More Plain Speaking

Tired of the demagoguery? It's nothing compared to the train wreck speeding towards us as we speak. Below is some plain speaking you may eventually wish you had actually heard.

{link » W. Welcomes I'madinnerjacket}
 h/t Theo

Plain Speaking

Tired of the demagoguery? It's nothing compared to the train wreck speeding towards us as we speak. Below is some plain speaking you may eventually wish you had listened to.

{link » Fred Thomson — Plain Speaking}
 h/t Theo

Tell Me Why

{link » The Campaign Takes a Strange Turn}

Yet Conservatism is pretty simple, and is based on just a few principles. Human nature remains constant, and thus is predictable across time and space [i.e., spacetime]. There is a certain humility that comes with conservatism, since the ways of the world, despite the technological chaos, are constant. We know, 1000 years past or right now, that the more we tax something the less we get of it, while the more we subsidize [something], the more [of it] we obtain—given that people will slack when they can, and won’t when they can’t.

Sometimes this conservative take on human nature can get a little depressing, when we know that punishments really do deter crime, or silly things like high walls or fines on employers really do keep out illegal immigrants, or strong nations ready for war are not attacked while weak ones eager for peace are. So here we are on the eve of a great experiment, akin to the European socialist model that contradicts human nature — one that its creators over there are now fleeing from as we apparently, a day late [and] a dollar short, seek to emulate it.

I know that Victor's "whys and wherefores" are rhetorical, but the wise and brilliantly concise response bears repeating, over and over again:

“Two things are infinite — the universe and human stupidity. And I am not sure about the universe.” — Albert Einstein

I offer a less wise, admittedly derivative, but perhaps specifically suitable response to the present situation:

To err is human. To really f*ck things up requires the machinations of liberal fascists.

John McCain prisonnier au Vietnam (INA Video)

{link » John McCain prisonnier au Vietnam (INA Video)}

{link » Waiting for Nov. 4th}

“Five times a day I'll still say to someone, ‘I don't know what I'm going to do if McCain wins.’ Of course, the reality is I'm probably not going to do anything. What can I do? I'm not going to kill myself. If I didn't kill myself when I became impotent for two months in 1979, I'm certainly not going to do it if McCain and Palin are elected, even if it's by nefarious means.”

“The debates were particularly challenging for me to monitor. First I tried running in and out of the room so I would only hear my guy [Obama]. This worked until I knocked over a tray of hors d'oeuvres. ‘Sit down or get out!’ my host demanded. ‘Okay,’ I said, and took a seat, but I was more fidgety than a ten-year-old at temple. I just couldn't watch without saying anything, and my running commentary, which mostly consisted of ‘Shut up, you prick!’ or ‘You're a fucking liar!!!’ or ‘Go to hell, you cocksucker!’ was way too distracting for the attendees, and finally I was asked to leave.”

Have a look at the above-linked video filmed while John McCain was a prisoner-of-war in North Vietnam. Then read the excerpt from a rant by "comedian" Larry David. You decide who is deserving of the epithets "prick", "f*cking liar", and "cocksucker"; and, for good measure, a "worthless piece of shit".

Stocking Stuffer

{link » Fantasy bra launch}
Guaranteed to put a smile on her face and a hole in your pocket (or vice versa).

My Day of Liberty (2008)

{link » Remembrance in Spacetime: Liberty}

“It was United Nations Day in America: October 24, 1949. But it might as well have been the Fourth of July. For the immigrant survivors, it was, as we continued to celebrate it annually, our Day of Liberty.”

October 24, 1949 — New York Harbor
The United States of America

Risk — Reward — Accountability

{link » Greenspan Concedes to ‘Flaw’ in His Market Ideology }

“If we are right 60 percent of the time in forecasting, we are doing exceptionally well; that means we are wrong 40 percent of the time,” Greenspan said. “Forecasting never gets to the point where it is 100 percent accurate.”

“As much as I would prefer it otherwise, in this financial environment I see no choice but to require that all securitizers retain a meaningful part of the securities they issue,” Greenspan said. That would give the companies an incentive to ensure the assets are properly priced for their risk, advocates say.

