to impress a criminal bent on harming you? Some posturing, dung-brained, mush-head goo-goo on TV babbling about how he/she wants you disarmed -- or a gun in your hand?
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From the Sacramento Bee ...
"Gun deaths and injuries have dropped sharply in California, even as the number of guns sold in the state has risen, according to new state data.
"Dealers sold 600,000 guns in California last year, up from 350,000 in 2002, according to records of sale tallied by the California Attorney General's office.
"During that same period, the number of California hospitalizations due to gun injuries declined from about 4,000 annually to 2,900, a roughly 25 percent drop, according to hospital records collected by the California Department of Public Health.
"Firearm-related deaths fell from about 3,200 annually to about 2,800, an 11 percent DROP, state health figures show.
"The number of California injuries and deaths attributed to accidental discharge of firearms also has fallen."
Do not expect one single liberal airhead in either Sacramento or Washington, D.C., to learn anything from the preceding.
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You may choose to file this under “Thinking the Unthinkable,” but if you have children entering – or about to enter – the adult working world, you might suggest they at least consider a future outside the United States.
I know: Family separation is a frightening prospect to many. But consider the fact that the time and distances for travel to Europe, Asia or South America, whether for a career or a family visit, are far less daunting today than when millions crossed oceans or moved from the east coast across the wilderness to seek their fortune.
Consider how the working world has changed in the past couple of generations. Once a successful career path likely involved staying with one company for an entire working life, moving upward on that company's employment ladder.
Now it's widely acknowledged that most working Americans will change jobs several times. Even entire career paths. Job opportunities and brighter futures may now – and more so in the future – beckon not only in other fields of endeavor, but other countries as well.
The sluggish U.S. economy and the ever-growing burden of both taxes and regulations, on individuals as well as businesses, provide further incentive to seek a future in a more salubrious environment abroad. (One small example: Government permits, fees and regulatory nonsense that can require months or even years to start a business in most of the U.S. can be settled in days, if not hours, in a flourishing economy like, say, Hong Kong.)
Many will doubtless flourish and prosper in the America of the future – especially those who benefit from government spending either directly on indirectly. But many others will achieve their advancement elsewhere. It's worth considering. Learning a foreign language could be very useful.
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Have government bureaucrats always been this stupid, or has it been an evolutionary process?
Sign seen in front of a handicapped parking space: "FINE FOR ILLEGALLY PARKING HERE -- $l85.75"
And SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS?!
Couldn't they round it up to $186? Maybe with a volume discount to $185 for multiple offenders -- a volume discount?
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Reader Marty found this quote by (former) longtime Dallas Cowboys executive Gil Brandt, who assembled some of the winning teams during their glory years.
Referring to QB Tony Romo's role in the latest failure by the NFL's most overrated team: "Romo has already been offered a new job at a funeral home as a pallbearer. That way he has the opportunity to let everyone down one more time."
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Mad Mike forwards some complaints received by the giant Thomas Cook travel agency from clients who had traveled to foreign countries. Having been co-owner of a chain of travel agencies for twenty-five years, I have no trouble believing each and every one.
"It's lazy of the local shopkeepers to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during 'siesta' time -- this should be banned."
"On my holiday in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don't like spicy food at all."
"The beach was too sandy."
"We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as yellow but it was white."
"Topless sunbathing on the beach should be banned. The holiday was ruined as my husband spent all day looking at other women."
"No-one told us there would be fish in the sea. The children were startled."
"We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers as they were all Spanish."
"It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England. It took the Americans only three hours to get home."
"There are too many Spanish people. The receptionist speaks Spanish. The food is Spanish. Too many foreigners now live abroad."
"I was bitten by a mosquito. No-one said they could bite."
"My fiancé and I booked a twin-bedded room but we were placed in a double-bedded room. We now hold you responsible for the fact that I find myself pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked."
TAX
TRICKERY FOR THE GULLIBLE
…
REPUBLICAN “PERMANENT” FANTASIES …
ANTI-GUN NEWSPAPER HIRES GUNMEN
REPUBLICAN “PERMANENT” FANTASIES …
ANTI-GUN NEWSPAPER HIRES GUNMEN
The typical Democrat clod who, seething with envy of the more successful, applauds higher taxes on rich folk – and never figures it out: His Democrat demagogues posing as “leaders” noisily enact laws that purport to take money from the evil rich … while quietly creating loopholes and granting exemptions that evade those very laws.
That is precisely the strategy that elected – and re-elected – Barack Obama.
It is historical fact, revealed in Soviet KGB files that came to light after the Soviet Union fell: Harry Hopkins was a communist spy for the USSR. It is his philosophy that still guides the Democratic Party. And most of its members are too ignorant to know it.
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Make no mistake about it. The really rich can afford the legal and accounting advice that enables them to avoid the feverish grasp of panting liberals and their tax collectors (a glance at the Kennedy family trusts should be enlightening) while the real burden is borne by smaller business owners and professionals – merchants, doctors, etc. – who create most American jobs.
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“If the federal government took over the Sahara Desert, in five years there would be a shortage of sand.” – The late economist Milton Friedman
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Of all the absurd claims made by both sides in the great “fiscal cliff” debate, the most egregious – mostly coming from Republicans seeking justification for their sell-out to Obama – is that this-or-that taxpayer protection is “permanent.”
Note this well: There is nothing truly permanent in politics.
What one Congress and president can do can always be undone by a successor – or the courts. Given some interpretations by judges, not even the constitution is permanent.
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Millions of Americans, ignorant of history that is so seldom – and poorly – taught in our schools, agree with the thesis that gun ownership by citizens is unnecessary because we are under no threat of a tyrannical government. They are delusional, as wiser people have known throughout the years.
Prof. Walter Williams has collected some quotes on the subject:
Alexander Hamilton: "The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.”
James Madison: "(The Constitution preserves) the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation ... (where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."
Thomas Jefferson: "What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms."
George Mason, author of the Virginia Bill of Rights, which inspired our Constitution's Bill of Rights, said, "To disarm the people -- that was the best and most effectual way to enslave them."
The late Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey: "Certainly, one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms. ... The right of the citizen to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America but which historically has proven to be always possible."
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Irony: That New York state newspaper that published the names and addresses of all legal gun owners in two counties didn't like it when a competing newspaper published similar information about the first paper's employees who were involved in publishing the original story; even less when gun-rights supporters put the same information on the internet about all the first paper's employees.
So now the paper that thought it just fine to publish the names of people who own guns legally … has fearfully hired – what else? – armed guards. Hired gunmen.
The paper is obviously run by hypocrites who are also cowards.
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First, House Speaker John Boehner refuses to move ahead with part of a pork-laden bill disguised as relief for Hurricane Sandy victims … then gets heat from New Jersey's governor, the blowhard Chris Christie … then reverses himself and announces he'll go ahead with it. All within a matter of hours.
It may or may not happen, depending on just how angry the majority of his fellow House Republicans are over his sell-out to Obama on the bogus “cliff,” but Boehner is far past his “sell-by” date. He should go. By any measure, he's a failure.
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So Al-Jazeera has bought Al Gore's failed cable-TV operation. Not that the tiny audience will likely notice any difference.
On the bright side, it's likely to be more pro-America than MSNBC. Or CNN.
Gore, solid Democrat phony that he is, rushed to complete the deal before January 1. Why? Because he saved a ton of money by concluding the transaction before the higher tax rates – which he supported – kicked in.
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Media bias is a built-in burden for any aspiring Republican politician, who must assume that anything he/she says is likely to be taken totally out of context and twisted for the benefit of a Democrat opponent.
In the recent presidential election we had a perfect example. When he uttered the words, Mitt Romney was clearly referring to a bloated government payroll, fattened even more by Obama's hiring of still more deadwood (how many aides DOES Michelle have? Dozens! While predecessor First Ladies got by with one or two.)
The words Romney used were, “I like to fire people.”
He should have known before they left his lips out the leftist media would isolate that statement as meaning he wanted to drive even more people out of real jobs. Sure enough, that's exactly how the Obamunists played it – and millions of dummies bought it.
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Burt Prelutsky dares to be politically incorrect …
“We’re all well aware that you can’t speak honestly about blacks and Latinos without some self-righteous left-wing clod accusing you of racism. We are supposed to simply grant them a special status, pretending that it’s only white bigotry that prevents them from taking their rightful place among society’s elite. In order to do that, of course, we have to ignore the fact that the illegitimacy rate among blacks is over 70% and among Hispanics, 50%. We also have to pretend that although 79% of Asians and 76% of whites stick around long enough to get their high school diplomas, whereas only 60% of blacks and 58% of Latinos do so, it plays no role in explaining why these two groups make up such a large percentage of the perpetual underclass.
“There is in fact no surer way of guaranteeing that people will never reach middle-class status than by raising kids without fathers, who will then drop out of school the first chance they get. But we are all supposed to pretend that they are the innocent victims of a racist society because to do otherwise smacks of bigotry.”
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The once-vaunted Big Ten's image as a powerhouse football conference has again taken a beating in the big Bowl games. While Michigan State and Northwestern salvaged second and third-level games, the big boys got their heads handed to them: Michigan, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Purdue – all went down in flames.
Best game so far: South Carolina's last-minute win over Michigan. Look for the name of Jadeveon Clowney, defensive end from South Carolina, to be prominent in the NFL in the future. The kid's a terror on the field. His hit on a Michigan running back shook the ball loose and corrected a blatant error by the referee on the preceding play. That official should never be allowed to wear a whistle again.
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The word for today: forte.
Pseudo-sophisticates insist on pronouncing it "for-TAY." Wrong.
The correct pronunciation is "FORT."
Just like an edifice constructed to defend against enemy attack.
No charge.
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Mike presents a checklist that may remind some of a New Year's Eve, either recent or not-so-recent …
THINGS THAT ARE DIFFICULT TO SAY WHEN DRUNK:
1. Innovative
2. Preliminary
3. Proliferation
4. Cinnamon
THINGS THAT ARE very DIFFICULT TO SAY WHEN DRUNK:
1. Specificity
2. Anti-constitutionalistically
3. Passive-aggressive disorder
4. Transubstantiate
THINGS THAT ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO SAY WHEN DRUNK:
1. No thanks, I'm married.
2. Nope, no more booze for me!
3. Sorry, but you're not really my type.
4. Good evening, officer. Isn't it lovely out tonight ?
5. Oh, I couldn't! No one wants to hear me sing karaoke.
6. I must be going home now. I have to be at work in the morning.
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Reader Peter offers this touching domestic tale …
Tim decided to tie the knot with his long time girlfriend.
One evening after the honeymoon he was assembling some gear for a hunting trip.
His wife was watching him. She finally speaks.
“Honey, I've been thinking, now that we are married I think it's time you quit hunting, shooting, and fishing. Maybe you should sell your guns, your boat and the motorcycle.”
Tim gets this horrified look on his face.
She says, "Darling, what's wrong?"
"For a minute there, you were sounding like my ex-wife.”
"Ex wife? I didn't know you were married before!"
"I wasn't.“
TAN-MAN
TRIUMPHANT …
THE NOT-SO-NEW CONGRESS …
DEPARDIEU'S DEPARTURE
THE NOT-SO-NEW CONGRESS …
DEPARDIEU'S DEPARTURE
John Boehner was re-elected Speaker of the House despite threats to unseat him made by the Tea Party contingent. The tea turned out to be too weak.
Yawn … Nobody's cared about who was – or is – the general on the losing side since Robert E. Lee.
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The sell-out by John Boehner and about a third of the House Republicans on the “fiscal cliff” farce again made glaringly clear the top priority of most politicians. It was evident in the recurring theme, “We'll be blamed if we don't go along with Obama.”
“Be blamed,” as in, “I might not get re-elected.” And what a tragedy for the nation that would be!
Reduced to one word: Gutlessness.
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The babbling liberal idiots who populate the media are joyous that the “awful” 112th Congress has concluded its term in office, as if the newly-inaugurated Congress will be different. Apparently nobody's told these fools that, with the exception of a relative handful of newly-elected members, the “new” Congress is virtually identical to the “old” Congress. All four respective party leaders in both the House and Senate continue in those roles.
No wonder the huge majority of Americans wallows in ignorance about their government's deeds and duties when they're being “informed” by media shills and ignoramuses.
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Speaking of the media prostitutes … why are they so upset that Kathy Griffin simulated oral sex on Anderson Cooper during the CNN New Year's Eve telecast? After all, they do the same thing for Obama every day.
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Another mile-post on the road to incompetence in government …
The House of Representatives got the “fiscal cliff” avoidance bill, all 154 pages of it, three minutes before voting on it.
This collection of buffoons has clearly accepted the oft-ridiculed Nancy Pelosi statement about the 2,000-plus pages of the Obamacare bill: “We have to pass it to see what's in it.”
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Deroy Murdock (National Review Online) evaluates the state of congressional Republicans …
“..., the party’s wobbly congressional leadership makes the Maginot Line look like the Great Wall of China. Senate GOP chief Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and House speaker John Boehner of Ohio are neither strategic, nor tactical, nor able to negotiate without losing their shirts — plus their shoes, pants, and underwear.”
And what about the giveaways Obama engineered?
“This law also contains $7 million in special tax favors for electric scooters, $59 million for biofuel-algae growers, $78 million for NASCAR, $222 million for Puerto Rican rum producers, and $248 million for the motion-picture industry.”
You mean the movie industry actually got a huge payback for all their Obama political contributions – plus the free propaganda they gave him? Why, we're stunned, shocked and amazed!
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If Barack Obama and his fellow Marxists were wise – I know; an absurd idea – they would learn something from French actor Gerard Depardieu. He makes a lot of money as one of Europe's biggest movie stars.
When Francois Hollande, another Marxist, was elected president of France by an electorate already showing signs of buyers' remorse over their choice, he announced that he hated the rich and revealed his plans to increase their taxes to 75% of income.
At that point, Monsieur Depardieu – and hundreds of other high-earners – promptly left the country, the actor moving to Belgium. Their earnings disappeared from France, along with (A) all the people who directly or indirectly benefited from their spending and investments, and (B) all that tax money the stupid left-wing president anticipated.
But communists ... or “progressives” or whatever name they hide behind ... are incapable of learning.
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It cost taxpayers around $4 million to fly Obama from Hawaii back to Washington, then right back to Hawaii. He didn't even bother to hang around and sign the bogus “fiscal cliff” avoidance bill. It'll be done with the auto-pen device that copies his signature.
Taxpayers should be asking, “What did he actually DO that he couldn't as easily have done by telephone from Hawaii?” After all, his contribution to the settlement consisted of telling Joe Biden, “Go meet with Boehner. He's ready to cave, anyway.”
During the presidential primary debates last year, the Republican candidates were asked by CNN's Wolf Blitzer if they'd accept a deal involving ten dollars in government spending cuts for each single dollar of higher taxes. Turns out there were enough unprincipled Republican cowards in the House to help the Democrats pass a deal that gave in to $41 in taxes for each one dollar of spending cuts.
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The first announcements of Al Gore's sale of his pathetic cable-TV operation to Al-Jazeera indicated the deal had been concluded before the higher taxes on Al's profit would be applied. Later, it was stated that the deal had missed the deadline.
Either way, it's doubtful a benefit will need to be held for Mr. Global Warming, who made beaucoup bux; American dollars that first bought the Arab oil that produces all that atmospheric heat that Al warns us about.
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Timeless …
“Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him; better take a closer look at the American Indian.” – Henry Ford
"I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious." --Thomas Jefferson, 1824
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Worth circulating …
“Senator Dianne Feinstein:
“I will not register my weapons should this bill be passed, as I do not believe it is the government’s right to know what I own. Nor do I think it prudent to tell you what I own so that it may be taken from me by a group of people who enjoy armed protection, yet decry me having the same a crime.
“You, ma’am, have overstepped a line that is not your domain. I am a Marine Corps veteran of 8 years, and I will not have some woman who proclaims the evil of an inanimate object, yet (herself) carries one, tell me I may not have one.
“I am not your subject. I am the man who keeps you free. I am not your servant. I am the person whom you serve. I am not your peasant. I am the flesh and blood of America.
“I am the man who fought for my country. I am the man who learned. I am an American. You will not tell me that I must register my semi-automatic AR-15 because of the actions of some evil man.
“I will not be disarmed to suit the fear that has been established by the media and your misinformation campaign against the American public.
“We, the people, deserve better than you.
“Respectfully Submitted,
Joshua Boston, Corporal
United States Marine Corps”
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Today's significant statistic …
In 2011, there were 323 murders committed with a rifle ...496 murders committed with hammers and clubs. – Source: FBI crime statistics
Is it not reasonable to assume that most of the victims of murderers armed with hammers and clubs would have been happy to have a rifle handy?
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North Carolina State Senator R.C. Soles is a soul-mate of Di-Fi-the-demagogue. He's made a career of opposition to the right of law-abiding citizens to own a gun. This past Sunday afternoon, Sen. Soles shot an intruder in his home.
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Gun-grabbers would be horrified by the gun laws in Switzerland. Every adult male up to age 30 is REQUIRED to have a firearm at home. After age 30, they may choose to keep it.
Switzerland is one of the safest countries in the world.
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Jeff Jacoby (Townhall.com) reflects upon the school massacre, the focus on the weapon instead of the murderer – and the tragic truth about human nature …
“Peace, justice, and compassion are not the natural human condition. With rare exceptions, criminal violence can't be blamed on external culprits. Murder isn't caused by poverty or gory videogames or low self-esteem – or guns. Nor are wars caused by nuclear missiles, or al-Qaeda terrorism by box cutters. We fool ourselves if we imagine that by fixating on missiles and box cutters we can avoid reckoning with the cruel side of human nature.”
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Word is that former Vice-President Dick Cheney was in our neighborhood a few days ago. Came to visit a friend who's in the late stages of Alzheimer's Disease.
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Len the haiku master …
Barack Obama.
A Muslim name translated
"King of Kick-the-can".
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Scots, of course, have an admirable reputation for thrift. With that in mind, reader Sheila forwards this note from a kind-hearted but thrifty Scottish husband........
My wife and I walked past a swanky new restaurant last night.
“Did you smell that food?” she asked. "It smells incredible!"
Being the kind-hearted Scot that I am, I thought, "What the heck, I'll treat her."
So we walked past it again.
SECRETARY
OF DEFENSELESSNESS …
CHICAGO: GUN-CONTROL MODEL …
LIBERALS' HIGH-TAX DELUSION
CHICAGO: GUN-CONTROL MODEL …
LIBERALS' HIGH-TAX DELUSION
Let us be clear: While he disguised himself as a Republican for political purposes (to get himself elected Senator from generally conservative Nebraska), Chuck Hagel is a hard-core leftist. He supports Iran, detests the only real democracy in the middle-east, Israel, and favors gutting our military. So he's a natural to be chosen by Obama for Secretary of Defense, even though a lot of Democrats – at least those who know anything about him – detest him. But evidently most Americans either don't know the threat to their own security this man represents … or are too dumb to care, having failed to learn a basic lesson about defense preparedness: Better to have it and not need it ... than need it and not have it.
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When – not “if” – Obama okays the Keystone pipeline, perhaps the greenies will figure out that he only blocked that project to keep them locked-in for the election.
Of course, there is always the possibility that Obama's good friend Warren Buffett, whose railroad is making millions transporting the Canadian oil to U.S. refineries that would flow much less expensively through that pipeline, might yet persuade his pal Barack to postpone the project once again. After all, if screwing over the public makes more bux for Warren, it must be a good thing!
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Reality reminder: Chicago has some of America's toughest (anti-) gun laws. It is also the nation's murder capital with more than 500 killings in 2012; 506 at last count. Of course Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former hatchet-man for Barack Obama and an opponent of legal gun ownership, sends his own children to an expensive private school which employs armed guards for protection.
Obviously, the peasants can't be granted the same right.
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Gun haters, who love the idea of news media publicizing names and addresses of registered gun-owners, are apparently too stupid to figure out that such revelations also tell criminals who isn't armed. Them.
Of course, such revelations also make many – and wiser – gun-owners decide not to rat-out themselves by registering weapons in the first place. Many have already decided that registration = confiscation.
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Hillary Clinton the “Most Admired Woman” in America? So says the Gallup Poll. Who's next? Ma Barker? Lizzie Borden? Half of that lovable couple, Bonnie (Parker) and Clyde?
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Can liberals really be so dumb as to believe that people smart enough to earn and accumulate substantial wealth are incapable of finding ways to protect it against higher taxes? Some answers are obvious: Invest in tax-exempt securities (i.e., bonds issued by government entities) or invest in foreign businesses and leave income or profits abroad (there are ways of doing it; ask Mr. Immelt, CEO of General Electric, economic advisor to Obama, whose company knows plenty about that process).
There are really, really rich people who've used these and other tax-avoiding tactics for years. Why do you think the tiny island of Grand Cayman is one of the largest financial centers in the world?
Want to ban overseas investment? Sure ... and create economic chaos even worse than we already have and construct trade and financial barriers resembling those historically created by failed dictatorships.
Yet simpletons insist on believing that higher tax RATES automatically result in higher tax INCOME. Wrong ... and stupid. And ultimately self-destructive. But it feeds the envy impulse.
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Burt Prelutsky is becoming less concerned about the debt Americans are leaving for younger generations ...
"Far too many people are up in arms over the dreadful economy we are leaving for our kids and grandkids. I used to be one of them. But ever since the youth of America helped saddle us with Obama, not once, but twice, I say it serves them right. These young shmoes are not only convinced there’s a free lunch, but a free breakfast, a free dinner and free healthcare."
... and on the leaders in Congress ...
“I believe I have finally figured out why people as dense and as boring as John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are the GOP leaders in the House and Senate. I mean, why, when the future of the Party rests with young, funny, well-spoken, charming and photogenic, guys like Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio, have we tied ourselves to those two old Washington stiffs? The only way I can figure it is that both sides have arrived at detente. So long as the Democrats stick with a pair of deadheads like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, the GOP will play fair and do likewise."
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Reader John offers a witty but more conventional view …
“Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want … and their kids pay for it.”
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“GOP concerns about Muslim Brotherhood infiltration at the highest levels of the Obama Administration recently got confirmation from an Egyptian magazine, Rose El-Youssef.
“The article, which was translated into English by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, named six influential Muslims within and without the Obama Administration who it said turned the White House 'from a position hostile to Islamic groups and organizations in the world to the largest and most important supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood.'
“The six named in the article are: Rashad Hussain, U.S. special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference; Arif Alikhan, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for policy development; Eboo Patel, President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships; Mohammed Elibiary, Homeland Security Advisory Council; Salam al-Marayati, co-founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council; and Imam Mohamed Magid, Islamic Society of North America president.” – Godfather Politics
… and the stupid, gullible, uninformed American public dozes on ...
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"Muslims should try to force Jews out of Israel by warfare, economic boycotts and diplomatic isolation. These blood-suckers who attack the Palestinians, these warmongers, the descendants of apes and pigs … there is no place for them on the land of Palestine.” – Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's “moderate” Muslim president, September 2010.
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Worth remembering …
Ignorance is a lack of information.
Stupidity is having information but an inability to interpret it and arrive at a sensible conclusion.
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John, another reader, contributes this status report on American education. It consists of actual student answers to exam questions …
Q: Where was the Declaration of Independence signed?
A: At the bottom of the page.
Q: The River Ravi flows in what state?
A: A liquid state.
Q: If you threw a gray stone into the Red Sea, what would it become?
A: Wet.
Q: If you had 3 apples and 4 oranges in one hand; 4 apples and 3 oranges in the other, what would you have?
A: Big hands.
Q: In which battle did Napoleon die?
A: His last one.
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Dan Sorkin forwards a note that might have come from my old friend, colleague and avid golfer, Officer Vic ...
My boss phoned me today. He said, "Is everything okay at the office?"
I said, "Yes, it's all under control. It's been a very busy day, I haven't stopped."
"Can you do me a favor?" he asked.
I said,"Of course, what is it?"
"Pick up the pace a little. I'm in the foursome behind you."
GUN
NEWS THAT'S IGNORED …
PERFECT CHRISTMAS GIFT …
MY FAVORITE DAY: DORIS
PERFECT CHRISTMAS GIFT …
MY FAVORITE DAY: DORIS
Have you heard the gun-and-shooting story the Big Media ignored? It happened in San Antonio two days after the Connecticut school massacre. A man burst into a movie theater and started shooting, wounding one man and firing at others who were running to escape. Then he suddenly stopped shooting.
WHY did he stop? Because Sgt. Lisa Castellano of the sheriff's department was nearby – off-duty but armed – and shot him. Four times.
At last report the would-be killer is alive in a hospital's intensive care unit. None of his intended victims is dead. And the sleazy, lying-by-omission, gun-hating Big Media buried the story.
It IS true: The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy – or woman – with a gun.
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Overheard recently …
A young man, soon to be married, telling a friend about the Christmas gift he received from his soon-to-be father-in-law. An AK-47 rifle, accompanied by the admonition, “I want you to be able to protect my daughter.”
Obama and his fellow would-be gun-grabbers have no idea what they're uncapping with their gun-banning madness, although skyrocketing firearm sales ought to give even the dumbest among them a clue. People are serious about their Second Amendment rights and they are not going to readily acquiesce to hypocrites and demagogues.
