That Does It. It's Time.

Over at Hot Air, Allahpundit posts an MSNBC video of our newest Brit sensation, Daniel Hannan, chiding the West for weird, wasteful spending. What's amusing is the gobsmacked and deferential silence accorded him by the talking heads. Even when he's done, all they can remark on is a funny word-picture he threw out. Likely they didn't understand a word of the rest.

However. As I remarked there, and have groused about before, why oh why do we need the authoritative British accent to call us to task before we'll act sensibly? I've left off trying to figure it out but I do have a new idea, which I posted over at HA:

We won’t clean up our act until Simon tells us we suck, Tabatha slaps our hair stylists around, Gordon Ramsey closes our kitchens, and the Nanny trains our children. We’ve been overdue for a British politician to do a reality show live from our Congressional chambers.

Can you imagine it? I know you can! What fun it would be to get Mr. Hannan, with camera in tow, closing down some back-room deliberations, playing the yob in some sub-committee hearings, or simply and eloquently mystifying Maxine Waters with the sheer gravitas of his intellect. Oh, sweet, sweet politics-as-entertainment that I would pay to see!

Seriously. We're paying through the nose not to see it, y'know.

It's a thing to make one misty-eyed:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Remember Your Very First, Crisp, Dollar Bill?

Not the first one you earned, just the first one you ever had. What were you, about 5 years old then? Remember the dreams you dreamed at that moment, understanding the power of it?

You Capitalist Pig!!!!!!11!!1!!

I'm Celebrating Earth Hour

. . .by sitting in my car in the parking space and running the AC.

How 'bout you?

How Can All Those Hidden Assets Add Up to Political Neutrality?

If bankers were really our problem, why isn't Congress demanding that we invade Switzerland and sieze assets? The IRS is having trouble getting any more blood out of the home-grown turnips and is now looking across the pond.

I'm thinking it's a war the Left could really get patriotic about, but they'd have to acknowledge that it's okay to invade a foreign country and depose financial dictators for the good of global stability. And the Right could scream, "no blood for gold!"

Over 52,000 US citizens have hidden assets there.

I'm not sure Congress really and truly wants the UBS to comply, and I'm just guessing it's more of the mock-shock we get when our elected officials want us to think they're actually doing something, when they're actually colluding with the "enemy."

But it would be an interesting list. Heck, I don't even care about names, just tell us how many of them are congresscritters.

Remedial Education for Political Discourse

Now this is how you do it: No ad hominem bilge or straw men; just plain facts, plainly stated, and the consequential evidence to support; a good word picture, and a summary labeling of the results. Plus, the balls of a grizzly bear. (Updated with the correct video, although, they're all good!)

Pity this can't be found on our shores:

Thanks ever so, to the lovely Trooper's Gal.

Exclusive TOTUS Scoop From Iowahawk!!11!!!

Enjoy!

Obama's Descent Into Madness? Updated.

Our TOTUS, giggling like an idiot, worries his 60 Minutes interviewer.

His remarks came in a “60 Minutes” interview in which he was pressed by an incredulous Steve Kroft for laughing and chuckling several times while discussing the perilous state of the world’s economy.

“You're sitting here. And you're— you are laughing. You are laughing about some of these problems. Are people going to look at this and say, "I mean, he's sitting there just making jokes about money—” How do you deal with— I mean: explain. . .” Kroft asks at one point.

“Are you punch drunk?” Kroft says.

“No, no. There's gotta be a little gallows humor to get you through the day,” Obama says, with a laugh.

Holy crap! Just. . . I'm . . . how?. . . uh. . . oh. . it's gobsmackingly frightening.

Update: Casual diagnosis: Hypomania?