I'm not an economist by any means, but it seems to me one could easily devise an appropriate formula for determining what a "meaningful part" of the securities they issue should be retained by all securitizers. For starters the appropriate government oversight agency could compute annually what percent of the time securitizers have been wrong in their forecasting in the past. The corresponding fraction (i.e., % ÷ 100) would then be the "meaningful part" of the securities they issue that they would be required to retain in the current year. That way, if they were never wrong, they wouldn't have to retain any of the securities they issued (the following year); correspondingly, if they were wrong 100% of the time, they would have to retain all those securities, thereby assuming all the risk of their own inaccuracies. This would also add incentive to issue more securities with a low risk track record, and fewer with a poor record.

Flying Pigs Ate My Homework

 h/t Jules Crittenden
{link » Father Of The Year}

“Yeah, well, even fathers of the year inadvertantly end up running from the cops with illegal high-capacity still-warm firearms they don’t know about in their pot-reeking cars. It happens.”

[Note to Obama Supporters: Please address your allegations of "racist reporting" to letterstoeditor@bostonherald.com]

As my colleague "The Quantum Mechanic" says, "It could happen, but it's not very likely." My other colleague whom we affectionately refer to as "The Skeptic" prefers to think that "Pot-smoking flying pigs planted that gun in the car." I myself do not wish to get involved in such highly charged politically motivated controversy, except to point out that the "innocent until proven guilty" dad might have endured "harsh toilet training", which could be used in the recently legitimized "No-accountability Defense".

It's the Lack of Accountability, Stupid

{link » It’s the Debt, Stupid}

The blame game goes on and on. But so far no one seems willing to tell the American people the truth: It is not just "they," but we, the people, who have recklessly borrowed to spend what we haven't yet earned. [emphasis added]

Obviously Victor "seems willing to tell the American people the truth". But I know he meant the candidates are unwilling to do so. I myself have been more than willing to tell the truth as I see it, and many other bloggers have too.

If 70 percent of the American people scrimp to buy a home, we can't endanger their financial solvency by waiving the rules for others, who can't or won't pay the mortgage debts they freely incurred. It's time to tell the public that you must budget to buy a house, see it as a place to raise a family and pay the mortgage you took on. And if that's not possible, then keep renting.

I think the problem is that those "who can't or won't pay the mortgage debts they freely incurred" won't listen to anyone about the error of their ways, which BTW involves more than mere insolvency. As I have ranted on about frequently here, the underlying problem is unwillingness to assume personal accountability. We are a nation of parents/adults and children/no-accountables. We have enabled a not-insignificant fraction of the legally-adult population to cling, not to their guns and religion as Obama thinks, but to their dependency on Obama-style handouts that in turn destroy wealth across the board.

Our national tragedy will be that the no-accountability will metastasize and consume us, as it already has portions of our consumer society, and to a greater extent our all-consuming government.

Cognitive Surplus: The Once and Future Singularity

{link » GIN, TELEVISION, AND COGNITIVE SURPLUS [8.21.08]
A Talk by Clay Shirky}

“And this is the other thing about the size of the cognitive surplus we're talking about. It's so large that even a small change could have huge ramifications. Let's say that everything stays 99 percent the same, that people watch 99 percent as much television as they used to, but 1 percent of that is carved out for producing and for sharing. The Internet-connected population watches roughly a trillion hours of TV a year. That's about five times the size of the annual U.S. consumption. One per cent of that is 98 Wikipedia projects per year worth of participation.

I think that's going to be a big deal. Don't you?”

I do.

Preemptive Buyer's Remorse!

 h/t Theo

{link » Biden to Supporters: "Gird Your Loins"}

“There are gonna be a lot of you who want to go, ‘Whoa, wait a minute, yo, whoa, whoa, I don't know about that decision’,” Biden continued. “Because if you think the decision is sound when they're made, which I believe you will when they're made, they're not likely to be as popular as they are sound. Because if they're popular, they're probably not sound.”

Even a blind squirrel occasionally finds the acorn. On this occasion, despite mismatched singulars and plurals, Joe Biden is not as clueless as he normally seems; he just offers bad advice as usual.

Why make a bad decision and subsequently regret having made it? Reverse the sequence: have your buyer's remorse first, and then make the right decision — vote for McCain! Save yourself and your countrymen a lot of pain, suffering, and regret.