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Did you notice that the unemployment figures released just before the election had to be quietly corrected upward over the holidays – when most people weren't paying attention? Try to contain your shock.
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How does a nation's economy get in such a mess as our own? Perhaps this explains it. It's a count of the number of people with some background in real-world business holding positions of responsibility in the last half-dozen presidential administrations.
Carter............................ 32%
Reagan......................... 56%
GHW Bush.................... 51%
Clinton .......................... 39%
GW Bush....................... 55%
Obama..................... 8%
– Thanks, Gene –
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"Paying people not to work saved millions of jobs." -- Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, one of Obama's many crazies in high office.
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Longtime ABC colleague Jim Eason writes …
“I have come to a conclusion (in my later years). I will NEVER vote for another Democrat. I will probably not vote for another Republican either. I think I'm about to stop voting at all!
“Oh, please, don't start carping at me, 'If you don't vote, you can't complain.' Yes, I can! The same constitution that allows me to vote, or not vote, allows me to speak and write what I wish. And, please,
don't remind me that 'every vote counts.' Not true. Count the votes, then recount them, and do it again. You'll get three different totals!
“I grew up in a strong Democrat home and area - Republicans were the enemy. Then, for years, I saw Democrats as the people ruining our country. Now, I see it's most people on both sides.
“It's not just Democrats, nor Republicans...not liberals, nor conservatives...the entire system is not just broken, it's un-fixable, it's too late, the years of the United States as a major player on the world stage are OVER.
“I'm giving up. I'm outnumbered, out-voted, and nobody represents me.
WE GET THE GOVERNMENT WE DESERVE. And, I don't deserve this.”
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Having earlier watched Texas A & M quarterback Johnny Manziel (“Johnny Football”) beat national champion Alabama, then shred Oklahoma two nights ago in the Cotton Bowl, I have concluded that he has achieved a scientific breakthrough that previously existed only in the imagination of sci-fi writers. He is capable of making himself invisible to opponents.
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A life in radio (cont.) ...
One of the oldest axioms in broadcasting is, "You never know who's listening."
After ten years on ABC's KGO in San Francisco, in the mid-'90's I got a very attractive offer from KIRO, the big CBS station in Seattle. I took it. During the year before I decided that Seattle was not for me (despite ratings success there), I heard from a former listener who wrote that she missed hearing me. The postmark was Carmel, California. The signature was ... Doris Day.
Less than a year later, when ABC acquired KSFO in San Francisco and asked me to return to do the morning program there -- with an irresistible offer -- I got in touch with Doris -- Dodo to her friends.
I've met many celebrities as an interviewer/talk-show host. I am not much impressed with most. That's especially true of those from the showbiz world. I've found most of them to be of limited interests or knowledge beyond their own special talents. I understand why; it takes enormous and often single-minded devotion to a career in order to achieve great success in that field. I've met many, and found most to be boring and interested primarily in talking about themselves. I eventually stopped inviting them as program guests.
Nevertheless, it was, I admit, flattering that the woman who'd been the biggest movie star in the world in the 1960's held me in high regard. Even more so when she invited Susan and me to her home for the first of several visits.
She was -- and is -- a highly private person. Her home is on an old farm she'd wanted for years and was finally available when the owner retired. It is hidden away in woods, gated and invisible from the nearest road. Part of an adjacent golf course is on her land and she often entertains herself by looking down from the bluff where her house stands, watching golfers on one of the course's greens a hundred feet or so below. As a golfer prepares to putt, a "Yoo-hoo" in a familiar voice from high above is ... well, startling.
As is well known by many, Dodo is an animal lover. Her place has huge separate galleries for cats and dogs, most injured and/or abandoned. She loves them and provides a home for life for them. At the end, they have a place in her pet cemetery. She did the study sufficient to be qualified as a medical technician for injured or ill animals; her car is an SUV outfitted for emergency care.
Unlike most show business celebrities, she is largely uninterested in talking about her career or showbiz in general. She is genuine to the core, with a great sense of humor and a keen interest in the real world.
It is a friendship I value highly, far beyond her celebrity. And that incredible, highly identifiable voice still sounds the same.
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From reader Rick, a brief treatise on understanding the mind of an engineer ...
Two engineering students were biking across a university campus when one said, "Where did you get such a great bike?" The second engineer replied, "Well, I was walking along yesterday, minding my own business, when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike, threw it to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, "Take what you want." The first engineer nodded approvingly and said, "Good choice: The clothes probably wouldn't have fit you anyway."
... then there's this, illustrating an engineer's view of the world ...
To the optimist, the glass is half-full. To the pessimist, the glass is half-empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be
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Dan the Man provides titillation for lexiphiles – lovers of word-play, like “You can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish.” More examples:
When the smog lifts in Los Angeles , . . . U.C.L.A.
A dentist and a manicurist married. .. . . They fought tooth and nail.
A will is a . . . dead giveaway.
If you don't pay your exorcist . . . you can get repossessed.
When you've seen one shopping center . . . you've seen a mall.
When she saw her first strands of gray hair, . . . she thought she'd dye.
I know. And we're deeply, abjectly sorry.
TAXING
ONLY “THE RICH?” HA! ...
THE GREAT GUN DISTRACTION …
WHO SUPPORTS ASSASSINATIONS?
THE GREAT GUN DISTRACTION …
WHO SUPPORTS ASSASSINATIONS?
A brief message to all those “middle class” Obama supporters who are, or will be, shocked to see that their first 2013 paycheck is smaller because of increased withholding …
Pssst! You're stupid if you believed higher taxes would only affect “the rich.” Welcome to reality.
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Another gun story the Big Media studiously ignored ...
In suburban Atlanta, career criminal Paul Slater was seen lurking outside a woman's home. Fearing a break-in, she took her nine-year-old twins down thru a trapdoor into the crawl space beneath the house.
Slater came looking for them, found the trapdoor, opened it and found himself looking at the woman, her children -- and her .38 revolver. She emptied the gun, hitting him in the face and neck with five shots.
Of course, media airheads, if they mentioned this likely life-saving use of a gun, would tell us how awful it was for her to have the weapon in her house.
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Then there's the Oklahoma woman who was attacked and cut by a man with a box-cutter as she walked home from the supermarket. The government doesn't allow box-cutters on airlines, so why aren't they banned everywhere?
And how about those hammers? After all, they're used in more murders than are rifles. Clearly, ownership of hammers should be forbidden. And what about killers who drown their victims? What's to be done about that?!
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From this morning's Washington Post, referring to action during and after yesterday's Redskins game in a city with very restrictive gun laws …
“Hours went by Sunday afternoon and evening without any reports of robberies in the District. But in the first hour or so after the game ended, D.C. police reported three holdups, all involving guns.”
But don't worry. Barack, Di-Fi, Nancy, et al, will stop all that when they make more laws restricting gun ownership.
Won't they? Suuure they will ...
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"When you all go home and you're talking to your buddies and you say, ah 'He wants to take my gun away.' You've heard it here, I'm on television so everybody knows it. I believe in the Second Amendment. I believe in people's lawful right to bear arms. I will not take your shotgun away. I will not take your rifle away. I won't take your handgun away." – Presidential candidate Barack Obama, Lebanon, Virginia, 2008
Lying then … lying now.
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I don't know whether to be puzzled, amused or annoyed when I read or hear conservative commentators purport to give advice to Obama: "The president should do this ..." "The president ought to do that ..." "The president would be well-advised to ..."
Are these people kidding themselves? Can they seriously be expecting a devout leftist to take advice from conservatives, well-intentioned or not?
Their talent and energies would be much better directed toward those capable of being persuaded by rational debate.
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From a cynical political perspective why shouldn't Obama nominate blatantly anti-Israel Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of State?
After all, despite his own pro-Muslim positions, two-thirds of American Jewish voters gave him their votes.
Further, about those media reports of Hagel being a “medal-winning” soldier in Vietnam. You don't “win” a Purple Heart; you get it for being wounded.
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Michael Goodwin (NY Post) gives recognition to Al Gore …
“As Oscar Wilde said, “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.” In that spirit, I give up resisting the urge to shout 'HYPOCRITE!'
“Start with Al Gore, the low-hanging fruit in the “say one thing, do another” culture. With his sale of Current TV to Al Jazeera, the almost-president instantly doubled his charlatan quotient.
“The blowhard who often proclaims the end of the world is nigh because of fossil fuels sold his TV business to the emir of Qatar, king of the oil patch. But Gore’s scheming didn’t stop there. He also reportedly wanted to finalize the deal before the end of the year so his $100 million windfall wouldn’t be subject to new higher tax rates he zealously supported.
“He’s not alone in urging tax hikes he tried to avoid. From the Washington Post to Costco to Warren Buffett to Hollywood, the woods are full of devotees to that Sage of Selfishness, Leona Helmsley. The Queen of Mean insisted that 'We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes,' just before she was marched off to prison for tax evasion.”
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Burt Prelutsky, columnist, movie and TV writer for shows like “Dragnet,” “MASH,” “Newhart,” “Mary Tyler Moore” and many others, unleashes “...a pet peeve: the notion that there is something morally repellant about assassinations.
“I can understand why heads of state would take exception to it. I can even understand why those of us who live in a country where we have access to free elections would be opposed. But when you consider that Pol Pot made it all the way to his 73rd birthday; Stalin made it to 75; Mao Tse-tung, to 82; and that Fidel Castro and Robert Mugabe are still causing trouble at the ripe old ages of 86 and 88, respectively, it’s hard to argue that the world wouldn’t have been better-served if they’d been eliminated by any means possible decades ago. And is there anyone out there who’s not named Bashar al-Assad, 47, who would have any objection if an assassin saw to it Syria’s serial killer didn’t make it to 48?”
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You may have noticed that "style" -- flashy graphics, dazzling video, etc. -- are not strong points of this daily missive. This is occasionally called to my attention by well-meaning folk who believe I should incorporate more dazzle in the presentation.
As a longtime veteran of radio and TV, with a little newspaper background as well, I concur. Presentation IS important.
Will I do anything about it? No.
This undertaking began more than two years ago with a small mission based upon content rather than style. It also presumes a healthy measure of reader awareness of what's going on in the world, rendering such news basics as "who-what-when-where-how-why" unnecessary. Interpretation, analysis and opinion -- my own and that of others whom I respect -- are the aim and output.
I have been approached about "monetizing" this modest project. That means allowing a syndicator to insert advertising (of his/her choice) and "dressing up" the presentation. Doing so would mean accepting certain obligations which I choose not to assume. But I do sincerely appreciate the well-intentioned counsel. For better or for worse, I prefer to answer only to me.
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Argus Hamilton …
“Downton Abbey premieres its third season about British aristocrats and their house servants a century ago. They live in fabulous luxury. In the U.S. version, the owners are a retired cop who just retired as a teacher, whose mother is on disability, whose father is living on an asbestos settlement and whose wife works for California's Parks Department.”
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Mamie Rearden of Edgefield, South Carolina, who held the title “Nation's Oldest Person” for two weeks, has died at age 114.
Fortunately, the baby lived.
(I'm SORRY! I know I promised never to use that sick punchline again, but I'm weak …)
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The e-mail brings this …
“Just got off the phone with a friend who lives in Northern Wisconsin. He said that since early this morning the snow has been nearly waist high and is still falling. The temperature is dropping way below zero and the north wind is increasing to near gale force. His wife has done nothing but look through the kitchen window and just stare. He says that if it gets much worse, he may have to let her in.”
BOEHNER'S SLOW AWAKENING …
PLAGUE OF LIMOUSINE LIBERALS ...
“SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER?” NO MORE!
PLAGUE OF LIMOUSINE LIBERALS ...
“SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER?” NO MORE!
House Speaker John Boehner talks as if he's surprised to find that Obama is an unyielding left-wing tax-and-spend fanatic who isn't interested in negotiating. The man's been in office with his attitude and philosophy on full display for four years! And Boehner's just now figuring that out?!
If this is what passes for Republican leadership, the party's doomed. And should be. “Fool me once,” etc.
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Budget analyst Tad DeHaven: “The administration has been very successful in convincing an extremely ignorant public that our fiscal imbalances can be solved by merely having the wealthier people pay their fair share. And it’s simply nonsense. The amount of revenue that they are going to generate from this tax increase is not a heck of a lot, relative to how much is going to be spent.”
Thank you again, America's “educators,” for turning out some of the dumbest people on the planet. And an extra-large thanks to the media morons who keep them that way.
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After CNN's Candy Crowley displayed her blatant bias as “moderator” of one of the presidential debates, the leftists who dominate the Big Media pretended that she had done a “balanced” job.
I'm sure they'd say the same about this big, fat softball she delivered to ultra-liberal Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois over the weekend: “Do you think that taxes have been raised enough on the wealthy?”
Does anyone believe she expected this Chicago Democrat political hack to say, “Oh, yes! The taxes we just raised were quite enough. We don't want any more.”
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Victor Davis Hanson casts a skeptical eye upon hypocritical, free-loading rich liberals …
“The Roosevelts and Kennedys enjoyed the high life quite apart from the multitude that they championed. And they were exempt, by virtue of their inherited riches and armies of accountants and attorneys, from the higher taxes they advocated for others. Few worried about how their original fortunes were made long ago, or that as lifelong government officials they had their needs met by the state. Most were relieved instead that as very rich people they wanted less-rich people to pay their 'fair share' to help the poor.
“Class warrior Barack Obama spent his winter break in a ritzy rental on a Hawaiian beach. It cost the taxpayers $7 (or is it $20?) million to jet him and his entourage 6,000 miles for their tropical vacation. But whether the first family escapes to Hawaii or Martha’s Vineyard or Costa del Sol, the image of a 1 percent lifestyle seems a bit at odds with the president’s professed disdain for 'millionaires and billionaires,' 'fat cats,' and 'corporate-jet owners' who supposedly can afford such tony retreats only because they have done something suspect.” – National Review Online
By the way, does nobody notice that those “corporate jets” are not being paid for with taxpayer dollars – unlike the giant Boeing 747 that Obama uses for his playtime frolics? Those fuel-gulping monsters are so expensive to fly that no airline uses them for domestic service anymore and most have dropped them even from international long-haul service.
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Now, a trip down memory lane …
Remember how media liberals credited haters of George Bush (“Hitler” was one of their more complimentary names for him) with noble motives, calling their blind hatred “speaking truth to power?”
Notice how seldom – like never – do you hear that hackneyed phrase used when conservatives criticize Obama? For example, if I offer the opinion -- for which there is abundant support -- that he's a Marxist, Muslim-coddling, America-hating Affirmative Action president, can I expect applause from liberals for “speaking truth to power?”
I won't hold my breath.
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Priorities, priorities …
“Homeless man Darren Kersey, 28, was jailed overnight in November in Sarasota, Fla., after being busted for charging his cellphone at an outlet at a public picnic shelter in the city's Gillespie Park. The police report noted that 'Theft of city utilities will not be tolerated ....'
“However, for owners of electric cars (less likely to be homeless!), the city runs several absolutely free charging stations, including one at city hall.” – JWR
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Gunslinger alert! The Florida Everglades are infested with Burmese pythons that grow to nearly twenty feet in length and are slaughtering indigenous species and pets in nearby housing areas.
Now the state is offering a $1,500 reward to the hunter who can kill the most of the giant snakes. So far, more than 400 volunteers have signed up.
Anti-gun wussies are presumably welcome to go into the 'glades and strangle the monsters with their bare hands.
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It's a good thing for college football, overall, that Notre Dame is on the way back to national power and prominence. On the way – but not yet there, as last night's total butt-kicking my Alabama illustrated. Based on the Massacre in Miami, not only are the Irish not #1 … they may not even be a for-real Top 10 team. Their vaunted defensive front-seven (down linemen and linebackers) folded like a wet sack before the 'bama onslaught. Manti Te'o, ND's highly-acclaimed linebacker and an admirable young man, was a total non-factor in the game.
What the Tide did to Notre Dame makes Johnny Football's performance in the Texas A & M win over 'bama all the more remarkable.
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Len the haiku master sees RG-3's injury-filled season with the Redskins as a re-run of Michael Vick's career. It's a rough life in the NFL for quarterbacks who run a lot …
RG3 goes down.
An injury-filled career?
Now he's MV2.
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A blast from the past as reader Jack delivers some classic lines from “Hollywood Squares,” hosted by Peter Marshall …
Q. Paul, what is a good reason for pounding meat?
A. Paul Lynde: Loneliness!
Q. If you're going to make a parachute jump, at least how high should you be?
A. Charley Weaver: Three days of steady drinking should do it.
Q. You've been having trouble going to sleep. Are you probably a man or a woman?
A. Don Knotts: That's what's been keeping me awake.
Q. If you meet a stranger at a party and you think that he is attractive, is it okay to come out and ask him if he's married?
A. Rose Marie: No wait until morning.
Q. Paul, why do Hell's Angels wear leather?
A. Paul Lynde: Because chiffon wrinkles too easily.
Q. Charley, you've just decided to grow strawberries. Are you going to get any during the first year?
A. Charley Weaver: Of course not, I'm too busy growing strawberries.
Q. Is there anything wrong with getting into the habit of kissing a lot of people?
A. Charley Weaver: It got me out of the army.
Q. According to Ann Landers, what are two things you should never do in bed?
A. Paul Lynde: Point and laugh.
HOUSE
REPUBS: GUT-UP OR GET
OUT …
OBAMA – “PRESIDENT FOR LIFE” …
AMERICA'S FUTURE, IF ANY
OBAMA – “PRESIDENT FOR LIFE” …
AMERICA'S FUTURE, IF ANY
Washington's Republicans, mostly in the House, having folded over the “fiscal cliff,” now claim to have the leverage to push for less borrowing and spending cuts in the forthcoming debate about further raising our already-insane ceiling on the government's borrowing. We're already well on our way to becoming the largest deadbeat nation in history.
We'll see soon whether the R-party has any real enthusiasm for reviving that fine old Mafia term introduced to Americans by “The Godfather:” “Go to the mattresses,” meaning to go to war.
If not, the GOP has effectively gone the way of the Whigs. A footnote to political history.
(You may find the origin of the “mattresses” term interesting, if you care to explore it on the internet.)
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The left's ill-concealed taste for tyranny is further revealed in their growing enthusiasm for the use of “executive orders” by the president to achieve their goals, instead of relying upon the constitutional process of legislation by Congress.
The power-madness of the left is further illuminated by the repeated effort by a nutcake congressman from New York to repeal the constitutional two-term limit on presidents. Such a move would enable what a dictator-worshipping left would dearly love: A “President for Life,” as found in so many third-world dictatorships.
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“In one respect Barack Obama's reelection is historically appropriate. He's a weak leader and, by reports, an idle one. Such a man is well chosen to lead America into a period of decline.
“Just prior to World War I the U.S. became the world's largest economy, a position it has held for more than a century. But the latest report from a European think tank suggests that China will overtake U.S. output within four years. Obama will close a long and glorious chapter in world history, not with a bang but a whimper.” – British Historian Paul Johnson in Jewish World Review
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Like anyone else, if I knew the future with certainty, I'd be spending my time at the roulette wheel in a casino. But since some folk do ask my opinion about America's future, permit me the luxury of candor.
If I were the oddsmaker at that casino, I'd say it's about 60-40 that America doesn't have one. At least not a future that will be envied by the rest of the world in the way that has historically been the case.
Within a few decades, it is possible – even likely – that this nation will be about as relevant as, say, today's Argentina or Portugal or Netherlands – the later two having once been world powers.
A public that permits itself to be ruled by politicians who pander to fools and freeloaders cannot rationally expect anything more.
Size alone does not automatically translate into power and influence. If that were the case, Brazil, Argentina and Canada would be superpowers.
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What happens when silly adults allow the monkeys to run the zoo …
Voters in a New Jersey school district elected a 19-year-old avowed socialist to the local school board. Doubtless with the enthusiastic support of the teachers' union.
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A snap judgment …
The detestable Chuck Hagel is questionable for confirmation as Secretary of Defense. Because Hagel's Senate hearing will be so contentious, it's likely that the utterly incompetent -- and untrustworthy -- John Brennan will be confirmed to head the CIA by a distracted Senate.
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The new Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” may turn out to be a fabulous success once the kinks have been worked out, but those “kinks” have caused some alarming news reports about mechanical problems both in-flight and on the ground.
I posed the bottom-line question to a longtime airline captain friend of mine:
Would you fly the 787, either as pilot or passenger? His answer: No.
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Your moronic government in action …
After spending $850,000 to demolish a small dam in Tennessee for “environmental” reasons, the same crazies are now spending $1,400,000 of your tax money to build several smaller dams to prevent the flooding caused by the destruction of the first dam.
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To correct an ongoing internet myth …
It was NOT current Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard who made the admirable statement about immigrants having to adapt to Australian culture and values. In fact, she's a knee-jerk liberal.
The statement was made by the Education Minister in the cabinet of former Prime Minister John Howard who said it – seven years ago. Mr. Howard was subsequently voted out of office.
Like many things too good to be true … it isn't.
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Inflation is the form of taxation/thievery preferred by politicians, because the masses of dopes are only vaguely aware of what's happening to their money. That's why they laugh at prices in the past, blissfully unaware that as the calendar pages turn, the same thing is going to happen to the prices they pay today; increasing by staggering sums.
Cindy Adams (NY Post) did some price-tracking thru the years as of New Year's Day ...
"1935. New Year’s dinner was salmon cocktail, curried lamb, salad, vegetable, dessert, beverage — $2. Beer, 15 cents. Lunch, 40 cents.
"1941. Prices soared. New Year’s Eve. Filet Mignon, 65 cents. Hotels, $2.95 per night. Flights, NY to LA” with caviar, smiling stewardii, nobody searching your bags, your behinds or your shoes — $88. Round-trip, another $72.
"1942. Greta Garbo’s classy New York East Side apartment was an astronomical $125 a month. Fifth Avenue’s double-decker bus, a dime.
"1952. New Year’s Day lunch was 70 cents. The Park Sheraton Mermaid Room, Special New Year’s Midnight Supper — no tax, no cover, no minimum, $6."
Only the ignorant and foolish think it won't continue.
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Conan O'Brien --
"The National Hockey League has settled its contract dispute. So finally Americans can get back to not watching hockey."
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Reader Robert contributes a tale of the west … about the cowboy who appeared at the Pearly Gates and is interviewed by St. Peter …
“Have you ever done anything of particular merit?” asked St. Peter.
“Well, I can think of one thing,” the cowboy offered. “On a trip to Kansas, I came upon a motorcycle gang threatening a young woman. I told them to leave her alone, but they wouldn't listen. So, I approached the largest and most tattooed biker and smacked him in the face, kicked his bike over, ripped out his nose ring, and yelled, 'Now, back off or I'll kick the hellout of all of you!'
St. Peter was impressed. “When did this happen?'
“Couple of minutes ago.”
GOV'T
BY “EXECUTIVE ORDER”
…
OBAMA'S WAY: ENDLESS BORROWING …
ANTI-GUN DRIVE COULD BACKFIRE
OBAMA'S WAY: ENDLESS BORROWING …
ANTI-GUN DRIVE COULD BACKFIRE
Let us be clear: The obsession with government-by-”executive orders” on the part of Obama and his stooges reveals an obvious infatuation with dictatorship. The frightening thing is that so many of our demented fellow citizens approve. Their mentality is, “As long is it gives me what I want, I don't care how it's done.” And that was the rallying cry of the mindless mobs that have supported every tyrant in history.
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The endless story of hypocrisy in politics continues …
Now Democrats are saying that, since Chuck Hagel was in the Vietnam war, that service qualifies him to be Secretary of Defense and also places him above question or criticism.
I don't seem to recall Democrats showing similar unquestioning esteem for John McCain during his presidential run.
Conversely, Democrats who did – and do – revere Franklin D. Roosevelt as a great wartime Commander-in-Chief never question his own lack of military experience.
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Obama, Pelosi, et al, claim that the government should be allowed to borrow an unlimited amount of money.
Whether you're talking about individuals or governments – whose debts can only be repaid, however indirectly, BY individuals – what kind of sub-moron seriously believes that unrestrained borrowing is a rational way of conducting financial affairs? This is an express-train to Crazyland … and disaster.
After Obama, Ben Bernanke, head of the Federal Reserve, may be the most dangerous man on the planet. Printing piles of funny-money seems to be his preoccupation. The appropriate term for his actions is “legalized counterfeiting.”
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Liberal anti-gun stupidity on display: The fools think they're accomplishing something wonderful by publishing names and addresses of registered gun owners. They're so stupid they don't even realize that virtually all crimes involving guns are perpetrated by people using weapons that aren't registered, and never will be.
This is simply self-aggrandizing pomposity masquerading as public service.
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We have an “epidemic” of mass shootings, as heard in a TV “news” report? Simply a lie. In fact, the number of such tragic events has declined in the past decade. Doubt it? Check the FBI's own statistics, published here several days ago and available on the internet.
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Obama and his moronic Marxist mob are deliberately blinding themselves to the very real possibility that, in their anti-2nd Amendment crusade, they are making what could turn out to be a very dangerous mistake.
Ask yourself, “Do I want the job of going house-to-house and door-to-door, demanding that gun owners hand over their weapons?” Do they really expect passive acquiescence from everyone? And what happens when the inevitable shooting begins? Those who think such a thing wouldn't happen may be in for a rude awakening.
