On the table, off the table, under the bus ...

Related Link » US official: Iran military strike 'off the table'
“SINGAPORE — The U.S. has ruled out a military strike against Iran's nuclear program any time soon, hoping instead negotiations and United Nations sanctions will prevent the Middle East nation from developing nuclear weapons, a top U.S. defense department official said Wednesday.
"Military force is an option of last resort," Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy said during a press briefing in Singapore. ‘It's off the table in the near term’.”
— By ALEX KENNEDY, Apr 21, 2010 (AP)

I dunno. Might as well just take whatever is on or off that table and throw it under that bus. Better yet, just Rahm-a-Llama Ding Dong, you know?

Next Obamination                             h/t Theo

Whatever The Obama Himself will ultimately do about anything (nothing of any real consequence, I'm sure, unless the consequences are bad for the United States), it is a lead-pipe cinch he will give everyone a splitting headache from following His attention-deficit ritual. Does this guy, who fancies Himself capable of walking on water, have a backbone capable of supporting His enormously-swelled head?

How about just Rahming that whole table, with everything that may or may not be on it, and moving on to the next Obamination. That's the kind of refreshing change I'm hoping for.

Post #1,245 On the table, off the table, under the bus ...

Where's the extra napkin?

Where's the extra napkin?            h/t Theo

Related Link » Extra Napkins
“There are those who relish the liberating thrill of living on the edge. I have known some, and that is a legitimate modus for life. Greater risk but a chance for perceived reward. Quality versus quantity. But every choice involves a risk/reward trade off, and 'strive for more' suggests greater weight be assigned to quantity (i.e., time) for there is no recovering from the point of no return, by definition. Moreover, risk without expectation of reward is analogous to ‘hitting yourself on the head with a hammer because it feels so good when you stop’.

Even Big Al got one wrong, because the Omnipotent One does roll the dice of quantum fluctuations. To the best of our knowledge it's all about process and probability. That is why I choose extra napkins.”
— TheBigHenry, September 17, 2007 (REMEMBRANCE IN SPACETIME)

Post #1,244 Where's the extra napkin?

Support Arizona — Drink French Wine!

h/t Theo

Related Link » State Senate leader urges Calif. to cut Ariz. ties
“California's state Senate leader on Tuesday urged a possible end to state contracts with Arizona to protest that state's new immigration law. […] San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday an immediate moratorium on official city worker travel to Arizona.”
— By Susan Ferriss, Apr. 28, 2010 (The Sacramento Bee)

---

The Pelosians are wilding in La La Land. Yawn. These morons have never heard of retaliation?

California is a failed state. The Fat Lady is closing in on the final few notes of her dirge, and it's all over, but for the twitching.

The asylum has been run for too long by that triumvirate of insanity: Pelosi/Boxer/Feinstein, with help from such worthies as Henry Waxman, Sean Penn, and all the other lunatics in Holyshitwood.

If you have any compassion for the few rational folks who haven't left yet, consider that France makes some very fine wines. Help stop the agony of California's final meltdown; accelerate its quiescence.

If you are not a big fan of FrogLand, well the ANZAC countries make decent wines too.

---

UPDATE: Apparently, Arizona has a wine industry of its own. [4-30-2010]

Post #1,243 Support Arizona — Drink French Wine!

§ I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: Come Sail Away

{Song #63 « Song #64 » Song #65}

§ ≡ 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 #64 is Come Sail Away sung by Styx from their album The Grand Illusion. One of the band's biggest hits, it was released in 1977, rising to number 8 on the Pop Singles chart, and helping The Grand Illusion reach multi-platinum sales in 1978.

Styx - Come Sail Away

Post #1,242 § I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: Come Sail Away

News You Can't Refuse

Related Link » Police: Woman bites man after being called fat
“LINCOLN, Neb. — Police say a 24-year-old man is missing a chunk of his right ear that was bitten off by a woman who didn't like being called ‘fat’.”
— By AP, 04/28/10

Listen closely, because I'm only going to say this once (before you lose an ear):

You can say anything you like to any woman, anywhere, including 'Bite me', or 'Eat me', or even 'I like me some junk in da trunk'.

But never, ever, call a woman "fat"! Especially not if she has a high-pitched voice, and her nickname is "Iron Mike".

Rimshot by JustJoking.com

Post #1,241 News You Can't Refuse

Everyone Bleeds

Alan Simpson, et al.

Related Link » Alan Simpson defends Tea Party: “They know something is desperately wrong”
“Alan Simpson, the former Republican senator who is co-chairing President Obama’s fiscal commission, on Wednesday said the Tea Party is being driven by an accurate understanding of the country’s fiscal crisis. […] CBS Correspondent Lesley Stahl, who moderated the discussion with Simpson and [fellow commission co-chair Erskine Bowles, former White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, who was also speaking at the event], expressed surprise at Simpson’s praise for the Tea Party. ‘Yeah, but they’re "no new taxes" organizations. They’re "don’t touch my social security" organizations’, Stahl said. Simpson responded: ‘I know but they know that something is desperately wrong in America. That’s the key’.”
— By Jon Ward, 04/28/10 (The Daily Caller)

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am neither a Republican nor a Tea-Party member, and I am certainly not a liberal in the pathetic modern sense of that term. I am not affiliated with any political party, but I consider myself traditionally liberal on most social issues, a conservative on fiscal and national-defense policy, and libertarian minded on everything else. I like to think for myself on a case-by-case and candidate-by-candidate basis. How do you like them apples?

