It is to laugh

Frank J. makes with teh funneh

so anyway, I had decided it was too late to post, but then I tripped over this:

President Bush should denounce "dickless wonders who crap themselves in the face of any opposition and both look and smell like a baboon's butt" and see if any Democrats get angry saying Bush was talking about them.

That's some inspired siht, right there.

I could stay up all night posting supporting links, but the Stoopid Business™ re-convenes in seven hours, so I must go.

We'll have words again soon.

Things going on

there's always more.....

so anyway, much has happened since we spoke last. The ill-fated (Babe Magnet) WindStar has been replaced with a Ford Fusion, and I am pleased so far. I'll do a review of the Fusion later, so far I have refused to view it with my "professional" Stoopid Business™ eye. It's my first new car. It's true! In forty-five plus years on this planet, I've never acquired a vehicle with single digits on the odometer. Needless to say, I'm diggin' the new car smell.

In other news, I heard a rumor that the California Supreme Court rendered a decision this week. Please hold, still checking. Right, gay marriage. It's been beat to death by everyone by now (note to self: blog it while it's fresh).

I don't particularly care about the issue. Live how you want to live. Vote, go to work, do your job, pay your taxes (I know, it sucks being a growd up), don't litter, help a brother in need, mow your lawn, don't put an El Camino up on blocks in your driveway. As long as you're not messing with me or my family, live the dream.

Doubleplusundead hit it smackly:

More than anything, I'm worried about the precedent these sorts of rulings set for other judges who may decide to restrict our liberties. Judges should not be in the business of declaring things law, but declaring if laws written by the legislative bodies are constitutional or legal. They should only be in the business of declaring laws constitutionally valid or invalid, and that is it.

Right. What he said.

Regarding the President's remarks in Israel this week, My comment is that this should have been the encore speech to the "you're either with us or you're against us" speech.

"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," the President said to the country's legislative body, "We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is –- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

Mr.President: Dude! You should have been pounding this siht for six or seven years by now. You could have used the old "crocodile / eat me last" analogy.

h/t to Drew M. over at Ace of Spades for the quote. Niiiiiice. Steve H. Graham has some thoughts, as well:

I really can't wait to see Obama negotiate with Ahmadinejad. "The President and I have reached an agreement. We will let him make all the bombs he wants, in exchange for his 'pinky swear' that he will not use them to destroy Israel or blow up American cities. If he violates his promise, I have assured him that I will be very cross with him, and I will force him to explain why he 'acted out,' in a conference call with Oprah and Dr. Phil."

With Obama, the price for violating a negotiated truce will be...more negotiations. And of course, the Iranians know nothing about negotiations. Haggling is unheard-of in the Middle East.

"Pinky swear" LOL. Am I the only one who just spewed their drink of choice all over their monitor? I thought not.

Wanna know what sucked up my Friday night bloggin' time? It was this Ragin' Dave post on the RINO's pathetic attempt to make nice with their supposed dance partners. You could read for hours, I know I did.

I reserve the right to revise and extend at a future date. But you knew that.

There's something about Tuesdays

I gotta look into this

so anyway, I've been intending to post this since last Thursday: a follow up to my post from last Tuesday on the "missing" Department of State laptops. I've been busy, OK?

As I expected, Consul At Arms has the goods on the whole fiasco. He cites Outside the Beltway and Dead Men Working to make the point.

Turns out that "losing" things is often more of an accounting issue than a real security issue.

James Joyner on the subject:

Truly bizarre. My guess is that Bruce McQuain is on the right track here and that this is more a matter of bureaucratic incompetence rather than any serious security issue. Indeed, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the computers wound up pretty much where they were supposed to go but that the system for keeping track of them is so screwed up that we’ll never know for sure.

As I said last Tuesday:

Big organizations, such as the Department of State or a ginormous Stoopid Business™ corporation occasionally loses things. It happens.

Dead Men Working hits it smackly:

They may have been in a warehouse, but nobody knew where they were, and "not knowing where they are" is the definition of "lost."

Read the whole thing(s); you can thank me later. thatisall.

Quick Question

it's been Monday all week

so anyway, I managed to blow out the transmission on the (Babe Magnet) WindStar on the way home from the office this evening, so my evening commute went from the normal 35 minutes to well over three hours. Imagine my joy.