1. inflated self-esteem or grandiosity
2. decreased need for sleep (e.g., feels rested after only 3 hours of sleep)
3. more talkative than usual or pressure to keep talking
4. flight of ideas, or subjective experience that thoughts are racing
5. distractibility (i.e., attention too easily drawn to unimportant or irrelevant external stimuli)
6. increase in goal-directed activity (either socially, at work or school, or sexually) or psychomotor agitation
7. excessive involvement in pleasurable activities that have a high potential for painful consequences (e.g., engaging in unrestrained buying sprees, sexual indiscretions, or foolish business investments) [hoo-boy! foolish business investments? really? -ed.]
   

Why Capitalism Will Always Be Cool

Because a government agency could never allow this kind of fun:

h/t to the awesome PreSurfer.

All This Ugliness. . .

. . .Could have been avoided if you peeps woulda just gone along with this.

I wouldn't be selling insurance, and you'd still have plenty of money in your 401k. But no. . .

Dax is doing a good job of raising the alarm for things easily predictable just a few months ago that are now coming online. I didn't use the word inflation, at that time however, because it's a meaningless political phrase nowadays. Let's call it what it is: counterfeiting.

Thanks to Jimbo for this excellent link, as well.

Again I ask: Why pay the government before April 15, while money is still worth something?

Do you owe taxes? How about asking for an extension for filing? Businesses do this all the time, but regular worker bees don't consider it. Use your money while it's still worth something, give it back to the government after they've devalued it. That kinda small stuff adds up quickly when multiplied by millions. And it will cause extra work for the IRS drones. It's not like there's money to hire more of them.

People, people, people. Tea Parties are fun. We girls should know! But I'm begging you to shut off the flow in every practical and prudent way available. They've brazenly proven that they will listen to nothing but money.

Time for your money to talk. Make it say, so long, suckas!

A Sense of Proportion?

All you congresscritters and plutocrats that are fuming about, and protesting against AIG executives?

Maybe if financial execs threatened you with beheadings instead of mere embarrassment you could let them off the hook and release them back into the community.

But now you feign outrage at the bonuses awarded to people who do real work according to a contract with measurable parameters. 175 million or so? Most Americans realize that it's not a great amount in the face of a Trillion. And 175 million, as long as we're setting up Bad Examples, is maybe about a dollar per American taxpayer. (Not per citizen, mind you.)

Why, our Government wastes that much every day on useless printing of unreadable, laughable, fictional budgets.

Get a grip.

And now, a word from Mrs. Bane.

Go. Read her two recent posts. If you didn't know Bane's writing before, go discover it now.

I haven't had a paycheck in almost 5 months...

. . . so you can imagine how it felt to be selling insurance at the end of a 12-hour day to a woman with three children, no husband, and living entirely on the dole (that's welfare for you readers under age 35). How much could she afford, did she think?

$50 a month.

Fine and dandy. She wants your tax dollars to buy enough insurance from my company to make her kids quite comfortable should something untoward befall her. Not a problem for me, I could stand to have some government of my tax money come back my way in the form of a commission, y'know? Must be that "trickle up" economy Obama keeps talking about. Whatev.

Talk about a financial circle-jerk, though. Layers of it.

Ennyhoo, she's good with the proposal, ready to go, but has no checking account. Ah, then, game over.

"Oh, but come back on Tuesday. I'll get a new bank account on Tuesday. I'm going to the Bahamas tomorrow. I can't wait to get away from these kids, I need a break. I'm going on a cruise."

*shrug*
As in, Atlas.

Inexplicable

I can make my disagreeable job palatable when I think on the variety of folks I get to meet, last Tuesday taking the prize for Best in Show. From a morning appointment with third-generation shrimpers-- white trash marsh-dwellers who were doing their best to prove a foil to Darwinism by simple refusal to evolve-- to a beautiful young black woman and her three adorable kids in a pin-neat home by the river. Said young lady was engaged in conversation with my cohort, and I was left to be entertained by her best friend who had joined us in the living room.

Some question was posed about life matters, as per the script, and our hostess answered according to one of her fears of heights. Her gal pal had to look at me with a serious deadpan expression and state her fear of...

...midgets.

Midgets? WTF?

