Good Lord...

Three words.....

Victor. Davis. Hanson.

Read them all.

h/t: Gerard, out on walkabout, and looking fine for it.

A Small chapter...

...which "says volumes about our new president and the direction he is taking us".

"Every inaugurated president for the last 56 years has attended the Salute to Heroes Ball. Except one."

Gawd. This is going to be worse than I thought.

"...He got a fist bump from me."

[But I am pleased to see that Zero's evasiveness and irritation at substantive questions is drawing the media's notice.]

IDPA Range Report....

After my disappointing results at the State match last April, the summer's escalating gas prices (25 miles one-way at 15mpg and $4/gal was $13 just to get there) and my general busy-ness with our wedding last year, I ended up with months and months away from my IDPA habit.

So, after all that, when I finally got back into the game last week, I came through in the middle of the pack.

One word: Wow.

I have to give credit to this observation: I ditched my range safety glasses and shot in my prescription glasses. Actually being able to--you know--focus on the front sight does tend to get the shots closer to where I had intended them to go. Who knew?

I've been thinking I may change....

....my nom-de-internet to: The Patriot.



'Cuz, you know, (and a point I made very recently on That-Forum-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named), dissent is patriotic.

Geithner's Excuses.....

"A common mistake. I didn't know."

"Turbotax made me do it."

[Turbotax: "Oh no we didn't."]

Up next: The dog ate my homework. Really.

Hey! Lookee that!....

It appears that I'm in good company!

"Its getting a little 'cult-y'..."

Really? She's just now noticing this?



h/t Glenn. Of course.

Wow...

I'm getting a great number of hits today to my humble blog ("great" for my largely unread blog, at least), most of which are coming in via that Radar "What's So Scary about Michelle Obama" picture I used a while back.

For those that stay around a while: Welcome. You can read the broad outline of who I am in the sidebar. Other than that, I don't share much personal information.

I am particularly proud of this post, written a while back, but now perhaps something we will be addressing again. Also, a more recent post on the USAirways "Miracle on the Hudson" can be found here.

I hope you enjoy the place.

Shipping rates hit zero....

Via Glenn, I see this story. I know I commented last fall--somewhere--on the Baltic Dry Index, and think I blogged about it here, but now can't find it.

Shipping is in trouble. In a global economy, this means trouble. Obviously, we've got our troubles here. But others are being pinched too. The Baltic Dry Index has fallen off a cliff.



How we get out of this--peacefully--is a large question.

More on the Cult of Personality....

H.J.RES.5

Whoooo Hooooo! A Permanent President! What could possibly go wrong?

h/t: Purple Avenger over at Ace's Place.

Required Reading Not Yet Read....

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

[Admitting the obvious here....I don't read as much as I used to and no where near as much as I should. I have two correspondence courses laying mostly untouched, and a related, and very technical book only just begun. I am finding at this stage in my life that my interest in viewing the political world through the intertubes combines with my concerns over the continuing damage to the economy (and the social implications falling from this) which leave me with little time and/or energy for reading. I really ought to read Atlas Shrugged, but I should really finish all sorts of things. So much to do; So little time.]

What prompted this, however, was this Stephen Moore article which I've seen referenced:

'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years

FWIW, I was born the same year that Rand published Atlas Shrugged.

Obama-mania....

Today I write about the mania focused on Barack Obama.

I have written earlier about the cult of personality surrounding him. Oprah called him "The One", Farrakhan called him The Messiah. The Grecian columns at his inauguration. His logo. The Stalin-esque imagery. His fake "Office of the President-Elect". The coins. And more coins. The T-shirts. The thongs.

Today on my New Orleans walkabout, I saw Obama buttons, placemats, refrigerator magnets.

The media has fallen head over heels for him. They're covering his train-ride like it was Armstrong landing on the moon.

This cult of personality is a very bad thing. Not looking at our leaders critically is a huge mistake.

Thoughts on USAirways 1549.....

While it may be interesting to a number of people, I've never thought of my life as an airline pilot as particularly interesting (and certainly not heroic). I don't often write of my airline life because in many ways, it is just a job, and if I do it well, it is a very boring job. An exciting day at work usually means something bad has happened. More exciting=More bad.

