Trust, Security, Apple

We cannot trust our government, so we must trust the technology | US news | The Guardian:

First of all, I don't believe that the NSA or other US government agency can't break the iPhone security. Interagency, they may have decided that they don't really care about these particular people so they are not going to break THIS ONE, but if the top security apparatus of the US can't break into an iPhone, the idiots at the top are even more incompetent than I thought. (and that is INCOMPETENT!)

I used to work with security stuff at IBM. We had a couple of guys that would "go missing" for a few weeks, "on business", but with nothing more official than that. The "over drinks / wink wink nod, nod, I really need to shoot you now was" ... NSA. It was VERY clear that they could break whatever was "secure", and were going to continue to do so.

Beyond that, consider this from John McAfee ...

With all due respect to Tim Cook and Apple, I work with a team of the best hackers on the planet. These hackers attend Defcon in Las Vegas, and they are legends in their local hacking groups, such as HackMiami. They are all prodigies, with talents that defy normal human comprehension. About 75% are social engineers. The remainder are hardcore coders. I would eat my shoe on the Neil Cavuto show if we could not break the encryption on the San Bernardino phone. This is a pure and simple fact. 

And why do the best hackers on the planet not work for the FBI? Because the FBI will not hire anyone with a 24-inch purple mohawk, 10-gauge ear piercings, and a tattooed face who demands to smoke weed while working and won't work for less than a half-million dollars a year. But you bet your ass that the Chinese and Russians are hiring similar people with similar demands and have been for many years. It's why we are decades behind in the cyber race.

If you don't know what "social engineers" are relative to computer security, they are "con men, grifters, pickpockets". If you want to get a little humility on how good such can be, take a look at this.   McAfee is VERY different ... he is running for president on the libertarian party this year ...

The top linked article is quite sad, but maybe the saddest part is this:

Perhaps most importantly, we need to end the culture of impunity that protects people who run illegal programs and continue to thrive in their careers after they are exposed, but vindictively pursues the whistleblowers who expose that illegality. 

Only such a system, that offers transparently meaningful oversight and real consequences for those who violate our trust, has any chance of being trustworthy enough to remove the persistent global demand for platforms that preserve user privacy and security even at the expense of weakening the capabilities of their policing and national security agencies.

Seriously? With BO in the White House and Hillary Clinton running for president? With the guys that exposed Planned Parenthood's  selling of body parts under indictment?  Why just a few years ago the MSM had a cow over tracking who was calling the cells of known terrorists! Now they want "more trust"?

What part of THERE IS NO TRUST are these people missing?  In order to have such a thing as trust, one would need shared values, say Christianity. A written Constitution that was actually followed would be good. Perhaps after a few decades of return to such, some level of "trust" in organizations and governments might recover.

Those are gone ... learn to be as untrusting and independent as you possibly can be, and then learn some more!

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Stealing Your Attention, Or Your Wallet

A Pickpocket’s Tale - The New Yorker:

One of the regular themes I return to is that one of the most dangerous of human  weaknesses is that ALL OF US look at things from a human perspective! It is a weakness that shows the old "how stupid could people be to assume the earth was the center of the universe" hubris ding to be an even worse hubris ding at a higher level!

Well, they used their natural brains, just as you are using yours now! What is it that you expected them to do?

Case in point, pickpockets. I love the opening of the linked article:

A few years ago, at a Las Vegas convention for magicians, Penn Jillette, of the act Penn and Teller, was introduced to a soft-spoken young man named Apollo Robbins, who has a reputation as a pickpocket of almost supernatural ability. Jillette, who ranks pickpockets, he says, “a few notches below hypnotists on the show-biz totem pole,” was holding court at a table of colleagues, and he asked Robbins for a demonstration, ready to be unimpressed. Robbins demurred, claiming that he felt uncomfortable working in front of other magicians. He pointed out that, since Jillette was wearing only shorts and a sports shirt, he wouldn’t have much to work with. 

“Come on,” Jillette said. “Steal something from me.” 