---

Now — I like Alan Simpson, whom I had heard of before, but whom I am just beginning to listen to. He makes sense; and that, friend, is high praise where I come from. I had also heard of Erskine Bowles, but he seems to be less extroverted than Simpson, so I haven't a strong opinion of him yet, though he appears to be of like mind.

All the usual jackals and hyenas in the media are trying desperately to squeeze some sound bites out of Simpson (and Bowles), but, so far, they refuse to get pinned down to any favored approach. They continue to insist that all fiscal measures are "on the table", which is as it should be.

Simpson, Bowles, and their fellow commissioners are charged with what I hope to be a serious examination of our fiscally irresponsible national state of affairs. As everyone knows, it will take universal bleeding in order to have any chance of getting the situation under control. If you absolutely must have a picture drawn, it will require some of all of the following: additional taxes; reduction in spending, and cuts in entitlements. Comprende? Everyone bleeds; no exceptions.

Post #1,240 Everyone Bleeds

I'd rather stick needles in my eyes

It's Cherry Picking Time in D.C.                    h/t Theo

Related Link » Democrats taking a third run at banking rules
“WASHINGTON (AP) — Fresh off a confrontation with Goldman Sachs executives, Democrats are mounting another effort to police the freewheeling Wall Street ways that they say helped bring on the worst recession since the Great Depression. […] On NBC’s Today’ show Wednesday, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said, ‘It is totally inconsistent to be arguing that there ought to be financial reform, and after all these months of reviews, studies, hearings, not allow a bill to come to the floor’.” [emphasis added]
— By JIM KUHNHENN, 04/27/10

I think most people would prefer "totally inconsistent" to "totally incontinent". After basking in his shitty remarks, and knowingly portraying the totally ordinary investment procedure of balancing long with short positions, the potty-mouth Levin denounces a totally ordinary desire to block a less than adequate bill from advancing to yet another Rahm-a-Llama Ding Dong vote on the Senate floor as "totally inconsistent".

Of course, as anyone who has the stomach for such political posturing knows, this is totally politics-as-usual on Capital Hill, totally consistent with all that hopey-dopey BS emanating from the totally opaque Rahm-a-Llama Ding Dong Circus White House.

Frankly, I can not comprehend how all these political hacks in Washington, despite all their money, power, and golden perks, can stand the stench they muck around in for years on end. In the words of that visionary Garrett Breedlove: "I'd rather stick needles in my eyes". [Yes, I do, in fact, know what that feels like.]

Post #1,239 I'd rather stick needles in my eyes

Lies, damned lies, and anecdotals

Most people seek the truth; many claim to know it. What they all end up with, however, is just an opinion. Moreover, as an old self-deprecating joke goes, if you put three Juice in a room, you'll most likely end up with five opinions.

What is this thing called truth, really? In my humble opinion, it is at best what I would call a "personal" truth, which is really nothing more than a cherished opinion. Yet, the associated cherishing is sometimes so strong that people will even sacrifice their lives to defend it.

An expression made popular by Mark Twain is, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics," which disparages the misuse of statistics to support a plethora of conflicting conjectures. One reason why statistics are such flexible purveyors of "truth" is that it is relatively easy to extrapolate reasonableness to certainty. If a mathematical analysis can produce an expectation having an associated confidence of 95%, well, can anyone doubt its 100% validity? Only an annoying stickler for rigor (i.e., a geek), and who cares what they think, am I right?

But even such misuse of statistics pales in comparison to so-called anecdotal evidence, which passes for everyman's go-to shortcut to righteousness. Just about anyone can recall a cousin, whose friend's sister's tax advisor stated categorically that ... And with the advent of the Web and Google search, just about anyone can "prove", based on anecdotal evidence, that your grandfather was really your grandmother, and, furthermore, that she wore combat boots! This constitutes the democratization of relative truth, moral relativism, as well as just about anything else.

All of which reminds me of a joke:

The CEO of a family-owned business dies, and his eldest son takes over the reins of the business. His first day on the job, he decides to evaluate his staff of advisors, in order to choose a deputy executive:

1. The new CEO sends for his legal advisor, and asks, "How much is 2 plus 2?" The startled lawyer suspects it's a trick question, and he replies, "Well, there is much case law to support the view that it equals 4, but I'll do a thorough review and get back to you on that."
2. Subsequently, his engineering, production, and personnel executives are posed the same question, and all give a tentative reply that it is 4, but promise to do a thorough review to make certain.
3. Finally, his financial advisor is asked the same question. The CPA moves closer to the CEO, and in a conspiratorial tone asks, "How much would you like it to be?

You can guess who became the new Deputy CEO.

Post #1,238 Lies, damned lies, and anecdotals

News for Juice

Related Link » James Jones apologizes for 'Jewish merchant' joke after uproar
“National Security Adviser James Jones opened his remarks at the 25-year anniversary gala of the Washington Institute For Near East Policy last weekend with a joke in which a Jewish merchant fleeces a thirsty Taliban fighter.”
— Yitzhak Benhorin, 04.27.10 (Israel News)

My respect for the Office of the President of the United States prevents me from expressing my sentiments toward such anti-Semitic jokes, the Jew-haters in the Office who make them, as well as their Obamaster.

