Interview with a Mayor

Wellford, SC:

At least it's not only Detroit.

Ladies and gentlemen, your elected officials.

School Sure has changed

YouTube - (No background music) School kids taught to praise Obama

Seriously, I think I'm going to be ill. Doesn't it occur to this teacher that encouraging blind loyalty is dangerous?

Saving the world, one apartment at a time

There are always unintended consequences to any law, bill, or mandate that Congress passes.  Waxman-Markey is no exception, except that the consequences are easier to see.

Inspections are not free. Nor is fixing the inevitable violations. Compliance with new energy-efficiency standards would make homes, especially older ones, more expensive. Selling one’s home would become even harder than it already is in this down market if Waxman-Markey-style cap and trade becomes law.

And that is just one of the unintended consequences.

Suppose you have a window that isn’t quite airtight or your appliances are a little too old. Maybe they’re not Energy Star certified. You’d have to replace them before you would be allowed to sell your home.

The result could be the end of fixer-upper homes; surely, this is not what Congress has in mind. Some families prefer to buy a home in less-than-stellar condition on the cheap and make repairs and upgrades themselves.

Read more: Here

Ouch.

I’m not sure if being liked by the people who want us to fail is a good thing, Mr. President.

The UN is not a club of democracies - who still remain a minority within its membership – it is a vast melting pot of free societies, socialist regimes and outright tyrannies. Obama’s clear lack of interest in human rights issues is a big seller at the UN, where at least half its members have poor human rights records.

The president scores highly at the UN for refusing to project American values and military might on the world stage, with rare exceptions like the war against the Taliban. His appeasement of Iran, his bullying of Israel, his surrender to Moscow, his call for a nuclear free world, his siding with Marxists in Honduras, his talk of a climate change deal, have all won him plaudits in the large number of UN member states where US foreign policy has traditionally been viewed with contempt.

Simply put, Barack Obama is loved at the UN because he largely fails to advance real American leadership. This is a dangerous strategy of decline that will weaken US power and make her far more vulnerable to attack.

A Simple Approach to Managing Information Overload

And now on a completely different note:

A Simple Approach to Managing Information Overload: "

We all have to follow never-ending streams of information to varying degrees. Small business owners and web workers have to keep their fingers on the pulse of what’s happening in their markets and with their customers and clients. Writers and bloggers read for inspiration and to follow the latest trends.

No matter what you do, there are probably a certain number of sources that you follow on a regular basis, and managing that information as seamlessly as possible is very important for your productivity, and to hold on to your sanity and not feel overwhelmed.

For me, the easiest way to streamline my information processing is to organize it by context so that I know immediately how to treat the information and, more importantly, how to act on it.

Folk Blowback

Uncle Sam Eyes Vehicle Tracking Tax | The Truth About Cars

I can't even tell you how wrong this is. Let's talk about civil liberties now.

Uncle Sam Eyes Vehicle Tracking Tax | The Truth About Cars: "A Member of Congress proposes to use taxpayer money to fund the development of technology to track motorists as part of a new form of taxation. US Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) introduced H.R. 3311 earlier this year to appropriate $154,500,000 for research and study into the transition to a per-mile vehicle tax system.�The “Road User Fee Pilot Project” would be administered by the US Treasury Department. This agency in turn would issue millions in taxpayer-backed grants to well-connected commercial manufacturers of tolling equipment to help develop the required technology. Within eighteen months of the measure’s passage, the department would file an initial report outlining the best methods for adopting the new federal transportation tax."

Disengagement

I've long held that the biggest mistake one can make in any sort of council situation is to disengage out of protest. Walking out of the meeting means that you no longer have any say or any knowledge of what happens afterwards.

In contrast to that, when you no longer have any say perhaps it's best to move along. I've been told that when I respond to other people's political statements that I'm "getting started" and it's been made very clear that my opinion on a number of things is neither respected nor desired.

So what's the point in sticking around listening to people whine and cry about things in an echo chamber when they have the firm conviction that anyone who doesn't agree with them is a nut, racist, or fool?

So I did an odd thing today: I removed people from my friends list on Facebook. Most of their posts are political in nature and since I can't respond meaningfully, there's no point in continuing to deal with it.

Well Played

So they actually shot 2 videos, released the first one, waited for the denials, and then released the verification.

Very smart. I think there might be some truth to the video, the guy might actually run for office.