Obviously, Captain Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III did everything perfectly. What is only now becoming obvious to most is that so did his crew.

The World assumes that I know how to fly my airplane within the envelope that it can be flown. My FAA and my company assume this; My passengers assume this; My crew assumes this; and most importantly--I assume this. Like everyone else in your own work, I have my good days and my bad days, but I always know that everyone assumes, at a minimum, that I can operate the machine.

However, the biggest job an airline captain has is not with operating the machine, but rather in leading his crew.

I work with some of the most capable First Officers I can imagine. "First Officers" is really a misnomer. A more apt title would be "Co-Captain". With very few exceptions, these guys are capable of making each decision that I am called on to make.

But I don't always agree with these guys. Some of them are liberals and want all the things that liberals want. Some of them are bitter about all the changes we have seen in our profession. There are those who walk around with "baggage" (no pun intended). I don't even like some of them.

However, I always have to find a way to work with these guys. It is up to me to form The Team.

A couple of anecdotes...

When I was in the military flying C-130s, I had one of my last trips as a copilot with an Aircraft Commander (the guy in charge) with a guy named "Steve". Steve was a nice enough guy...a little "different", but not overtly unpleasant. I went to college with Steve. However, Steve was fairly regimented. If there were five acceptable techniques to accomplish a given task, most guys will watch another perform that task and think: "OK. That's not the way I might have done it, but it worked none-the-less." Not Steve. If Steve had a technique, it meant that he wanted you to use it. It didn't matter to Steve if you wanted to do things another way. It was his way or the highway.

Anyhoo, I launched off on this six-day trip with Steve, and we weren't airborne 20 minutes and he had the entire crew alienated. Each of us spent the next 6 days doing our jobs and no more. There was little conversation, and there was no way I was going to cover for a mistake that Steve was about to make. Likewise the Nav (navigator) and the Flight Engineer and the Loadmaster. We were on the same airplane, but we were not a crew.

This was all Steve's fault.

Second anecdote....

I am not tooting my own horn here. Really.

On one of my last Tactical flights as a C-130 A/C, I picked up a load of Navy SEALs to bring them up to our dropzone for some parachute practice for them and us. We got to practice delivering paratroopers--they got to practice jumping out of a plane. For a number of reasons, the dropzone was located right next to the runway at Clark AB--as in less than a mile from the end of the runway. Our procedures had us calling the tower for entry into the airport area before the airdrop. The plan that day was fly a low level to get to the dropzone and then to make about 4 passes over the dropzone, each time dropping out 4-6 SEALs. After each drop, we'd make a left hand turn to fly a "race-track" pattern to set up for the subsequent group. The run in for the airdrop was on a heading converging with the runway centerline at about 30 degrees.

Anyhoo, seconds after the first group was clear of the left troop door, my #2 engine (inboard engine on the left wing) just quit. And quit hard. This was my first airborne engine failure, and I had always expected that an inboard engine failure would be felt as a loss of thrust, but not that much of a yaw. This failure came to me as both.

An engine which fails will often fling parts of itself all over the place. The engines are designed to spew those parts into the airflow which will take the exploding parts aft of the plane. One of my initial concerns (which, thankfully, turned out to be baseless) was that parts of this failing engine might have injured the SEALs who had just jumped out the door only feet from the engine that had just failed. There really wasn't much I could do about it, but it was a concern none-the-less.

My next concern was getting this airplane on the ground. As it turns out, we were less than 2 miles from the end of the runway.

And I'll tell you folks, it was simply amazing to watch my crew work.

The Loadmaster got the remaining jumpers back into their seats and ready for landing. Once we had "caged" the engine, he scanned it for any other issues. The Flight Engineer and Co-pilot were the busiest. They had emergency checklists and normal landing checklists to run in a very, very compressed time frame.

And they got it done. All of it. For me, it was a piece of cake. All I had to do was fly the plane. It was they who were doing all the work. They were the real heros.