My in-laws (to whom I would gladly give a kidney each) provided the "rescue ops" for this fiasco, and have loaned me one of their cars for the duration. Here's where my question starts:

The graciously offered car in question has (as does all of their vehicles) a particular bumper sticker that espouses a political view that is a quantum leap (several, actually) leftward from my political views. I mean, can you picture me tooling around in a Lincoln sporting an "Impeach Bush!" bumper sticker?

I thought not.

When they first installed it, I referred to it as the "Dick Cheney for President" bumper sticker. I thought it was a tremendously clever comment; my in-laws (and my wife), not so much.

What to do? Removing it is out of the question, that would be bad form in the face of such generosity. Thought the Second was to cover it with one of the Hillary! bumper stickers that TheMissus™ has "secreted" away in the laundry room cupboard.

How screwed up is that? Replacing a "Impeach Bush!" bumper sticker with a "Hillary!" sticker to appear more sane?

Fortunatly, "Obama"-labeled merchandise bursts into flame when in my presence. It's a Gift. The Force is strong within me, or some siht.

My solution was to cover the offensive slogan with tear-tape. Not familiar with the product? Picture black duct tape only about ninety-seven hundred times more sticky. A staple in The Stoopid Business™, it's horrendously over-priced for the consumer market, but us Stoopid Business™ yobs eat it up by the case-load.

Ask me again later why your next new car costs more than my first house. thatisall.
_______________________

Linked by doubleplusundead - Thanks!

The Next Right

and no, not three left turns

so anyway, Jon Henke of Q and O fame is hip deep in launching a movement.

I want to believe, I really do. I would love to see right wing activism in action. I would love to participate. Alas, I'm reminded of Frank J.'s opinion on why we don't see right wingers marching in the streets:

There are rarely large scale protests by right-leaning people on account of them having things called dignity and jobs.

Money quote from Henke:

That is not a sustainable state of affairs. The Republican Party isn't serving the Right, and the Right isn't likely to continue serving the Republican Party.

From time to time, when it becomes necessary to throw off such entrenched politicians, we must provide new guards to ensure our future security.

Go ye therefore to The Next Right and sign up. Whilst electrons are still free

Menchen Quote

and some shop-talk

Priceless, it is. I'm sure you know someone who fits Menchen's description:

The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts. He ascribes all his failure to get on in the world, all of his congenital incapacity and damfoolishness, to the machinations of werewolves assembled in Wall Street, or some other such den of infamy. If these villains could be put down, he holds, he would at once become rich, powerful and eminent. Nine politicians out of every ten, of whatever party, live and have their being by promising to perform this putting down. In brief, they are knaves who maintain themselves by preying on the idiotic vanities and pathetic hopes of half-wits.

– H. L. Mencken, Baltimore Evening Sun, June 15, 1936

Written almost 72 years ago, yet still holds true today. Just substitute "Big Oil" or "predatory lenders" for the "Wall Street werewolves" and you're good to go.

Previously posted elsewhere. I still wish I knew where I found it.....

In other (shop-talk) news, I'm adopting the practice of updating posts with a reciprocal link to whomever links to a SupplySidePolitics 2.0 post. Q and O started doing this recently (albeit sporadically), and I think I can speak for all us "unsuccessful bloggers" out there: we really appreciate the mention. When one's weekly traffic is measured in (small) multiples of tens, seeing an extra couple of dozen hits does the bloggin' heart some good.

So, if you link to a SupplySidePolitics 2.0 post, leave a mention in the Comments or shoot a quick e-mail to me at heywoodblogger at yahoo dot com (you know the drill) and I'll update my post accordingly.

In all my free time, I plan on making this policy retroactive, and putting up reciprocal links to all the previously linked posts from the past (almost) four years. Insert your own "when flaming pigs fly" joke here.

that, I think, is all. More soon,

Tuesday, 06 May 2008

what? It's Tuesday again already?

so anyway, I saw this yesterday over at Q and O, now tonight Consul-at-Arms has picked it up. Looks like the Department of State has had some laptops gone missing. Quoting from the source material:

"Hundreds of employee laptops are unaccounted for at the U.S. Department of State, which conducts delicate, often secret, diplomatic relations with foreign countries, an internal audit has found.