Again, Robbins begged off, but he offered to do a trick instead. He instructed Jillette to place a ring that he was wearing on a piece of paper and trace its outline with a pen. By now, a small crowd had gathered. Jillette removed his ring, put it down on the paper, unclipped a pen from his shirt, and leaned forward, preparing to draw. After a moment, he froze and looked up. His face was pale. 

“Fuck. You,” he said, and slumped into a chair.

Robbins held up a thin, cylindrical object: the cartridge from Jillette’s pen.

The whole deal is worth a read, but the bottom line is that our attention can be controlled -- advertisers know it, politicians know it, the media REALLY knows it, magicians obviously know it, and a world class pickpocket will take what he wants EVEN IF YOU KNOW WHAT HE IS DOING!

The absolute dumbest thing any of us have is confidence! It is true that we can't live without SOME, but it is also critical that we know our limitations! 

Those that are manipulating you know that your attention can be manipulated. You can't stop them ALL, but you can do MUCH better if you are aware!

"But physical technique, Robbins pointed out, is merely a tool. “It’s all about the choreography of people’s attention,” he said. “Attention is like water. It flows. It’s liquid. You create channels to divert it, and you hope that it flows the right way.”"

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Time Travel With PJ

Even Stoned And 16, I Couldn’t Have Imagined This Dystopian Election - The Daily Beast:

This is entertainment, PJ Style. Apparently the part about the illegitimate son is true... obviously, none of his voters care what he did in his past life anyway -- he is a D AND a SOCIALIST!  We are talking complete "get out of jail free"! If the mother was insane and he killed the kid, it would likely add 5% at least to his vote from the left!

I've started to like the Dead a lot better as an old guy -- MORE PATIENCE! But this is still pretty funny!

"Hillary Rodham has a longer radioactive half-life than the Grateful Dead, and half of them are—I regret to inform you—dead, gratefully or otherwise. But they’re still packing venues. (Joke from the future: “What’s a Grateful Dead fan say when he runs out of pot? ‘What a shitty band.’”) "

I also loved this section. My favorite reference to the "Port Huron Statement" is here ...

If Bring-Down Bernie gets elected, all of life will be like being trapped in a meeting of the Students for a Democratic Society writing the Port Huron Statement until the end of time.

He probably won’t get elected. But that’s only because of LBJ avatar reincarnation of Shiva the Destroyer Intercontinental Ballistic Sister Hillary Rodham.

You know that art major who chews her hair and thinks she’s a witch? Hillary is a witch. Wait and see the spell she casts on this guy Bill she’s going to marry who is the Town Dog-Catcher in East Jesus, Arkansas, or something, and the next thing he knows he’s on trial in the U.S. Senate for getting head. 

Unless you make her chill out.

Just read it if you like PJ, if you don't like him, AVOID IT! I'm a conservative, not a liberal, I actually think it is good that not everyone enjoys what I do!

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Trusting Liberals on Religion

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/week-god-22016

How nice of MSNBC to have a feature "This week in God", so they can malign the religious or candidates that try to represent them:

That’s actually the argument Cruz made on NBC’s “Meet the Press” earlier this week. As the Texas Republican put it, “[I]f liberals are so confident that the American people want unlimited abortion on demand, want religious liberty torn down, want the Second Amendment taken away, want veterans’ memorials torn down, want the crosses and stars of David sandblasted off of the tombstones of our fallen veterans, then go and make the case to the people.” 

The notion that liberals “want the crosses and stars of David sandblasted off of the tombstones of our fallen veterans” seemed new to me, but Cruz campaign spokesman Rick Tyler defended the claim in a McClatchy interview, citing “several cases where memorials to veterans – in the shape of crosses – built on public land have triggered lengthy legal battles.”

Hmm ... you could almost laugh at the fact that liberals DO want "unlimited abortion, removal of religious liberty (in public), removal of the 2nd amendment" ... they aren't going to argue those, but the current claim is that "if you like your cross on your grave, you can keep it".