Prediction: When we do finally hear what "Sully" has to say about his water landing, I predict he will say much the same thing. I know that his crew--the now named First Officer Jeff Skiles, and the Flight Attendants--did far more than the public is now aware of to make this episode into a "Miracle on the Hudson" the miracle that it was. "Sully" will get the credit, but if I'm right, it is the crew which deserves it.

Water landings....

Gawd, I hate that term. [And Double-Gawd, do I wish Blogger had a strike text feature.] The end of USAirways 1549 was not a "water landing". This is a "water landing".



What "Sully" did was "crash-an-unpowered-airplane-on-the-water-and-have-everyone-live". That doesn't fit well into a newspaper column, but it is far more the truth than "water landing".

Birds...

As the public is now becoming aware of, birds are a problem in aviation. They have been since Orville Wright first flew a plane.

As a professional pilot, bird strikes are part of my life. They don't happen every day, but neither are they unheard of. Most bird strikes are benign events which require little more than an inspection by a mechanic who will then send us on our way. The .gov does keep records on these things, so there is a birdstrike form which facilitates this.

I can't tell you how many bird strikes I've had. As I said, most are benign. My most eventful bird strike was on a C130 takeoff from Pohang during Team Spirit '85. I took a duck in the #2 engine on takeoff roll, and it took us out of the Pohang Air Races.

However, as US1549 illustrates, birdstrikes do occasionally create significant, and sometimes catastrophic damages.

A couple of videos....









Preparations for emergencies...

A long, long time ago, I wrote a Small Cautionary Note on the need to be ready to evacuate a plane. That Caution still stands.

Folks, if you've read this far, I don't care how experienced a traveler you are, the same basic recommendation applies: Pay attention to the safety video/demonstration. Pull out the safety card in the seat pocket and look at it. Look around for the nearest emergency exit. Count the number of rows to that door. Then do the same for the exit in the opposite direction. Take a moment to touch that flotation device under your seat. Is it in a box or a pouch?

Before you get dressed to go to the airport, ask yourself: "If I were in an emergency today, would these clothes/shoes help me or hurt me?"

For as rare as airline accidents are, you have to assume that it can happen on any day.

Be Prepared.

Peter Schiff....

...Scores a shack.



h/t: Theo.

Yep.

What Dennis Miller said.....

If McCain had won, this would not stand....

Look, folks. I am a conservative libertarian. I don't apologize for that. There is far too much about Bush's Compassionate Conservatism that I did not like. But as a wartime President, I think--and disagree with many other conservative libertarians on this point--that Bush's foreign policy has been nearly perfect. Churchillian.

Of course, there is almost no topic for me to agree with Obama.

That said, I do not wish him to fail. While I may disagree with his every decision, for the sake of the country, I don't want him to stumble.

But had a Republican tried this stunt, it would never stand.

Obama has already lost Richardson (rightly). On her merits, Clinton should have probably gone too, but because of her name, she will be confirmed. I'd like to see Holder go too.

Some may say that Geithner's tax problem is no big deal, and that in the interest of allowing Obama to get on with his administration, and especially for a SecTreas in the middle of a horrible economy in recession, after the Senate touches him up a bit, they should confirm him.

I disagree.

We're talking about a tax problem from the Secretary of the Treasury, for chrissakes. And not just a SecTreas-nominee. A former Governor of the Federal Reserve. Of New York--center of the financial world. Imagine a nominee for head of the EPA having a "forgotten" arrest for polluting or a draft dodger named to be Secretary of Defense.

Outside the serious misgivings I've had about Obama--Ayers, Rezco, Wright, Marxism, the Chicago Way, etc.--Geithner's tax problem should be enough to cause serious questions about his fitness for the office.

Update: John, over at Powerline, in an addition to a post begun by Paul, which makes this exact point.

"[I]f Geithner were a Republican with the same tax-scofflaw record, there is not the chance of a snowball in Hell that he would be confirmed."

Biden in Iraq....

Beyond my view that Joe Biden is one of the biggest idiots on the planet, he is, none-the-less, the Vice President-Elect.

He recently went on a tour with some other Senators of the Mid-East. [The trip itself was of some small controversy.]

But what really got me was this question: Since when do those who represent us--either as a Senator or a VP-Elect--to foreign governments wear slacks and a sport coat vice a suit?

