All in the Family featured the curmudgeonly Archie Bunker. Archie was television’s most famous grouch, blunt, blustering, straightforward and untouched by the PC crowd. He was the archetype of the conservative male. Michael desprately tried to reeducate him, but he persisted in his breviloquence.



Looking back at the last 40 years, we realize: ARCHIE WAS RIGHT!

1/31/2013

ACRONYMS

WBAGNFARB = Would Be A Good Name For A Rock Band
NSW=Not Safe for Work

UFTOUYWFTSS=Unfit For The Office Unless You Work For The Secret Service

DNOAW= DO NOT OPEN AT WORK
OIYDWYMTTYG = ...Or If You Don't Want Your Mother To Think You're Gay
 
ead mUFTOUYWFTSS=Unfit For The Office Unless You Work For The Secret Serviceore here: http://blogs.herald.com/dave_barrys_blog/#storylink=cpy
NTTAWWT = Not that there's anything wrong with that
 
IANMTU = I Am Not Making This Up

ISIANMTU = I Swear I Am Not Making This Up

BTA = Brain Takeover Alert

BOT = Back On Topic

MOAT = Mother Of All Threads

 
 

I don't know about you, but I can't keep up with all the Acronyms that get flung at me in texts and emails.  I'm too proud, and unhip to ask WTF people are talking about.  I mean OMG, its like use real words people. GR8 ITEOFTWAWKI for the English language.

1/30/2013

Banker Yachts


A visitor from out of town went on a tour of Manhattan. At the end of the tour they took him to the financial district. When they arrived at Battery Park, the guide showed the visitor some nice yachts anchoring there and said, "Here are the yachts of our bankers and stockbrokers."

 

"And where are the yachts of the investors?" asked the naive visitor.

You Can Run but You Can't Hide

It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. An 11-year-old Spanish boy faked his own kidnapping, according to the U.K.'s Guardian, because his mom and dad were set to meet his teacher later that day—and he didn't want to be around for the aftermath.
Needless to say, things didn't go as planned. The boy sent a text message to his father—a police officer in the northern town of Xinzo de Limia—saying he had been kidnapped and stuffed in the back of a car. His father called him immediately. The boy said he didn't know where he was being taken. He then faked phone static and hung up. Chaos ensued.
 
Had I pulled this as a kid, I wouldn't be here to blog about this poor unfortunate soul. 

One time I was involved in a spat with another kid at school and was over heard by a teacher saying some unkind things to another kid.  The incident wasn't a one sided affair.  I was the one the teacher caught.  The other boy was sent with me to the principles office so he could more fully inform the principle of my misdeeds.  The principle figured out very quickly that this was a two sided fight and called both our parents.   The other boys mother was at work and told the principle that she would handle it latter.  He was sent back to class, unchastised. 

My father was called next.  He asked the principle to wait for him to get to the school.  Dad showed up and asked if he could borrow the principles office for a "private talk" with me.  The principle left the room and my father proceeded to chase me around the desk beating me with his belt.  I howled and tried to run as the old man beat the living hell out of me.  When his anger was slightly satiated the old man called the principle back into his office.  He was informed that I would be more fully punished at home and that my parents backed whatever punishment the school determined appropriate 100%. 

That's what happened for a school yard name calling and pushing match.  I can't imagine what would have happened to me had I pulled a fake kidnapping.

1/29/2013

Free Lt. Michael Behenna

Stop Injustice!  Free Lt. Michael Behenna

On March 20th, 2009, Army Ranger 1st Lieutenant Michael Behenna was sentenced to 25 years in prison for killing Ali Mansur, a known Al Qaeda operative while serving in Iraq. Mansur was known to be a member of an Al Qaeda cell operating in the lieutenant’s area of operation and Army intelligence believed he organized an attack on Lt. Behenna’s platoon in April 2008 which killed two U.S. soldiers and injured two more. Army intelligence ordered the release of Mansur and Lt. Behenna was ordered to return the terrorist to his home.
During the return of Mansur, Lt. Behenna again questioned the Al Qaeda member for information about other members of the terrorist cell, and financial supporters. During this interrogation, Mansur attacked Lt. Behenna, who killed the terrorist in self-defense. The government subsequently prosecuted Lt. Behenna for premeditated murder.
You can read the rest of the story at the DefendMichael.com web site.

I'm not in favor of any of the wars, semi declared and not, that we are currently waging all over the world for reasons known to almost no one.  We need to bring our boys home.  That said, you don't send soldiers to kill people and break things and then arrest and imprison them for doing just that.  By all accounts Lt. Behenna was preforming his assigned duty, and in the course of that duty a known enemy combatant attacked him in an attempt to secure his firearm and escape.  The Lt. shot and killed his enemy.  End of story.  He did nothing wrong.   Had the US Army wanted to avoid shooting bad guys, they should have stayed out of Iraq in the first place. Deciding after the fact that killing bad guys isn't policy is a crock.

