I Just Love Day By Day

As I've mentioned before, I love Chris Muir's Day By Day on line comic.
I've linked to it before, but here's another one that is too perfect to pass up.

Day By Day

Gotta love the media. Well,if you're a liberal Democrat the media is great outside of Fox News and talk radio.

Big Three Ad Campaign

This is a first. Absolute truth in advertising (even if it is satire).

Merry Christmas!

For years I trained myself into saying "Happy Holidays."

Now, I've decided that's a bunch of lameass crap.

So I'm training myself back into saying "Merry Christmas." It's my heritage, my background, my upbringing.

Y'all go ahead and wish me a Happy Hanukkah or Merry Kwanzaa or Joyous Ramadan or Happy Solstice or whatever is yours. I won't be offended, and thank you for including me.

See, THAT'S inclusion, not making me adapt to some amorphous soulless freaking "Happy Holidays."

Throw Da Bums Out

The One just scored a very big point in my book.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081207/ap_on_go_co/congress_autos

I want to see an American version of Fiat 2004 (see previous post), except that I guess we'll be stuck with gov't involvement and further meddling.

Awww, the Poor Widdle US Auto Companies

My very first post of this blog was an explanation of why I have no interest in buying an American car.

US Auto Non Buyin Rant

Looks like I was right.

The big three are foundering and now begging the govt for a handout like a stereotypical "welfare queen."
Yet the bastard CEOs fly down to beg in their private freakin' jets! My theory here is that they did not know they were doing anything wrong. In other words, the sense of entitlement is so complete that they did not see the problem with it. Understand, I don't mean they rationalized or hoped no one would notice. I mean they had no comprehension of wrongdoing whatsoever.
These people cannot be left in charge.

Here is the CEO of a company that was in a terrible fix. See what he did (If you don't want to read the whole thing, go to page 2 and read the first paragraph under Pumping Iron, it is extremely enlightening):

A Successful Turnaround

I intend to send that to my Federal reps and suggest they insist on the same damn thing before handing over dime one.

A former presidential candidate wrote a great op ed piece on the auto bailout:

Let em go bankrupt

I also got an email from the Libertarian party that I thought was wonderful. I reprint it here with no permission at all:

This week, the main buzz is sure to be about possibly bailing-out the automotive industries in Detroit, known as the "Big Three." The Big Three consist of the three major automotive manufacturers: Ford, General Motors and Chrysler.

Politicians looking to appease their nervous constituency, interest groups (both from the United Auto Workers and those representing Big Automotive) looking for a handout and know-nothing political pundits looking for a juicy story will all tell you this is necessary for the economic well being of the nation.

In this time of economic turmoil, it's easy to suggest government has the answers, especially when it is backed by sweet-sounding rhetoric and promises of better times. For those that don't know the historical failures of government intervention in the market, it just might sound good enough to swallow.

However, like most government programs, the reality is far, far different from the rhetoric.

Bailouts are ALWAYS bad for the taxpayer, for the economy, and for business. Why? Because rewarding the mismanagement of American corporations with a taxpayer-subsidized lifeline does NOTHING to encourage reform or fix the problems that pushed the companies to the brink of failure. As we said in a recent statement, these bailouts do nothing but prolong the inevitable collapse of companies suffering from extreme mismanagement and poor investments.

This is especially true in the case of automotive companies.

Detroit auto manufacturers have failed to keep up with trends in the automotive industry, locked themselves into destructive union contracts and demonstrated a complete lack of initiative in automotive innovations that make their products enticing to consumers.

Why are taxpayers being used to reward this mismanagement?

This is why Daniel J. Mitchell, a senior fellow at The Cato Institute, said the bailouts were like "giving an alcoholic the key to a liquor cabinet." Mitchell went on to list three important reasons why bailouts are bad news:

• A bailout will hurt the overall economy by misallocating resources. When politicians grant special favors to a certain industry or a particular union, such decisions necessarily mean that market forces are being replaced by special-interest deal-making. This type of interference with free markets is why nations such as France, Germany and Japan tend to grow more slowly and enjoy less prosperity.

But if America goes down this same path of government intervention, it is inevitable that we will suffer the same fate of stagnation and higher unemployment.

• A bailout will encourage other industries to seek taxpayer handouts. The Wall Street bailout was a disaster in many ways, most notably as measured by the weak stock market and economic volatility. But another negative aspect of the bailout is that other industries have now decided that it is OK to stick their snouts in the public trough, as well.

First Wall Street's high fliers get a bailout. Now the inefficient management and union at the Big Three want a handout. Who will be next in line to pillage taxpayers? Giving handouts in exchange for political support is akin to getting high. Once politicians decide they like the buzz of campaign contributions, they'll turn into junkies with ordinary Americans footing the bill.

• A bailout is a perverse transfer from poor taxpayers to rich taxpayers. America's Founding Fathers surely never envisaged that the federal government would take money from one group of Americans and give it to another group. Yet much of the federal budget is devoted to redistribution programs.

So, if the government can't bail-out these companies, what should happen to them?

Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy is by no means a no-hassle "way-out" for companies that have made bad decisions in the past, but it is by far preferable to taxpayers footing the bill for these companies struggling to stay afloat.

Bankruptcy will allow these companies to restructure to a more cost effective format, and it will allow them to "trim the fat" from their overhead so that they may once again become productive (and profitable) without risking trillions of dollars in taxpayer money. With court-oversight, these automotive factories may also redo expensive and entangling contracts with the Unions—a major reason why these automotive companies have become so costly to operate.

Overall, letting these companies go into restructuring, instead of preserving the status quo with taxpayer funds, is best for the long-term economic stability of both these companies and the nation.

There is no magic bullet for the current economic situation. However, we can learn from our mistakes, and refuse to repeat them—that is, don't run to the government to solve the problems that the marketplace should be taking care of itself.

At the beginning of the financial crisis, before government decided it would bailout these firms (by the way, check out how your money is being spent), other companies were looking to buy up their devalued competitors. Then, government rushed in to do a patch-job, and ended what could have been a very healthy market work-out without the government's help. Instead, government made the problem worse, with your money on the line.

Unfortunately, both Republicans and Democrats were behind it, leaving the taxpayers with no representation while your money was at stake.

Only the Libertarian Party is the true friend of the taxpayer, and we want you to know we are working night and day to maximize your economic freedom by limiting the power of the government to get involved in the economy. You've heard of the separation of Church and State, well, we'd like a separation of economy and State.

Live free,

Andrew Davis
Director of Communications
Libertarian Party

And a Business Week article from almost a year ago on executive pay. Read the responses, the one from Kimmer parallels my first blog post:

GM Execs: No Pay Cuts for Me

Here is an excellent article on why we shouldn't bail the bastards out:

Ten Reasons Why the Auto Bailout Is a Bad Idea

Well said, all of you.

How's about we put Romney in charge of GM as a requirement for a handout? Yeah, I know, govt money is a obviously bad idea, that's the gist of this whole post, but I think it's a forgone conclusion that they'll get the money.

By the way, consider Chrysler. Remember back in the 80's when the govt bailed them out and Lee Iaccoca took over? That seemed to work well right? OK, so later on they are hurting again and Daimler Benz devours them. That didn't work, so Daimler dumps them on Cerberus and now Chrysler is dying again. For crying out loud that's 3 times in a little over 20 years that they've needed saving and now their dying again?
As much as I love some Chrysler products, such as the new Challenger, I really think it's time to take the patient off life support for the last time. Then again, who'd buy Jeep?
Oh well.

Global Warming is Crap II

No further comment needed.

The world has never seen such freezing heat

Will The One Still Get As Much Support?

So The One made a rather mild but snide comment about a former president's wife, who was hospitalized last month with a fractured pelvis.

One class act.

And factually wrong, as it was not Nancy who did the seances, it was Hillary Clinton. Nancy did Astrologists, which perhaps isn't any better intellectually but certainly less creepy and morbid.

A good laugh from the press and no more.

Ah, but right wing bloggers caught it and reported it. It also wound up on YouTube pretty quick. Well, next thing you know MSLSD, CNN and so on are reporting that The One called Nancy and apologized.

So again, The One would have gotten away with the kind of remark that a Republican would have been slammed on. Also, note that by leading with the apology story, they show what a great guy he is, apologizing for a remark that a nasty ol' Republican would probably never have apologized for.

Now, this sort of thing is not new nor news, and really isn't important by itself. But it made me think about whether or not The One will continue to be worshiped by the MSM (Main Stream Media) or if they will turn on him soon, as predatory creatures often do.

Now that they have succeeded in helping The One win the presidency, will they expect him to actually fulfill his promises? Or did they believe all along that he was just lying in order to get elected? I don't know, I can't even guess.

