My Audacity of Wag

Remembrance in Spacetime Wag


Today I have coined a web term for a blog that strives to be more than a web log: a "wag", which comprises the emphasized portions of "web magazine".

As I have envisioned it, a wag is a blog that incorporates elements of an online magazine, including such embellishments as: an ample utilization of images and videos to augment textual matter; a diversity of subjects considered; ongoing series (whose titles are denoted by a leading §-symbol), including the serialization of a semi-autobiographical novel (co-authored by tristein); and periodically updated content in the sidebar, all of which is designed to enhance the principal content posted in the main section of the page layout.

I hope you continue to enjoy it. I enjoy publishing it, and welcome your comments and constructive feedback.

Post #650: My Audacity of Wag

WARNING: Not for the faint of heart!

{link » The "Worst Food Product Ever" May Have Been Found}
 h/t K T Cat
"Nutrition" Fact: Cholesterol 3500mg 1170% DV per serving!
Is this human food?

Your cat will love you for it; if he survives. Your dog, however, prefers bacon. Trust me.

Post #649: WARNING: Not for the faint of heart!

The Pillar of Citizenship

{link » Recessional: The pillar of conservatism is fiscal responsibility}

“Why? Balancing budgets and saying no to always expanding government, first, is a moral issue. Just as the individual does not borrow from others to satisfy his own appetite, does not consume what he does not earn, so too government should not spend what the nation has not produced. The conservative, as the custodian of ancient morality, must remind the populace of the thriftiness of our ancestors that explains the bounty we inherited. If not he, who will say that life is not fair, that human nature is predictable and thus tragic, that in our brief corporal lives we can guarantee an equality of rough opportunity but hardly mandate an equality of absolute result — since we are mere mortals, not gods?”
 — Victor Davis Hanson

In my humble opinion, the pillar of conservatism can be generalized to the pillar of citizenship and, indeed, the pillar of maturity: personal accountability. Nothing says "I am a mature American citizen" like the assumption of personal accountability. You break it; you own it. Case closed.

Consider the likely consequences of widespread responsible citizenship &mdash substantial reduction in the hordes of: ambulance chasers; insurance salesmen; octuplet births; scumbag politicians (think Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Rod Blagojevich, Roland Burris, [name your favorite scumbags here]); idiot politicians (think Nancy Pelosi, Harry Read, Joe Biden, [name your favorite idiots here]); Holyshitwoods (think Sean Penn, et al.); obnoxious f*cks (think Teeth D'Olbermann et al.); inane gen-xyz-ers who don't know shit from Shinola; and the list goes on.

Real Man of Genius: Joe Biden


Post #648: The Pillar of Citizenship

Sherlock Holmes for Dummies

{link » CSI Miami - Endless Caruso One Liners}

“Edited clips showing loads of the corny one-liners used by David Caruso just before the Who song starts on CSI Miami.”
 — stewmurray47

Trademark tilt of head and sing-song delivery, "Now, James, ..." followed by the not-so-veiled threat. Priceless.

Post #647: Sherlock Holmes for Dummies

Perverse Reasoning

{link » Perverse Thoughts about this Perverse Recession}

“I do not understand at all this going into debt for almost another trillion dollars, and then immediately promising to balance the budget soon (like blowing off your foot near an emergency room), or how ‘stimulate’ differs from ‘borrow’, or why the more noble victim is the one who sought to borrow too much for too much house and then defaulted, rather than he who chose to borrow less for less house and paid his mortgage on time each month and now subsidizes the less responsible. (The former apparently will still have the larger house, the latter the smaller.)” [emphasis added]
 — Victor Davis Hanson

I don't understand any of this either. I must have been on sick leave when this line of reasoning was covered in college.

How is foreclosure any different in principle from eviction for non-payment of rent? If I had chosen to sign a lease for a penthouse apartment that I couldn't afford (for more than a month or two, lets say), would anyone in their right mind have any sympathy for me if my landlord threatened to evict me? I haven't seen any pigs flying around; have you?

This "losing one's home" is pure unadulterated bullshit. The proper terminology is downsizing to a less expensive house or apartment, or moving in with Mom and Dad who had assumed personal accountability for their chosen lifestyle (unless, of course, they happen to be useless hippies, in which case they had previously moved in with their own kids).

Maybe the cries of "socialism" are premature. But the prevailing psychology holding sway in the Federal government has an eerily recognizable feel to it.

Post #646

§ One of These Things Is Not Like The Others: Renoir

{Post #5 « Post #6 » Post #7}
§ ≡ One of an ongoing series of posts.