I'm not saying give Lt. Behenna a medal.  He doesn't deserve one, as he was doing what he was suppose to do.  He doesn't deserve to be in jail for what he did either.  It was his DUTY to deal with the prisoner, and it was his DUTY to stop the escape when it was evident that injury and possible death would come to his men if he did not act.  If you don't like soldiers killing the enemy, thats fine, bring the boys home.  Don't jail them for doing the very thing you sent them to do in the first place.

Stop Injustice! Free Lt. Michael Behenna

"All The Time?"

Most of the comments I've seen about this story seem to fall into one of two camps.  The first is the typical MSM propaganda that "Obama doesn't want to take your guns".  Which is a bald face lie.  Of course anyone with half a brain can see that.  So the second camp is made up of people pointing out the duplicity.
The Telegraph--President Barack Obama has claimed that he goes shooting "all the time", while attempting to reassure American gun-owners that he respects their rights to use firearms. "Up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time," he said. "And I have a profound respect for the traditions of hunting that trace back in this country for generations. "And I think those who dismiss that out of hand make a big mistake".
 
On one level, I believe Obama is telling the truth.  He does go shooting all the time.  Not in the way you and I would.  You and I would load up the truck and head out to the range or the field or a prairie dog town.  Maybe we'd go out to competition, or hunting.  We would shoot up ammo that we had to buy or make ourselves.  Our shooting would be limited by our budget.  We would be responsible for the safety of those around us and we would bare the responsibility of our actions if we were not.

Obama is the president, he isn't restricted by such droll and proletariat considerations as those of us living in "fly over" country.  Obama has control of a fleet of unarmed drones that he can pilot and shoot at will.  Obama has the US military that he "shoots" all the time, shooting by proxy makes just as much noise and one just as dead.  I can't recall, which of the wars he campaigned against has he ended? Since people keep dying I assume they are still shooting.  While we're on the topic, why is it that Obama still claims the right to kill American citizens, without trail wherever he finds them?

I wonder who has killed more innocents, wacko kids with guns in school, or Obama in control of his troops and drones?  Yes Virgina, Obama goes shooting all the time.

Fun In Rapid City

Hockey, college kids, beer, what could possibly go wrong?  I can see why this might upset some people:
Rapid City Rush officials are apologizing to ticket holders for Friday night’s intermission entertainment after two college students competing in the “College Olympics” vomited on the ice in front of the crowd after chugging beers during a relay game.
 
It's winter, it's South Dakota and hunting season is over.  What else are the kids going to do?  Thanks to a nice run of warm weather, the ice is just now think enough to fish. It could have turned out worse.

1/28/2013

CA Drunk Funny

The California Highway Patrol had their hands full early Thursday morning when a naked drunk woman drove into her equally naked fiance. Bravo walked in front of the car and the female accelerated and struck him, and he landed on the hood of the car. She then abruptly applied the brakes and lost control.
 
Drunk driving:  In Californina they do it naked. In Kentucky they don't spill their beer.  How do they do it in your neck of the woods?

Thata Girl!

In Kentucky, they are right proud of her.
KNOXVILLE — Despite allegedly striking a deputy's cruiser head-on, then running it off the road and leading authorities on 10-minute chase spanning two counties before crashing, she apparently never dropped her beer.
You can't make this stuff up. 

Good News

From the Washington Times:
In a case freighted with major constitutional implications, a federal appeals court on Friday overturned President Obama’s controversial recess appointments from last year, ruling he abused his powers and acted when the Senate was not actually in a recess.
In other words, Obama broke such an obvious law, that even the far left liberal rubber stamp federal court system AND the uber liberal Washington Times have to admit that he is in the wrong.  One can only hope this is the start of trend in recognizing and calling attention to his illegal activities.

1/27/2013

Biggest Fan

It occurs to me that flies are generally attracted to great big steaming piles of BULL STUFF.

1/26/2013

Could it be the Taxes?

My guess is nothing will be done about this and you won't hear the MSM croning over this tid bit of tax evasion:
US pop legend Tina Turner, who has been living in Switzerland since 1995, will soon receive Swiss citizenship and will give up her US passport, Swiss media reported Friday.
 
I have no problem with what Tina is doing.  I think she should be free to ditch the US and live in CH or anyplace else she wants.  That said, where is the hand wringing and liberal angst over a high income earner ditching her US tax obligation?  Every time I see a story about a rich white person going someplace where they are raped less on their taxes, there is an out cry about how unpatriotic they are.

