Wednesday, July 02, 2008

If He was an R, He Could Be Censured

Power Line: Enjoying the Good Life in a Mean Country

While it is news to most of the MSM sheep, the only thing "new" about BO as a politician is that his graft is bigger and his cronies are more shady than the average Democrat pickpocket. This post covers a few more of the sordid details ... ho hum, BO gets sweetheart deals on a subprime loan and a giant book deal. Why not? He is GOOD! for goodness sake! It isn't like he is some evil Republican that has like grubbed for money WORKING or (perish the thought) tried to get (horror) profits! Can't have those profits! A little graft from convicted felon buddy Uncle Tony? Hey, NO PROBLEM, see that "D" next to his name? Talk about your free pass. You can be the Pope of Hope AND live in a 2 million home you paid 1.6 for because your felon buddy helped you, AND you got a sweetheart loan, AND a book company gave you a deal they would give to nobody else! Talk about your "new kind of politician"!

Now THIS is Newsworthy!

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time - Blogs from CNN.com

So I wonder if BO had any "incidents" with anyone in '87? Maybe he is a "hot head" too? Who knows, all it takes is somebody to "make the claim", and I KNOW that the MSM will have it listed as a headline, right? Heck, that is only 21 years ago. I wonder what the statute of limitations is on roughing up a Sandinista?; assuming it happened of course. I love the special deal that since McCain is a "renegade", so he has crossed swords with many Republicans, it makes it "especially believable" that one could just report an out of hand statement from someone with an axe to grind from an incident that allegedly happened in '87. I wonder what else it is that the MSM is going to suddenly find Republicans so believable on? I thought Republicans were greedy, ignorant, evil liars? Maybe at least some of them have suddenly reformed?

See, it is is ONLY Republicans that engage in the "politics of personal destruction", no way the MSM or Democrats would EVER be guilty of such a thing! They just NEVER report on "rumor and innuendo", that is one of the ways that we can tell that the MSM and the Democrats are good and Republicans are evil!

A Nation of Cowards

A Nation of Cowards

This is a nicely written laymen oriented philosophical treatise on the relationship between gun rights and freedom. The bottom line is pretty easy to understand--the only enforcement of the idea that government exists at the consent of a the governed is an armed populace. If the governed have no actual power to revoke that consent, then it is only a matter of time that the government will rule as it pleases, consent be damned. After 9-11, many liberals seemed to want to compare the 3K deaths to "car accidents", and yet "one shooting is too many, guns need to be banned".

There seems to be a significant dichotomy there, but I think it actually turns out consistent. On one hand a nation ought to "learn to live with" mass murder by terrorists, and at the same time the general public ought to simply hope that some form of public protection or "social justice" can save them from the depredations of criminals. Control of the masses in a Fascist state demands a certain level of docility in order to be effective. Both the arms and maybe more importantly, the basic idea of individual responsibility for protecting ones own life, family and home is critical to the breaking of the spirit, and the populace accepting their position as wards of the state.

While Nazi Fascism was active and promotional of German exceptionalism as a collective, there is no reason that Fascism must always take that approach, and it appears that the current US virus is taking the opposite track since the historical American spirit is far more individual than collective. There seems to be a move to actually destroy any aspects of American exceptionalism along with the move to Fascism and in it's place to make former "Americans" into "citizens of the world", "part of the world community" where any of the "specialness" of America is removed and we stumble along as a "former world power" -- more than mildly ashamed of our history, but ever seeking approval from our European, UN, or Third World "betters".

Majority Against Freedom?

Poll: Majority against free trade - CNN.com

The MSM seems to think that a majority of American's being against free trade is a problem for "McCain". I'd say it will turn out to be just a bit bigger problem than that. Global Warming may or may not be a problem, and it may or may not be due to human efforts, but I'll let you in a big secret; Trade **IS** Human Caused! What people think and do DOES make a difference in trade!

So what does it mean to be "against free trade"? To the extent that we know anything at all about economics (and if we know anything about anything, it would be hard to imagine that we don't know anything about a 100% human initiated area like economics), then FREE TRADE IS GOOD! Nothing in economics is much more certain than that. Saying 51% of Americans are against something that basic relative to economics is worse than 51% of Americans thinking that babies are delivered by storks! Human beings created economics, they invented neither sex or babies, and sex and babies will continue to happen no matter what people believe. Not so with economics!