Renoir

(1)	(2)
(3)	(4)

Post #645

Deja Vu Ad Nauseam

Ever notice how nothing ever gets resolved? Should a pilot use autopilot if there is icing on the wings? Should the Federal Government keep the Big-3 automakers afloat just because we might need them to build tanks for us, in case WW III suddenly erupts? Does Federal spending stimulate the economy? Do people like Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Rod Blagojevich, and Roland Burris ever admit that they are lying scumbags?

No controversy is ever put to rest. And the talking heads keep stirring the pot full of vomit. Just once, I would love to hear some goddamn guest "expert" repeat a particular talking point and have the host cut him off with "That was definitively refuted in 1976, you stupid f*ck"!

We need a national clearinghouse of refuted talking points with a searchable database housed in the National Archives, and a Cabinet position to maintain its currency. Secretary of Refuted Bullshit or The No Bullshit Czar have nice rings to them. Caution: Al Gore must NEVER be appointed to such a position. I nominate this guy:

Post #644

You know you've been f*cked ...

... when you see the following image:

 h/t Theo

Post #643

What the world needs now ...

{link » American Gladiator Reality Oscars}

“My own ‘Best Picture’ choice in the dinosaur entertainment industry? ‘Defiance’. It was actually about something real. It was about a life and death struggle against true evil. No frills. Just death and stark choices as they actually unfolded, much as real people sometimes still face them today. Babes in the woods, reliant on rough thugs, a lot like most of Hollywood would be if the jihadis they keep weeping over won. An ominous example of where you end up if you aren’t paying attention and rely on the good intentions of bad people for your security. Also, some good ultra-violence on Nazis and Nazi sympathizers, with the good guys, barely and against the odds, winning.”
 — Jules Crittenden

What the world needs now is another world war. It would get us out of the global recession and end the insanity sweeping the globe.

Instead of witnessing the spectacle of a standing ovation from Sean Penn's insane admirers, applauding that moron's achievements, which include his heroic portrayal of a homosexual San Franciscan (but I repeat myself) and his multiple unofficial ambassadorial meetings with all manner of international scumbags a la Jimmy Carter, a world war would allow us to get back to admiring real heroes, like FDR, Mrs. FDR, Truman, and Eisenhower, for starters. More than anything else, what the world needs now is for "good" to be good; "bad" to be bad; men to be men; and women to be women.

Entropy doesn't need help from out-of-control political correctness to bring on universal heat death. For the time being, I'd rather enjoy what little heterogeneity survives in the wake of steamrolled politically-correct pablum. Vive la difference!

Post #642

A bit of solace here and there ...

{link » Some Reflections in the Times of Hysteria}

“Ditto 401(k)s. If you are retired—terrible. If you are nearing retirement as many of us are—worrisome. But for those under 50, who still put away pre-tax dollars each month, there is a weird sort of solace. I have friends in their 40s who say they won’t pull anything out for a quarter-century, and would prefer to buy stocks and mutual funds now at rock-bottom prices, rather than as was true in 2005 or 2006 at the peak of the market. Quite logical—if the entire market doesn’t go belly up.” [emphasis added]
 — Victor Davis Hanson

If you are retired you have essentially lost your capacity to actively recover from a substantial financial setback, largely because you're shit out of time. If your 401(k) was designed to be drawn-down as a source of income (because Social Security does not cover basics) you are truly f*cked now that it's lost a third of its value. But if your 401(k) was not designed to provide an income stream (i.e., you're lucky enough to treat it as a secondary safety net — for when obamanomics destroys your real source of income) then you get a bit of that "weird sort of solace" through reinvestment of gains. Hey, you have to take solace wherever you can get it these days.

Post #641

OMG twit tw*t tweets n pees 4gets twipe lol

{link » TWITTER WHORE part 2}


OMG I'm getting a migraine ...
Post #640

Tree-hugging Brit Loves American Military!

{link » Emma Sky, British 'tree-hugger' in Iraq who learnt to love US military}

“I'd follow him [American General Odierno] to the end of the world.”

“I love them [the US military],” she said. She added provocatively that she thinks the military is better than the country it protects [i.e., the United States]. [emphasis added]
 — h/t Norm

I was a toddler when the Allies vanquished Nazi Germany in 1945. Within a few months, my parents and I, displaced persons (DPs) from Poland, reached the American Occupation Zone in West Germany. This part of the world was at that time ruled by General of the Army Dwight David Eisenhower. Though not as flamboyant as General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Ike's counterpart in vanquished Japan, Ike was, nevertheless, also worshiped by the DPs as a demigod. And rightly so.

Along with the Commanders of the Russian armies that crushed Hitler's armies on the Eastern front (Marshals Zhukov, Konev, Rokossovsky, Chuikov, and more), Eisenhower was the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces that crushed Hitler's armies on the Western front. These Allied armies saved Western civilization from the Nazi scourge. And the American Naval/Marine and Army/Air Forces saved Western civilization from the Japanese Empire.

