Better spam, please!

With all the shit coming our way, could we please have a better quality of spam delivered to our spam email folder? I know it's a fact of life that we all have to deal with on a daily basis. But is this the best the spammers have to offer these days?

Marcos Winn > Want a larger fat prick? 4:36 pm

Why would I want a larger one if it's already "fat"? Who needs an obese prick?

Post #736 Better spam, please!

Stupid Swinesh*t

Look, I get it. The government wants to keep you in the dark and feed you bullshit. To the government, you're just a mushroom. Not so fine, but I get it. What I resent, however, is the government feeding me bullshit that my youngest granddaughter knows is bullshit, and she's just a toddler!

Our wonderful new President has the audacity to say this on national TV:

"It [i.e., closing the border with Mexico to prevent additional cases of swine flu from entering the United States] would be akin to closing the barn door after the horses are out, because we already have cases here in the United States."

WTF?! Why are we trying to contain the spread of this virus then, if "we already have cases here in the United States"? Are we so f*cking stupid that we can't see the absurdity in this statement?

What a bunch of stupid horseshit! I might as well start drinking the f*cking Kool-Aid they're handing out, along with all the stupid swineshit!

Post #735 Stupid Swinesh*t

Irony Chained to the Man of Steel

{link » Quote DB}

 “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” — Joseph Stalin

• “A couple of terrorists water-boarded is a travesty; three thousand civilians murdered is a statistic.” — TheBigHenry
• “Moral relativism is all the rage; anti-Semitism is a statistic.” — TheBigHenry
• “$100 million is a fortune; $3.6 trillion is a statistic.” — TheBigHenry
• “Hope and change is enchanting; 100 days is a statistic.” — TheBigHenry
• “A car-maker bankruptcy is a tragedy; a trillion-dollar bailout is a statistic.” — TheBigHenry

Post #734 Irony Chained to the Man of Steel

§ I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: Foreplay/Long Time

{Song #8 « Song #9 » Song #10}

§ ≡ One of an ongoing series of posts in which I pick, in my not-so-humble opinion, the best songs of the second millennium. Feel free to offer constructive dissenting opinions; preferably set to music.

Song #9 is Foreplay/Long Time, sung by Boston.

For me, the most thrilling part of the incomparable Fifth Symphony of the incomparable Ludwig van Beethoven is the bridge that links the 3rd and 4th movements without interruption. Unlike the countless rock songs that are played and screamed unwaveringly at fortissimo, the nuanced Beethoven bridge builds a virtually unbearable tension before the radiant triumph of the 4th movement explodes. That, dear reader, is what I call mind-blowing music.

The only modern song that creates a comparable tension is Foreplay/Long Time. Imagine driving a Honda Prelude at ~85 mph, with its sunroof and windows wide open, on a bright sunny day in the American Southwest, heading north on I-25 with nary another car in sight, and, temporarily, not a care in the world. The Foreplay-prelude bridge to Long Time is coming to a close, as the beat of the drum begins, pianissimo, its heart-thumping crescendo: | ] ) } > !

Now that, Chris Jerkoff, is what I call a tingling sensation, leading to a mind-blowing moment of living life large.




Post #733 § I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: Foreplay/Long Time

Shocking Stocking Stuffer for the Green Thumb on Your List

{link » Wind-up gives greener ...}

“Makers say the 'Earth Angel' is made from recycled materials and can give an hour of power for 8 minutes of cranking.”
 h/t Theo

Send in your Gore-related wise cracks. I'll post them as long as they're not X-rated.

Post #732 Shocking Stocking Stuffer for the Green Thumb on Your List

All the Rage

{link » Israel’s Independence Day}

 h/t DoubleTapper
“Each year that we mark the rebirth of the Jewish state after long centuries of exile is a great cause for celebration …

The past 61 years show just what a free and independent Jewish nation can achieve. With scarce resources, we brought a barren land back to life and absorbed millions of immigrants. Through innovation and determination, the genius of our people has made us a leader in agriculture, medicine and science, while our creativity spawned a high-tech industry that continues to amaze the world …

All this has been achieved even though Israel has lived under constant threat for 61 years. Unfortunately, Israel remains under threat. An Iranian regime that is feverishly pursuing nuclear weapons brazenly calls for our destruction. Terror organizations on our southern and northern borders grow stronger by the day. And a rising tide of anti-Semitism is sweeping the civilized world …”
 — Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu

Moral relativism is all the rage; anti-Semitism is a statistic.

Post #731 All the Rage

Have you ever done any modeling?

{link » If You Teach a Student Mathematica …}

“This 20-minute tutorial went live for the 2008 fall semester, and faculty test-drove it with their Mathematica courses. The video can be watched on demand, so it makes an effective homework assignment for students, watching and working alongside Mathematica as they learn how to format text, perform computations, generate plots, and even create their own interactive models.”
 — Michael Morrison, Academic Relationship Executive

[Click the screenshot (below) to launch the screencast.]