How many times as the press lamented belief in creationism? A lot, but science knows WAY less about the physical universe than we do about Economics, no scientist yet has indicated that the universe is 100% created by and for humans and exists only because of human interaction like the economy. Again, the universe will continue operation no matter what we think about it, but it has been shown again and again that when groups of people get stupid ideas about economics, it is is WAY easy to destroy the economy. In fact, it is MUCH easier than having a good one!

How many times have they lamented that some % of Americans see a connection between Iraq and Al Quaeda? A bunch, yet "proving a negative" is pretty much impossible, and proving a negative when there are some "inconvenient facts" like connections of Iraq to the first WTC bombing and some of the key folks that fled Afghanistan fleeing to Iraq. The MSM may well be right, there may be "no connection", but their idea that it is somehow "impossible for a rational person to believe" it is "out there" and VERY selective on what is rational / believable at best. It takes only ONE black swan to disprove the theorem "all swans are white".

But what about this? 100% of economists will tell you that free trade is good, it is in fact the cornerstone of economic success, without which we would be back somewhere between medieval serfs and Soviet Gulag slaves. What is more, since economics is all human created, if we CAN'T understand something that 100% of economists agree on, then is there ANYTHING that is "knowable"?

The answer is no, there is not. To the accuracy of this poll, 51% of Americans have left rationality behind and are blindly following the manipulations of the MSM or some emotion, whim or error of their own. Most likely when the peril that we are in becomes clear, people will wring their hands and say "how could this happen here"? There were PLENTY of signs--the manipulation of Katrina into some supposed "FEDERAL government failure", the whole Global Warming gambit, the current "recession", Valerie Plame, the manipulation of the public to fail to see progress in Iraq and on and on. At every step, statements have been made about "Karl Rove and the manipulation of America by the Bush administration", while the true mass manipulators have picked most of the masses up with both the left and the right hands. (many on the RIGHT are ALSO now convinced that "free trade is bad" and "there is no progress in Iraq").

Unlike the shadowy figures of the supposed "vast right wing conspiracy" the Richard Scaife's, Olin foundation, etc, the left is a bit more clear, and it really isn't a "conspiracy". ABC, NBC, CBS, NYT, MoveOn.org, Harvard, Yale, etc, Hollywood, George Soros, etc. are pretty clear about a number of their goals, they just don't STATE them directly--so I'll help:

  1. The destruction of religious faith and transcendent morality -- the abolition or reversal of right/wrong, just/unjust. They see the goal of human existence as "maximization of pleasure" via any means possible with no moral component.
  2. The advancement of "practicality/pragmatism" as law--"the most good for the most people" as decided by a small elite that makes those decisions and uses the mass media and or police forces to convince/coerce the rest. Environmentalism, gay rights, abortion on demand, euthanasia, gun control, control of trade, government owned business. "Liberal Fascism"
  3. The destruction of "upward" mobility. The idea that children can "advance" economically beyond their parents is dangerous to the the amoral society. It allows a belief in individual potential, responsibility, merit, valuation of some choices beyond others, and a whole host of other issues of "meritocracy" that the left abhors. At the core, "merit" and "individual achievement" exposes the fact that the elite of the left DO NOT hold the sum total of human knowledge in their heads, and even if they did, that quantity of knowledge (however far we may expand it) will ALWAYS be insignificant next to transcendent knowledge (God). Their most core belief is that man is infinitely perfectible on his OWN power and merit. God is not desired and does not and can not exist!
  4. All "advancement" must be controlled and dictated by the elite. The university and the government being the only significant components of this, but some wealth is allowed as long as it is controlled by or in direct service of the elite. "Advancement" is by following the dictates of the elite in education / government and "performing" as what THEY define as "performance" (some forms of education, seniority in right contexts, entertainment or sports success). The destruction of upward mobility can also be called "destruction of the middle class" (or bourgeois in more traditional terms). ALL must be dependent on the elite and the dictates of the elite. To stray from the elite in thought or action is either actual or symbolic death. When thus is achieved, liberal fascism is acheived -- the goal of all left movements.
We are seeing the destruction of knowlege in the populace at a frightening level and the movement to BO promises to increase the level of peril immeasureably.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Naive Limosine Liberals?