Flipping the School Day

When I first saw the title of this article "More Teachers 'Flipping' The School Day Upside Down", I let out a sophomoric giggle.  Long ago I learned that public school was a waste of time designed to destroy students minds and house their bodies for the benefit of others.  I first learned this in third grade when my family moved from a rural school district where they still actually cared about the kids in their charge, to a dysfunctional gulag designed to enrich the members of the teachers union, kids be damned.  At the time I did not have the ability to reason all of that out.  I did know one thing  school was a bad place to be.  Only later in life did I realize to what extent American public schools were broken.

The fact that American Public education is broken is obvious to everyone that is not dependant on public funds, or a graduate of the system.  It's gotten so bad that even public school graduates are refusing to send their own children into the meat grinder.  What other option exists?  In the past you had a choice between private schools, if you could afford them or public.  As time went on homeschooling gained in popularity.  Of course they developed a sort of public private hybrid, the charter school.  The public schools, where most kids are, still are lagging behind. 

Which is one of the reasons that I applaud the "flipping" concept that they are trying in the article.  Recording lectures as data files that can be watched on an I Phone, and letting the kid watch it at home.  Is a great idea.  Then when the kids come to class they use the class time as sort of a lab, where they are able to work through the material with the teacher.

As the program stands now, it seems like it would be a little awkward and not as efficient as it could be.  It's a step in the right direction.  I can see a time when this method of learning is decentralized completely.  When that happens the kids will have a tremendous learning opportunity.  Hopefully this kind of non traditional thinking will help turn the public schools around.  After all, most of America's kids are still in a public school.  As a nation we can't expect good things will come from a broken system.

1/25/2013

Mom and the AR-15

Most of my regular visitor are probably not hostile to gun ownership.  I doubt that this vid will change many of your minds about gun ownership because your already on the intelligent side of the question.  However, most of us know people that aren't as enlightened.  The young lady in the video is a lawyer, a wife and a mother of a little girl.  She also has some good things to say about why the AR-15 and the Glock 9mm are good gun choices for women.  This vid is about 6 min long and worth the gander.  Her longer, 16 min vid can be found here if you're interested. 

Teacher Marries Student, Avoids Jail

I'm all for marriage.  I think America would be a lot better off if people married earlier in life and stayed married for the duration.  By earlier, I mean just that.  I'm not opposed to teenage marriage in the least.  Historically that's the norm anyway.  If 16 or 17 year old kids are going to be having sex there isn't much you can do about it.  Of course that's not a problem if the kids are married and going to stay together.

Somethings however seem, if not wrong, down right icky.
A 42-year-old North Carolina teacher escaped charges of statutory rape by marrying the teenager she was accused of having sex with.  Shipman was facing a sentence of 15 years in prison after being accused of statutory rape for sleeping with Ison when he was 15 years old. But North Carolina state law states that Ison cannot be forced to testify against his spouse, forcing prosecutors to drop their case.
Elsewhere in the story it mentions that the boy's mom had to grant permission for the 17 year old boy to marry his teacher.  Where was the kids father?  Only a women would let her son marry a women more than twice his age.  If this whole deal is simply a dodge to keep this teacher out of jail, ok, I guess.  If that's the case, how long does the kid have to stay "married" to keep her out of jail?  1 year, till he's 18? 4 years, till he's 21?  Talk about punishing the victim.

I get it.  At 15 the male is liking any kind of sex he can get from any female.  No doubt the boy consented eagerly to the whole "relationship".  At 17 this boy is going to get as many blow jobs as he wants, if for no other reason because if she slacks off, she's going to jail.  Heck, anything the kid wants, no matter how kinky is now on the table.  

I was going to start ranting about what a waste it is having to be young and limited to a women who is well past her prime, then I reread the last sentence of that last paragraph.  I'm sure he'll find the strength to muddle through till he's 21, maybe longer if she loses a few pounds.

1/24/2013

A Good Place to Bank

Texas, not the worst place in the nation to live.



1/23/2013

Falukorv

I believe that there is too much violence in the world today.  It seems like everyday that goes by another story of senseless mayhem hits the news.
A woman in southern Sweden has been charged for attempted assault after attacking a man with a frying pan full of Swedish sausages.

What is it with the Sweeds and their sausage?  They have issues with sausage adds being "too sexy".  They even have gender experts that comment on improper uses of the sausage as a phallic symbol. and counter protesters who like sexy sausage adds.

Clearly the only responsible course of action is to outlaw assult sausage and require stricter registration of all hot dog like food products.  Then and only then can the sausage return to its proper place in Sweedish culture:
The falukorv was even a central character in one of Sweden's cult pornographic films from the seventies, Fäbodjäntan (titled "Come and Blow the Horn" in the UK).