What a Difference a Millennium Makes

It occurred to me today that it might be instructive for me to ponder how I came to my strongly held anti-liberal-left political views, since it wasn't always so. Then I decided that my personal political questing might be of some general interest to those who may visit this site.

My parents and I (as a seven-year-old boy) came to America in the aftermath of the Holocaust of World War Two. We were grateful for America's welcoming as symbolized by Lady Liberty in New York Harbor. It was October 24, 1949, our personal Day of Liberty, 59 years ago almost to the day.

President Truman had been elected the previous year to supplement his inheritance of FDR's 4th term, and since both Democrats presided over Nazi Germany's defeat, it was logical that my parents became lifetime Democrats. I had inherited my mainstream liberal political views from my parents, just as if they were bestowed on me like my mother's fair skin was, as well as my father's dark brown hair. Incidentally, I almost chose "Harry" (in honor of our President) to be my anglicized version of Heinrich, though after what was a very agonizing struggle for a young boy, I finally settled on Henry because it just appealed to me more. Perhaps that was the first crack in my solidarity with mainstream liberalism (but I doubt it; I was too young then to realize that was to be my political inheritance).

Even when General Eisenhower, esteemed by my parents only slightly less than the Deity for leading American and British forces against Germany on the Western Front, ran for President, my parents did not forsake their chosen political party in the 1956 Election. They lamented Adlai Stevenson's losses, but managed to be happy for the General of the Army, nevertheless. We became American citizens during Eisenhower's first term in Office, but I was not eligible to vote for President (because of my age) until the 1964 Election.

From the 1964 Election, my first time voting for President (Lyndon Johnson), until the Election of 2000, when I voted for Al Gore, I voted Democratic come hell or high water. I was elated by the outcomes for Johnson, Carter, and Clinton. I was dejected by the outcomes for Nixon, Reagan, Bush I, and the first election for Bush II. In particular, when Bill Clinton was subjected to the tyrannical Starr prosecution with the gleeful support of all those cynical Republicans, I had vowed I would never vote Republican for any office unless Abraham Lincoln was miraculously resurrected. So much for eternal vows made in the heat of battle.

Then came September 11, 2001. Unlike any other event that occurred in my lifetime, even including Nazi Germany's crimes against humanity, which mercifully I was too young to comprehend while I survived them, this outrage against Americans effected my jarring metamorphosis from a naive and overly trusting idealist into a thinking, distrusting realist. When President Bush went after the bastards who attacked us he became my hero instantly. I wanted revenge, known as justice in polite conversation, and American armed forces provided it in spades (no, you morons, it's not a racist remark; it's an American idiom).

If they want to kill us, it is incumbent on us to kill as many of them as we can before they have a chance to kill any more of us. During the shock and awe phase of Iraq II, after Saddam's sons were killed, I was really taken by a joke that Dennis Miller told at their expense. It went something like this: Qusay Hussein yells to his brother "Uday! Uday!" Miller supplies the answer to the supposed questions 'Who they? Who they?' — "Them's the Marines motherf*cker!"

And that is precisely why I am voting for John McCain. Sarah Palin is just the hot icing on the cake, so to speak. As for Obama, Biden, Pelosi, Reid, Dodd, Barney "Rubble" Frank, and all the other inmates of our liberal insane asylum, well, "F*ck 'em if they can't take a joke."

Generally Disingenuous

{link » Colin Powell backs Barack Obama to be an ‘exceptional’ president}
 

Colin Powell, the Republican once tipped to become America’s first black President, endorsed the Democrat, Barack Obama, yesterday as a “transformational figure” who was ready to be the next Commander-in-Chief.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs during Desert Storm thinks a man whose motto is "Make nice; not war!" is ready to be Commander-in-Chief? Disingenuous bullshit.

President Bush’s former Secretary of State said that he was backing Mr. Obama, not because of his race, but because he had met the standard to be an exceptional President.

I would like to know the details of Gen. Powell's "standard to be an exceptional President" that didn't include the exceptional similarity in their skin color. More disingenuous bullshit.

Endorsements rarely have a decisive impact in presidential politics, but the effusive backing for Mr. Obama by a man so widely respected could play a significant role in persuading some undecided voters.