Now that the Dems are in complete control, there's very little that the MSM can attack Republicans on except what was done in the past. I think they'll get a lot of mileage out of that, years in fact. But I had never considered them turning on The One within the first year of his presidency, which I guess may be possible if my second scenario pans out.

I doubt it, but boy would it be fun!

Caught Myself

On a quick, unrelated note, I did NOT expect the stock market to keep falling after the election. I guess folks are bailing out before the tax hikes?

I read this article, and decided to make a half joking post that this must be one of the ways the Obamessiah (I think I might just call him The One from now on,less typing) plans on reducing govt spending

unpaid campaign workers

Easy huh? Just don't pay your workers! And you thought CEO's were bad!

But then I thought, "hey, Hillary did the same crap, and even worse." That got me to thinking that perhaps this was a pretty typical Democrat thing. Wouldn't surprise me.
I Googled around and found this

Deadbeat Democrats

Yep, looks to be natural behavior for those wonderful folks who care so much about the poor and the working men and women of this racist, exploitative country of ours.

But I happened to catch this Snopes page too and found that owing a bunch of money for long after an election is perfectly normal

Joe Biden's Debts

So, good thing I didn't go on about deadbeat Dems.

I did Google search for Republican deadbeats, cuz I noticed that most of the Snopes article was Democrat, but I found little. I didn't try real hard, as it was an afterthought and I'm leaving in a minute. I'll bet there will be lotsa deadbeat Republicans after this election though!

And So It Begins

Well the easy part of my prolix prognostication post has come to pass. Oooh, I feel like a veritable Nostradamus I do.

Not that it matters, but I wrote in Bob Barr for president, selected the Libertarian (crap I can't even remember his name) for Congress, and Republicans for all else, since there weren't any Libertarians running that I was aware of.
I voted NO on both referendums, or ballot initiatives or whatever they're called.

Now, I'm anxious to see how the economic policies play out.

In a way, I'm relieved. Little boring bastards like me won't get beat up much for a year or two and might even get some kind of socialist type handouts, so my family and I should be OK for now. That is of course if my first possible scenario plays out.

Predicting the Future

Always an idiot's game.

Here I go.

I don't have much time, leaving to vote soon. Meant to do this post weeks ago and really investigate and footnote it, but of course I didn't. Maybe I'll update it or just run follow up posts on how I did.

First, the easy part. The Obamessiah will win and the Dems will gain complete control of Congress and Senate.

Initially, the economy will rebound smartly. Again, this is common after a presidential election. But this time it will be greater because
A. The libs will be so ecstatic that they'll go into a state of permanent celebration. Tongue in cheek, I suspect Volvo sales will spike.
B. Our lib journalists (basically everyone in the business outside Fox and talk radio), will be so filled with joy (see reason A) that they will bombard us with good news. We will be made to believe that we are now entering an American Utopia and all will be well now that the evil Republicans have been defeated.


Barring extreme events such as a terrorist attack or huge natural disaster, I can see only two ways things will go from there.

One, the Obamessiah and his minions will go through with his economic plans as he promised. In this case, I predict that most if not all of 2009 will appear to be pretty much as 2008 is now for the middle class and better for the poor, with the govt buying up companies, going on a hiring binge, jacking up social spending, and bailing out pretty much everyone who isn't "rich."
This will not affect me directly. The rich will see tax increases and the poor will get their $500 welfare checks. The stock market will start crunching again, maybe as soon as second quarter, but it will be explained away as a lingering effect of the failed Bush policies.
By 20011, the economy will be going down worse and faster, unemployment up except in government which will continue to expand. Then the Bush tax cuts will expire and plebeians like me will see tax increases. So much for the Obamessiah not taxing the middle class.
Still, we will have our govt welfare checks and perhaps cheaper health insurance, so we won't complain. After all, any problems we are experiencing are still due to the evil Bush. Make no mistake, "journalists" will put forth every effort to convince us of that.
2012 we are in the worst recession in history. Not quite a depression, but damn near. We will be crying over how the rich and their allies the Republicans screwed us and we will vote the Obamessiah and the Dems back in to save us from the sinking economy. It will do no good.
2013, Hell maybe before the end of 2012, we are in a depression, worse than the first one. There will be double digit unemployment and inflation. The majority of jobs remaining in this country, probably something on the order of 70% will be in government. We will be at best second, likely third or lower, in world economies. Other countries, seeing our fall, will have already cut loose from our economy, forming ties with others such as China and Russia. Our military will be in shambles. The Dems answer will be still more taxes and government growth.
It will probably be another 2 years or more before we finally catch on to what's going on and there will then be a huge political reversal. I think we'll be able to climb back from the depths, but it will be tough. If you thought we were a conservative nation before, just wait till then. The pendulum will swing too far to the right and it's gonna suck socially, but the economy will get back on track.
I do fear however, that the Dems will have successfully silenced all opposition voices. There will be no talk radio other than what they permit and Fox will be unrecognizable. Still, I'm sure a voice or two will be heard somehow.

Crap I ran out of time, I'll have to finish at work.
Voted, cut my workout short, back to this before starting time.

The other possible scenario is just as likely. The Dems know damn well that the Obamessiah's Robin Hoodwink promises, if carried out, would result in the utter destruction of the economy as I have described. The Obamessiah will try unsuccessfully to carry out his economic and social plans as Congress and the Senate find new and ever more clever ways to say "no." The media will not know whether to shit or wind their watches as they watch their savior, the Messiah, The One, rendered ineffectual by his own party. What's running down your leg now Chris Matthews?
Short term, the economy and po' folk like me will be hurting and the rich will get a bit of a pass as usual. And that short term won't be so short, lasting right through to 2012 if nothing extreme changes.
During this time, the media will likely have decided to punish anyone that has not gone along with the Obamessiah and will be roundly criticizing the Dem party for not cooperating with The One. Shortly after the 2008 Presidential election, there will be a "throw the bums out" mentality among the Dem constituents. But it won't be a turn to more conservative ways and it certainly won't be a turn to Republicans. Rather, the bums will be replaced by even more liberal pols who will agree with the Obamessiah's policies. He will be reelected by the way.
Now the first scenario is carried out, but it will be even worse because the economy will be weaker. This one will really crush us.

If I'm wrong and McSame wins? Still screwed. The Dems will not cooperate with him, they'll make sure the economy dies and then they and their volunteer public relations consultants, aka the "news" media, will convince us that it's all the fault of McSame and the remaining handful of Republicans, and of course the failed Bush policies. The economy will crash and then the Obamessiah will win in 2012, and we will be so completely destroyed that I fear we would NOT be able to recover.

The best scenario is that the Obemessiah wins now, he gets what he wants, we crash hard and fast, and then recover.

I have kids, and really life for schmucks like me would be so much easier in a full blown socialist country, so I think it would be cool if I was wrong and the Obamessiah's policies actually helped, or at least did not hurt, the economy.
But just because something is good for me doesn't mean it's good for the country as a whole. That's something many of us don't seem to realize or care about.

Quick Edit, just found this. Here is what I consider a typical Obamessiah fan

In Obama We Trust

KILL HIM or not

BWAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!

So a reporter claims that someone in the crowd of Palin supporters yelled "Kill Him" when the Obamessiah's name was mentioned.
If true, this would be serious and the dumbass would need to be dealt with. We can't have that kind of crap.

Unless of course we're talking about President Bush it seems.

Oh but wasn't it reported as gospel. Of course, the Secret Service found out otherwise:

Secret Service says "Kill him" allegation unfounded

Now, conservatives make similar mistakes too, so in a way this is the pot calling the kettle black (ooooh, I bet I'm not supposed to use that phrase anymore)

But I just have to show you this bit of fun, courtesy of the Huffington Post, or as I call it, the Horfington Post (that's "horf" as in a throwing up sound don'cha know):

Obama Hatred At McCain-Palin Rallies: "Terrorist!" "Kill Him!" (VIDEO)

Video eh? Kinda makes ya think that there's a video of this anti messiah yelling "kill him." That would be great for the true believers wouldn't it?
No such luck. The best they got is someone yelling "treason." I guess if you truly believe that the Obamessiah is the messiah, that would be grounds for an inquisition, but for a few more months the law views the The Chosen One as no more than a presidential candidate.

I get such a kick out of Liberal mouth foamers.

Forclosure on Your Horizon?

If your mortgage lender is ready to foreclose on you, and won't play ball with short sales or interest reductions and so on, get a lawyer and have him go over every inch of every form involved in the sale to you.

The reason is that many loans that have been issued are defective in some way. There's a chance that a lawyer knowledgeable in real estate transactions can find defects and force the lender to work with you or risk having you report them, maybe even sue them.