The leftist "anti-war" mongers in the United States and in Western Europe are a disgrace to Western civilization. They owe everything, including their miserable lives, to the American military, which has protected their freedom for the better part of a century.

F*cking ungrateful pieces of shit the whole lot of them.
Post #639

Cholesterol Heaven

{link » A Brunch Recipe}
 Mmmmmm ..., good!
Post #638

Unhelpful Doodie

{link » From Islamabad to Bradford}

“The Home Secretary is best known for an inspired change of terminology: Last year she announced that henceforth Muslim terrorism (an unhelpful phrase) would be reclassified as ‘anti-Islamic activity’. Seriously. The logic being that Muslims blowing stuff up tends not to do much for Islam’s reputation — i.e., it’s an ‘anti-Islamic activity’ in the same sense that Pearl Harbor was an anti-Japanese activity.” [emphasis added]
 — Mark Steyn

Back in the day of the Cold War's deep freeze, the optimists were teaching their children Russian; the pessimists — Chinese. Today, the optimists are teaching their children Persian; the pessimists — politically correct bullshit (PCBS).

There is no accounting for (wo)man's ingenuity for linguistic camouflage of craven appeasement. From "better Red than dead" to "anti-Islamic activity", the leftist tongue-smiths ply their cunning lingual talents to the delight of those who mean to kill them at their first opportunity. Stalin referred to them as "useful idiots". I call them negiques — the f*cking idiots dispensing their "unhelpful doodie".

A little gallows humor ...

{link » Real Estate Downfall}

“The Housing Bubble bursts on a speculator. Parody using a clip with Hitler as the real estate investor. He bought a house to flip, faces foreclosure, and now wants to get bailed out.”
 — jamnospam

 h/t Theo

With friends like that ...

{link » Obama's Durban Gambit}

“SINCE IT came into office a month ago, every single Middle East policy the Obama administration has announced has been antithetical to Israel's national security interests. From President Barack Obama's intense desire to appease Iran's mullahs in open discussions; to his stated commitment to establish a Palestinian state as quickly as possible despite the Palestinians' open rejection of Israel's right to exist and support for terrorism; to his expressed support for the so-called Saudi peace plan, which would require Israel to commit national suicide by contracting to within indefensible borders and accepting millions of hostile, foreign-born Arabs as citizens and residents of the rump Jewish state; to his decision to end US sanctions against Syria and return the US ambassador to Damascus; to his plan to withdraw US forces from Iraq and so give Iran an arc of uninterrupted control extending from Iran to Lebanon, every single concrete policy Obama has enunciated harms Israel.”
 — Caroline Glick

Nevertheless, "The Little Engine That Could" AKA Israel will persevere no matter how many enemies or "friends" it has to contend with. Because they have no other choice but to prevail or perish from the earth. As a recent American hero would have said, "Bring it on, motherf*ckers!" [expletive added].

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

{link » American Issues Project: "Every Single Day"}
 h/t Dr. Melissa

Ah yes, the "chattering" class, those who dare question the sanity of the "arrogant-bastard" class, personified by Chuck Schumer, that smug, gesturing, holier-than-though prick.

 h/t m/m

Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina in the mornin' ...

{link » Snow at Cleveland : Ohio . USA | February 20, 2009, 3:21 am}

“I just landed in Cleveland Ohio Airport ... snowing and seriously cold ... its well gone 2AM ... after a whole day of corporate photography in Atlanta I ran for the flight to Cleveland . I have another corporate day up here tomorrow/today for a different client ... I think the Atlanta clients were done in by the shoot from 8AM till 7-30 PM ... and were completely incredulous that I wasn't just going to sleep but dash for the last flight at the end of it ... then get up and do it all again the next day ...”
 — Jezblog From Twitter

"Carolina in the Morning" (Al Jolson, 1947)

Homo evolutis is coming ... (get your mind out of the gutter)

{link » Juan Enriquez: Beyond the crisis, mindboggling science and the arrival of Homo evolutis}

“Even as mega-banks topple, Juan Enriquez says the big reboot is yet to come. But don't look for it on your ballot -- or in the stock exchange. It'll come from science labs, and it promises keener bodies and minds. Our kids are going to be ... different.”
 — Juan Enriquez thinks and writes about the profound changes that genomics and other life sciences will cause in business, technology, politics and society.
 h/t Justin Wehr

Enjoyable prognostication for the not-too-distant future.

No, you don't have to be a hypocrite to be an anti-Semite ...