If some undecided voters have sufficient clarity of vision to see through the disingenuous bullshit, the effusive backing would play a significant role, and the hitherto widely respected man would be respected no more.

Stirring music, a magnificent voice, ...

... a cute fiddler, ...

David Phelps performing “Virtuoso”

... Abraham Lincoln, and ...

The most important song on the Union side during the war

... Liberty forever!

“Battle Hymn Of The Republic” performed by Terry Blackwood and David Phelps

Bells and Whistles

{link » How your computer works}
 h/t Theo
"What I like especially is this little drawer where I keep my lunch."

"Let them eat lobster and caviar! Let them drink champagne! Let them pay taxes!"

{link » “Let them eat cake!”}

What recession?

 h/t Theo

Cake is so 18th Century!

Apropos the Unpleasant Occurances on 9/11 ...

{link » Free agent: Former MI5 chief and spy novelist Stella Rimington speaks her mind -
on Iraq, the 'huge overreaction' to 9/11, and why the secret service is much more liberal than we think}

“People [in the intelligence service] are very conscious of the possibility of intrusions into civil liberties - and therefore the importance of restricting that to the extent of what's strictly necessary. I think people are fully aware that the more you intrude into people's civil liberties, the more you set up grievances for people to, you know, encourage people to do all the unpleasant things that are going on.” [emphasis added]

Dear Lord, just this one time, could you see it in your heart to provide the liberal fascists, who are so richly deserving of them, some unpleasant things such as those we observed with "overreacting" horror on September 11, 2001.

In Praise of Binge Drinking

 h/t Theo

When I was in college (Cornell) I was too young to vote because in those days you had to be 21 to vote. But I was in grad school (Columbia) when I voted in my first Presidential election and, naturally, I voted for the Democratic incumbent Lyndon Johnson. I say "naturally" because I still remember what it was like to be, as the saying goes, young and foolish.

The reasons that a large majority of college students today are Obama supporters are pretty much the same as they have always been. Young people tend to be idealistic, oftentimes annoyingly so. They are universally more trusting than is good for them, which is why they are such easy prey for online identity thieves and sexual predators. And despite any intellectual prowess they may have garnered, they are often much more naive than their parents, who have learned a thing or two in the school of hard knocks. And kids are rebellious. Anything that their parents advocate usually meets with disdain from the little know-it-alls.

There isn't much you can do about Obamania among today's youth. Their hero is much younger than his opponent. He plays basketball; his opponent I'm guessing plays bridge. Obama is a smooth talker and young people are all about appearances; much less so about substance and deception. The only thing one can do is hope they'll be too hung-over on Election Day, because the only thing that trumps youthful naïveté is youthful binge drinking in the hopes of getting laid.

Doubting Thomas

 h/t Theo

No doubt, dude; no doubt.

Look, just like everyone else who used to have a 401k retirement nest egg, mine is more like a 301k now (a 25%-30% reduction in net asset value). But I wouldn't vote for a negique even if I thought he could restore my 401k, which he can't. Obama's wealth-redistribution plan is a guaranteed wealth-destruction plan for everyone, most especially those who have little or no wealth to begin with. The latter will simply be driven deeper into debt.

Stop looking for a handout that is not forthcoming anyway. The Presidency of the United States is an equal opportunity position of immense import; it must be based on merit not on affirmative action. Go ahead and vote for him if you truly believe he is best for our country. But don't vote for him just because he's a smooth talker who promises handouts he can't possibly deliver, or strictly because he is African-American.

Have you left no sense of decency?

Suppose for a moment that you are an American of Irish ancestry; an Irish-American. Furthermore, assume hypothetically that Obama's pastor was calling for the damnation of your ancestral land, Ireland. Would you still be inclined to vote for Obama?

Now reconsider, if you will, that Obama listened to his pastor and good friend for 20 years, while his pastor asked God to damn your country, the United States of America. Are you still inclined to vote for Obama to become President of your country? Are you really, man? Really?

Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?

Change You Can Eat!

{link » Daughter & Grandson BBQ Mom (Grandma)}

The daughter and a grandson of an 84-year-old woman who died at a Northern California farmhouse cremated her on an improvised barbecue and fashioned a necklace with a chunk of the woman's skull, authorities in rural Tehama County said Wednesday.

