A conversation with P.J. O’Rourke - NYPOST.com

A conversation with P.J. O’Rourke - NYPOST.com

I love to read PJ ... conservative and NOT boring, a GREAT combination. I'm pretty much on board with adding "contempt for the common" to "consistency is not an issue" ... the "common" includes all things common ... common sense, common people for sure ... I likely need to work on the final form, but I think it is right up there in explanatory power with the lack of consistency in understanding the liberal mind.

The progressive mindset, O’Rourke thinks, amounts to a faith that "if you could just get the smartest people in the world together in a room, then by golly you can figure out a health care program. It’s this kind of contempt for the ordinary person’s expertise and what is best for him or her — contempt for the fundamental principle interest of self-interest that the world rests on — that [Obama] took away from the 1960s in large bags and cartons."

But the ’60s ultimately gave us Reagan. Obama has already given us the Tea Party and useful instruction on just how little can be accomplished by even the most eloquent and appealing of leaders. "We don’t vote to elect good people," O’Rourke says. "Certainly not great people, because they aren’t too great. We hold elections to throw the bums out."

Facebook Data Centers

The Facebook Data Center FAQ « Data Center Knowledge

Interesting to me at least. 60K Servers, $50million+ a year, nearly all Open Source Infrastructure, 1 employee per 1.2 million users. Mostly Rackable (now SGI) and Dell servers.

Farewell Tiger

Tiger

Our special Tiger kitty passed on sometime Tuesday night. Marla found him appearing to be peacefully asleep on the rocks outside the garage, and indeed he was, for the last time. He had been failing since the late winter to spring ... not painfully, just "being old". I'd bet that a urinary tract infection finally got him, but he seemed fine right up to yesterday, and he looked very peaceful.

The boys picked him out from the farm of my aunt and uncle up by Barron and he was a sickly little thing. In some ways he sort of picked them out ... he really wanted to play. He was always calm and always friendly. We got him in the fall of '95 when we moved in to this home, and he grew up with the boys -- he loved to get to sleep with anyone at night or for an afternoon nap. He loved people and he loved attention.

When we were going to take off on a trip, we always needed to know where Tiger was at before we could leave, and somehow he was always missing -- as if it was kind of a fun game for him. After a frantic search, he would come sauntering out from somewhere as if to say "OK, you did your penance for going off without me now". Naturally, when he was found he would get some extra loving before the launch.

His life was about as good as a life could be for a cat. Given our large lot and cul-de-sac, he was able to spend time inside or outside as he saw fit. One of his favorite games was "in and out", where he would go out for just a short time, scratch to come back in, and then maybe do that a couple of times just to make sure we were well trained at meeting his location desires. An entrance petting was required, and in the colder seasons, some comments about cold fur were always in order.

He enjoyed being held and fawned over in any way -- he could be held like a baby with his belly exposed, or drug around by kids in all manner of improper kitty holds, but he never seemed concerned. He seemed to know that he had hit the jackpot in the lottery of cat life, and was grateful. The warm chair, basking in front of a fireplace, but most of all the nice lap were his havens. He was also a good mouser. "Pure bred barn kitty" to the core.

One feels stupid shedding tears over a cat when the world is full of so much pain, suffering and loss of a much more real and human sort. Our pets remain special however -- our affection for them, and what at least appears to be their affection for us is simple, uncomplicated, elemental.

I sometimes think that when we think of "man in God's image" we jump to "reason" as the obvious thing that "makes us different". We like to think of God as "a really wise (smart) version of us", but I sometimes wonder if we don't completely miss the boat yet again, and that God's love for us might be a lot more like our love for pets -- caring, feeding, not really expecting much, happy when there is a positive response, but not really needing that. Just enjoying being a powerful and caring being that can help ... and glad that the creature in care has some appreciation of the gift they are receiving. Tiger excelled at being "more than happy to be here".

Their one to two decade lifespans provide another form of emotional era to our lives. Tiger was here with our boys, now he is gone, and they are off at school. The seasons and the eras change and there is bitter with the sweet. We will always remember you Tiger. Your life marked a mostly sweet time in ours, made even better by your presence.

January 2007

Postbulletin.com: Four years of Democrats is enough - Thursday, September 23, 2010

Dow mid 12,000s, unemployment 4.6 percent, previous quarter GDP 3.5 percent. The Democrats took over Congress.

Democrats and the media will tell you that Bush was entirely responsible for what happened after that, and if that is true, the upcoming election makes no difference. Unless you are terribly happy with unemployment hovering near 10 percent, growth hovering near 1 percent, and the Dow 15 percent below four years ago (more below the high), you may as well "send a message," or stay home.

