Nice Home Theatre

Home Theater Design: The Greatest Show on Earth!


$6 million for a home theater seems a bit high, but it really looks like nice stuff!

What You Don't Report

Power Line - Obama: "Let Them Eat Steak"

The MSM controls thought more often by what they DON'T report than by what they do. Hear any complaints abut the FEMA response to the ice storm in Kentucky? Guess what, you aren't likely to either -- because the idea is to impress you with BO, not have you look at him critically.

How about BO's use of energy, what he serves for dinner at the WH, etc? I'm not saying that they OUGHT to be issues, I'm just saying that when the MSM is trying to make a President unpopular, there is NO LIMIT on the crap that is used to make him look as bad as they possibly can.

It is going to be very hard for BO to do wrong from the MSM POV for a good long while.

Snowy Boiled Frog

Heaviest UK snow in 18 years hits international flights - CNN.com

Global Warming is now Climate Change and ANY "changing weather" is due to human input of carbon into the atmosphere. Pay no attention to reports of record cold, snow and such other than the realize that for the "sophisticated media consumer" (those that stick with "the name brands") -- what we need to focus on is the reduction of carbon. We have already established the fact of "climate change".

Oh -- campaign finance reform in the US? Not an issue -- we don't care how much is spent on an election as long as "the right side" wins!

Deficits? Did anyone ever complain about those? "Bigger is better"!

Just follow the random thought walk, consistency is NOT an issue!

If you have wandered into this Blog and are a happy consumer of only MSM views, shut your eyes and get out now. Return to the warm and comfortable "climate controlled" environs of the MSM pot!

Even $18 Billion Has "Another Side"

'Idiots' Indeed - WSJ.com

BO, the Democrats, and the MSM seem in a huge hurry to demonize Wall Street on their "bonuses". It SEEMS like "free theater" -- hammer away at the street that has lost so much money in '08 and "show them a lesson". Actually, it is amazing what quick studies folks in the business world actually are, they already HAVE the "lesson". Business is the current whipping boy and Washington is going to throw pork around to whomever they think will net them the most votes -- so, they are not lending, buying stocks, investing in new products, nor moving forward with production, because everyone with half a brain looks at everything being done and says "there is no way this can work, we are in for a long term horrible economy". BUT, BO, the Dems, and the MSM still don't get that -- they think these actions are "good for business", so they are basically declaring war on business.

Want to make a bet on how well that works? Look at where the Dow is, job losses, GDP, consumer outlook, housing starts, and a whole host of other stuff, and you can see how confident most people are (not).

A few quick facts about Wall Street bonuses. The pretext for the
political outrage was the New York comptroller's report this week on
the aggregate data for bonuses in 2008. That "irresponsible" bonus pool
of $18 billion was for every worker in the New York financial industry,
from top dogs to secretaries. This bonus pool fell 44% in 2008, the
largest percentage decline in 30 years. The average bonus was $112,000;
bonuses typically make up most of an employee's salary on Wall Street.
The comptroller estimates that this decline will cost New York State $1
billion in lost tax revenue and New York City $275 million. Both city
and state may have to announce layoffs.

What is more, the "Wall Street" of popular and fevered imagination
isn't coming back anytime soon, if ever. Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns
and Merrill Lynch are gone, kaput. Enough bankers have been ruined or
fired to sate class resentments for a lifetime. The remaining big two,
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, are no longer formally investment
banks but are now under the supervisory control of the Federal Reserve.
The Wall Street business model is broken, and not at a particularly
opportune moment for the economy.

Mr. Obama wanted to hit a populist nerve this week because he knows
he may have to ask Congress for another $1 trillion or more to revive
the banking system. He also knows that the core of the economic crisis
is a lending system that remains frozen in a vast lake of toxic,
mispriced securities. In short, the credit system is on strike (see
above).

The U.S. is a long way from getting out from under this burden. The
danger of targeting what capitalists we have left for abuse or
prosecution is that they will stay on strike, as they did in the 1930s.
It won't be pretty this time either.