As many as 400 of the unaccounted for laptops belong to the department’s Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program, according to officials familiar with the findings."

Always the optimist, I take this at face value:

“Unaccounted for” does not necessarily mean the laptops have been lost. But they are “missing” until they have been found or otherwise accounted for.

Big organizations, such as the Department of State or a ginormous Stoopid Business™ corporation occasionally loses things. It happens. McQ sums up the contrast between "public" and "private" concerns:

Apparently no policies or procedures which procured and secured laptops that gave the Department a way to keep up with who had them and whether they were secure.

I have to wonder what would happen to the person in the corporation I work for, and which provides me with a laptop, if this same problem existed. Well really I don't have to wonder, but I do wonder what will happen to the person or persons responsible for this particular mess.

My guess - nothing.

I don't have to wonder, either. McQ's closing comment is spot on, and unless I am mistaken (which has happened, it's true!) is his whole point:

Another, in a long line of examples, of why you really don't want government running anything in your life.

Late, tired. We'll have words again soon, I'm sure.
__________

Linked by doubleplusundead and Consul At Arms - Thanks!

Tuesday Night thoughts

it's half past the blues, as the song goes

so anyway, it may be half past the blues, but it's also a quarter to bed, so I'll be brief.

First, Kim du Toit brings us the Quote of the Day. I first read it without the appropriate "context" and thought it was spot on. As it turns out, it was some poor leftard's weak attempt at snark. The quote is as follows:

“It might as well be the public policy in Virginia that if you’re not a convicted felon, we want you armed to the teeth.”

I agree with Kim: this is excellent public policy. Implement immediately, please. Nationwide. THX

Kim also mentions the "feel-good" story of the day, about the one good reason why everyone should be armed.

Steve H. Graham of Hog on Ice fame fleshes it out:

It's a perfect example of how privately held guns are supposed to work. A criminal has a concealed weapon, and he uses it to commit a crime. A law-abiding permit holder surprises him with a legal firearm. The criminal loses.

If not for the armed manager and assistant manager, two or more innocent people might be dead today. Instead, the system scooped a troublemaker off the streets. Added bonus: every dirtbag in the vicinity of this store will know about the guns, and when they decide to rob business in order to buy drugs, they'll cross this grocery off their list. And decent people will know it's a relatively safe place to shop.

Concealed carry is a wonderful thing. Open carry would be better, but it seems like Sigmund Freud was involved in the drafting of our permit laws, because concealed is the rule. When you go about your business with a weapon at your disposal, you have tremendous peace of mind, because you know the odds that you will be harmed by a criminal are much, much lower than they ordinarily would be. You can't use it to end arguments or to prevent people from being rude to you, as Mr. Grant should have known, but you stand a very good chance of preventing yourself and those around you from being injured, raped, robbed, or killed.

Righteous, brother.

More soon. thatisall.

Energy Bills

or T-notes. I gets confused.

so anyway, Al over at Cold Fury unloads on the recent "Energy" bill signed into law by the President:

For several years I’ve defended Bush’s basic adult human qualities. In spite of numerous fuckups, I’ve always thought that liberal and leftist criticism of him as a mental defective was off-base.....

That’s what I thought, anyhow.

In the wake of today’s announcement - Bush’s second straight combination corporate giveaway / abortion of an energy policy plan - I’m now pretty sure that I’ve been wrong all along.....

In case you missed it, we suddenly picked up an assload of momentum toward turning into a second rate socialist shithole over the last year or two.

Read the whole thing. The taste alone does not satisfy.

Sigh. To think of all the blood, sweat, and tears we endured to get GWB elected in the first place; and the re-doubling that effort in 2004, to get crap like this? Not to mention "No Child Left Behind", Harriet Meirs, Dubai Ports, "Comprehensive Immigration Reform", et al. The list goes on and on.

Disillusioned much? Yes, thank you. And I've had quite my fill.

I reserve the right to revise and extend at a future date. But you knew that....

19 April: Two Anniversaries

for all you students of history out there

so anyway, today, 19 April is a day to be celebrated, as well as a day of infamy.