Op-Ed Columnist - Obama’s Money Class - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

The MSM is always hugely interested in where any money the Republicans get comes from. Brooks is the NYTs "token conservative" (and the "conservative" REALLY needs quotes in Brooks case!). They seem to believe that Republicans are swayed by money, but strangely, Democrats aren't. Surprise, surprise, lawyers have given a lot of money to BO, as have teachers, professors and investment folks. No doubt they have zero expectation he will be swayed by that!

Will BO have second thoughts on big capital gains increases? I certainly hope so, but I don't really think he is going to need those limousine liberal dollars after he gets the reins of power, so I would expect that he is actually quite likely bit the hand that is feeding him. Many of the very class now contributing to BO would not have the money to contribute if it were not for Reagan and a generally conservative basic economic approach the last quarter century. Sadly, most of them are too manipulated to realize that, and therin lies a large part of our peril.

Monday, June 30, 2008

What the MSM Reports

More than half firearm deaths are suicides - CNN.com

I don't have time to go do any research, but a couple of things come to mind as I read this.

1). How many deaths are caused by smoking, fatty foods, alcohol, falls and our old favorite, car accidents? So should we outlaw those things?

2). So where would the person writing this article be on the "right to die"? I'd guess they would be very much in favor of it -- Dr assisted suicide and all that. I don't like to see society "making suicide easy", by saying "just go into your doctor and he will help you". Because down that path it isn't very far to "our best advice is to kill yourself". It just seems odd to me to see an anti-gun person saying that a constitutional right has to be given up "because some might kill themselves".

3). I suspect the "gun homes are more likely..." has a causality problem. Folks that have guns to protect their home and family are more "responsible". In cultures where people take responsibility, suicide rates are higher -- Japan, China, etc ... "face is lost" and they feel like "suicide is the only way out". I disagree with the choice, but making taking responsibility illegal isn't going to fix it, and most likely will make it worse. The Scandinavian countries have worked hard to remove personal responsiblity from life, and they are plagued with a very high suicide rate -- and I'd bet it isn't predominately from guns.

Wesley Clark Doesn't Like McCain's Experience

McCain campaign: Clark's comments 'sad' - CNN.com

One has to be Democrat to think like this. McCain doesn't have enough experience? But he is an adviser to Obama? Huh? Wouldn't someone that had a couple shreds of rationality in their brain think that "hmm, maybe "experience" isn't what I want to call attention to". Nope, doesn't even register in a Democrat brain. No matter what experience a Republican has, it is "bad", no matter how much experience a Democrat might lack, it is certainly not a problem.

That is pretty much ideologue in a nutshell, and the kind of thinking that drives the ideological MSM every day.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

North Korea and Iran

Power Line: North Korea and Iran in the News

I'm not going to go dig back in the blog right now, but I'm pretty sure that the MSM and a bunch of Democrats wanted Bush to do "bi-lateral talks" with N Korea as opposed to pushing them into 6-party regional talks. No matter, the MSM and the Democrats seem to find "anti-Bush" to be way more important than "pro-American".

While I'm never going to say "trust N Korea" until they have some sort of elections and openness, it seems very hard to argue that them blowing up a nuclear cooling tower, and at least having SOME level of inspections and agreements would be "progress" if it were not during the Bush administration. Just wait until BO gets in, I suspect we will see a mass MSM pants wetting over way less progress than this if it can somehow be linked to BO. The sad part is I suspect that BO "progress" is likely to be a lot like Jimmuh Carter "progress", which just means "we got snookered, and the future is MUCH less safe" (not the current "fake less safe").

While President, Jimmuh handed Iran over to the Mullahs and then gave us the "Jimmy Carter Desert Classic" military action, a textbook of a Democrat military action. Only Americans die, they just run into each other, they don't even engage the enemy, the only outcome is a vast (justifiable) reduction in the world view of US capability. As a private citizen Jimmuh went over and schmoozed with Kim Jung Ill, gave away the store and allowed N Korea to get a bunch of stuff from us PLUS continue their nuclear program. Oh, Slick Willie was actually supposed to be president then, but nobody seems to hold him responsible for that debacle. I suppose he was "busy" ... he really needed a desk set with sort of a "Trumanesque sign" that says "The Stain Starts Here", but I digress.