Rush Hit's a Nerve?

Commentary: A history lesson for Rush Limbaugh - CNN.com

Gee, commander Q-Ball comes back to defend partisanship. So, on the Iraq war, the DEMOCRATS in the Senate were over 50% in favor of the war resolution.  The Democrats in the House of course new it was going to pass with 215 Republicans voting for it, but 82 of them still joined the Republicans. So, **IF** we followed the "proportional popular vote idea", we would have STILL gone to war!

How about "regulation"? Well, it was REPUBLICANS that wanted to increase regulation on Freddy and Fannie to head off the sub-prime crisis, and it was DEMOCRATS like Charlie Ranglel and Barney Frank that defened the program because it allowed poorer people to get homes.

Slick WIllie would have never had a surplus without the combination of the Republcian Congress and the Internet Bubble -- the "surplus" was a function of Republicans cutting the rate of growth in medicare (and taking a lot of heat for it) and taxes on captial gains taken during the bubble. As we see now, when Democrats control congress, they are good at MUCH larger deficits! 2x -- 3x ... I don't think we even know. It  is and was CONGRESS that sets the budget! The President just signs it.

So Carville needs a bit of history study before he does his responses.

Being Democrat Means Not Paying Taxes

Senators voice support for Daschle over tax records - CNN.com

Could it really be any more clear? Democrats are ALL for a bunch of high taxes -- and over and over and over again, they don't pay them. Franken, Daschle and Geitner being the latest, but it is basically a constant. Since the IRS is a bunch of mostly Union Democrats, is it just sort of an "inside joke" that the stupid Republicans can complain all they want, but the way it works is that they pay and the Democrats just walk away? Unless of course they have to go through confirmation hearings, and THEN , they just do what Democrats always do "they gave it back" -- or in this case "they pay them".

No need to prosecute, the only thing that a Democrat can EVER do is "make an honest mistake". How could it be anythng but? They don't purport to have any moral standard, so doesn't that simply make "getting caught" an "honest mistake"?

Sides of a Coin

Bush Hatred and Obama Euphoria Are Two Sides of the Same Coin - WSJ.com


This is very well written, the whole thing should be read. The highlight is:

In fact, Bush hatred and Obama euphoria -- which tend to reveal more about those who feel them than the men at which they are directed -- are opposite sides of the same coin. Both represent the triumph of passion over reason. Both are intolerant of dissent. Those wallowing in Bush hatred and those reveling in Obama euphoria frequently regard those who do not share their passion as contemptible and beyond the reach of civilized discussion. Bush hatred and Obama euphoria typically coexist in the same soul. And it is disproportionately members of the intellectual and political class in whose souls they flourish.

He is a good writer and he brings in the fact that when our people aren't schooled in a perspective of "transcendence" (although he doesn't call it that), then we are in grave peril. What is beyond our petty passions and peccadilloes? The sweep of human development? God? Philosophy? Love?

or nothing? so often today it is nothing.

Why Democrats Like High Taxes

Power Line - Corruption, Democrat Style


Because they don't pay them! My God, the guys WIFE lobbies and makes millions of dollars and the corrupt stooges avoid the taxes! The ones that THEY are so very much in favor of!!!

One just can't be a hypocrit and a Democrat -- when you have no values, you can't be expected to follow any!!

I love this line:

Still, there is always a silver lining. One good thing about
electing a Democrat as President is that, as he nominates fellow
Democrats to senior positions in the Executive Branch, millions of
dollars in unpaid tax liabilities come to light and are belatedly paid
to the IRS, with interest. It is, perhaps, the most tangible advantage
of electing Democrats to office.

NYT On The Coronation of BO

The Inauguration. At Last. - And the Pursuit of Happiness Blog - NYTimes.com

This is almost a parody of itself. Jesus Christ deserves this level of adoration and even more -- BO is VERY human, and deserves exactly the same respect as George Bush almost never got. BO is a rookies rookie -- his accomplishments are few, the expectations on him are enormous -- Maria Kalman's expectations are beyond all reason!