"Oh, I run screaming from them! Can't go to Disney World. If I see them in a store, I turn around and run for the door. Oh no. Not a midget. Not even in the movies! Oh Lord, don't let a midget touch me! No sir!"

Whatever do you think will happen if one touches you? my insatiable curiosity asked.

"I don't ever aim to find out. No sir. Not a midget. Remember that movie, I'm Gonna Get You, Sucka?

And there, all cultural cohesion and hope for common ground was lost as I had to admit that I had missed that cult classic.

But you can bet it's in my Netflix queue.

Van Morrison on CBS Sunday Morning

Oh yeah.

Talented. Rare. Van is still the man. He describes that "place". You know, that place where one gives themselves over the Muse, a trance, a dance... a real song.

Find that place for your soul.

Just sayin'.

Lullabye of the Last Man Working

Hush little baby, don't say a word,

Obama's gonna give you my mockingbird.

And if that mockingbird won't sing,

Obama's gonna give you my diamond ring.

And if that diamond ring turns to brass,

Obama's gonna tax us right up the ass.

And if our over-taxed ass goes broke,

Obama will rule over all us volk.

And if we volk even once complain,

Obama will declare us all insane.

And in the re-education camps

Obama's gonna give us all tattooed stamps.

And if we lose all our private wealth,

Obama's gonna say it's for all our health.

And if that health and wealth should fall,

You'll be the generation that supports us all.

-Joan of Argghh!

The Coroner of Munchkinville

He's still kickin' it at age 93, and going to Wizard of Oz festivals and signing autographs, 70 years later.

Somewhere, a Star Trek cast member just saw the future flash before their eyes.

Oh yeah. Regarding that "Stingray Shuffle" question:

Paul, in the comments below, informs that the answer can be found at Ugly Overload (a website name that sounds like a working title for The Bailout.)

Yep. Seen 'em that big off the coast of Florida. When they breach the surface, you think you've seen a whale. Ya'll be careful out there.

You Know You're From Florida if...

Socks are only for bowling.
You never use an umbrella because you know the rain will be over in five minutes.
A good parking place has nothing to do with distance from the store, but everything to do with shade.
Your winter coat is made of denim.
You can tell the difference between fire ant bites and mosquito bites.
You're younger than thirty but some of your friends are over 65.
Anything under 70 is chilly.
You pass on the right and honk at the elderly, but pull over for a funeral.
You've driven through Yeehaw Junction.
You could swim before you could read.
You have to drive north to get to The South.
You know that no other grocery store can compare to Publix.
Every other house in your neighborhood had blue roofs in 2004-2005.
You've gotten out of school early on Halloween to trick or treat before it got dark
You know that anything under a Category 3 just isn't worth waking up for.
You dread lovebug season.
You are on a first name basis with the Hurricane list. They aren't Hurricane Charley, Hurricane Frances... but Charley , Frances , Ivan and Jeanne.
You know what a snowbird is and you hate them.
You know why flamingos are pink.
You think a six-foot alligator is actually pretty average.
You were twelve before you ever saw snow, or you still haven't.
"Down South" means Key West.
"Panhandling" means going to Pensacola.
You think no-one over 70 should be allowed to drive.
Flip-flops are everyday wear.
Shoes are for business meetings and church.
No, wait, flip flops are good for church too, unless it's Easter or Christmas.
Sweet tea can be served at any meal.
An alligator once walked through your neighborhood.
You smirk when a game show's "Grand Prize" is a trip or cruise to Florida
You measure distance in minutes.
You have a drawer full of bathing suits, and one sweatshirt.
You get annoyed at the tourists who feed seagulls.
All the local festivals are named after a fruit.
A mountain is any hill 100 feet above sea level.
You think everyone from a bigger city has a northern accent.
You know the four seasons really are: almost summer, summer, not summer but really hot, and February.
It's not soda, cola, or pop. it's coke, regardless of brand or flavor, "What kinda coke you want?"
Anything under 95 is just warm.
You've hosted a hurricane party.
You go to a theme park for an afternoon, and know when to get on the best rides.
You understand the futility of exterminating cockroaches.
You can pronounce Okeechobee, Kissimmee , Ichnatucknee and Withlacoochee
You understand why it's better to have a friend with a boat, than have a boat yourself.
Bumper stickers on the pickup in front of you include: various fish, NRA, Nascar and Go Gators.
You were 5 before you realized they made houses without pools.
You were 25 when you first met someone who couldn't swim.
You get angry when people say " Florida isn't really part of the SOUTH."
You've worn shorts and used the A/C on Christmas.
You know what the "stingray shuffle" is, and why it's important!
You recognize Miami-Dade as " Northern Cuba ".
It's a perfect 72 degrees outside, but you run the A/C just to keep mildew from growing on your shoes.