So rather than have anything reasonable to say about N Korea, it seems that the MSM has decided it is a good idea to come up with a fake Iran invasion as a way to control a couple of news cycles. Nice of them to be so helpful-if it is a complete fantasy (seems the most likely), then the reporting just gets folks feeling more worried about oil, the economy and such. MSM / Democrat win. If there IS any truth to it, then it just helps remove some potential elements of surprise, potentially gets some CIA folks caught and killed. ANOTHER MSM win ... help out the Iranians, kill some more CIA folks (which they generally hate unless they can be used to fake something out to make Bush look bad), either stop or reduce the chances of success for a military operation.

Now one might think that there COULD be a downside. What if the Iranians actually are closer to a nuke than most folks know, and they get one off at Israel and start WWIII? Well, as long as they do it "soon" (and the MSM will try to extend that definition as long as possible), then that is OK as well. "Bush did it" ... "Bush made us less safe". That would actually be the BEST from an MSM / Democrat POV. With progress in Iraq and N Korea walking away from the nuclear button, some non-sheep might get the odd idea that maybe some of this seems strangely like "more safe"? Can't have that. Iran is the hardest nut to crack, very important to keep progress from happening there.

What Is Wrong With Gun Control?

RealClearPolitics - Articles - How Gun Control Lost

Nice little summary ... the stats and more facts in the article, but the basic answer:

1). It doesn't work -- Increasing control of guns has never been demonstrated to reduce gun crime. Duh? How many criminals care that the gun they are using is illegal? Anyone ever notice that drugs are illegal as well?

2). Turns out the founders enumerated and INDIVIDUAL right because they wanted INDIVIDUALS to have the right, not the military. (unlike today's lefties, these guys were generally intelligent-they didn't see the question of the military having guns as being worth discussing).

ANYONE that had ANY interest in "freedom" and "rights" would be 100% on the side of individual gun rights (for law abiding sane people). The folks that want the government to take guns are folks that either are too foolish to understand the path that totalitarianism takes, or are interested in seeing our nation head that way.

American Solutions

These guys seem to be mostly common sense.

I don't really like their #10 and the whole "survey says" thing is much less than perfect, but one has to try to hold their nose and support what little positive is out there in the age of BO.

Top 10 Reasons YOU Should Support the Platform

  1. English should be the official language of government. (87 to 11)
  2. We want our elected leaders in Washington to focus on increasing the energy supplies of the United States and lowering the costs of gasoline and electricity. (71 to 18)
  3. The option of a single rate system should give taxpayers the convenience of filing their taxes with just a single sheet of paper. (82 to 15)
  4. Every worker should continue to have the right to a federally supervised secret ballot election when deciding whether to organize a union. (79 to 12)
  5. Keeping the reference to “One Nation Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance is very important. (88 to 11)
  6. Congress should make it a crime to advocate acts of terrorism, violent conduct, or the killing of innocent people in the United States. (83 to 12)
  7. We should dramatically increase our investment in math and science education. (91 to 8)
  8. We believe that if research indicates we could build clean coal plants in the United States with no carbon emissions, it would be important to build such plants as rapidly as possible. (71 to 8)
  9. Illegal immigrants who commit felonies should be deported. (88 to 10)
  10. We support giving a large financial prize to the first company or individual who invents a new, safer way to dispose of nuclear waste products. (79 to 16)
It is an amazing time. I suppose the lefties are just as surprised by the fact that not drilling anywhere or building any refineries means that we have less gas and diesel as they will be by the fact that when you raise a lot of taxes you get a lot less revenue for the government and a lot less productivity for everyone. Oh well, I guess a major part of being a lefty is enjoying your own imagination more than the real world.

The lefties are a wonderful people. Their "assumed rights" to everything from healthcare to "the lifestyle they want to be accustomed to" are a critical thing, but those that need to work to produce all that good stuff ought to just be happy with what they happen to decide we can have and keep our noses to the grindstone.

What Does the MSM Really Believe?

Bear Market Guide: Stay calm, make money - Jun. 27, 2008


Here is a little gem from within this article out on CNN today:

Put today's economic peril in perspective

Before you panic over today's headlines, and how far stocks could fall, consider the relative health of today's economy.

In the early 1970s, economic output was falling. But today, despite the sluggishness, GDP is still inching ahead.

In the early 1980s, unemployment hit 10.8%. Today, the rate is 5.5%, or about half that.