As seen on my drive into the airport the other day...

....A license plate which read....

8BB88B88

Oh, Yeah. I called it.....

"...[T]he president-elect told me that fixing our economy over the long term will require sacrifice from every American and scaling back some of his campaign promises...."

Hope!

Change!

Rainbows!

Wa, Wa, Wa, Wait a Minute.....

I was sure--No. Strike that. I was certain that Democrats were opposed to the Bush-era CIA interrogation methods.

And now, this is all forgotten? How can that be?

File this under.....

Oh. Great.

Today, I got a blog hit from Nigeria.

[Note to my Nigerian reader, if you come back: No. I'm not sending you any money.]

Oh, that we could always have....

....such problems.

h/t: The Blog-faddah, although it passed through a number of others first.

Gawd.

You just gotta love Matt Drudge.

"We'll spend our way out of this."

Who knew? Democrats are opposed to Zero's plan!

Yes. That's what is desperately needed here. An "exit strategy".

Drudge also notes that the spokes may be coming off the wheel (to use a favorite term from an internet friend). I can't find it now, but I ran across an article yesterday making the point that the US consumer is tapped out on taking on more debt, and that others in the world (China, primarily) aren't willing to buy any of it.

Trouble approaches. Gotta get the new toy up and running, before The Apocolypse hits.

"People are too depressed to be sexually active,"

So give us a bailout.

h/t Ace.

This is what is wrong with this country.....

Click here. I ran across this at Powerline, and it was an ad that leads here. I don't really know how these blog ads work (I suspect that they change moment-to-moment), but it gave me pause.

Think about this: "...[A] free government grant that you don't have to pay back."

Folks, there is no such thing as "a free government grant". If you believe that there is, you also have to believe in a perpetual motion machine.

"A free government grant" gets paid by someone. It may be free to you, but its not free to us. We are taxed to provide the funds for these grants. And when you become wealthy enough to become one of us, you too will be taxed to provide a "free government grant" to someone else. And if we aren't taxed, then the Fed. or somebody will be printing money out of thin air.

"...Obama's economic team...."

"... is still working out the details of the [Stimulus] package."

Prediction: The Stimulus package (sic) that he campaigned on will not be the one he sends to Congress.

Count this as yet another....

So, anyhooo...

On that Forum-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, a question was asked as to why the Politics conference had become so boring post-election. After letting the question sit for about a week (taking a break from the place for Christmas), I posted the following....

Oh, I am far from bored. In fact, I can hardly keep myself in my bunker, clinging bitterly to that to which I bitterly cling.

This thing has become such fun entertainment that I am surprised that I did not send money earlier to The Prophet Obama (PBUH). Its like your first trip to see the Three Ringed Circus...you're enjoying everything you see, and its hard to keep your eye on it all.

But to recap...

As [redacted] mentioned, in one ring we have The One's Appointments. We've got Zero's vanquished opponent (who kindly introduced us to Tony Rezko) now named as Secretary of State. Lost in the circus are the questions of how a SecState will represent this country when her husband's "...organization [has] accepted multimillion-dollar gifts from a variety of foreign governments, companies and individuals who might have an interest in United States foreign policy." Our interest then shifts to his choice for Secretary of Commerce--Gov. Bill Richardson. Richardson, as it turns out, is about to be embroiled in his own "Pay to Play" scheme. [Noooo. Say it ain't so!] And then, we see O's nominee for Attorney General, Eric Holder. Holder, you may remember, was up to his eyeballs in the Marc Rich pardon scandal. A Congressional investigation found that Holder had "played a major role, [in] steering Mr. Rich’s lawyers toward Jack Quinn, a former White House counsel.". The confirmation hearings for The One's Cabinet promise further entertainment.

And in the other ring, there is the magic act using a version of Three Card Monte entitled "Obama's Change From The Change That I Promised". Watch him shuffle the cards labelled "A Betrayal on FISA", "I Won't End The War That I Promised I'd End", and (by extension) Guantanamo Policy. Try to keep your eyes on the cards, as the Change has a habit of Changing, if you know what I mean.