Grocery bills got you down? BBQ grandma! She may be a tough old bird, but that's why a kinder gentler administration will dole out meat tenderizer along with other money-saving rescue measures.

Obama'08 — Change You Can Eat!

Darwin Was Right

{link » A Picture is Worth Several Thousand Words}

Perhaps this is a visible example of Darwinian evolutionary mechanisms. In nature, many species' have natural predators to weed out the weak or defective members. Since humans have no natural predators, nature had to adapt in order to continue the filtering process. Nature responded by making some members of the human species too unattractive to mate (the majority in the lower group are childless). Oddly, the leftists who consider themselves enlightened for believing in evolution entirely fail to see this glaring irony.

I rest my case, as well as my world–weariness.

I choose to leave the blood sucking to the bloodsuckers ...

I'm just a mainstream nest-egg investor. I never tried to make a killing; I have always been, and continue to be just a conservative allocator of assets (stock and bond mutual funds, as well as fixed income investments covered by FDIC). My goal has always been to balance a not-excessive amount of risk with a desire to at least keep pace with inflation. You might say my motto is "Everything in Moderation". It suits my personality, which places a high premium on sleeping well at night, most of the time.

Now that I am retired, I am more inclined to offer advice than I had been before retiring, when I felt I had much more to learn than to teach. With these general statements about "where I am coming from" I offer the following advice to anyone whose philosophy of personal behavior and accountability is similar to my own.

These are extraordinary times. These are very dangerous times. When it seems like everyone around you is running around like a chicken with its head cut off (which I actually witnessed when I was an impressionable child) you must make a great effort to think as clearly as possible. I will focus on the most chaotic situation facing most of us today — the investment markets.

For simplicity, I liken the extraordinarily volatile markets to a buzz saw, which is being operated by diabolical manipulators who are out to shred the little guys like me. Don't let them.

If you have sufficient emergency funds (i.e., your FDIC-covered money) to see you through the current shit-storm, get the f*ck away from the buzz saw; as far away as possible. If not, your investments will be shredded and consumed by the short-sellers and the hedge-fund gunslingers. You don't stand a chance against those pros, who live by the gun (buzz saw).

I have heard it reported (I never listen to him directly) that guys like Cramer were recently begging anyone who was listening, to convert everything to cash (i.e., join the panic sellers). To me, that is exactly what you should not do. Perhaps that would have been a good thing to do, say, a year ago. But you know what they say about hind sight. Hell, my own hind sight is just as good as Cramer's; and equally valuable.

If you sell during the buzz-saw panic, you are capitulating any hope of ever recovering any paper losses. The little guy does not stand a chance against the buzz-saw operators, who make most of their money from shredding the little guys and the rest from shredding each other. I choose to leave the blood sucking to the bloodsuckers.

Oh yes, he's the Great Enabler ...

{link » "The Great Pretender" - The Platters}

[Slightly Modified]

Too real is this feeling of make believe
Too real when I feel what my heart can't conceal.

Oh yes, I'm the great [enabler]
Just laughing and gay like a clown
I seem to be what I'm not; you see
I'm wearing my heart like a crown
Pretending that you're [above ground].

I know. You're hurting financially and you're hoping Obama will rescue you.

Time for a reality check:

• What is your basic problem?

You have too much house. Your mortgage is too big. You have too many cars. Your cars are too big, and so are your car payments. All 17 of your credit cards are maxed out. And you'll probably lose your job soon.

• What did Obama promise you?

He promised to fund your gravy train by stealing money from those assholes who manage to live within their hard-earned means.

• Can he do this?

Sure. He'll have an overwhelming liberal majority in Congress to support his every command.

• Will it work?

Probably. For a while.

• So what's the catch?

Remember those hard-working assholes who know how to live within a sensible budget? Well, they may be assholes; but they're not stupid. They will simply stop working so hard and join you on your unearned gravy train.

• And?

Well, since Obama won't have anyone to steal from, he'll have no choice but to start printing money like crazy.

• So what's the bottom line, so to speak?

Obama is the Great Enabler of:

1. your unwillingness to assume personal accountability; and
2. depression (yours and the Nation's).

Macroeconomics is not rocket-science. Even assholes like Krugman can get a Nobel out of it.

"The Great Pretender" - The Platters