{link » Let’s see the 'criticism' of Israel for what it really is}

Caryl Churchill will argue that her play is about Israelis not Jews, but once you venture on to “chosen people” territory – feeding all the ancient prejudice against that miscomprehended phrase – once you repeat in another form the medieval blood-libel of Jews rejoicing in the murder of little children, you have crossed over. This is the old stuff. Jew-hating pure and simple – Jew-hating which the haters don’t even recognise in themselves, so acculturated is it – the Jew-hating which many of us have always suspected was the only explanation for the disgust that contorts and disfigures faces when the mere word Israel crops up in conversation. So for that we are grateful. At last that mystery is solved and that lie finally nailed. No, you don’t have to be an anti-Semite to criticise Israel. It just so happens that you are.

If one could simply leave them to it one would. It’s a hell of its own making, hating Jews for a living. Only think of the company you must keep. But these things are catching. Take Michael Billington’s somnolent review of the play in the Guardian. I would imagine that any accusation of anti-Semitism would horrify Michael Billington. And I certainly don’t make it. But if you wanted an example of how language itself can sleepwalk the most innocent towards racism, then here it is. “Churchill shows us,” he writes, “how Jewish children are bred to believe in the ‘otherness’ of Palestinians ...”

It is not just the adopted elision of Israeli children into Jewish children that is alarming, or the unquestioning acceptance of Caryl Churchill’s offered insider knowledge of Israeli child-rearing, what’s most chilling is that lazy use of the word “bred”, so rich in eugenic and bestial connotations, but inadvertently slipped back into the conversation now, as truth. Fact: Jews breed children in order to deny Palestinians their humanity. Watching another play in the same week, Billington complains about its manipulation of racial stereotypes. He doesn’t, you see, even notice the inconsistency. [emphasis added]
 — Howard Jacobson
 h/t Norm
British anti-Semites accuse Jews of "breeding"
children to hate Palestinians.

Do you think either female, pictured (above) supporting British Muslims, understands the meaning of "Holocaust"? Perhaps the child does, but I doubt it. In any case, it's a moot point.

I think that the hypocrisy on display is a tactic. It is designed to inflame the outrage of its targets by flaunting this complete disregard for civility and logic. In so doing, it confounds any attempt by the targeted demographic (Jews, and the dwindling number of non-Jews who haven't yet lost their minds) to counter the anti-Semitic attacks with civil discourse.

It isn't possible to reason with those who hate Jews for a living. But, as a friend of mine has recently reminded me, one mustn't give up reasoning with those who make their living according to accepted norms of Western civilization.

§ Quantized History #21

§ ≡ A quantum of Quantized History { #20 « #21 » #22 }
February 17, 1963 » Michael Jordan Is Born

Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a retired American professional basketball player. His biography on the National Basketball Association (NBA) website states, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time."

TheBigHenry's All-time Starting Five (You got a problem with that?)

1. Point/Shooting (Combo) Guard

Jerry West

2. Shooting Guard

Michael Jordan

3. Small Forward

Elgin Baylor

4. Power Forward

Karl Malone

5. Center

Wilt Chamberlain

Ronald Reagan: Eloquence Without the Bullshit

{link » It's A Simple Answer After All}

An Auspicious Beginning

{link » This Day In Music}

The #1 Song in the U. S. on Wedding Day of TheBigHenry♥tristein
 h/t Norm
Auspicious, n'est pas?

A beheading here, a beheading there, pretty soon you're talking real news!

{link » Headless Body in Gutless Press}

“Just asking, but are beheadings common in western New York? I used to spend a lot of time in that neck of the woods and I don't remember decapitation as a routine form of murder. Yet the killing of Aasiya Hassan seems to have elicited a very muted response.”
 — Mark Steyn

I used to spend a great deal of time in New York myself, but I don't recall ever reading about a beheading there. Perhaps it's always been just an everyday occurrence and, therefore, doesn't merit mention along with the Bush-bashing gems to be found in the likes of "All the News That's Fit to Print".

Or, possibly, it doesn't conform to the immaculate bylines of those worthies who report all the news that conveniently conforms to their liberal views. After all, Mr. and Mrs. Hassan are (or, in the case of the Mrs., were) a respectable Muslim couple. Perhaps they remain respectable still, in accordance with mainstream-New-York politically-correct liberal sensibilities.

With some liberals, you know, you just don't know, you know?

Easy come, easy go ...

{link » Of Presidents, Living and Dead}

“This is what each new generation of Americans needs to know, to understand, to absorb into their understanding what it means to live in a republic composed of separate and sovereign republics.

As this is written, millions of Americans are looking to the nation’s capitol and wondering what kind of man they have elected to be the 44th President of the United States and how the current Congress could so insanely burden the nation with enormous debt, piled upon an already existing one, because he deems these times to be ‘catastrophic’.