But then in the center ring, we see the continuing saga of "Who to pick for the vacant Senate Seats?" The Delaware vacancy, open due to Joe Biden's new role as Vice-President Elect, will go to--get this--Biden's Chief of Staff. He, however, will only act in that position until Biden's son will return from Iraq. [Is there no one in Delaware not named Biden qualified for that seat?] But a larger drama is found (naturally) on Broadway, or, if you must be precise, on the Upper East Side. There, we find one Caroline Kennedy asking to be named to the soon-to-be vacated Clinton seat based on no qualifications what-so-ever beyond having a va-jay-jay (Stranger things have happened. Look what happened with Zero.). The woman frequently has not voted, and despite her wealth, has a very meager history of political donations. She has never been elected to anything and has a habit of losing articles of clothing while in public. The poor woman can barely complete a sentence without interrupting herself. [The Mainstream Media, exhausted as they are after searching All of Alaska for everything Palin (including, if you can believe it, 1.9 million stories on "Palin's daughter's boyfriend's mother".) cannot manage to ask the last vestige of Camelot "What ever happened to that Schlossberg guy?"]

However, the star of the center ring is none other than "HotRod" Rod Blagojevich. He, of course, has been accused of blatantly attempting to sell the Senate seat that The One is vacating. The alleged buyer of this seat was none other than Jesse Jackson, Jr., he of the Chicago Jackson's. But the bartering for the naming rights to this seat went through PEBO's Chief of Staff, Rahm "Rahmbo" Emanuel. After an indepth look at what went on, PEBO's White House Counsel, Greg Craig (Yes. There is a reason you recognize that name.) adopts a version of The Jedi Mind Trick to proclaim "There is nothing to see here. Move along." (Why didn't Scooter Libby try this?) This announcement comes on the afternoon of Dec. 23, whereupon Obama and Emanuel are immediately available for questions, if the questioner wants to go to Hawaii and Africa--but whatever you do, don't question the timing. While the Illinois legislature is still working up the nerve to impeach the scoundrel, Dingy Harry Reid has announced (in tandem with The Messiah) that the Senate will not seat whomever Blago appoints. [Stand by for a Constitutional Crisis, folks. They don't have that power.]

Oh. And as if this weren't enough, Rep. Bobby Rush--he the former Black Panther--pronounced the Obama Senate seat as "The Black Seat" in a defense of Blago's appointment of Burris.

And just who is this Roland Burris character anyway? Turns out, he, like the Chicago-based Rep. Rush, Rev. Jackson and Rev. Wright is racist too (What is it about Chicago and racists?). He's also a former lobbyist [Gasp!] and--this is delicious--once "headed a commercial group that covered government guaranteed loans and minority business banking" and is a former "National Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer for Operation PUSH" (same citation). He named both of his children--a son and a daughter--after himself. And he has erected this crypt as his entryway into the Hereafter. My, oh my. What a guy.

So, to sum up, a white governor is going to be impeached (but may not be convicted and removed from office) and probably is going to jail because he tried to sell a Senate appointment. The Democratic Senate leadership (and the half-black President) is put in the position of refusing to seat the black appointee. The Democrat-led Illinois legislature desperately wants Blago to resign so as to avoid impeachment and the exposure of all the political skeletons. Blago, absolutely the dumbest, slimiest politcian from that cesspool that is Chicago has outsmarted the whole lot of the others--his appointment will stand on his terms. And out of this whorehouse, we're lead to believe that arose one virgin. Identity politics, anyone?

No. I am not bored. The Messiah has not yet even taken office yet, and already I've had more entertainment out of this whole thing than I could have had in ten movies. I'm making popcorn.

An update to my "Center Ring": I had forgotten that the "legitimate" contender to the Clinton Senate seat was none other than Andrew Cuomo--another pol's son--who comes complete with his own Kennedy-fueled drama.

But what really is the attention-getter, and what prompted this update, is this little nugget of sunshine.

Better than a Three-Ringed Circus!

/Update.

Another Update: I oughta sue. P.J. O'Rourke steals my meme. Of course, he does it far better than I did, but that's beside the point.

/Another Update.

Ted Rall

...Obama: "...[A] terrible betrayal."

h/t: Glenn.

Jennifer Rubin asks...