If the lender now foreclosing is not your original lender, have the lawyer demand to receive copies of all of their paperwork on this loan. There have been several instances of financial companies foreclosing on loans that they didn't legally own!

As long as you still have a job and can make some sort of payments, Hell even if you can't, there are other deals that can be worked out instead of foreclosure.

Good luck, and whenever someone tells you that it's not the end of the world, tell them to piss off.

Behold the Liberal

This video is in complete agreement with my views and serves to confirm them.

McCain march through NY

Absolutely, there can be no doubt.

Of course, if a bunch of Obama supporters marched through a conservative neighborhood, they would get the same treatment.
But we all know conservatives are awful people right? Liberals are far superior, aren't they?

So I Was Wrong...

very very wrong.

Palin did well. Palin and Biden both did very well actually, but I was surprised about Palin, I was so sure she'd screw it up.

Ifill did well too. I was so sure she'd pull some crap to favor Biden, but no, she was very objective.

Profuse and sincere apologies to both women.

Y'know, I like both VP candidates better than the Pres canditates. I think the Obomessiah and McSame should step down and hand the race over to their Veeps.

VP Debate

Oh for cryin' out loud, Palin is going to be chewed up and spit out by Biden, we all know that.
Why do some people feel she needs help to fail?

VP debate moderator's impartiality questioned

OK, OK, she's a journalist, and I guess writing books about politics is expected. Also, Obama is only one of the politicians mentioned, so this shouldn't really be a big deal.

Yah, sure:

The Obamas: Portrait of an American Family - Gwen Ifill


On a positive note, there will be a Live Blog of the VP debates going on, which should be more interesting than the debates themselves:

Dreamloom VP Debate

Here's a bit of an explanation:

CoyoteSquirrell Pimps Dreamloom

So let's watch Palin get it from two sides and intellectually vapor lock.

Hey Pelosi

STFU.
You too Frank.

I couldn't even finish listening to this, it was so horribly self serving:

Pelosi's Scapegoating

This financial mess we are in was NOT caused by any freaking "failed Bush policy." Nor is it completely the fault of greedy Wall Street executives.

The blame can be laid squarely at the feet of Congress, both parties, but primarily the Democrats.

I can explain why, but someone else has summed it up pretty well. Easier for me to just link to the article:

Beyond The Point Of No Return

You Dems and liberals who are screeching about Bush and the evils of capitalism, get it through your heads that it was primarily your own misguided, mindless idealism that put us here (I guess you are all vegetarians*). Deal with it.

*go back a few posts for an explanation, PETA Post.

UPDATE:
Oops, forgot about this one. Earlier article, more detail, another "must read."

Pin The Tail On The Donkey

A Few Examples of Why I Hate Most News Co's.

OK, you can consider the source here, but I do believe these articles, and they are great examples of the problem with most of our news outlets:

Sarah Palin Myths Debunked

And why would they lie and spin about Palin? Here you go:

The Man Who Never Was

While we're about it, here's a WSJ editorial about the Obamessiah's tax plan. Not sure how accurate it is, haven't been able to get any straight analysis really:

Obama's Tax Plan Is Really a Welfare Plan

Most any article or editorial I've seen anywhere else lauds the Obammessiah's grand and glorious plan.

Oh well, I still say either way we're screwed.

Oops

Just pokin' around, and I noticed that in a previous post I used "insure" when I should have used "ensure."

What an ass.

Pellet Stove Revisited

I railed on about the worthlessness of our pellet stove a few months ago:

Pellet Stoves Worth It?

Well had the service guy come out and clean it up and check it out last weekend, and he informed me that I didn't have the air damper opened up enough.

He fired it up and showed me how the flame was supposed to look. Damn, no fire, just some blue glow from the pellets and they were jumping around a little bit from the wind blowing through!
Now I had been warned that too much air would blow out the flame, so I was trying to be careful. A little too careful it seems.

Also, we apparently bought a crappy stove. It's a Breckwell Big E utility furnace, and he told me that none of the service guys like them, they just don't heat as well as other Breckwells. Well, it was about $1500 as opposed to $3000 for a "good" one. What a freakin' ripoff these things are.

Oh, and I'm not going to run that other outside vent as I had originally planned.

Well, crappy stove or not, now that I suspect it was mostly my fault, let's see what this winter brings.

PETA, An Explanation

I'm editing this one, I did it too fast, didn't pay attention:

If you've ever found yourself wondering "what in the world are those crazies in PETA thinking? How could they be so stupid?" well now you know:

Veggies Shrink Brains

Maybe I will vote for McCain

Simply because I hate most of the news media.

The Obamessiah gets a gentle, and very helpful, hand from an interviewer, and Palin gets attacked.
Both should have been attacked really.

I was planning on voting Libertarian, just as a protest more than anything else as I don't think much of Barr, but when McCain selected Palin as his running mate, I said, "hey that was a pretty neat zinger there."
So, I started leaning a little more towards the old guy, but not too much.

Now, I am almost certain to vote for him, simply because I am sick and tired of the media's fawning over the most holy Obamessiah. For example, Palin's religion is a problem and the Obamessiah's close religious and family relationship with a racist asshole is just fine?

The lipstick comment is bullcrap, the Obamessiah simply used a fairly common term and I in no way believe he directed it at Palin. No one could truly believe that. So that's what the media focuses on for days.

Screw you CBS, NBC, etc. etc.

You make me sick, and I will probably vote for McCain/Palin simply because you are so obviously in love with the Obamessiah and will throw aside all semblance of journalistic integrity to insure his victory.

One small article outlining a few examples:

UPI article

Republicans Are Evil

The previous quote about what liberals have done for us was posted in the Daily Kos as a response to this little tale:

Father - Daughter Talk

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat; and, among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor of higher taxes to support more government programs, in other words, redistribution of wealth.

She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the "rich" and the need for more government programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors just had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father. He responded by asking how she was doing in school.

Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn't even have time for a boyfriend, and didn't really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying.

Her father listened, then asked, "How is your friend Audrey doing?" She replied, "Audrey is barely getting by. All! she takes are easy classes, she never studies, and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She's always invited to all the parties, and lots of times she doesn't even show up for classes because she's too hung over."

Her father asked her, "Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct a 1.0 off your GPA, and give it to your friend Audrey, who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA."

The daughter, visibly shocked by her father's suggestion, angrily fired back, "That's a crazy idea. How would that be fair? I've worked really hard for my grades! I've invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work. Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She's played while I worked my tail off!"

The father slowly smiled, winked, and said gently, "Welcome to the Republican Party."

Now here's my point in quoting this:

If you fully agree with one of these, but fully disagree with the other, then you are an extremist asshole. You are part of the problems this country faces, rather than a solution.

But if you can see some truth and merit in both of them, even if you agree with one more than the other, then I figure you to be someone capable of independent thought, whatever your education level may be.

That's all I was thinking about with this.

I'm a Liberal Hatin' Republican

But I'm not quite, just barely not quite, stupid enough to not fully agree with this:

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JOE REPUBLICAN

Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first swallow of coffee, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to insure their safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance -- now Joe gets it, too. He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained. Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for laws to stop industries & government from polluting our air. He walks to the subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker's compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

Its noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards. He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans. The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day.

Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."

Nothing is 100% other than death and even that gets debated to, uh, death.

I got this from the Daily Kos website, which I can't read without puking, but there was a direct link to this from someplace else so I could handle it.

I need to post something about the presidential elections, but this jumped out at me.

CHROME!

OK, I'm a day late and a dollar short, but I just read the Google Chrome browser's introductory comic.
Man, if these bastards can pull this off, they'll rule the browser world too!

Chrome Intro

Screw You, SUV's are great!

I'm sick of all these self righteous little envirofreaks dancing around in joy over the drop in SUV sales.
Yes, they are a bit over the top compared to the rest of the world's vehicles, but DAMN they are so great at what they were designed for!

Are you smug weasels so hopelessly out of touch that you think people will be happier with little tin cans? Do you honestly believe that dumping the Tahoe and buying a CRV is anything but a decline in the quality of life for a family (not an individual)?

Long story, boredom shall ensue:

I used to hate SUV's too. Why spend all that extra money for fuel and maintenance? Heck I was driving 2wd pickup trucks winter after winter and rarely ever had any problems. I just did not feel the added costs were worth the extra bit of traction of 4wd, unless you were a serious off-roader or construction worker or some such.
I could understand needing the extra room for a family, but why not get a mini-van or even a full size van or perhaps a station wagon (they still made big wagons back then, another vehicle I really miss)?