The current financial crisis would, economists tell us, have eventually resolved itself on its own. If Washington gave us a nation and Lincoln preserved the Union, then Obama has rendered future generations of Americans mere serfs, born with a vast debt the moment they first draw breath.”
 — Alan Caruba

In the present instance, I reference the idiomatic cliché "easy come, easy go," facetiously only in part. As millions of Americans surely know, the magnificent accomplishments of Washington and Lincoln were anything but easy. Efforts of creation and preservation against the chaotic forces of nature (the Second Law of Thermodynamics) are seldom easy.

Conversely, our presently constituted Democrat Federal Government mindlessly (neither the President nor any Senator nor any Congressman, nor anyone else for that matter, could possibly have read the 1,000+ pages of the "stimulus" bill in the time alloted for "deliberation") rammed through trillions of dollars of additional National debt (an incredible financial burden imposed on current and future generations of Americans), rolling it off their presses like "water off a duck's back".

This obamination of a legislative "accomplishment" will forever be etched in stone, though, I daresay, not the stone of Mount Rushmore.

Sculptures of Washington, Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Lincoln
represent the first 150 years of the history of the United States.

I deserve! I am owed! I must receive!

{link » Pause and Take a Deep Breath}

“‘I deserve; I am owed; I must receive’ is our mantra. ‘We must become more like the [rest of the] world’, rather [than] they like us. ‘War is caused by mis-communications’, rather than [by] intrinsic evil that is difficult to negotiate away. ‘America is simply one of many nations, exceptional only to the degree that we suffer from unusual race, class, and gender transgressions’. ‘The founders and their epigones were mostly preeminent as racists and elites’, not geniuses who knew far more than 99% of us today.

I think all that [above] more or less sums up the lesson from today['s] schools and colleges, and explains why today the average American when abroad rarely defends his country from the caricatures and attacks of foreigners, or why we read daily of the errant policeman, not of the thousands of deadly miscreants he is asked to monitor, why [we] are told ad nauseam that health care is broken [or] ruined, never that, hourly, millions of dollars are given in emergency-room care to those here illegally, or who arrive suffering from gang trauma, or those who chose not to purchase health insurance — and who were given topflight care, which earns no thanks when good, but often a law suit when not perfect.” [emphasis added]
 — Victor Davis Hanson

We are fast becoming a nation of whiners, instead of the nation of winners that we had been for two centuries. And the leftists who currently hold sway in our government, our mainstream media, our entertainment industry, academia, intelligentsia, and miscellaneous other "-ias" are working furiously to cement our newly minted mediocrity in a monument to "no return".

The plague of political correctness has spawned another equally virulent plague of refusal to assume personal accountability, which together are exterminating the qualities that formerly made this nation great and the envy of the rest of the shit-for-brains world. It has become a massively hysterical cycle of self destruction, fueled by a complete suspension of reason, accountability, and plain old common sense.

I had always been comforted by the thought that those who represented the bedrock of our former greatness, the patriots who fought and died for our freedom, the patriots who "asked not what our country could do for us", the patriots who kept the flame of liberty burning by educating themselves as best they could, paying the taxes they owed on time, contributing to the welfare of family, community, and nation by conducting their affairs and responsibilities conscientiously and in good faith, and all those Americans who kept their eyes on the ball of justice, fairness, courtesy, fair play, and thankfulness for our Constitutional bounty to pursue happiness for ourselves and our children, all those as well as the majority, who just went about their business without being a pain in the ass to their fellow citizens, would keep the spectacular concept, conjured out of chaos by our Founding Fathers and preserved by the Great Emancipator, alive for ourselves and posterity.

The past few years have shaken my faith in America's future. I pray I am proven wrong.

Happy Valentine's Day, Babe!

luvya forever,

Abraham Lincoln's Bicentennial

{link » Abraham Lincoln}

“Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States. He successfully led the country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery.

His assassination in 1865 was the first presidential assassination in U.S. history, and as a result Lincoln has been considered a martyr for the ideal of national unity and human rights. Lincoln has been consistently ranked by scholars as one of the greatest U.S. Presidents.”
 — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

George Washington was the Father of His Country. And "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom", so was Abraham Lincoln.

"But, in a larger sense," Abraham Lincoln was and continues to be, 200 years after his birth, the heart and soul of the Union, so "that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth".

Pelosi Stimulus Bill Clinton Package

Did she inhale?
 h/t Theo

"I Might Like Juice" — The Fun New Party Game

{link » "I Might Be A Jew" — the fun new party game}

“I have a new game that is not only good fun, but which could perhaps help in some small way to begin turning the tide against overt anti-Jew and anti-West thuggery, by letting muzzies know that they are not always and everywhere amongst friends in this country.

Of course, the goal is to leave the [anti-Juice] thinking that their enemy is everywhere.

We must make it clear to them that their community is small, and that, quite frankly, if they refuse to learn how to live in a society where everyone who gives respect gets it in return, then they can go f*ck themselves.