Resolutions

Does anybody keep their resolutions?


RESOLUTION #1:

2007: I will read at least 20 good books a year.

2008: I will read at least 10 books a year.

2009: I will read 5 books a year.

2010: I will finish The Pelican Brief

2011: I will read some articles in the newspaper this year.

2012: I will read at least one article this year.

2013: I will try and finish the comics section this year.

RESOLUTION #2:

2007: I will get my weight down below 180.

2008: I will watch my calories until I get below 190.

2009: I will follow my new diet religiously until I get below 200.

2010: I will try to develop a realistic attitude about my weight.

2011: I will work out 5 days a week.

2012: I will work out 3 days a week.

2013: I will try to drive past a gym at least once a week.

RESOLUTION #3:

2007: I will not spend my money frivolously.

2008: I will pay off my bank loan promptly.

2009: I will pay off my bank loans promptly.

2010: I will begin making a strong effort to be out of debt by 2009.

2011: I will be totally out of debt by 2010.

2012: I will try to pay off the debt interest by 2011.

2013: I will try to be out of the country by 2012.

RESOLUTION #4:

2010: I will try to be a better husband to Marge.

2011: I will not leave Marge.

2012: I will try for a reconciliation with Marge.

2013: I will try to be a better husband to Wanda.

RESOLUTION #5:

2010: I will stop looking at other women.

2011: I will not get involved with Wanda.

2012: I will not let Wanda pressure me into another marriage.

2013: I will stop looking at other women.

RESOLUTION #6:

2010: I will not let my boss push me around.

2011: I will not let my sadistic boss drive me to the point of suicide.

2012: I will stick up for my rights when my boss bullies me.

2013: I will tell Dr. Hodger and the group about my boss.

[gbwl]RESOLUTION #7:

2010: I will not get upset when Charlie makes jokes about my baldness.

2011: I will not get annoyed when Charlie kids me about my toupee.

2012: I will not get angry when Charlie tells the guys I wear a girdle.

2013: I will not speak to Charlie.

RESOLUTION #8:

2010: I will not take a drink before 5:00 p.m.

2011: I will not touch the bottle before noon.

2012: I will not become a "problem drinker".

2013: I will not miss any AA meetings.

RESOLUTION #9:

2010: I will see my dentist this year.

2011: I will have my cavities filled this year.

2012: I will have my root canal work done this year.

2013: I will get rid of my denture breath this year.

RESOLUTION #10:

2010: I will go to church every Sunday.

2011: I will go to church as often as possible.

2012: I will set aside time each day for prayer and meditation.

2013: I will try to catch the late night sermonette on TV.

1/22/2013

Truth Comes Out

Remember that story that came out last week?  The one with the lawmaker holding the AK-47 in the Virginia State House, begging them to outlaw all those big scary guns.  As it turns out, Mr. Joseph Morrissey need to be told to get his thumb off the trigger (a basic safety skill, mastered by 12 year old boys in hunters safety class).  It seems Mr. Morrissey used to be a lawyer.  He's not now, because he lost his law license.  He lost that license for a number of reasons, helping out rapists who had extra cash to spread around, circumventing the law as a prosecutor to illegally arrest people, and being a violent criminal himself.
According to legal brief filed by the victim’s attorneys, Morrissey shouted, “I’m going to kill you. I’m going to beat your head in,” before beating the victim and “smash[ing] his head into the corner of a brick wall.”
 
How is it that a disbarred criminal with a history of violence comes to be in possession of any firearm?  According to the story he borrowed the rifle.  More importantly, since his being in possession of the gun is all ready illegal, why haven't the authorities arrested him?

1/21/2013

MLK Day 2013

I remember in speech class they told me to start out a talk with a joke, so here goes:

Did you hear the one about the Pollack the Jew and the Nigger?

If you did, did you have the courage to speak out against it?

Today is Martin Luther King Day.  A day named for a man who gave a famous speech about having a dream.  That "dream" was for a society in which race was a non-consideration in all maters of political, social, economic and personal liberty.  You can watch the 18 minute speech HERE on You Tube.  It's worth seeing if you haven't before.

MLK had a great point.  That point proclaimed the most resounding truths of the American Ideal.  All men are created equal and endowed by their Creator to certain inalienable rights...  In MLK's day those "rights" were limited in some cases and in some places in this country because of race.   MLK sought to do away with a race based society.  He wanted equal treatment for blacks.  In his words:
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
The impact of the speech wasn't that it energized American blacks, which it did.  The greatest impact was that it motivated white Americans to join ranks and end segregation as official policy.  White America came to believe in equality of men who wanted to be judged based on their character.  MLK gave his speech on Aug 28, 1963.  Then things began to change in America. 