If Congress makes no difference, Obama will be completely responsible for whatever happens to the economy over the next two years, just as we are told Bush was for '07 and '08. The Democrats told you in '06 that they would deliver "change." Either they just lied because they knew that Congress is powerless, they were clueless, or they were at least partially responsible for what happened since '07. I suspect a lot of truth in the latter two, but in any case, four years is more than enough.

Townhall - Taxing the Rich

Townhall - Taxing the Rich

If tax % are flat, the rich STILL pay more ... 10% of 10K is 1K it is also 10% of 100K. A guy making 100K would pay the the whole income of a guy making 10K in taxes. Better yet, every 10 poorer people are able to contribute as much as one rich person ... which would be a much more prevalent attitude if taxes were a shared cost of a reasonable government rather than a coercive transfer of wealth.

As I've said before, a tax cut is not a handout. It simply means government steals less. What progressives want to do is take money from some -- by force -- and spend it on others. It sounds less noble when plainly stated.

The Media Is a Myth

CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

I find this interesting from a couple fronts:

• MN Senator Franken was in the entertainment  business for decades, there were TONS of statements that he made that were objectionable in a ton of ways to many many people. One doesn't even have to resort to the "entertainment". He wrote a lot of "political satire" ... getting a pass on all of it. He didn't have to answer for a single thing ... it was all "entertainment or satire" ... none of his provocative statements were newsworthy.  
• Last I checked, the Comedy Channel and the Bill Maher show are actually "entertainment". Why the double standard? Thousands of potentially damaging Franken quotes were not even local news, let along national news. How can one possibly assert an even handed media when the treatment is so different. 
• The percentage of people in this country that believe in creation being done by a sovereign God is very large. The fact is that "he didn't say how" ... at least in detail, so I'm willing to let evolution be one of his chosen mechanisms. There are many people that have religious problems with that however. My position is that I'm willing to let an omniscient and omnipotent God create the universe and life any way he wants to. I'm sure Bill Maher would have GIGANTIC "respect" for Muslim views on the subject ... which would align with  Christian views. Does the fact that he is completely willing to malign Christian views, yet unwilling to do the same for Muslim prove that liberals only respect those willing to commit violence in defense of their views?

A Nation Of Peasants?

RealClearPolitics - A Nation of Peasants?

Well written and concise.

What optimistic Americans used to call a rising tide that lifts all boats is now once again derided as trickle-down economics. In other words, a newly peasant-minded America is willing to become collectively poorer so that some will not become wealthier.

The present economy suggests that it is surely getting its wish.

Mourning In America

Power Line - Mourning In America

I can well remember when it was Reagan and Morning in America -- it can be again, pull up our socks, take a shower, get out and vote, and before we know it we can be on the road to being free of BO!

Click the link and watch the video!

Hobbsian Logic

RealClearPolitics - The Money of Fools

Good column from Sowell,  worth the read.


The left believes that society is omniscient and omnipotent, but of course it is neither. Which makes their concept of "social justice" simply a foolish juxtaposition of words

You can talk or act as if society is both omniscient and omnipotent. But, to do so would be to let words become what Thomas Hobbes called them, "the money of fools."

Hmmm

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Have Been Compromised by Unidentified Aerial Objects | Reuters

Reuters, National Press Club? Not April 1? Other than some pretty whacked out political views, these folks aren't usually in the Art Bell category.

I'd be more on the "somebody has a cool drone" than "space aliens", but then Dennis Kucinich did see that UFO from Shirley McClain's hot tub ... and that put me over the top on believing in UFOs. (there are questions about his use of his tin-foil hat at the time however).

I'd go Chinese drone ... if it isn't just your garden variety set of "mistaken folks" (the most likely case). People often have a way small idea of how many or how expert a group of folks can get taken in by something that "looks good" or "seems right".

One would think that the election of BO would pretty much have proven that "mass hysteria", means MASS HYSTERIA!!! Supposedly there are otherwise reasonable people with IQs over 100 that voted for him! Take that to your Ripley's!

O'Donnell sidesteps specifics on funds, says 'no truth' to allegations - CNN.com

O'Donnell sidesteps specifics on funds, says 'no truth' to allegations - CNN.com

Nice to see how much focus a Senate Candidate in Delaware can get. BO ran for um, I think it was "President of the US" ... or some other formerly great nation, broke every campaign contribution and spending rule in existence (didn't even keep required books on a lot of it), came out of Chicago, the most corrupt political environment in the US (except maybe DC). No need for any "investigations" there.

He writes a book that casts aspersions on him being a Black Supremacist (get rid of "white blood"), declares that "his people" are the Luo tribe in Africa, and only comes on as emotionally alive in his writing when talking about Africa. Oh, and BTW, he touches a bit on the "magic" of the people / blood / ways that is very pagan, which is pretty much identical to Wicca (earth / nature worship) ... ooooh, wouldn't THAT be a good story???