  “Hands-on Start to Mathematica”

If you toil in academia or any profession requiring technical writing, computation, data analysis, and/or modeling (er, babes in skimpy swimwear, we'll be in touch), you owe it to yourself to watch this tutorial. If you're not familiar with Wolfram Mathematica, you're in for a treat.

Post #730 Have you ever done any modeling?

Duuude!

{link » Inspired Bicycles - Danny MacAskill April 2009}

“Filmed over the period of a few months in and around Edinburgh by Dave Sowerby, this video of Inspired Bicycles team rider Danny MacAskill features probably the best collection of street-trials riding ever seen.”
 — inspiredbicycles

 h/t Theo

Do NOT try this at home!

Post #729 Duuude!

Do political parties present a barrier to quality leadership?

{link » The Consummate Feedback Automaton}

[This post #728 is a response to comments from a reader of my post #726.]

As with many complex issues, my answer to the title question is, "Yes, but ...". Yes it is a barrier, but it is not the only barrier, nor do I think these barriers are insurmountable. Some of the other barriers include (but are not limited to): the prohibitive cost of a Presidential campaign (it took half a giga-buck to elect Barack Obama!); the invasion of privacy that comes with the job; and the tremendous toll on a President's physical and emotional well being. It is the most powerful position in the world; yet it's accompanied by an onerous personal price.

As many (but by no means all) people realize, the election campaign demands a great deal of pandering and not a little outright lying. The self-absorbed constituents are not all that interested in anything beyond their own selfish little cravings. But no sooner does the dust settle in November than the reality of governing the world's foremost economic engine and its only legitimate super power come crashing down on the "winner". Suddenly, the promises made to unreasonable demanders, just to get elected, begin to crumble like stale crackers, and the furious wackos at either end of the sanity spectrum begin frothing at the mouth.

At this moment of truth, however, the quality of the elected leadership begins to be revealed. It is not the President's top priority to satisfy his party's expectations; nor is it even the top priority to insure his re-election! A true leader knows that his sworn obligation is to the preservation of the Nation's well being. All other considerations are secondary, and are largely the province of the petty little partisans who slither through the halls of Congress.

There have been numerous rankings of the Presidents by scholars (and others who flatter themselves). About a dozen Presidents have been deemed outstanding leaders. Two are perennially chosen as near immortals. The first, George Washington, was not affiliated with any political party and was the only unanimous choice of the electors. As Commander-in-Chief of the Revolutionary Army and the presiding officer of the Constitutional Convention, it is small wonder that he was a slam-dunk for the Presidency (pardon the anachronistic colloquialism).

The second near immortal, Abraham Lincoln, was affiliated with a political party, and his election was contested under the circumstances of our multi-party system. When elected as our 16th President, he had only been a one-term U.S. Congressman (having failed in his re-election bid) with little military experience. One might be tempted to claim Lincoln to be "the exception that proves the rule (that political affiliation is a barrier to quality leadership)", but, truth be told, I have never understood what that expression really means. So let's just agree that Lincoln was a miracle the likes of which will never again be seen.

In any case, there are another ten or so Presidents who were exceptional leaders, and they comprise sufficient evidence that political affiliation is not necessarily an insurmountable barrier to quality leadership. Being an insufferable narcissist, however, is insurmountable.

Post #728 Do political parties present a barrier to quality leadership?

Reality and Perspective

{link » A law without force?}

“To make light of it, as if the politics were everything, suggests that this is another case of treating law as a resource of mere partisan convenience.”
 — Norman Geras

Bill Clinton alluded to it when he said, "It depends on what the meaning of 'is' is". But Stalin's quip is definitive: "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic".

I abstain from the controversy du jour, beloved of politicians, as well as just about anyone who enjoys debating the probability of a camel passing through the eye of a needle. My purpose, rather, is to consider the role of perspective as a governor for mental masturbation.

Politics is not everything; perspective is. The most recent perfect illustration of that truism was the ludicrous attempt by President Obama at misdirection when he called on his Cabinet to search for $100 million in budget-cuts from his $3.5 trillion budget! One need only consider this "Cabinet Level" issue in perspective to realize it amounts to a single cup of coffee in a $40,000 budget!

Reality is not in the eye of the needle but in that of the beholder. My particular visual acuity (20/20 if I'm wearing my contacts) perceives it in the relatively efficient utilization of energy, of which, as we are constantly being reminded, there is a finite and dwindling amount.

Consider how much could have been accomplished if the energy expended on eliminating a mere cup of coffee had been put to good use. On the other hand, considering the ineptitude of those cup-of-coffee eliminators, perhaps their busy work was optimum utilization of their energy from the perspective of the Nation's well being.

Post #727 Reality and Perspective

The Consummate Feedback Automaton

{link » Negative Feedback}

“In a negative feedback system some factor, such as blood pressure, changes. The change is detected by a sensor. The sensor sends a message to an integrating center which in turn stimulates an effector. The effector will do something to alter the factor that changed.”

Principles? We don't need no stinkin' principles!

The Obama Administration has been hard to figure out: Do they know what they are doing? Are they Liberals or Centrists? Are they Capitalists or Socialists? Are they trying to do what's best for the Nation or please everyone else who mostly want us to fail? Do they have a coherent strategy based on a set of sociopolitical principles, or simply making it up on the fly? WTF is going on?

