Energy of Earthquake in Logarithmic Nutshell

Related Link » 2010 Chile earthquake
“The 2010 Chile Earthquake occurred off the coast of the Maule Region of Chile on February 27, 2010 at 03:34 local time (06:34 UTC) and lasted for about three minutes. Its magnitude was initially reported to be between 8.3 and 8.5 Mw, later revised to 8.8 Mw. It was the strongest earthquake affecting Chile since the magnitude 9.5 1960 Valdivia earthquake (the most energetic earthquake ever recorded worldwide), and is the strongest earthquake worldwide since the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. It was about 500 times stronger than the recent devastating magnitude 7.0 Haitian earthquake and is tied with a 1906 Ecuadorian earthquake as the seventh strongest earthquake ever recorded.” [emphasis added]
— From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Seismic Energy of Earthquakes [updated: 3/25/2011]

Magnitude	Tons of TNT = 10( 3⁄2M - 3)	Example of Explosive Energy
0.0	0.001 = 1.0 × 10-3 ton (metric)*	one kilogram of TNT
1.0	0.0316227766 ≈ 0.0316 ton	a construction site blast
2.0	1 = 1 ton	a World War II conventional bomb
3.0	31.6227766 ≈ 31.6 tons	a Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB)
4.0	1,000 = 1 kiloton	a "small" nuke
4.4	3,981 ≈ 3.98 kilotons	2010 "Pico Rivera" earthquake
5.0	31,623 ≈ 31.6 kilotons	Nagasaki atomic bomb, "Fat Man"
6.0	1,000,000 = 1 megaton	1994 "Double Spring Flat" earthquake
6.2	1,995,262 ≈ 2.00 megatons	2010 "Manila" earthquake
62⁄3	10,000,000 = 10 megatons	"Castle Bravo" thermonuclear device
6.8	15,848,932 ≈ 15.8 megatons	2011 "Myanmar" earthquake
6.9	22,387,211 ≈ 22.4 megatons	1989 "San Francisco Bay" earthquake
7.0	31,622,777 ≈ 31.6 megatons	2010 "Haiti" earthquake
7.1	44,668,359 ≈ 44.7 megatons	2010 "Qinghai Province" earthquake
7.13	50,000,000 = 50 megatons	"Tsar Bomba" thermonuclear weapon
7.2	63,095,734 ≈ 63.1 megatons	2010 "Baja California" earthquake
7.7	354,813,389 ≈ 355 megatons	2010 "Sumatra" earthquake
8.0	1,000,000,000 = 1 gigaton	1906 "San Francisco" earthquake
8.1	1,412,537,540 ≈ 1.41 gigatons	[Predicted] San Andreas "Big One"
8.8	15,848,931,900 ≈ 15.8 gigatons	2010 "Chile" earthquake
8.9	22,387,211,400 ≈ 22.4 gigatons	2011 "off Honshu, Japan" earthquake
9.0	31,622,776,600 ≈ 31.6 gigatons	1755 "Lisbon" earthquake
9.1	44,668,359,200 ≈ 44.7 gigatons	2004 "Indian Ocean" earthquake
9.5	177,827,941,000 ≈ 178 gigatons	1960 "Valdivia" earthquake
10	1.0 × 1012 tons = 1 teraton	thankfully never recorded
102⁄3	1.0 × 1013 tons = 10 teratons	10% of Yucatán Event devastation
111⁄3	1.0 × 1014 tons = 100 teratons	Yucatán Peninsula Impact Event
12	1.0 × 1015 tons = 1 petaton	10 × devastation of Yucatán Event

(*) 1 ton (metric) = 1,000 kilograms

Most of us are familiar with the concept of percent (%), which allows us to compare related values via their ratio. Although this is convenient in computation, it does mask the absolute difference between the values compared. In effect, we reduce the "starkness" of the distinction, derived from arithmetic subtraction, in return for the computational convenience from division.

In an analogous fashion, a vastly greater masking of the starkness of the distinction between related values is achieved by logarithms:

“More informally, logarithms have the nice property that they take large numbers and whittle them down to manageable sizes. When we take the logarithm of an unwieldy number like a trillion [a number we are getting used to hearing when the Federal budget is discussed], we get a nice number like 9. [...] So the logarithm gives a specific measure of how big a number is, but it collapses huge numbers down to a reasonable size, which is very helpful in fields like cosmology, statistical mechanics, or even economics [as well as seismology].” [comments inserted]
— From Eternity to Here by Sean Carroll

The magnitude scale for the seismic energy of earthquakes is logarithmic. This enables seismologists to compute earthquake energy in terms of magnitudes less than 10. Convenient, yes. But at a tremendous price in obscuration of intuitive comparative energy.

Thus, a quick glance at the table above reveals that today's magnitude 8.8 Chilean earthquake was recorded as having the energy of 500 earthquakes like the recent devastating magnitude 7.0 Haitian earthquake. The latter, in turn, had the additional energy equivalent to a 10 megaton thermonuclear device when compared to the 1989 San Francisco Bay Area Earthquake. And I can personally attest that the 1989 earthquake made the earth move for me, having been in Livermore, California at the time (about 100 miles from the epicenter).

Finally, huge as today's quake may have been, the largest recorded quake, the 1960 Valdivia Earthquake, was 11 times bigger! As the punchline of an old joke (the details of which I have forgotten) goes, "Do not f*ck with Mother Nature!"

Castle Bravo Mushroom Cloud

Post #1,145 Energy of Earthquake in Logarithmic Nutshell

Harsh toilet-training is overrated

Related Link » Too Many Apologies
“Tiger Woods doesn't owe me an apology. [...] I am very judgmental about all sorts of things, including Tiger Woods' bad behavior. But that is very different from saying that he somehow owes me an apology. [...] This craze for aimless apologies is part of a general loss of a sense of personal responsibility in our time. [...] If some people don't have the money or the achievements of others, that too is society's fault, in the eyes of those for whom personal responsibility is an outmoded idea [...] — without which a whole society is in jeopardy.”
— Thomas Sowell, February 24, 2010 (TownHall)

Sniff ...

Once again I am drawn to the wisdom of Thomas Sowell. It is heartening to have an authoritative scholar's confirmation for one's own conclusions, independently deduced.