Then I got married, had a family, and the pickup had to be replaced with a family hauler.
Well, now I sure as Hell did not want no stinkin' mini-van! To me, that was the final step on the road to domesticity. The public admission that I was no longer a man, but just a castrated drone. Besides, they didn't handle and had no power.
I wanted a Caprice wagon, which was the only big wagon available late model used left at the time, though no longer built. It didn't handle that great either, but there were aftermarket parts to help with that, and it had a V8 engine as God intended cars to have,instead of some wheezy V6 turd like the mini-vans.

Wifey was having none of that, however, so being, in fact, a castrated drone though not wanting to admit it, we got a mini-van.
Now I began to understand a little why so many people liked the SUV's. You could have the room but at least be able to look like you had a pair.
I was a bit depressed, my only consolation was that I still had a motorcycle to prove to others, if not myself, that I still had a life to live.
Well now, the first time I threw a mountain of junk plus the family in that thing, I was a changed drone. I no longer cared that it had no power and didn't handle. Admit I was a fat, sappy eunuch? Yeah buddy, for the convenience of that mini-van, I'd shout it to the world and not give a rat's patootie.
Packing for a trip was now a breeze. "Uh,do you think we shoud bring-" "Yeah, throw it in." "What about this?" "Yep, that too, and that other thing over there, and those, and these..."
Once again, I lost respect for the SUV drivers. I had the space at less cost, and it did quite well in the winter.

That mini-van was a Ford, and like any Ford outside of a GT40, it was garbage. So, well before we were ready, we had to replace it, after spending a king's ransom trying to keep it alive (note to Ford owners, if it has over 80k miles on it, and the repair is over $100, just get rid of it).
We decided at this point to go Jap, no more American cars for us.
Ah, but Jap mini-vans have a very high resale value. OK, can't afford that, let's look at wagons - uh, nope not many of those around either - oh no...
Then at the Honda dealer, the salesman showed me a Passport, which is a smallish mid size SUV (it's junk too, but I didn't know it at the time. Subject for a future post). Damned if it wasn't right in our price range and just the right legroom, though much less storage space than the mini-van.
We bought it, and I didn't feel too hypocritical since I considered it no more than a 4wd station wagon.
And then the first snow came. And my wife got stuck in the driveway, she having to hurry to an appointment and having no time to shovel. Normally, time to reschedule, but she just popped it into 4wheel and drove right out.
Oh Mary, blessed mother, why did we not buy one of these long ago? More snows followed. Blizzards, freaking white out blizzards. Weren't nothin' to us, just throw 'er into 4wheel and mosey on down the road ("mosey" being the operative word because the brakes don't work any better on a 4wd than any other vehicle). The weather was simply no longer a factor in any of our travel plans. It was freedom, power, control.
After that, I loved SUV's, adored them. I decided that we would always have one from now on, and as soon as we could, we'd get a big one to get back the cargo capacity of the mini-van.

Alas, it was not to be.

The time came to say goodbye to the Passport. The Nissan Armada had been released and it was love at first site for me. I nearly swooned when one went by, which was a real pain in the ass if I was driving. Those things had it all and then some. Oh what a fantasy made real, to cruise down the road with all the family in comfort and an idiotically huge pile of stuff in the back, and with 4wd. Aaand, 0 to 60 in 7 seconds!! Oh be still my beating heart, I'd only ever had one car in my life that could do that. I was a kid again, and yet still a dad. No longer just a drone. I could have vehicular fun and a family at last.

But, as always when attempting to buy a new vehicle, I ran smack into my financial inadequacy. I simply couldn't afford an Armada.
What to do. American vehicles were not on the radar, and big Toyota's were even more dear. I hung my head, gave up dreaming, and checked out the Toyota AWD mini-van. But a 16 week waiting list and the usual "what's MSRP?" put the kibosh to that.

And so, in the end, we wound up with a Honda Odyssey mini-van. No 4 or All Wheel Drive.
I was disappointed, but the Honda handled very well for such a large vehicle and was very peppy to boot. Then too, we averaged 19mpg instead of the 14 the Armada would have returned on a good day. So I just dealt with it and decided that if I ever started earning as much money as a man is supposed to, I'd get the Armada or something similar.

As I alluded to at the beginning, I now feel this will never be. Gas will go down, probably to $3.50/gallon, but that's still more than I could handle with a 14mpg vehicle. I still don't make much, though much better than back then, and probably never will.
It looks like we'll run the Odyssey to the end of our kids time with us (being a Honda, it will likely last that long), and then we won't need a big vehicle any longer. Perhaps we'll get a small 4wd pickup, that would be fun, especially if I can find some decent performance parts for it.

You envirofreak tree huggers will never understand, and you're sneering and laughing at me and those like me right now. You are correct in that the SUV era was too much and had to end, but you are wrong to exult in it. You are wrong to think that tiny cars are what will make people truly happy, and that the popularity of the SUV was all from marketing and not from a real desire or need. You may be happy shoehorning your kids into an all but nonexistent back seat and then loading 20 lbs of gear on the roof, but I think you are just convincing yourselves of that in order to achieve Ecologic Spiritual Perfection.

The more you make fun of us and our beloved SUV's, the more we hate you and want to go back to the old ways. Turn on the spigots, let the gas flow.
May I humbly suggest that you be more tolerant of those different from you, more considerate of those with differing opinions. Accept that the SUV's worked for us, but gently remind us that it cannot be any longer. Don't exult in our loss, just remind us that it had to happen sooner or later, and that we should be thankful that we had any time at all to revel in the glorious excess that is the SUV.

God I Love Firefox

Just installed the new Firefox Beta 3.5 on one of my employer's test stations.

WOW, this thing is freakin' blazing!

I've always liked Firefox more than Internet Exploder, now I like it even more.

Get Firefox

Or keep using crap.

Well,OK, Opera user's don't use crap.

Global Warming is Crap

Al Gore (aka the Goracle) is making the big bucks from it.
The AlGorian Order's NASA missionaries are nesting happily in his pocket.
Now way will any of the "mainstream media" give us any info but what the Goracle wants us to hear. Except of course in the context of showing what a bunch of Baboons the heretics are, or perhaps evil minions of the oil companies.

Ah well, leave it to the Brits to actually publish something with a bit of science:

Is the Earth Getting Warmer, or Cooler?

Why can't our so called journalists do stuff like this?

Yep, Still Hate Hillary

Ah the fun times the Clintonistas had with us. And now they manage to blame the Bushies for all of it!

Clinton blasts Bush for not stopping a project Bill OK'd

Wonder just how much the DNC pocketed from that deal?

Of course, Bush is an ass for not at least making some effort to intervene, though I wonder if his hands were tied in some fashion.

As an aside, I also wonder if Hillary, or the Dems in general actually, will start shutting down websites and news organizations not friendly to them in order to silence detractors? We know that they will launch a full assault on talk radio, but guys like me get some of this stuff from news aggregators like Drudge and from Googling. Fox news is also not their buddy. Guess they'll have to try and put a stop to all them too.

God's Own Beer!

I have found the greatest brewed beverage ever. It has upset the previous leader, Hobgoblin. No small task that, let me tell you.

Behold the web site of the new reigning champion:

Peak Organic Beer, my favorite being the Nut Brown Ale.

This new to me super brew has something for everyone:

If you're a regular guy who enjoys a tasty cold one now and then, well buddy this stuff is great!
If you're a beer snob, well what could be snobbier than organic?
If you're a granola crunchin' tree hugger, then see the previous sentence.
UPDATE: If you're on a diet, this beer is only about 20 calories higher than light.

I swear, making this stuff from organic ingredients really does have an effect.

If you live in the Danbury CT area, you owe it to yourself to wiggle, waddle, or stumble your buns down to Fairgrounds Wine & Spirits and try some.

Anime is the Best

As mentioned in my profile, one of my favorite things in this old world is Anime. Actually "one of my favorite things" is a gross understatement. I freakin' love Anime. I'm addicted to it. In fact I have not yet seen a live action movie or TV show that I enjoy as much as Anime (not all Anime, just ones I consider "top tier"), though Babylon 5, the original Vanishing Point movie, the Predator movies, and pretty much anything with dragons in it come pretty close.

As my list of preferred live action shows indicates, I like action, fantasy and sci-fi.
However, in case you weren't aware, Anime covers other genres as well.

I buy most of my Anime and related stuff from these good folks:

Right Stuf

Good prices and truly excellent customer service, at least the very few times I've needed service.

For a great Anime forum, news and magazine (Protoculture Addicts), look no further:

Anime News Network

I haven't been active on their forum for years, and I really miss it.

Here and there, I may do an occasional review of some Anime, though the reviews found on the Anime News Network are generally far better than anything I could do. Who knows though, perhaps I'll have a different view.