Well, in my humble opinion, they are simply doing what they do best. They are campaigning. Why try to fix it if it ain't broke? Promise the voters whatever they want to hear and act accordingly. If that creates an uproar of dissent, they make a negative adjustment and see who salutes as they run it up the flag pole. Flip-flop? Not really, and even if so, it shows they are just our humble servants willing to listen to reason. As if the typical voter cares about anything other than his own interests.

Leadership? We don't need no stinkin' leadership. All we need is enough votes to get reelected.

Post #726 The Consummate Feedback Automaton

I Don't Speak Jive

Unlike Barbara Billingsley's character (Jive Lady) in the movie Airplane!, I don't speak jive. I do, however, know the difference between "jive" and "jibe", the latter being the intransitive verb meaning "to be in accord". Though these two words are near homonyms, and they are subject to typographical confusion because of the contiguous positions of the letters "v" and "b" on a standard keyboard, they have entirely different meanings and, strictly speaking, should not be used interchangeably.

Don't jive me, man. And if you haven't a clue what I'm talking about, for god's sake don't ax me about it!

Post #725 I Don't Speak Jive

§ I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: Someone to Watch Over Me

{Song #7 « Song #8 » Song #9}

§ ≡ One of an ongoing series of posts in which I pick, in my not-so-humble opinion, the best songs of the second millennium. Feel free to offer constructive dissenting opinions; preferably set to music.

Song #8 is Someone to Watch Over Me, sung by Linda Ronstadt. Composed by the great George Gershwin (with lyrics by Ira Gershwin) in 1926, this key work in the Great American Songbook was given a memorable performance by Ronstadt, accompanied by Nelson Riddle and his orchestra, recorded on the "What's New" album.



Post #724 § I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: Someone to Watch Over Me

Hope That I Can Believe In

{link » A Year In Treblinka}

“It happened in Warsaw on August 23, 1942, at the time of the blockade. I had been visiting my neighbors and never returned to my own home again. We heard the noise of rifle fire from every direction, but had no inkling of the bitter reality. Our terror was intensified by the entry of German ‘squad leaders’ (Schaar-fuehrer) and of Ukrainian ‘militiamen’ (Wachmaenner) who yelled loudly and threateningly: ‘All outside’.

In the street a ‘squad leader’ arranged the people in ranks, without any distinction as to age or sex, performing his task with glee, a satisfied smile on his face. Agile and quick of movement, he was here, there and everywhere. He looked us over appraisingly, his eyes glancing up and down the ranks. With a sadistic smile he contemplated the great accomplishment of his mighty country which, at one stroke, could chop off the head of the loathsome hydra.

He was the vilest of them all. Human life meant nothing to him, and to inflict death and untold torture was a supreme delight. Because of his ‘heroic deeds’, he subsequently became ‘deputy squad commander’ (Unterschaarfeuhrer). His name was Franz. He had a dog named Barry, about which I shall speak later.”
 — By Yankel Wiernik, An Inmate Who Escaped

This was the first eyewitness account of the horrors perpetrated by the accursed nation of swine at the hell called Treblinka. More than 850,000 innocents from the Warsaw ghetto were brutalized and murdered there, including all my grandparents.

The Russian armies of Marshals Zhukov, Konev and Rokossovsky brought retribution to the swinish brutes for devastating Mother Russia. By all accounts discovered to date, the retribution was insufficient for the accursed nation's crimes against humanity.



{link » IAF Jets fly over Auschwitz}

“We pilots of the Israeli Air Force, flying in the skies above the camp of horrors, arose from the ashes of the millions of victims and shoulder their silent cries, salute their courage and promise to be the shield of the Jewish people and its nation Israel.”
 — Formation leader Brig. Gen. Amir Eshel

"Vengeance is mine; I will repay", said the Lord. And that is hope I can believe in.

Post #723 Hope That I Can Believe In

The Stupidity Is Only Exceeded By the Arrogance and the Cynicism

{link » Obama to Order Cabinet to Quickly Cut $100 Million From Department Budgets}

“President Obama plans to convene his Cabinet for the first time today, where he will order members to identify a combined $100 million in budget cuts over the next 90 days, according to a senior administration official.

The budget cuts, while they would account [amount?] to a minuscule portion of federal spending, are intended to signal the president's determination to cut spending and reform government, the official said.
[...]
Earlier this month, both chambers of Congress passed Obama's $3.5 trillion budget outline for 2010, which includes unprecedented new investments in health care, education and energy. But the huge budget, which contemplates a $1.2 trillion deficit, has drawn the ire of small-government conservatives who say that the deficits jeopardize the nation's economic future.”
 — By Michael A. Fletcher, Washington Post Staff Writer, April 20, 2009

Let's take a brief moment to examine what is going on here, shall we? A $100 million budget-cut out of a $3.5 trillion budget is the following fraction

$100,000,000 ÷ $3,500,000,000,000 = 0.00003

Let's put that in the perspective of the American family's median annual budget of $40,000

0.00003 × $40,000 = $1.20

So, President Obama's proposed budget-cut of $100 million is to his total budget of $3.5 trillion, as the price of a single cup of coffee is to the median annual budget of an American family of four.