How many times must we suffer the craven mea culpa of some asshole caught with his hand, gland, or cigar where it doesn't belong? The only thing they are usually sorry about is getting caught, like any two-bit criminal or privileged VIP.

I don't really give a crap, you know? Unless, of course, he or she had suffered harsh toilet-training; in which case I don't give a flying f*ck. You play; you pay. Am I right?

Next!

Post #1,144 Harsh toilet-training is overrated

§ I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: You Are My Sunshine

{Song #54 « Song #55 » Song #56}

§ ≡ 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 #55 is You Are My Sunshine, as sung by Gene Autry (as well as my Mom). When I was a young boy, Gene Autry was one of my favorite cowboys. And my Mom would sing "You Are My Sunshine" to me when she was happy with me. This song became my favorite expression of unconditional love.

Mom and her Sunshine (May 30, 1950)

Gene Autry — You Are My Sunshine


Post #1,143 § I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: You Are My Sunshine

COITUS in Forest Blinded by Trees

Related Link » Stimulus: Military modernization need not apply
“After one year, the verdict is now in on the president’s ‘stimulus’ package. It was a monumental failure. The English language, rich as it is, is not adequate to describe the comprehensive foolishness of it. Suffice to say that it was a perfect expression of: the administration’s extreme ideology; its complete inexperience, both in the ways of Washington and the operation of a free-market economy; and its tone deafness to the desires of the American people. Here is one particularly shortsighted aspect of the stimulus: none of it was or will be spent on America’s defense industrial base. Yes, that’s correct. Defense is the most important function of the federal government, and in the face of growing dangers around the world, American power is undeniably [in] decline. Moreover, the one arguably successful example of Keynesian economics was the military buildup that finally ended the Depression. Yet the Obama Administration could not see its way clear to spend a dime of its 864 billion dollar stimulus bill on upgrading the equipment which our servicemen and women use to defend us. To be fair, only one president in our lifetime has truly understood the importance of American power. Ronald Reagan was fond of saying that ‘of the four wars that have happened in my lifetime, none occurred because America was too strong’. [...] The United States has been underfunding defense modernization ever since the Reagan Administration, but the situation has now reached a crisis. America’s military is too small, and its equipment is aging and technologically out of date. [...] America is nowhere near prepared for the growing danger of an attack using cyber or bioweapons, either by nation states or the terrorists. Iran is getting closer to nuclear status, and both Iran and North Korea are working to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile. And those are just the primary threats we face; they do not include important if secondary missions like protecting the sea lanes against piracy, fighting powerful drug cartels, or performing humanitarian missions in places like Haiti. [...] But if the ‘resource environment’ is constrained, it is only because so much money has been spent over the last year to so little effect. [...] There is zero chance that the Administration will rescind the rest of the stimulus package, saving the money for the future or redirecting it to the vital needs of American security. Decisions have consequences, but the consequences of this decision will not be visited upon the political authorities who have made it. It will be borne by the American people, whose security is increasingly at risk, and by the men and women of America’s armed forces, who will have to try to defend us with old and worn-out tools.” [emphasis added]
— By Former Sen. Jim Talent, 02/24/10 (TheDC)

The Obama Himself

The foremost Community Organizer in the United States (COITUS), AKA The Obama Himself, appears incapable of organizing Himself out of a paper bag. As with so much else about this empty suit, He is all talk and no walk. That great big forest-community of feral hostility to American interests is not only obscured by His obsession with trivialities, such as that ridiculous "cash for clunkers", but it is undetectable by His radar, which seems to be tuned to green-shoots of shit.

Anyone with a modicum of organizational skill understands that international leadership must be projected from atop a chain of command that affords a clear panoramic view of the global playing field. This is why Napoleon, among the greatest commanders of all time, directed his victories from the high ground while mounted on his horse for greater clarity of vision. And, incidentally, his Waterloo has been attributed by some to an eruption of hemorrhoids, which prevented him from mounting his horse, prompting his lament, "My kingdom for a whoopee cushion." But I digress ...

The President of the United States clearly must focus virtually all his attention on matters of global significance. And the most significant of all global matters is the preservation of America's position of global leadership. Any plan to accomplish this is by no means trivial. But one aspect of such a plan is obvious for all but the feloniously big-picture-challenged: get a clue about what it's about. What it is not, I repeat with more emphasis — not about is The Won, The One-ly, The Obama Himself.

Post #1,142 COITUS in Forest Blinded by Trees

My Alma Mater Ratchets Up the PC

As a Cornell alumnus, I occasionally receive mail from various University offices, usually seeking a donation of some sort, or trying to entice me to participate in a Cornell-sponsored activity. I am not willing to simply trash such mail (it might, on rare occasion, be of some interest to me), but, generally, I give it only a cursory glance.

Today, however, I did a double-take when I glanced at the latest missive from the Office of Alumni Affairs. A typically elegant brochure had been addressed to me personally, for, as already mentioned, I am indeed an alumnus. But something was amiss.

My name was spelled correctly, and my address was also correct. They even remembered to accord me the courtesy of prepending my title of "Dr." to my name. And yet, there was something about that address label that was just plain wrong.

In order to comply with some inane bit of political correctness, I presume, the Cornell University Office of Alumni Affairs took the absurd precaution to insert between my name and my address the following 3 words:

OR CURRENT RESIDENT

What in blazes would prompt them to do that? What, for heavens sake, if I had actually moved, and the premises were now occupied by an alumnus of Duke University, or, perish the thought, Harvard, Yale, or [gasp] Princeton?

Break me a f*cking give.

Post #1,141 My Alma Mater Ratchets Up the PC

The Quest for Civilization's Headwaters — A Status Report

Related Link » Daughter Calls Pilot in Texas Plane Crash a Hero
“AUSTIN, Texas — The daughter of a man who crashed his small plane into an Internal Revenue Service building called her father a hero for his anti-government views but said his actions, which killed a tax service employee, were "inappropriate". Joe Stack's adult daughter, Samantha Bell, spoke to ABC's "Good Morning America" from her home in Norway. Asked during a phone interview broadcast Monday if she considered her father a hero, she said: "Yes. Because now maybe people will listen." Authorities say Stack, 53, targeted the IRS office building in Austin last week, killing employee Vernon Hunter and himself, after posting a ranting manifesto against the agency and the government.”
— ‘February 22, 2010 (AP)’

If we accept the premise that civilization is preferable to the law of the jungle, it behooves us to understand that civilization comprises a set of laws, too. Moreover, if civilized law is intended to improve humanity's condition in a way that is generally accepted to be preferable to that which governs life in the wild, we need to understand how it is structured. In particular, we need to know whence it flows.