For some good info, especially parent reviews, this next site is good. The reviews haven't been updated since 2004. Actually nothing much at all has happened here since 04, except the forum, which I haven't yet visited. But it's a nice site with no advertising. I do highly recommend it:

Anime Cafe

Here's some other reviews, much more up to date, though I haven't poked around the rest of the site:

THEM Anime

Of course, there are better sites for reviews, news, forums and shopping. There always are with everything it seems. But I haven't found them yet.

A little not so quick background. I started watching Anime as a kid in the 60's, with Astro Boy, Kimba the white lion (which Disney's The Lion King is a slight rip off of), Speed Racer (yes, as a matter of fact, I AM going to see the movie), etc. At the time, I had no idea they were Japanese.
The show 8th Man introduced me to death. No seriously, I have no memory of anyone or anything, such as a relative, neighbor or pet, dying prior to that show. In one episode, a very likable protagonist (cute little talking porpoise) got killed by the bad guy, which never happened in American cartoons in those days. I was flipped out, crying and asking "why?" Later, when a neighbor's dog got run over, I remember looking at the poor little carcass and thinking "so this is what it's like in real life." I won't say that it helped or hurt me to see it, but I can tell you that I sure remember it.

Wow, looking up long unvisited sites and writing about this subject makes me really want to do it more. I miss the forums too. So, here and there, I'll write some little odd or end about Anime, I'll even start a new Label for it.

No True Winners

I have been saying for a while now that no matter who of the three major candidates now in play wins the presidency, liberals win and conservatives lose.
I am reminded occasionally that not all liberals like the Dem candidates either.

As usual Chris Muir sums up the entire race in a little three page comic:

Day by Day Cartoon

That Muir guy is amazing.

No Kidding?

This election just keeps on amazing me:

Erosion of trust in Clinton

Wow, really? You mean she lies? Oh no, say it aint so!

She and her darling hubby have been nothing if not liars from day one. Lying is what Clintons do, it's their nature. For Chrissakes, Geffen dumped them because they lie so easily (now he and friend Arianna are defending Obama from the comfort of his 400+ foot yacht. Good to know they are for the little guy).

How could anyone ever have thought her trustworthy?

I guess many people have known she lies, but felt that they were "good lies" or something and that she was nonetheless trustworthy.

Well, whatever, people are slowly opening their eyes and joining the ranks of the crazy, toothless, gun totin' uneducated, selfish right wing nutjobs in realizing what an accomplished "lyin' thievin' weasel" she is.

Bout time.

Motorcycles: A bit more explanation

Before I bore you, check out this unrelated comic. I don't care what your politics are, this is funny (you'll have to click on it to see the whole thing):


see more hipster robot webcomics and pixel t-shirts

Anyways, I realized that I want to say more about Harleys and give additional explanations to my last post.

Yes, Harley's quality stinks. Yet, I do feel that a Sporty, specifically an 883, is a good beginner bike. They are fairly light, have a very low center of gravity, lots of low end torque, yet are not very quick, quite anemic actually. They handle OK, but don't do anything fast, that is, they are not "twitchy" or in any way sensitive. They have a very low seat height. They are very simple, basic machines. Parts are plentiful and easy to get, even for 30 year old models.

But I have 2 laws of Harley buying that are very important to this whole blog:

The first law of buying a Harley:

NEVER BUY A NEW HARLEY. ALWAYS BUY A USED ONE, PREFERABLY OVER 4 YEARS OLD

You see, a new Harley is guaranteed to have some kind of awful design defect, which may not show up for thousands of miles. This is as true today as it was 20 years ago, though a better situation than 30 years ago. There are numerous examples, such as el cheapo cam bearings, defective cam tensioners (there were actually 2 or 3 separate defects here, spanning I don't know how many years), offset wheel alignments - the list goes on, it could fill a book. How would you like to dump $25k for a bike that is equaled or surpassed in performance and features by an under $20k Jap bike, and then have the cams shred all over the inside of your engine in a few thousand miles?

But both the motor company and an unbelievably huge aftermarket will quickly come up with fixes for the defects as soon as they are uncovered. Your job, as a smart Harley buyer (no such thing really, but I've been there and may again, so I say "smart" instead of "not quite criminally stupid"), is to wait until the particular year and model defects are discovered and a fix developed, then buy the thing, knowing now what you need to do to make it roadworthy. Better yet, wait until a previous owner has done the fix and then buy the bike after.
Also, there will be some assembly line defects, such as loose or ill fitting parts, that will cause you some inconvenience. Better to let someone else take care of all the assembly line gremlins and buy the bike after that.

This brings up the second law of buying a used Harley:

NEVER BUY A HARLEY WITH LESS THAN 5,000 MILES ON IT

This seems like a no brainer based on over 4 years old, but with Harley's t'aint necessarily so. Riders of other bike brands will commonly refer to Harleys as "Hardley Ablesons" or in the context of this blog "Hardley Riddensons" You see, it is very common for people to buy a Harley and only ride it an occasional short distance to show it off. Check the classifieds and you will see 4 year old Harleys with less than 3k miles on them, and I'm being generous. Bikes referred to by the term "trailer queen" are almost always Harleys.

But you can't be too sure that all the assembly line issues have been exorcised until at least 5k miles. Keep looking.

So, a used Harley, while grossly overpriced, is a safer bet than a new one, provided all the work was properly done. Of course, that's usually hard to be sure of, so all the normal used vehicle precautions apply.

Now, the idea with my daughter's bike, if we ever do it, is to buy a Sporty that's pretty ugly, but not mechanically terrible. There aren't too many of those, but they can be found here and there. I have no problem with stripping the bike down to the frame, and in fact that is what we would do, then painting it as she wants (she won't paint it pink, so I can get away with this). The only super expensive, difficult work would be if the tranny, or some major engine component was bad.

I've probably sworn you off Harley's forever. That's not my intent. Remember that I do hope to buy one or more sometime down the road, and I will gladly let my daughter have one for her first bike. It's just that you cannot trust the motor company, you cannot buy a new one unless you can afford to go through a lot of troubles. Then too, new Harley's are enormously expensive to maintain, the service charges are astronomical. But the bikes are very basic and easy to maintain, so if you get a used one, well there's no warranty, so you can buy a service manual and do it yourself.

There you have it, a further explanation of my previous post. Hope you're not as bored as I think you are!

Motorcycles: Never Satisfied Again

Ah motorcycling used to be so easy.
Note: none of the images linked herein are of my own bikes. One of these days, I'll upload those and link to them.

When I was a kid, I loved Suzuki’s so that’s what I rode, no problem, no question.
Then, in ’82 a buddy let me ride his Harley and I just fell in love with them. Sold the Suzuki GT 750 I had (yes, as a matter of fact, I do regret selling that bike) and bought a used ’75 Super Glide. I later had a ‘73 Sportster and an ’89 Sport Glide. No decisions to make except what model Harley to ride.

Times got tough and I had to sell my Harley. Years later, my wife said “time for another bike” and we bought an ’82 Honda Magna.

Well, now my biking life is complicated and pretty unhappy. Bottom line is that unless I win a big fat lottery, I’m never going to be satisfied. The reason is that I love this bike, but don’t have the time to work on it, can’t afford a new bike, don’t like most of the new bikes anyway, and won’t be satisfied with a Harley either.

Follow this stupid, tortured path:

Even though it’s a Honda, the Magna is 26 years old at the time of this writing, and the previous owner didn’t take too good care of her either, so believe me she requires a lot of work to keep running. Now with something simple, like a Harley, that wouldn’t be too big of a deal. But this thing is a V4, double overhead cam, water cooled, 4 carburetor, freakin’ nightmare. Almost every component on this bike is buried under something. The clearances between parts are tighter than a homophobe’s butt cheeks in prison. Bottom line is that the simplest, most basic repair or maintenance, other than oil changes and tire pressure checks, is a long torturous project. I can tell you for a fact that it takes longer for me to replace the choke and throttle cables on this thing than it does to completely remove and reinstall a Harley carburetor and cables. I have lost countless days of riding due to this.

OK so why not have a shop do the work? Well for one thing I can’t afford it. For another, most motorcycle mechanics don’t know anything about these bikes and are just as likely to screw them up as fix them. That includes Honda certified mechanics. So, without that lottery win, I’m on my own.

“Hey jackass” you say, “why keep fighting with such a pain in the neck bike? Why not buy something else that doesn’t eat your time?” Well, yeah, God knows there are all sorts of affordable used bikes that would require less work and / or be much easier to work on. But I don’t care for any of them, so I won’t be satisfied. I do think a BMW 900 would do the trick, but I’m not sure.