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Quote to note …
“I came to see Islam not how it is often misrepresented, but for what it is – how it is practiced every day, by well over a billion Muslims worldwide, a faith of peace and tolerance and great diversity.
“Jihad is a holy struggle, an effort to purify, for a legitimate purpose. Our enemy is not terrorism because terrorism is but a tactic. Nor do we describe our enemy as jihadists or Islamists because jihad is holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam meaning to purify oneself or one’s community.” – John Brennan, Obama's choice to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
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Your taxpayer-paid government idiots in action …
One of the principal recommendations following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was that emergency and rescue personnel have one secure radio frequency on which all agencies that were merged into the Department of Homeland Security could communicate.
In November, the department's inspector general revealed that, despite $430 million allotted to build and operate the frequency in the last nine years, it remains almost useless to DHS' 123,000 employees.
The report surveyed 479 workers, but found only one who knew how to find the frequency, and 72 percent did not even know one existed (and half the department's radios couldn't have accessed it even if employees knew where to look). – JWR
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Burt Prelutsky with some thoughts on the First Family and fatherhood …
“I’m not suggesting that Obama is as bad a father as he is a president, but it does seem to me that if he took the role as seriously as he should, he’d use his bully pulpit to admonish black men to start shouldering their responsibilities and to be ashamed of their part in dooming the 71% of black babies being born to unwed mothers to a life of ignorance, poverty and crime. You would think that in four years, he could have taken a few minutes off from deriding Republicans and Tea Party members to deliver a few well-chosen words to those sperm donors who have turned every inner city in America into an urban cesspool.
“It also wouldn’t be out of line for Mrs. Obama to quit yakking about cookies and calories long enough to expend some of her political capital on young black women who don’t seem to think twice about condemning themselves, their offspring and future generations, to lives of quiet degradation.”
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Argus Hamilton –
“One thing is keeping technology going. The USDA just named Apple a food group and now people can use food stamps to buy iPhones.”
“Last year Apple founder Steve jobs died and every six months he's re-buried in a slightly better coffin.”
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New Joisey Gov. Chris Christie says he'll be “more ready” to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. After all the coverage of him hugging Obama and trailing him like an adoring puppy-dog following the hurricane, he may find a shortage of support within his purported party.
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Lots of football fans are correctly questioning the wisdom of Washington Redskins' coach Mike Shanahan for leaving his prize rookie quarterback RG-3 (Robert Griffin the Third) in the playoff game last Sunday when he was obviously hobbling with a knee injury which was re-injured to the point where he's now had knee reconstruction surgery.
I've had it myself, and even without need to prepare for pro football, the rehab was not fun.
Griffin is tough and courageous, but the decision to leave him in the game was stupid because (A) by the second quarter it was clear he couldn't perform at anywhere near the level necessary to win the game and (B) was vulnerable to the second injury that may well compromise his entire football future. Worst-case scenario: that decision may have cost the organization a franchise quarterback for the next fifteen years.
Just … dumb.
There's an inherent conflict-of-interest regarding team doctors who give the “go” or “no go” on injured players returning to action. The coach wants them to play … the athletes almost invariably want to play, fearing for their jobs … and the doctor is paid by – ta-ta! – the organization.
All too often those team doctors could be described by the sound a duck makes.
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I wonder how Rob Parker, just fired from ESPN for his remarks about RG-3 “pushing away” from “his people,” would like it if any white person referred to other whites as “MY people.”
Seems some black Americans are a long, long way from Martin Luther King's admonition that people should be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin.
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Question for Notre Dame fans: Is Coach Brian Kelly seriously interested in the Philadelphia Eagles job, for which he's already interviewed, or is he simply using it to shake down ND for more money? Worked for Chip Kelly at Oregon!
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A final observation about the college football championship from Jay Leno --
"According to several reports, a lot of people think 2013 is going to be bad luck because it has the number 13 in it. You know what you call these people? Notre Dame fans.
“Let me tell you how bad it was. The Pope suggested that Notre Dame might want to be a Lutheran college."
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Worth repeating …
The word for Americans living abroad is “expatriate,” usually shortened to “expat,” not “ex-patriot.” Most who choose to live outside their native country are as patriotic as anyone else. They choose to live elsewhere for many reasons, the primary one being overseas job assignment, often by American employers. Other reasons include a lower cost of living, especially for retirees and, increasingly, disgust with the U.S. government.
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This, believe it or not, is the signature of Jacob (Jack) Lew, Obama's choice to be the new Secretary of the Treasury. If he is confirmed in that job, it will appear on all new currency.
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My neighbor Mike reports on crime deterrence …
A woman had just returned to her home from an evening of church services when she was startled by an intruder.
She caught the man in the act of robbing her home of its valuables and yelled, “Stop! Acts 2:38!” (“Repent and be Baptized, in the name of Jesus Christ , so that your sins may be forgiven.”)
The burglar stopped in his tracks. The woman calmly called the police and explained what she had done. As the officer cuffed the man to take him in, he asked the burglar, “Why did you just stand there? All the lady did was yell a scripture to you.”
Scripture? She said she had an axe and two 38s!”
GUNS
GUARD ANTI-GUN PREZ …
WHOSE “WAR ON WOMEN?” …
MORE MEMORABLE OBAMA LIES
WHOSE “WAR ON WOMEN?” …
MORE MEMORABLE OBAMA LIES
The man who repeatedly tells us that weapons don't make us safer takes a different view when it comes to his own safety.
Barack H. Obama has signed a law that would guarantee his own protection by ARMED Secret Service agents for the rest of his life.
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There's uncertainty about who said it first, but it's been the linchpin of Americans' freedom since the first shot was fired in the war for independence: “An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.”
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Seen the photos of Obama's Oval Office gathering of all the key people in his administration? All men.
What do his women voters think NOW about the loudly-proclaimed “war on women—by REPUBLICANS” that he blathered about endlessly during his campaign? I know; it's hard to admit you were played for a sucker. Just like the “middle class” sheeple who thought, unlike the “rich,” they'd be untouched by Obama's tax increases.
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Hillary Clinton's sycophants boast of her visits to 112 countries during her soon-to-end tenure as Secretary of State. So what? I am reminded of a word of advice from one of my first broadcasting employers: “Don't tell me how hard you worked. Show me your results.”
Now we get John Kerry, who called his fellow GIs in Vietnam “war criminals.” He follows Hillary, who was on record as having said she “loathed the military.”
Then there's Chuck Hagel. If he gets the job of Secretary of Defense, he wants to gut the military.
There's a clue in all this. If you want a job in the Obama administration, it helps to have a history of hating America and/or the people upon whom we depend to protect us.
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A parade of lies …
“Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.'” – Sen. Barack Obama, 2006
“The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children . . . so we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman, and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.” –Barack Obama, 2008 presidential campaign
“Today I’m pledging to cut the deficit we inherited by half by the end of my first term in office. I refuse to leave our children with a debt that they cannot repay.” – Barack Obama, shortly after 2009 inauguration.
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One reason why I'm proud to have played a minor role in launching the talk-radio career of Mark Levin …
He refers to self-proclaimed “conservative” Joe Scarborough of MSNBC as a “pathetic troll” who is merely “prancing around” pretending to be a conservative.
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Argus Hamilton –
“The Washington Post chided President Obama for nominating white men to be Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and CIA Director. The president didn't even notice the color of their skin. He just wanted to nominate three people who are anti-Israel.”
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That “fiscal cliff” bill that just had to pass contained all kinds of pork for Obama's favorite campaign contributors. Among them:
$12.2 billion over the next decade in tax credits for renewable-energy projects — wind-power, biomass, hydropower generation, etc. (Obama's payoff to the failed “green” industry.)
$11 billion in tax deferments for corporations with overseas subsidiaries. (After all the Democrat complaints about Romney's exporting of jobs!)
$430 million in tax breaks for Hollywood producers who make films in the United States.(Remember all that Hollywood campaign money?)
$222 million for rum producers in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. (A booze subsidy for drunks?)
A $22 million tax break for building a racetrack (a k a, “the NASCAR loophole”).
$15 million a year for asparagus growers. (What? No subsidy for carrots? What about arugula?)
$4 million for people who buy “two- or three-wheeled plug-in electric vehicles” — electric scooters, Segways, etc. (Only four mil? Must not have given enough.)
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-- Summary compiled by
Jack DeLowe. There's plenty more. –
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The wussies are now in management positions at ESPN, the all-sports cable network. To recap Monday night …
In college football's (alleged) championship game, Alabama was beating hell out of Notre Dame. If football had Little League baseball's mercy rule, the game would have been stopped in the third quarter. TV cameras, looking for something more interesting than the massacre on the field, got a shot of Miss Alabama, girlfriend of 'bama's quarterback, in the stands.
The following exchange followed, featuring play-by-play announcer Brent Musburger and commentator Kirk Herbstreit, himself a handsome former QB:
Musburger: You quarterbacks, you get all the good-looking women. What a beautiful woman.”
Herbstreit: “Wow.”
Musburger. “If you’re a youngster in Alabama, start getting the football out and throw it around the backyard with Pop.”
For this, crazed feminists threw a hissy-fit, as did some neutered males (liberals – to be redundant).
Miss Alabama's totally rational response to this cooked-up controversy: “For a woman to be called beautiful, I don’t see how that’s an issue,”
Nevertheless, nutless ESPN executives apologized. Musburger, Herbstreit, Miss Alabama and every American with an IQ larger than their shoe-size must wonder where Disney*, which owns ESPN, got the whimpering front-office wimps who were so offended – or cowardly. Look out, Brent; ESPN may replace you with Richard Simmons.
(* - Disney, a/k/a “The Mouse House,” as it's called by employees, among whom I was one for many years.)
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Larry Thornberry, writing in The American Spectator, wonders what's next for ESPN …
“Will the network start blacking out the cheerleaders? Will the network start hiring sideline babes who look like Musburger? No. Networks will continue to show the cheerleaders and will continue to hire great-looking young women to ask pointless questions of inarticulate athletes after the game is over.
“The biggest shame of the Musburger/Webb/ESPN kerfuffle is that it has taken attention away from the far larger story, which is that President Obama Wednesday, by executive order, took points way from Alabama and declared the championship game a draw. “Alabama didn’t win that game themselves, and they got more than their fair share of points,” Obama said in explaining his unprecedented action in the name of spreading the wealth around. Now THAT’s progressive.”
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Why the dopes who dreamed up the ridiculous BCS rating system for college football teams should be shamed, beaten with sticks, then deported: One of their computer programs still ranks Notre Dame as the #1 team in the nation, even after the total butt-kicking they took from Alabama.
Let us be grateful that finally, after next season, the present BCS system will die an unlamented death and be replaced by a playoff system that, while imperfect, will be a huge improvement.
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Reader Bill reminds us of a timeless observation …
"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force." -- Ayn Rand
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Proof that a good line can always be recycled …
There is an apocryphal story circulating on the internet having to do with the recent retirement of Gen. Stanley McChrystal that has him responding to a question by the president regarding the possibility of the General someday urinating upon Obama's grave.
One version has it that the line originated years ago with comedian Red Skelton, who was asked if he would attend the funeral of the just-deceased Harry Cohn, tyrannical head of Columbia Pictures, just so he could pee on his grave. Red was said to have responded, “No. When I got out of the Army, I swore I'd never stand in line again.”
Also attributed to Skelton is the alternative version about the large crowd at Cohn's funeral: ”Give people what they want and they'll turn out every time.”
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Craig Ferguson--
"David Bowie just turned 66. Bowie's been married to Iman, the model, for 20 years. Marrying a model is a great idea because you save a fortune on food."
ANOTHER
FAILED WAR ENDS …
“JUST ONE LIFE” BULL-BLEEP …
CONG. GIFFORDS' PRO-GUN PAST
“JUST ONE LIFE” BULL-BLEEP …
CONG. GIFFORDS' PRO-GUN PAST
Obama gives up on Afghanistan: “We quit.”
The worst fears of many Americans are now being realized. More than 2,000 American military people have – let's face it – died for … nothing. And more can and doubtless will be killed with impunity over the next few months because the Commander-in-Chief (excuse me will I retch at the very words applied to Obama) has now clearly and publicly stated, “We're leaving.”
Leaving as losers after another half-assed attempt at nation-building among barbarians. Another fools' errand that accomplished for America – what?
Obama had said even before taking office that Iraq was a wasted war, but Afghanistan was a “necessary” war. The whole misadventure was typical of America's military history for more than a half-century. It can be summarized in one sentence: Commit troops to war with no clear intent to win.
If a similar attitude had prevailed in World War 2, everyone east of the Rocky Mountains would long since have been speaking German … west of the Rockies, Japanese.
The message is clear, but our “leaders” never seem to get it: If you're not in it to win it – totally and conclusively – don't get into it at all. War is not a social program.
Perhaps the nation would be better served if the constitution had a provision stipulating than any President who commits troops to war must win it or face impeachment, or worse. It might clarify their thinking about both goals and methods of achieving them.
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It appeals to the simple-minded, but one of the favorite tools of demagogues is the pronouncement that the only necessity for even the most radical, unconstitutional and downright silly government action is justified, “If it saves just one life.”
That is pure, unadulterated bull … feathers. Want to end the tens of thousands of annual deaths in automobile accidents? Sure – just ban cars. A moment's consideration should make clear the silliness of such an idea. “...but if it will save just one life ….”
Oh, really?
Background checks on gun buyers? Fine. But it's childishly foolish to believe that folk with evil intentions won't get guns in a nation with millions of firearms already in circulation. Black-market guns will always be available – maybe some of Eric Holder's “Fast & Furious” weapons will be smuggled back in from Mexico. And how are you going to do a serious background check on someone who grew up in a mountain village in Mexico or a jungle in Honduras or rural Azerbaijan?
How hard is it to get many already-forbidden products? I don't use illegal drugs, but I guarantee that I could be dropped off in any city in America, knowing not a single soul there, and could locate a drug connection within a couple of hours.
Preemptive action by incarcerating mentally unstable people who MIGHT represent a threat? Okay … but who decides which individuals should be designated as a threat? Such a policy has long been favored by tyrants as a means of removing opponents. Hitler, for just one example.
Then there's this to consider, submitted by reader Bill …
“Can our form of government, our system of justice, survive if one can be denied a freedom because he might abuse it?" --Harlon Carter
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CNN's lowest-rated talk-show host, Piers Morgan, refers to the U.S. Constitution as “Your little book.”
We drove a lot of arrogant Brits out of the country in 1776. How about one more? Don't we have enough home-grown rectal orifii? (A useful word I claim credit for inventing.)
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Burt Prelutsky on the anti-gun madness …
“Democrats continue their anti-gun crusade although even they aren’t dumb enough to believe that more gun control laws will do any more to diminish violence in America in the future than they have in the past. As Thomas Jefferson once summed up the issue: 'Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.'
“Even liberals must understand that cops do not prevent crimes, except for violations of driving laws and jaywalking; their job is to solve crimes once they’ve been committed. Perhaps I’m guilty of giving liberals too much credit, but surely even they can grasp the fact that when there’s a cop standing nearby, criminals mind their manners. That isn’t because down deep they respect the concept of law and order, but because cops are people with guns.”
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What to watch as/if/when the gun debate gets to Congress …
All those Democrats from states that voted for Obama, but have millions of hunters; Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota … just for starters.
Footnote: Gabrielle Giffords, the House member from Arizona who was shot by a madman, was pro-2 nd Amendment throughout her tenure in Congress. Note this quote from Giffords on June 26, 2008. In a message on her congressional Web site, Giffords wrote: “As a gun owner, I am a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. In February, I was proud to sign the Amicus Brief in District of Columbia v. Heller asking the Supreme Court to uphold the lower court ruling that overturned the long standing DC gun ban.”
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A New York Times writer calls Defense Secretary nominee “an all-around good guy.” Perhaps the writer should have asked the many employees who worked for Hagel during his Senate days (his office had lots of turnover) and call him a mean, nasty SOB.
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Aside to Al Gore worshipers: What do you think of your pompous, money-grubbing hypocrite now?
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For the fervent feminists who have only lately recognized that Obama's the real insiders in Obama's administration are all – gasp! – men, The Daily Caller helpfully points out that …
“... in Obama's defense, the White House chef is still a woman. So if he and the boys get hungry during one of their Cabinet meetings, he has a woman in the kitchen to cook them all some food.”
Now – tell us again about that evil Republican war on women, Barack ...
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Jay Leno's reaction to the nomination of “Lincoln” for an Academy Award … “It's the first time Hollywood has ever voted for a Republican president.”
Jimmy Kimmel --
"Did any of you get nominated for an Oscar? Me neither. Apparently you have to be in a movie to get nominated, which I think is unfair." (And so would Obama!)
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A favorite geography quiz …
Without looking at a map, which is farther west: Reno, Nevada, or Los Angeles? Okay, now you can look.
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Argus Hamilton ...
“Nike terminated Lance Armstrong's contract, saying it doesn't condone performance enhancing drugs unless it helps Asian children increase (shoe) production.”
QUESTION
FOR PREZ & POLS
…
REMEMBERING A '49er LEGEND …
A LIST FOR LIBERALS
REMEMBERING A '49er LEGEND …
A LIST FOR LIBERALS
On the assumption that some masochistic liberals read this column to torture themselves (so my hate-mail indicates), I offer this suggestion for a simple, straightforward question they might address to their Maximum Leader in the White House and the True Believers in Congress: “Would you be willing to renounce your own medical plan and pledge to utilize the same Obamacare program you have imposed upon the rest of us?”
I dare you.
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One more item for liberals: You're surprised that more money is coming out of your paycheck, even though Obama promised that only the rich would pay? What?! You actually believed him?!
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All you need to know about Chuck Hagel's nomination to be Secretary of State can be seen in this headline by Al Jazeera, the Arab website: “Obama Defeats The Israeli Lobby”
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Reader Bill offers this for gun-grabbers' consideration …
“Didn't we once try outlawing booze is this country? We know how prohibition turned out.
“For the last 50 odd years, haven't we outlawing drugs, I.e. the "war on drugs". We know libs agree that was a failure.
“Oh, but now with guns results will be different.... sure!
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A life in radio (con't) ...
The San Francisco 49'ers have enjoyed a resurgence of late and may yet add to a glorious football legacy. The late Bobb McKittrick was a huge part of the legendary 'Niner teams thru five Super Bowl championships.
Bobb was the offensive line coach. While the rest of the team was stocked with superstars, Bobb's task was to assemble a line consisting largely of players ignored by other teams and coach them into championship-level players. He did it over and over for twenty-plus years.
I became acquainted with him when, during my one-year Seattle sabbatical, I got a note from him simply wishing me well and telling me he'd enjoyed listening to me during my previous ten years with ABC in San Francisco.
When I returned to ABC-SF, we got in touch and thus a friendship began that lasted until his too-soon death almost thirteen years ago.
Bobb had interests that ranged far beyond football, although he was intense as any coach you would find in that highly-competitive profession. He related current events to his encyclopedic knowledge of history during long chats on our patio in downtown San Francisco during the off-season.
He'd played football at Oregon State, then served as an officer in the Marine Corps before moving into a coaching career that began with Oregon State and UCLA, then moved to the NFL with the Rams, Chargers and culminated in twenty-one hugely successful years with the Forty-Niners.
Bobb was a tough guy, well-demonstrated by his practice of spending entire late-season games in icebox stadia in places like Chicago and Cleveland wearing a short-sleeve T-shirt.
He was very different from most coaches, though, in that his toughness never took the form of berating players for mistakes. He was, first and foremost, a teacher. His restraint from the usual coaching tactic of abusing and shouting at players was a huge contrast compared to many coaches I'd known during several years of broadcasting major-college games.
One memorable story was related by a Niners offensive guard while Bobb, our wives and several players and their wives were having dinner after a home game at Candlestick Park.
The veteran player said that during the pre-season training camp a rookie, accustomed to being harassed by coaches during practice, was surprised because Bobb never raised his voice.
"What happens," the rookie asked the veteran, "When Coach McKittrick gets mad?"
"We don't know," replied the veteran, "And we don't WANT to know!"
Tecla, Bobb's wife, was a delightful lady who had an extreme case of football wives' nerves. When the team was away for a road-game, she couldn't bear to watch or listen to the broadcast. She'd go to a movie, not wanting to hear the score until the game was over.
Often Susan and I accompanied her to home games, all of us going out for dinner afterward. Sometimes we got to use the Forty-Niners' private sky-box, complete with butler and wine-steward service; the height of football-watching luxury. More often, very good seats with players' and coaches' families. Either way, Tecla couldn't bring herself to watch the actual plays. As soon as the players lined up, she'd lower her head and cover her eyes, only to ask us moments later, "What happened?"
It was typical of Bobb that, before telling Tecla about the cancer that eventually ended his life, he quietly flew to Oregon, where they had relatives, and bought a house for her in a suburb of Portland that she loved.
One of Bobb's favorite "inside" stories ...
As previously noted, Bobb was usually given less-then-first-rate players, Bill Walsh and later George Seifert, the head coaches, being confident he'd turn them into top-level talent.
One of the rare exceptions was powerhouse offensive lineman Harris Barton, a first-round draft choice. Harris also had the rare distinction of being one of the few Jewish players ever to achieve stardom in the NFL. He was from an Orthodox Jewish family.
Concurrent with Harris' career, Reggie White was the pass-rushing defensive star of the league, terrorizing offensive lineman for the Eagles and, later, the Packers.
Reggie was also an ordained Christian evangelical minister, and he took his evangelism seriously. He was known for constantly talking between plays to the offensive linemen opposite him, often about (yes!) religion.
Thus it came to pass that the first time Reggie lined up across from Harris, ready to (A) blast his body while (B) spreading the Lord's word, there occurred this exchange:
Reggie: "Harris, have you taken the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior?"
Harris: "Reggie ... I'm Jewish."
For the first, last and only time during his illustrious career, Reggie never said another word to his opponent during the remainder of the game.
Bobb McKittrick. I miss him.
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John Hawkins (Townhall.com) compiled a list of things liberals love to hate, from which we offer a few excerpts …
Guns, for making all those poor innocent criminals break the law.
The old, dead white guys who founded America and their ridiculous, outdated Constitution that doesn't mention global warming or limits on soda size even once.
Nosy voters who ask questions like, "What kind of change?" and "Forward to where?"
Minorities who actually expect Democrats to make their life better in return for their vote.
Black men who don't take orders from white liberals.
People who think anyone responsible enough to have sex is responsible enough to buy their own birth control.
Debt limits, budgets and anything else that makes it harder for liberals to spend other people’s money.
People who believe they should be allowed to choose what light bulbs they want to use in their own house.
The South.
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Mediaite caught this one …
On Wheel of Fortune, a contestant excitedly declared that she wanted to solve the “song/artist” puzzle and then proceeded to absolutely botch the title of what was arguably the late Johnny Cash‘s most popular song, 1956´s “I Walk the Line.” “I’ll solve the puzzle,” she said, looking at a board that read: “I _A__ THE _INE BY J_HNNY _ASH” Seems pretty easy, no? Her answer: “I Have The Wine By Johnny Cash.”
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Cultural note …
The new Miss America is Miss New York. Well, sort of. She grew up in Alabama.
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Wisdom from Mad Mike …
“Men socialize by insulting each other, but they don't really mean it.
“Women socialize by complimenting each other, but they don't really mean it, either.”
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Jay Leno --
"The White House announced that the theme for President Obama's second inauguration will be 'Faith in America's Future.' The idea is to get our minds off of America's present."
FIREARMS
FOES' FUTILE
FLAILING ...
YOUR FUTURE UNDER OBAMACARE …
TO TORTURE OR NOT TORTURE
YOUR FUTURE UNDER OBAMACARE …
TO TORTURE OR NOT TORTURE
“ Half of all mass killings in the United States have occurred since the assault weapon ban expired in 2005, half in the history of the country.” – Bill Clinton, January 9, 2013
That ... is ... a ... flat-out ... lie.
He could have consulted the FBI's own crime statistics for the truth. But that, of course, was not a factor since his purpose was/is to encourage the hysteria over gun control for political advantage.
If the former president wants to discuss mass-murder, perhaps he might dwell upon the Waco slaughter perpetrated by Janet Reno's Justice Department under his own administration.
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Consider: The same Obama administration that would like to deny U.S. citizens' right to own a gun is sending billions of dollars' worth of tanks and military aircraft to the Muslim government of Egypt which has openly declared America to be its enemy. Mind you, we're not selling this war materiel to an avowed enemy; we're giving it to them!
Anything wrong with this picture?
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A justice department study finds that teenage victims of violent crime were six times more likely to be attacked with a knife than a gun.
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The insightful Burt Prelutsky casts a skeptical eye on the anti-gun madness that masquerades as compassion ...
“You might even say that insanity is a growth industry. For example, the liberals are tripping all over themselves to pass new gun control legislation. To prove how sincere they are, they have put Joe Biden and Dianne Feinstein in charge. Joe Biden is so dumb that schools have renamed dunce caps in his honor, and Feinstein is such a political hack that even after swearing to get to the bottom of the national security leaks to the NY Times, once she realized the footprints led back to the Oval Office, she never again mentioned it.
“Even people as stupid as Sen. Patty Murray and Mayor Michael Bloomberg know that federal bans on assault weapons were in place for 10 years starting in the mid-90s and did nothing to diminish gun violence. They also know that Illinois has very strict gun laws in place, and yet over 500 people were gunned down in the streets of Chicago in 2012, making it the murder capital of every locale this side of Syria.”