In the beginning, before the concept of law was even articulated by our ancestors, there evolved human cognition. But that seems to be an unnecessarily primitive starting point for our quest. Lets advance our evolutionary trek by several thousand millennia, to the point at which a non-negligible fraction of the population extant had the capacity to reason. I submit that a useful starting point for civilized behavior begins with humanity's ability to reason with each other.

Despite the very human inclination for deception, the ability to reason can, and does, lead to the establishment of codify-able legal structures. It is, therefore, not surprising that a fundamental underpinning of our own American system of justice has a very special place reserved for the concept of "beyond reasonable doubt".

How widespread is the understanding that acceptable rules of civilized engagement derive from the ability to reason? Sadly, the anecdotal evidence is disheartening. What should be intuitively obvious, even to adults currently living in Scandinavia, appears to be as ephemeral as the elements of moral relativism.

Accordingly, the adult daughter, of a deranged man bent on publicizing his personal grievance by an act of terrorism, considers his action "inappropriate", albeit excusable, even "heroic", in the furtherance of his personal agenda.

This, I submit, is a perversion of reason.

Post #1,140 The Quest for Civilization's Headwaters — A Status Report

Crimson Royalty on a Treadmill of Sex and Survival

Related Link » The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature
“This concept, that all progress is relative, has come to be known in biology by the name of the Red Queen, after a chess piece that Alice meets in Through the Looking-Glass, who perpetually runs without getting very far because the landscape moves with her. [...] Life is a chess tournament in which if you win a game, you start the next game with the handicap of a missing pawn.
[...]
Mankind is a self-domesticated animal; a mammal; an ape; a social ape; [...] an ape that has developed an extraordinary range of new instincts to learn by association, to communicate by speech, and to pass on traditions. But still an ape. Half the ideas in this book are probably wrong. The history of human science is not encouraging. [...] No doubt the Red Queen's approach is just another chapter in this marred tale. [...] The Western cultural revolution that calls itself political correctness will no doubt stifle inquiries it does not like, such as those into the mental differences between men and women. [...] But then I remember how much progress we have made since Hume and how much nearer to the goal of a complete understanding of human nature we are than ever before. We will never quite reach that goal, and it would perhaps be better if we never did. But as long as we can keep asking why, we have a noble purpose.”
— Matt Ridley (Author)

The Red Queen tells Woody everything he always wanted to know, including how this concept might have evolved as "humanity's best strategy for outwitting its constantly mutating internal predators". It might even hold the key to that age-old question — "What do women really want, besides more?"

It is a terrific read, ‘read’ being the operative word, since there are no pix [get your mind out of the gutter, and into books of this caliber]. Get your copy before the PC thought-police ban it.

No, you can't borrow my copy; I have to read it again. There is a lot of nuance to digest.

Post #1,139 Crimson Royalty on a Treadmill of Sex and Survival

Predestination at the O.K. White House

Related Link » Republicans will attend health care summit as Democrats say they will use reconciliation
“The president sought to assure Republicans this weekend that their views will not be ignored during the negotiations. Instead, he said, the televised summit will be an opportunity to reconcile the Democratic health care bills now stalled in Congress. [...] Of course, bipartisan cooperation isn’t the only way to get things done. The Hill reported this weekend that Democratic leaders are prepared to use the legislative manuever known as reconciliation [AKA the nuclear option] to pass a final health care bill if a consensus cannot be reached. [...] Recent national polls seem to echo the sentiment that swept [Senator Scott] Brown into office, raising questions as to whether the administration’s ‘attempt at reconciliation’ will only further alienate voters frustrated by its handling of health care reform.” [emphasis added]
— The Daily Caller, 02/21/10

It sounds to me like The Won is saying, "Let's give 'em a fair trial; then hang 'em!"

“If they are going to lay out the plan they want four days in advance, what are we discussing [at the health-care summit on Thursday at the White House]?” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) asked on Fox News Sunday.”

It sounds to me like an invitation to a "discussion" at the O.K. White House.

Post #1,138 Predestination at the O.K. White House

Bipartisan Presidential Comedy

Related Link » STEVE BRIDGES
“Every American boy is told they might grow up to be President of the United States. STEVE BRIDGES never doubted his father’s words, but immediately started to mimic them. From a very early age, BRIDGES entertained his family and friends with uncanny, hilarious impressions of anyone within earshot. [...] STEVE humbly admits that he could never be the real commander-in-chief, but when it comes to American political impressionists, Washington insiders and comedy pollsters have voted STEVE BRIDGES to be undisputed ‘leader of the free world’.”
— stevebridges.com/biography

Steve Bridges as President Barack Obama


Steve Bridges as President George W. Bush

Post #1,137 Bipartisan Presidential Comedy

Of Predators, Heroes, Villains, Good, and Evil — It's as Simple as That

Related Link » We’re all thrilled by Mossad the movie: Of course we should condemn extrajudicial murder, but I still can’t help admiring Israel’s nerve

“It is an unfashionable thing to say, but I have a considerable admiration for the Israeli way of doing things. [...] They perceive someone as their deadly enemy, they kill them. They get hit, they hit back. They don’t waste time explaining or justifying or agonising; nor do they allow their detractors to enter their country, and then afford them generous welfare payments. They just act. [J]ust a rather magnificent refusal to debate anything. This absolutism, based on their history, carries its own moral weight; one that is rather electrifying in a Western world grown flabby with niceties. Clearly, the Israelis could defend their policies if they wanted to, but they quite simply can’t be bothered. It’s a waste of breath. One admires them for that, too. I’ve felt this way ever since the Entebbe raid in 1976, an occasion when the Israelis showed Hollywood a thing or two. After two Palestinians and two Germans had hijacked an aircraft on a flight that had originated in Israel, the Israeli army simply swooped in, killed the hijackers and freed all but three of the hostages. It was decisive, bloody and clever. Lieutenant-Colonel [Jonathan (in Hebrew Yonatan)] "Yoni" Netanyahu, the older brother of the present Prime Minister, Binyamin [Benjamin in English], was the only commando killed in the fighting.”
— Melanie Reid, February 18, 2010 (timesonline.co.uk)

