I'm so far out of touch with Hollywood....

I had to include this quote:

The fact is: celebrity salespeople who hawk the dawning of the New Age of Aquarius aren’t serene, non-judgmental Lightworkers; they’re conflicted, knee-jerk nihilists who have too much money - and for whom “spirituality” is just another colon-cleansing weapon of mass delusion to undercut individual power, advance multicultural defeat, and help them feel better about themselves. Same card-carrying crap, different day. Zen masters? Try passive-aggressive thugs.

From this article .
I don't think I even understood half of what that guy was saying, yet I found it compelling. Couldn't stop reading. Out there man, out there.

Rap lyric of the week.

I want to turn you on and excite ya
Let me know the spot on your body and I'll bite ya
So when your man don't treat ya like he used to
I kick in like a turbo booster
You want lovin' you don't have to ask when
Your man's a headache
I'll be your aspirin

The Rant-O Meter is dialed down but still working.

Found these comments by Karl Rove pretty insightful.

Mr. Obama either had very little grasp of what governing would involve or, if he did, he used words meant to mislead the public. Neither option is particularly encouraging. America now has a president quite different from the person who advertised himself for the job last year. Over time, those things can catch up to a politician

.

It's easy to see why the Dems hate Mr. Rove so much. He's an intelligent and crafty adversary. Hope we have more like him in the future.

Rap lyric of the week.

The whole swap meet went crazy
I'm sockin' more fools than Patrick Swayze
Toss a mess of fake Louie in the trunk
Hit the gas and the tach just sunk

This stream is desensitized.

I guess I'm walking around shell shocked. There is so much to have posted about in the last 3 weeks. I'm having a hard time getting motivated. It's ALL crazy.
The President of the United States of America guarantees your muffler. The Prez is bowing to a Saudi King (Where's Michael Moore? Didn't he argue President Bush was in league with these same Saudis? BHO is bowing? What's that you say? That wasn't a bow? WTF?). Trillions in federal spending goes by as the taxpayers watch. Trillions. Remember when President Bush was a complete failure for running a deficit? Heck, his was only a few hundred Billion. Radical Islamists aren't "Terrorists", the returning vets are! And by the way, we should privatize veteran health care to cut costs, but nationalize health care for the rest of us to cut costs. Did you see the First Lady? Wasn't that a nice sweater she was wearing? Oh yeah, I forgot the whole Bill of Attainder fiasco and AIG, which was engineered and signed off on by the President's guy, the admitted tax cheat. You know, the greatest expression of patriotism, paying taxes? Or was that dissent? Well, paying taxes is only patriotic if you're the party out of power or about to be appointed to a Cabinet level position. Otherwise, Katy bar the door and get a good/incompetent accountant. Hmmm, it's patriotic for YOU to pay taxes. Yeah, that's the ticket. By the time you finish reading this, another couple of trillion just went out the door. Great.
Events are so Fast and Furious, you can't even catch you breath.

The Government is Firing Private Sector Employees.

Yes, I get that these companies accepted government money (which I was vehemently opposed to), but still. Hello Central Planning? Capitalism going down man.

Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.), probably the most knowledgeable man in Congress about the car bailout, and someone who argued months ago in favor of a pre-planned government-sponsored bankruptcy for GM and Chrysler, calls the Wagoner firing “a major power-grab by the White House on the heels of another power-grab from Secretary Geithner, who asked last week for the freedom to decide on his own which companies are ‘systemically’ important to our country and worthy of taxpayer investment, and which are not.” Corker calls this “a marked departure from the past,” “truly breathtaking,” and something that “should send a chill through all Americans who believe in free enterprise.”

From Larry Kudlow on NRO (link)

Chilling indeed.

I mentioned my support of the bankruptcy option at a Christmas party and was surprised by the acerbic reaction from a normally sweet and lovable school teacher. As Kool Moe Dee said, "How ya like me now?"
Now, what about the $14 billion doled out since then? Eh, easy come, easy go.

Education is important?

Remember this when the current administration and the Left in general discuss the importance of education. While sending their kids to private schools. Nice. (The context is a comment from Mitch McConnell and the omnibus spending bill that just passed. Again, nice.)