Indeed. "Liberals" are inherently trustworthy. Well, they didn't say what it would COST to keep your healthcare! Remember WAY back in '08 when BO and Hildebeast were BOTH of the idea that marriage was a "sacred rite, between a MAN and a WOMAN"? Hell, now days, "man and woman" are both "Cisgender"! "Marriage? Between what? A "questioning human" and a sheep? Go for it! -- just another bump on the road to absolute "roll your own sexuality".

Here in MN we were ASSURED that only backward ill informed people would even IMAGINE that anyone was on the path to even SUGGEST gay "marriage" in MN, so the idea of a Constitutional amendment "preventing it" was a ridiculous example of paranoia! The amendment failed, the Democrats took control of both houses and the governorship, and six moths later, gay "marriage" was legal in MN. Now tell me again why anyone with an ounce of conservatism should trust a "liberal"?

Indeed, isn't "liberal" just another way of saying "whatever feels good TODAY!"?

Oh wait, if the "wrong person" reads this blog and is offended, I guess I could be jailed for "hate speech" -- only fair after all, someone was OFFENDED!

Take heart though, this important segment ends on a positive note!

* Faith traditions don’t usually endorse movies, but apparently this one’s a little different: “On February 3, the upcoming indie horror film The Witch benefited from the sort of publicity that its studio, A24, might have shied away from even 10 years ago: The movie was officially endorsed as ‘a Satanic experience’ by the Satanic Temple.”

Nothing warms the cockles of an MSNBCers heart (both of them )  than a solid "Satanic experience"!

Perhaps they can get together to cast a spell to increase the viewership of MSNBC to THREE rather than just the usual TWO!

The Top 1% In Each State

http://mentalfloss.com/article/61362/what-youd-have-make-be-top-1-each-state

A little perspective on the evil 1% in each state. In Arkansas, you can get there with $228K. Sure, that may sound like "a whole lot" to a bunch of you, but consider that for the vast number of people that hit that lofty "top 1%", it is for a year or a few years at most. Perhaps they had a stock that did really well, got some significant award or bonus from work -- or got "bought out" so they are not likely to be working for the same amount of money for awhile, if ever.

While the "malefactors of great wealth" get LOTS of abuse these days, you don't fly around in a private jet on $228-$500K or so even if you make it for a FEW years!

American has always allowed you to hate these horrible folks all you want. What is new in this non-Constitutional mobocracy is that now it is perfectly legitimate to loot any amount wished up to ALL OF IT from these nasty high earning beasts!

In olden times, we used to have "Nursery Rhymes" like the "The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs" in which even small children learned that when the envious or greedy decided that they would cut open the "Goose" to get it all right now, they discovered that they destroyed the natural order of things and they ceased to receive the bounty they were already receiving.

But I'm certain there is no lesson there for the rush to socialism we see today!

BO, In His Own Actions

http://www.westernjournalism.com/watch-krauthammer-just-pointed-out-exactly-why-obama-skipped-scalias-funeral-with-3-words/

Anyone that cares already knows what BO thinks about "traditions", "honor", "respect" and all that "stupid stuff".  Whatever he "says" -- and how could ANYONE care what the incontinent gasbag "says" any more, need only to look at his ACTIONS to realize the truth of what I've been saying since 2008.

He wrote it in his book for goodness sakes!!!!!!

The reaction to BO is precisely TRUMP! Will Trump fix anything? Most likely not -- in fact, he will most likely make it worse, but once once people are completely angry, they "just want revenge". Maybe stupid, maybe destructive, maybe even terminal, but after a certain point, it just doesn't matter.

As I've wrote more than a few times, "Let It Burn" being one that springs to mind, after a certain point,  one needs to accept the inevitable!

BO doesn't give a RATS ASS for "civility", "decency", "statesmanship", or "being president" -- he is and always has been in it to "destroy the colonial powers" -- and pick up as much as he can for himself while he is doing it.

The saddest part is that we live in an area of N America where well over 50% of the population doesn't care enough to know, and if they DID fully know, their biggest concern would still align with BO pretty well -- What's in it for them!!!