It is funny -- in a strange, scary, embarrassed, pitiful, weak sort of way. How much of a slave can a human mind be to a projection of their own hopes and dreams onto just another dirty, limited, fallible, self-centered and mortal human?

Apparently, far beyond a level of the merely ridiculous.

BO Apologizes for America

RealClearPolitics - Articles - Obama's Unnecessary Apology

Charles points out the dual foolishness of the idea that America has "disrespected Muslims" in the past 30 years  -- Bosnia, Kosovo, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq -- all to help Muslims. And the dual even more foolish idea that relations were somehow "good" 30 years agao -- when the Iranians took the US hostages in '79.

What Charles doesn't mention that is obvious to one that is 20% of the way through "Dreams from My Father", BO is one mixed up weird dude -- lots of use of the "N word", black rage, racism against whites, etc -- BO is very much a guy that lives in the world he imagines that he lives in, reality be damned.

So he probably DOES think that the late '70s were some sort of "golden age of US Moslem relations" -- and that we have been "Arab nasty" for the past 30 years -- or maybe he just said what was on his mind at that moment. The idea that he is some sort of an actual brilliant guy that thinks though everything he does in some sort of super way is really only a media fabrication anyway. This is the guy that had a guy that is now a convicted felon help him get a sweetheart deal on his $1.6 million home and didn't see any corruption that needed to be reported in IL politics.

I'm sorry America has BO.

Welcome To Socialism Comrade

A 40-Year Wish List - WSJ.com

The nasty Republicans are "partisan" for voting against the greatest glob of pork fat in world history. How quickly the tables turn from the "principled and courageous opposition" the Democrats always provided against Republican measures. I can't wait for the first filibuster -- what was once a threatened "sacred measure of the founders" when weilded by Democrats to prevent Republican court nominees from passing the hallowed halls of the Senate is very soon to become "an obstructionist anachronism". I wonder what has changed?

The Democrats are out buying votes again by the TRILLION. Yes, yes, the Republicans gave into the allure of pork for a few measly 100 Billion, but now the old pros are back in town and tripe is being slathered out by the TRILLION, and where are the MSM complaints? Uh, it isn't big enough?

Rush to Bi-Partisanship

Rush Stimulus Plan Link


BO summarizing his arguments with "I won" when meeting with Republicans hasn't gotten near the press coverage of Rush saying "I hope he fails". I included the entire segment from Rush here -- as pretty much anyone could realize, the "I hope he fails" is taken out of context, and what Rush doesn't want to succeed is an agenda of government taking over private industry, rewarding failure, and taking the nation deeper into hock at the rate of trillions per year rather than 100's of billions (which were bad enough).



I'm not a huge Rush fan, and there is no doubt he is bombastic -- although a good deal less so than Al Franken, and it looks like he is a "MN Nice Senator".

Not All Change is Good

From $80,000 a year to eviction: Hard times in America - CNN.com

In 2006, lots of folks voted for "change" and the Democrats took over Congress. In '08, they voted for the same message and we got a heavier tilt in Congress, and BO as president.

"It's hard not to be depressed during a time like this," she wrote.
"I never imagined in a million years that I would be in such a
situation at my age and at this point in my career. I am humiliated. I
am praying for everyone else out there is who are facing the same
problems."

I have no way of knowing if she is a big supporter of "Change", but she fits the demographic.

Do I think that "everything has happened is due to the Democrat takeover"? No, of course not. We as a nation have been saving little, spending LOTS at both the Government and personal levels and making up the difference with credit for a LONG time. I started work in '78 -- the watchword at that point was to buy as much home as you possibly could, it would go up in value, your salary would go up, and in 2 years you would be sitting pretty -- THEN, buy ANOTHER home and keep doing it. Many folks did, and many of them came out just fine (at least assuming that they quit the pyramid scheme sometime prior to '07). The EXPECTATION was that "everything will go up" -- especially homes, land and the stock market.