(Borrowed, like a cup of sugar for the sweet tea, from Theo Spark, who is NSFW.)

The Plan

Have you ever heard of it? At least 12% of the population knows about it: The Plan (second segment in the radio show). I'm not even sure who implements it, except that it's White People, based on what the believers of The Plan intimate when they speak of Them and They. An interesting This American Life radio segment worth 11 minutes of your time. (Hey, it's NPR. You paid for it.)

Them and They are somehow perniciously and purposely neglectful of their duty to ...whomever. They are somehow allowing "benign neglect" of neighborhoods-- as if these neighborhoods had no neighbors in them-- in order to depress property prices so that they can now move into the neighborhoods and gentrify the area. "Gentrify", in 1964, was coined by a sociologist, naturally. The intro to the radio segment reads thus:

American cities have gone through a massive wave of gentrification in the last few decades. To some people, it's not a natural ebb and flow of the real estate market, but a plot, by rich, mainly white people, to take over the neighborhoods of poor, mainly black people. This American Life producer Jon Jeter reports on how, in neighborhoods all over the country, the plot has a name, "The Plan," and most people you talk to know about it.

So, if you're worried about Rush Limbaugh and how he appears to the Liberals, I think it might be good to see how we ALL seem to them, no matter what we do. You want to live closer to bus lines and work? You apparently are a co-conspirator in The Plan.

Go to the link here, and forward to minute 31:50 and learn about The Plan.

Discuss.

Feeling Targeted?

It's always okay to pray for luck:

Happy Friday!

.
.

To Sleep, Perchance to FAIL!

Oh, how I laughed:

Shoplifted from Frank J.

Thoughts Left Elsewhere.

I'm grateful to blogs that allow comments. Blogging is no fun without the give-and-take and I certainly don't like to just post the stuff I'm thinking about on my own. Maybe my comments will provoke you to go see what provoked me:

Many are tempted to bow down to the cult of personality in the hope for group identity and leadership. If leadership does not arise from one’s self first, what hope have we as a nation? If we do not lead, as Rush said clearly we must, then who will our children follow? There is still much to hope for at the personal and community level, at the state level. Rush has pointed to the exits in a clear and commanding way, and left the rest to us.

True leadership equips people for success, and does not demand fealty, followers, or offerings of cash. Few poseurs of our political class measure up.

*****

Not a man alive would sign up for such a job for less than underwater-oil-platform-welder-hazard-pay-overtime-and-a-half-salary.

*****

There is nothing wrong with emotions being stirred. It’s the only thing that provokes action. Lots of great minds are sitting behind keyboards, quietly moderate, excruciatingly logical and reasonable, inarguably and tediously scrupulous and without blame.

And nobody reads or listens to them.

Even so, it seems that the inclination of moderates is to sacrifice many good people on the altars of perfection and its elusive twin, “intellect.” Much good may it do them.

*****

We haven’t yet suffered unto blood, as did our forefathers. Life, fortune, and sacred honor were on the line for them. We can do no less.