---

“Operation Entebbe is unique in military history. It proved that Israel is capable of maintaining not only defensible frontiers but also a defensibly erect stature. Against a peak of terror, which was assisted by the army and president of Uganda, at a distance of over four thousand kilometers from home, in one short hour, the posture of the entire Jewish people — in fact, the posture of free and responsible men all over the world — was straightened. This operation necessitated the taking of an enormous risk, but a risk that seemed to be more justifiable than the other one that was involved — the risk of surrender to terrorists and blackmailers, the risk that is inherent in submission and capitulation. The most difficult moment of this night of heroism occurred when the bitter news arrived that a bullet had torn the young heart of one of the finest sons of Israel, one of the most courageous warriors of Israel, one of the most promising among the commanders of the Israel Defense Force — the magnificent Jonathan Netanyahu.”
—  Excerpted from "Eulogy for Lt.Col. Jonathan Netanyahu, Delivered by Shimon Peres, Israel's Defense Minister, July 6, 1976" (Included in Self-Portrait of a Hero)

---

The Motherland Calls

You can take your Holyshitwood schlock and shove it where it belongs, right along-side of the anti-Semite Richard Wagner and his operatic glorification of Germanic mythology.

I'll take the real-life gallantry of the magnificent Yohanatan Netanyahu, along with the national devotion of its people for Eretz Yisrael, comparable, if proportionally-scaled by land-mass and population, to the incredible national devotion displayed by its people defending Матушка Россия at Stalingrad.

Call me crazy; I've been called worse (hopeless romantic; pessimist; old-fashioned; retro-man; reactionary; Juice boy). But I believe our modern flavor of Western culture has lost a basic goodness that flourished during the Second World War and in the aftermath of the Allies' victory over Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan: a clarity of vision that recognized the fundamental difference between good and evil and the knowledge that it has existed and always will exist.

Uplifting or Disgusting?

In the aftermath of that liberal-leftist-hippie insanity that swept through our collective mindset in the 60's and 70's and infested various strongholds for the duration, we have exchanged that happiness, which derives from the satisfaction of knowing what is right and just and beneficial and desirable, for the depressing hopelessness of misguided political correctness, that god-awful bane of everything worth living for.

How I long for the return of sanity, and the consensus acknowledgement that what makes a normal person smile is good, and what makes a normal person cringe is bad. It's as simple as that.

Post #1,136 Of Predators, Heroes, Villains, Good, and Evil — It's as Simple as That

The Personification of Devaluation

Related Link » It's nonsense to say the U.S. is ungovernable
“And then, of course, there's the filibuster, the newest liberal bete noire. "Don't blame Mr. Obama," writes Paul Krugman of the president's failures. "Blame our political culture instead. [...] And blame the filibuster, under which 41 senators can make the country ungovernable". Ungovernable, once again. Of course, just yesterday the same Paul Krugman was warning about "extremists" trying "to eliminate the filibuster" when Democrats used it systematically to block one Bush (43) judicial nomination after another. Back then, Democrats touted it as an indispensable check on overweening majority power. Well, it still is. Indeed, the Senate with its ponderous procedures and decentralized structure is serving precisely the function the Founders intended: as a brake on the passions of the House and a caution about precipitous transformative change.”
— Charles Krauthammer, February 19, 2010 (WaPo)

---

“To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.” — Albert Einstein

“There are two kinds of people in the world: Johnny von Neumann and the rest of us.” — This quote is attributed to Eugene Wigner, a Nobel Prize–winning physicist. John von Neumann, whom people called Johnny, was a brilliant mathematician and physicist who also made three fundamental contributions to economics.

---

I have it on good authority (a professor of economics at North Carolina State University) that Paul Krugman was deserving of his Nobel in Economics. It is my considered opinion, however, that the Nobel is undeserving of its own devaluation as a consequence of Krugman's machinations beyond his legitimate discipline of former expertise.

There seems to be a populist tendency, even among some Nobel Laureates, that the Nobel prize brings not only fame and fortune, but cart blanche to pontificate on any and all subjects great and small. But as insightful people have always understood, no matter what the nature of a given categorization, there is expertise and there is expertise. Moreover, expertise in a given field does not, in the vast majority of cases, a polymath make.

Johnny von Neumann was a bona fide polymath.

Mr. Krugman, you ain't no Johnny von Neumann.

Ulam, Feynman and von Neumann (L to R) at Los Alamos, circa. 1944

h/t JOC/EFR

Post #1,135 The Personification of Devaluation

§ I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: The Song of the Volga Boatmen

{Song #53 « Song #54 » Song #55}

§ ≡ 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 #54 is The Song of the Volga Boatmen, a well-known traditional Russian folk song collected by Mily Balakirev. The song, also called The Volga Burlak's Song, was inspired by Repin's famous painting, Burlaks on the Volga, depicting the suffering of the people in the depth of misery in Tsarist Russia.

Ilia Repin, Burlaks on the Volga

The people's suffering was ultimately epitomized by the most horrific battle of all time, a decisive victory for the Russian Army, fought in and around that Russian city on the Volga — Stalingrad.

Russian Victory at Stalingrad

The song was popularised by Feodor Chaliapin, and has been a favourite concert piece of bass singers ever since. Glenn Miller's jazz arrangement took the song to #1 in the US charts in 1941.

Chaliapin — The Song of the Volga Boatmen


Post #1,134 § I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: The Song of the Volga Boatmen

Schoolyard Politics: "Your momma wears combat boots!"

Related Link » DNC Assails Republicans as Hypocritical for Accepting Stimulus Money
“The Governor’s office confirmed Monday that Virginia will receive $24 million in federal funds over the next four years to use on health care information technology. That money comes from funds made available to states by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. [...] However, during his campaign McDonnell said the stimulus bill would bring dangerous long term debt. The DNC wasted no time in jumping on the issue. [...] McDonnell said all along that the stimulus money is coming from Virginia taxpayers and that Virginia ought to take as much as possible.”
—  Jake Gibson - FOXNews.com, February 16, 2010

DNC Asshat

 
h/t Theo 

Let's break this "hypocrisy" down into bite-size elements that even the DNC can comprehend, shall we?