I am not so constrained, however, when it comes to the horse they rode in on.


Rimshot by JustJoking.com

Post #1,230 News for Juice

I never thought it could happen ...

Related Link » Hitler phones an Indian call center

Well, have you checked the air in your tires?

OMG, The Unmentionable One's predicament at the hands of an Indian call center!

Who among us couldn't muster at least a hint of a knowing smile?

Post #1,236 I never thought it could happen ...

Bad — Worse — Worst

Related Link » Stephen Poliakoff: Anti-semitism will always be around
Stephen Poliakoff, the prince of TV drama, has made his first film in 20 years - about the British aristocrats who were happy to make peace with Hitler. He talks to Nigel Farndale

“This conversation took place last year. We talked again on the phone last week, mostly about appeasement and anti-Semitism. ‘It was a close-run thing. There was a small band of young Tory politicians who were anti-appeasement and they were menaced by the Whips. The aristocracy, meanwhile, was largely anti-Semitic. I wanted to look at these events as a Jew’. Was anti-Semitism behind appeasement? ‘There was deep anti-Semitism among the upper classes. The diaries of Evelyn Waugh and Harold Nicolson give a sense of how venomous the aristocracy was. The Duke of Wellington on the day war broke out was quoted as saying: ‘It's all the fault of the anti-appeasers and the f*cking Jews’. Does he think there is still anti-Semitism in this country? ‘Clearly, anti-Semitism will always be around. Because we had our heroic time standing up alone to fascism we haven't had to confront what went on just before the war. In 1939 and 1940, Lord Halifax, the Foreign Secretary, came within an inch of doing a deal with Hitler. If he had become prime minister then Britain would have become a puppet state to Germany and I probably wouldn't be here talking to you today’.”
— By Nigel Farndale, Published: 15 Nov 2009 (telegraph.co.uk)

Farndale asking if there is still anti-Semitism in Britain was either very naive or, what is much more likely, a reporter's leading question. For it is quite obvious to anyone who reads that it not only remains in Britain and elsewhere but is thriving virulently festering. And this cyclically erupting epidemic is once again accelerated by that craven universal shrug.

This, I submit, is a bad thing. What is worse, however, is that one of the dominant demographics, on a per capita basis, comprising that malignant indifference is the Jewish community within the Western democracies. The single exception, of course, is Israel, which thus far has not demonstrated a mass suicidal tendency.

But worst of all are those Jews who persist in personal appeasement. They tell themselves that they are merely venturing along that high-road of holier-than-thou ethical standards, that damnable loser's strategy of appealing to the noble virtues of an ignoble dog-eat-dog world.

As the common Southern US expression goes, "That dog won't hunt." That "high road" leads to the ovens.

Post #1,235 Bad — Worse — Worst

A Thousand Words for "Hypocrisy"

Yeah; you betcha, Pinky ...

Post #1,234 A Thousand Words for "Hypocrisy"

News to Heal Your Blues

Related Link » In Praise of Cheerful Men

h/t Townhall.com

“WASHINGTON -- Hearing about a shortage of farm laborers in California, the couple who would become Susumu Ito's parents moved from Hiroshima to become sharecroppers near Stockton. Thus began a saga that recently brought Ito, 91, to the Holocaust Memorial Museum here, where he and 119 former comrades in arms were honored, during the annual Days of Remembrance, as liberators of Nazi concentration camps. While his Japanese-American Army unit was succoring survivors of Dachau, near Munich, his parents and two sisters were interned in a camp in Arkansas. […] Such cheerful men, who helped to lop 988 years off the Thousand Year Reich, are serene reproaches to a nation now simmering with grievance groups that nurse their cherished resentments. The culture of complaint gets no nourishment from men like these who served their country so well while it was treating their families so ignobly. Yet it is a high tribute to this country that it is so loved by men such as these. The Holocaust museum draws almost 2 million visitors a year, four times more than were anticipated when it opened 17 years ago. A museum official says dryly, "Human nature has been an enormous help." She means that atrocious behavior, a constant component of the human story, continually reminds people of the museum's relevance. It is, therefore, grand that the museum also honors those, like Ito, Akagi and Ichiyama, who exemplify the rest, and best, of that story.”
— by George Will, April 25, 2010 (Townhall)

 WGBH / PBS program about Susumu Ito

Post #1,233 News to Heal Your Blues

§ I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: I Hate Myself for Loving You

{Song #62 « Song #63 » Song #64}

§ ≡ 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 #63 is I Hate Myself for Loving You sung by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. It is a 1988 song and the first single from the album, Up Your Alley.

FULL DISCLOSURE: This is an OK song, especially if you are into hard rock and Sunday Night NFL Football. But, I chose this song for my series primarily for the video of 4-year-old Howard Wong's drumming (see below). Watch Howard get really into it about 3 minutes in. This kid's The Bomb!