They must be made to understand that each time they open their mouths and spew some hatred, they may in fact be in the presence of people who will despise them for it, rather than patting them on the back.

In mobs they are brave. Alone they are cowards.”

This fun new party game, "I Might Be a Jew", is designed to make a spewer of anti-Semitic hatred lose confidence that (s)he is among like-minded colleagues. Once the anti-Semite has revealed his true colors, thinking (s)he is among "friends", the idea is to insinuate the possibility that you might actually be a Jew (without declaring it to be so). You might, for example, mention that your cousin Hymie is planning to visit you next week. Hymie is derived from the stereotypical Jewish name Hyman (originally Chaim) and the German name Herman.

The generalization to other rabid situations is obvious. For example, suppose you are at a small gathering of acquaintances, and a rabid Bush-hating liberal begins ranting how the SOB shredded the Constitution and murdered millions of innocent children with his bare hands. These leftist pricks allow themselves such bravado in situations where their comfort level is high, as if they were at, for example, the Academy Awards show where the Holyshitwoods are in full regalia. You wait until the prick has paused to take a breath, and you politely mention that you have recently returned from a trip to D.C., and that you saw the Constitution intact and on display at the National Archives. It's worth a try.

Ajustable-rate Gamblers

{link » Reasons for ARMs}

“ARMs [adjustable-rate mortgages] generally permit borrowers to lower their initial payments if they are willing to assume the risk of interest rate changes.

For the borrower, adjustable-rate mortgages may be less expensive, but at the price of bearing higher risk. Many ARMs have ‘teaser periods’, which are relatively short initial fixed-rate periods (typically one month to one year) when the ARM bears an interest rate that is substantially below the ‘fully indexed’ rate. The teaser period may induce some borrowers to view an ARM as more of a bargain than it really represents. A low teaser rate predisposes an ARM to sustain above-average payment increases.”
 — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pity the poor ARM borrowers, but not because many of them are undergoing foreclosure. No, pity them because all of them are gamblers, many of whom bet the "farm" and lost their wager.

Now the gamblers who lost are asking the government to bail them out, using money provided by taxpayers, many of whom did NOT bet the "farm" but, rather, lived within their means, either with a fixed-rate mortgage or by renting, both of which alternatives are much more amenable to long term budgeting. These pitiable ARM losers are not properly viewed as those who have lost their home, however, but those who have lost their wager. Now they must do what every other person who can no longer afford to stay in his residence must do — move.

Perhaps this sounds harsh to all the bleeding-heart liberals who want a nanny government to nurture them from cradle to grave. But a nanny government comes with a price too — loss of liberty to live as you please within the law. Because, if you want your government to take care of you, the government will restrict what you can and can not do, just as your parents did when they were taking care of you. Is this a life for an adult American to aspire to? Our founding fathers would have been horrified.

Recession got you down? SONY to the rescue!

{link » SONY Releases New Stupid Piece of Shit That Doesn't F*cking Work}

CAUTION: NSFW (profanity)
 h/t Theo

No, I am not a misogynist!

{link » Le donne al volante + imbranate di youtube - woman drive!}
WARNING: ROTFLMAO!
 h/t Theo

---

{link » ATM Procedures}
FEMALE PROCEDURE:
1. Drive up to cash machine.
2. Reverse and back up the required amount to align car window with the machine.
3. Set parking brake, put the window down.
4. Find handbag, remove all contents on to passenger seat to locate card.
5. Tell person on cell phone you will call them back and hang up.
6. Attempt to insert card into machine.
7. Open car door to allow easier access to machine due to its excessive distance from the car.
8. Insert card.
9. Reinsert card the right way.
10. Dig through handbag to find diary with your PIN written on the inside back page.
11. Enter PIN.
12. Press cancel and reenter correct PIN.
13. Enter amount of cash required.
14. Check makeup in rear view mirror.
15. Retrieve cash and receipt.
16. Empty handbag again to locate wallet and place cash inside.
17. Write debit amount in check register and place receipt in back of checkbook.
18. Recheck makeup.
19. Drive forward 2 feet.
20. Reverse back to cash machine.
21. Retrieve card.
22. Re-empty handbag, locate card holder, and place card into the slot provided.
23. Give dirty look to irate male driver waiting behind you.
24. Restart stalled engine and pull off.
25. Redial person on cell phone.
26. Drive for 2 to 3 miles.
27. Release Parking Brake.
(h/t Theo)

Let's Cut the Crap (Sandwich)

{link » The Stimulus Tragedy: Obama bets that we can spend our way to prosperity}

“So there it is: Mr. Obama is now endorsing a sort of reductionist Keynesianism that argues that any government spending is an economic stimulus. This is so manifestly false that we doubt Mr. Obama really believes it. He has to know that it matters what the government spends the money on, as well as how it is financed. A dollar doled out in jobless benefits may well be spent by the worker who receives it. That $1 of spending will count as economic activity and add to GDP.