NPR Keeps On Borking

Robert Bork's Supreme Court Nomination 'Changed Everything, Maybe Forever' : It's All Politics : NPR:

Robert Bork died the Wednesday before the Saturday Scalia died. The following Monday I went up to help move my Dad to a nursing home for what we hope will be a short stay and got to hear a LOT of NPR. One name I heard very little of was "Bork". When a name becomes a verb, as in "Borking", we know that something major happened.

Whenever a liberal judge dies with an R in the WH, the press pretty much goes berserk about "maintaining the balance in the court" -- how critical it is, and how virtually any action taken by whatever D's are in opposition is completely justified. Somehow I doubt there will be much of that discussion this time.

One of the COMMON things of which we are now reminded is that Democrats confirmed Anthony Kennedy in '88, an election year, and that is a "precedent", but the only reason the confirmation was in '88 is because the Bork debacle had happened in '97. Note as well that the Democrats were able force Reagan a two term VERY popular president, to appoint a clear moderate that is today a standard "swing vote" on the court, and completely rejected a totally solid candidate on an ideological basis only, thus setting the precedent for exactly what we have today!

Simply reporting that fact isn't good enough for NPR even today, thus they persist in "Borking"  ...

He opposed the Supreme Court's one man, one vote decision on legislative apportionment.

To understand this, you need to go to "Reynolds vs Sims" (1964) and "Baker vs Carr" (1964). Everyone got to vote in all cases, the issue was how equal the numbers in districts were and if the question was a legislative, judicial federal or state question. Those rulings gave us the strange geometry to congressional and state districts that we see today. Both decisions also had Constitutional intent and States Rights issues. It had NOTHING to do with each person getting to vote!

He wrote an article opposing the 1964 civil rights law that required hotels, restaurants and other businesses to serve people of all races.

While "liberals" love the use of coercive FORCE to achieve their visions, conservatives like to use persuasion and market forces, plus they like to have people make decisions by vote at the lowest level possible. The feds allowed states to decide on discriminating against smokers on a state by state basis. Currently, they are doing the same with marijuana. The court could have allowed states to continue to decide how to regulate abortion in each state.

NPR then and NPR now wants to justify "Borking" because he was "a racist". What he was, like Scalia, was a man who believed in rule of law, as did our founders. They EXPLICITLY wanted the states to be allowed maximal freedom from federal coercion, so that each would be a "laboratory" where laws and polices could be "tested" and people could "vote with their feet" if they like the policies of some states better than others!

He opposed a 1965 Supreme Court decision that struck down a state law banning contraceptives for married couples. There is no right to privacy in the Constitution, Bork said.

Again, he was against the FEDERAL government FORCING states to comply! Which is what the Constitution is against as well -- because the Constitution was explicitly written to LIMIT  centralized authoritarian government because it is an extreme danger to liberty!

As I've written before, any that want to read the Constitution will find that Bork was right, there is no "right to privacy" in the Constitution ... all "penumbra"!

CERTAINLY if we as a nation wanted to create a federal level "right to privacy", we could write a Constitutional Amendment for it, debate it, and approve it, and THEN there would be a "Right to Privacy" ENUMERATED in the Constitution!

But we are not that kind of people anymore. Even the "history" of 1987 and 1988 needs to be re-written to supposedly support whatever the current desires of "The Party" might be. NOTHING -- not words, not events, not lives, not even living or recently dead people are allowed to have a separate "truth" from the narrative of "The Party". **ALL** ... truth, meaning and life must be sacrificed at the alter of "The Party" and whatever it's current holy writ is freshly minted to be!

Reality has died under the effects of being constantly "Borked" each and every day. Thus, we have TRUMP, and the media and TP wonder how it can be that people seem to believe him even when he is "not factual"!!

When there is no Way, Truth or Life, the people create idols, and lo, they bowed before the orange god of Trump (Baal)! ... not surprising since many had previously bowed before the mulatto god of BO!