Inflation topped 12% in the 1970s and 14% in the early 1980s. Today, it's at 4%.

So if you read the rest of the MSM, today is a "horror". We are CERTAINLY in a "recession", it is just a "new kind". Apparently the new definitions are that anything sort of an absolutely stellar market, econonomy, low inflation, low prices, strong dollar, etc with a Republican in the White House is a "poor economny". "Sluggish GDP growth" is a "recession", again, providing that a Republican is in the White House. However, the story that they not doubt follow in their own investing, and are willing to share with investors that will read is that it really isn't all that bad at all.

Other than trying to pin a bit of the Carter hangover on Reagan, they are pretty much right on target. The '70s was the worst economic times that Baby Boomers have seen. Yes, it was far better than the depression, but we are yet to have any 3-term Democrats yet to give us quite the incompetence that a real depression needs to take hold. Carter did amazingly bad in one term, even anything nearly as bad as 9-11 happening. By the MSMs own admission (to investors only!) Bush isn't anything even remotely as bad.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Why I'm Voting Democrat

I think this guy pretty much has it pegged. He could be a bit more anti-gun, but you can't have everything!

I'M VOTING DEMOCRAT BECAUSE….

By Kirk Peterson

I'm voting Democrat because:

I think Cuba and China should be able to drill for oil 50 miles from our shores, but we shouldn't be able to drill for it 100 miles from our shores. I'm worried that some might spill, even though during Katrina not one drop was leaked from over 3200 wells off the shore of Louisiana, or any on-shore storage tanks. It could happen. Maybe.

I think nuclear power is bad even though France (my dream country) gets 80% of its electricity that way, we have 104 plants operating now that have never had a single death associated with them, the fuel is totally renewable, a kilowatt hour can be produced cheaper than any other way, and there are no atmospheric emissions. Okay, that's all good, but the problem is, some company might make money and employ people, and I'm against that.

I think we shouldn't be using oil anyway. We should fly our airplanes with fermented woodchips. Wait a minute…that would mean we have to cut down trees. Okay, no flying.

I think killing unborn, innocent babies is fine, and euthanizing old, sick people is fine, but executing convicted guilty murderers is not. Instead, they should have cable, a gym, a library....

I think we should ignore the fact that adult stem cells are involved in over 90 current cures and treatments, but embryonic stem cells have yet to be effective in even one. It doesn't matter, we need to destroy those embryos.

I think showing my generosity by taking one person's money from him so I can give it to another person who didn't earn it, is better than me giving my own money. I'm really generous with other peoples' money.

I think the government is too small, and we shouldn't let people take care of themselves. They don't really know what's good for them. The government should be making these decisions.

I think that being allowed to keep more of my own money is a disincentive for me to go out and earn more.

I think the top 1% income bracket paying 37% of the taxes isn't enough. And, the top 5% paying over 57% isn't enough. It's not fair that these people get to keep some of their money. They should pay their "fair share" even though I'm not sure what that would be.

I think we should have judges who make up the laws they want, and not be bothered by silly ideas of having elected representatives make laws, or paying attention to what the Constitution actually says, not what they want it to say.

I think being a US citizen shouldn't really mean anything and we should give all our Constitutional rights to anyone who wants them - even our enemies. Oops, I didn't mean we actually have enemies; they're just people we did something to upset, and we just don't understand them correctly.

I think if we just played patty-cake with Admedinejad and got to know him, he wouldn't think we're the Great Satan anymore, and we could be friends. Oh, and I also believed Kim Jong Il when he said they weren't making nukes. After all, Jimmy Carter agreed with him.

I don't think anything is really worth fighting for, especially America, because we're the whole reason there are problems in the world anyway.

I'm not interested in people being free. I just want the French and the UN to like us.

I don't think the laws of supply and demand are real. I think that's all just a big Republican conspiracy.

I'm worried about global warming, even though the Earth has been cooling for 8 years, the south polar ice cap is growing faster than the north pole's ice is shrinking, and there is a direct correlation between the change in the Earth's surface temperature and sun spot activity. That stuff doesn't matter, what matters is we need to get rid of SUVs. Oh, and I also know CO2 is a pollutant, even though it's natural and trees need to ingest it to live. Al Gore's my hero.