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More on what you can expect from government-run health care …
We keep an eye on news of Britain's National Health Service because it is the model for Obamacare. The Daily Mail, a major British newspaper, reports on that system's pathway to dying, i.e., being denied medical care that could save their lives.
Here's the frightening news. Some 60,000 patients are currently on that pathway without being told. Neither they nor their families have been given any voice in the matter. It has been decided that they are going to die; decided by a government bureaucracy of the same sort that will have control of your own fate under Obamacare. Doubt it? Just wait ...
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The move “Zero Dark Thirty” about the locating and killing of Osama bin Laden has liberals in a tizzy because it portrays torture of Al Qaeda operatives used to obtain information leading to that result.
They object to torture on principle, even when confronted with the “ticking clock” scenario under which their own family and countless others will die if information about a terrorist attack is not obtained – quickly.
I am more inclined to place credence in the quote attributed to Al Capone: “Give me a blowtorch and a pair of pliers and I can get anybody to tell me what I want to know.”
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The new Miss America says we shouldn't “fight violence with violence.” Sure. Criminals are always deterred by an offer of coffee and a doughnut.
Miss America, which number is larger? Your IQ or your bra size?
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Don't you just love the group hug all the losers give the winner of any beauty pageant? Especially since we know that every one of them is thinking, “I'd love to strangle that bitch with my bare hands!”
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Come to think of it … Did you get a Christmas card from Janet Reno?
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Dazzle your friends with this knowledge: Actor Tom Cruise's original name was Thomas Mapother the 4th. Evidently, somebody decided that wouldn't look good on a theater marquee.
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We have a new family in the neighborhood. A few years ago Fish & Game undertook a project to reintroduce the Mexican gray wolf, which had become extinct in the desert to the southwest of our little patch of Arizona.
The plan was to bring some of the animals back to what had been their native habitat. Apparently nobody told the wolves about the plan, because the second generation decided to see more of the country and began migrating northeastward. One couple located a small cave in the side of the arroyo that runs about fifty yards from where I write these words.
The wildlife expert from Fish & Game told us that if we left them alone, they'd reciprocate. He also warned us, however, that we should never make eye contact, because the wolves interpret that as a challenge and would likely attack. We co-existed with the wolves while they enjoyed a honeymoon, raised their whelps and eventually departed eastward in the mountains.
Their den stood vacant for a year or so. Now we have new neighbors. Mr. and Mrs. Coyote have moved in. Coyotes are common in these parts; it's a rare day when they aren't seen. They cause no trouble, but newcomers and snowbirds (part-time winter residents) are advised not to leave small pets outdoors unattended, lest they become lunch for coyotes. Or perhaps the bobcats, desert lynx or the occasional visiting mountain lion. Then there are the eagles, hawks and other hungry critters circling overhead …
But I digress. While coyotes will never become domestic pets, these newcomers seem cordial enough. We have upward of an acre of native vegetation around the house, through which we created a walking trail. Mr. & Mrs. Coyote seem to approve, because the enjoy strolling the path among the various kinds of cacti, ocotillo, mesquite, etc. They're an object of curiosity on the part of Calvin the cockapoo, but he eyes them warily.
Visitors who are not knowledgeable about the local wildlife, be advised: Those are not friendly German Shepherds lounging in the shade of the mesquite trees. They are, however, excellent singers.
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Conan O'Brien --
"President Obama's inauguration is coming up. He'll be sworn in with not one, but two Bibles. Relax, Mr. President. We get it. You're not a Muslim. You're overcompensating."
Post Script: Wouldn't it be more appropriate for him to place his hand on a copy of the founding document of his own faith? That would be “The Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
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Wife texts husband on a cold winter morning: “Windows frozen.”
Husband responds, “Pour some warm water over it.”
Five minutes later, from wife, “Now computer really screwed up.”
THE ROAD
TO TYRANNY …
MEDIA 'DOPE OF THE WEEK' …
FIRST USE OF THE 'I' WORD IN CONGRESS
MEDIA 'DOPE OF THE WEEK' …
FIRST USE OF THE 'I' WORD IN CONGRESS
One wonders just how long Democrats/liberals can stop deluding themselves that tactics like “going around Congress” and using executive orders to achieve their goals isn't an endorsement of tyranny … a road to one-man rule, i.e., dictatorship. It apparently never occurs to them that such tactics, if allowed to prevail, might someday be used against them. Perhaps a reading of German history in the 1930's might clarify their thinking.
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A perfect example of journalistic naivete provided by Anne Gearan of the liberal Washington Post ...
“A poisonous unraveling of U.S. relations with Russia in recent months represents more than the failure of President Obama’s first-term attempt to 'reset' badly frayed bilateral relations. It threatens pillars of Obama’s second-term foreign policy agenda as well.
“From Syria and Iran to North Korea and Afghanistan, Russian President Vladimir Putin holds cards that he can use to help or hurt Obama administration objectives.
“Obama badly needs Russian help to get U.S. troops and gear out of landlocked Afghanistan. He also wants Russian cooperation — or at least a quiet agreement not to interfere — on other international fronts. Putin, however, appears to see little reason to help.”
What?! All that “reset” nonsense didn't bring positive results from that career KGB thug, Putin?! Why, we're stunned, shocked and amazed!
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Were deceit, obfuscation and cowardice ever more transparently packaged than in the oxymoronic “leading from behind?” What utter nonsense.
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Had to happen. Texas Republican Congressman Steve Stockman says he'll file articles of impeachment against Obama if he tries to use “executive orders” to subvert the Second Amendment right to own firearms.
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One complicating element in the endless debate about “assault” rifles is the fact that most of the people talking about them really have no idea what such a weapon really is. Some obviously identify any of threatening-looking guns they see in movies and TV shows as “assault rifles.”
By the strictest definition, an assault rifle is a weapon capable of automatic fire: hold the trigger in the “fire” position and it will continue to spray bullets until all have been expended. Want such weapons tightly restricted by law? Fine. You have it. Since 1934.
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A touch of sardonic humor from Jay Nordlinger of National Review Online …
“Have no fear about the Second Amendment. We all know how impervious Chief Justice Roberts is to political pressure, especially coming from this president and his allies.
“That ought to be a real sweet meeting between Obama and Roberts, at the upcoming inauguration. Have you ever had the sense that Roberts very much wants Obama’s approval? 'Please don’t hate me. Me may be a wee bit conservative, but me not bad person.'”
Jay also offers this perceptive observation …
“When people express surprise or shock at Obama’s moves — and the second term hasn’t even begun yet — I want to say to them, 'What part of ‘fundamental transformation’ didn’t you understand?'
“The American people, the majority of them, have asked for exactly what they’re getting.”
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Buzzfeed reports that many people who worked hard – and cheap – on Obama's campaign staff aren't being invited to attend any of the inauguration festivities and are complaining bitterly about it.
Let us hope that their disappointment will bring enlightenment. Perhaps this consoling message will help them: You're a bunch of treasonous, stupid rectal orifices.
You're welcome. Glad I could clarify that for you.
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Dan Sorkin calls my attention to this piece, written as a tribute to the two Navy Seals who gave their lives to save fellow Americans in the terrorist attack on our Benghazi, Libya, consulate. It was written by Col. William Bauer, USMC.
The Battling Bastards of Benghazi...
We're the Battling Bastards of Benghazi,
no fame, no glory, no paparazzi.
Just a fiery death in a blazing hell,
defending the country we loved so well.
It wasn't our job, but we answered the call,
fought to the consulate, 'n scaled the wall.
We pulled twenty countrymen from the jaws of fate,
led them to safety, 'n stood at the gate.
Just the two of us, 'n foe by the score,
but we stood fast to bar that door.
We called for reinforcement, but it was denied,
so we fought, 'n we fought, 'n we fought, 'n we died.
We gave our all for our Uncle Sam,
'n Obama didn't give a damn,
just two dead SEALS, who carried the load,
no thanks to us, we were bumps in the road.
Remember? That's what Obama
called the murder of the U.S. ambassador and three other
Americans.
Just a “bump in the road.”
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Many Americans are familiar with this quote by Frederic Bastiat, a French economist of the early 19th century: "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
Reader Pete forwards some more examples of Bastiat's insights ...
"People are beginning to realize that the apparatus of government is costly. But what they do not know is that the burden falls inevitably on them."
"Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all."
"If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?"
Does that last not remind you of every grandiose leftist politician who fancies himself the savior of a lumpen proletariat public that would be incapable of functioning without his organizing abilities?
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Interesting that those Democrats who were around during the Reagan era and complained bitterly when Nancy Reagan raised private money to replace china for the White House dining tables used for state dinners … don't bat an eye over the Obamas spending millions of taxpayer dollars for their endless lavish vacations.
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Argus Hamilton –
“Alabama won its third national title in four years. The other top college programs seethed. In the last two elections Barack Obama lost every county in Oklahoma in no small part because his name sounds way too much like 'Go Bama!'”
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My friend John contributes a checklist of imponderables …
Only in This Stupid World ...
......do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the Store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.
...do banks leave vault doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.
...do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.
EVER WONDER ...
Why you never see the headline “Psychic Wins Lottery?”
Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?
Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?
Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?
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Jimmy Fallon --
"The White House announced that the theme for President Obama’s inauguration will be 'Faith in America’s Future.' Which is proof that no one in the White House has ever seen 'Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.'”
OBAMA:
“CUT MY
SPENDING? HA!” ...
THE ROCKY PATH TO IMPEACHMENT …
MORE GOOFINESS ABOUT GUNS
THE ROCKY PATH TO IMPEACHMENT …
MORE GOOFINESS ABOUT GUNS
Notice that when Obama threatens that if he isn't granted unlimited power to bury the nation even deeper in debt, social security payments and military pay could be withheld … but he makes no mention of government payments for lavish vacations for his jet-set family using Air Force One as a toy.
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Survey (Rasmussen) says ... 54% of voters don't want any of the projected spending cuts.
I submit that asking the average American what should be done about economic policy in a nation that is already, for all practical purposes, bankrupt is akin to asking that same average person to build a spaceship in her/her garage.
Since virtually everybody has a wish-list for Santa Government or a government "gimme" they want protected, the government's inability to distinguish between WANTS and NEEDS is guaranteed to continue.
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The growing evidence that our overbearing president has an unbridled appetite for power and the suppression of those who disagree with him has resulted in talk of impeachment flying thick and fast among conservatives.
Perhaps it is time for a reminder of what impeachment is -- and isn't.
Impeachment, per se, does not mean removal from office. Bill Clinton, contrary to what many Democrat dummies believe, was impeached. Impeachment takes place when so voted by the House of Representatives. Conviction, and thus removal from office, is subject to vote in the Senate. Impeachment itself is comparable to indictment, not conviction.
So the question is ... just how blatant must Obama's lust for unbridled power become before a sufficient number of the majority Senate Democrats would join Republicans in taking such a drastic step? A two-thirds vote of the Senate is required.
It used to be said that the impeachment and conviction of a president would require that he be caught in bed with either a live man or a dead woman. Considering today's social mores, part one of that scenario probably no longer applies.
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John Podhoretz of the NY Post summarizes the silliness that passes for Obama's economic policy …
“At this point, raising the debt ceiling should be a matter of national shame. We all know that the money that will be used to pay off the current debt will be borrowed too. We are borrowing from Peter to pay Paul (or, more confoundingly, borrowing from China to pay China).
“In other words, having maxed out the Amex, he wants to take a cash advance on the Visa. When that’s used up, we turn to MasterCard and then Discover. And then we start taking the White House candlesticks to the pawnbroker.
“So why is the president saying he won’t negotiate with Republicans who want to see significant budget cuts before they agree to raising the ceiling again?
“Because he doesn’t want to. That’s pretty much his position. He won the election — and he doesn’t want to. And telling him he should . . . well, that just gets him angry.”
“It’s going to be a long four years.”
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The design and construction of a new airliner is so expensive that every time such a project is undertaken, it is said that the company has literally bet its future, its very existence, on the success or failure of the new aircraft.
Now that both major Japanese airlines, Japan Airlines and ANA (All Nippon Airways), have ground their new 787 Boeing Dreamliners because of various problems, there have to be some seriously sweaty palms at corporate headquarters.
It's not unusual for new airplanes to have unforeseen kinks; the early 747s had engine problems and eventually switched suppliers. But the 787 seems to have more than usual with more attendant negative publicity.
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Another news item the gun-grabbers will hate ...
"No sooner do I finish explaining why people might need 10 bullets for something other than blowing away deer, than the headlines burst with an example. The story involves a teenage boy in Texas defending his even younger sister from a couple of thugs with one of those dreaded AR-15 'assault rifles':
"The 15-year-old boy and his 12-year-old sister had been home alone when a pair of burglars broke a window. The teenager grabbed his father's assault rifle and knew what to do with it.
"The home invaders fled, leaving a trail of blood. If you've got two or three predators closing in on you and your wife, children, or 12-year-old sister, you will almost certainly need more than six rounds to put them down." – Human Events columnist John Hayward
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Hubristic nonsense department ...
Rahm Emanuel, the little thug who used to be Obama's White House hatchet-man and is now mayor of the city that spawned Obama's political career, now serves as mayor of the nation's murder capital.
Now he has announced HIS contribution to the campaign against gun ownership. The pension funds for city of Chicago employees will be scanned to determine if any have money invested in companies that manufacture firearms. If any such investments are found, they will be divested.
I trust this column has no readers too dumb to understand what a joke this is.
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A reader brings information on Obamacare from an insider's point of view. It is presented with minimal editing ...
"Your comment on government-run health care is on target. I was just fired from my job for the (a California) County Health Plan for not falling in line with Obamacare. I know how this disaster is being rolled out first hand. Actually, I was just one of many who was fired because we questioned what we were required to do.
“My job was as a Case Manager, primarily for mostly no or low income people, i.e., MediCal. The rest of my case load was made up of county employees known as Commercial members. Across the hall from my department were the Authorization and Utilization Departments. That's where the real hatchet work gets done.
"It is a fact that patients and their families are not being told about decisions to withhold care that would save a life.
"Under MediCal before Obamacare, a patient, for example, who was treated since childhood at Stanford Medical Center for rheumatoid arthritis, now has Managed MediCal. This means that the treatment team which knows the case very well, is no longer approved. The patient has to go to a county approved doctor, who actually told me that he did not know how to treat her medical condition. The Authorization/Utilization decision to the patient's appeal to go back to Stanford was "does not meet medical necessity". I've seen this kind of thing over and over.
"A patient under old MediCal would get medical transportation cost covered to and from life saving dialysis. Under Managed MediCal this was cut as not meeting medical necessity. I actually went to my boss and asked her how to help a patient who would die without the transportation to treatment and she literally said, 'tell him to just suck it up'.
"The electronic records system called Epic is a nightmare. It is filled with glitches. Once data is entered it cannot be changed and privacy between doctor and patient has gone out the window. By the way, the CEO of this software system is a billionaire supporter of Dear Leader.
"I see this whole debacle imploding. I've seen doctors, nurses, and medical staff simply quit. The patient load that doctors are required to carry is too much. The idea is to show statistically that more people are covered while having people use less medical care so it can be considered saving money.
"Obamacare will not hit the idiot masses who supported this tyranny until 2014. It has been diabolically designed to be rolled out this way. In the meantime, private health insurance companies have to raise their rates to comply with the new regulations. So you see, we are screwed."
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Argus Hamilton –
“The Academy Awards nominations have been released with 'Lincoln' nominated for twelve Oscars. The studio's publicity campaign hid from the Hollywood voters the fact that Lincoln was a Republican. It's modeled on the Schwarzenegger campaign for governor.
“President Obama will take the oath of office with Lincoln's bible and give his State of the Union on Lincoln's birthday. It's the most effort by a president to be just like his hero since Bill Clinton took the oath of office with his right hand on a stack of Playboys. ”
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Jimmy Fallon--
"Prostitutes in Brazil have started learning English so they can communicate with out-of-town clients during the World Cup (soccer tournament). They are learning key phrases like, 'You are very handsome' and 'Nice to meet you, Mr. Sheen.'"
OBAMA
AIMS, FIRES, MISSES …
THE
MUSLIM MURDERS CONTINUE …
THE GREAT “SANDY” SHAKEDOWN
THE GREAT “SANDY” SHAKEDOWN
Was there ever a more obvious, cheesy piece of political staging than Obama using children as props to announce his power-grab disguised as gun control?
Even liberal commentators don't expect his little dog-and-pony show to achieve anything.
“It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” – Wm. Shakespeare, “Macbeth,” Act 5, Scene 5
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Hostages murdered by Muslim killers in Algeria, possibly/probably including Americans. But don't worry; after all, Obama tells us Al Qaeda has been “decimated.”
Footnote: “Decimated” is one of the most misused words in the English language. As my friend The Wordman, Dr. Richard Lederer, has pointed out many times, it literally means “one in ten,” stemming from the practice of many of history's conquerors killing one of every ten of the losing side in order to set an example and demonstrate the power of the victors
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Reader Len summarizes …
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall
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Give Democrats power and the fraudulent waste of taxpayer money is inevitable.
Yes, most would agree that there should be relief money for the northeast U. S. areas ravaged by Hurricane Sandy. But did the relief bill that was ultimately passed really need to include $150 million in subsidies for fisheries in Alaska? Or inclusion of a budget to buy new cars for the Justice Department? Or $17 BILLION for “block grants for community development?” That last being a euphemistic description of slush-fund money that Obama can simply give to politically-favored people and organizations that have given him support. It's all a gigantic fraud, and an indication of how this nation is buried in a swamp of debt.
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What does the government do with all that money it extorts from taxpayers or borrows from China? WSB in Atlanta found one small example. The Obama cabinet secretary who heads the Department of the Interior in Washington now sits in a newly-upgraded bathroom. The cost of the upgrade? $222,000.
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I did an hour-long on-air chat yesterday with Rich Lieberman on KOMY in the San Francisco Bay Area. Would have announced it here earlier, but we didn't have the time locked-in in time for yesterday's column. Anyway, it's available as a podcast on the KOMY website.
Rich is a media critic who's occasionally applauded my broadcast work in the past; also occasionally been a severe critic, since we disagree on virtually every political issue. Regardless, it was an enjoyable visit as well as being the first words I've said on-air in almost three years.
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If you're a football fan, you may remember all the hype promoting Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o for the Heisman Trophy. It included the heartwarming story of his girlfriend dying of leukemia almost simultaneously with the death of his grandmother.
The wheels are beginning to come off the part of the story involving the girlfriend who supposedly, with her dying words, told him to honor her memory by playing great. Several sources, including CBS, are reporting the whole story was a gigantic hoax.
Some speculate that his awareness that the dead girlfriend story was unraveling was one cause of his pathetic performance against Alabama in the national championship game.
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Mark Steyn (Commentary Magazine) summarizes his view of the November Republican debacle …
“When reality strikes, will Americans turn to conservatism? The evidence from November is not reassuring.
Romney dusted off the old surefire winner–'Ask yourself, are you better off than you were four years ago?'–and took it to read: 'The economy’s dead. Vote Mitt.' A decisive chunk of lower-middle-class America agreed with him on the first part, and acted on its logic: You’re right. So I’m voting for the party of endlessly extended unemployment insurance, universal food stamps, and increased Social Security disability enrollment.'”
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Some members of Obama's cabinet, perhaps unable to find legitimate employment, are staying on-board for his second term. For example …
"Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced that he will stay at the White House for President Obama’s second term. He said his mission is to make the U.S. number one in education, and won’t stop until our students are doing gooder." – Jimmy Fallon
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As you have doubtless heard, Al Gore made piles of money by selling his failed cable TV network to Arab-owned Al Jazeera, purported "news" service.
Bernard Goldberg, journalist of considerable -- and justified -- renown reminds us of just a couple of positions taken by Al Jazeera, the operation Gore finds so simpatico ...
“ In 2008, Al Jazeera threw an on-air party for a Palestinian terrorist who had just been released from an Israeli prison. In 1979 he kidnapped an Israeli family and killed their 4-year old daughter by smashing her head on some rocks. They even gave him a cake.
“In 2009, the host of Al Jazeera's most popular Arabic language show says, on the air, that he wants Allah to count the numbers of every Jew and kill them 'down to the very last one.'"
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Burt Prelutsky takes note of a cultural trend …
“Some outfit calling itself the National Father’s Day Council decided that Bill Clinton was Father of the Year. It will probably come as no surprise that the 2007 honoree was none other than John Edwards. But at least Mr. Edwards earned the title the old fashioned way, by impregnating his mistress while his wife was dying of cancer.”
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Notes from the legal profession …
The Minnesota Supreme Court has suspended attorney Thomas P. Lowe from the practice of law for having an affair with a client then sending her a bill for having sex with her. – St. Paul Pioneer Press.
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“Jodie Foster broke down accepting a Golden Globe Award. She discussed her mother, her loneliness, her childhood and her sexual identity. John Hinckley issued a statement from his mental hospital saying he knew all along they were made for each other.” – Argus Hamilton
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Lance Armstrong, bicycling champion and self-admitted liar, has been a major target for the late-evening comedians this week.
A few examples …
Jay Leno --
"Lance Armstrong confessed during his interview with Oprah Winfrey that he did use performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France seven times. This came as a complete shock to as many as a dozen people."
Conan O'Brien --
"Oprah Winfrey says she conducted 'an intense two and a half hour interview with.' Oprah said she never would have had the stamina if Lance wouldn't have given her something to keep going."
Craig Ferguson --
" At one point Lance said he propagated one of the greatest frauds in American history. And Oprah said, 'Whoa. Easy there. I'm the one who discovered Dr. Phil.'"
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Reader Bill reports on his
latest shopping trip … I was in the checkout line at the grocery store when the cashier asked if I preferred paper or plastic, I said "Doesn't matter to me, I'm bi-sacksual..."
January 18 –
THE
COST OF A BOY'S TOYS …
SECOND TERM: NO DAY AT THE BEACH …
MANTI'S PHONY PHABLE
SECOND TERM: NO DAY AT THE BEACH …
MANTI'S PHONY PHABLE
By the last accounting, the average American taxpayer's annual income tax amounts to $4,030.36. Government figures say the cost of operating Air Force One is $180,000 per hour.
To gain a little perspective on the cost of just this one presidential perk, take a moment to figure how many taxpayers' entire annual income tax payment is required to keep that big bird in the air for just one hour. Then consider that the Obama used it for TWO round-trips to Hawaii within just a few days over the holidays. Never, under any administration, has their been such outlandish spending on personal luxuries by any president and never has any president racked up nearly so many miles on Air Force One.
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Bottom line …
“GUN-FREE SCHOOL ZONE: THE THEORY THAT MASS MURDERERS WON'T BRING THEIR GUNS IF TEACHERS AND PARENTS DON'T BRING THEIRS”
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“Because I have zero tolerance for blather, if I were a senator I would vote against Chuck Hagel because when Obama nominated him to be Secretary of Defense, he said he wanted to advance global freedom, decency and humanity, as “we help to make a better world for all mankind,” and I would nix John Brennan, Obama’s nominee to head up the CIA, because, on the same occasion, he said he wanted to make sure that” the CIA always reflected the liberties, the freedoms and the values we hold so dear.” I don’t want the guys heading up those two offices sounding like mushy-mouthed social workers. I realize they can’t help how they look, but I want them to at least try to sound like John Wayne, vowing to destroy anyone who gets between his thirsty cattle and the nearest water hole.” – Burt Prelutsky
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The great political philosopher P. J. O'Rourke's message for Obama …
"The worst thing that you’ve done internationally is what you’ve done domestically. You sent a message to America in your reelection campaign. Therefore you sent a message to the world. The message is that we live in a zero-sum universe. There is a fixed amount of good things. Life is a pizza. If some people have too many slices, other people have to eat the pizza box. You had no answer to Mitt Romney’s argument for more pizza parlors baking more pizzas. The solution to our problems, you said, is redistribution of the pizzas we’ve got—with low-cost, government-subsidized pepperoni somehow materializing as the result of higher taxes on pizza parlor owners. In this zero-sum universe there’s only so much happiness. The idea is that if we wipe the smile off the faces of people with prosperous businesses and successful careers, that will make the rest of us grin." – The Daily Caller
It was P. J., of course, who enunciated this piece of timeless wisdom: “Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.”
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Victor Davis Hanson surveys recent presidential history and predicts rough going for Obama in his second term …
“A rule of the modern age: all confident, reelected presidents trip up in the second term. LBJ was sunk by Vietnam. Reagan faced Iran-Contra. Bill Clinton had his comeuppance with Monica. George W. Bush was overwhelmed with the Iraqi insurgency and Katrina. And Obama will have his as well, obsequious media or not.
“Supposedly fundamental partisan swings of an era usually prove transitory: LBJ’s landside led to Nixon four years later, whose landslide then led to Carter in 1980, whose supposed new politics of humility and apology led to Reagan, whose small government-paradigm shift nonetheless by 1992 gave us Clinton, whose “middle way” after only eight years gave us Bush, whose “compassionate conservative realignment” ended with Obama. And so on until the end of the republic.
“Why these
second-term reckonings? Partly, presidential hubris leads to a
natural correction, as Nemesis kicks in; partly, one can dodge
mishaps for four years, but the odds catch up after eight; and
partly, the media and voters grow tired of a monotonous
presidential voice, appearance, and manner, and want change for
the sake of change.”