But that same dollar can't be conjured out of thin air. The government has to take that dollar away from someone else -- either in higher taxes, or by issuing new debt in the form of a bond. The person who is taxed or buys the bond will have $1 less to spend. If the beneficiary of that $1 spends it on something less productive than the taxed American or the lender would have, then the net impact on growth will be negative.

Some Democrats claim these transfer payments are stimulating because they go mainly to poor people, who immediately spend the money. Tax cuts for business or for incomes across the board won't work, they add, because those tax cuts go disproportionately to ‘the rich,’ who will save the money. But a saved $1 doesn't vanish from the economy, unless it is stuffed into a mattress. It enters the financial system, where it is lent to others; or it is invested in the stock market as capital for businesses; or it is invested in entirely new businesses, which are the real drivers of job creation and prosperity.

Yet Mr. Obama, on Thursday, dismissed any such tax cuts as ‘the same tired arguments and worn ideas that helped to create this crisis.’ That's rhetoric for a campaign, not for a President hoping to rally bipartisan support.” [emphasis added]
 — WSJ Opinion Journal

Can we please dispense with the "niceties" of political correctness in our sojourn on the "brink of disaster"? Can we make an honest effort before we revert to "business as usual"? How about some of that "change" we were hoping for? If not now, when?

Let's call a spade a spade (no, that's not a racial slur, you moron; it's an American idiom). Stop the incessant hyperbole (or, at least, pause it). Pause the bullshit. Cut the crap — we've had a hard day. Let's not turn it into a hard decade.

Our economy is complicated enough. Rhetoric, spin, political correctness, stone-walling, cherry-picking, ranting, hyperbole, and, most especially, demagoguery are all euphemisms. For lying.

If you don't know what you're talking about (yes, you, Ms. Speaker), then shut the f*ck up. If you do know what you're talking about, by all means speak to us; in plain English.

But it is not enough just to explain your own point of view. You also need to explain why you think that the guy who disagrees with you is wrong! Arguing orthogonally is not helpful. And make no mistake: we need help. A lot of help.

This is NOT a democracy. This is a recording!

{link » What part of "republic" don't you understand?}

“There is democracy and there is not democracy. The United States of America is not a democracy. The United States is a Republic: a Constitutionally limited representative government (with its powers divided between three separate Branches), whose head of state is a President, and in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them.
[...]
If you don't like what our Republic's government officials are doing, you have two options: (1) take whatever action is required to become a qualified voter, register to vote, and then vote; or (2) get the f*ck out of our Republic. What part of these two options do you not understand?”
 — TheBigHenry

Attention morons in government: the United States is not a democracy! If you do not understand the difference between a democracy and a constitutionally limited representative government like our Republic, you have no business being in government. WTF?!

Look it up, you lazy pieces of shit. How is an average voter supposed to have confidence in a government official who doesn't understand what kind of government (s)he works in (as evidenced by his or her reference to it as a "democracy").

Every time I hear a Congressman blithely refer to the United States as a democracy I want to jump inside my TV, reach inside his craw and rip his f*cking lungs out! This is fundamental shit, you morons.

"Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose ..."

{link » George Carlin Talks About "Stuff"}
 h/t Norm

{link » Janis Joplin "Me and Bobby McGee"}

Earth to Al Gore: "I have one word for you — plastics!"

{link » George Carlin - Saving the Planet}
 h/t Theo

{link » The Graduate "One Word: Plastics"}

Rights and Reservations

{link » Diane Feinstein Reserves Right to Vote against Stimulus}

“And, so, I reserve the right [with fists raised for theatrical emphasis], at the end of the day [what about the beginning of the day and other parts of the day in between?], to vote against the package [followed by a bunch of mealymouthed bullshit].”
 — Diane Feinstein

Well, in that case, I reserve the right, without any further ado or theatrics, to declare her to be the stupid, arrogant, obnoxious cliche-spouting piece of shit that she is.

"Da Ya Think I'm SESy?"

{link » Body Language Can Indicate Socioeconomic Status, Study Shows}

“Socioeconomic status (SES) is determined by a number of factors such as wealth, occupation and schools attended. SES influences the food we eat, hobbies we participate in and can even have an impact on our health.”
 — ScienceDaily (Feb. 5, 2009)

{link » Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?}

Be careful what you stimulate for!

{link » Stimulis: Because all economies have performance issues}

“Are you an economy with performance issues? If you find it hard to achieve and maintain growth, maybe Stimulis is right for you. Take Stimulis once every election cycle or whenever you're in need of economic enhancement.”
 — "Stimulis" is written and produced by Ted Balaker, and edited by Alex Manning.