First, 19 April 1775. Dale Franks of Q and O fame recounts the backstory on the midnight ride of Paul Revere and the "shot heard 'round the world":

Today is an important day in American history. It is not, oddly, a day we commemorate in any particular way. But April 19th, 1775, is the day American independence truly began. Because today is the day the country began fighting for it.

Do go read the whole thing. Fascinating stuff, that.

Second, 19 April 1995. Dave in Texas over at Ace of Spades reminds us that today is the anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City:

This morning, at 9:02 CDT, people in Oklahoma City paused to remember the victims of this day, thirteen years ago.

Which is a good and fine thing to do.

One hundred and sixty eight people. 19 of them were children in a day care center.

Horror. And heartache.

As fair warning, Dave's post includes the iconic picture of that day in Oklahoma City thirteen years ago. Eerily similar to another iconic photo....

More soon

Dextrosphere Round-up, Minimalist-style

a few post to print out and leave on the water-cooler

so anyway, it looks like Sen. Obama developed a case of foot-in-mouth disease recently. The MSM swallowed his explanation, but those pesky vast right wing conspiracy bloggers just won't let it go.

Let the snark begin. Ace is all over this, going Full Circle and then some. Click-n-scroll, people.

McQ of Q and O fame analyzes the hyperbole, and comes up with some not-so-obvious (to the average MSM consumer) angles:

Obama's definitely right that the voters of PA are frustrated, but not at all for the reasons he thinks. They're as frustrated with government being involved in things it shouldn't be. And they're equally frustrated with the constant failure of government to do what they consider to be its legitimate job, such as controlling immigration. They're tired of bureaucrats and politicians running every aspect of their lives. They're tired of the constant erosion of their rights and freedoms. If you want to know why guns are important to these people consider the size of government and its intrusiveness and the answer becomes plain to see. And what does a politician like Obama promise? Even more intrusion.

Mike, the host over at Cold Fury, does it up right. This is how a proper blog post is done. Outstanding. Steyn, McQ, Ace, Geraghty, Malkin all brought together in one post. Well done, Sir.

Wrapping up, Stephen "VodkaPundit" Green puts Senator and Mrs. Obama's elitism up on a tee and whacks it good:

Not meaning to quote John Mellencougar, but I grew up in a small town, and I’ll tell you something else those folks don’t like, senator. They don’t like being told that they’re rubes by a city slicker, they don’t like being told that they’re racists because they think unlimited illegal immigration might not be the greatest idea, and they really don’t like being condescended to. They particularly won’t like being condescended to by a guy who hasn’t accomplished much more than graduating from law school and winning a few elections in which he effectively ran unopposed.

If there are any functioning adults among the Obamunists, they’re going to have to sit Senator and Mrs. Savior down real soon and tell them to knock this kind of elitist stuff off, or they’ll manage to whittle themselves down to the hard-core Democratic base vote and not too much else.

Bonus points to the VodkaPundit for coining the term "Obamunists". I totally "get" it, and can't wait to use it in conversation.

BTW; I've always referred to Melloncamp as "John Booger Menstrualcramp". But that's another story for another time....

A Milestone (and other semi-personal business)

The hits just keep on coming

so anyway, some time today the Supply Side Politics 2.0 hit counter recorded the 7000th hit.

Thank you, all. So very much.

I'd post the screen cap of the event, but it's on my employer's laptop and I'm not going anywhere near that vile piece of equipment until Monday morning. And then, only reluctantly.

I've seen an increase in traffic over the past couple of months; there are some larger, more successful blogs out there that have graced me with some links and a few blogroll inclusions. Thank you, very much.

It really does make this blogging hobby so much more enjoyable. I just wish my brother-in-blog was here to enjoy it.

Which brings me to my second point, the "semi-personal business". My brother-in-blog. (Sigh)

His last post was on 09 April 2005. He's a busy man, a fellow traveler in The Stoopid Business™, with twice the number of kids. He gets enormous amounts of slack. If he says he doesn't have time to post, I take him at his word. My secret opinion is that I posted something that was so disagreeable to him that he traded in his blogging shoes, but for the life of me, I can't imagine what it was, and he's not sayin'.

As I said somewhere before: I'd paraphrase Merle Haggard's classic Misery and Gin, but I can't find anything that rhymes with "cheap vodka" so I'll just let it go. You can expect adjustments to the side-bar. thatisall.