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Reader Lewis passes along this highly practical device on government debt control in Switzerland, arguably the most knowledgeable nation on the planet when it comes to fiscal policy …
“Americans looking for a way to tame government profligacy should look to Switzerland. In 2001, 85% of its voters approved an initiative that effectively requires its central government spending to grow no faster than trendline revenue. The reform, called a “debt brake” in Switzerland, has been very successful. Before the law went into effect in 2003, government spending was expanding by an average of 4.3% per year. Since then it’s increased by only 2.6% annually.”
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Do you believe that Manti Te'o, the Notre Dame football star, was the victim of a hoax about his non-existent, supposedly dead girlfriend that was so widely publicized and swallowed whole by a gullible media – and the tales he kept telling about the “tragedy” ever after he admitted knowing the story was fake?
I don't. It's absurd. But the Notre Dame sports publicity mill continues to support the whole outrageous lie. But the “real” media folk have no room to criticize the sports reporters who failed to check out Manti's story. After all, they've done virtually no checking on the pastiche of lies that constitutes Barack Obama's fake personal biography.
Meantime, we hear little to nothing about the 19-year-old student at St. Mary's College, which adjoins Notre Dame, who claimed rape by a Notre Dame football player and who committed suicide a few days later.
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Contrary to what our simple-minded gun-grabbers choose to believe, Britain's overall crime rate is far worse than our own, largely because the law forbids ownership of firearms, so honest people have no way of defending themselves. In fact, you may very well find yourself imprisoned for trying to defend yourself even with other means. So: Fewer guns mean less crime? Pish-tosh, says Mark Steyn in The American Spectator …
“Bill Clinton’s latest favorite statistic—that 12 “kids” a day die from gun violence—is bunk: Five-sixths of those 11.569 grade-school moppets are aged between 15 and 19, and many of them have had the misfortune to become involved in gangs, convenience-store hold-ups, and drug deals, which, alas, have a tendency to go awry. If more crack deals passed off peacefully, that “child” death rate could be reduced by three-quarters. But away from those dark fringes of society, Americans live lives blessedly untouched by most forms of crime—at least when compared with supposedly more civilized countries like Britain.”
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Personal note. I've called off my plans to vacation in Mali this year. Also Algeria.
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The interview I did with Rich Lieberman on KOMY is available in podcast form on their sister-station website, KSCO.
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A pronunciamento from reader Jeff …
"As an American citizen, I have the right to bear arms. I also have the right to bare arms and bare legs, especially in my own house. I do not have the right to arm bears, nor do I have the right to arm bears with bare arms and bare legs. I do have the right to bear arms in the presence of bears with bare arms and bare legs. This might be confusing, but please bear in mind that bears with bare arms and bare legs rarely occur in nature."
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News from the animal kingdom …
At a research facility in Kyoto, Japan, fifteen monkeys figured out how to escape over the fifteen-foot fence by using tree branches inside to launch themselves to trees outside. Once outside, they apparently found that world uninteresting and returned to the main gate to get back inside at lunchtime.
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Jimmy Fallon--
"President Obama’s inaugural parade will feature eight floats, including a Hawaii float to honor his birthplace, an Illinois float to honor the first lady’s home state, and a Kenyan float just to mess with Republicans."
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Jay Leno --
"This flu epidemic is just terrible. Experts say that those hit hardest are the very old and the very young. So that's especially bad news for Hugh Hefner and his new bride."
January 19 –
WHERE
WOULD YOU STASH YOUR
GOLD? …
“GREEN” JOBS: WHERE ARE THEY? …
BIDEN ADMITS GUN LAWS UNENFORCEABLE
“GREEN” JOBS: WHERE ARE THEY? …
BIDEN ADMITS GUN LAWS UNENFORCEABLE
For many years, Germany has had much of its national gold reserve – seven tons – kept in the U.S., at the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
Now the German government has decided to move all that gold to Germany.
Ponder this question: Why would they now think their gold safer in their own federal bank than in a U.S. Federal Reserve Bank?
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Big (bleeping) Surprise Dep't. …
The House Energy and Commerce Committee finds that about one-fourth of the grant money handed out by Obama for “green” energy products went to companies based in foreign countries. The grants were supposed to create jobs for Americans. Result: practically nothing … in either jobs or products.
Footnote: Obama's vaunted “Jobs Council” that was supposed to devise ways to employ more Americans hasn't even met in 369 days – and counting. Just more phony, fraudulent BS from Obama.
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Liberal craziness on display …
Bette Midler says America's mental health problems are the fault of … ta-TA! … Ronald Reagan!
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Survey (Gallup Poll) says …
The National Rifle Association (NRA) is more popular than Obama – 54% to 53% of Americans surveyed so say.
… and …
Despite CNN's hysterical advocacy of gun “control,” it's own poll shows support for the media/politico-generated issue has actually dropped.
The whole thing is a clear example of (many, but not entirely) well-meaning people being stampeded into a mindset of, “We must do something, even it makes no sense and won't work.”
And the criminals, who are most likely to use guns, are laughing.
… meantime …
It SCREAMS hypocrisy that when conservative activist James O'Keefe visited the homes of several anti-gun so-called “reporters” and offered them signs for their lawns reading “THIS HOME IS PROUDLY GUN-FREE,” they were deeply offended and refused them.
"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. " - Martin Luther King, Jr (Thanks, David)
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VP Joe Biden, Obama's point-man on gun control, said this to the NRA representatives at their recent meeting: “Regarding the lack of prosecutions on lying on Form 4473s, we simply don’t have the time or manpower to prosecute everybody who lies on a form, that checks a wrong box, that answers a question inaccurately.”
Are we clear on this? An administration that admits it can't enforce the gun laws already on the books … wants more such laws.
This serves as a working definition of hypocrisy, plus political posturing.
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A blatantly biased operation called PolitiFact accused Mitt Romney of telling the biggest lie of the campaign when he said Chrysler Corporation, owned by Fiat of Italy, was going to move expanded production of Jeeps to China.
The PolitiFact charge that there was no such plan helped Obama enormously in the swing-state of Ohio, where Jeeps are currently manufactured.
Notice this item in the news this week? Chrysler announced that it IS moving expanded Jeep production to … China. Those jobs will not be in Ohio or anywhere else in the U.S.
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Today's significant statistic …
Four years ago organizers of the Obama inauguration festivities order 7,000 Porta-potties for use by the crowd gathered on the National Mall. This year … only 1500.
Only a tasteless cynic would suggest that the Obama supporters turning out this year are more likely to be full of the same substance they were when they voted in November.
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Smallest surprise of the week …
Former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, who ranted about lack of support from the federal government during Hurricane Katrina and pronounced The Big Easy to be a “chocolate city,” i.e., to be run by blacks, has been indicted for massive corruption.
Guess what! None of the old alphabet TV networks – ABC, CBS, NBC – mentioned in their reports that Nagin is a DEMOCRAT.
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Wes Pruden (editor emeritus, Washington Times) considers the apostasy of Colin Powell ...
"Colin Powell, heretofore admired and even revered by many on the right, insists he's still a Republican, but he's an 'Obama Republican' who disagrees with just about everything Republicans believe.
"Unless they become more like him, the Republicans are doomed, and deserve to be. Mr. Powell told an NBC-TV interviewer that he sees 'a dark vein of intolerance' running through the party, and unless the party elders are aggressively intolerant of intolerance, as Mr. Powell and his friends define intolerance, 'they are going to be in trouble.'"
Colin Powell is another political figure of whom it has been aptly said, "There are two things I don't like about him: his face."
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Conan O'Brien --
"President Obama's half-brother is running for political office in Kenya. Donald Trump has already accused him of being born in the United States."
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Some good, longtime neighbors have just moved away. They agreed to pass along to the new owners of their house a few good words about us as their new neighbors.
For example, we asked that the new residents be told that we're good folk, unobtrusive but kind-hearted. And suggest they not be alarmed by any noise coming from our Saturday night devil-worshiping service nor concerned with the snake-handling rituals that accompany it, even though the little rascals do occasionally escape.
I'm sure we'll get along well with them.
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Reader Robert contributes this collection of actual items from labels on consumer products …
On a tiramisu dessert container (printed on the bottom): "Do not turn upside down."
On childrens' cough medicine: "Do not drive a car or operate machinery after taking this medication."
On a pudding container: "Product will be hot after heating."
On a hair-dryer: “Do not use while sleeping.”
On a package of potato chips: “You could be a winner! No purchase necessary! (Details inside)
On a bar of Dove soap: "Directions: Use like regular soap."
On Nytol box: "Warning: May cause drowsiness."
On a German-made Chainsaw: "Do not attempt to stop chain with your hands or genitals." (YIKES!)
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Jay Leno --
"Notre Dame’s superstar linebacker Manti Te’o apparently had an online girlfriend who didn’t really exist. They're calling it the biggest hoax involving Notre Dame since they were ranked number one in the nation."
January 20 –
ISLAM'S
MESSAGE TO AMERICA
...
OBAMA PUZZLED BY MASSACRE …
POLL SHOWS O'S LUSTER FADING
OBAMA PUZZLED BY MASSACRE …
POLL SHOWS O'S LUSTER FADING
Buried deep in the New York Times report (!) on the Algeria massacre …
“One Algerian who managed to escape told France 24 television late Friday night that the kidnappers said, "We've come in the name of Islam, to teach the Americans what Islam is." The haggard-looking man, interviewed at the airport in Algiers, said the kidnappers then immediately executed five hostages.”
How long before our government recognizes reality and really brings down the hammer? Too long, I suspect.
Cautious folk might be advising children and/or grandchildren to take Chinese language lessons. Especially since evidence that this nation is too stupid to survive continues to grow; e.g., Obama saying that he's “seeking a fuller understanding of what happened” in Algeria. As if the message weren't clear enough. Of course, when a politician sympathizes with the enemy ...
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I'm waiting to hear Obama repeat, in his inaugural speech, that Al Qaeda is still “decimated” and “on the run.”
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Wonder why Attorney General Eric (“the Red”) Holder is trying to prevent the release of documents related to his “Fast and Furious” operation that was smuggling guns to Mexican criminals; guns eventually used in the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent and countless others within Mexico?
Oh – we know why, don't we?
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Poll (Gallup) says Obama's popularity has been dropping since his anti-gun crusade began.
Only someone with the IQ of an armadillo could be surprised that the wants to abolish the Second Amendment.
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A life in radio ... (cont.) … Come fly with me ...
While I'd flown hundreds of thousands of miles on airlines, I'd never even been close to a small plane until WIND, my radio home in Chicago, sponsored (for charity) a big airshow at DuPage Airport in the northwest suburbs.
The Blue Angels were the main attraction, along with the nation's top aerobatic pilots. The radio station management thought it would be a good idea if one of the on-air personalities -- me -- would go up with national champion aerobatic (i.e., stunt) pilot Bill Dodd and do a live broadcast while we went through breathtaking maneuvers in the sky. I overcame my reticence when they appealed to my ego by taking out a million-dollar life insurance policy on me for the event. I figured it was probably the only way I'd ever even temporarily be worth a million.
It was, as Bill had promised, "The most fun you can have with your clothes on." When we landed I said to him, "I'll never be able to do the things you do with an airplane, but I must learn to fly."
He became my first instructor. Belying his daredevil image, Bill was a mild-mannered man; he and his wife owned a flower farm near Chicago. On the farm he had a landing strip and a hangar that housed his five aerobatic planes, all different. He'd just gone to Switzerland to buy a Bucker Jungmeister because it was, at the time, one of the few aircraft in the world that could do the breathtaking Lomcevak maneuver, in which the pilot flies in a circle in one direction while simultaneously rapidly rolling the aircraft in the opposite, i.e. outside, direction and tumbling. Proof that I've never even tried it, myself, rests on the fact that I'm still alive.
I got my first lessons in a Boeing Stearman, a pre-WW2 bi-plane military trainer ... a real beast to handle. I learned to roll and loop it before I learned to land it -- and never landed it smoothly.
Bill had no interest in flying small planes to actually travel; he was strictly an airline passenger for real journeys. He enjoyed small aircraft only when doing daring maneuvers in an open-cockpit bird. Thus, my early training took place in open-air planes, often upside-down. He turned me over to a conventional instructor for the mundane basics necessary to get a license.
By the next spring, as the annual airshow approached, Bill put me in another of his little wonders, a Ryan STA (look it up on the web – it's beautiful), and announced that this year I would fly in the show. He taught me more basic aerobatic maneuvers -- hammerhead stalls, the Cuban Eight, the Immelman turn, as well as loops and rolls.
None of the pros watching from the ground would have been awed, but I did it. I also got an unexpected thrill when something went awry in the Menasco engine as I was upside-down at the end of my closing Cuban Eight maneuver (flying a sideways figure-8, half of it inverted) spraying oil into the cockpit and all over my oh-so-chic white flying coveralls.
That created a further complication. The show, as is usual for such events, was running late. The radio station had a car and driver waiting to rush me after the show to O'Hare Airport where I had to catch a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, connecting to Munich, where my travel agency had a tour group awaiting my arrival to join them for the remainder of a European tour.
The dignified German businessmen in First Class (a perk for travel industry folk who bring substantial business to an airline) weren't exactly thrilled to see an American in white coveralls heavily spotted with oil sitting among them. And, while I'd never been unnerved during my recent adventure in the sky, given time to reflect on it I belatedly realized what could have happened if my plane's engine had quit completely while I was upside-down at a fairly low altitude.
To calm my nerves, the ever-attentive Lufthansa flight attendant began bringing me copious quantities of adult beverage. The flight was late into Frankfurt, and it was only Lufthansa's vaunted efficiency that got me to my connecting flight to Munich.
Upon arrival in Munich, the plane taxied off the end of the runway -- and stopped. The flight attendant came to me and said I could disembark at that point because the airline -- with which my travel agency did a lot of business -- had sent a limousine to take me to my hotel.
I was not in the best of condition, still wearing my airshow gear, when I arrived at the hotel shortly before noon. There I was informed I only had time to shower and change because the tourist group was awaiting me for a boisterous lunch at the Hofbrau Haus, the most famous beer hall in the world.
Oompah band playing, people dancing, much shouting and singing ... and an endless stream of gigantic beer steins. The rest of that visit to Munich was -- and -- is a blur. A pleasant blur, but a blur.
Footnote:
Later my friend, 747 Captain and eventually Chief Pilot for United Airlines, Verne Jobst, steered me thru instrument, seaplane and multi-engine pilot training. I even got a little jet time in aircraft as small as the Learjet and as large as a Boeing 707, but not enough to get rated to be pilot-in-command. I did fly co-pilot on some twin-engine propeller-driven charter flights later when I lived in Miami.
I still have fond but slightly painful memories of Captain Jobst hitting me over the head with a folded aviation chart when I got off course a couple of degrees in instrument training while "under the hood" and able to see nothing beyond the instrument panel itself. He also regularly beat me at the ancient Chinese board-game called "Go" and gloated mercilessly.
He still flies and is probably type-rated in as many different aircraft as any pilot in the world, including a WW2 B-17 bomber that occasionally appears at airshows. If it has wings, he's probably flown it.
I later got to fly with the Blue Angels when they were flying the F4F Phantom. There's nothing to equal the experience of tearing down the middle of Lake Michigan, north-to-south, upside-down at 1,060 MPH. When the pilot (Capt. Vince Donile, USMC) flipped into a 90-degree bank on the base-leg of the landing approach, it slammed my head between my knees and I literally couldn't lift it. When he rolled out of the banking and lined up for final approach, I asked him over the intercom, "What was that?"
He laughed and said, "We call that 6 G's." No wonder those guys are in such great shape!
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Reader Jack contributes a footnote to space-age history …
When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ball-point pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $1.2 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300 Celsius.
Confronted with the same problem, the Israelis used … a pencil.
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“When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.” – Sir Winston Churchill
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Reader Sam passes along this inspiring story ...
One Sunday morning the pastor was presenting a special sermon he had prepared just for children. As he concluded the pastor asked the children if they knew the meaning of the resurrection.
A little boy immediately raised his hand. The pastor called on him and the little boy said, "I know that if you have a resurrection that lasts more than four hours you are supposed to call the doctor."
January 21 –
THE
SIBLING BOWL …
CRIMINALS: “BULLET TAX? WHO CARES?”
“ARAB SPRING” PROGRESS REPORT
CRIMINALS: “BULLET TAX? WHO CARES?”
“ARAB SPRING” PROGRESS REPORT
Harbaugh vs. Harbaugh. A Super Bowl combined with a family soap opera.
Perfect.
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"I'm proud to be President of the United States." – Joe Biden, Idiot, Saturday 1/19, Iowa State Society inauguration ball.
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Going up. And up. And up: The price of medical insurance. And Obama said his socialized medicine scheme would lower health-care costs.
He lied.
Told you so!
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Want free medical care? You might consider the example of Stephen Espalin, 57, who's a career criminal, currently incarcerated in Florida. He's gotten chemotherapy in prison and will soon have taxpayer-paid heart surgery.
How'd he get into the Graybar Hotel? By threatening to kill Barack Obama. An earlier visit was brought about by a threat on the life of George W. Bush.
At least he's bi-partisan.
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The latest anti-gun liberal brainstorm is high taxes on bullets. Can anyone seriously believe that criminals who plan to use a gun as a profit-making device will be deterred by a higher tax? Or that a nut-case who figures he's going to die, anyway, after he slaughters random victims, will worry about the per-bullet cost?
Only a liberal could be so dumb.
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Back in the 1990′s Barack Obama told author and college faculty colleague John Lott, “I don’t believe people should be able to own guns.”
In an interview that was published in June of 2012 between Kathryn Jean Lopez and John Lott, she asked Lott why people should believe his citation of Barack Obama’s quote above, “I don’t believe people should be able to own guns.” Lott responded ...
“Well, don’t just take my word for his views on guns, look at the positions Obama took on guns during his time in Chicago. Obama supported a ban on handguns in 1996, and a ban on the sale of all semiautomatic guns in 1998 (a ban that would have encompassed the vast majority of guns sold in the U.S.). In 2004, he advocated banning gun sales within five miles of a school or park (essentially a ban on virtually all gun stores), and he has worked in other ways to support bans. He was on the board of directors for the Joyce Foundation, the largest private funder of research to ban gun ownership in the U.S.” – Source: Freedom Outpost
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Survey says (Fox News) …
In answer to the question, "If the government passed a law to take your guns, would you give up your guns or defy the law and keep your guns?" two thirds said they'd defy the law – including 59% of liberals.
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Educator/morons at work ...
The Mt. Carmel school district in Pennsylvania has suspended a five-year-old girl from kindergarten because she told a classmate that she was going to shoot her mom with a soap-bubble gun. The school authorities declared her a terrorist.
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Just to put Obama's arrogance in perspective, try this …
Go to your bank, speak to a loan officer and tell him/her that you want to be given authority to borrow unlimited amounts of money. Let me know what kind of response you get.
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NY Post's Page Six column reports that plans for a big-time inaugural concert were cancelled because no real big-timers were interested.
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One lesson that liberals never learn: It IS possible to leap from the frying pan into the fire. Two examples from recent history: Events in Libya (the Benghazi murders) since Khadafy was overthrown, and in Egypt post-Mubarak.
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Austin Hill (Townhall.com) brings perspective to the mental disorder that's destroying the nation from within …
“Many of us seem to lose all sense of reality when it comes to the economic promises of politicians. Most American adults seem to understand that a drunken person cannot drink themselves to sobriety, and that no individual or household can spend their way out of debt. Yet when politicians promise to “help” us by spending more of our money, many of us seem to believe it.
“Yet the existing federal government debt, on a per-capita basis, translates to approximately $54,000 per individual citizen, and about $200,000 per household. Simply saying “I don’t understand economics very well” is unacceptable. Americans must grow up and realize that a stable society needs prosperous private enterprise, and government that operates within its means.
“In my native homeland of California, the “make somebody else pay” philosophy could not be more obvious. Last November, voters there rejected a modest state sales tax increase that was on the ballot (a tax that would have impacted all consumers), yet overwhelmingly supported an income tax hike on – you guessed it, “rich people.” “Don’t stop my government services,” a majority of California voters seemed to say, “but make somebody else pay for it.”
“Debt, out of control spending, and making somebody else pay – they all amount to a lethal combination. Will Americans grow up in sufficient time to choose more wisely?”
The answer, I fear, is … no.
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Candidate for “Moron of the Year”: New York Mayor Bloomberg, whose pronouncement that teenagers should not be allowed access to guns overlooked those teenagers wearing U.S. military uniforms in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
It's staggering to think that someone so stupid is CEO of the largest city in the nation.
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I don't know who claims credit for it, but I saw a short list of Things We Take For Granted That Are Soon to be Extinct. Among them …
The Post Office.
Checks – the kind you write on your bank account.
Newspapers.
Land-line telephones.
Privacy – or what's left of it.
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Arlys reminds us of a quote by one of my favorite iconoclasts, P. J. O'Rourke ...
"The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. And the Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it."
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A Mad Mike contribution …
A teacher goes around her class asking each of the kids what do they need at home?
Joey says "A computer." The teacher replies, "That would be very useful."
Kimmy says "A new lawn mower." and she gets a similar response.
Little Johnny pops up and says "At my house we don't need nothing!"
The teacher asks him to think again carefully, as everybody needs something.
Little Johnny replies, "No I'm sure. When Obama was re-elected, I remember my dad saying, “Well, that's the last (bleeping) thing we needed!”
OBAMA
UNRESTRAINED …
MORE SHOTS AT GUN LAWS …
A JOHN BOLTON WARNING
MORE SHOTS AT GUN LAWS …
A JOHN BOLTON WARNING
The REAL Obama legacy from his first term: Each and every household in the United States is now $50,521 further in debt, as a share of the national debt, than when he took office. (Source: U. S. Treasury Department)
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The Political Director of CBS News says Obama "must destroy the Republican Party."
Please pass this along to any gullible friend who still believes the "mainstream media" are unbiased.
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As you bask in the blow of Obama's second inauguration, you might dwell on this ...
"Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and given him triumphal processions. Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the new wonderful good society which shall now be Rome's, interpreted to mean more money, more ease, more security, and more living fatly at the expense of the industrious." --Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) / The Patriot Post
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Some Republican Congressmen threaten to cut off paychecks for members of both houses if the Senate doesn't finally act on the budget.
This appears to be nonsense, because constitutional scholars say such action is forbidden in that document. In which case those making the proposal look like fools.
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The overriding question is this: Where will – and can – Republicans take a stand against the insane economic policies pursued by Obama and endorsed by voters who fail to understand the real fiscal cliff that awaits them?
One view – mine – is that it will take a catastrophe, either financial or worse, before most voters realize just what they endorsed in November.
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History lesson. Everyone (well, sentient beings) remembers John F. Kennedy's “Ask not what your country can do for you ...” speech.
Seldom mentioned is the fact that that it was plagiarized and re-worded from this: "We must have a citizenship less concerned about what the government can do for it... and more concerned about what it can do for the nation." Spoken originally by the widely-reviled (especially by Democrats) Warren G. Harding at the Republican convention of 1916.
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"Having high hopes for the second Obama administration is like having great expectations for a second date with Ted Bundy." – George Gilder – (Thanks, Curtis) – (Younger readers may need to read up on Mr. Bundy)
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First came one survey showing that two-thirds of gun owners – including 59% of liberals! – would defy any law requiring them to turn in their weapons.
Now comes this Rasmussen poll showing that 65% of American adults think the purpose of the Second Amendment is to make sure that people are able to protect themselves from tyranny. Only 17% disagree. (The remainder, as always are presumed to be in a coma.)
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Meantime …
The weekend scoreboard in Chicago, which has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation: Sixteen people shot from Friday night thru Sunday night.
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Facts the Big Media studiously avoid: A wildly disproportionate number of victims of violence, including shootings, are blacks. So are the perpetrators. That is even more the case in big cities like Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans, etc. But, judging by lack of media attention to this aspect of crime problems, this is not to be discussed. After all, to tell the truth about it would be … (gasp!) … racist!
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Wily Wes Pruden addresses an Obama delusion ...
"Imitation messiahs can’t imagine why anyone should think they need advice and counsel from mere mortals, but Mr. Obama got a little good advice over the weekend from Bill Clinton. It’s not likely this White House will take it, but somebody in the West Wing should write it down and post it next to James Carville’s famous message to Stupid that elections are about the economy.
“The new message from ol’ Bubba, given in a speech to a group of important party bag men, is that the Democrats must be careful how they campaign against the Second Amendment and against Americans and their guns. The elites are horrified by the notion that anyone should even want to own a gun. That’s their problem.
"Guns have an emotional appeal in many rural states, but the idea that only hicks, yokels and rednecks rise to this emotional appeal is wrong, and betrays ignorance to the point of foolishness."
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Thinking out-loud …
If Congress does cave in to Obama on anti-gun legislation, how confident are you that Chief Justice John Roberts, who effectively rewrote the Obamacare legislation to give it a patina of constitutionality for the Affirmative Action president, would uphold the constitution?
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Considering recent events in Libya, Mali and Algeria, are there still Americans so dumb they believe this?
“Al Qaeda is on the path to defeat, and Osama bin Laden is dead.” – Barack Obama, September 6, 2012.