• Governor McDonnell opposed the stimulus bill.
• The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act made funds available to states.
• Virginia is a state.
• The Governor of Virginia is doing his job.

Where is the hypocrisy?

A more relevant question might be, "Does the DNC have access to a dictionary?"

Post #1,133 Schoolyard Politics: "Your momma wears combat boots!"

AKA "The World At Large"

Related Link » Bidenism
“Despite his earlier criticism of Bush for terrorizing Afghans through Predator missile launches, now a President Obama has vastly increased the number of Predator drone attacks along the Afghan-Pakistani border. But note the silence of the hard Left that went after Bush on everything from waterboarding to Guantanamo. [...] What a strange time we live in.”
— Victor Davis Hanson, February 15th, 2010

Strange time? Well, yes, it is strange, albeit becoming more and more familiar. But much more unsettling, I think, is its growing perversity.

Having immigrated to America more than 60 years ago, I have witnessed American political process over the course of a dozen Presidential administrations, though, admittedly, with a degree of attentiveness roughly proportional to my age. Having been raised in a New York liberal environment, I became, generally speaking, a supporter of Democratic candidates and their largely liberal policies. This came to a rather abrupt halt after the infamy of 9/11.

After my initial shock and outrage receded a bit, to the point where I became able to consider how such a calamity could be perpetrated against what Lincoln called "the last best hope of humanity", I acquired a clarity of vision that had eluded me previously. America, warts and all, was indeed as Lincoln saw it; the rest of the world, with very few exceptions, was a great big cesspool of human detritus. And, in my mind, a simple political litmus test presented itself: when encountering conflicting views, whose proponents sat on opposite sides of the "political-party aisle", consider which viewpoint is better for America.

The rest of the world resents America's successes. Envy is the universal human condition. In my experience, the conservative point of view, whatever else it may have been, has always been pro-American. The liberal left, however, has always had a different calling, and in their view a higher one: the glorification of the world's lowest common denominator. And what of their collective litmus test? Well, it seems to go something like this: if the America-haters like it, it must be good.

This is why in virtually all head-to-head political controversy, conservative-minded Americans invariably choose what's best for the Nation. And the left? Why, they seek to cavort in that great big hot-tub of human excrement, also known as the world at large.

Post #1,132 AKA "The World At Large"

Repayment Due — With Interest

Related Link » The Auschwitz Album
“The Auschwitz Album is the only surviving visual evidence of the process of mass murder at Auschwitz-Birkenau.”
— Copyright © 2009 Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority

Post #1,131 Repayment Due — With Interest

The Rule of 11

Related Link » Professor Charged in Ala. Shooting Killed Brother in 1986
“HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — More than 23 years before a college professor was accused of shooting six of her colleagues at an Alabama university, her teenage brother died from the blast of a shotgun she held in the kitchen of her family's home in Massachusetts.”
— Sunday, February 14, 2010 (AP)

Our Anglo-American justice system is predicated on a long history of jurisprudence, stemming from fundamental concepts such as "innocent until proven guilty", "beyond reasonable doubt", "unanimous verdict for conviction", and "better to acquit X ( > 1 ) guilty defendants than to convict 1 innocent defendant". It is certainly not a perfect system, for there exists documentation, which proves (after the fact) that cases of mistaken verdict do occur from time to time, in accordance with intentionally preferential safeguards for the innocent. Nevertheless, as with any real-world solutions to real-world problems, it is arguably a better justice system than any other codified by civilized society.

Suppose, however, we wanted to improve the accuracy of expected verdicts? Specifically, we might wish to increase the conviction rate of the guilty, without unduly increasing the (erroneous) conviction rate of the innocent. How might we accomplish such an improvement, without altering any fundamental concepts of our justice system?

Consider the possibility of reducing the jury size from 12 to 11 jurors. Such a decremental (as opposed to incremental) change would constitute nothing more than a quantitative (as opposed to a qualitative) alteration, albeit in a long established tradition. What might be expected as a result of such a change? Well, since the fundamental concept of requiring a unanimous guilty-verdict would remain intact, we might expect an increase in convictions of roughly 1/12 or about 8%, because that would be a reasonable first-order expectation for easing the task of reaching unanimity.

Furthermore, as my cognitive-scientist "partner in crime" (so to speak) has suggested, a possible secondary effect might be to increase the difficulty of reaching unanimity due to the decrease in peer pressure from a smaller-sized jury. Perhaps a 7% overall increase in convictions might ensue. Note that this makes the secondary effect a conservative effect — it constrains the consequences of the reduction in jury size.

So if, like me, you feel that the ratio of erroneous acquittals per erroneous conviction has become excessive (i.e., too many killers are allowed to kill again), perhaps you would not be averse to a modification of the the 12-person jury. If not, you might want to consider whether or not there is an intrinsic qualitative basis for the historical choice of a 12-person jury.

Post #1,130 The Rule of 11

An Immodest Proposal

Related Link » Washington's Birthday
In 1971, the "Washington's Birthday" federal holiday was shifted to the third Monday in February, thereby dating the holiday between February 15 and February 21. Thus, the holiday can no longer ever occur on Washington's actual birthday, February 22, as originally implemented in 1880. The shift of date, however, did serve to place this holiday, now commonly known as "President's Day", between the actual birthdays of America's two most revered Presidents — Lincoln (February 12) and Washington.

h/t Theo

But a seismic shift in reverence, albeit not in greatness, has occurred. We now have a President who is revered by some with a fervor approaching idolatry if not religious adoration. And, like the Christian Deity, He has a birthday to celebrate — August 4.

I offer the following proposal that arguably will satisfy the entire Nation. I propose that President's Day be shifted to the birthday of The Obama Himself, thereby satisfying The Won as well as all His worshipers.

In return, The Obama Himself will oblige everyone else by resigning from the Office of the President. It's win-win.