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Recent History, For the Left Eye Only

Turned Around - The New Yorker:

I have a deep appreciation of the superior ability of the general lefty brain to generate narrative, if I ever complete my fiction work, it will be a MIRACLE!

From the POV of the left, "the big story of the last 50 years" is the rise of the RIGHT!

The biggest story of the past fifty years in American politics has been the ascendancy of the right, and it’s a story of apostasy. At each stage of the conservative movement’s long march to power, crucial aid was provided by heretics from the left. Progressives recoiled from the New Deal and turned reactionary; ex-Communists helped to launch National Review, in the nineteen-fifties; recovering socialists founded neoconservatism in the sixties and seventies; New Left radicals turned on their former comrades and former selves in the Reagan years.

Yes, forced bussing, Medicare, massive increases in welfare, Abortion on Demand, affirmative action, feminism, Political Correctness, gay rights/"marriage", open borders, massive increases in government regulation of all aspects of our lives, BOcare, states legalizing pot, etc, etc, all took place during the "rise of conservatism"!

The article really needs to be read to be imagined -- let alone believed. The idea that "people tend to move from left toward the right"  as they age is covered, with some of the standard epitaphs like "mugged by reality' inserted, but then the creative brain waves this as the meaning of the commonly noted left to right movement with age:

It’s like blaming your spouse for your own unfaithfulness. Political conversions are painful affairs, as hard to face up to as falling out of love or losing your religion. Or maybe harder. Religious faith, being beyond the reach of reason, doesn’t have to answer gotcha questions about a previously held position. There’s a special contempt reserved for the political apostate—an accusation of intellectual collapse, an odor of betrayal.

Got that? There IS no reason for people to move right -- it is embarrasing (to them) that some do. They are "apostates", "betrayers" ... or maybe they just had an "intellectual collapse"!

See the left has been unable to achieve utopia (yet), and there is no question that MUST be due to "the rise of the right"!

Chambers thought he was defecting to the losing side, and even now conservatives feel like a beleaguered minority; meanwhile, the right has secured power in just about every American institution except the academy. Political correctness is, in part, a reaction to the defeat of the left’s egalitarian dreams, the kind of mutation that occurs in isolation from the larger gene pool. If you can’t overturn Citizens United, you can at least rename a university building.

See, the "right" has "some position" in most institutions -- "except education". They have "media",  Fox and Talk Radio, and it is hard to shut them completely off on the Internet!  Note how the idea of a Constitution is simply GONE -- the idea that "free speech" means that you have to have MONEY if you want to speak to 300 million plus people is simply bunk! Citizens United just needs to be "overturned" -- the fact that there are ANY conservatives around is too much of a "rise".

And so, for "The Party", any vestige of conservatism is WAY too much! Oh, and our country has slipped so far RIGHT that we are overdue for a giant "backlash" -- that will no doubt usher in the utopia that the left is certain is just around the corner!

Perhaps BS?

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Scalia and Ginsburg, Buddies and Hope

Read Justice Ginsburg’s moving tribute to her “best buddy” Justice Scalia - Vox:

I am reminded of Job 1:7

The LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the LORD, "From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it."

God and Satan are definitely opposed, but they interact rather civilly in Job, and it has always at least bothered me emotionally. What I want to see is Elijah in with the prophets of Baal:

1 Kings 18:37-38 Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that You, O LORD, are God, and that You have turned their heart back again." 38 Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

My understanding of Job is a premonition of Christ. Job was a just man, whom God allowed Satan to attack so that God might be glorified and that we might ponder the miracle of the perfect sacrifice of Christ each Lent. Job was tested up to the point of losing his earthy life -- he questioned God, as did Christ,  ("My God my God, why has Thou forsaken me?") but he did not succumb to do Satan's bidding and curse God. God is big enough for all our questions,

That Satan would come before God when called is no mystery -- God is outside time, and Satan is already defeated.