Well, the second part is true. Part One is a sick joke. But more than half of the voters apparently believed it.
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“Under Obama, the United States is whistling past the graveyard while the Middle East descends into chaos. Beyond North Africa, the wars in Syria and Yemen wind on. The Arab Spring, far from yielding peaceful alternatives to al-Qaeda-style terrorism, has instead become an adjunct and even an enabler of terrorism — with radical Islamism in power in Egypt and threatening regimes friendly to the United States.
“Now safely re-elected, will Obama care even less about external threats to America than he did previously? We have a long four years ahead. And our adversaries know it well.” – John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
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“Why,” you might reasonably ask, “would Fox News hire a wild-eyed leftist like former Congressman Dennis Kucinich as a “contributor?”
For the same reason left-wing media choose and use the fringe nutjobs they can label as “conservative” and serve as a punching-bag.
Again at Fox, consider the presence of Juan Williams and Geraldo Rivera. Same reason.
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NOT a Coosome Twosome: Burt Prelutsky and the Hildabeast … as Burt
explains …
“I used to believe that perhaps the most ignominious title one could cart around was New York Times editorial writer, MSNBC host or Nobel Peace Prize recipient, but by now I have to regard Secretary of State as a strong contender. After all, in just the past 30-odd years, we’ve had the likes of Ed Muskie, Alexander Haig, Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, Hillary Clinton and, presumably, John Kerry, serving as the guiding lights of our foreign policy. Let’s face it -- that’s a group you wouldn’t trust to babysit your cat.
“Frankly, the notion that Secretary Clinton appears to once again be first in line to run for the presidency in 2016 fills me with angst, which is a ten dollar word for nausea. We have all grown accustomed to women being held in high regard for no better reason than they got some fellow to marry them. The politically incorrect list includes everyone from Coretta King and Winnie Mandella to Imelda Marcos, Madame Nhu, Evita Peron and Michelle Obama. But nobody ever seriously referred to any of them as the smartest person in the world.
“But aside from marrying Bill, Hillary’s not so distinguished resume consists in having been a corrupt lawyer in Arkansas, a mediocre senator from New York and the Secretary of State who oversaw the murder of her ambassador to Libya and three other gallant Americans, and then mimicked the three monkeys in the shameful aftermath.
“Other than that, so far as I can see, her only notable accomplishment consists in having done for pants suits what Muammar Gaddafi did for movie usher uniforms.”
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John Crudele, financial writer for the NY Post (previously, the NY Times) surveys the economic cloud hanging over us …
“Right now this country is going through a crisis. And if you believe it will be solved by just cutting off payments to lazy, stupid and incompetent people — in no particular order — then you are quite a fool.
“The fact is, the US has a spending crisis. And it is spending too much in a lot of different ways.
“But basically, we lived above our means for more than a decade, borrowed excessively, acted foolish, fought too many wars. And we are now paying the price.”
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A question every Republican member of Congress should be pressured to answer:
“Are you reluctant to force a showdown over government debt and spending because you believe the ridiculous proposition that playing the old political game of 'kick the can down the road' will make Obama and Harry Reid more amenable to compromise, or are you simply afraid that you can't succeed at anything else if you lose your job?”
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History lesson #2: On Ronald Reagan's Inauguration day, the lunatics running Iran (they still do) released the American hostages.
As a preamble to Obama's second inaugural, Algerian Islamic terrorists massacred American hostages.
It's hardly a great leap to assume that the Iranians figured Reagan would do something large and fatal to them, while their fellow Muslim murderers in Algeria have no such concerns about their soul-mate currently in the White House.
And please don't bother with that “He killed Osama bin Laden” nonsense. After he'd already denied permission at least twice, the final – and fatal – launching of the raid was done without his knowledge, too late for him to stop it. That's why he looks like a crouching, whimpering puppy in that photo of him, Hillary and others clustered and watching the assault in progress.
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Another example of government thinking …
A town in Maryland is forcing residents of a mobile home park out of their homes in order to build apartments for the homeless. In doing so, they will make residents of the park … homeless.
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Argus Hamilton –
“Fox News announced it's signed Karl Rove to continue as a commentator. Conservative viewers love his die-hard attitude. Karl Rove thanked Fox News for their support but he admitted that it's starting to look pretty bad for Romney.”
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If you believe Notre Dame football player Manti Te'o's story of being the innocent victim of a hoax about his non-existent girlfriend, I have a large bridge from San Francisco to Marin County I'd like to sell you.
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If you find this column worthwhile, please send the RADIORODGERS.COM link to someone who might also find value in it. If not … well, kindly mind your own business!
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Courtesy of the sensitive Dan Sorkin …
A man goes to a psychiatrist and says, "Doctor, my wife is unfaithful to me. Every evening, she goes to Larry's bar and picks up men. In fact, she sleeps with anybody who asks her! I'm going crazy. What do you think I should do?"
"Relax," says the Doctor, "Take a deep breath and calm down. Now. Tell me, exactly where is Larry's bar?
Wednesday, January 23 –
OBAMA'S
PET WORD:
“COLLECTIVE” …
TEACHERS & THE TERRORIST …
GUN-RUNNER VS. GUN OWNERS
TEACHERS & THE TERRORIST …
GUN-RUNNER VS. GUN OWNERS
Cut thru the pap and cliches, and down where the gritty is truly nitty lies the essence of Obama's inaugural address: In his own words, “Fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges, that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.”
Say what?! Clearly, his real message was, “I am a Marxist at heart and class warfare is my goal.”
Any other interpretation is delusional nonsense.
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Totally appropriate to the occasion. Beyonce faking (i.e., lip-syncing) the National Anthem at Obama's fake inauguration Monday (the real thing took place Sunday).
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The craziness just grows and grows …
Obama's choice to be director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and FIREARMS -- the ATF -- is former Minnesota U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones. Mr. Jones was one of the planners of the insane "Fast and Furious" gun-smuggling operation that delivered weapons the Mexican drug cartels.
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In the event ill fortune should befall me before the completion of Obama's second term, file away this piece of ancient wisdom: “Go to bed with snakes and eventually you will get bitten.”
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From the e-mail …
“Your constant attacks on the President make clear your contempt for millions of American voters.”
Yes.
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Wondering out loud …
How long before Obama makes May Day an official U.S. holiday?
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Who teaches the teachers who "teach" your children? Take note of this ...
The Association of Teacher Educators, associated with the teachers' union and involved in the accreditation of teachers and schools, has a membership that includes representing 650 colleges and universities, upward of 500 major school districts and most state departments of education.
Next month they are holding their annual convention.
The keynote speaker will be Bill Ayers, friend of Obama, a terrorist who hid out after his involvement in the bombing of the New York police department, the U.S. capitol building and the Pentagon.
Naturally, when he came out of hiding, he was warmly embraced by the academic community.
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The erudite Victor Davis Hanson looks to root causes of the great plague of today's world ...
"Why exactly does radical Islam hate us? Mostly because of the age-old wages of insecurity, envy, and a sense of inferiority.
"In a globalized world, Muslims see daily that everyone from South Koreans to North Americans are better off. Why? In their view, not because of market economies, meritocracies, gender equality, religious pluralism, consensual government, and the Western menu of personal freedom. To draw that conclusion would mean to reject tribalism, gender apartheid, religious intolerance, anti-Semitism, statism, authoritarianism, and conspiracy theory — and to admit indigenous rather than foreign causation.
"Instead, it is far easier to blame “them” for turning the majestic Islamic empire of old into the chaos of modern Islam — as well as to fault Arab secularists whose lack of religious zealotry allowed the West to move ahead." -- (PJ Media)
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Also in education news ...
Gabrielle Jackson is thirteen years old. She's a sixth-grader in North St. Louis County, Missouri. She is, let us say, well-developed for her age. She has been teased mercilessly and bullied because of it.
When her mother complained and asked for aid from the school administrators, they advised -- believe it or not -- that she have breast-reduction surgery. At age thirteen.
Your "education community" in action.
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Heartbreaking e-mail from reader Mark…
“Monday morning I went to the supermarket and bought a quart of milk. When I got home I put it in the refrigerator and turned on the radio. The newscaster was talking about Obama's inauguration.
“I'm sure it was coincidence, but when I put the milk on my cereal, it had already soured.”
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Jim Eason points out a little oddity Obama hopes you don't notice …
“Obama wants states to share info on guns with Feds... But forbids sharing of illegal alien info between any agencies.”
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Nicolas Sarkozy was president of France. He was replaced last year by the socialist Francois Hollande, who immediately pushed thru a tax increase with a top rate of 75%.
Now Sarkozy is emulating several other prominent upper-income French. He is preparing to move to England.
The sports page ...
Now that great Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis is going to have the opportunity to end his football career in a blaze of glory, the question is being asked, "Now that he's making a public display of his religion, why is he not being hassled about it by the same sports reporters -- and others -- who ridiculed Tim Tebow?"
Perhaps it's for the same reason that black churches and ministers are given no grief when they illegally use churches for political purposes. Condescending reverse-racism.
Another hidden factor that may be involved in sports media people's reluctance to annoy Ray Lewis may be a trace of fear, doubtless unjustified, that a large, violent man who's been a colossus in a violent sport just might beat hell out of them. Which nobody would ever expect from Tim Tebow.
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Pro basketball fans: Now that the Sacramento Kings are moving to Seattle, we learn that they're changing the name back to the one used by the former NBA Seattle franchise, the Sonics (short for the full name "Supersonics," chosen because the area is home to Boeing.
Of course, the new owners could have kept the "Kings" name, especially since Seattle is in King County, Washington, and the King name is worked into many institutions. For example, KING Radio and KING-TV.
The former Sonics are now the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Of course, some pro sports franchises have retained the same name after moving to another city. Like the Oakland-Los Angeles-Oakland Raiders. And the Chicago-St. Louis-Arizona Cardinals.
And I'm getting a headache ...
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Argus Hamilton --
"Notre Dame stood by Manti Te'o after his dead girlfriend turned out to be imaginary. He's a legend now. Last night in the locker room Notre Dame's basketball coach told the team to go out there and win one for the girl whose picture came with their wallet.
"Lindsay Lohan was arraigned in Beverly Hills court for the twentieth time over her car wreck on Pacific Coast Highway last fall. It's for running over and killing Manti's imaginary girlfriend."
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Mr. & Mrs. Gregory Lacy live in California.
They have adopted seven children. Admirable.
Or so it seemed until they were arrested.
For running an illegal bar featuring strippers in their basement.
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Mad Mike, in the blatantly sexist tradition of Henny Youngman, presents these gems from the “Take my wife, please” file …
“I installed strobe lights in the bedroom. It makes my wife look like she's moving during sex.”
“I woke up this morning at 8, and could smell something was wrong. I got downstairs and found the wife face down on the kitchen floor, not breathing! I panicked. I didn’t know what to do. Then I remembered: McDonald’s serves breakfast until 11:30.”
“My wife packed my bags, and as I walked out the front door, she screamed, "I wish you a slow and painful death, you bastard!"
"Oh," I replied, "so now you want me to stay?!”
WHAT
PRICE “RESPONSIBILITY?”
…
HILLARY EVASIVE, NOT PERSUASIVE …
O'S PENTAGON: “LET'S GET MOMS KILLED”
HILLARY EVASIVE, NOT PERSUASIVE …
O'S PENTAGON: “LET'S GET MOMS KILLED”
Hillary's performance -- and it WAS a performance -- before the congressional committee investigating the Benghazi terrorist murders can be summarized in three words: babbling bureaucratic bull(bleep).
It was a stew concocted of lies and evasions mixed with a catch-in-the-the throat bit of drama totally belied by the statement of parents who watched their sons' coffins unloaded on the flight from Libya that both she and Obama were utterly cold to them at the time.
“I take responsibility,” she said. What the hell does that mean when coming from a public official who knows damned well that it's responsibility without consequences?! Everyone who works in the real world – as opposed to the sham world of politics -- knows that being responsible for a major blunder, let alone one that gets four people murdered, means you are going to get fired and quite possibly prosecuted.
I would ask anyone who's part of those poll numbers that supposedly show how favorably she's viewed by the American public this question: What has this woman ever actually achieved, other than riding the coattails of one of the most accomplished demagogues in the history of American politics?
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Consider this, and you know all that's necessary to evaluate Hillary Clinton as a person. Her response to congressional questions about the failure of her State Department to either adequately protect the U.S. ambassador to Libya and the other murdered Americans, or even come to their aid while watching them being attacked, came down to this: “What difference, at this point, does it make?”
That would serve well as the all-purpose evasion by every person who ever made a botch of their job, even to the point of getting people killed.
From that viewpoint, if she or another high official were to be assassinated, their would be no point in trying to determine if a failure of duty or planning had occurred because, after all, “at that point, what difference would it make?”
And this callous cretin is, at this moment, the Democrats' favorite to be the next president. Pathetic.
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After all the hollow nonsense about “bringing folks to justice” – and George W. Bush deserves full blame for bringing that revolting bit of nonsense into the national lexicon – who's the only person who's actually been jailed as a result of Benghazi's murders? An amateur film-maker in California who put together a few minutes of film that had nothing to do with the terrorist attack!
Some “justice!”
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“Preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.” – Barack Obama, inaugural speech #2.
A skeptic might hear that as an endorsement of mob rule.
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So now the Obama administration has OK'd women for combat roles in the military. Israel, which has plenty of experience with war, at one time -- when they were fighting for survival -- also gave women a large role in ground combat operations.
They dropped the policy because they found it was getting more MEN killed, trying to fulfill their cultural (and some say genetic) role as protectors of women. Take note of this:
"Women have been barred from combat in Israel since 1950, when a review of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War showed how harmful their presence could be. The study revealed that men tried to protect and assist women rather than continue their attack. As a result, they not only put their own lives in greater danger, but also jeopardized the survival of the entire unit. The study further revealed that unit morale was damaged when men saw women killed and maimed on the battlefield.
"Writes Edward Norton, a reservist in the Israel Defense Forces: 'Women have always played an important role in the Israeli military, but they rarely see combat; if they do, it is usually by accident. No one in Israel, including feminists, has any objection to this situation. The fact that the Persian Gulf War has produced calls to allow women on the front lines proves only how atypical that war was and how little Americans really understand combat.'” -- World Net Daily
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Michael Goodwin (NY Post) reviews Monday's aggressively leftist inauguration speech …
“Sore winners have always been with us, but they are especially grating when they include the president of the United States.
“'It makes me so sad,' a self-employed woman I know said during Monday’s inauguration. 'It’s so amazing and wonderful that America elected a black man, but I can’t enjoy it. He’s not talking to me.'
“I share her dismay at the partisan, joyless event, but she is wrong in one respect. Barack Obama was talking to her. He was scolding her about America’s imperfections and warning her that the liberal train will roll over her if she doesn’t get on board.”
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Reader Katherine sent a copy of Tuesday's RadioRodgers column to a friend, a former Nevada sheriff. He responded with his view of a second Obama term, from which an excerpt …
“Despite what it will do to our nation and people, maybe it is best that the generation and the automatons that adore him be reduced to soup lines as a result of his -- and their -- actions.
“I think that it will take something gigantically negative to force everyone to wake up and get back to basics. The real problem isn't even what the 'child' in the White house is doing (since we can't do anything about that), it is what comes next. I fear it will be Hillary Clinton, who is the only bigger liar than the one in the oval office right now.”
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The eternal mantra of the communist/socialist/progressive (by whatever label): “It's a great idea,” they say, overlooking the ashes of the Soviet Union, “It just hasn't been done right.”
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Jonathan Tobin (Commentary) writes of the reality that liberals seek to avoid …
“The problem for resurgent liberalism in 2013 is not just that most Americans already know that big government isn’t the answer to every problem, but that we are also aware that we haven’t the money to pay for the existing entitlements that Washington has promised, let alone any new ones.
“President Obama can speak as if the cost of his new health care entitlement will not make it even harder to keep the debt from spiraling out of control and even promise more new costly projects. He can pretend that Medicare and Social Security must remain unchanged without bankrupting the country. He can also ignore the fact that the size not just of the federal government but also of local and state governments is fiscally unsustainable. But reality has a way of interfering with even the sweetest liberal fantasies.
“(Monday) was an escape from reality for liberals. Let’s hope they and the president enjoyed it. In the real world in which we live the president’s vision of resurgent liberalism leads only to a North American version of Greece. “
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The end of the road where the demand for “equality” leads is to a land where the lowest common denominator prevails, supervised – as always – by a prosperous elite ruling class.
Equality of opportunity is a worthwhile goal, although it can never really be attained because some people are simply smarter or more willing to work hard than others, but it is at least a noble-sounding goal. Barack Obama's appeal is primarily to those who want equality of result, regardless of effort or ability.
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"The right of the citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible." – Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, Democrat
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Ask any unarmed assault victim this question: “NOW do you wish you'd had a gun?”
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Only the kind of person who goes to a casino and bets on an inside-straight would predict the 2016 Republican presidential nominee, but if I had to go on record today, I'd be among the many who already see a Marco Rubio campaign poster. Being bright, articulate and possessing that indefinable something called “charisma” give him a good start.
A good long-odds bet: Hillary won't be the nominee for the Democrats, although the polls have her the front-runner at present.
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Best zinger of the week comes from Burt Prelutsky …
“In the run-up to the Fiscal Cliff vote, Harry Reid accused John Boehner of running the House like a dictator. Imagine, the man who has spent four years refusing to allow his 99 colleagues to vote on a federal budget has the unmitigated gall to accuse the Speaker of the House of being high-handed. When it comes to pots calling kettles names, we haven’t seen anything like it since Hitler told Mussolini to lighten up.“
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“Washington D.C. hosted events to celebrate the Inauguration. The hottest trending celebrities arrived to toast the president. Manti Te'o's imaginary girlfriend went on the 'Today' show to introduce everybody to her twin sister, the economic recovery.” – Argus Hamilton
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I wonder how many parents who name baby sons Shawn or Shaun don't realize (A) it's an Irish name and (B) is spelled S E A N.
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Sentimental Sam offers a touching tale …
A couple were celebrating 50 years together.. Their three kids, all very successful, agreed to a Sunday dinner in their honor.
"Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad," gushed son number one. 'Sorry I'm running late. I had an emergency at the hospital with a patient, and I didn't have time to get you a gift."
"Not to worry," said the father. "The important thing is that we're all together today."
Son number two arrived and announced, "You and Mom look great, Dad. I just flew in from Los Angeles between depositions and didn't have time to shop for you."
"It's nothing," said the father. "We're glad you were able to come."
The daughter arrived. "Hello and happy anniversary! I'm sorry, but my boss is sending me out of town and I was really busy packing so I didn't have time to get you anything."
After they had finished dessert, the father said, "There's something your mother and I have wanted to tell you for a long time. You see, we were very poor. Despite this, we were able to send each of you to college. Throughout the years your mother and I knew that we loved each other very much, but we just never found the time to get married."
The three children gasped and all said, "You mean we're bastards?"
"Yep," said the father. "And cheap ones, too."
PANTS-ON-FIRE
CONTINUES …
QUOTAS FOR WOMEN IN COMBAT? …
MANTI: DUMB, LIAR – OR BOTH?
QUOTAS FOR WOMEN IN COMBAT? …
MANTI: DUMB, LIAR – OR BOTH?
One rock-bottom certainty about the murders of four Americans, including our ambassador, by terrorists in Benghazi, Libya, is this: The Obama administration lied and lied and lied, repeatedly and knowingly, and continues to lie to the American people about a deadly serious event that occurred during Obama's re-election campaign. Little more need be known about the character of this whole pack of charlatans.
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Hillary said -- between smirks -- during the Congressional hearings,“there are other things that I prefer to do on Sunday mornings” than appear on the news interview TV shows. It's hard to imagine that she'd worry about dealing with tough questions. The shows on which Susan Rice appeared and repeated the lies about an obscure video causing the Benghazi murders have only softball questions for officials in the devious and deceiving Obama clique.
For the record, Hillary wasn't so reluctant to skip her Sunday morning cuddle with Bill after the “triumph” of the overthrow of Muammar Khadafy in Libya. When that happened and there was something to brag about, she was only too happy to spend her Sunday morning on “Meet the Press.”
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Jonah Goldberg (National Review Online) offers some perspective on Hillary's proclivity for prevarication …
“Just to be clear, Clinton lied and is still lying. When asked about the claim that the attack was sparked by a protest over a video, she responded, 'I did not say that it was about the video for Libya.”
“That’s simply untrue. When she stood by the caskets of the four Americans killed in Libya, she directly blamed an 'awful Internet video that we had nothing to do with.' Afterward, she reportedly told the father of Tyrone Woods, the former Navy SEAL who was killed in the attack, 'We will make sure the person who made that film is arrested and prosecuted.” Why tell the man that if the video had nothing to do with it?'
“Which brings us to the second part: the nature of the lie. Remember, not all lies are equally harmful. In this case, the U.S. government responded to the murder of four Americans by treating our constitutional rights as part of the problem.”
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Aaron Goldstein (The American Spectator) confronts the dismal prospect that Hillary gets away with, “What difference does it make?” …
“When Hillary Clinton told Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson “What difference does it make?” during the congressional hearing on the Benghazi attacks, she unveiled the slogan for her 2016 presidential campaign.
“It’s the story of her life.
“What difference does it make if Hillary was named after Sir Edmund Hillary six years BEFORE he climbed Mt. Everest?
“What difference does it make if Hillary wasn't really under sniper fire in Bosnia?
“What difference does it make that tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in Syria over the past two years? Assad is, after all, a 'reformer' in Hillary’s eyes.
“The reason Hillary can make such (utterances) is because none of her shortcomings seem to bother a majority of our populace who continue to hold her in high esteem.
“If Hillary can say 'what difference does it make' regarding how her fellow Americans were killed in Benghazi without most of us batting an eyelash then she quite reasonably has every expectation to take up residence in the White House in four years time.”
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The most laughable defense of Hillary at the hearings: When a Democrat Congressman digressed to applaud her for all the travels she's done to visit foreign countries. As if she'd actually accomplished something by racking up miles on taxpayer-paid aircraft.
After-thought: Can you imagine how much Michelle Obama must detest Hillary?
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Elaine Donnelly, President of the Center for Military Readiness offers this view of Pentagon plans to use women in combat roles …
"High, uncompromised standards are not compatible with recommendations of the Military Leadership Diversity Commission (MLDC), a largely-civilian Pentagon commission that has called for elimination of women's land combat exemptions in order to promote gender-based 'diversity metrics,' also known as 'quotas'.
“Despite current denials, training standards will have to be lowered to achieve the desired 'critical mass.' And as we have seen many times before, officials will deny gender-normed standards or disguise them with sophistries pretending that 'equal effort' is the same as 'equal results.'
“Gender-norming will not work in infantry battalions, but it will increase resentment and harm team cohesion and morale. These negative dynamics surely will increase problems of sexual misconduct, across both sides of the spectrum ranging from sexual abuse to inappropriate relationships.”
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Thomas Sowell weighs in on guns and anti-gun laws ...
"Nothing is easier than to disarm peaceful, law-abiding people. And nothing is harder than to disarm people who are neither — especially in a country with hundreds of millions of guns already out there, that are not going to rust away for centuries.
"When it was legal to buy a shotgun in London in the middle of the 20th century, there were very few armed robberies there. But, after British gun control zealots managed over the years to disarm virtually the entire law-abiding population, armed robberies became literally a hundred times more common. And murder rates rose.
"One can cherry-pick the factual studies, or cite some studies that have subsequently been discredited, but the great bulk of the studies show that gun control laws do not in fact control guns. On net balance, they do not save lives but cost lives.
"Gun control laws allow some people to vent their emotions, politicians to grandstand and self-righteous people to "make a statement" — but all at the cost of other people's lives."
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Any Republicans still doubt that Colin Powell was/is an opportunistic two-faced phony?
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Yesterday I was on KSCO with Rich Lieberman for an hour. I couldn't announce it in advance because it was uncertain that I'd be able to do it. However, if you're interested, it's available in a podcast on their website. Enter something like "KSCO podcasts" and your friendly neighborhood internet search engine will take you to it. It's about the third or fourth item down the list of available podcasts.
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The sports media are abuzz with speculation about whether Manti Te'o's imaginary girlfriend is going to affect his status in the NFL draft.
Ordinarily I'd say no. If a player can get the job done on the field, most NFL coaches probably wouldn't care if he regularly beat his mother. But it's hard to imagine that the inevitable razzing he'd be taking from opponents wouldn't affect his play negatively, and that prospect may be enough to deter some teams from using a high draft-choice to get him. And he was awful in the BCS championship game; Alabama ate him alive.
Bad enough that he looks like a chump if he was taken in by a hoax; worse that he continued to lie about it after (he says) he learned that it was a hoax.
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“The Marine Band confirmed it pretended to play the National Anthem while Beyonce lip-synced the song . She pretended to sing while the band pretended to play. Manti Te'o just hired them to perform at the memorial service for his imaginary girlfriend.” – Argus Hamilton
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Len the haiku master surveys the Dreamliner's complications …
Burning Batteries.
Boeing receives the Green Prize.
The big Green Weenie.
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Cindy Adams, NY Post –
“A balding man of about 35ish: 'On applications, a part says, ‘In an emergency, notify _____.’
“I always write in, ‘Doctor.’ What’s my mother going to do?”