...A number of good questions, the answers to which ought to bring more questions, but My Cynicism tells me that none of these questions will be asked, so as to keep The Unicorns Flying. PBUH.



h/t Glenn.

Lefties heads begin to explode like popcorn.....

You just knew that this one was coming.

"A new military plan for troop withdrawals from Iraq that was described in broad terms this week to President-elect Barack Obama falls short of the 16-month timetable Mr. Obama outlined during his election campaign, United States military officials said Wednesday...." [my emphasis]

As Tom Maguire notes, The Times buried this in their A section. I guess they see no sense in making a big deal now of the issue that seemed to be such a big deal only a few weeks ago.

I have long said that the answer to the question of "When are we leaving Iraq" is: "Never. We're not leaving Iraq. It isn't in our national interests to leave Iraq. It isn't in the interests of the West for us to leave Iraq. The stability we provide in a region that (unfortunately) is the source of much of the world's energy mandates that we stay. Like it or not."

It might be tempting to say that this was great news...

...But it's not. I hate to be a pessimist, but I think this is very bad news indeed.

Oil drops 9 percent as demand outlook overshadows OPEC

I paid $1.39 a gallon for gas last week. And, as is the case with everyone else, I like paying that a whole lot more than I like paying $4+ per gallon.

But on the day after OPEC cuts production by 2 million barrels per day, when the Price of Oil falls 9%, we're seeing our economic House of Cards fall right before our eyes.

Buckle up, kiddes. It's going to be a rough ride.

Rick Warren....

Now, in preface, I'm not all that "church-y". Neither is Mrs. Azlib. We aren't members anywhere, and don't regularly attend services anywhere. We're not even sure which denomination we are. We don't watch Sunday morning "church-tainment".

That said, a couple of years ago as part of a bookclub she was active in, Mrs. Azlib did read The Purpose Driven Life.

But it is interesting that the lefties are all up in arms over The Prophet Obama's (PBUH) selection of Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. Chapter two of America's new docu-drama: Heartbreak: The Obama Years.

Wear this betrayal like a robe, lefties. Barry's a playa', don't ya' know. You've been played.



h/t LGF.

I hate to break it to you folks, but....

If " [m]ore than nine out of ten people in Illinois think that Gov. Rod Blagojevich should resign", then that majority is going to be disappointed.

While Blago may be an obvious criminal, he is also arrogant and thinks he can beat this. But neither of these explain why he won't resign.

Blago won't resign because doing so will be to admit that the charges against him are correct. His lawyer won't let him resign. The correct thing to do will be for the Illinois legislature to impeach him. He'll be able so say that he did not quit on his own, and will then be able to fight his criminal charges as well as he can.

"Hi. I'm Ted."

So said the Governor of Ohio (Ted Strickland) as I met him and his armed escort on my flight the other day.

Other than the wiki on him, and the (D) behind his name, I don't know the first thing about him.

Edit: Another interesting item was that his Ohio State Police escort motioned to his gun being in an ankle holster. I've got a low-end ankle holster for a Walther PPK, and I hate it. For the few times that I've worn it, I'm always wondering if the damned thing is going to slip down my leg and onto the floor, and if I ever do have to get into the thing, pulling my pants leg up high enough to access the gun won't go smoothly, I guarantee it. They're more for movies and very discreet carry--so discreet that accessibility is almost impossible, if you ask me. To each, his own, though.

More Edit: This post is again exposing for me the vagaries of blogging. I can sometimes get tens and tens of readers a day, so tracking them isn't all that difficult. Today, I'm receiving a good number of my readers through this post. I wonder: Why is that, and how do you people find me?

Just sayin'. That's all.

Finally!

Something worthwhile to shoot!



H/T these guys, via Gerard.

I guess I need to start an...

..."Incredibly Bad Ideas Generated by Democrats" Label.

My first candidate...

Governor to sign union measure

Gov. Janet Napolitano is prepared to sign an executive order allowing about 25,500 state employees to select union representatives who would have a seat at the table with state officials during talks regarding employee pay, working conditions, disciplinary actions and other personnel issues.

I am reminded of Hillary's "I have a million ideas. The country can't afford them all."