Chief among them is a proposal to terminate a program that gives scholarships for private schools to low-income children in Washington, D.C. Established in 2004, the District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship Program helped 1,700 D.C. students attend private schools last year at a fraction of the cost of what the city spends per pupil on public education. The popularity of this program is beyond dispute: For every available opening, the city receives four applications. Yet an amendment to preserve it, proposed by Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, failed on a party-line vote. It’s hard to see how Democrats can match their rhetoric with their actions when voting to terminate a program that gives inner-city kids the same educational opportunities that middle-class and affluent students enjoy.

Couple a billion here, couple a billion there, soon we're talking about real money.

Check this link. Wow.

Name this President.

"The worst deficit comes from a recession and if we can take the proper actions at the proper time, this can be the most important step we can take to prevent another recession. That is the right time for a tax cut. A creative tax cut, creating more jobs and income and eventually more revenue. Across the board top to bottom in both corporate and personal income taxes. The billions of dollars it will place in the hands of the consumers and our businessmen will have both immediate and permanent benefits to our economy. Every dollar released from taxation will help create a new job and new salary. These new jobs and new salaries and other new jobs and salaries. And more customers and more growth for an expanding American economy."

This stream looks toxic.

Maybe I can get some "stimulus" money and declare this stream an EPA Superfund site?

Can't get away from the negativity and the new administration. It's mostly driven by the derangement demonstrated by the Left during President Bush's terms. How do you have a serious discussion with people comparing the President and Hitler?

At any rate, here goes:

Didn't Stephen King say something to the effect that if President Bush didn't consider waterboarding torture, why not let the Bush daughters be waterboarded? I know I posted it here before.

Well, I've been looking and I have yet to see any official statement from Mr. King about the education of President Obama's daughters. I saw this:

As with the Clintons, Obama so earnestly believes in public school education that he sends his girls to ... an expensive private school. He demands that taxpayers support the very public schoolteachers he won't trust with his own children.

Thank you Ann Coulter for reminding me of the enlightened left and their total lunacy for the last 8 years.

Biting commentary on a President's work ethic.

Remember how the Left (I don't even say MSM anymore, it's all the same, isn't it?) lampooned President Bush for going to bed early? What about the new guy?

I just wonder how pleased the citizens were to hear that in these trying times, when few can afford a family vacation, that the Obamas have already taken two at taxpayer expense.

Yes, a weekend at Camp David was not enough of a rest for the First Family. They required a weekend in Chicago in order to celebrate Valentine's Day this past weekend. It would seem that Michelle was not satisfied with the White House chef that she hand picked to cook for her for the next four years so after just a brief ride on Air Force One, the Ones found themselves snuggling in a corner booth at a swanky restaurant in their home town.

Under normal circumstances, I do not imagine that anyone would begrudge the Obamas a weekend in Chicago, but these are far from normal circumstances. According to the President, a failure to quickly pass his stimulus package would have resulted in catastrophe for the country. And Congress diligently obeyed the Messiah and passed the 1100 page bill without time to even read it. Hence, it must have been that Obama pulled a muscle in his signing hand while playing basketball the previous weekend at Camp David because wheels up on Air Force One occurred after the plan was passed by Congress but without the President's signature.

The Obama's have never truly experienced hard work despite their rhetoric requiring the citizens of the country to prepare themselves for years of it (someone has to earn a living and pay taxes so that the Obamas will be able to vacation at whim and elaborately celebrate superfluous holidays).

The extravagances that the Obamas have enjoyed in their first few weeks in office are turning into the bitter pill that the rest of the hard working Americans will have to swallow over the next four years. Americans are losing their jobs, being warned of impending catastrophe and the Obamas are acting like self-entitled royalty. They have yet to earn their position as First Family, let alone the perks that go along with it.

Get ready for the sequel to Obama's autobiography "The Audacity of Hope." At this rate it will be called "The Audacity of Laziness."

Find the whole article over at American Thinker. Link here.

Nerd alert funny.

The Spendulus is insane. I'm sorry that my kids are going to have to pay this back. There are actually three things you can count on: Death, Taxes and the government can always get bigger. Great.