What has happened, is that as the economy rose, the expectations and the cry for "more, more, more" at every level have just continued to increase, but the ability of the economy to continue to rise kept reducing because of (among other things) "the law of diminishing returns" -- or put another way, if you make a buck, you can double your income by making two bucks, if you make a $100K, you have to make another $100K to double your income, and it is A LOT harder to make $100K than a buck! Worse, that 2nd $100K is going to get ripped with taxes and mean A LOT less to you than doubling the buck to two would have at that income level.

Even worse, a whole lot of business, financial and government models "required" the ever growing economy. Two main things finally prevented that; reality and expectations. The housing bubble and sub-prime loans provided the catalyst, but they did so on top of the combination of people talking about "how bad things where", and "how much things needed to change". Unfortunately, the fact that no matter how "bad" things are, it is ALWAYS a lot more likely and easy to make them WORSE was completely forgotten. In '06 and in '08 again, people thought that "a vote for non-specific change" was somehow prudent. The US simply rolled the dice and decided that "change was good".

Did we need change? Sure, but unfortunately we needed a change in something close to 180 degrees of the direction we chose. Growth through investment in capital/equipment, massive education improvements (including competition), huge personal and national savings rate increases, improved climate for entrepreneurship, reduction in old ideas like "retirement is better than work", and a host of other things to get our nation off the credit card and on to the earning our lifestyle. Had Bush managed to start investing some amount of money from FICA in stocks, that would have been a start, but that is now considered a "horrible idea".

I don't see any way out of the path we have chosen but a fall to the point where people FINALLY realize that "they have met the enemy, and the enemy is us!". We really CAN'T "have it all" and expect someone else to pay. That kind of logic has always led, and still does lead to most everyone having very very little.

Analog Government

Delay of analog TV's death hits House snag - CNN.com

I got a chance to hear MN's brilliant Amy Klobuchar on MPR discussing how the "incompetent Bush administration screwed up everything and how it was not recoverable, and how foolish it was of them to set the date of the switch for February, when it is cold out in MN, etc, etc". One thing about those Democrats -- they are non-partisan, and when they get the reins of power, it is nothing but competence, taking responsibility, and working together!

Strangely, this article points out that the date has been set for a DECADE ... let's see, who was President in '99? My guess is that Al Gore was in charge of the date as such a brilliant digital guy, inventor of the internet and all, and as Global Warming expert, was certain that everything would be balmy in the middle of February by '09. Global Warming is a crisis; that is why this is the first January since '79 that it hasn't made it above freezing in MN for the whole month!

According to the government it was hot then, and it's hotter now! Learn to trust the MSM and the elites that tell you what to think rather than the weather outside Comrade! This is Amerika! Amy, BO, and Katie Couric will tell you what you think!

I'm mystified here -- BO was to fix all of mankinds problems, and he can't even get some TVs switched over on the date it was originally scheduled? What in the world is up with that? I would have thought he could solve minor issues like that in his first "100 hours" and then accomplish fixing the planet, world peace, the cure for the common cold, and long, meaningful, easy and wealthy lives for all in the first 100 days or so.

What is the use of electing a "Deity" if they aren't going to actually DO godlike things rather than just talk pretty?

Dead President Election

Op-Ed Columnist - The Same Old Song - NYTimes.com

This article ends with the sentence:

"This is a party that, given a choice between Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, would choose Ronald Reagan in a heartbeat."

Now THERE is a "testable hypothesis", but potentially, it was the most cogent part of the article.

Democrats have been arguing for years that "tax cuts are spending" -- at least in their universe, where everything belongs to the government, and what you keep is really the government's too. It is a universe to the left of France, somewhere in the vicinity of the old USSR. So far, the Democrats have failed to notice, that when everything is the government's, there is inherently a whole lot less to tax, spend, or eventually, even borrow. Money may just be printable willy nilly, but value is not. It requires somebody to "create something of value", and the people that do create value expect to be paid more than those who do not -- if they are not so paid, they tend to produce less, or not at all.