My theory as to "why Satan?" is bound up in "Free Will". God is pure love. Pure love is obedient -- especially to pure good, knowledge and power, but God's Creation, first in the form of Satan, later in the form of man, rebelled and fell.  So the story of creation, already known and complete to God, is the story of redemption, of which we are part.

There is no mystery in Scalia being to willing to befriend Ginsburg. He was a tremendous practicing Christian, his faith demanded it. For Ginsburg though, it is quite amazing.

As a lapsed and non-practicing Jew, she is clearly a rebel in the Satan mold (as are all our fallen natures). No matter the God given role for women, she has rebelled and left Judaism and her zeal for the sacrifice of millions of children to Moloch has more and more consumed her as she has aged, being unwilling that any should have the power to save even fully viable babies from slaughter.

If Satan were to repent, would he be saved and all creation snap back to perfection? I'd like to think so, but I KNOW that were Ginsburg to submit to the will of God, the joy in Heaven would  be great (as it is when any sinner repents).

I'm out visiting my Granddaughter, and it is Lent, so I have an example of new life and promise close at hand, and am trying to walk toward Easter with the faith that God can renew even this nation.

Would it not be amazing if Ginsburg were to realize at the funeral of her friend Scalia that hope was indeed not dead, and she could even at this late point in her life come to Christ, then having an eternity to spend with her "best buddy"? Watching the media turn on her as she changed her opinion on a number of 5 to 4 decisions not yet announced, changing them from now 4-4 to 4-3 would be nearly as wonderful as watching the fire from heaven come down and consume the sacrifice, the altar, and the water in the trenches.

Faith and Hope are inexorably linked. I got to see Reagan and the revival of America in the '80s from the stain of the 60's and '70s. I have a Granddaughter. No matter how dark it seems, wonderful things CAN happen -- even in this "Vale of tears".

They WILL however happen on the final Easter! Though millions of innocent die around us, our Hope is certain!

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Even The Left Misses W

Donald Trump makes me miss George W. Bush - The Washington Post:

As the left drives the nation deeper and deeper into the abyss, even THEY miss the combatants of times past, in this case, George W Bush, Eisenhower can amazingly, even the embodiment of evil, Karl Rove!

As the ever excreble EJ Dionne puts it here:

"I had a twinge of nostalgia watching George W. Bush campaign for his little brother in South Carolina Monday night."

Ah yes, "civility". Prior to W, no president had been treated as badly as longly by the MSM. Dionne now finds Trump calling people "liars" to be unseemly -- when W was in office it was the daily harangue from all points left!

But mostly, W’s cameo in the 2016 campaign served as a reminder that, not too long ago, conservative politics wasn’t so beastly. Bush, wading into the manure pile that is the 2016 Republican primary fight, was pleasant, civil and decent.

Being on the left means having no memory, because consistency is something that must be avoided at all costs. Pretty much any conservative of a decade or so ago seems worthy of praise at the latest level of constant cultural decline -- it's just that the left looks at it as "progress" day to day, except when they look across today's isle.

LBJ begets Nixon. Carter seemed like the worst things could become on the left, but then there is BO, who shows every sign of giving us Trump.

As we tumble down the abyss, even the lefties realize that things are getting worse -- but they can't see it in their own candidates, and find lawlessness, scandal, rank partisanship, etc from their own to be "refreshing" -- as long as it is the "conservative" ox that is gored.

At this late stage of decline, the funhouse mirrors start to even make the proprietors of the carnival, those of TP to feel a bit nauseous at times. Good preparation for that stale urine smell in the hallways of the grey cinder blocks of socialism. A strong stomach is required to stand in line with a hangover waiting for whatever the all powerful state has available today -- toilet paper? rot gut alcohol? maybe some stale bread or even some nether cut of meat.

In 10 years, we will certainly miss Trump. It's like any state moving moving toward socialism.

Somebody asks, "How are you doing?" ... Oh, pretty good. Worse than last year, but better than I'll be next year!