Any reason to cover that in the MSM? Nope ... all one has to do is pick up his book and quote it. Tough reporting, or simply FILE SOMETHING on the biggest and most corrupt fundraiser in US history. See any articles like the above on BO? Nope ... no story there, but a Senate candidate from DelaWHERE???

Oh, that's right, our media is unbiased!! I keep forgetting that!

Carter Superior!

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - TRENDING: Carter declares his superiority to other presidents « - Blogs from CNN.com

Well, at least Jimmuh thinks he is great!

The Problem With Sound-Bite Economics

RealClearPolitics - The Problem With Sound-Bite Economics

Column is mostly standard moderate drivel that "both sides have problems". True enough, but one has to make a decision, and BO has made it pretty easy to see at least what side CURRENTLY is the farthest out in the weeds and needs to be reined in. When we see Government consuming an all time low % of GDP, the income tax abolished, and a safety net that applies to only the bottom 10% of society, then I'd say it will be time to consider the "actual right" (meaning heading for anarchy) as on the border of "going too far". Then I'm going to consider voting liberal.

The column did contain this observation which I find to be completely unique to BO in actually elected Presidents in my lifetime -- from the sounds of it, it is a throwback to the anti-business days of FDR. Democrats are always so worried about "turning the clock back to the failed policies" -- and yet they somehow they always end up pining away for the '30s!

Confidence is crucial to stimulating consumer spending and business investment, and Obama constantly subverts confidence. In the past year, he's undone some of the good of his first months. He loves to pick fights with Wall Street bankers, oil companies, multinational firms, health insurers and others. He thinks that he can separate policies that claim to promote recovery from those that appeal to his liberal "base," even when the partisan policies raise business costs, stymie job creation or augment uncertainty -- and, thereby, undermine recovery. His health care "reform" makes hiring more expensive to employers by mandating insurance coverage. The moratorium on deep-water oil drilling kills jobs; the administration's estimate of employment loss is up to 12,000.

How Obama Thinks

How Obama Thinks - Forbes.com

There won't be a lot new in this column for those that read this Blog, just confirmation and a slightly different angle. I read BO's first book and I think it would be impossible for anyone that is a Christian to read that book and consider BO to be anything but a pagan tribalist from a religious perspective. He wrote this book AFTER his "conversion" to Reverend Wrights brand of "Black Liberation Theology (BLT)" which subverts the message of Christ to be a message of anti-semitism (pretty ridiculous to call that "Christian", since Christ is a Jew) and Black Supremacy. Christ's message is that ALL have sinned -- even BO, there is no "pass" for being Black. BLT may or may not clean up your community, it is completely powerless to save your soul.

This article calls out some of the strong pagan-tribal messages, but puts them in the context of anti-colonialism. I find that to be an interesting perspective on the difficult to understand question of  "Why is BO so anti-American"? There are certainly pagan-tribalists that do not exhibit his level of anti American fervor. The anti-colonial connection with his alcoholic father may well be a good source for understanding the that part of BO.

It is rare that an American president has written a book prior to taking office that gives such a direct glimpse into his thought process -- even more rare that when such a book is as devastating critique of that president's paganism as this one, that it would be so little known!

In his own writings Obama stresses the centrality of his father not only to his beliefs and values but to his very identity. He calls his memoir "the record of a personal, interior journey--a boy's search for his father and through that search a workable meaning for his life as a black American." And again, "It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa, that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself." Even though his father was absent for virtually all his life, Obama writes, "My father's voice had nevertheless remained untainted, inspiring, rebuking, granting or withholding approval. You do not work hard enough, Barry. You must help in your people's struggle. Wake up, black man!"

The climax of Obama's narrative is when he goes to Kenya and weeps at his father's grave. It is riveting: "When my tears were finally spent," he writes, "I felt a calmness wash over me. I felt the circle finally close. I realized that who I was, what I cared about, was no longer just a matter of intellect or obligation, no longer a construct of words. I saw that my life in America--the black life, the white life, the sense of abandonment I'd felt as a boy, the frustration and hope I'd witnessed in Chicago--all of it was connected with this small piece of earth an ocean away, connected by more than the accident of a name or the color of my skin. The pain that I felt was my father's pain."

In an eerie conclusion, Obama writes that "I sat at my father's grave and spoke to him through Africa's red soil." In a sense, through the earth itself, he communes with his father and receives his father's spirit. Obama takes on his father's struggle, not by recovering his body but by embracing his cause. He decides that where Obama Sr. failed, he will succeed. Obama Sr.'s hatred of the colonial system becomes Obama Jr.'s hatred; his botched attempt to set the world right defines his son's objective. Through a kind of sacramental rite at the family tomb, the father's struggle becomes the son's birthright.

 

Speaking of Book Burning