Livin' In America

Take that, auto industry!

Years hence, when we're all shivering in the dark, remember this.


Me? I'm sharpening my pitchfork.

What will Michelle say to Barack, when he has two black eyes?

Nothing. She already told him twice.

Marie Antoinette: Unhappy with initial coverage.

I pray this shrieking harpy becomes the symbol of The One's administration.

Oh, and that Mom gets unleashed on his ass.

For *our* children. His already got theirs, and the country can't bear an actual socailist.

Bad dog!

One hopes the man will recover from his wounds, while the dog gets a bit of therapy.


UPDATE: How does one tell when a dog is "clinically depressed"? Dry nose? Lack of wag?

Tony Blair bailed just in time.

Today, the day of the CoronInauguration of The One Who Has Been Promised Us, I'll be working, to generate the taxes the government will use to shovel cash out of helicopters onto bankers, and the rest of the new welfare class.

BTW, I'm really over the whole "First African-American President" thing. This isn't some spoils-based Banana Republic, where the ethnic group in power uses that power to plunder. He's another American President, nothing more, nothing less. Content of character versus color of skin, and all that.

It shames me to hear this emphasis on race the day after Martin Luther King Day.

He's not out of touch! He's boosting the economy.

Unlike the last guy, wossname?


UPDATE: HOPE!!! CHANGE!!!

UPDATE: Guantanamo: Open indefinitely. Best thing, really.

UPDATE: HOPE!!! CHANGE!!!

UPDATE: It's cool to wave American flags again. Really!

UPDATE: HOPE!!! CHANGE!!!



I laugh.

So, it looks like the Federal Government is about to dump out a load of recently-printed currency in order to stimulate an economy that's already had more stimulation than John Holmes ever had, in all the movies he ever made, taken all together. And that, as they say down here, is a mess o' stimulation.

Much of this recently-printed currency (I say "currency" rather than "money" because paper is intrinsically worth about $100 per ton, no matter how many zeroes are printed on it) is to be spent to fight global warming/climate change/(tomorrow’s new term), though the criteria for success are ill-defined.

What I’ve heard about global warming/climate change/(tomorrow’s new term) convinces me it’s a new apocalyptic cult, nothing more.

Take the case of Bjorn Lomborg. All he did was to write a book declaring himself to be skeptical about environmentalist claims and presenting a number of cogent, well-reasoned arguments. For that he received the full Galileo treatment. And that, I’m sure, only because the hysterics have not yet been able to make burning at the stake the legal response to doubt, or skepticism, about their claims.

That sort of behavior does nothing but red-line my bullshit detector, and make it impossible for me to take global warming/climate change/(tomorrow’s new term) in any way seriously. Except for when they get legislators to point a gun at my head and demand funding for global warming/climate change/(tomorrow’s new term) programs, that is.

This is just me, observing the players, and drawing conclusions about who’s more scientifically serious.

Now, that’s not to say I’m against things like higher energy efficiency in buildings and cars, in the consumption of various scarce resources, as examples, but let the market provide, rather than the government prescribe. To those who object to a market-based approach, because it won’t provide the “proper” solutions, let me just point to the recent rise in gasoline prices in America. People did respond by limiting driving and by looking for more-efficient cars. People will respond to pricing signals. That the pricing signals don’t occur on your schedule, well, pity, that.

And if you really, really must have a government bureaucrat pick up a gun, point it at my head, and demand of me I execute your agenda, well, payback can be a bitch. If you give government more power to accomplish your “good” goals of today, don’t be surprised when the party in power changes, and starts using those powers for the “bad” goals of tomorrow.

I don’t know why, but this comes to mind: local governments around Atlanta have been demanding people conserve water, to the point of threatening to cut off those who violate various water use bans. The result? Water consumption in Atlanta has dropped. Yet, the actual price of water has gone up. Local governments, receiving less revenue from lower usage, have boosted the unit price, in order to make up losses. In the real world, price and demand tend to move in sync. Only government gets to raise the price on a commodity people use less of.