This, I submit to you, is the height of political cynicism preying on the naivety of the general public.

 h/t Theo

Post #722 The Stupidity Is Only Exceeded By the Arrogance and the Cynicism

On Fixing Congress

Despite our national political polarization, there is one thing we can all agree on: Congress is disfunctional. Setting aside the focus of everybody's obsession, namely 'who is primarily at fault', I believe I have found a solution that would meet with everyone's approval. My solution is equitable; it is infallible; and most important of all — it is simple to implement. Lest you think I am perpetrating a rude joke, as I am occasionally wont to do, I assure you I am not.

In arriving at my solution, I invoked a well known mathematical approach, which is sometimes called the adjoint solution. This approach stipulates that one begins at the end of a chronological process, defines a desirable outcome, and works backwards (reverse chronologically) to find the appropriate starting conditions for such a defined outcome.

I submit that the most undesirable outcome of any Congressional election derives from the pork-barrel basis of each candidate's election campaign. How could it not? As everyone knows, the best way to a voter's heart is through his craving for bacon. So, how to eliminate the pork-barrel basis and, consequently, replace it with a more altruistic appeal for votes, one that is based on the understanding that the best qualified candidate is the one who most persuasively presents a coherent vision for wise legislation?

The answer is as simple as it's anti-symmetry to the current election setup: each voter, in every Congressional district, would be prohibited from voting for those candidates he is currently qualified to vote for. I pause for you to recover from the audacity of (the first part of) my proposed solution. The complementary part of my proposal concerns which candidates every voter can vote for. The answer to that is relatively straightforward: (1) for the House of Representatives, every voter can vote for one candidate in any Congressional district in his own state, except for the candidates in his own district; (2) for the U.S. Senate, every voter (in a state that is holding a Senatorial election) can vote for one candidate in any state in the Union that is holding a Senatorial election, except for the candidates in his own state.

Before you dash off an objection based on the presumed quandary for those states having only one Congressional district (At-large: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming), these House seats would be treated the way the Senatorial seats are proposed to be treated (i.e., vote for any one At-large House seat except the one in your own state). Off the top of my head, I can not think of any difficulties in my proposed system for Congressional elections that can not be easily addressed.

Post #721 On Fixing Congress

Tsup, homie?

  BHO: "Tsup, homie?" HC: "D'you call me hymie?"
 h/t Theo
BHO: "That's funny, bro!" HC: "D'you like juice?" BOTH: "Ha, ha, ha ..."

Post #720 Tsup, homie?

The Principle of Inclusivity in Tax Burden

{link » What's driving the U.S. over a cliff?}

“Third, why do so many people pay nothing in federal income taxes? According to the Tax Foundation, fully 32 percent of all Americans pay no federal income taxes while 42 percent of single Americans pay no federal income taxes. With President Obama's aggressive efforts to give more money to more Americans through tax credit refundability, many experts expect that over half of the people will owe nothing or may get back some money from the federal government. Ironically, this trend started under George W. Bush, the president who supposedly ignored the poor. But taking so many people off the income tax rolls has two unfortunate consequences. First, it brings less revenue in to pay for a government that is already teetering on bankruptcy. Second, it makes wholesale tax reform more difficult. Hey, if I ain't paying any taxes under the current system, why should I want to change it? But at some point in time, squeezing the so-called rich will become counterproductive to economic growth, and the pie will start to shrink. It is not fair that so many Americans pay nothing in income taxes to their government.”
 — By John Feehery, Special to CNN

I have never bought into the common perception that taxes are inherently evil and are to be avoided (evaded?) at all costs. I don't even think of them as a necessary evil.

In principle, taxes are a citizen's membership dues, the membership in a society governed by laws, which are legislated, adjudicated, and administrated by elected representatives, to promote the common good. Promotion of the common good costs money.

It is obvious to me that the money required to promote the common good of a society's membership should come from taxes paid by the membership. The devil of taxes, however, is in the details of apportionment — the tax code, which in the United States has grown into a monstrous patchwork of social-engineering retrofits.

I have previously posted my thoughts on "What makes for a fair income tax structure?". But the complexity of our tax code is such that I daresay no one (not even the omniscient President) can determine if it is fair. It is only possible to consider the fairness of various broad aspects of the overall tax code.

In my humble opinion, a fundamental aspect of the general concept of fairness is inclusivity. Regardless of how the details of tax-burden apportionment are specified, everyone who benefits from their membership in our society should pay some fraction of their income in taxes. And if we consider the %tax range of an individual taxpayer to be (0%, 100%), it is clear that this range is to be interpreted as exclusive of the end points.

Post #719 The Principle of Inclusivity in Tax Burden

A Visual Double Entendre

 h/t Theo

  hint:


Post #718 A Visual Double Entendre

§ I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: Sloop John B

{Song #6 « Song #7 » Song #8}

§ ≡ One of an ongoing series of posts in which I pick, in my not-so-humble opinion, the best songs of the second millennium. Feel free to offer constructive dissenting opinions; preferably set to music.