BLOWING
2016 SMOKE …
HILLARY'S LIES MULTIPLY …
DI-FI THE DUMMY
HILLARY'S LIES MULTIPLY …
DI-FI THE DUMMY
Doing a guest stint on radio the other day, I was asked by a caller about my view on prospective presidential nominees for 2016. This far out, of course, that calls for pure guesswork. But since some eager-beaver would-be presidents are already clearly setting the stage for the next race, we must presume it's a game we can all play.
In the brief time available, I was asked about two prospects in particular by listeners who obviously consider them viable. The two are Chris Christie and Rand Paul. I consider neither likely to win the nomination.
Christie PO'd the Republican right by his puppy-dog act with Obama after the hurricane hit his state of New Jersey. Those photos of him hugging Obama would be a killer in the Republican primary campaign.
I suspect the legacy created by the father kills the chances for the more reasonable son, Rand Paul*. While his fan-club adored Ron Paul, most Republicans considered him a nut-case, as demonstrated by his feeble primary vote.
On the Democrat side, my suspicion is that Hillary will have exceeded her shelf-life by 2016. She's getting to be “old news” already, and an opponent may pose the unanswerable question: What has she ever actually achieved for the good of the nation?
Joe Biden clearly wants it, but age and his reputation for downright goofiness should be a handicap. Of course, a party that will nominate a Marxist like Obama might select anyone, but I suspect the Democrat nominee in 2016 may be someone who's barely visible today. After all, how well-known was Obama four years before he was nominated?
There is also the strong possibility that Obamanomics may have the nation in such a distressed state by 2016 that the Democratic nomination could be a ticket to Oblivion, USA … just down the street from such luminaries as Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis.
*It is admittedly a long stretch from his father's position on Israel to Rand Paul's statement this week that “an attack on Israel should be treated as an attack on the United States.”
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Jeffrey Kuhner (Washington Times) nominates Hillary for an Oscar …
“Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is a national embarrassment. In congressional testimony this week, Mrs. Clinton — under oath — repeatedly deceived the public about her role in the Benghazi attacks. Although claiming “full responsibility” for the breakdown in security, she has avoided culpability at every turn. She delivered a performance worthy of an Oscar — at times choking back tears while at others expressing righteous indignation. Her Hollywood leftist friends must be proud.
“The reason: to divert attention from Mr. Obama's seminal campaign claim that he had smashed al-Qaeda. The reality is that under his presidency, jihadist forces are on the rise across North Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Rather than subduing radical Islam, the president’s policies have emboldened it.
“The Clintons are experts at the art of mendacity. Her husband, Bill, lied under oath about Monica Lewinsky. During Mr. Clinton's administration, Mrs. Clinton was intimately involved in numerous scandals — Filegate, Travelgate, Mr. Clinton's alleged sexual assaults on Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddrick and Paula Jones, and of course, Monicagate. Mrs. Clinton is no stranger to cover-ups. Much of her political life has been spent playing to the cameras. She can now add to her credits Benghazigate — one of the greatest debacles in American history.”
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Senator
Diane Feinstein doesn't know much about guns. Her stated goal is
to
“dry up the supply of guns over time.” I heard similar prattle
from anti-gun callers over many years of talk-shows.These people, including Di-Fi, are apparently so ignorant they don't realize that guns don't melt in the rain or die of old-age. There are plenty of firearms around from before the Civil War that still work perfectly.
By the way … Among those exempted from Feinstein's anti-gun bill: government officials. Not surprising, since Di-Fi in her earliest days as an anti-gun crusader was found to be packin' heat, herself.
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From Florida to California, a growing number of the nation’s sheriffs are standing up to gun control measures proposed by both the administration and Sen. Feinstein (D-Calif.).
Many law enforcement officials have written letters to President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden voicing their concerns over what they believe is an effort to infringe upon the Second Amendment.
In New Mexico, 30 of the state’s 33 county sheriffs have reminded state lawmakers that they are under oath to support the U.S. Constitution, and that includes the Second Amendment.
CNSNews.com previously reported that 28 of the 29 sheriff’s in Utah sent a letter to President Obama stating that they will not enforce any new gun laws they believe to be unconstitutional. – Vision to America
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The Communist Party of the United States officially endorses Obama's war on gun ownership rights with this statement: “The ability to live free from the fear or threat of gun violence is a fundamental democratic right — one that far supercedes any so-called personal gun rights allegedly contained in the Second Amendment.”
Are there really stupid enough to believe another law or “executive order” is going to deter criminals? Make no mistake: “Gun control” is NOT about guns … it's about CONTROL.
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Reader John offers this classic bumper sticker ...
"Ted Kennedy killed more people with his car than I have with my gun."
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Count me among those with dark doubts about the wisdom of entrusting our national currency to the Federal Reserve banks, especially since they have fallen under the direction of Ben Bernanke, who is systematically undermining the value of our money by printing billions more paper money backed by … nothing.
Yet I wonder: How could this system possibly be improved by placing it directly at the mercy of pandering politicians? The idea of a return to gold-backed currency frightens many, but is not some tangible, finite limit on our inflated dollar needed? Suggestions welcome.
Inflation, after all, is every demagogue politician's favorite hidden tax that a largely gullible public doesn't notice as the continuing cycle proceeds: Raise wages … tax revenue increases … prices go up … calling for another round of wage increases. And those who get screwed are those on fixed-incomes.
The Federal Reserve has accurately been called the world's largest counterfeiter. Another description might be “legalized thievery.”
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The richest man in France has now left the country for Belgium to escape the new socialist government's higher taxes. So, instead of collecting more money from him … and actor Gerard Depardieu and other wealthy French folk, the government will get … nothing. Will Barack Obama, Jerry Brown, Andrew Cuomo, et al, take notice of the result of “asking the rich to 'contribute?'”
Of course not.
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Should it not be a criminal offense for a demagogic politician anywhere to call taxes collected under the threat of imprisonment for failure to pay a “contribution?” You know -- as in, “We're asking higher-income people to contribute more.”
What they really mean, of course, is “We're going to take away a bigger part of what you've earned and give it to someone else who'll vote for me.”
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“Democratic Socialism, like Nationalist Socialism, is nothing more than Marxist Socialism repackaged. It seeks a centrally planned economy directed by a dominant-party state that controls economic production by way of taxation, regulation and income redistribution.” – The Patriot Post
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CNN's Piers Morgan: Going, going …
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Consumer watchdog Mike conveys this warning ...
If you buy products on the internet, check out the seller carefully and be careful what you purchase. One man spent $100 for a device to enlarge his penis.
He received a magnifying glass and instructions that said only, "Do not use in sunlight."
DEMOCRATS'
HISTORY DEFICIENCY …
TAX FAX …
DO-GOODER DELUIONS
TAX FAX …
DO-GOODER DELUIONS
It would be interesting to ask a thousand or so Democrats, chosen at random, if they know the cause that launched our war for independence from Britain. I doubt that more than a handful would respond with the correct answer: taxes. I further suspect that the same Democrats who today applaud higher taxes (for somebody else, of course – like Warren Buffett, who argues for higher taxes on the rich while being one of the most adept tax-dodgers in the nation), forgetting that the very motivation for founding this nation was excessive taxation by the British.
Also worth noting, speaking of ol' Warren: While he advocates more of your money going to the government, he plans to leave most of his to a charity run by Bill Gates. Obviously, he trusts that charity to make better use of it than the thieves in Washington.
If our founders thought taxation without representation was bad, they ought to see it with representation.
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Speaking of taxes …
Why wouldn't big-money golfer Phil Mickelson want to get out of California, with its insane taxes? There's a reason Tiger Woods and many other prominent pro athletes and big-money celebrities live in Florida: no state income tax! Yet the roads are good (as a former resident of both states, I assure you Florida's are a helluva lot better than California's) and all necessary government services work.
Just for fun, I used a cost-of-living and income calculator to do some comparisons. For the average middle-class family, comparing San Francisco to Miami, having lived in both cities. The earnings in Miami would be 18% less – but the cost-of-living would be 29% less.
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Survey says (Rasmussen) … 45% of American adults favor replacing the income tax with a national sales tax, with 34% opposed.
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Three months after Hurricane Sandy there are still hundreds of people in New York and New Jersey living without heat or electricity. Where is the barrage of media criticism about the government's response – or lack of it – that followed Katrina within 24 hours?
Ahhh … we know the answer, don't we?
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Take note of two brief essays on misguided do-gooderism:
First, Thomas Sowell addresses the gap between liberal "compassion" and actual results ...
"There is no question that liberals do an impressive job of expressing concern for blacks. But do the intentions expressed in their words match the actual consequences of their deeds?
"San Francisco is a classic example of a city unexcelled in its liberalism. But the black population of San Francisco today is less than half of what it was back in 1970, even though the city's total population has grown. Severe restrictions on building housing in San Francisco have driven rents and home prices so high that blacks and other people with low or moderate incomes have been driven out of the city.
"Liberals try to show their concern for the poor by raising the level of minimum wage laws. Yet they show no interest in hard evidence that minimum wage laws create disastrous levels of unemployment among young blacks in this country, as such laws created high unemployment rates among young people in general in European countries.
"The black family survived centuries of slavery and generations of Jim Crow, but it has disintegrated in the wake of the liberals' expansion of the welfare state. Most black children grew up in homes with two parents during all that time but most grow up with only one parent today."
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Burt Prelutsky offers a brief education on economics for our "leaders" ...
"The liberals in Washington are once again suggesting that the minimum wage be raised from $7.25 to $9.80. They do this periodically to show they have compassion, knowing that appearances are all that counts to their base. The fact that such raises inevitably lead to higher unemployment never registers. Because all these men and women with (D) after their names are convinced of their own compassion and because their supporters are all lunkheads, symbolism trumps reality.
"The fact that employers will often decide that it’s not worth $400-a-week to have someone stock their shelves or sweep out the store never occurs to them. What’s important is that they’ll be able to sleep soundly and dream of sugar plum fairies re-electing them. They never bother facing the fact that high school kids and unskilled adults aren’t worth $9.80-an-hour, an amount congressmen think others should be compelled to pay even though they themselves never would."
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“People who are illiterate in the things that matter don’t make wise and informed decisions.” – Dan Sweeney
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As a young broadcaster, one radio/TV legend I much
admired was Arthur Godfrey. He brought to the industry proof
that an informal, humorous approach to advertising could be
effective. I have
often written of the parallels between Argentina's history and
current events in the U.S. This will illustrate the
points I've attempted to make.
"Don't Cry for Me America (Argentina)"
Go to the website titled:
www.authorstream.com/Presentation/soundmanjay-34588
"Don't Cry for Me America (Argentina)"
Go to the website titled:
www.authorstream.com/Presentation/soundmanjay-34588
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A life in radio...(cont)...
Since I have often
mentioned my love of flying -- seaplanes, aerobatics;
anything with wings -- reader Eileen asks me to recount an
event I once mentioned briefly on the air.A life in radio...(cont)...
I had been flying only a couple of years when my longtime friend and instrument-flight instructor Verne Jobst, later Chief Pilot for United Airlines, invited me to attend a gathering of aviation folk in Chicago.
Among the attendees was Godfrey, a well-known flying enthusiast, and prominent attorney F. Lee Bailey, with whom Verne was acquainted.
Another attendee who was to be part of a panel discussion (his name escapes me) was delayed in Dayton, Ohio. Bailey suggested that Verne and Godfrey use his (Bailey's) new Lear Jet to fly down to pick up the delayed participant. Verne invited me along, we introduced ourselves to Godfrey, who handled the takeoff from (now defunct) Meigs Field on Chicago's lakefront.
Shortly after takeoff, Godfrey invited me to move up to the right (co-pilot's) seat, switched off the auto-pilot and said, "Take over."
I did. My first jet piloting experience. Exhilarating!
However, it was difficult to focus on flying the aircraft because for the entire round-trip Godfrey kept us in near-nonstop laughter. The man had an endless fund of jokes and stories, many of which he couldn't possibly have used on the air then -- or now.
He was also an excellent pilot, with many thousands of hours at the controls of his own plane(s).
I tallied many hours at the controls of many planes after my co-piloting flight with Arthur Godfrey, but never accompanied by so much laughter.
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Argus Hamilton --
"President Obama issued two dozen executive orders to try to curb gun violence. It could affect the Super Bowl. The president banned the pistol offense, the shotgun formation, the bullet pass, the long bomb and any quarterback with a rifle arm."
ASK
NOT FOR WHOM THE BELL
TOLLS …
PERSONAL DEBT. VS. GOV'T DEBT …
ISLAM'S SELF-HATRED
PERSONAL DEBT. VS. GOV'T DEBT …
ISLAM'S SELF-HATRED
Bottom-line reality: If a U.S. government can violate your rights under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by forcing you to give up your gun, there is nothing it cannot force you to do, constitutional protections or not. Even if you do not value Second Amendment rights, other constitutional rights that you do value would be even more easily trampled by a power-crazed executive branch.
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Think about it. Hysterical liberals are so wacky, they evidently believe that criminals pay the membership fee and actually join … the National Rifle Association!
See if you can conjure up a mental picture of street thugs of, say, the sort who murdered over 500 people in rigid gun-control Chicago last year attending a meeting of the NRA and discussing the principles implicit in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Now: Is that picture absurd, or what?
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Only reluctantly do I resort to one of the political left's favorite catch-phrases, but confronted by a Democrat administration with a clear proclivity for dictatorship and contempt for the constitution, I would suggest an attack on the Second Amendment must be defeated (here it comes) BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
By the way, this bogus, straw-man argument they advance that Second Amendment gun rights were intended only for hunting is absurd.
“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
See anything there that refers to hunting? “Necessary to the security of a free state*” has been interpreted by the founders, their successors and the courts to include the right to defend against tyranny, both from without and within. It is the latter that scares hell out of would-be dictators contemplating an armed citizenry.
It is heartening that sheriffs and groups of sheriffs across the country have stated flat-out: “We will NOT enforce any laws that seek to undermine or evade the Second Amendment.”
*-”State” in this context does not mean, Iowa, Nevada, Florida, etc.; it refers to the nation as a whole. It is as the term generally is used around the world.
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Obama demands the authority to borrow unlimited amounts of money, much of it from foreign countries, starting with China, while Democrat hyenas howl their approval.
Here is a simile so obvious even the dumbest liberal should be able to follow it.
Our national debt is now greater than the total value of all products and services created each year in our economy – the Gross National Product.
What do you think would happen if you went to a bank – any bank – and said, “I owe more already than I make in an entire year, and I want to borrow some more money.” You know what the response would be.
“But,” you might add, “The money I owe is for car payments and the mortgage on my house.”
In short, secured loans. If you don't repay them, the bank takes the car or house.
However, a nation that doesn't repay its debts can hardly be repossessed, short of war. Which is why, at some point, lenders both foreign and domestic are going to be reluctant to loan money to a bad risk unless they receive an exorbitant interest rate – if even then. The next step is social chaos, complete with mobs rioting in the streets, looting, etc., etc. Look at Greece, the most vivid current example, with others close behind.
That is where the road we are following leads. Think it can't happen here? You haven't studied enough history.
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Michael Goodwin (New York Post) surveys the political rule-brook as it's been rewritten …
“She came, she cried, she conquered, proving it will take more than a lethal terror attack on her watch to sink the unsinkable Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“Clinton sailed triumphantly through Congress last week on her way out the State Department door, shredding expectations she would face a tough grilling.
“No longer a test of performance and results, the political game now is about building a following based on race, gender and other identity markers that are immune to traditional standards of accountability.
“Barack Obama wins re-election with one of the more dismal Oval Office records in memory, and Clinton is hailed as a great secretary of state without actually having done anything great.
“Obama belongs on Mount Rushmore. If you don’t agree, you’re a racist.
“Clinton was a brilliant diplomat. If you don’t agree, you’re a sexist.”
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I'm not George Will's biggest fan, but give him credit for the best line of the new week. Discussing Obama's out-of-control spending on ABC's “This Week” yesterday: "A dollar spent on A cannot be spent on B...This is our future. We're going to be an assisted living home with an Army. That's going to be the American government."
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The erudite Victor Davis Hanson looks to root causes of the great plague of today's world ...
"Why exactly does radical Islam hate us? Mostly because of the age-old wages of insecurity, envy, and a sense of inferiority.
"In a globalized world, Muslims see daily that everyone from South Koreans to North Americans are better off. Why? In their view, not because of market economies, meritocracies, gender equality, religious pluralism, consensual government, and the Western menu of personal freedom. To draw that conclusion would mean to reject tribalism, gender apartheid, religious intolerance, anti-Semitism, statism, authoritarianism, and conspiracy theory — and to admit indigenous rather than foreign causation.
"Instead, it is far easier to blame “them” for turning the majestic Islamic empire of old into the chaos of modern Islam — as well as to fault Arab secularists whose lack of religious zealotry allowed the West to move ahead." -- (PJ Media)
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“The liberal media's handling of any conservative political organization is a four-phase process. It begins by ignoring them, and if you can make them go away that way, you're done. If that doesn't work, then you go to phase two, which is to ridicule them. And if that doesn't work, you go to phase three, which is try to destroy them. And if that doesn't work, then you're at phase four, where you have to accept the reality that they're there." – Brent Bozell, Media Research Center
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Burt Prelutsky targets enviro-nuts with this pithy observation ...
"Why do Obama and the flakier environmentalists oppose oil derricks, but promote windmills? Oil is not only a far better and more reliable source of energy than wind, but they don’t massacre birds by the thousands. When there’s an occasional oil spill and it gets goo on seagulls, these people become as crazed as the loons at PETA; but when windmills mutilate even protected classes of birds, such as eagles, you don’t hear a peep out of them."
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I was in Palm Springs, California, briefly in November. Even being aware of the distressed economy in the (former) “Golden State,” I was taken aback at the number of closed businesses – vacant shops and restaurants.
Northern California friends who vacation regularly in Palm Springs and visited there just before the holidays report business continues to worsen, with more stores closed, hotels with an abundance of empty rooms and dining establishments in dire straits. This in peak tourist season.
Another friend who's had a thriving business in Chicago for decades just sold it at a distressed price because with ever-increasing taxes and regulatory burdens – just like California – he could no longer operate it at a profit; just gave up and sold out.
Does anyone expect leftist loonies like Jerry Brown and (Chicago mayor) Rahm Emanuel to learn anything from this? Of course not.
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The NFL Pro Bowl is a farce. And no, I didn't watch it. It's such an embarrassment to the NFL, word is that last night's game may have been the last. A good wager is that most of the occupied seats – and there were acres of empty ones – were filled by low-level employees of big local companies that poured sponsor dollars into staging that glorified exercise in touch football … and gave away the tickets.
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One observation about all those items on the internet that begin with, "This says it all."
Some are amusing, some are perceptive, some are silly. None "says it all."
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Argus Hamilton with automotive news ...
" It'll kill the sale of Corvettes if penile enlargement surgery is made available to all licensed drivers."
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Okay, I admit it. We're long overdue for a blonde joke …
A woman phoned her blonde neighbor and said: "Close your curtains the next time you & your husband are having sex. The whole street was watching and laughing at you yesterday."
To which the blonde replied: "Well the joke's on all of you because I wasn't even at home yesterday!"
HI FOLKS: GOING TO BE TAKING SOME TIME OFF...WILL GET BACK TO THE BLOG SOON.
DEAR FRIENDS:
Last evening, at the time I write this, Lee was struggling and working hard to overcome vast medical difficulties. While he had a true and kind heart, it was not a strong heart due to many many years of giving it all for his career. It was at 12:32 a.m., after 13 hours of incredible team work surgery by some of the kindest and intelligent doctors I have had the honor of meeting that they had to call an end to Lee's life. It was devastating and I still cannot believe he did not make it.
I cannot fathom a life without him. I wander the house waiting to hear him swear at the computer, ask what is for lunch and wait for the hugs and kisses that were a given during every day. I enjoyed hearing him tell Calvin the dog not to tell me about the stolen treats.
How fortunate to have 35 years with such a man, but I want more and there is no more. Now his soul soars with the eagles. There is no person who can take his place for me and I treasure every wonderful moment we had together.
As I look through the writings he left behind for his future blogs, I see many vignettes that have yet to be included in future blogs. So, I am including them here.
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A life in radio ... and travel, cont. ...
Travel enough, especially overseas, and you will inevitably encounter surprises. Some pleasant, some less so.
When I was burning the career candle at both ends, broadcasting and the travel industry, we ran African safaris for the carriage trade segment of our clientele; those who wanted more distant and/or exotic experiences. These were so-called "camera safaris," involving photography rather than gunfire, and usually began in Nairobi, Kenya, venturing northward across the equator at Nanyuki to the Mt. Kenya Safari Club, founded by actor William Holden, then to two or three other animal-watching sites southward into Tanzania and ending in Mombasa, Kenya, on the Indian Ocean.
Later I will make note of a particularly charming personal service offered at the Safari Club.
First I will relate the story of the longest journey I have ever made, time-wise. We usually used Sabena Airlines of Belgium flying out of Chicago for these safaris; they had an excellent route structure in Africa, since Belgium had historically been a colonial power on that continent. And, I would add, one of the worst.
We also used Sabena because the woman who managed the Nairobi office was particularly adept at getting their passengers and their luggage through the chaotic Nairobi airport, where the greasing of palms was a virtual necessity if you wanted to avoid bureaucratic entanglements in Customs & Immigration. As a tour leader, you simply gave money to "Mama Sabena," as all the airport personnel called her, and she would distribute it to the appropriate people and all barriers disappeared.
On this particular trip, I was escorting the group on the flight to Brussels where we had a layover of a couple of hours, then on to Nairobi for the safari of ten days or so. At the end of the African portion, I had to return to my radio work in Chicago while my passengers would conclude their trip with a few days in Paris.
As the airline schedules worked out, I would fly to London on BOAC, the forerunner of British Airways. Africa has some odd departure times for long-haul flights. Mine was to leave around midnight, thus I was especially grateful that our travel agencies did sufficient business with BOAC that they upgraded me to first class.
The plane was a VC-10, Britain's answer to the then-monarch of the air, the Boeing 707. It was configured with four rear-mounted engines (vital to the story) mounted much like today's MD-80, only with two engines on each side of the rear fuselage.
We departed from Nairobi on-time, with a full flight. About twenty minutes after departure, I heard words I still remember exactly, coming shortly after a noise similar to that you hear when the landing gear is retracted -- except I'd already heard the landing gear being retracted.
In an elegant British accent, "Ladies and gentleman, Captain speaking from the flight deck. We have, I'm afraid, a minor problem. It seems we've lost an engine and must return to Nairobi for repairs. So, for the next thirty minutes or so, we shall be circling the verdant countryside of Kenya while we spill overboard a few thousand pounds of Her Majesty's precious petrol. Therefore, I have asked the cabin staff to break out the spirits so we may all toast our safe arrival back in Nairobi."
You have never seen 170-or-so people grabbing booze so eagerly, presumably because they didn't want to face the Grim Reaper sober.
When we disembarked after landing -- quite uneventfully -- I looked up toward those two engines portside-aft and was startled to see only one. The inboard engine was still attached, but from the outside there was only a dangling mass of wires and hoses.
Understand: in aviation parlance, "lost an engine" normally means "one of the engines has quit working." In this case, it was LITERALLY gone. Detached. Missing.
Then came the announcement in the terminal. Our flight would depart in two hours. Knowing airlines regularly lie to passengers about delays, I also figured that the chances of getting a replacement engine in Nairobi were infinitesimal, I prepared for a long wait that might even involve returning to my hotel overnight.
Astonishingly, a BOAC freighter hauling a VC-10 engine had just stopped for refueling in Nairobi on its way to Johannesburg, South Africa. BOAC's home office in London quickly decided the more urgent need was a replacement engine for our plane. More amazingingly, the local mechanics, in the middle of the night, attached it and two hours later we WERE ready to go again!
However ... on the way to London, the Captain announced that he and the flight crew had run out of legal flying hours (pilots are only allowed so many consecutive flight-duty hours in order to prevent sheer physical exhaustion, obviously unsafe) so ... they had to stop in Zurich, Switzerland, well short of London.
We were on the ground in Zurich for several hours while a new flight crew was on the way from London. I passed part of the time in pleasant conversation with William Holden, whom I'd previously met at the Mt. Kenya Safari Club. He was on his way TO Nairobi.
Finally arriving in London, I make my BOAC connection to Chicago, my home base at the time.
Next surprise. Midway across the Atlantic, the captain announces that there's a U.S. air traffic controllers' strike (remember that?) and that we can't go to Chicago, we must stop in Montreal.
After a couple of hours on the ground, we get one of the few air traffic clearances available into Chicago, where I had to race to the radio studio and go on the air after forty-plus hours of travel from the heart of Africa.
I fear it was not one of my better days on the air.
Footnote: That charming personal service they offered at the Mr. Kenya Safari Club at the time -- and I hope they still do -- was offered discreetly via a small card on your dresser if you stayed in one of the individual cottages.
The wording was similar to this, if not exactly: "As a service for single gentlemen traveling alone, we offer a foot-warming service. When ready to retire, please ring room service for this accomodation."
You rang and a few minutes latter you would be brought a bucket containing two fairly large warmed stones, which would be placed under the covers at your feet.
Civilized men may ask, "Why did my wife's mother not teach her that husbands might appreciate this service?"