So now, we’re increasingly controlled over the use of a resource, and, responding to the gun at our head, we use less and less, only to be charged more and more by the people holding the gun. If we use more - if only to reduce prices - they’ll cut us off completely. If we use less, they raise the price. That’s fucked up. Sorry for the language, but that’s the truth.

Bottom line for me is that the anti-global warming/climate change/(tomorrow’s new term) movement is an occasion for massive ass-clownery on the part of government, so I see it as a threat to me and mine, and therefore something to be mocked, questioned, and generally kicked-about.

Circling back to the start of this, $825 billion provides a lot of room for ass-clownery. I expect to be provided with much to mock, question, and kick around in the next few years.

Unless someone hands me a teat, that is.

I dropped in to my local cash-only Chinese take-out this evening on the way home from work. I noticed as I was paying that my payment was entered on two cash registers. I suspect one is for the real set of books, and the other for the collection of drooling free-spending halfwits we call "The Gu’mint."

(BTW, a Russian friend of mine tells me the English word “Governor” sounds to Russians like the Russian word “guvno,” which means “shit.” I like that.)

This fits with my experiences on Buford Highway, Inside The Perimeter (ITP). ITP between I-285 and Lenox Road, it’s mostly Asian businesses. At my favorite place to eat out, a Malay restaurant, they'll take MasterCard, but almost everyone pays in cash. Despite the recent economic unpleasantness, it’s mobbed every time I go. Hell, the whole strip mall is mobbed. It’s the standard one-strip-mall-fits-all place: insurance, supermarkets, doctor, chiropractor, needle guy, dentist, video store, pho, Malay chow, etc. No downturn here, let me tell you. These people operate in cash, and they have lots of it. I think the HGWIC at the Malay place is an Irish immigrant though, being Irish myself, I’m too well-mannered and reticent to ask his background. In my Asian neighborhood, I fit right in.

Anyway, it looks to me like there’s a whole other cash-based economy springing up, in almost full view, that pays no heed to our Imperial Federal/State Overlords.

And I welcome it.

Reckon I need to learn me some Mandarin.

BTW, all prospective California immigrants to Georgia, the Atlanta outside air temperature tonight is supposed to get down to 13 degrees Fahrenheit, and I expect it will do just that. Not only is “Global Warming” a fake, the U.S. Southeast is a leader in the coming “Global Freeze.” Stop in Arizona a time. Or in Texas if you’re so inclined. I’d advise not passing Nacogdoches. The people beyond adhere to a collection of laws passed by a French midget (”littler person” to y’all). In that state, you’re guilty until proven innocent, or some such, it’s all upside down there, though they do make good alligator tail sausage, I ga-ron-tee!

OK. I’ll stop now, and move away from the keyboard.

Y’all don’t come down here, y’hear?

"This is our enemy. This is how they fight."


Years hence, we'll be remembering that.

So, will all of y’all who’re fleeing California stay the hell out of Jawja. We really don’ need yer socialist ways. We’re happy enough bein’ moonshinin’, banjo playin’ crackers who pay almost no taxes to the State Gu’mint, and suffer almost no regulation in return.

Y’all taxed and regulated y’selves into a Terminator-overseen Judgment Day, and we don’ need any of that shit.

Stay the hell out of Jawja, y’hear?

====

In all seriousness, I truly hope that the people currently fleeing California are producers in favor of low taxes and low regulation, not looters in favor of high taxes and high regulation. No doubt I will be disappointed.

I remember, years ago, having a conversation with a Canadian woman, come south to work at BNR in Norcross, GA. She was living in Forsyth County, and while she appreciated the low taxes, she bemoaned the lack of government (taxpayer-funded) services. Though fairly smart, the link between government services and taxes apparently had not occurred to her. One day she remarked to me that she couldn’t wait for the day that Forsyth County had enough people who thought like her, so they could completely change the county.