Song #7 is Sloop John B, sung by The Beach Boys. The "Bleach" Boys are my favorite band of all time, and "Sloop John B" is my favorite song recorded by the Boys. Just try sitting still during the freight-train drumming at the fade out ... can't be done ...




Post #717 § I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: Sloop John B

This woman always sits at the next table in the restaurant ...

Post #716 This woman always sits at the next table in the restaurant ...

The Water That Burned the Dog Who Drank the Kool-Aid

{link » The Mary Hamsher Moore Show}

Mary Hamsher Moore traipses whimsically through the streets of Washington with her macrame hat and bullhorn

Who can turn your stomach with her bile?
Who can hit a bullhorn switch, and suddenly bitch with a chipmunk smile?
Well it's you girl and you should know it,
With each fire and every little dog lake you show it.
Hate is all around, no need to brew it,
It's puffing up your cheeks, why don't you chew it?
You're gonna spew it af-ter all,
You're gonna spew it af-ter all (doo-doo doo doo.... DOOT!)

Mary throws bullhorn into air, freeze frame
 — iowahawk

The hawkster has outdone himself here, but if you're too young to have ever watched The Mary Tyler Moore Show, don't bother.

UPDATE: Jane Hamster at a pink "rally" ...


WTF is a "fire bitch lake"? Never mind.

Post #715 The Water That Burned the Dog Who Drank the Kool-Aid

Hope You Can Believe In

{link » Celebs Sport Eye Patches in Solidarity with Pirates}

“More than 200 of the nation’s most-famous people — including actors, entertainers, musicians and politicians — were spotted wearing eye patches last night at a $25,000-a-plate Hollywood fund-raising gala to benefit Somali pirates and their families.
[...]
EDITOR’S NOTE: In case you haven’t figured it out yet, the post above is not true. Combine all of the havoc and mischief Somali pirates have wrought on the world’s shipping lanes with the lack of common sense displayed by so many liberals in the worlds of entertainment, media and politics, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone on the left pick up this far-fetched idea of mine and run with it one day soon.”
 — Bob McCarty

The Bush-bashing leftists have a great sense of humor (as if ...), so they will no doubt appreciate a bit of levity at their own expense. But, in the event they unleash a shit storm of indignity upon those daring to insinuate the Left's motives are impure or insane, well then, in the famous words of Rahm Emanuel, "They can just go f*ck themselves!" That's hope you can believe in, mofo.

Post #714 Hope You Can Believe In

Nuclear Radiation Therapy

{link » Piratical Thoughts}

“Then there is the ‘they are not a serious threat’ chorus. In global terms, perhaps not. But they represent a further cheapening of international customs and norms, akin to the composition of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights [...]. In response, why make the world angry at us for such a trifle? In the manner that [...] it is not worth reminding al Arabiya that radical Islam is a fascistic creed that thrives off the larger gender apartheid, religious intolerance, statism, authoritarianism and tribalism of the Islamic world, so too making a big deal about pirates just isn’t worth the hassle and loss of cool.

And then there are the apologies. [...] If the Germans won’t trump our supposed genocide of Native Americans with more remorse about the Holocaust, can they at least explain their profit-mongering commerce with criminal states like Iran?

So the game is now that we wish to be multipolar and multilateral — and yet remain unilateral in our apologies and serial trashing of our prior commander in chief? Meanwhile our TVs are saturated with stories about two-bit thugs with AK-47s ‘terrorizing’ the global shipping lanes. Strange world.” [emphasis added]
 — Victor Davis Hanson

More than strange, Victor. More like a perverse world.

Victor has articulated a nagging suspicion of mine: the continual aggregation of "don't sweat the small stuff" sops, for the bleeding hearts to the left of sanity, eventually and inevitably leads to a mountain of congealed sweat. That has always been the fly in the ointment of appeasement — the problems never go away. They metastasize into a calamity that can only be treated by nuclear radiation therapy (with extreme prejudice).

Post #713 Nuclear Radiation Therapy

Rules of Law and Logic

{link » Imprisonment and the right to vote}

“Should prisoners have the vote? I've never thought about it, to be honest, until I read this post by Afua Hirsch, who thinks they should have. All she persuaded me of, however, is that if you want to make a case for something, you need to make the case - you know, put forward arguments, try to persuade people, consider and rebut possible counter-arguments. Hirsch does nothing of the kind. She simply tells you that the right sort of people think that prisoners should have the vote.

Whether she's noticed it or not, another category of persons overrepresented in the prison population are those convicted of crimes. That's step one. Step two is to admit into one's thinking some concept of perpetrator culpability for crimes. Step three is then to recognize that imprisonment for crime includes a retributive element, whatever rehabilitative aims might also be appropriate; and to see that a question can now legitimately arise as to whether deprivation of voting rights might be an appropriate form [of] retributive punishment, as incarceration is thought to be.” [emphasis added]
 — Norman Geras

Rules? We don't need no stinkin' rules! As Norm has no doubt recognized, there are great numbers of pseudo intellectuals pushing and shoving to appeal to the much greater numbers of "citizens" who can barely scrape together half a dozen words into a pseudo sentence that "kinda" makes sense, if you can recover from rolling on the floor laughing your ass off (ROTFLMAO).