In 1964, white America passed the greatest step forward in civil rights legislation since William Wilberforce convinced the English Parliament to abolish the slave trade.  For the next 44 years American blacks enjoyed preferential treatment in admission to schools of higher learning.  They were given rapid promotion in the military over their white counter parts.  Backs enjoyed an increasing role in politics and they were voted into office in increasing numbers.  Public and private sector employers hired and promoted blacks not based on ability, but on color.  This was done with the best intentions.  The reasoning was that blacks as a group had been on the "outside" of America for so long, that they needed a bit of a boost to make up for past discrimination.

MLK had a protegee, a young race hustler named Jesse Jackson.  Jesse, the bastard turned baptist, (his father was Noah Louis Robinson) had a daughter who had a friend, named Michelle Robinson.  This young black women was able to take advantage of the new race based system, and her connections and gain access to elite schools, like Princeton and Harvard Law.  Latter she would use those connections to gain access to highly paid make work jobs, for friends of the Reverend who seems to have never pastored a church, but who can be counted on to turn out the vote.   Michelle married a half black bastard of British citizenship from Kenya Africa.  Then after they both lost their law licenses due to ethics violations, he managed to get into the White house.

To be fair, most of the dirt on Obama, including the fact that he is ineligible for the office he holds, didn't come to be widely known (thanks to the MSM) until after the 2008 election. By that time he was in office.  What did he do in office:

1.   In acted a plan to destroy health care in America
2.   Destroyed America's credit rating
3.   Record public debt
4.   Record unemployment
5.   Unconstitutional wars
6.   Massive corruption and public money funneled to his pals
7.   Worst economy since Hoover
8.   Ran guns to Mexican drug cartels
9.   Made butt sex America's new civil rights cause
10. Spent millions to keep America from learning anything about him
11. Vacationer in Chief
12. Worked on his golf game
13. Empowered radical Islam
14. Record black unemployment
15. Refuses to address the "flash mob"
16. Higher taxes
17. Less hope for wage earners and more welfare for everyone else
It's a fool's game to take anything Obama says at face value. There is always a catch. For his second inaugural, he publicly congratulates himself for banning lobbyists from sponsoring the events. Of course, no such prohibition exists on the companies who hire the lobbyists. The companies who are trying to influence the government are welcome to participate, even if their hired guns are not. The corporations who are the biggest donors to the inauguration have spent $160 million lobbying government since Obama first took office.
 
That's right not a single positive accomplishment to show after four years in office.  The last president to ALMOST do this badly was Jimmy Carter.  After four years of Carter, backs turned out for Reagan.  With this kind of record who would vote for Obama again?  People of color.  Blacks and Mexicans love voting for Obama.  The reason they give, isn't policy accomplishments.  It's Obama phones and cash for clunkers and most importantly, "he's a brother".  This block of voters who only care about color and welfare benefits is so crucial to the Democratic party that they are pushing to get all the illegals, legal, or at least voting. 

This MLK day we celebrate that dream of Dr. King.  We also will see a man sworn in to the most powerful elected office in the world.  He's not in that office because of qualifications, or promises for the future.  He's not in there because he did a good job the first time he was entrusted with the job.  Most importantly he's not in there because of the content of his character.  He's now the president solely because of the color of his skin.

Punch Lines?

Sometimes the lawer jokes just write themselves:
An Eagan lawyer is suspended indefinitely after having an affair with a client whom he represented in a divorce, then billing her for time they spent having sex.
 
I'd love to know if the exhusband had to pay her legal bills from the divorce.



1/20/2013

Mackey Whimps Out

John Mackey hits a homerun and then takes it back so he can bunt.
Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey said he regrets describing President Obama's healthcare law as "more like fascism" in a recent interview. "The term fascism today stirs up too much negative emotion with its horrific associations in the 20th century … I think for now I will simply call [the Obama law] government-controlled healthcare."
 
John perhaps you forgot the definition of "Fascism".   Sundry tid bits form Wikipedia include:
Fascism  (pron.: /ˈfæʃɪzÉ™m/) is a form of radical authoritarian nationalism.[1][2] Fascists seek to unify their nation through a totalitarian state that seeks the mass mobilization of the national community through discipline, indoctrination, and physical training Fascism utilizes a vanguard party to initiate a revolution to organize the nation upon fascist principles.[5] Fascism views direct action including political violence and war, as a means to achieve national rejuvenation, spirit and vitality.[3]
Fascism advocates a state-controlled and regulated mixed economy
 
Dear John,

It's true Obama is America's great uniter.  He brings together three of the 20th century's political philosophies like no one else ever has.  Lets not fool ourselves.   What Obama believes in that is not Fascism is National Socialism and what is not National Socialism is Marxism.  Perhaps you believe that Obummer care is more akin to one of his other two political philosophies, if so I can live with that.