Joan Jett - I Hate Myself for Loving You - Howard Wong on drums

Post #1,232 § I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: I Hate Myself for Loving You

Hoffer's Wisdom: Tolerance of evil, betrayal, and absence of shame

Related Link » Before the Sabbath
“Civilized countries fell over each other to court Hitler even as he turned Germany's Jews into pariahs. The same countries are now falling over each other to court the Arabs, who are determined to destroy Israel. The world feels no shame when it betrays Jews. It is as if fate has placed the Jews outside the comity of mankind.” [emphasis added]
— Eric Hoffer (February 20, 1975)

Hoffer wrote these words 35 years ago but they apply equally well today. It is as if fate chose Jews as scapegoats for the rest of the world. And just as the biblical rite of scapegoating became part of the ceremonies of the Day of Atonement during the Exodus, so the "fated" scapegoating of Jews in the modern era may be partly the province of Jews themselves.

I do not posit such a potentially controversial idea lightly. Having survived the Nazi-perpetrated Holocaust, I am mindful and quite sensitive to events on the world stage that smack of a repeat performance of that most dastardly episode in human history. And that is why I am so disturbed by the undisturbed calm with which the vast majority of American Jews continue to ignore the alarming trends being set by The Trend-Setter-in-Chief Himself.

Post #1,231 Hoffer's Wisdom: Tolerance of evil, betrayal, and absence of shame

News You Should Refuse

Related Link » Ancient bra gives boobs a boost in the 1800s
“If modern day lingerie designers thought they were at the forefront of the push-up bra industry then they were wrong – because a 200-year-old padded bra has been discovered!”
— Jessica Satherley, 23rd April, 2010 (metro)

Push-up, shmush-up. Never mind your padded bra, Jessica. What you really need is a smidgen of nuance and a dictionary.

"Ancient" means belonging to the distant past, especially to the period in history before the end of the Roman Empire.

Rimshot by JustJoking.com

Post #1,230 News You Should Refuse

Everyman's Wisdom: Fame, loathing, and gross stupidity

Related Link » Before the Sabbath
“I have come across several articles by the American playwright Arthur Miller in which he sets out to denounce Stalin's purges and Brezhnev's invasion of Czechoslovakia but ends up denouncing America. Living in America, Arthur Miller wrote all the plays he wanted to write, had them produced, and was amply rewarded by money and fame. He also managed to have everything his heart desired, including the most fabulous blonde of his day [Marilyn Monroe]. Why then this loathing of America? The only explanation I can think of is that Miller is too self-righteous and self-important to admit the gross stupidity of his Stalinist Commitment. He must go on trying to convince the world that there is not much to choose between Russia and America.” [emphasis added]
— Eric Hoffer (February 3, 1975)

“I lost my heart to this man. Eric Hoffer was Everyman.”
— Eric Sevareid

Eric Hoffer oozed pearls of wisdom, whereas other men merely sweat.

In Hoffer's analysis of Arthur Miller's self importance (and possibly his self loathing), Hoffer may have explained the baffling behavior of Jewish-American liberals, and to some extent liberals in general, vis-à-vis stubbornly sticking to their guns and religiously clinging to The Obama Himself.

I think it is quite possible that Jewish Americans are by and large too self-righteous and self-important to admit the gross stupidity of their Camelot-like romance with that smooth-talking promise-them-anything Snake-Oil-Salesman-in-Chief of the United States (SOSICOTUS).

One of the most difficult things for the self-righteous and the self-important among us is to admit being wrong. The other, of course, is to apologize for it.

Post #1,229 Everyman's Wisdom: Fame, loathing, and gross stupidity

News One Can Abuse

Related Link » Keith Olbermann is a giant baby: We watch, because we’re paid to

On Wednesday afternoon around 1:45 p.m., the New York Times reported that Keith Olbermann had petulantly forced the abrupt cancellation of MSNBC’s weeklong series ‘America the Angry’. On Wednesday afternoon around 1:47 p.m., Olbermann suddenly tweeted that he would be undergoing a colonoscopy that would prevent him from hosting Wednesday and Thursday’s shows. This raises three questions:

1. What kind of colonoscopy takes two days to perform?
2. Would a giant baby who has a documented history of ‘refus[ing] to host his show on occasions when he was unhappy with management’ be more susceptible to colon problems than a normal person?
3. Could a colonoscopy remove a stick that has been lodged in the colon area for several decades?

— By Ruth Graham, 04/23/10 (TheDC)

All of which begs the question: "Does anyone manufacture a colonoscope large enough to accommodate Teeth D'Olbermann?

Rimshot by JustJoking.com

Post #1,228 News One Can Abuse

Shooting Osama in a Barrel

Related Link » U.S. Faces Choice on New Weapons for Fast Strikes

Like shooting fish in a barrel

“WASHINGTON — In coming years, President Obama will decide whether to deploy a new class of weapons capable of reaching any corner of the earth from the United States in under an hour and with such accuracy and force that they would greatly diminish America’s reliance on its nuclear arsenal. […] Called Prompt Global Strike, the new weapon is designed to carry out tasks like picking off Osama bin Laden in a cave, if the right one could be found; taking out a North Korean missile while it is being rolled to the launch pad; or destroying an Iranian nuclear site — all without crossing the nuclear threshold. In theory, the weapon will hurl a conventional warhead of enormous weight at high speed and with pinpoint accuracy, generating the localized destructive power of a nuclear warhead.”
— By David E. Sanger and Thom Shanker, April 22, 2010 (NYT)

God bless the scientists and engineers of our glorious National Laboratories. God bless the armed forces of the United States. God bless America.