Post #712 Rules of Law and Logic

Breathless Airheads and Sputtering Boneheads

[UPDATE: It has been brought to my attention that I had stigmatized (albeit unintentially) people with a reading disorder, by my unfortunate choice of wording for the original title of this post. My sincere apologies to anyone who may have been offended.]

In the wake of my pleasure at learning of the heroic and successful rescue of the American captain who was held hostage by Somali pirates, I am chagrined to report that my pleasure is tempered by my annoyance with the MSM reportage of these happy events. Not only are we plagued with biased reporting, but we are also presented, even by those less egregiously biased, with important news as processed by inept "newscasters". Let me cite one very typical example.

As is my wont, while doing my daily treadmill workout, I tuned to a news network, which shall remain nameless because they are all equally faulty in their level of incompetence, whose male-female tag team was hyperventilating about the exciting rescue. The female is best described as a breathless airhead; the male as a sputtering bonehead. This annoying pair could not simply report the few meager facts at their disposal. No, they had to milk perhaps 5-minutes worth of factual news for upwards of an hour of "news time", which included a substantial number of 2- or 3-minute commercial breaks.

In the process of this flurry of spittle-spraying the lenses of the TV equipment in the studio, the breathless airhead found it necessary to report what is excruciatingly obvious. For example, the lifeboat that was commandeered by the pirates who held the ship's captain hostage, had to have had its cover open at the time of the rescue, because, you see, it would have been difficult for the navy sharpshooters to kill the pirates otherwise, since their telescopic rifle sights could not penetrate solid material! Duh, you mean our sharpshooters don't have x-ray vision? Meanwhile, her bonehead male co-anchor kept talking about our navel vessel, the "Brisbane", despite the incessant repeating by others of its correct name, the USS Bainbridge.

ARGH!

Post #711 Breathless Airheads and Sputtering Boneheads

Beware of the Butterfly

{link » Insecure reasoning}

“I wonder if anyone has ever pointed out to Goekler [The Most Dangerous Person in the World?] the distinction between dying in an accident, or through illnesses brought on by a lifestyle that you've chosen, or through some other process not deliberately intended to harm, and being done to death for no other reason than that someone wants to kill you - or maybe not even you but just anyone, and you will do. Does he think that the money invested in preventing and/or punishing common-or-garden murder is a complete waste? Goekler isn't all that clever.”
 — Norman Geras

The specific simplistic view advocated by Goekler, and many others not skilled in scientific thinking, is an instance of a general view of reality that ignores the interconnectivity of actions in a dynamical system (cf., the so-called butterfly effect). Such views are based on the implicit assumption that any destructive act will have negligible effect beyond the neighborhood of spacetime (i.e., local 3-space and during the immediate aftermath) in which it occurs. That assumption is wrong.

There are those who believe, for example, that the mayhem of 9/11 would best have been dealt with by ignoring the travesty perpetrated against the thousands of American casualties of that terrorist attack! This kind of thinking holds that in so doing, the United States would have precluded the casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq that followed America's military responses. Notice the glaring absence of consideration given to the vastly different denouement in the real world had that been the actual non-response of the United States. No one can predict what the future would have been in such a postulated alternative scenario, but it is highly probable that 9/11 would NOT have been, in the event, an isolated terrorist attack causing prohibitive loss of innocent lives.

It is not only simplistic but, in fact, wrong to assume that significant differences between alternative futures of our world can only be effected by large-scale and intensive actions. Even "non-actions" on the scale of the fluttering of a butterfly's wings can cause significant consequences in our chaotic, dangerous, and mostly violent world. Directed action will not necessarily alter the degree of intensity or the significance of a future outcome, but it does offer the possibility of effecting a more desirable outcome for those who take the action.



Post #710 Beware of the Butterfly

My Starred Twitter Updates for April 6-12, 2009

• TheBigHenry RT @tweetmeme Remembrance in Spacetime: Yo! You Only Get 140 ... http://bit.ly/1xTOyw
  
• TheBigHenry RT @tweetmeme Remembrance in Spacetime: It's not all it's cracked up to be! http://bit.ly/RWgq
• TheBigHenry RT @tweetmeme Remembrance in Spacetime: U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown (D-FL) Gradulates Corch Meyers for Corching (with indispensable glossary) http://bit.ly/TzkP0
• TheBigHenry RT @tweetmeme Remembrance in Spacetime: Funny and (relatively) clean! http://bit.ly/1nTlkL
• TheBigHenry RT @tweetmeme Remembrance in Spacetime: § I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: Will You (Still) Love Me Tomorrow http://bit.ly/OAg1b
• TheBigHenry RT @tweetmeme Remembrance in Spacetime: Thrilled; thrilled, I tell you! http://bit.ly/cXZL6
• TheBigHenry RT @tweetmeme Remembrance in Spacetime: J'accuse http://bit.ly/S9HQU
• TheBigHenry RT @tweetmeme Remembrance in Spacetime: So, how's that change working for you? http://bit.ly/11ngAR
• TheBigHenry RT @tweetmeme Remembrance in Spacetime: § Quantized History #23 http://bit.ly/7RIK

Post #709 My Starred Twitter Updates for April 6-12, 2009

Yo! You Only Get 140 ...