Stimulate this!

CAUTION: Do Not Try This at Home!

Some change to believe in!

{link » U.S. Soldier Calls Out Mahdi Sympathizers in Iraqi Police}
CAUTION: F-bombs galore, but it's awesome!
 h/t Ace

What do men want?

Nobody knows what women want (besides "more"). But, according to Chris Rock, men want three things: (1) food; (2) sex; and, (3) quiet (Chris Rock's enumeration is much funnier, but this is a "family values" blog). I would add one more thing that many men want: heroes.

Why do men want heroes (i.e., heroic men and women, as well as big sandwiches)? I believe it's because evolutionary pressure, along with gravitation, is in opposition to the Second Law of Thermodynamics (the inexorable increase in entropy leading to the eventual heat death of the universe).

So, what attributes best define a hero? Not to put too fine a point on it, it's: (1) natural talent; (2) determination in the face of adversity; and (3) an uncanny ability to prevail. One of my personal heroes, Abraham Lincoln, had these attributes in spades. So did Albert Einstein, Michael Jordan, and Joseph Stalin. The latter is not ordinarily thought of in heroic terms (except in Russia, where he is revered to this day), but how else to describe an individual who singlehandedly managed to control the destiny of hundreds of millions of people in the face of an unprecedented onslaught by the forces of another megalomaniac, and ultimately prevailed against all odds?

I am not prepared, yet, to declare Barack Obama a hero. He has not yet demonstrated an uncanny ability to prevail in the face of serious adversity. But thus far, I admire his gifted ability to project sincerity of purpose, and his determination to persevere.

I don't think my momma raised her son without arming him with a bullshit meter. It may not be foolproof, but it's really hard to fake sincerity. When I listen to Obama speak, I am inclined to believe that he means well, though he is still too naive (or possibly much more clever than anyone suspects) for me to bet the farm on his chances to ultimately prevail. We live in interesting times.

Every time I think I've heard it all ...

{link » Female suicide bomb recruiter Samira Ahmed Jassim captured}

“Jassim alleged that she helped plan the rapes of young women and then step in to persuade the victims to become suicide bombers as their only escape from the shame.” [emphasis added]
 — The Associated Press

Will someone kindly explain to me how anyone living in the Western civilized world has the stomach to support any organization that is capable of such convoluted perversion of logic and decency?

U.S. Federal Debt in Perspective

ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE (OOM)

Name of Number	Power of Ten	Multiples of 3 [OOM]	Comments
one	0	0	1
thousand	3	1	1,000
million	6	2	thousand × thousand
billion	9	3	thousand × million
trillion	12	4	thousand × billion; or, million × million
10 trillion	13	41/3	U.S. Federal Debt [$] (2008)
100 trillion	14	42/3	# cells in human body
quadrillion	15	5	thousand × trillion; or, million × billion
quintillion	18	6	thousand × quadrillion; or, million × trillion; or, billion × billion
sextillion	21	7	thousand × quintillion; or, million × quadrillion; or, billion × trillion
septillion	24	8	1.7 × Avogadro's number
googol	100	331/3	sextillion × (# photons in universe)
googolplex	googol	googol/3	Zimbabwe's % hyperinflation

§ Quantized History #20

§ ≡ A quantum of Quantized History { #19 « #20 » #21 }
February 1, 1943 » The German 6th Army surrenders at Stalingrad


Russian soldiers lead German POWs past Stalingrad grain silo — February 1943

Paulus was promoted by Hitler to the rank of Generalfeldmarschall on January 31, 1943 ostensibly in part because until that day no German Field Marshal had ever surrendered. In other words, Adolf Hitler expected Paulus to commit suicide, but Paulus soon surrendered to the Soviet Forces, contrary to orders by his political chief. The remaining forces of the 6th Army, under the independent command of General Karl Strecker, surrendered three days after in the Tractor Factory, at the north of Stalingrad. Although that was not the definitive end of the 6th Army on this occasion, it was one of the worst military disasters in German history. For the first time, an entire German field army had been completely destroyed.

Red Army on the Stalingrad Axis

• Representatives of the STAVKA: Army General G. K. Zhukov
  Colonel-General of Artillery N. N. Voronov; Colonel-General A. M. Vasilevesky
• Stalingrad Front: Colonel-General A. I. Yeremenko
  N. S. Khrushchev
  • 62nd Army: General V. I. Chuikov
  • 64th Army: General M. S. Shumilov
  • 57th Army: General F. I. Tolbukhin
  • 51st Army: General N. I. Trufanov
  • 28th Army: Lt. General V. F. Gerasimenko
  • 8th Army: General T. T. Khryukin
• Don Front: Colonel-General K. K. Rokossovsky
  
• South-West Front: Colonel-General N. F. Vatutin