PALO ALTO, CA - An international mathematics research team announced today that they had discovered a new integer that surpasses any previously known value "by a totally mindblowing shitload." Project director Yujin Xiao of Stanford University said the theoretical number, dubbed a "stimulus," could lead to breakthroughs in fields as diverse as astrophysics, quantum mechanics, and Chicago asphalt contracting.

"Unlike previous large numbers like the Googleplex or the Bazillionty, the Stimulus has no static numerical definition," said Xiao. "It keeps growing and growing, compounding factorially, eating up all zeros in its path. It moves freely across Cartesian dimensions and has the power to make any other number irrational."

Full article here.

Irony so thick you can taste it.

Leaders and Best.

Check the punk move at 1:30. Nice.

Is this a great time or what?

From the internets:

Obama's Victory--A British view
A victory for the hysterical Oprah Winfrey, the mad racist preacher Jeremiah Wright, the US mainstream media who abandoned any sense of objectivity long ago, Europeans who despise America largely because they depend on her, comics who claim to be dangerous and fearless but would not dare attack genuinely powerful special interest groups. A victory for Obama-worshippers everywhere. A victory for the cult of the cult. A man who has done little with his life but has written about his achievements as if he had found the cure for cancer in between winning a marathon and building a nuclear reactor with his teeth. Victory for style o ver substance, hyperbole over history, rabble-raising over reality.

A victory for Hollywood , the most dysfunctional community in the world. Victory for Streisand, Spielberg, Soros, Moore, and Sarandon. Victory for those who prefer welfare to will and interference to independence. For those who settle for group think and herd mentality rather than those who fight for individual initiative and the right to be out of step with meager political fashion.

Victory for a man who is no friend of freedom. He and his people have already stated that media has to be controlled so as to be balanced, without realizing the extraordinary irony within that statement. Like most liberal zealots, the Obama worshippers constantly speak of Fox and Limbaugh, when the vast bulk of television stations and newspapers are drastically liberal and anti-conservative. Senior Democrat Chuck Schumer said that just as pornography should be censored, so should talk radio. In other words, one of the few free and open means of popular expression may well be cornered and eaten by bullies who even in triumph cannot tolerate any criticism and opposition. A victory for those who believe the state is better qualified to raise children than the family, for those who prefer teachers' unions to teaching and for those who are naively convinced that if the West is sufficiently weak towards its enemies, war and terror will dissolve as quickly as the tears on the face of a leftist celebrity. A victory for social democracy even after most of Europe has come to the painful conclusion that social democracy leads to mediocrity, failure, unemployment, inflation, higher taxes and economic stagnation. A victory for intrusive lawyers, banal sentimentalists, social extremists and urban snobs.

Congratulations America !

Retail Insanity (or a clear case of he who hesitates is lost. Depends on your perspective).

I freely admit that I made a mistake. I had several opportunities to purchase a snow blower earlier this winter. I had one in my hand, and in a moment of financial panic, let it go.

But, seriously, the big box stores are now stocking lawn mowers? Lawn mowers? We talkin' about lawn mowers? It's January. In the Upper Midwest/Great Lakes. Nobody is going to be cutting grass for 3 months, at the earliest. I need a snow blower now. What is the deal? Who makes these decisions? What is the sound reasoning behind this policy?

Maybe this country can't spend it's way out of this "financial crisis" because people can't buy the products they actually need (leave the internet and speedwaysales.com outta this. I have a strong aversion to having an item this large shipped and the price is still pretty steep).

I wonder how many people are turned away. After foolishly convincing themselves that shoveling is healthy and better for the environment or not buying a snow blower in July and decide to go the store to get one, only to find it's not possible.

Unreal.

This video is amazing.

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

What's up, Chuck?

An open letter to Charles Barkley:

Charles, what's the number? You have repeatedly said that 4 out of 118 black coaches is wrong. I agree, but what's the number? How many black coaches should there be? You say that White America has to reach out of the box and hire somebody that doesn't look like them. Racism isn't just a white people problem, Chuck. Unless you want to always be able to play the race card. It's disingenuous to go on tv and radio and suggest that white people only hire people that look like them. That seems to be a human being problem, not just a white people problem.
I applaud your effort to address racism in America. I rebuff your effort to make this about white people.