140 (Twitter Rap) [mildly NSFW]
 h/t stocktwits

Post #708 Yo! You Only Get 140 ...

It's not all it's cracked up to be!

Will Blog 4 Bacon

 h/t Theo
Sigh ...

Post #707 It's not all it's cracked up to be!

It's not just the Canadians ...

 h/t Theo
American leftists are even worse.

Post #706 It's not just the Canadians ...

Healthcare problem? What healthcare problem?

These youngsters give one hope for American youth's wellbeing, and most certainly for their physical conditioning! Wow! Thank God for America's Heartland!

The Kings Firecrackers: 4th-8th graders from the Kings Local School District in Kings Mills, Ohio
 h/t Theo

Post #705 Healthcare problem? What healthcare problem?

Good (relatively) clean fun!

{link » Jamie Kennedy Experiment ... Lifeguard in Pool}
 h/t Theo

Post #704 Good (relatively) clean fun!

§ I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: Will You (Still) Love Me Tomorrow

{Song #5 « Song #6 » Song #7}

§ ≡ One of an ongoing series of posts in which I pick, in my not-so-humble opinion, the best songs of the second millennium. Feel free to offer constructive dissenting opinions; preferably set to music.

Song #6 is Will You (Still) Love Me Tomorrow, sung by The Shirelles. This was the most selected song on the jukebox in the Student Union of Cornell University in 1961. I was a sophomore and promoted its popularity every time I was at the Student Union with a quarter in my pocket. Perhaps it was only a dime? It was a long time ago ...



Post #703 § I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: Will You (Still) Love Me Tomorrow

Thrilled; thrilled, I tell you!

{link » Bow-ow-ow: Obama's painful missteps}

“I still strongly believe in Obama's promise as a world leader. I was thrilled, for example, by his call this week for an end to nuclear weapons -- a goal that he frankly admitted would not be attained in his lifetime. We have waited a long time for an American president who dreams big. Yes, there are bitter cells of fanatics everywhere who hate America and want a repeat of 9/11. And yes, there will always be petty dictators who covet the bomb and conspire to get it. But the mass of people around the world want to be inspired to a higher good.”
 — Camille Paglia

Camille Paglia is an American author, teacher, social critic and dissident feminist. Since 1984 Paglia has been a Professor at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Such stellar academic credentials are all that is required these days to opine with enthusiasm on such diverse concepts as effective world leadership and humanity's dreams of a nuclear-free Valhalla.

What exactly is a "call for an end to nuclear weapons" you ask? It is the equivalent of gratuitous pandering to a raft of ignorant ostriches.

Nuclear weapons are the result of human curiosity, ingenuity, engineering, and the universal laws of nature. An "end to nuclear weapons" is no more possible than an end to human curiosity, ingenuity, engineering, and/or the universal laws of nature. This, in effect, confines such an "end" to a cataclysmic chain reaction of nuclear explosions that would end humanity itself. How is that for a vicious-cycle conundrum?

 h/t Theo

Post #702 Thrilled; thrilled, I tell you!

J'accuse

On an extended trip overseas, President Obama has accomplished a great deal of self-aggrandizing at the expense of his Nation's reputation and honor. Patriotic Americans should resent this. Many of them do.

The ungrateful Europeans who love to hate the United States owe their unprecedented prosperity, if not their very existence, to the Americans who rescued them from slavery and the necessity of having to speak either German or Russian. In return for such generosity of spirit and wealth, unmatched in the annals of history, these ingrates receive our President's disparagement of his predecessor with smiles and cheers, but no signs of meaningful support for our continued shouldering of the enormously expensive ongoing protection of their sorry asses.

But, in my view, the greater transgression is that of our current President who never seems to miss an opportunity to take a cheap shot at our former President, so as to bask in the glory of Europe's approval. It's as disgraceful as his wife's disparagement of her country during the Presidential campaign.

Post #701 J'accuse

So, how's that change working for you?

{link » Young, Black & Republican}

“If America is going to remain strong, vibrant and growing, a socially liberal, socialistic philosophy needs to be confounded by the truth. That truth is that liberty doesn’t come from government, it comes from God. The truth is that the government cannot guarantee happiness, it can only leave us free and safe to pursue it. Generations of an ever-intrusive government have not made a happier, more secure populace. Just the opposite has occurred. These messages will ring true to minority populations, some of whom have lived under the harsh master of a supposedly ‘caring’ government. These messages will ring true to hard working minority populations who have succeeded by their own hand with no help from the government.”
 — Dr. Melissa Clouthier

When 92% of African American voters supported Barack Obama, they most likely were not voting in their own best interests. To understand why this may in fact be the case, watch the following video.