Harleys? Ah, I do still love those things, and I do wish I had one, but they are horribly overpriced and underperforming. I don’t think I’d be satisfied. Perhaps I should try to take one for a test ride to find out. But I still really couldn’t afford it anyway.

The thing with this Magna, the thing that keeps me fighting, is that absolutely no motorcycle manufacturer in the world makes a bike like it anymore. I’m not kidding nor exaggerating. The closest thing to it is the Yamaha VMax, and those are not as comfortable, don’t generally handle as well and are just as complicated.

The early Magna’s like mine (officially she’s my wife’s bike, that’s another story), have the most perfect balance of power, handling and comfort of any small (750cc) cruiser bike ever made. No bull. This thing is light and nimble at slow speeds, yet perfectly stable and smooth at high speeds. The ride is very comfortable for such a small bike, yet she has ample ground clearance and would go around corners very well were the shocks and fork springs not trashed. I can push her around the garage and driveway with no trouble, yet she can carry around my fat ass and one of my kids without complaint. She will flat blow away any unmodified Harley except a V-Rod (my opinion of those is yet another story), yet will get over 40mpg if not ridden maniacally. The power delivery of this engine is fascinating to me. She pulls fairly strong right off idle, then gets pretty lively once over 3,000 rpm, and then very suddenly at 7,000 rpm it’s as if an afterburner kicks in and she pulls my arms back right up to redline at around 10,000 rpm. It’s a rush that only a Magna or a sportbike can deliver. The V65 (1,000cc) Magna is even more powerful, but that’s more than I need.

The reason that there are no cruisers like this any longer is that the Jap bike manufacturers have decided to go completely over to V-twins like a Harley. It’s basic economics, I can’t blame them. Most everybody who’s into cruisers wants a Harley or something like it, so imitating Harley is where the sales and money are. I personally couldn’t give a rat’s patoot about the Harley “mystique,” and really, most people buy Harleys as faux penis enlargers (look at me, I’m sooooo tough, I’m soooo cool). But once again, I will say I do love the look, sound, and feel of a Harley. But even if I could afford it, I find it so difficult to pay so much money for something that performs so poorly and is of such low quality. Yes folks, Harley quality sucks, has since AMF bought them in the early 70’s, and still does now that they are independent, and always will.

And yet.

Every time I have to do any work on the Magna, I cringe. I hate it, and I will be missing a lot of good riding days this year too. The torture never stops. My oldest daughter has suggested that I buy an old Sportster that needs fixing up and then we can work on it together and it would be her first bike. I love that idea and a Sportster is a good first bike, believe it or not. Yeah, but when can I work on her Sporty (short for Sportster), when I have to sink time into the Magna? Also, I can tell you that I missed more riding with the ‘89 Harley than any other bike I’ve ever owned. That pig broke down just pushing it out the garage. I finally got it running right and not breaking down just the year I sold it. On the other hand, my ’75 almost never gave me any trouble, year after year, mile after mile. Go figure.

Well, there you are. I have a bike that I hate to love, new bikes suck (oh yeah, I can’t fit a sportbike), most old bikes aren’t too interesting, and Harley’s are wicked expensive and slow. Actually I think my family would prefer that I get a slow bike, but I aint asking them.

I don’t think I’ll ever be fully satisfied again.

Time + Murtha = Lynch Mob

So tell me oh great yellow journalists and rabid fat boy, what do you think of the fact that the charges have been dropped against all but 3 of the Haditha Marines you tried to destroy? And the fact that those 3 no longer face murder charges?

Lying sacks of crap, circa 2006

Ticked off are you? Well, sorry that the truth has almost won out. Maybe if you hadn't believed the stories of known insurgents, and tried to ruin American soldiers with that crap, you might have done better.

You sure y'all are still Americans? U.S. type Americans I mean? Maybe on paper, but that's all.

If only I was rich. Oh yeah, I'd be talking to the freed Marines right now, along with a phalanx of sharp lawyers. Getting ready, investigating, collecting, putting it all together. Keeping an eye on the trial of the remaining political prisoner Marines. Talking to them and / or their families as much as possible.

When all my ducks are in a row, I'd launch one mutha of a lawsuit against Time and Murtha. I'd run one monster ad campaign against them too and ask all Americans to stand up against this kind of filth(well,it couldn't really be a monster, as no media organization outside Fox and Newsmax would run it). Heck, I'd even go after the damn Pentagon for going along with it. Political bastards.

This kind of thing drives me nuts.

The election campaigns are still fun though.

What's the Big Deal? (More Fun!)

So Hillary lied about being under fire on her Bosnia trip. So what?

I really don't understand what's the big deal. Lying is what Clintons do, it's what Clintons have always done. It's never been important to anyone in the whole damn world except a few "right wing kooks."

Why now all of a sudden does CBS (once semi jokingly referred to as the Clinton Broadcasting System), feel compelled to point out a Clinton lie?

I guess it must be because the Clintons are no longer the media darlings they once were.

There's a new face in town, and his name is Obama. If the Clintons don't have the media machine on their side, they're screwed.

This election just keeps getting better and better.

Obama Back on My Radar!

Crap, why can't I ever see things like this?

Of all people, Dick Morris defends Obama's relationship with the Wrong Rev. Wright.
This is an excerpt from an article Morris co wrote with Eileen McGann:

Wright's rantings are not reflective of Obama's views on anything. Why did he stay in the church? Because he's a black Chicago politician who comes from a mixed marriage and went to Columbia and Harvard. Suspected of not being black enough or sufficiently tied to the minority community, he needed the networking opportunities Wright afforded him in his church to get elected. If he had not risen to the top of Chicago black politics, we would never have heard of him. But obviously, he can't say that. So what should he say?

Of course! How clear can it be!

So, Obama is back in my good graces. He's still down a few pegs from his former standing with me, but he is someone I could vote for.

Morris goes on with some interesting stuff, here's a link to the article.

Disappointed, Still Fun

Well aint I the sucker (sucka?).

Obama had me fooled. Might as well admit it, since it's pretty clear from my previous posts.
I really felt that a vote for Obama was sort of a vote against politics as usual. Mind you, I still believe that the Clintons are the poster children of self serving politics, but I now see that Obama is no better after all.

So Obama has been attending the church of a racist asshole for about 20 years. He first denies having ever heard anything bad, yet now admits he heard quite a bit. He writes in his book that his grandmother was scared by an aggressive black panhandler, then in his speech says she was scared of random black men passing by.

Possibly worst of all, Lady Obama indicates that she has never been proud of her country. Damn. That woman has no business setting foot into the White House, not even as a visitor.

There's more, but you get the picture.

So now I can't vote for Obama at all.
Yet I still can't vote for Hillary.
And I sure won't (knowingly)vote for an artificial Republican.

BUT WAIT, LIBERTARIANS TO THE RESCUE!
Maybe.
They have nominated a female candidate!

I shall have to investigate as I know nothing about her. I admit I haven't checked up on them for a long time. I was nervous about them as there was actually serious talk of nominating Ron Paul.

Fun, fun, fun!

Double Dare!

As in Dare to Double Standard.

Just 2 articles, but fun ones:

Ted Kennedy dumps fuel into Nantucket sound.

Now before you libs out there say "oh right, Newsmax, one of those right wing rags that always lies (of course right wingers always lie, only liberal news periodicals tell the truth, like the NY Times for example), I did click the link to the original article in Cape Cod Today and found that the site was down. Try it.

And, more importantly:

Barak Obama Double Standard

Now, yes this is a right wingie web site, so of course the commentary is all lies.

Right?

Not Much, Still Fun!

I haven't posted much in the way of politics lately, and I probably won't.

I find myself very calm these days. Normally I'd be very interested in the outcomes of the primaries, but now it's just fun to watch.

I have no skin in this. The outcome is of no consequence.

McCain being the Republican nominee means that I have no interest in the Republican candidate. In fact, I'm pretty sick of the Republican party. I want it to die, just go the way of the Whigs, and maybe something better will rise up in its place.
Of course, to me, that something better would be a party of Reagan Republicans.

As for the Democrats, well why would I care? Other than hoping that Hillary loses in order to break the Clinton dynasty, it won't matter.

Whoever wins the Democrat primaries, that candidate will be little different from McCain in their past voting record, none will take the country in a markedly different direction from the other.

But it's still a lot of fun following the primaries, even if only lightly, cuz we get to see a real battle royal. And we get to see neat little games like this one:

Sharpton Gets in on the Action

Wouldn't THAT be a cool fight?

It's amazing how nice it feels to be so calm and carefree, even though I really think we are screwed and will go into a mondo recession. Thing is, none of us can do anything about it. It doesn't matter who we vote for, the winner will be a tax increasin' illegal immigrant huggin' big gubbamint lovin' socialist stooge.