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God Loves Obama

Jonah Goldberg: If Obama really wants to reduce ‘meanness,’ now is his chance | Opinion | host.madison.com:

God DOES love Obama of course! He loves ALL of us, even me! To God, ALL lives really do matter. As Jonah puts it ...

Well, let no one say the moral arc of the universe does not bend toward second chances.

Indeed -- the universe is wired so we ALL get a LOT of chances to turn from our wicked ways, and at a very minimum practice some flashes of consistency between our actions and our words.

Repentance and redemption! The chance to "get it right this time with the help of God"! It's Lent, it is the perfect time to reflect on how much opportunity Christ has blessed us with the see the error of our ways, repent and begin afresh!

Just before Scalia died, BO uttered the following:

In Springfield, Illinois, last week, President Obama commemorated the ninth anniversary of his bid for the White House. He admitted that one of his “few regrets” was his inability “to reduce the polarization and the meanness in our politics.”

It's as if God heard him and said "OK Barack, here is a chance!".

Obama could prevent all this strife. He could say he will leave this appointment up to his successor. Or he could appoint a conservative during the Senate recess (Sen. Ted Cruz, anyone?) who would serve only until the end of the following session. That would preserve the power balance on the court for the time being.

Such diplomacy would go a long way to prevent — or at least reduce — further polarization and meanness in our politics.

Just imagine how much healing such a change of heart could engender! It might even go a long way toward moving the scales of retribution back to the time of Bork. A way to let actions show the truth of an honest heart bent to reduce the "polarization and meanness in our politics"!

God never gives up. He continues to give us ALL opportunities to take actions to reach out and heal this broken world and nation.

Obama is certainly a person for which it is VERY easy to be cynical about his statements and real motives. God has given him a great opportunity to show what is really in his heart!

Praise be to God!


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BO Regrets of Obstruction

http://www.wsj.com/articles/regrets-hes-had-a-few-1455821266

Hit the wrong key on this one and it got posted before ready. Sorry -- pleading white line fever from 12 hours on the road!

Here WH discussion on BO "regrets" he voted to filibuster Alito as a Senator:

And frankly, looking back on it, the president thinks he should have just followed his own advice.” (What is sin? “Being out of alignment with my values.”) It’s fair to doubt the genuineness of Obama’s contrition. Still, what else has he ever regretted, other than failing to “explain” his policies better?

When there is no God and you set yourself up as god, (as BO clearly has), "sin" is when you don't live up to your OWN values -- or to be more precise, when you get CAUGHT not living up to YOUR OWN values. How convenient -- do you seek absolution for your "sins" from yourself as well?

The rest of the article is good, but pretty much "inside baseball" on Senate machinations over nominees. Since we are going to hear A LOT about "obstructionist Republicans" the rest of this year, I thought this was interesting ...

Even if Democrats don’t win this year, a young and able nominee could be considered again by a future Democratic president in the 2020s. George H.W. Bush nominated John Roberts to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1992, but the Senate failed to act and the nomination expired. George W. Bush nominated him again in 2001, but Sen. Patrick Leahy, then chairman of the Judiciary Committee, refused to hold hearings. Roberts was finally confirmed in 2003, after Republicans took the Senate.

Got that? Democrats held up John Roberts effectively from 1992 - 2003 with two separate opportunities, in which they stiffed him TWICE!  Not something we heard a lot of crying of alligator tears from the TP controlled MSM over is it???

BO, Shit From Shinola

Obama’s shinola | Power Line:

It's never been very clear what BO actually knows when he is off a teleprompter, but he is certainly convinced that the rest of the country's intelligence level would make "The Jerk" look like a genius in comparison.

Oh, yes, there are ALL SORTS of good reasons why BO voting for a filibuster as a Senator was not "divisive", "partisan", "obstructionist", etc. He just couldn't come up when asked without a teleprompter feed!

Hey, it was "THE PARTY (D)" doing the filibuster! Those are the GOOD GUYS!