Fortunately, Northern Telecom (majority owner of BNR) went Tango Uniform and had to shut down operations in Georgia - an importation of Canadians - before she could get her wish. That was a near miss, let me tell you.

For myself, I live in DeKalb County, and we have enough looters already, thanks very much.

Homer: Wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute. Lisa honey, are you saying you're *never* going to eat any animal again? What about bacon?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Ham?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Pork chops?
Lisa: Dad! Those all come from the same animal!
Homer: [Chuckles] Yeah, right Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal.

With this amount of over-exposure, when Obama falls, he'll fall hard.


UPDATE: Are they serious?

UPDATE: Look for these in the 90%-off basket by February 20.

Since this doesn't point to global warming disaster, it's not actual news.


UPDATE: This is not the year the ice at the North Pole melts.

More fecklessness from the Secretary of State, and the Administration in general.

This drivel from the New York Times just got its proper response.

I wonder what Timothy Egan is thinking, right now.

Looking at the failed statelet that is occupied by Palestinians, it seems to me the two major parties have remarkably similar programs.

Fatah:

- Murder all political competitors
- Loot the treasury
- Murder all Israelis

Hamas:

- Murder all political competitors
- Murder all Israelis
- Loot the treasury

So really, all things being equal, it all comes down to whether you like your murdering before or after your looting.

Details of the death of a nasty little man.

Money quote:

One of Rayyan's daughter-in-laws said she was offered the chance to die with the family. She stopped by the family's large home in Jabaliya and was asked by Rayyan if she wished to die with him, his wives and their children. She agreed to die, but later left the building, shortly before the IAF strike.

As it turned out, when Rayyan offered his daughter-in-law the "opportunity" to die he had already received a phone call from the IDF warning him to evacuate his house due to an impending airstrike.

Got that? The IDF telephoned the guy to warn him to evacuate, yet he decided to stay put, and keep his family with him, to die.

I'm not sure such people are open to negotiations, or to peace processes, despite the bleatings of this credulous fool.

The benefits of divided government:

Dems quarrel over stimulus plan
Democrats criticize Obama's proposed tax cuts
U.S. Democrats skeptical on stimulus tax breaks
Democrats Criticize Parts of Obama Stimulus Plan
Senate Finance Panel Democrats Scornful Of Obama Tax Cut Plan
Democrats chafe at Obama's tax cut plans
Democrats Raise Doubts Over Obama's Economic Plan
Senate Allies Fault Obama on Stimulus
Dems give Obama aides 'barrage of criticism' on stimulus plan
Dems and Obama split on taxes

This will not stand.

As it were.


UPDATE: Or something. (!)

I'm tired of Palestinians. I'm tired of Arabs in general.

I'm not sure what they've contributed to the modern world, but it mostly seems to be numerals from India, and keeping assorted Greek and Roman documents dry until the actual civilized world could make use of them. Thanks very much, Arab world.

Since about, what, 1500, the Arab world has been surplus, right? Apart from the oil they happen to have been shitting on, what have they been contributing to the world? Right. Nothing. Oh! Suicide bombers. That Atta guy. Destroy. Entropy.

And the Palestinians have been contributing less than that. They're simply the Arab expression of entropy. And when your purpose in life is to be entropy's expression of entropy, well, you're fucked.

Consider the Arab world. On the one hand you have Brezhnevite-style single-party kleptocracies like Egypt or Jordan, or you have out-and-out autocracies like Saudi Arabia, Libya, Syria, etc.

Quick question: When did you last turn over a product of some sort and see "Made in Iran?" Right. Never.

I know actual Muslims living in America. Taken as individuals they are charming, smart, great people to know. Outside America, taken en masse, they are psychotic lunatics, dedicated to destroying the orderly world that surrounds us.

I just finished watching a show about Australia. In that show there was a description of the dingo fence. Look it up.

Because I think we need a Muslim fence.

MAybe the Brits should have followed the Middle East's lead, and canceled New Year's eve.