Post #1,129 An Immodest Proposal

Assert It By Demeanor

Related Link » Why are liberals so condescending?
“Perhaps the most important conservative insight being depreciated is the durable warning from free-marketeers that government programs often fail to yield what their architects intend. Democrats have been busy expanding, enacting or proposing major state interventions in financial markets, energy and health care. Supporters of such efforts want to ensure that key decisions will be made in the public interest and be informed, for example, by sound science, the best new medical research or prudent standards of private-sector competition. But public-choice economists have long warned that when decisions are made in large, centralized government programs, political priorities almost always trump other goals. Even liberals should think twice about the prospect of decisions on innovative surgeries, light bulbs, and carbon quotas being directed by legislators grandstanding for the cameras. Of course, thinking twice would be easier if more of them were listening to conservatives at all.”
— Gerard Alexander (Washington Post)

h/t Theo

Why are liberals so condescending? Because they can't substantiate superiority, so they assert it by demeanor. It's like whistling past the grave yard.

Take Nancy Pelosi — please. The more her policies are rejected, the more defiant becomes her rhetoric. Same goes for her counterparts in the Senate and in the Executive Branch. The latter's response to a resounding rejection of His "signature program"? Why, He just didn't explain it well enough to the dunces whose best interests are His only concerns, don't you know?

"... writing overdraft for a long time."

You know — we're from the government; we're here to help you. Right. And I have prime beach-front property for you; in Arizona.

Meanwhile, some of the Demorats are already jumping ship. The runt of the Special-K litter has thrown in the towel in Rhode Island's 1st congressional district. Just because they're condescending doesn't necessarily mean they can't read what the electorate has been writing on the walls of their ivory towers.

Post #1,128 Assert It By Demeanor

This is not good!

Related Link » THE PIRAHÃ AND US
“The Pirahã language and culture seem to lack not only the words but also the concepts for numbers, using instead less precise terms like "small size", "large size" and "collection". And the Pirahã people themselves seem to be suprisingly uninterested in learning about numbers, and even actively resistant to doing so, despite the fact that in their frequent dealings with traders they have a practical need to evaluate and compare numerical expressions. [...] Many people find this hard to believe. These are simple and natural concepts, of great practical importance: how could rational people resist learning to understand and use them? I don't know the answer.

But I do know that we can investigate a strictly comparable case, equally puzzling to me, right here in the U.S. of A. Until about a hundred years ago, our language and culture lacked the words and ideas needed to deal with the evaluation and comparison of sampled properties of groups. Even today, only a minuscule proportion of the U.S. population understands even the simplest form of these concepts and terms. [...] The rest of the population is surprisingly uninterested in learning, and even actively resists the intermittent attempts to teach them, despite the fact that in their frequent dealings with social and biomedical scientists they have a practical need to evaluate and compare the numerical properties of representative samples. [...]

Does this matter? Well, in the newspapers every week, there are dozens of stories about risks and rewards, epidemiology and politics, social trends and psychological differences, with serious public-policy and personal-lifestyle implications, which you can't understand without understanding distribution-talk. And usually you won't just feel baffled — instead, you'll think you understand, and draw the wrong conclusions.

In fact, the people who write these stories mostly don't understand distribution-talk themselves, and in any case they believe that they need to write for an audience that doesn't understand it. As a result, news stories on these topics are usually impossible to understand correctly unless you go back to the primary sources in order to recover the information that's been distorted or omitted.”
— Mark Liberman, October 06, 2007 (LANGUAGE LOG)

---

“One, two, many.” — Primitive number theory

“Million, billion, gazillion.” — Popular number theory

“$1 trillion here, $1 trillion there, pretty soon you're talkin' real money.” — Federal monetary policy

“It's all relative.” — Big Al Einstein

I have frequently alluded to such issues in these pages (see, for example, What is wrong with you?). The basic problem, and it is very serious, as well as ubiquitous, is that, by and large, people have no sense of proportion. Even worse, they don't appreciate the relative importance of that blind spot in their daily lives.

And so our statistically-challenged leaders, concoct cockamamie monetary policies, feed their delusional concepts to the mushroom-brained media, who meld the garbage-input with their personal misconceptions and biases, and report the resulting garbage-output to the cool kids who flunked arithmetic. Moreover, the American-Idol worshipers, who haven't quite abandoned their extra-terrestrial Disney-world fantasies, are made to flitter from one looming cataclysm to another, as the intelligentsia propagates its own misconceptions to the easily confused and the perpetually perplexed.

What we have here is not just failure to communicate; we have utter unwillingness to comprehend the concept of nuance. We live in a society where the trivial is celebrated in Technicolor, while the essentials are evaluated in black and white (or white and black, for the politically correct or incorrect). We don't need no stinking grey-scale.

There's good; there's not good. This is not good.

Post #1,127 This is not good!

What's your favorite use of cashmere?

Related Link » Cashmere loo roll, the ultimate bathroom indulgence
“Cashmere, one of the softest and most prized materials, has been used to add an extra layer of extravagance to the sheets of paper, ensuring consumers enjoy the bottom line in comfort.”
— By Harry Wallop, Consumer affairs Editor, 10 Feb 2010 (Telegraph)

Can tampons be far behind, as it were?

What about ... never mind.

Tell us about your favorite use of cashmere in the bathroom (or in the comments section).

Post #1,126 What's your favorite use of cashmere?

§ I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: Hotel California

{Song #52 « Song #53 » Song #54}

§ ≡ 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 #53 is Hotel California, sung by the Eagles. It is the title song from the Eagles' album of the same name, and was released as a single in early 1977. It is one of the best-known songs of the album-oriented rock era. Writing credits for the song are shared by Don Felder, Don Henley and Glenn Frey. The Eagles' original recording of the song features Henley singing the lead vocals and concludes with an extended section of electric guitar interplay between Felder and Joe Walsh.

Ah, California; the great American Golden State; that failed, big time. I've had a love/hate relationship with it for decades.

In 1981, I spent a 3-month change of station in Mountainview. It was the best boondoggle I ever experienced.

Since that glorious time, California has accelerated in a downward spiral to its present godforsaken state. With that troika of stupidity (Pelosi, Boxer, and Feinstein), Holyshitwood, and myriads of strung-out 60-ish hippies, most of whom haven't bathed since the '50s, ranting about the price of gasoline and whine, you couldn't get me to live there now if you paid me all the IOU's they print in a week's worth of pissing in the Santa Ana winds.