Any “friend” who would agree, however wrongheadedly and soft-heartedly, to the financial pillaging of my home and my children can not stand with me in my hour of need. Therefore, what does it afford me to preserve a semblance while the reality is crushing my family?

*****

Context is a conundrum of sorts: the less you have, the more you can imagine.

*****

It’s always more fun to light a candle than to curse the darkness. Cuz, y’know, fire, and matches ‘n all. There’s always the possibility of conflagration.

*****

Dick: Now that Vman is here, you're gonna have to move that apostrophe...

Mark of the Beast

The Beastly Porkulus, Stagnatiolus, Spendulus projects will bear their Maker's Mark.

I fully expect to see this become a fad tattoo on young girls, ala, The Obama License Plate

Thanks ever-so to Jim Treacher, who, if you're not a fan of Twitter, he alone would be reason enough to join.

Obama is smarter than all the combined minds, interests, and personal investment that exists in the Stock Market

He is! He has arrogantly dismissed the Dow as nothing more than a political poll. I swear he did. I heard him say so.

Yeah. Hope and Change. You're soaking in it!


A small ray of hope exists for me in the thought that, regardless of every power possessed by the MSM (now, "butt-boys" as Rush calls them) to persuade, obfuscate and outright lie for Obama, the one thing they cannot prevent is our viewing of our own financial statements. There is precious little there for him to hide behind, and nothing so focuses the muddled political mind as personal penury. Obama had better hope he has the physical muscle to back up his theft.

Conversely, the troubling thing is that Obama is seeing our financial statements too, but he's just looking for whatever's left.

What's in your wallet?

Capitol One

Balaam's Ass, if you will. . .

Dear GOP,

Worrying about the messenger is a luxury afforded in good times.

When the house is on fire, I’ll listen to whomever has the blueprint for the exits.

Hammering Steele into a Plowshare

Yeee-ouch! Steele's been served. I paraphrase:

"You are not the de facto head of the GOP. You are the chair of the RNC. The head of the GOP is the millions of people across the land who hang up on the RNC when they call asking for donations. If you would be the head of the RNC, see about getting our primary system fixed so that Democrats do not choose our candidates. Stop trying to be a talking head on the television and get busy fixing the primary system."

He's calling him out, "where are your guts?"

Gutless. Frightened. "Why are you asking for donations? If the purpose of the RNC to support the success of Obama's agenda, then please stop sending me your press releases. PR flacks. Special interests. Why do RNC PR flacks beg to get on my show?"

He's enumerating his former unwavering support for Michael Steele during his campaign and how he's defended him in rough times. Now he's positively wailing on him. Deservedly.

Can't wait for the transcript.

. . .and another thing:

The New Republicans are soliciting thoughts on Rush's Speech.

It's a classy joint, but I crashed it anyway. What? I was polite, honest! Here's what I left there:

I have thought long and hard about the Rush Problem, and I remember back when I became a “New Republican,” back when Ronald Reagan was running for office. Yes, we were so numerous and young! And voting for an old, rich, white guy! He was controversial, he was vilified by the press as an idiot. He was outrageously non-nonplussed by his opponents and selectively tone-deaf to inane criticisms that had nothing to do with the principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

It’s not that hard, dear New Republicans, to let the truth be the Truth. And here’s a tough one to hang onto for the duration: if you seek any compromise with the truth for the sake of appearance and popularity, you will lose you soul, and your nation.

Ask yourselves what ransom you would give to have your Liberty back? (thanks, Braveheart!) Those who worked for 30-40 years and had no time to teach Civics to young people have yielded their future to those who did. And we funded their ability to stay home and poison young minds with lies, easy fixes, and vile dependency. We ransomed our fears for a comfortable future and now its gone. What did it profit us?

And now you, young Republicans must do a different sort of work, if you can: teach.

You could do worse than allow Rush Limbaugh to teach old-fashioned Civics lessons to your children. It is no longer taught in public school, so someone has to tell little minds and uneducated adults how the political world works. Don’t leave it up to ACORN and PBS.