Which is what GW turned out to be after all. Except for the tax part.

But why do I have such a glum outlook on the future? Well, Dems will certainly retain control of Congress & Senate. Now, with a Dem or like minded individual in the White House, we'll be seeing a lot more of this kind of silly crap:

Tax Cut for Hugo

Unemployment here we come!

But again, there's no one I can blame except the Republican party itself for losing its way.

Nothing I can do but watch and hope I'm wrong.

Harmony Farms Dog Food

I don't mind doing free advertising for products that work for me. I will occasionally mention something that I have found to be more than satisfactory, starting now.

Our dog had been suffering from some sort of eczema like skin condition for quite a while. He'd scratched his fur clean off in some spots. All the vet could do was give him shots, which helped little.
During the poison dog food scare, we decided to start feeding him organic dog food to be done with such things. We found Harmony Farms dry dog food at Stop & Shop and started feeding him that.
Lo and behold, the skin condition disappeared! His coat is much more beautiful than it has ever been and he just seems healthier overall.
Now we found canned food from the same company!

Here is an email my wife sent to Harmony Farms.

1st off, I wanted to tell you that after the melamine scare last year, we decided to switch our dog over to Harmony Farms to protect him. We were shocked when his skin condition disappeared! His coat is simply gorgeous now!
thank you for making such a wonderful product!

2nd, i just noticed the canned Harmony Farms at stop and shop last night. I was happy to see the "made in USA" label, but when i did a Google search to find your website, i noticed that you guys were involved in the melamine scare last year after all! (thank you for being pro-active on that!!!)

has the canning process changed at all in response to the scare? While the product is MADE in the USA, do all the ingredients now COME from the USA? or are we still getting products from overseas?

as I'm sure most people are, I'm very leery of giving "my son" canned food for fear of another "slip up", but he loves it :/

thanks so much

Here's the response from them:

Thank you for taking the time out to write us. And thank you for your interest in Harmony Farms. In response to your email, our foods all are manufactured here in the USA. Where possible our suppliers are instructed to source their ingredients from the US. Where the ingredients are not readily available in the US, such as many vitamins, minerals and nutriceuticals, they work only with reputable foreign suppliers, and subject all ingredients to rigorous quality testing. All of our ingredients are USDA approved and inspected. All our meats and grains are from the US.

Since the recall, we have done much research to find a new manufacturing partner for our canned products. One who shares our same values and whom we felt we could trust. We are happy to announce that we have found a new manufacturer and our canned foods and health bars are back on the shelves. All food is safe to feed your furry little family members.

Please let me know if I can answer any further questions.

Best Regards,

Harmony Farms

And best of all, it's not very expensive and is readily available at any Stop & Shop store.

We have no further questions about dog food, our pooch is all set.

Pellet Stoves Worth It?

I dunno, maybe not.

We have one, a Breckwell, which is supposed to be a good brand. So far, I'm not convinced the thing was a good buy.

We used to have a box stove. That thing heated the whole damn house! Sure it was a pain in the ass chopping wood and such, but man we burned something like $300 of oil annually at about $1/gallon. And that was for hot water too.
Well, tired of chopping, bought a pellet stove in 06. Put it in the semi finished basement in place of the box stove.

First season I consider a complete bust. The damn thing barely heated less than half the basement. We had no hoses running outside, cuz the dealer and Breckwell said it wasn't necessary to pipe in outside air unless the stove was installed in a small building, such as a trailer. Well, I noticed that it made the other side of the basement much colder and didn't do diddly to heat the house. I knew that it would suck in cold air and blow it up the chimney, but like an idiot I believed everyone when they said it would "heat up so much that it would compensate."
In a pig's ass it did.

I also realized that it was sucking cold damp air in from any crevice or crack in the house. Yeah, damp air, hmmmmm, can you say mold & mildew? I sure can.

So last summer I borrowed a small jackhammer and punched a hole in the basement wall and ran a pipe outside for the firebox. Now it would suck in outside air to feed the fire and pump that up the chimney, while the other fan would circulate inside air around the fire box to heat the house. Seemed perfect right?
Not quite.

Yes, it was a big improvement. No more outside air drawing into the house, but not a lot of heat for the dollar either. Actually, I think it's been a financial loser.
At the lowest setting, it still barely heats half the basement. The other side is no longer freezing because of the cold air not being drawn in, but it aint nice and warm either, and it still seems to do absolutely nothing for the rest of the house.

At that lowest setting, it burns 1 bag of pellets in 24 hours. Now a bag of pellets costs a little over $4, so to run it every day for 30 days would be $120 if I'm kind and calculate with the price lower than actual.
Hmmm, $120/month to heat half the basement.

If you're still with me, keep reading, it gets worse.

Really, on very cold days, it doesn't really heat that half the basement at that low setting. There's a baseboard radiator in the basement on the pellet stove side, and the thermostat is just a few feet away from the stove, set at 64 degrees F. On very cold days, the temp drops below 64 degrees and the radiator kicks in, or I should say, the nasty, global warming, filth spewing oil boiler kicks in.

Now consider that that nasty oil boiler runs us a approximately $100 / month to heat the rest of the damn house and the hot water! Yeah, we have a programmable thermostat upstairs and set it at 62 evenings and 68 days, so we keep the house pretty cool, but still.

I have not been very scientific in my analysis, it's all just eyeballs and check writing, so I could be off on my estimates.
But still, $120+ to heat half the basement, and not fully at that, and $100 for the whole house and hot water? Screw the ozone layer, my wallet is more important.
One more thing I need to mention here is that our boiler is only about 4 years old, and is super efficient. Our old boiler would probably have run up twice the cost or more.

Before I give up on this stove though, I'm going to punch another hole in the wall and suck in outside air for heat too. I'm not sure this will work, I mean, if the outside temp is something like 10 degrees F or below, will that little firebox be able to heat it up before it blows into the house? I don't know.
But my desire is to give the house "positive pressure," to blow a constant flow of warm air into it. If this works, then I think the stove will be worthwhile.

If that doesn't work, then I believe that the pellet stove was a complete waste of money.

Hillary Wants to Finish the Job

of looting and trashing the White House that is.

Old news that the Clintons allegedly stole items from the White House on their way out. Furnishings, silverware, China dishes and such. Not sure if it was ever proven, but of course I believe they did, seems just like something they would do. These allegations were denied by Bush, Cheney and the GAO, so I'm being a wee bit xenophobic here.
But I still think it's true and they just agreed to put everything back when they got caught and sweep it under the rug.

Now we see that they hire like minded people:

Rent Not Paid

Things are looking good for Obama, and I gotta say I'm glad. You'll never hear crap like this about him or his supporters. Fabricated or otherwise, it just wouldn't fly.

Maybe Democrats are starting to really care about character, ethics and morals, rather than who's going to give the biggest free ride.

I for one am hoping so.

Well Put!

OK, so it's McCain. That means I will not be voting Republican this Presidential election.
Now let's see who gets the Dem's nomination.

This comic sums up my situation, and that of all conservatives, perfectly:

Day by Day Cartoon

Let's also see who gets the Libertarian nomination, perhaps I can find a reason to vote after all?

Random Election Day Ramblings

I'll be voting on my way home from work, too lazy to get up extra early this morning.
It'll be Romney for me.

Talking to my wife this morning (a rare morning event), we commented on the historical significance of the potential for the first black or woman president. Then, on my way into work, I heard the same comment, plus potentially the first Mormon president. What I found amusing is that I never even considered that! I knew Romney's Mormon, and I knew there was some asinine discussion about it on the airwaves, but it never occurred to me to care, simply not on my radar.
The amusing part is that I am just the sort of person who should stereotypically think about it. I'm fairly conservative, and though not religious myself, I have no problem with the Christian faith entering politics a wee bit. Yet his particular faith does not matter to me.

If McCain gets the nomination, I will vote for the Libertarian, unless Obama gets the Dem nod, then I may just vote for him. Can't vote for Hillary like Ann Coulter says she would. If Ron Paul gets the Libertarian nomination, and McCain & Clinton the others, then I may just damnwell not vote at all.

Sadly, McCain is the best of all possible contenders as regards the Iraq war. Romney would be best for the budget. That is of course supposing that they'd get some cooperation from Congress and that's an open question.

I think overall that McCain would cooperate quite well with the Dems, basically because he's one himself, though he calls himself a Republican for some odd reason.
Romney was governor of a very liberal state, and he is quite moderate, so he will probably compromise a bit, which may or may not be good. I doubt we'll find out.

I expect to add more crap to this post or a new one as the day goes on.