Post #700 So, how's that change working for you?

§ Quantized History #23

§ ≡ A quantum of Quantized History { #22 « #23 » #24 }

April 6, 1483 » Birth of Raphael, Italian painter and architect

Raphael Sanzio (Italian: Raffaello), (April 6, 1483 – April 6, 1520) usually known by his first name alone, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance, celebrated for the perfection and grace of his paintings and drawings. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.

The Perfect Embodiment of the Classical Spirit

Raphael's The School of Athens

Post #699: § Quantized History #23

Another Chicken|Egg Situation

{link » Bowing, Scraping}

“Obama does a little of both. American Thinker has the vid of Obama bowing to a foreign potentate. Specifically the king of Saudi Arabia. Apparently he’s really soft on royalty. Embarrassingly so. Al Qaeda’s going to love this: Apostate House Negro of the Hated Crusaders abases himself before Abdullah the Crusader lackey and apostate Zionist-lick-spittle.”
 — Jules Crittenden

Don't be too harsh, Jules. TOTUS hasn't been able to find a tax payer for the crucial Secretary of Get-a-Clue Cabinet post. Of course, one has to have a clue, first, to know that you need one.
 h/t Theo
All kidding aside, I am pretty pissed about the "just folks" attitude to my Nation's (and, de facto, the rest of the stinking world's) leadership. Okay, libturds, I know he won Election 2008. But he doesn't own the Presidency of the United States; he's just renting it (hopefully just a 4-year lease).

The Presidency belongs to the Nation, and it's the current occupant's obligation to make an effort not to be a buffoon on the world stage. And, Mr. President, tell that wife of yours, who infamously maligned the Nation during Campaign 2008, to get a grip, preferably not on the Queen of England's ass. What a couple of ridiculous wanna-be VIPs.

The world comprises those who hate us, fear us, are envious of us, and/or love to ridicule us. Mostly, all of the above. It is pointless to appeal to their sense of gratitude — it doesn't exist. We can't win their respect, so we might as well just cut the lame attempts at being chummy with them. Let them hate us, as long as they fear our wrath if they step over the line. Or, as Mom used to say, "F*ck 'em if they can't take a joke"!

Post #698 Another Chicken|Egg Situation

The Silence of the Libs

{link » Child's Pay 2}

“MoveOn.org once asked this question: ‘Who will pay for the deficit?’ I wonder if they still care?”
 — PresJPolk

 h/t Dr. Melissa

Humanity's moral superiors, the liberal fascists, are strangely silent about the awful future our children will inherit, now that the awfulness of that future has been magnified by an order of magnitude by our insane leftist leadership in the Federal Government. Well people, they never really cared about the "poor children", you see; it was all bullshit. All these cretins care about is power; power to propagate their insanity into the foreseeable future.

Have I mentioned that this future looks bleak?

Post #697 The Silence of the Libs

It's OK; I'm a Doctor!

{link » 10 Ways To Keep Your Relationship Smokin' Hot}

Dr. Melissa's Relationship Tips

1. Keep the mystery alive
2. Call rarely
3. Retreat from conflict
4. Don't expect your spouse to meet your sexual needs
5. Spend time cultivating interests that don't include your spouse
6. Don't change
7. Don't apologize
8. Don't give tokens of affection
9. Ignore special dates
10. Stop saying “I love you”

 — Dr. Melissa Clouthier (April 1, 2008)

Dr. Clouthier's advice makes a lot of sense, especially if you consider the elaborations she includes for each of the 10 tips (see her original post). But, of course, her elaborations are from the female point of view. Herewith are my own elaborations, which all men will no doubt understand implicitly:

TheBigHenry's Relationship Tips

1. Keep the mystery alive: We've all been there, guys. Women always know when you're lying. Keep your mouth shut.
2. Call rarely: Hey, you can't let your buddies think you're p*ssy-whipped.
3. Retreat from conflict: You can't win. Don't even try.
4. Don't expect your spouse to meet your sexual needs: Expect her to exceed them, which could also be a problem, however.
5. Spend time cultivating interests that don't include your spouse: Otherwise, you'll drive each other crazy.
6. Don't change: You can't improve on perfection. Am I right?
7. Don't apologize: Look, the last time I was wrong was back in '76 (I thought I had made a mistake).
8. Don't give tokens of affection: I hardly ever use the subway.
9. Ignore special dates: Every day is special.
10. Stop saying “I love you”: A simple “ditto” is sufficient.

Note to Wifey: Happy April Fool's Day!

Post #696 It's OK; I'm a Doctor!

§ I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: L'Hymne à l'Amour

{Song #4 « Song #5 » Song #6}

§ ≡ One of an ongoing series of posts in which I pick, in my not-so-humble opinion, the best songs of the second millennium. Feel free to offer constructive dissenting opinions; preferably set to music.

Song #5 is The Anthem to Love, sung by the incomparable Édith Piaf, in the language of love. Can there be any doubt what emotions she expresses in her signature song L'Hymne à l'Amour, even if you don't speak a word of French?



Post #695 § I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: L'Hymne à l'Amour