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A life in radio (cont.) ...
Young broadcasters eventually learn, as do people in other professions, that luck is often a factor in advancing a career. Herewith, an example.
I had been hired as part of a rebuilding project at powerful but outdated WDAF in Kansas City. WHB, the original Top-40 station in a major (million-plus) market, dominated the ratings, consistently averaging above 50% of the TOTAL radio audience.
Luck came my way in the form of a quarterly rating report that had to be an anomaly. It showed me beating WHB in the afternoon commute time-slot; #1.
Almost simultaneously, I learned that a newly-empowered executive disliked me, ratings or not.
Given that factor, plus a glowing ratings report, I quickly decided to start pitching for another job at the top. WIND in Chicago had the largest audience of any single radio station in America. I called the Program Director there, Guy Harris. His first response was,
"How did you know we were looking for someone? The decision was only made a couple of hours ago in a management meeting!"
He invited me to submit an audition tape, which I assembled from recent shows. The first thing on the tape was my wordless introduction to a new song by a Chicago-based group, The J's with Jamie, "The Sound of Money." All I did was flip a quarter in front of the microphone, making it land on top of a metal 3 X 5 file-card box, producing a "brrrinnggg" as the vocal group, already cued in a few words, sang, "The sound of money ... the lovely sound of money ..."
Guy Harris thought it clever and barely listened to the rest, called me back and said, "Come to Chicago. We want to talk with you."
As luck would have it, he issued that invitation on a Thursday. On Friday I would be connecting flights in Chicago on the way to Minneapolis to broadcast the Saturday football game between Northwestern and Minnesota. I changed reservations to allow a few hours for the visit to WIND.
A legendary broadcasting pioneer, Ralph Atlass, had sold WIND to Westinghouse Broadcasting, but still retained an office there under a consulting deal. He was still a powerful voice in management. Which makes another round of luck vital.
It seems he was a friend of the then-Sports Publicity Director at Northwestern; old college buddy. I had no idea of this, but during the preliminary of our chat, I mentioned that I was on my way to broadcast that Northwestern football game?
He immediately reacted. "Do you know Walter (last name forgotten)?"
"Yes. I talked with him just yesterday, getting background material for tomorrow's broadcast."
The rest of the conversation was brief. Then Mr. Atlass turned the Guy Harris with, "I think Lee will be fine. Hire him."
Case closed.
Footnote: I got to know The J's with Jamie shortly after I began on-air at WIND. They never had a big hit record, but were popular as a cult group, much like The Hi-Lo's, and made a fortune doing singing commercials. One memorable one ended, " ... Northwest Orient (GONG) airlines!"
Further footnote: Not long after my arrival in Chicago, the National Association of Broadcasters, an annual meeting of the real heavyweights of broadcast management, held their convention in Chicago.
The very funny Tim Conway was to be emcee of the entertainment evening, featuring the Count Basie Orchestra and The J's with Jamie. Conway became ill the afternoon of the day before the show, and I got a rush call from the account executive at J. Walter Thompson Advertising, the giant agency that was producing the show to build goodwill among broadcasters: "Could you fill in for Tim Conway?"
"Say whaaat?!"
A year or so earlier, I'd been asked by the owner of a nightclub in Kansas City that had a mostly black customer base if I'd come there an introduce the band on opening night, since I played their records on WDAF. I did ... had a long visit after the show with singer Joe Williams and a couple of the guys in the band.
My lame and hastily-prepared material at least got a good reaction from behind me onstage -- the Basie band and The J's with Jamie, with in turn got much of the crowd behind me ("The musicians like him, so he must be amusing").
I wouldn't call it a triumph, but I survived it. And it was gratifying to see in the audience the Kansas City executive whose dislike was an extra-incentive to try for a Chicago job ... and there I was onstage before the biggest executives in the entire industry.
Sometimes you just can't beat luck!
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A life in radio ... and travel (cont.) ...
My late business partner in the travel industry led a life that would shame the character in the Dos Equis beer commercials ("The Most Interesting Man in the World") blush with shame.
Model-agency entrepreneur, bank executive, caterer ... and CIA "employee" that included a stint at the U.S. embassy in Athens when the communists were trying to take over Greece.
During the coldest days of the Cold War, we still had customers who had the urge -- and the money -- to visit Moscow, the epicenter of evil. One or both of us sometimes went. The best vodka martini I ever tasted was at the Metropole Hotel in Moscow while the bartender recited the outcome of that day's (it was Saturday night) U.S. college football games. Being followed while in Russia was routine for a visiting American -- and usually obvious.
It was on the return from one such trip that our Aeroflot airliner's captain announced immediately after takeoff that, because of a "technical" problem our flight to London would be diverted to Copenhagen and the delay would be exactly one hour. His certainty of the time element was one reason to immediately suspect the situation.
It was, indeed, exactly one hour. We flew down over northern England at a VERY low altitude. Upon arrival at Heathrow Airport, an airport official privately explained that the Moscow-originating flight did this regularly. The plane was a converted twin-engine bomber ... still had the glass bubble on the nose ... and was used to photograph expansion work at at U.S. airbase in northern England. The plane was regularly impounded, the crew held overnight and released the next day. It was one of the Cold War games.
It was what happened after arrival at LHR that Part Two of the story took place. I'd noticed on the flight out of Moscow that an American seated across the aisle ane one row behind us glancing several times at my associate.
In London, I learned why.
Stamatis and I were seated in the bar at a small table during the London layover. The American fellow came in and sat at the bar. Stamatis excused himself, took an empty barstool next to the man and they engaged in a very quiet conversation without ever looking at each other.
On the flight back to Chicago, I learned what it was all about.
My business partner and the anonymous American had gone through CIA training together. The man was still working for the agency. He had been sent to Moscow to meet an "asset" there, his cover being that he was a film professor at New York University who was in the Soviet capital to attend a film festival.
The KGB was onto him early. He had been met at the Moscow airport by a lovely Intourist (a subsidiary of the KGB) agent who accompanied him in a waiting limousine and told him, "Professor, we know who you are and why you're here. We don't want a big internation incident, so this is what we are going to do. You and I are going to a very nice hotel where we will spend the next three days having a wonderful time without leaving the room. Then I will bring you back to the airport, put you on a plane to the U.S., and you will never return to the Soviet Union. Understand?"
He did ... and they did. He decided it beat hell out of years in a Siberian gulag.
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A life in radio -- and travel ... (cont) ... the big "BOOM!" in Santo Domingo ...
As I've mentioned here on many previous occasions, for much of my radio career I was also co-owner of a chain of Chicago-area travel agencies. Saw the world, met a lot of interesting people and had more than a few unexpected adventures. This is about one that had nearly-fatal consequences.
Since we did considerable international business. it was not unusual to get invitations for foreign national tourism offices. Therefore it wasn't a surprise to get an invitation from the folk in the Dominican Republic office inviting my co-owner and me down to Santo Domingo to talk about a business proposition. Expecting a more-or-less usual pitch asking us to send more tourists their way, we accepted.
We were warmly greeted, wined and dined and housed in the Jaragua Hotel, the city's most luxurious at the time. More about the hotel's interesting history later.
Next morning, the business proposition surprised us. The late dictator Rafael Trujillo had, before his death, commissioned an architect to build a mansion for him. It was located on a hilltop outside the city. Trujillo had given no attention to the plans and had never visited the site until it was completed.
When the magnificent edifice, shaped like a ship, was completed he was driven to see it ... took one look ... and said to his aides, "Kill the architect."
The architect, knowing that Trujillo could be ... intemperate ... had wisely waited offshore on a powerboat while a friend at the site observed Trujillo's reaction. The friend passed the unpleasant message by walkie-talkie and the architect fired up his boat and headed for parts distant.
Our hosts took us to visit the mansion and outlined their plan. They wanted to build a government-run casino there, had no expertise but (for reasons that later became clear) wanted us to run it and bring in planeloads of U.S. gamblers to patronize the place.
Puzzled, we returned that evening to our hotel to consider this odd -- and large -- proposition.
Our large ground-floor rsuite at the Jaragua faced a beautiful garden courtyard, and we were dismayed to find that the air conditioning for that wing failed just as we entered.
Front-desk personnel, very apologetic, came to get our luggage and move us to another room diagonally across from our original suite.
We had no sooner reached our new accomodations when there was a flash and a loud "boom!" from across the courtyard. A quick look showed our recently-vacated suite was a shambles.
Almost immediately a hotel security guard appeared at our now-open window and said, "Nothing to worry about, senor. It was just a lightning strike." On a night without a cloud in the sky.
After a sleepless night, next morning we went straight to the airport to grab the next flight to the U.S. We'd already figured out that somebody didn't want us running the casino in Santo Domingo and we weren't prepared to argue the issue.
On the way back, we concluded that since a major Chicago mafia don had married into my co-owner's family, somebody must have drawn the erroneous conclusion that we would be a convenient cover to get Joe "Little Caesar" DiVarco into a partnership, which could bring huge potential rewards.
We didn't tell Joe ... he never mentioned it ... and we made no plans for future visits to the Dominican Republican.
Footnote: On the long trip down to Santo Domingo, I had picked up a copy of a then-popular novel by Harold Robbins called "The Adventurers." Interestingly, it was set largely in Santo Domingo and involved some barely-concealed famous real people. One event in particular occurred at the Jaragua.
During a spare moment, I asked a young assistant manager about it. He had gown up in the hotel, his father having once managed it. He didn't know about the people or the event, but offered to look up the registration book (they used books back then) to see if any trace could be found.
In a dusty old book covered with spiderwebs, we traced the timeline as indicated in Robbins' novel and found it.
Although then-famous international playboy Porfirio Rubirosa had married -- and divorced dictator Trujillo's daughter, the two scoundrels remained friends. Rubirosa often brought his inamorata of the moment to spend a few days of revelry in one of the luxurious two-bedroom cottages on the grounds of the Jaragua, sometimes accompanied by a playboy buddy and his own partner(s) in debauchery.
And there, in faded green ink, were the signatures of the four people who'd occupied one of the cottages for a long weekend.
In one bedroom, Porfirio Rubirosa and some New York model.
In the other, international jet-set tycoon and lecher Aristotle Onassis.
With ... Jacqueline Bouvier.
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A life in radio ... (cont.) ... Interviewing all kinds of people ...
Among the listener compliments I've appreciated most over a thirty-year career as a talk-show host are those making flattering reference to my skill as an interviewer.
It was in no way a natural talent. It came with experience and close observation of people with whom I was having conversation.
I always entered an interview situation, short or long, with a checklist of vital points I wanted to address. Other than that, I let the conversation go wherever it led, keeping in mind the likely interests of listeners.
While in later years my interviews tended toward serious issues, sometimes confrontational, I learned to develop empathy as a useful element in most situations; "reading" people, if you wish.
While I long ago moved away from interviewing celebrities and show business personalities, finding most of them shallow and dull, a couple of such conversations come to mind as illustrations of the importance of empathy.
Anita O'Day was a much-admired jazz singer. I still have several of her albums. When she was booked as a guest, however, I undertook the interview with some trepidation. She had a reputation for being difficult and made it clear before air-time that she was only doing it because the concert promoter needed publicity for her San Francisco appearance.
Our talk began in the worst possible way. She answered "yes," "no" or not at all. In desperation, I dug into the empathy bag and said, "One of the best things you ever did was Cole Porter's 'You're the Top' because you sang the verse, which most singers ignore.
And then I began singing it in my best shower-stall voice: "At words poetic I'm so pathetic that I always have found it best ... to let them rest ... unexpressed ..."
She suddenly brightened, joined in and I had a jazz fan's thrill: singing a duet with one of the greats.
After that she opened up about childhood, early days with Stan Kenton and celebrity stories galore. It was great.
Eartha Kitt, the sexy songstress of such hits as "C'est Si Bon" and "Santa Baby," was in an even worse mood when she entered the studio. After sullen and short responses to the first questions, I knew this kitten had to be stroked. So I gave her my best disarming smile and said, "You know, if it hadn't been for your records, I'm not sure I'd ever have made it thru puberty."
The laughed with delight and suddenly couldn't stop talking. Her romance with Orson Welles, horny musicians and avaricious record company executives ... the stories just poured out!
My mother's advice echoed: "You get better results with honey than vinegar."
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A life in radio ... (cont.) ...
As noted here previously, early in my career I worked for a short time in Little Rock at KTHS Radio/KTHV-TV. While there, I was selected for reasons I never understood to be the official escort for the newly-crowned Miss Arkansas on a trip to Hollywood that was part of her prize package.
She would be given an audition by one of the movie studios. In the end, it apparently came to nothing, for she was not launched on a career in the movies.
She was -- how can I put this nicely? -- a self-obsessed bitch. It was hate at first sight for both of us. Since I couldn't help her ambition for fame, she had not even a superficial, polite interest in me. Since I had no interest in anything she might say or do with her clothes on, I found her a tedious bore.
Fortunately, we were accompanied by a chaperone from the pageant committe that had selected her, so there was no need for my presence in her company most of the time.
One dramatic moment did develop, however, during our stay at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. I was required to meet her, the chaperone and a couple of other people somehow involved in the pageant in the hotel bar.
There was a trio playing for dancing and beverages were flowing freely. our beauty queen had a few and, without my noticing, accepted an invitation to dance from a local (i.e., Hollywood) fellow. The chaperone, paying close attention, was concerned that the fellow was fondling our heroine's precious body in an unseemly way on the dance floor.
She tugged at my elbow and demanded that I go onto the dance floor and interrupt them, although our vestal virgin, herself, didn't seem upset by his advances.
Had it been two ounces of scotch earlier, my first look at him would have discouraged such boldness. Nevertheless, like the sophisticated chap I wasn't, I barged in with, "May I cut in?", grabbed the wench and danced her to our table.
I still tremble at the memory, because the fellow whose advances I had short-circuited with an actor long famous for villain roles. He was the size of a one-car garage and had also been a pro football player and later professional wrestler. You may recognize him ...
Mike Mazurki.
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A life in radio ... (cont.) ...
The minor leagues of radio barely exist anymore. The small-town stations where beginners could learn the basics of their craft and make mistakes without fear of being fired -- usually because they worked for peanuts. Syndicated, generic programming that's even cheaper now dominates small-market radio; increasingly, large markets as well. Which is why you hear the same stuff with little local content as you drive on long trips ... station after station cranking out the same programming. Borrring!
Even the often-amateurish mistakes heard on the local teakettles could be entertaining. I recall hearing a local lad in middle-Missouri introduce a brand-new record by "a great guy, Eddie Gorme." It was Eydie, of course. I told here about it later and she was hugely amused.
Then there was the hard-sell Texas announcer pitching Bibles "personally autographed by the author!"
I had my own moments. I once did the TV weather on the 10PM news in Pittsburg, Kansas, when I'd been in town about five hours and had no idea where these even smaller towns in the path of a tornado were located. (The boss was okay with me; then told me how much I'd be paid. I left town by 11PM that same night.)
I did learn lessons in the little leagues that prepared me for unforeseen events that occasionally made life extra-interesting on monster stations.
During my first real radio job, I broadcast the local high school and college sports events on WTJS, Jackson, Tennessee. On one occasion, the high school football team was playing at a town some distance away. I arrived at their football field with my colleague, Vince Tapler, who acted as engineer and read the commercials during the broadcasts.
Surprise: Instead of running the telephone lines necessary for the broadcast into the small press box atop the stands, the installer had simply left them hanging from the telephone pole outside the fence, behind the grandstand. We literally could not see the field!
In the spirit of "the show must go on," I did the play-by-play description standing outside the small stadium, with Vince running back and forth to the fence at one end of the stands where he could see some of the game and the minimal scoreboard. He would scribble a note about what he thought was happening, from which I would lavishly embellish and create a very exciting game.
On another occasion, this same local high school's powerhouse football team was invited to play the powerful Coral Gables, Florida, high school team at the huge Orange Bowl in Miami. No way was the station going to pay for me to take the trip, so the manager decided I should recreate it from the old Western Union ticker-tape. One of the Western Union employees would be at the game and send minimal information like, "#24 ... run ... 4 yds ... own 35" or "pass ... #9-#87 ... 22 yd TD."
We backed up my studio broadcast with recorded crowd noise, and I gave a vivid account of the game. Later I learned that our local star running back whose number was 24 had gotten ill just before the team departed for Miami, his jersey had been given to his back-up, and for two hours I repeated Albert Arnett's number fed by the unknowing Western Union guy in Miami as he lay ill at home, listening to his own heroics a thousand miles away. (His name is burned in my memory.)
All of which was preparation for a later unforeseen problem on a much larger stage.
The late, great Merle Harmon and I were doing a college "game of the week" broadcast that went to the best match-up in the country every Saturday. This particular weekend we were in Los Angeles for a big game between Southern Cal and UCLA at the Memorial Coliseum, a huge single-deck bowl that places the press box far from the field as well as high above.
Just before game-time, a huge fog bank rolled in from the Pacific. From the press box it was impossible to see the field. We could barely -- and only occasionally -- see the lighted numbers on the scoreboard. Nevertheless, with only occasional clues as to events on the field, Merle and I turned out a rip-roaringly exciting broadcast of a game in which we were fortunate to deliver a correct score, so insulated from the action were we.
An example of how, in radio as in life, that which does not kill you ... does make you stronger.
Footnote: Sports media people regularly grade football colleges on the quality of the pre-game meal provided gratis. In my own experience, great places to chow-down included Oklahoma and Nebraska, which served steaks you could cut with the handle of your fork. The absolute best was Rice University in Houston where the broadcast booths were equipped with velvet-covered swivel chairs and the pre-game meal was served by liveried waiters providing lobster, steak and assorted more exotic dishes from a menu -- some even accompanied by ... rice.
That fine university, regularly adjudged to offer the best private-school education in the country for the tuition price, was founded by the enormously wealthy Rice family. Daughter Ella Rice was the first wife of a shy Texas lad named Howard Hughes.
Worst press-box food: Notre Dame. Greeasy hotdogs. But it IS the best place in the world to attend a college football game.
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A life in radio ... (cont.) ...
There have been many unlikely (and often forgettable) hit songs that came out of nowhere to briefly captivate the nation. "Dominique" by The Singing Nun comes to mind, along with oddities like "Disco Duck."
One import that made a brief splash was a song called "Tie Me Kangaroo Down" by an Australian chap named Rolf Harris.
At the time, I was plying the radio trade on WIND in Chicago, which for a good many years had more listeners than any other single radio station in America. Our studios in the Wrigley Building had a constant parade of visitors that included the biggest names in popular music as well as obscure artists, all hoping we would play their records. If we did, there was a strong likelihood their careers would be launched or made more successful.
So it was that Rolf Harris dropped in one morning as I was chatting with the receptionist in the lobby. He was escorted by an executive of the record company. And lightning struck as quickly as I've ever seen such an event take place.
We had a stately, exotic brunette who worked in the mail room. She spoke little, but was highly ... decorative.
The Australian troubador was barely out of the elevator when Helen entered the lobby from the office area.
They looked at each other. If a word was exchanged between them, nobody else heard it; neither Ruthie the receptionist, the record company guy nor me.
Nevertheless, there was an eye-lock. And without a word being spoken, the two of them got into the elevator, left ... and neither was heard from for three days!
When Helen returned to work, there was much curiosity about ... recent events. But to my knowledge, she never spoke of it.
If she ever writes a book about it, I'm sure a few folk who worked on the third floor of the Wrigley Building, 400 N. Michigan Avenue, would be interested readers.
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A life in radio (cont.) ...
She was a young actress whose budding career temporarily stalled, so she returned to her home in Chicago and found work in local TV commercials and similar pursuits.
I was on the leading radio station at the time, WIND. We met when a mutual friend asked us to serve as beauty pageant judges. She was a previous winner.
We saw each other occasionally, usually at media or advertising functions and were casual friends.
I lived in Marina City, the corncob-shaped twin towers in downtown Chicago. She lived just off Lake Shore Drive, a few blocks north of the Drake Hotel. (Old Chicago joke: "Why did the duck cross Michigan Avenue? To get to the Drake.")
I got a call from her one Sunday morning, asking if I could come over and help her load a few things in a U-Haul trailer. She was leaving for Los Angeles.
I spent the morning helping her and picked up on her situation. She had barely enough money to make the trip and implied that she was making a hasty Sunday departure because her rent was due and she couldn't afford it.
She thanked me and gave me a parting kiss on the cheek.
I never heard from her again, but her gamble paid off well. She got considerable movie and TV work. Although she died much too young in 1998 -- in her sleep, of a heart attack -- she did achieve the kind of immortality that comes with and endlessly re-run TV show.
She played Joanna Loudon, Bob Newhart's wife, on their TV show set in an inn in Vermont.
Mary Frann.
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Since I began including little personal vignettes and recollections in my Sunday blog under the heading "A Life in Radio ... and Travel" I hear occasionally from folk asking how I managed to juggle two careers, including a heavy workload in broadcasting along with co-ownership and an active role in managing a chain of travel agencies.
Simple. I worked a lot of eighteen-hour days and seven-day weeks.
The travel business was dependent on my name recognition for a substantial part of the clientele. In the start-up phase, I often simply deposited my broadcasting paycheck in the travel business account to pay several salaries of employees at the agency offices. So I DO know what it means to meet a payroll.
My minor fame (or notoriety, your choice) brought in customers, hence my frequent accompaniment of tour groups, especially to Europe.
In one year, I was out of the U.S. on 48 of 52 weekends. A typical weekend would go as follows: Get off the air at WIND, Chicago, Friday at 1pm ... change clothes, grab a pre-packed bag, rush to O'Hare Airport ... meet clients in an airline-provided private room for a pre-flight cocktail ... fly overnight to London (or Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, etc.) and since there were always people unable to sleep on the plane, I'd stay up and keep them company.
Upon arrival, escort them via chartered bus(es) to our local hotel. That evening I'd join them for dinner and introduce them to our locally-hired guide who would escort them on the rest of their journey.
Sunday morning I would meet a group concluding their travels around Europe, escort them back to the airport and fly to Chicago, arriving Sunday afternoon to go back on the air Monday morning.
Simple!
The travel business did (to some extent, still does) have fringe benefits if you bring a lot of business to airlines, hotels and other vendors.
One memorable example occurred in Mid-December. It was a slack season for our business, and my partner was meeting me for a business lunch at the best Mexican restaurant in the world, Su Casa (E. Ontario Street, next time you're in Chicago). Business concluded, maitre'd Antonio sent margaritas. Several.
My colleague suddenly developed a hunger for onion soup. Antonio laughingly pointed out the obvious: Mexican restaurants don't usually offer onion soup.
Whereupon my co-owner made made a quick call to the sales manager for Air France who, in appreciation for the passenger volume who provided his airline, shortly had us in First Class seats on the way to Paris.
We arrived next morning ... slept all day at an airport hotel ... took a taxi in the evening to Chez la Mere Catherine restaurant for a giant bowl of their legendary onion soup ... and flew back next morning to Chicago. Total cost for the trip: less than a hundred dollars including soup and cab fares ... and maybe a glass or three of wine.
It IS the best onion soup in the world, and the many folk to whom I've recommended this ancient restaurant agree. It's on Montmartre Hill, just steps from the Moulin Rouge nightclub. Tell one of the old waiters I sent you, and ... he'll have no idea what you're talking about!
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You might -- or might not -- find this worth passing along to a youthful relative.
When I began in the broadcasting industry, in my teens and ill-prepared, I worked at a couple of the worst small-market radio stations in the country. Nevertheless, I put in long hours and never refused an assignment.(Example: Later in my career, working in Kansas City, I became friends with a great singer, Marilyn Maye. She was a frequent Johnny Carson guest; her work is on YouTube. Anyway, we signed on to entertain at a big automobile dealers' convention ... I with a few minutes of lame jokes, Marilyn singing. If you've never experienced a huge audience of drunk or hungover car salesmen staring at you silently with bloodshot eyes over an 8AM breakfast, you don't know what humiliation is!)
After my first year in broadcasting, I made it a point to send my application and amateurish audition tapes (air-checks; taped from actual on-air work) to at least a half-dozen stations a week. My motivating idea was, "Don't wait for opportunity to knock on YOUR door, kick on doors until opportunity opens up."
After two years, I was invited in for a live audition at what was then the big-time radio station in the mid-south,WHBQ in Memphis, where Wink Martindale, later of quiz-show TV fame, was the big name as morning-show host.
I sweated bullets, being watched thru the studio window by the station president and executives as I did a fake radio show. Somehow, I got the job.
On my first day, preparing to go on-air in afternoon drivetime, a key time-slot, I was given a great piece of advice from the man who did the mid-day show on WHBQ Radio as well as being a TV idol in Memphis. Don Franklin had the best broadcasting voice I've ever heard, before or since.
Knowing that I was nervous, he said, "Kid, relax. They (the management) decided to hire you, so they WANT you to succeed. Otherwise, they'd have to admit they made a mistake. They don't want to do that. So just go in that studio and so a show. You'll be fine."
He was right. And I believe it's still solid advice for any new person trying to build a career. It helped launch mine, which has had a long and very successful run.
First, work like hell for your first employer ... keep looking upward for the next step ... and, when they hire you,assume they want you to succeed to confirm their judgment.
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Lee's favorite poem and I think you will see why:
INVICTUS
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley
"...and now, if you'll excuse me..."