---

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

In a freak accident on March 24, 2001, during the 7th inning of a spring training game against the San Francisco Giants, Johnson threw a fastball that struck and killed a dove. The bird swooped across the infield just as Johnson was releasing the ball. After being struck by the pitch, the bird landed dead amid a "sea of feathers." The official call was "no pitch."

Baseball Bird

Post #1,227 Shooting Osama in a Barrel

News from Chu's Snooze

Related Link » Earth Day: Environmental movement 40 years later, Obama administration message, saving the planet
“Forty years ago this week, America celebrated the first Earth Day. Because of the leadership of that generation, we have made remarkable progress in cleaning up the air we breathe and the water we drink and in protecting our natural resources. Today, we are driven by new challenges. America is deeply dependent on foreign oil. Our climate is changing as a result of our carbon emissions, and in order to mitigate the considerable risks of climate change, the world must transition to a sustainable energy future. […] We're off to a strong start, but solving the energy and climate challenge is going to take all of us doing our part, and I look forward to your questions today.”
— Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy, April 22, 2010 (WaPo)

Yeah, I got a question. Forty years ago, the Secretary of Energy concerned himself with national nuclear security issues, not Mickey Mouse bullshit. Climate has been changing since before humans were chimps, with slightly less hair. Do you get out much?

If we have made such "remarkable progress", how come America is as deeply dependent on foreign oil as we were forty years ago? In what way is that a "new" challenge? Have you nothing better to do than be a barker for TheObamaJama Rahm-a-Llama Ding-dong Circus?

Rimshot by JustJoking.com

Post #1,226 News from Chu's Snooze

Searching for a metaphor that's, you know, like a metaphor

Related Link » Biden on The View: Obama laughed 'like the devil' at F-bomb

Vice President Joe Biden, AKA Biden F*cking Deal, is a man of many words, most of which do not compute.

As a public service, so as to promote a clearer (and cleaner) image produced by the Administration's high-tech smoke-and-mirrors transparency, we submit a laundry-list of metaphorical props and prompters for their convenience in throwing whatever it is they are throwing under the bus:

• laughed like the Devil who was also laughing;
• laughed like a hyena who was also laughing;
• laughed like a humming bird who was also laughing;
• it's a big f*cking deal just like a BFD;
• it's a f*cking deal like a BFD that's not so big;
• it's a huge f*cking deal like a BFD, only bigger;
• it's an E-bomb like a penultimate F-bomb;

Insane like, uh, Joe Biden                   h/t Theo

Feel free to suggest other useful tips in the comments section.

Post #1,225 Searching for a metaphor that's, you know, like a metaphor

Perhaps ...

Related Link » What's Happening With Israel?
“Current American relations with our once-staunch ally Israel are at their lowest ebb in the last 50 years. […] These tensions follow the Obama administration's new outreach to the Muslim world. […] Lost in all this reset-button diplomacy is introspection on why past American presidents sought to support Israel in the first place. We seem to forget why no-nonsense Harry Truman, against worldwide opposition, ensured the original creation of the Jewish state -- or why more than 60 percent of Americans in most polls continue to side with Israel in its struggle to survive. In contrast, most of the rest of the world does the math and concludes Israel is a bad investment. It has no oil; its enemies possess nearly half the world's reserves. There is no downside in criticizing Israel, but censuring some of its radical Arab neighbors might prompt anything from an oil embargo to a terrorist response. […] According to the academic cult of multiculturalism, it is fashionable to see pro-American, democratic and capitalist Israel as a symbol of a pernicious Western culture of oppression; its enemies are seen as underdog liberationists. […] Holocaust denial is still a staple in intellectual circles of the Middle East, and serially embraced by the Iranian government. Fashionable anti-Israeli sentiment is de rigueur in European elite society. […] Yet if we are seen as neutral, just watch the rest of the world get the message and start piling on. Anti-Jewish terrorism will gear up again. Frontline entities like Hezbollah, Syria and Iran will ready their missiles without worry of American anger. Iran will assume we are resigned to its acquisition of the bomb. And the UN will again begin providing cover by issuing its pro forma denunciations of Israel, counting on a newly diffident United States to vote ‘present’. Perhaps the Obama administration genuinely believes that by pressuring Israel and reaching out to its enemies, it can at last achieve peace. Perhaps a few key figures in this administration simply do not like or trust the Jewish state -- support for which now polls only 48 percent among Democratic voters (versus 85 percent among Republicans).” [emphasis added]
— Victor Davis Hanson, April 22, 2010 (Townhall)

• Perhaps The Obama Himself is simply throwing under the bus the inconvenience of traditional American support for Israel, as He has done with many other inconveniences for His leftist agenda.
• Perhaps The Obama Himself is a Jew-hater, as some of His longterm associates are, as well as millions of others globally who thirst for another Holocaust.
• Perhaps a few key figures in this administration are self-loathing Jews.
• Perhaps there are millions of other self-loathing Jewish Americans.
• Perhaps there are millions of Jewish Americans who can not comprehend that their beloved progressive-liberal movement has moved way beyond what was once wholesome support for liberty, equality, and fraternity, to perfidy, equality of results, and politically-correct diversity.
• Perhaps there are millions more who simply can't extricate their heads from their leftist-liberal excrement-extruding orifices.
• Perhaps ...