ANOTHER ACORN “PIMP” VIDEO — FROM A DIFFERENT OFFICE: “One day after two ACORN officials in Baltim…: "

ANOTHER ACORN “PIMP” VIDEO — FROM A DIFFERENT OFFICE: “One day after two ACORN officials in Baltimore were fired for offering to help a man and woman posing as a pimp and prostitute to engage in child prostitution and a series of tax crimes, another secretly shot videotape has surfaced that shows the same couple getting similar advice from ACORN officers in Washington. The newly released videotape, shot on July 25, shows ACORN staffers explaining to the pair how they can hide the woman’s professed work — prostitution — and get a loan that will help them establish a brothel. . . . The ACORN employee later suggests that O’Keefe, who said he had a budding political career, not linger at the house in case people ‘put the dots together’ and leave him ’smeared and tarnished’ by his association with his prostitute girlfriend.” Yeah, those nasty “smears” are something you’ve got to watch out for.

Related: “So, while ACORN wanted people to think that this was some kind of isolated incident, it isn’t.”

"

At least one chuckle

Thanks Glenn. I needed that laugh.

UH OH: U.S. government nervous about stimulus fraud, scams. “As billions of dollars from the econo…: "

UH OH: U.S. government nervous about stimulus fraud, scams. “As billions of dollars from the economic stimulus plan pour through the U.S. economy, members of Congress, the administration and regulatory agencies are increasingly worried about the risks of fraud.” Now they’re worried?

"

Yup, Rough Day

Perhaps this is just self-flagellation. Perhaps I should get over it. I've already been told today that I'm self-absorbed for even thinking about this day as anything other than a day to commemorate the loss of freedoms.

Fuck that.

Pajamas TV - Trifecta - "Never Forget" Means Never Forgetting

Today is gonna be rough

I'm sometimes shocked at the things my friends will say.

The challenge for me is to not react too strongly to things I find repugnant. Choosing today to harp on the loss of liberties (etc. etc., ad nauseum) strikes me as poor taste, and continuing the metaphor I find it hard to swallow.

Lately I've been serious consideration to how much I want friends over how much I want to stand up for myself. I suppose that makes me something of a cranky old man.

The problem is that I don't have nearly enough confidence in my own views. I'm always willing to accept the possibilty that I'm wrong, so I lose arguments to people who have no such handicap and in fact have a considerable lack of both perspective and introspection.

That's what's been weighing on me the most lately. It seems that I'm constantly on the defensive because I'm not aggressive enough, and it seems that pretty much nobody has my back.

What would Howard Roark do?

In Memory

Eight years ago today, on a morning very much like this one, 3000 people died in the most horrific act of terrorism ever to occur on American soil.

The day was marked with tragedy and with heroism, with fear and with courage. What came after will be a subject for contention and debate for decades to come, but for today I choose to remember those people and their families.

Moral Markets, Chemistry, and How the Occasional Bastard is a Good Thing

Enraged

Sorry folks, you can’t go to war half way. 

Carrots and stick, folks.  All carrots and no sticks makes for brave warriors who perish on the field of battle because the local fighters have little to fear – not because of our own warriors, but because of the lack of resourcing and tactics being implemented.

UPDATE:

It now appears that this may be yet another example of a rules of engagement problem.

GANJGAL, Afghanistan — We walked into a trap, a killing zone of relentless gunfire and rocket barrages from Afghan insurgents hidden in the mountainsides and in a fortress-like village where women and children were replenishing their ammunition.

I’m not sure where the confusion is.  The Marines were invited to meet with this village, and they were ambushed.  They weren’t looking for trouble this time, but maybe that’s the problem.

U.S. commanders, citing new rules to avoid civilian casualties, rejected repeated calls to unleash artillery rounds at attackers dug into the slopes and tree lines — despite being told repeatedly that they weren’t near the village.

They waited for support and got none.  The civilians in this case were hardly civilians, were they? 

Those who say we don’t belong there seem to forget that this village doesn’t represent the entire country, but they did set up an ambush.  What would you do?  And do you understand the consequences?

Read it all.

Let the Satire Begin!

You knew there would have to be something to make fun of the Marvel/Disney Team-Up.

Well then. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aqgweyLi6lYA

Other Plans

That's nice Mr. President. Glad you like being on TV. I'll be busy.

President Obama to address Congress - Mike Allen - POLITICO.com: "President Barack Obama will address a joint session of Congress on health care reform in prime time on Wednesday, Sept. 9, a senior official tells POLITICO."

Listen to Big Brother

While I think it's important for children to learn respect for authority (and then how and when to disobey), and I'm certainly not going to dismiss the Presidents responsibility to be a role model, I do wonder exactly what this is all about. Considering the recent attempts to enlist the clergy in the fight for socialized medicine, I'm more than a bit concerned that this will be an attempt at indoctrination.

Take a day of vacation. Go to the zoo. Anything that would save your offspring from what I will bluntly say is just the quasi-fellating the executive branch. That cackling over a bubbling cauldron you hear is the NEA rejoicing.