Hilarious.

Is the fate of automotive industry THAT important?

"...Greatest deliberative body" as in "Greatest Show on Earth?"

It doesn't seem the Congress persons on the Senate Banking and House Finance Committees think so. It was embarrassingly comedic when it was Major League Baseball (see previous post) but since it continues, it is appalling. Government by the people means we are governed mostly by idiots. Then again, maybe we mostly ARE idiots. I guess these people get elected somehow. Serious people should be outraged at this type of behavior. As in oh, I don't know, it's important to correctly pronounce the name because it shows you're engaged, that you take this matter seriously. That you are not above something as inconsequential as pronunciation. That an issue this important requires you to actually work. Work at proper pronunciation. Work at understanding the basic economic principles involved. Work at understanding the Constitution. Work at leaving your personal biases at home and concentrating on governing. Yipes, that's a lot of work.

And to make it worse, the two Senators arguably responsible for the mortgage/credit meltdown are now going to handle this? I'm surprised they aren't telling us that the automotive industry is "fundamentally sound." As if your personal desires and opinions on automotive design should have any bearing on this decision? Is that what the people of Massachusetts think when pulling the voting lever for Mr. Frank? "I'm not sure if this guy is capable of the duties of Congressman or takes the job seriously, but man does he have great taste in cars!"

Maybe we mean "greatest" as in largest?

Autos in Wonderland [Henry Payne]

Two days of auto hearings before the Senate Banking and House Finance Committees makes a powerful commercial for limited government. Some choice moments of foot-in-mouth, tongue-in-cheek, and stupefying arrogance from America’s greatest deliberative body. . .

- Rep. Maxine Waters, (D., Calif.), didn’t even bother to do her homework on how to pronounce the name of Chrysler’s parent company, Cerberus (a Wall Street investment firm). Waters repeatedly pronounced it "Cerebus."

- "It’s just not something I’d ever want to drive," blurted out House Finance Committee Chair Barney Frank, when Rep. Shelley Moore Capito revealed that her father once owned a Chrysler wagon he nicknamed the "Chick Magnet."

- "It doesn't matter how much they say they need. What matters is: Are they going to help Florida and America by building cleaner and, thus, more fuel-efficient cars?" said green zealot Sen. Bill Nelson, (D., Fla.) who insisted that, in return for government loans, the Detroit Three stop fighting efforts by his state and 12 others (led by California) to impose their own auto emissions standards. Such a patchwork of standards are inherently unworkable and opposed by nearly EVERY manufacturer, not just the domestics, because it would necessitate selling cars under potentially 13 different state emissions standards.

- Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut called for the resignation of General Motors’ CEO Rick Wagoner saying he should “move on." Meanwhile, Dodd — the largest recipient of Freddie Mac money in the Congress, beneficiary of plum deals from subprime mortgage villain Countrywide, and a key player in watering down mortgage standards that led to the current credit crisis without which the Detroit Three wouldn’t be in the pickle they are — clings to his post as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

- "But what I think we have to put an end to is the head-in-the-sand approach to the auto industry that has been prevalent for decades now," said President-Elect Barack Obama who last year opposed a new, transformational union contract negotiated by the Detroit Three estimated to save $3.8 billion annually for GM, $2.4 billion for Ford and $2.0 billion for Chrysler.

- Sen. Richard Shelby (R., Ala.): You drove up here. Did you drive or did you have a driver? Did you drive a little and ride a little? And secondly, I guess, are you going to drive back?

Chrysler CEO Nardelli: Yes, sir. And I did have a colleague drive, and we rotated.

Shelby: What about you?

Ford CEO Mulally: We carpooled. I drove, and I'm driving back.

Shelby: You didn't carpool with him (Nardelli), did you?

Mulally: No. Carpooled with our Ford team.

Shelby: O.K. What about you?

GM CEO Wagoner: I drove with a colleague. We split it up about 50/50. We drove down yesterday and I'm going to drive back myself Friday or Saturday.