Year of the Liberal

It occurs to me that McCain stands a slight chance of being our next president. I really doubt that a Republican will get it this year, but maybe.

Well, if McCain wins the Republican nomination, then that means that liberals "can't lose" this next presidential election! McCain is about as liberal as they come (He's what's called a RINO, Republican in Name Only), so even if he wins the presidential election, liberals still win.
Hell, even Romney is really not a conservative. So, to me, this is the Year of the Liberal.

On another note, some folks seem to think that conservatism is dead. Well maybe, but as Rush Limbaugh pointed out today, none of the Republican candidates are conservative, so the party is now fractured. We are stuck with voting for the least sucky candidate and we seem to have varying opinions of who that might be.

So, it looks like the primaries are down to McCain, Romney, Clinton and Obama.

4 liberals running in the presidential primaries.
You libs can't lose!

Eek! OK, OK, not Ron Paul

Wow, have I got me an education!

In my last post, I asked "why not Ron Paul?" as I didn't see anything outstandingly bad in his political record nor his website.

A fellow blogger pointed out that Paul is a racist and anti Semite among other idiocies.

I Googled these and found a lot not to like about Dr. Paul.

Most of what I found regarding his racism was a bit shaky. His detractors seemed to fixate on some newsletters that he may or may not have written during the 80's and 90's. I found most of the quotes to be accurate, though harshly worded, and some to indicate a racist attitude. But again, I can't be sure they were exactly his words, and he did take responsibility for them long ago and, really, let's move on (if you can forgive Senator Byrd, you can damnwell forgive Paul).

But then I found more on his opinions of Israel and Islam, and I found that very troubling. I found more about his endorsement by white supremacists, and his refusal to distance himself from them, indeed his possible support of them.

I could put in a whole bunch of links to articles and other blogs here, but I found this one page that pulled it all together and laid it all out so well that any other link is unnecessary:

American Thinker on Ron Paul

I cannot believe that a rational person could read that article and follow up on the references and still consider voting for Ron Paul.

I am putting a link to the blog of my friend that pointed out Paul's flaws to me, I am forever in your debt:

http://coyotesqrl.blogspot.com/

Thank you for setting me straight. At least as regards Ron Paul!

McCain and a Ron Paul Question

As I mentioned before, it looks like it'll be Romney for me.

Even when I wrote about that earlier, I had a nagging doubt that maybe McCain wasn't as liberal as I thought. Well that doubt has been solidly put to rest:

NYT endorses McCain

If the Times likes him, he's ultra liberal.

As a matter of fact, I have decided that if McCain gets the nomination, I will absolutely not be voting Republican in this presidential election. I would likely vote for the Libertarian candidate. However, if Obama wins the Dem primary, I could find myself voting for him. Highly unlikely, but possible. If any other Dem gets it, then I will absolutely vote Libertarian.

And, as we all know, Giuliani has no hope. It'd be funny if he came out on top in FL, but no way. And I still have problems with his personal ethics.

As for the Republican primary, I may just vote for Ron Paul after all.
Now, everyone seems to think he's a nutcase, and I agreed with them somewhat because he seemed to be a little extreme, but here's some of his voting record:

On the Issues

and, as I've posted earlier, here's his own issues page:

Ron Paul 2008

Here's my question:

Other than wanting to pull out of Iraq, exactly where is Ron Paul crazy? I'm not seeing it. What am I missing? Why would I not vote for him?

He won't win the nomination, so it looks like its down to McCain and Romney there.

'scuse me whilst I hurl

What a fairy tale:

NYT blog

Is there anything out there more useless than a blog from the Times? For that matter, is there anything more useless than the Times?


Nope.

Fun and Hypocrisy

Two points in this one:

1. I'm really starting to hope that Obama gets the nomination. I didn't much care before, I just enjoyed watching the show and laughing.
But now I find myself hoping for a Hillary loss. Not only because I'd like to see an end to the Clinton dynasty (Same as most of you Dems will rightfully enjoy seeing an end to the Bush dynasty), but because I don't want to see their dirty tricks succeed:

Obama's Education

I'd like to think that even Democrats would eventually get sick of their nasty crap.

2. Caught myself in a bit of hypocrisy and want to straighten it out.
I was ticked at Slick Willy for his sexual escapades in the White house. I'm not a total prude, but I really felt that he demeaned the office of the presidency with his inability to keep it zipped. I also don't like infidelity.
Well now I've been thinking of voting for Giuliani, who also seems to have wandering willy problems.
Why would I dislike Clinton and consider voting for Giuliani? Seems a little two faced to me, so I hereby drop any thoughts of voting for America's Mayor. Unless, of course, I find out that most of what I've heard about him is a bunch of media crap following the Second Law of Journalism (elevate Democrats & liberals, crush Republicans and conservatives) .
Gingrich falls into this category too BTW.

Now, I know that Slick Willy (Wet Cigar?) proved that one's character, sexual perversions and total lack of morals is meaningless to much of the American voting public. Perhaps I should give up on caring.

But I won't just yet.

Narrowing the Possibilities

Well Feb 5 is just around the corner and I'm getting closer to deciding who to vote for.

Looks like it'll be Romney, not that I'm real enthusiastic about him.

Huckabee talks a great line of Republican ideals, but upon inspection his deeds have been mostly liberal Democrat. I'm also getting very turned off by his comments on religion and the constitution. Scary stuff.

McCain is a Republican in name only. Outside of the Iraq war, he has been a liberal Democrat. I like and admire him, but I can't see myself voting for him.

I do like Giuliani, the more so since NY liberals hate him. I could vote for him, but I doubt he'll still be running by then. If he is, I'll have to think about it.

Everyone seems to beleive that Ron Paul is a nutcase, which may mean he's the best of the bunch. I'll have to look deeper into why so many think so little of him.

So, if Giuliani doesn't run, and if I don't suddenly find merit in Paul, that pretty much leaves Romney. Oh well.

Baldness

I'm one of those follicaly challenged people who is too cheap and chemical phobic to use Rogain. So, in addition to my other disgusting physical defects, I'm stuck bald.

I bashed my head yesterday and now have a small cut prominent on my head.

It occured to me this morning that baldness occurs at proper ages for it to be helpful!

When one is born, the head is bald so that parents can immediately notice injuries to it.
Then, when one is old enough that they should be able to at least notify the proper people of a cranial injury, the head is covered in hair so that the injury will not clearly show and cause embarassment.
Finally, when one is old enough that mental faculties begin to regress towards the first stage, baldness returns so that the offspring or hopefully still lucid spouse will notice.

Baldness is therefore just a self perservation mechanism. Note, that this makes it likely that older people with a full head of hair are probably not as important to Mother Nature.

Of course, the fact that I began my torturous slide into baldness in my 30's could be some cause for concern.

Now it's Fun!

As I mentioned before, I am pretty confused as to my vote this election. It's been interesting but not fun.

Ah, but now it's becoming a blast.

Bill & Hillary Clinton and associates have been accused of making disparaging comments about Obama, Martin Luther King, and perhaps blacks in general.
In case you haven't heard, here's a an article about it, from the UK:
Times on Line, UK, Hillary Gaffe.

I posted the following as a comment on a friend's blog, teasing him about his assertion that he unhappily plans to vote for Hillary as the least sucky of the Dem candidates:

So, C.S. is you still gwan vote fo dat ho now dat it come out dat dem Clintons is a buncha racist mofo's? At de leas, dey is dissin' black folk!

Bwah hah hah hah hah! The Clintonistas are are (wrongfully I admit) being attacked by the very people they intended to exploit to get votes! They're going up against a black guy instead of just a bunch of rich suits and they don't know whether to shit or wind their watches!

This is great! As a conservative, I am absolutely loving this. Their words are being twisted and misinterpreted in exactly the same way that they and other Dems have done to attack Republicans for decades!
"The shoe is on the other foot."

NOW, I am loving this election.

Hah! Today I read this article.

Oh, stop, stop, this is too rich, I can't take much more of this, I'll bust my sides laughing!
Bill "Slick Willy" Clinton, America's first black president, groveling, kowtowing, twisting like a pretzel trying to explain himself and associates to the black community!

Oh the infamy! Trent Lott, Don Imus, and now, Bill Clinton.
I'll bet he's way pissed that Chris Dodd got away with a supposedly nasty racist comment scott free.
Of course, Bill will also emerge without a scratch. He's smarter than his evil racist predecessors, his Teflon is as strong as ever, and his buddies in the news media will eventually rally to his side if they haven't started already.
Hillary on the other hand? Well, who knows?

Don't care. For the short time this will go on I'm going to enjoy it.
Then everything will be back to normal and I can hear all about what a bunch of greedy, stupid, racist, religious fanatics Republicans are.