Time, however much of it remains, will tell.

Post #1,224 Perhaps ...

Everyman's Wisdom: Capitalism, socialism, and deadly seriousness

Related Link » Before the Sabbath
“Capitalism is ideally equipped for mastering things but awkward in mastering men. It hugs the assumption that people will perform tolerably well when left to themselves. […] Socialist and communist societies are a throwback to the primitive in their passion for managing men.

Idealists never weary of decrying capitalism for its trivial motivation. Yet a discrepancy between trivial motives and weighty consequences is an essential trait of human uniqueness and is particularly pronounced in the creative individual. Not only in the marketplace and on the battlefield but also in the world of thought and imagination, men who set their hearts on toys often accomplish great things. The idealists prize seriousness and weightiness. Let them go to the animal kingdom! Animals are deadly serious.”
— Eric Hoffer (November 29, 1974)

“I lost my heart to this man. Eric Hoffer was Everyman.”
— Eric Sevareid

As the saying goes, "The more things change ...".

I would gladly send a copy of Hoffer's book (gratis) to The Obama Himself, if there was a snowball's chance in hell He could/would read it with comprehension.

Post #1,223 Everyman's Wisdom: Capitalism, socialism, and deadly seriousness

News You Can't Refuse

Related Link » Einstein's Theory Fights Off Challengers
“Two new and independent studies have put Einstein's General Theory of Relativity to the test like never before. These results, made using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, show Einstein's theory is still the best game in town.”
— Chandra Latest News, April 14, 2010 (NASA)

Galaxy Cluster Abell 3376                                          Image credit: NASA et al.

Big Al rules!

Rimshot by JustJoking.com

Post #1,222 News You Can't Refuse

News You Can Abuse

Related Link » Court voids law aimed at animal cruelty videos
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court, with only one dissenting vote, on Tuesday struck down a federal ban on videos that show graphic violence against animals. The ruling cheered free speech advocates, but it raised concerns that more animals will be harmed.”
— By Mark Sherman, 04/20/10 (AP)

Well shut ma mouth. I'm not that cheered by this "free speech" ruling.

Justice Samuel Alito, the lone dissenter, was, ironically, the Justice who was videotaped mouthing "not true" when The Obama Himself directed rude remarks at the Supreme Court during His State of the Union address.

I suppose The Obama Himself can figure out a way to use this ruling to justify His obsession with more diversity (just for diversity's sake) on the Supreme Court. He Himself is known to favor SCOTUS candidates who have "a strong record and dedication to the rule of law" (how bizarre is that?), as well as an "understanding of how court rulings affect people in real life [as opposed to people who live alongside unicorns and pansies]", which has direct bearing on that whole diversity for diversity's sake BS.

Perhaps we need a new Justice who is first and foremost an animal-rights advocate, to balance the overwhelming anti-animal-rights leanings of the current Justices? Animals are people too, you know — in "real" life, that is.

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Post #1,221 News You Can Abuse

Whatever happened to the comparative-case scenario?

Related Link » Threat of New, Larger Icelandic Eruption Looms
“Scientists fear tremors at the Eyjafjallajokull volcano could trigger an even more dangerous eruption at the nearby Katla volcano — creating a worst-case scenario for the airline industry and travelers around the globe.” [emphasis added]
— Associated Press, April 19, 2010

Ever wonder what happened to our forgotten comparative-case scenario? In grammar school, we learned that adjectives and adverbs came in 3 flavors, or "forms", thereby denoting a range of intensities:

1. adjectives: large; dangerous; bad
2. comparative forms: larger; more dangerous; worse
3. superlative forms: largest; most dangerous; worst

Have you ever read about a worse-case scenario? No, of course not. That wouldn't hack it in our hyperbolized form of common discourse.

So, we usually begin with some reasonably deemed bad scenario, like that caused by the somewhat arbitrarily deemed large and, perhaps less arbitrarily deemed, dangerous eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano. Now, should that volcano experience a larger and, therefore, more dangerous eruption, well you might as well forget about a worse-case scenario.

No, that simply wouldn't be dramatic enough for our jaded audience. Might as well pull out all the stops and declare that to be the dreaded worst-case scenario, or, which is the same thing, the mother of all scenarios!

We won't trouble ourselves with how we can top that superlative-scenario if, God forbid, Eyjafjallajokull and Katla decide to grace us with an even larger eruption. That, of course, will be the least of our problems, or at least the lesser of the two troublesome scenarios that will confront all of us.

Post #1,220 Whatever happened to the comparative-case scenario?