Eagles — Hotel California
h/t bear420 | MySpace Video

Post #1,125 § I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: Hotel California

No Personal Achievement Shall Go Uncorrected Politically

Related Link » The Fallacy of "Fairness": Part II
“Achievement by overcoming obstacles is a special threat to the left's vision of the world, and so must be magically transformed into privilege through rhetoric. Those with that vision do not want to even discuss evidence that students from different groups spend different amounts of time on homework and different amounts of time on social activities. To admit that inputs affect outputs, whether in education, in the economy or in other areas, would be to undermine the vision and agenda of the left, and deprive those who believe in that vision of a moral melodrama, starring themselves as defenders of the oppressed and crusaders against the forces of evil. Redistribution of material resources has a very poor track record when it comes to actually helping those who are lagging, whether in education, in the economy or elsewhere. What they need are the attitudes, priorities and behavior which produce the outcomes desired. But changing anyone's attitudes, priorities and behavior is a lot harder than taking a stance as defenders of the oppressed and crusaders against the forces of evil.”
— Thomas Sowell, February 10, 2010 (TownHall)

The implicit politically-correct party line of the liberal left is: "We're from the left. We're here to drag you down to under-achievement, so as to level the American playing field." And level it these pompous self-absorbed delusionals do.

In the face of overwhelming evidence of its wrong-headedness, this mindless train-wreck plows ahead, mowing down all green shoots that dare extend above mediocrity. "Thou shalt not flaunt thine achievement, lest thine ne'er-do-well brethren become motivated to do likewise."

No; much better for everyone to fester in unchanging hopelessness, so as to perpetuate the left's mission to spread diminishing wealth to increasing ignorance. That's the Demorat way. Like it; or lump it.

Post #1,124 No Personal Achievement Shall Go Uncorrected Politically

At last — a Liberal alternative to water-boarding!

Related Link » "Here, they torture you first"
“One of my favorite examples of the cost of interfering with the market is rent control. [...] One Chinese woman, whose property-owning family had been murdered by the Communists, had been running an apartment house in Harlem. After one tenant refused to pay rent for two years, she finally got an order of eviction. The tenant responded by firebombing her office. She took him to criminal court. The judge looked at the case and said, ‘This isn't a criminal case, it's a housing matter’. Back they went to housing court. The housing judge overturned the eviction. For firebombing her office, the tenant got to keep his apartment. ‘I think I'm going back to China’, she told [William Tucker]. ‘Over there they just kill you and get it over with. Here they torture you first’.” [emphasis added]
— Craig Newmark, February 08, 2010

Dear President Obama: The next time we capture an enemy combatant, who may have valuable and actionable information, instead of Mirandizing him (or her), make him a landlord of a rent-controlled apartment in New York City. He'll sing like a canary. Guaranteed.

No muss; no fuss.

Post #1,123 At last — a Liberal alternative to water-boarding!

Not exactly free lunch, but close ...

      1957 Sandwich Menu from Woolworth's
h/t Kathy C.

Post #1,122 Not exactly free lunch, but close ...

We don't need no stinkin' confusions!

Related Link » Here we go again: Obama promises open health care debate
“President Obama yesterday told an enthusiastic crowd that he again wants transparent health care negotiations now that Scott Brown holds a filibuster-busting vote in the Senate.” [emphasis added]
— THE DAILY CALLER, February 7, 2010

It is clear what the writer implied. But he expressed just the opposite of his implication. He did this, I suspect, because it sounds "clever". But as the saying goes in northern New Mexico, "Not even, bro." Scott "41" Brown's vote doesn't bust the potential Republican filibuster in the U.S. Senate.

With rare exception (i.e., using the so-called nuclear option), legislation requires a super-majority of 60 votes for passage in the Senate. This is because fewer than 60 votes would be insufficient for cloture (the motion aimed at bringing debate to an end). Before Brown's election, the Democrat Caucus comprised 60 Senators, just enough to bust a Republican filibuster.

Brown's election brings the Republican Caucus to a filibuster-guaranteeing 41 Senators. That is why he chose "41" as his new nickname.

"Filibuster-guaranteeing" is not as clever-sounding as "filibuster-busting"; but accuracy is more important in serious discussion than pseudo-cleverness. I know it's a minor point. But with so much confusion about the legislative process in Congress, which everyone knows is the opposite of progress, we don't need no more stinkin' confusions.

Post #1,120 We don't need no stinkin' confusions!

Everything That Conservatism Is Not

Related Link » The great peasant revolt of 2010
“[Democrats] understand [the stunning Democratic setbacks in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts] through a prism of two cherished axioms: (1) The people are stupid and (2) Republicans are bad. Result? The dim [people], led by the malicious [Republicans], vote incorrectly. Liberal expressions of disdain for the intelligence and emotional maturity of the electorate have been, post-Massachusetts, remarkably unguarded. New York Times columnist Charles Blow chided Obama for not understanding the necessity of speaking "in the plain words of plain folks", because the people are "suspicious of complexity". Counseled Blow: "The next time he gives a speech, someone should tap him on the ankle and say, 'Mr. President, we're down here'". [...] Then there are the emotional deficiencies of the masses. Nearly every Democratic apologist lamented the people's anger and anxiety, a free-floating agitation that prevented them from appreciating the beneficence of the social agenda the Democrats are so determined to foist upon them. That brings us to Part 2 of the liberal conceit: Liberals act in the public interest, while conservatives think only of power, elections, self-aggrandizement and self-interest. [...] This belief in the moral hollowness of conservatism animates the current liberal mantra that Republican opposition to Obama's social democratic agenda — which couldn't get through even a Democratic Congress, and powered major Democratic losses in New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts — is nothing but blind and cynical obstructionism. By contrast, Democratic opposition to George W. Bush — from Iraq to Social Security reform — constituted dissent. And dissent, we were told at the time, including by candidate Obama, is "one of the truest expressions of patriotism". No more. Today, dissent from the governing orthodoxy is nihilistic malice. [...] For liberals, the observation that "the peasants are revolting" is a pun. For conservatives, it is cause for uncharacteristic optimism. No matter how far the ideological pendulum swings in the short term, in the end the bedrock common sense of the American people will prevail. The ankle-dwelling populace pushes back. It recenters. It renormalizes. Even in Massachusetts.”
— Charles Krauthammer, February 5, 2010

Once again, the erudite Charles Germanicus Martel, made it difficult for me to quote just the essence of his latest post. His complete post is essential, and I urge my readers to read him.