1/19/2013

Can You Picture the Debt?

In case you've never tried to visualize the national debt.  This is worth the 2 min to watch and send on to your friends.


Think It'll Happen???

If the news is too good to be true....

Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said the House would vote next week on a three-month extension of borrowing authority.“If the Senate or House fails to pass a budget in that time, members of Congress will not be paid by the American people for failing to do their job. No budget, no pay,” Cantor said.
Now here is a common sense budgeting idea I can get behind. The basic proposal is to bail out the lawmakers one last time and give them 90 days to put together a budget that cuts spending. Ideally that would produce a balanced budget this year, although no one is actually pledging to do that. If they don't no pay for the politicians. So what are the odds of it happening? None. Nada. Zilch

It sounds good. It gets a handful of conservative lawmakers out of a little hot water with the people who understand that the game is up.  That’s about all it will do.  I don’t think anything meaningful will come of it. I hope I’m wrong.  What say you?

1/18/2013

Ginger Should Run the Fed

From the UK

The Observer's panel of stock-picking professionals has been undone in our 2012 investment challenge by a ginger feline called Orlando who spent time paw-ing over the FT.
The Observer portfolio challenge pitted professionals Justin Urquhart Stewart of wealth managers Seven Investment Management, Paul Kavanagh of stockbrokers Killick & Co, and Schroders fund manager Andy Brough against students from John Warner School in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire – and Orlando.
 
My guess is we could fire Ben Bernanke and let Ginger take over for him and get better results for our economy.

1/17/2013

Genius


Ammo Shortage for Cops

File this under, "Cry Me a River".
Police departments nationwide are experiencing ammunition shortages, according to the online law enforcement resource, PoliceOne.com
 
It's hard for the cops to get ammo, really?   I wonder why.  Could ten years of war be putting a strain on ammo makers production capacity?  Might the millions of dollars worth of government agency purchases of hollow points to use against American citizens put a crimp on supply?  Could it be that Obummer's plan to disarm American citizens has caused these patriots to build up reserves so they can withstand confiscation and the coming civil war?

If that's the case,  be glad that the Tyrant in Chief's minions are running low on ammo.

1/16/2013

Water Under the Bridge

Doesn't JAG have anything better to do?
Deptola and another Marine based at Camp LeJeune were charged last year after video surfaced showing four Marines in full combat gear urinating on the bodies of three dead Afghans in July 2011. In the video, one of the Marines looked down at the bodies and quipped, "Have a good day, buddy."
 
We send our armed forces to far away places to kill people and then we get mad when they piss on the enemy.  Is pissing on dead people polite, or dignified?  No.  Neither is killing them or waging an undeclared war of over 10 years duration.

The entire point of the USMC is to kill people and break things.  I see no reason to require the Non coms and men to be polite about it, either before or after they do their duty.  If what they do offends the sensibilities of those in Washington, then bring the men home.  Otherwise get over it.

Only Puns


I have a friend whose sense of humour enjoys only jokes that exploit the different possible meanings of a word or words that sound alike but have different meanings.

All of his jokes are pungent.

1/14/2013

Birthday Beer

From Munich:
A 94-year-old pensioner broke out of hospital in Munich so he could belatedly celebrate his birthday in one of the German city's famous beer halls, police said Thursday.
A passer-by noticed the elderly man at an underground rail station on Wednesday as he still had an intravenous drip needle implanted in his left hand.
 
First, intravenously isn't my favorite way to get a beer.  I guess it's better than no beer at all.  ;-) I know that's not why he had the I.V.  Second, what's wrong with these Germans? What jerk would call the cops on this old guy?  All they had to do was ask him what was going on, and as soon as he told them he escaped from the hospital for a birthday beer, they should have taken him here:
No questions asked.  When you're 94 you should get a birthday beer and be able to pinch the winch who brings it to you.  No, the time of day doesn't matter.  At the Hofbrauhaus you can get beer for breakfast.  I know.
The guy in white is named Bill.  He drank the little beer.  Some guy named Ross was involved (and I think one or two of those steins were his) and yes in nineteen hundred and whatever, that blue striped shirt was in style.

I would have bought the old guy his beer.  When/if I make it to 94 I hope the Hofbrau is around and someone buys me a frothy breakfast there.  Maybe I'll have a couple of  sausages to go with it.