But this is the Supreme Court. And it’s going to get some attention. And we have to ask ourselves as a society a fundamental question: Are we able to still make this democracy work the way it’s supposed to, the way our Founders envisioned it? And I would challenge anyone who purports to be adhering to the original intent of the Founders, anybody who believes in the Constitution, coming up with a plausible rationale as to why they would not even have a hearing for a nominee made in accordance with the Constitution by the President of the United States ,,,

Ah yes, Mr "Constitution"! Let the EPA make and enforce laws over the objections of congress, shove through healthcare "reform" as a "tax", decree your own immigration policy by executive order and use the IRS to attack the Tea Party. I'm sure I'm missing some -- besides, the BO Court itself treats the Constitution as used toilet paper already!

As the article says, this act is WAY past old!
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SCOTUS Nomination Solution

How Republicans Can Win the Supreme Court Media Battle | Ricochet:

Most of the thoughts in this column have been flitting through my head, the author saved me the time of trying to write them. Not sure if I would have come up with the "War Games" reference, I love it!

He suggests that the key to "not playing" is for all the Republicans to utter the following:

“We believe it is the obligation of the next president of the United States to nominate a successor to Justice Scalia. Such a dramatic shift in the balance of the court, so close to an election, should carry with it the voice of the people.”

Democrats are MUCH better than this, partially because the media helps them -- how often to do hear the exact same lines about "war on women", "income inequality" or "anti-science". At least in this battle we won't hear the old shibboleth about "balance on the court"!

Conservatives have a TERRIBLE tendency to be direct and truthful. These are of course VIRTUES in the real world, but they are awful disadvantages in politics. The idiotic Mitch McConnell statement about "not nominating" is a great example. True, helpful to the nation, and direct -- and politically disastrous!

Jonah Goldberg has an excellent column on how if BO ACTUALLY wanted to "reduce meanness", the Scalia death just gave him a great legacy opportunity:

In Springfield, Illinois, last week, President Obama commemorated the ninth anniversary of his bid for the White House. He admitted that one of his “few regrets” was his inability “to reduce the polarization and the meanness in our politics.”

I do feel that God REGULARLY gives BO GIGANTIC object lessons in potential humility and repentance -- call ISIS the "JV team" and they immediately take over huge sections of the mideast, say "red line" and they cross it right away and you have to get help from the adult in the room, Putin!  Utter "we have ISIL contained" in the AM and that very afternoon (here) ISIS attacks in Paris!

Now this ... lie that your "regret" is "polarization and meanness" when you are the main instigator of it,  clearly relish it, and a couple days later God calls home one of the greatest jurists in history who is kind, loving, brilliant, and loved by even the hard left winger Ruth Ginsburg! If BO actually wanted to reduce "polarization and meanness", as Jonah points out, it would be EASY!

Obama could prevent all this strife. He could say he will leave this appointment up to his successor. Or he could appoint a conservative during the Senate recess (Sen. Ted Cruz, anyone?) who would serve only until the end of the following session. That would preserve the power balance on the court for the time being.

Anyway, I think the Republicans need to go ahead and fake like they are going though the process -- hold hearings, say a lot of stuff about what kinds of issues this is going to be critical in -- presidential decrees on Climate Change, immigration, guns, and who knows what. Rulings on the forced funding of government unions, etc, etc.

Then of course have a big dramatic vote in "September" where the Republicans would have SOME fairly unusual level of control on the messaging, where the candidate is rejected -- with a lot of rememberance of of Bork.

But, it is unlikely that they can pull that off, and it is unlikely they can stick to message.

They don't play politics well, and they don't NOT play politics well. That is why the ONLY conservative approach is to REDUCE the size and intrusion of politics in all our lives, which is the principle the country was founded on.


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Slick Gets Some British Coverage

Former Miss Arkansas Sally Miller says Bill Clinton was so-so in bed | Daily Mail Online:



Yes, Slick Willie -- only the prudish right wing sorts care about such prurient details,. Oh sure, she claims that her life was threatened, but nobody but "the vast right wing conspiracy" would even give such things the time of day!



Looks like the "vast conspiracy" is world wide!



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