Unless you have just returned from a round-trip journey to Planet Pelosi you know there is a fundamental socio-political divide (more like a chasm) in America. An exegesis has been published by another very insightful scholar, "A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles" by Thomas Sowell.

Both ideologies can be (and have been) examined in great detail. My own view of conservatism can be summarized as follows.

Conservatism is a top-down approach to governance. Starting with the brilliant product of a handful of genius Founding Fathers, the Constitution of the United States is the kernel of our system of government. In a few pages of exposition, it has managed to guide, restrain, and legitimize the governance of a great multitude of people of diverse cultures, for more than two centuries of sometimes majestic struggles. The key to the Constitution's great success, I firmly believe, has been its implicit fundamental algorithm for innovation and modernization: incremental (and, thereby, well-considered) improvements to keep pace with ever-changing circumstances. The Constitution is short on specifics, but simultaneously rich in potential flexibility, while it constrains the government from usurping the fundamental rights of the governed. It is a masterpiece of social contracts.

Liberalism, as espoused by the American left, can also be briefly summarized. It is simply everything that conservatism is not.

Post #1,120 Everything That Conservatism Is Not

It's not too late; yet

Related Link » Intel Chief: U.S. at Risk of Crippling Cyber Attack
“The United States is at risk of a crippling cyber attack that could "wreak havoc" on the country because the "technological balance" makes it much easier to launch a cyber strike than defend against it, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said Tuesday.”
— February 03, 2010 (FOXNews and The Associated Press)

Nobody asked me, and I am well aware that very few will pay any attention, but here is what I understand from a 30+years technical-career in research and development for national-defense applications:

Without the utmost, bi-partisan, focused expenditure and concerted effort towards securing our Nation from both foreign and domestic threats, every other issue deemed to be of National importance becomes, de facto, insignificant.

There is only one nation that truly understands this, politically, sociologically, and to a great extent by the population at large (via the school of hard knocks) — Israel.

Sadly, the United States does not have a good appreciation for this fact of life. Happily, we have been blessed as no other nation in history. Ironically, therein lies our greatest vulnerability.

All the energy (and the vast amounts of national treasure) we expend on issues both large and small (relatively speaking) obscure the only issue that is indispensable to our survival, and what is more, the survival of Western civilization. Our "great" leaders, currently engaged in pettiness, trivia, foolishness, and abject stupidity in many cases, represent the most callous abrogation of duty ever witnessed in recorded history.

Far be it from me to presume to advise The Obama Himself; but since I'm on this particular topic, if He was half as smart as He thinks he is, He would pounce on the opportunity to do something that would undoubtedly salvage His thus-far pathetic presidential record, and possibly save our Nation and the rest of the stinking (with several known exceptions) world: drop every stupid program He has been pushing, and launch a major initiative, on the scale of President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, for 21st-century national defense.

It's not too late; yet.

Post #1,119 It's not too late; yet

There's reality; there's not reality ...

Holyshitwood is not reality.

h/t Secular Apostate

Post #1,118 There's reality; there's not reality ...

§ I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: Nessun dorma

{Song #51 « Song #52 » Song #53}

§ ≡ 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 #52 is Nessun dorma from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot, and is one of the best-known tenor arias in all opera. It is sung by Calaf, il principe ignoto (the unknown prince), who falls in love at first sight with the beautiful but cold Princess Turandot. However, any man who wishes to wed Turandot must first answer her three riddles; if he fails, he will be beheaded.

Nessun dorma, sung by some of the most famous interpreters of Calaf, appears on a number of compilation recordings, including The Very Best of Jussi Björling (EMI Classics).

Jussi Björling sings Nessun Dorma


Post #1,117 § I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: Nessun dorma

Really?

Related Link » Innocent Mom or Would-Be Terrorist? Trial for Neuroscientist Nears End
“NEW YORK — Jurors heard a U.S.-trained Pakistani scientist portrayed Monday in closing arguments at her attempted murder trial as both a would-be terrorist determined to kill Americans and a fearful woman framed by the government. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher La Vigne cited testimony that Aafia Siddiqui had bomb-making instructions, documents referencing a ‘mass casualty attack’ and a list of New York City landmarks including the Statue of Liberty when she was detained in Afghanistan in 2008. Siddqui was carrying ‘a road map for destruction — documents about attacking the United States’, he said in federal court in Manhattan. During the two-week trial, FBI agents and U.S. soldiers testified that when they went to interrogate Siddiqui at an Afghan police station, she snatched up an unattended assault rifle and shot at them while yelling, ‘Death to Americans’. She was wounded by return fire but recovered and was brought to the United States to face charges [..] In her closing argument, defense attorney Linda Moreno accused the prosecutors of trying to play on the jury's fears. ‘They want to scare you into convicting Aafia Siddiqui’, she said. ‘The defense trusts that you're much smarter than that’.”
— February 01, 2010 (AP)

Far be it from me to either question our American justice system, arguably the finest ever created by quite fallible humans. Nor would I presume to judge any case on the basis of a news report by the Associated Press.

I do, however, wonder about what was reported by the AP and excerpted by me (above). To judge by the defense attorney's closing remarks, this whole case is just a vast conspiracy by the FBI, a number of U.S. soldiers, and an Assistant U.S. Attorney (perhaps some others, too) to convict an innocent American-trained Pakistani neuroscientist (and a mother, no less).

I dunno. I suppose that could be possible; stranger things have been known to happen, I'm sure. But, it does seem a bit preposterous for my taste. Do the FBI, members of the U.S. military, an Assistant U.S. Attorney, and who knows who else, have any stake whatsoever in concocting such a heinous conspiracy against an innocent woman? Really?

Post #1,116 Really?

"Speaking Truth To Power" AKA Lying

Related Link » 16 LIES IN 7 MINUTES: STATE OF THE UNION VIDEO BREAKDOWN

“The day I'm inaugurated ... the world looks at America differently.”
— The Obama Himself

Oh yeah; that could happen ...

h/t Theo

Post #1,115 "Speaking Truth To Power" AKA Lying