1/10/2013

Because its Bettter Here

From K2 News in Casper:
Several Wyoming lawmakers are proposing legislation designed to protect gun-owners from any potential federal firearm ban. The “Firearms Protection Act” bill, introduced this week, would make any federal law banning semi-automatic firearms or limiting the size of gun magazines unenforceable within the state’s boundaries.
 
Yes my friends it is better here.  If they get it out of the house the Governor will likely sign it.

In other news:

Women saves the the day with gun in her lunch box.
Investigators say just before 1:00 AM, two African American males entered the Quality Inn at the corner of North Poplar and F Streets in Casper, with their faces concealed.
One of the suspects told the clerk it was a hold-up, making a gun gesture with his hand.  The clerk then pulled a gun from her lunchbox and pointed it at the suspects, who then fled.
 
Women stops robbery.
On Saturday, December 3rd at the Modern Nails salon in the Hilltop Shopping Center, police say an African-American male entered the business and asked if anyone wanted to buy some diamonds.
In both cases the crooks were black and the hero's were white women.  Remember that the next time a black man wants you to give up your guns, especially if he lives in a white house.  If you come for a visit you might want to remember to say ma'am to any ladies you happen to speak to, they might be packing heat. 

1/09/2013

Two Skunks


Once upon a time there were two little skunks named "In" and "Out." They lived in a hollow tree with their mother.

Sometimes In and Out played outside, but other times they played inside.

One day In was out and Out was in. The mother skunk asked Out to go out and bring In in. So Out went out and in a few minutes he came in with In.

"My my, Out," she said, "how did you find In so quickly?"

Out just smiled and said, "Instinct."

1/08/2013

Pravda = Truth

When I was a kid the Soviet Union was a feared enemy.  Everything they believed was evil and everything we believed was good.  At least that was the way it seemed to me as a youth.  They had an official newspaper, Pravda.  It was assumed that everything that was published in it was nothing more than evil soviet propaganda, not reading Russian I found this easy to believe.  Recently a couple of items have come to my attention, among them the highest personal federal income tax in Russia is 13% and these items from Pravda:

Americans never give up your guns.
These days, there are few things to admire about the socialist, bankrupt and culturally degenerating USA, but at least so far, one thing remains: the right to bear arms and use deadly force to defend one's self and possessions.
 
 Global warming, the tool of the West.
For years, the Elites of the West have cranked up the myth of Man Made Global Warming as a means first and foremost to control the lives and behaviors of their populations. Knowing full well that their produce in China and sell in the West model and its consequent spiral downward in wages and thus standards of living, was unsustainable, the elites moved to use this new "science" to guilt trip and scare monger their populations into smaller and more conservatives forms of living. In other words, they coasted them into the poverty that the greed and treason of those said same elites was already creating in their native lands.
You read that right, not only do the Russians have lower income tax rates than us, they also publish the truth about global warming and a pro gun oped piece.  Both of the articles are by the same guy, Stanislav Mishin,  who may simple be the John Stossel of Russia for all I know.  Ask yourself, "when was the last time I saw anything like this in the New York Times, or CNN?".  Is it possible the Russians have a more free press and a better informed populace than the US too?

1/01/2013

Understanding the Question

A little better than a week ago, I brought up the Young Earth (YE) theory and the Mayan calender.  This proved to be enough for a person bravely identifying them self as "Anonymous" to go off his/her meds and lose whatever cognitive abilities they posses.  My post "This is (not) the End" was on the receiving end of some less than friendly fire.  Well all's fair on the Internet, or at least not actionable so long as you hide your identity.

As I mentioned in  my post "This is (not) the End" I hadn't realized that non-biblical source material supported a young earth dating conclusion.  If you Google: problems with evolutionary ages you can find all sorts of information on the topic.  I'm going to skip the evolutionary problems and address the part of the topic I understand best.  What I'm taking a crack at is some of the problems with Young Earth (YE) dating methods and chronologies.  You did know that there are scholastic problems with arriving at a YE date of creation that have nothing to do with evolutionary theory, right? 

The human race generally accepts certain basic elements of time keeping.  In ascending order they are seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years.  When talking about large periods of time we generally skip over the minor units minuets, hours etc and we establish larger units like decades, centuries or millennium to group large numbers of years together. Certain time units are near universal, these are; the day, week, month and year.  While each week is always made up of seven days, a month is lunar measurement spanning the time it takes for the moon to go through all its phases.  The year is the amount of time it takes the earth to make one complete orbit of the sun.  None of the three units; the week, month and year, perfectly coordinate with each other.  This creates a great deal of confusion when creating calendars and recording events.