Some Unintended Consequences Are More Consequential Than Others

Related Link »
Mullen: Diplomacy Best Approach to End Iran’s Nuclear Proliferation
“Although a U.S. military approach in Iran would hinder Iranian nuclear proliferation, military might isn’t necessarily the best solution, [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] Adm. Mike Mullen said today. […] ‘From my perspective that’s the last option’, [Mullen] said. ‘… because both outcomes, [Iran] having [nuclear] weapons and [the United States] striking [Iran], have unintended consequences that are difficult to predict’.”
— EthiopianReview.com | April 20th, 2010

Destabilize This!                       h/t Theo

What we have here is an instance of the ever more frequent muddled thinking and reasoning sweeping the population at large. What is particularly alarming is that such fuzzy logic is ever more frequently occurring at the highest levels of our federal government, which is tasked with assuring our national security.

Yes indeed, both so-called "outcomes", namely "Iran having nuclear weapons" and "the United States or Israel striking Iran", have associated "unintended consequences that are difficult to predict". Nevertheless, as Bill Kristol observed on the "Fox News All-Stars" segment of "Special Report" with Bret Baier (yesterday), the former "outcome" includes Iran having nuclear weapons; the latter does not!

It should be obvious to our top military advisors as well as to our Administration, such as it is, that Iran having nuclear weapons is a Biden F*cking Deal, and as such, the two sets of unintended consequences are, by far, not equivalent!

Post #1,219 Some Unintended Consequences Are More Consequential Than Others

Israel's 62nd Independence Day

Related Link » Independence Day Celebrations
“Happy Independence Day!”
— Incumbent Knesset Speaker MK Reuven Rivlin (Likud) (nrg)

Fireworks over the Knesset  (April 20, 2010)              Photo: Flash 90

Post #1,218 Israel's 62nd Independence Day

Like Rats in a Hole

Related Link » Saddam Captured 'Like a Rat' in Raid
“He was caught like a rat.”
— Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno (4th Infantry Division), December 14, 2003 (FOXNews)

Related Link » Top Qaeda Leaders in Iraq Killed in Raid
“BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Iraqi intelligence officers have located and killed Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced on Monday. Mr. Maliki said the intelligence team also killed Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the leader of an affiliated group, the Islamic State of Iraq, in an operation that was backed by American forces. […] He said the house was destroyed, and the two bodies were found in a hole in the ground where they had apparently been hiding.”
— By REUTERS, April 19, 2010 (NYT)

Related Link » "Bullet With Butterfly Wings"
“Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage.”
— SMASHING PUMPKINS LYRICS

Sic semper tyrannis (et alii). [Thus, ever, to tyrants (and others).]

Post #1,217 Like Rats in a Hole

A memorial siren sounded for the boys and girls who fell

Related Link » Netanyahu: one hand extended in peace and the other holding the sword
“Israel bows its head: a memorial siren sounded two minutes this morning (Monday) around the country in memory of 22,684 boys and girls who fell in Israel's hostilities.”
— Amichai Atali, 19/4/2010 (nrg)

Ceremony on Mount Herzl       Photo Archive: Anat entitled

The nation has grieved for one of its children every day (on average) of its 62-year existence.

Post #1,216 A memorial siren sounded for the boys and girls who fell

News for Monday Blues

Related Link » Congress may get fined by its own health-care law
“Congress may be fined tens of millions of dollars a year under its own health-care law, in part because the bill dumps members of Congress and their staffs from their current health-care plans.”
— By Jonathan Strong, 04/19/10 (TheDC)

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of critters.

Memo to Nancy: Do you know how to spell "schmuck"?

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Post #1,215 News for Monday Blues

News that can confuse ...

Related Link » Gates Warns U.S. Lacks Strategy on Iran Nukes
“WASHINGTON - A memo from Defense Secretary Robert Gates to the White House warned that the United States lacks a nimble long-term plan for dealing with Iran's nuclear program, according to a published report.”
— Updated April 18, 2010 (Ass. Press)

I am speechless.

OK, I'm back from shock therapy. Remind me again how long The Rahm-a-Llama Ding-Dong Administration has been on this case? And now we are told there is no Plan B? So they actually thought their ridiculous "reach out and touch someone" Plan A was going to succeed?

Need more shock therapy ...


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The Greatest Threat to the First World                  h/t Theo

Post #1,214 News that can confuse ...

News that you can use ...

Related Link » Fight Al-Qaeda with satire, ridicule: researchers
“LONDON — Satire and ridicule can help win the fight against Al-Qaeda by stripping it of its glamour and mystique, a team of researchers argue in a report released in London and in comments to AFP. Beating the Islamist movement is as much about winning the battle of ideas and undermining Al-Qaeda's counter-culture cachet as it is about conventional anti-terrorism operations, said the report.”
— By Michel Moutot, 1 day ago (AFP)

Hmmm ... Samson slew an entire army with only the jawbone of an ass. Maybe one of those London "researchers" will volunteer his jawbone.


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Post #1,213 News that you can use ...