Buck up, stop with the hand-wringing and the false belief that there is even ONE person on the Right that the Media can’t handily mock, belittle, vilify or denounce. Better to find ONE that they respect. Or fear. I know, that makes lesser hearts quake a bit, to think of someone finding something to fear in another.

But that’s not so bad as having an Executive that fears no one.

Michael Steele, PJTV, and The Corner can all kiss my ass.

The Media (including Hollywood) has done its work well over the years. The relentless criticism, the belittling, the jeering and mockery have done what guns and evil plots for world domination could have never done to the Republican Party: made it ashamed of itself.

Every Republican who fawned over Michael Steele because of his color deserves to be ejected from any rational conversation about leadership. Good grief, people, if the Democrats can sustain crazy Uncle Joe and bigots like Byrd, why can't we stand a bit of a good-natured asshole like Limbaugh? I've never seen him spew spittle like Barney Frank or Jeremiah Wright. I've never seen him angry. Passionate? Elevated rhetoric? Sure. But never angry.

The Corner, that bastion of self-doubting Conservatism, was eerily silent today, even for a Sunday. It will be amusing to see what the "elites" come up with, but it looks like the fix is in and everyone in the GOP got the memo. Ixnay on the Ushray. PJTV's home page has not a word. It's all Tea Party CPAC. Useless sell-outs to their own investment concerns. I don't necessarily blame PJTV for wanting to succeed, but to do so by shutting out, by cherry-picking, and muzzling the mavericks just looks really bad.

I'm no rah-rah for Rush. I think this is the first time I've ever posted on him. But I did listen carefully to his entire speech and I read the transcript, and I've mulled it over for hours now. I have to say that if plain speech, good humor, and direct truth is too much for the Republican Party to stand behind, then Rush is exactly Right. The Republican leaders continue to let circumstance, process, and the Media determine who they are and what they should do.

Rush set no policy, gave no marching orders, had no plan, no 12-step agenda, made no political play for himself. He is not an angry man except to the foppish crowd that thinks a raised voice and aggressive passion is tantamount to terrorism. Because clearly, they are terrified.

You want to degrade his speech on some sort of intellectual and dispassionate evaluation, fine. But I am disheartened to see so many on the Right being lulled by the false-sirens of "intellectualism" instead of intellect. I didn't see stupid or angry people in that room with Rush. I saw people. Just people looking to lead their party out of the Night.

Remember when our own party voters were something to be respected? Now we have to label them with vapid and ultimately useless categories of political elevation. As though Sarah Palin's governing record didn't speak to administrative prowess and an ability to get things done, and a heart for Conservatism. What more do we need in a leader?

I don't want Rush to be President, he'd be lousy at it. But I don't have any problem with his discourse, his views, or his core beliefs. He laid bare the very soul of both Democrats and Republicans and stood up for Conservatism without once mentioning Jesus, (so Allahpundit can rest easy!) or abortion, or gay marriage. That's more than any Conservative since Reagan has been able to articulate. And Rush can say it, because he is unafraid.

I now believe him when he says he is the Last Man Standing.

All the rest are kneeling at some other altar, hoping for something that won't make them look silly. Way too late for that. While they worry, they keep dreading that some jackbooted Conservative Christians will march into their bedroom, and it never happens. They keep waiting for someone to burn books and demand that everyone believe in God or else. And it never happens. It never will. Not from the Christians, anyway. . .

But here's an easier measure of what happened at CPAC on its closing night: after seeing that impassioned plea for the heart of Conservatism to continue beating, I feel hopeful about my country for the first time since McCain was nominated. [Which was the beginning of my despair.] I feel strengthened to not give up on building a future, as I confess I've been tempted to do.

But more than anything, I know that Liberty is unafraid of the Night. Let come what may, the darkness has never overcome the Light. It is enough that someone is still holding the torch aloft.

As for the rest of the lot, hope they all have a grand time espousing their intellectual views in the blind night of socialism.