The problem of dating gets bigger when you consider that most ancient people didn't have a calendar the way we understand the concept.  Traditionally things were dated according to events in a relational comparison.  For example, "in the third year of Darius the king, such and such happened" is one very common method of establishing a time line.  That method was all well and good, if you had a clue as to when the third year was in relation to where you are in the time line.  Very few cultures established something like a Mayan long form calendar.  A brief break down of some calendars can be found here. 

Two other difficulties come up as well.  First most civilizations made no effort to date things that happened before their time.  Roman calendars only went back to the founding of Rome.  They also were notoriously inaccurate in that they only measured part of the year.  Second, successive civilizations didn't always preserve the data of the civilization they replaced.  So record keeping often has gaps, sometimes those gaps are large.

The civil calendar we use today is the Gregorian Calendar.  This is sometimes called the Christian or Western Calendar.  One of the purposes of this calendar was to homogenize historical timeliness as well as provide a more accurate alignment of lunar and solar calendars.  Some other considerations were "fixing" the Julian Calendar and eliminating the Jewish influence in Christian beliefs.  (That was also a consideration in the Julian Calendar as well).  Even though both of these calendars are supposed to harmonize the time keeping of the Christian world, they have several issues that create errors.  Which is one of the reasons that Jesus, whose birthdate is supposed to be year zero according to Christian belief, was really born around 4 B.C. according to the Gregorian Calendar. 

Biblical dating follows the relational time keeping model common throughout the ancient world.  It gives no consideration whatsoever to the "Christian Calendar".  Jewish calendars try to present an annualized time line starting in year zero and counting forward to today (year 5773).  However in the Bible we actually have several time periods that are non-reflective of civil dating as we understand the concept today.  That makes it necessary to try to fit the events in the Bible with the civil calendar.  This creates its own problems.

The Bible covers several distinct time periods.  Those main periods are: Creation week, pre-fall, pre-flood, post flood, Abraham to captivity, the exodus, the judges, the monarchy, captivity, the restored nation, time of Christ.  For the most part one can follow the time line backwards from modern times to the time of Abraham with little difficulty.  Archaeology and non-biblical recorded history have several common points that touch multiple events and make it possible to develop a plausible time line to Abraham.  After that it gets tricky.

How tricky?  The Bible only gives three independent traceable events between Adam and Abraham to use for timeline verification.  There is also a problem of linguistics and translation, more on that latter.  The three potentially historical events traceable in the Genesis are: 1. The Flood, 2. The division of the landmass into continents and 3. The founding of Babylon and the destruction of the tower of Babal. Of those three events only one (the flood) is widely recorded throughout human experience.  While the flood is widely recorded, nobody seems to have put much thought into sticking a date on it.  The Flood is widely recognized as a historical event but most civilizations see that record as a prehistorical mythology as opposed to a fixed point in time.  Babylon and the tower of babal are historical facts, however the archaeology evidence isn't conclusive as far as fixing a solid date is concerned. 

Bishop Ussher calculated the beginning of the earth at 4004 BC, Keppler came up with 3993 BC Melanchthon had 3964 BC and Martin Luther arrived at 3961 BC.  That’s a 43 year difference (4004-3961=43). So how did that happen?   In part we don't know.  Ussher failed to keep his notes and "show his work" so we can't redo his calculations. Part of the problem comes when comparing source documents and translations. Using a Masoretic text (and operating with a certain set of assumptions) you come out closer to 4,000 BC; if you use the Septuagint you arrive at a number closer to 5,000BC.  Which is right?  We don't know.

All of these difficulties come before we address things like: day age theory (the belief that a day recorded in Genesis chapters 1 and 2 is really a long period of time), generational gap (the fact that not every generation is recorded in some ancient genealogies), the long life spans recorded pre-flood, etc.  If we take Ussher's date of 4004 BC and add 2012 to it we get an age of 6,016 years which is 243 years more than the Jews who are using the same book as the Christians to arrive at the same point in time (6,016-5773=243).  There are other Christian sources that will give dates that provide an even bigger time spread.  I use Ussher because he is the most recognized source.

For some 243 years may seem like a big deal.  However, Charles Darwin in his book: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, originally proposed something in the area of 100,000 years for the age of the universe.  I believe today evolutionists are guessing someplace in area of billions and billions of years.   Creationists have entire sets of assumptions that they are relying on as do evolutionists.  The creationist margin of error, isn't even in the same ball park as the evolutionist when you compare the orders of magnitude in terms of "fudge factor".  To me the statement that the earth is less than 10,000 years old is a rational one based on evidence from a reliable source that claims to be a firsthand account.  Do I accept this on faith?  Yes absolutely.  Every other historical statement in the book has been proven true by archeology and historical cross-reference.  Why would I suddenly decide that the first book was unreliable?

Jan 1, 2013

Happy New Year!

May you be blessed and prosper this next year.