Never ascribe to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by petulance

Related Link » How Could We Be So Stupid? Let Us Count the Ways

1. Absolutely moral and necessary? […] So big spending and borrowing are genuine efforts of true believers to make us safe, secure, and happy.
2. “Gorge the beast” […] So big spending and borrowing mean big deficits, and that means taxing the greedy and giving their ill-gotten gains to the needy.
3. Big Brother? […] So big spending and borrowing mean 300 million will have their capital spent wisely as their collective labor and efforts are channeled into proper directions — as determined by sober and curious government overseers, not the ignorant who might selfishly spend capital only for indulgence.
4. Good work if you can get it — and loyal customers for life […] So big spending and borrowing mean work for millions, from the Ivy League thinker to the high school drop out who all understand that government is to serve those in government.
5. A Sort of Nihilism […] So big spending and borrowing mean more money for those who don’t have it, and less value for those who do.
6. Infantilism […] So big spending and borrowing are things for geeks and nerds to worry about later; right now we are doing the right thing for the right people — and can’t be worried.
7. Screw You! — one, big temper tantrum […] So big spending and borrowing enrage right-wing nuts and that is all to the good.

— Victor Davis Hanson, April 16th, 2010 (PJTV)

Of course you should read all those […] portions, which are the meat of Prof. Hanson's post. There is lots of stupidity that can be enumerated, for, as Albert Einstein observed, it is virtually without limit.

Hanson's seventh variety is especially noteworthy in Obama's case. Recall Obama's most recent pettiness: "I really have no response. Because last I checked, Sarah Palin's not much of an expert on nuclear issues," he said in an exclusive interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos. You see, he really does have a response that he can not contain, despite his immediately preceding disingenuous disavowal.

We have all come to know these eruptions of petty petulance in our Chief Petty Officer of the United States (CPOOTUS). So Hanlon's razor may be honed with a corollary that reads: Never ascribe to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by petulance.

Post #1,212 Never ascribe to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by petulance

News that you can count on ...

Related Link » Discovery leaves space station; next stop is Earth

Not Pluto?

The only thing in (small) doubt is it's speed, deceleration, and jerk.


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Post #1,211 News that you can count on ...

The Obamajama Schoolyard Nuclear Posture

Related Link » Our Nuclear Posture
Under the Obama administration? Supine.
“During the course of the 1991 Gulf war, Iraq fired 88 Scud missiles at targets in Israel and Saudi Arabia. All of them were armed with conventional warheads. This despite the fact that Iraq then possessed large stocks of chemical and biological weapons. Indeed, after the war, U.N. chief weapons inspector Rolf Ekeus found that Iraq had armed 25 missile warheads and 166 bombs with biological weapons. None of them were used, even as the Iraqi military faced the overwhelming might of a U.S.-led international coalition in a war Iraq was sure to lose. […] Four years later, Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz told Ekeus that Iraq had been deterred from using its WMD because it interpreted these (and other) American threats as promises of nuclear retaliation. […] Among the changes to American nuclear strategy announced in the [Obama administration’s 2010 Nuclear Posture] review, the United States has now promised not to threaten or use nuclear weapons in response to a chemical or biological attack by a nonnuclear state.”
— By Michael Anton, April 19, 2010 (TWS)

So in 1991, Saddam Hussein, the megalomaniacal tyrant facing certain defeat by the American coalition forces, nevertheless, refrained from launching his doomsday arsenal. Why? Well, because the United States implicitly, and possibly explicitly, threatened:

"Chemical and/or biological weapons equal nuclear weapons. Comprende, mofo?"

But, The Obamajama Rahm-a-Llama Ding-Dong Circus has no need of doomsday deterrence. That is so Pre-Second-Coming, don't you know? The Obama Greatness Himself will deliver us from evil with His phenomenal smooth-talking fabulousness. And He will get us to the promised land of unicorns and pansies, and everything your petty little hearts ever wished for but didn't have the money or the will for.

This relentless piecemeal dismantling of American greatness has to stop. Now.

 

                Iraqi Child "Bites" GI in "Self Defense" 

Post #1,210 The Obamajama Schoolyard Nuclear Posture

The Obamadama Colorama Drama

Related Link » Michelle Obama backs diversity on Supreme Court
“WASHINGTON — US First Lady Michelle Obama Thursday said she favored diversity on the nation's top court. […] ‘Diversity in this country is a good thing whether it's gender or race or socio-economic background or religion. You know, that's the world I come from’, she said. […] ‘I think he did a phenomenal job in picking one of my favorite justices, Justice Sotomayor’, Michelle Obama said. ‘And she is doing a phenomenal job’.”
— Copyright © 2010 (AFP)

The Obama Himself did "a phenomenal job" in picking Sonia. Sonia is doing "a phenomenal job" on the United States Supreme Court. She needs a playmate to do a phenomenal job, too, so as to perpetuate in perpetuity this phenomenal episode in American history.

He said red, yellow, black or white
All are equal in His sight
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He is phenomenal, n'est pas?

Post #1,209 The Obamadama Colorama Drama

The Obamajestic Himself Is Amused

Related Link » Obama says Tea Partiers should be thanking him, not protesting his tax policies
“‘So I’ve been amused in recent days by these people having rallies’, Obama said.”
— By Jon Ward, 04/16/10 (TheDC)

What a joke!        h/t Theo

Related Link » Let them eat cake
“‘Qu'ils mangent de la brioche’, supposedly said by Queen Marie Antoinette upon learning that the peasants had no bread. As brioche is a luxury bread enriched with eggs and butter, it would reflect the Queen's obliviousness to the nature of a famine.”
— From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marie Antoinette's execution at the Place de la Révolution 

Post #1,208 The Obamajestic Himself Is Amused