I believe that NAFTA is bad, even though all the trading partners have had an enhanced standard of living, unemployment is down in all three countries, and average wages are up. But, the AFL-CIO is against it, so I am too.

I don't think a parent has any business deciding how his child will be educated. This is a job better left to the federal Education Dept. and the teacher's unions.

I don't think anyone should be able to voluntarily put a small bit of his social security into an account that he actually owns and controls. If the -2% return the government is getting you on your social security isn't enough for you, you're just greedy.

I think welfare is great, and if someone doesn't want to work, even though they can, why should we make them? Instead, we can just take someone else's income, and give it to them because it would be cruel to make them work when they don't want to.

I want socialized medicine, because that way everyone gets the same level of care, and so what if you have to wait three years to get your hip replaced. You don't need to walk anyway....you can go on welfare!

I think Bush lied about Iraq even though every intelligence agency in the world said the same thing our CIA did, and all the major Democrats saw the same data and also said the same thing, and they all voted for it. Oh, and we just did it for oil, even though we're still waiting for that cheap oil....

How could you vote Republican? They're mean. I mean, they want old people to die, they want the environment so polluted even they couldn't live in it, and they just want to kill people in wars because they like war so much. This is all good for them because...... uh, because.... because they.... well, it doesn't matter - it's just good for them.

I'm for change, and Obama's for change, and if you're not changing, you're staying the same. And Obama's for the future, and I want to be in the future, because if you aren't in the future, that's just so "now", and I don't want to be "now", I want to be in the future. Oh, and I also want hope, and Obama's for hope, and I hope his hope is hopeful for America. So, I want the hope that in the future there will be change, and that's what Obama says he wants too. (I hope.)

Friday, June 27, 2008

Making the Clinton's Look Good

RealClearPolitics - Articles - The Ever-Malleable Mr. Obama

You have to read the whole thing, a teaser:

As public financing is not a principle dear to me, I am hardly dismayed
by Obama's abandonment of it. Nor am I disappointed in the least by his
other calculated and cynical repositionings. I have never had any
illusions about Obama. I merely note with amazement that his media
swooners seem to accept his every policy reversal with an equanimity
unseen since the Daily Worker would change the party line overnight --
switching sides in World War II, for example -- whenever the wind from
Moscow changed direction.

I'm thinking that BO may in the final analysis make even Jimmy Carter seem like a President that we would have rather had than him.

My Biases

747 pilot rescues farmers from disaster - CNN.com

I've always loved equipment of most any sort- big planes and helicopters are way up there, but allegedly my first word was "tractor". The equipment on our farm wasn't very big, but I still enjoyed that part of farming; it was the cows that I just couldn't stand.

Anything with "747" in the title tends to catch my eye. Rare surprise to see an actual good news article! Think of it, a 747 pilot that probably makes $150K a year going out and helping a farmer in need? What is the world coming to? Aren't those the kinds of greedy evil people that we are supposed to be hammering with all sorts of taxes and regulation? What is wrong with that guy-he must be a really rare exception, most of the folks like him are BAAAD!

Why Does BO Need ANY Campaign Money

Rove, critics try to pin 'arrogant' label on Obama - CNN.com

Tell me again why it is that BO needs any campaign money at all? This is a CNN headline for goodness sake ... "Rove, critics try ...". Uh, is what the MSM calls "news reporting"? What would the difference between that and what BO's vaunted "response team" might do? Is Rove associated with the McCain campaign? The MSM basically never reported the fact that BO came up with his own presidential seal--if they HAD reported it, how might THEY have thought about it? We all know that GWs "smirk" was a sign of HIS arrogance-the MSM was honor bound to let us know the "facts" on that. I'm sure they got maybe 5-10K facial look scientific experts to sign a statement that "yes, that is a very arrogant "smirk"" ... so they were completely justified in reporting the arrogance of that as "proven fact".

We know that it MUST NOT be arrogant for BO to make his own seal, since Karl Rove thinks it is, and we know that Karl Rove is evil and wrong. So what is it? Does his worshipfulness BO make "mistakes"? Seems unlikely. Is it a "brilliant political move"? Is it "serving mankind"? I mean, I KNOW that it has to be good, because we are all in love with BO, but I'm one of those folks that is bitterly clinging to my gun with little in the way of brainpower. How am I supposed to know what to think unless the MSM tells me?