Seven Thousand. That is cool. Again, Thank You Very Much.

Quick Post

just as I was about to shut this thing down

so anyway, my brother Kim du Toit's post over at Geopoliticus on the (pardon the pun) weapons-grade stupid idea of "ammunition coding technology" is a must read.

More soon.

Catching Up

it's been a very long short week

so anyway, despite having Monday off, the past week was the longest short week in captivity. Brutal, it was. A friend was made redundant by the Stoopid Business™, and odds are tremendous that another friend (and fellow blogger) will experience the stainless steel hook of unemployment on Monday. The beatings will continue until morale improves.

We're all busy people here, so let's get right to it. McQ of Q and O fame put up an outstanding post entitled "Obama, Big Oil and Fun with Charts". This is must read material. I've been meaning to blog about this ever since I read it on Wednesday. The third chart down the page made my heart swell with pride: all these other industries actually making money, but us in the Stoopid Business™ ( that would be "Motor Vehicles and Parts") are just giving it away, hand over fist.

McQ introduces us to one Jason Grumet, a "key advisor" to Senator Obama on energy and environmental issues:

Grumet, head of the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center in addition to advising the Obama campaign, said the oil industry had "concentrated incredible market power in a small number of companies" in a way that caused alarm.

"Senator Obama has a deep concern that the consolidation of the industry — these national mergers, you know, that were allowed under both Clinton and Bush administrations — are a cause for some concern," he said.

He said an Obama administration would examine "whether these mergers and consolidations have decreased competition in a way, concentrated market power in a way, that is undermining to consumers."

Grumet declined to identify specific companies and would not comment on whether Obama would seek to break up dominant players. Leading U.S. oil firms include ExxonMobil Corp., Chevron Corp., and ConocoPhillips.

You don't even have to do the math, people. Just go look at the charts and graphs. It's all there in black and white (and even colors!). You people have all sorts of problems with paying $3.25 for a gallon of gas, $0.25 of which is "big oil" profits; but have no problem paying roughly $10.00 for a gallon of Busch beer that carries $2.15 worth of profit for "big beer".

OK, so maybe you do have to do some math, but it's worth it.

This material will be covered on your Final Exam. thatisall

Passport-gate

much ado about not really all that much

so anyway, this whole "passport records" dust up caught my eye this week. As luck would have it, I was filling out the paperwork to have my own passport renewed when the story broke. As per my usual, I have the DS-82 all filled out, the photos ready, the check written, and my passport all stuffed into the requisite padded envelope, ready to go to the Post Office. I should get it in the mail on Monday or, with the way my life works, sometime between Monday and Flag Day. Remember, procrastination is what I do best.

I've been reading through the dextrosphere on the passport records fiasco, and realized that rather than reading the opinions of the punditry, I should go to an expert for the real deal.

After all, if you wanted to know how to make a car's Instrument Panel (that's the "dash-board" for those of you fortunate enough not to work in the Stoopid Business™) as cheap as possible, you'd come to me. That's my job: to make sure the next new car you buy is a bigger piece of siht than the one you traded in. Hey, it pays the bills and I haven't really missed my soul (much) since entering this pact.

If you want the knowledge about things concerning the State Department, you need to read Consul-At-Arms. He has all (as in, all of them) the links, replete with commentary, on this whole situation. Hit the front page and scroll and read.

CAA offers a primer on passport records and passports in general that is a must read. Here's something I bet you did not know:

Lastly, back to those passports some of you have. If you'll peek inside, you notice a couple of things. First of all, notice a blank space where a line has been provided, above which the passport bearer (that's YOU!) is encouraged to write their signature. If you haven't already done so, please sign the Blessed thing. I wish I had a nickel for every passport I've seen where the U.S. citizen hadn't yet signed it. And yet it was being presented to me and I was supposed to use it to verify the citizen's identity and, you guessed it, their SIGNATURE.

How, exactly, is that supposed to work?

So do yourself a favor and sign it; technically it's not valid until you do so.

.....the second thing you may notice in your U.S. passport is a page where you can put some emergency contact information. Please use it.

Read the whole thing. You'll be smarter for it.

There's lots more blog-worthy stuff out there, but the Easter Bunny has to make an appearance in about seven hours, so I should get some sleep. More soon.