There will no doubt be others to follow. We won't be able to afford those either.

Three Words...

Victor. Davis. Hanson.

Do read them all.

I agree with Gerard that Hanson's call for true courage would go something like this....

"...Real courage would have been to throw shoes at Saddam; or even to return to
Cairo and throw something at a Mubarak during a public event. That would take
singular courage and establish the integrity of the journalist as a consistent
critic of authoritarianism—and might additionally earn you a noose rather than
accolades on Arab websites...."

We've been bamboozled...

As is often the case, courtesy of Gerard.

The other shoe falls...

OK, so anyhooo, regarding this episode, and with Bush himself joking about it at an improptu press conference, and with inspiration from this comment thread, I thought I'd try my hand at blog humor. [As I have found with writing, and blogging itself, blog humor is probably more difficult than it appears, but I'll try none-the-less.]

I call this effort "Responses I'd Have Liked to Have Seen" [And some of these are stolen from the above comment thread.]

George Bush whips out a .44 Magnum and says: "[T]his is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?"

George Bush: "Who throws a shoe? Honestly. You fight like a woman."



Dick Cheney1: Blam! [Shotgun to the face.] Slide operates.

Dich Cheney2: "Awright, Motherfucker. I'm gonna wrap my dick around your neck and strangle you."

John Edwards: Ouch!

John Kerry: Yessssss! Another Purple Heart!

Al Gore: The Globe has become so warm that this poor man was forced to take off his shoes.

Condi On The Record...

I have to admit that I had higher hopes of Condoleeza Rice. I was quite a fan before she became Secretary of State, but have been disappointed with her in recent years. Maybe it has been the entrenched bureaucracy she works with at State; maybe it has been the challenges we face; maybe I've been harder than I should have been on her. I don't know which, but until recently, I have considered her as only a small step better than Colin Powell (who has gone from bad to worse, IMO).

That said, I was pleasantly surprised at the cutting defense Rice offers here of the challenges the Bush administration were left with in comparison to the ones being left for the Obama administration. A few snippets....

"... [The Bush administration] inherited a terrorism problem that had been ignored for years and allowed to grow until it exploded on 9/11...."

"...What we inherited were the failed Camp David Accords, and as a result the Second Intifada." She recalls Palestinian bombings of clubs and pizza parlors, the shelling of the Bethlehem Church of the Nativity. "Yasser Arafat was in power, stealing people blind and working with terrorists. Ariel Sharon was elected not to bring peace, but to defeat the intifada...."

"...We inherited a Lebanon with Syrian forces there for 30 years. Now, Syrian forces are out. There is a democratic government in power -- yes, being challenged by Hezbollah -- but the prime minister has survived and they've elected a president. The Lebanese army is out in the country for the first time. And," she says, "they are friendly to the United States...."

And most importantly...

"...Then? Saddam Hussein dragged the region into a war and lost over a million lives. It dragged the U.S. into war. He murdered his own people, terrorized his neighbors and sought weapons of mass destruction. Today? You have a multiethnic, multiconfessional democracy that isn't threatening its neighbors." [my emphasis]

So, I take most of it back, Condi. We are far better off as you and your boss leave office than when you took it.

Buu, Buuuu, Buuuuuttttt Wait.....

I thought we wanted "Dialogue with Iran".

Now, PEBO (PBUH) is saying that we "will offer Israel a 'nuclear umbrella' against the threat of a nuclear attack by Iran".

Now that he's been elected, he's every bit the warmonger than Chimpy McBushHilterHalliburton is.

Blogo-post...

Just yesterday, I said to my F/O that Barry's CrackBerry addiction, may, if he hasn't taken the advice to turn the damned thing off, and if he hasn't been careful, lead to fingerprints pointing towards the developing Blogo-gate.

Courtesy of....

....Gerard, and with apologies to Glenn, one word: Heh.

The D's and the media are desperately (break) dancing to protect The Prophet Obama (PBUH) from any of this, but I cannot believe that a guy with Zero's thin resume could rise in Chicago machine politics without being touched somehow by this corruption. He'll be answering Blogo questions for some time.

Backwardation...

Caveat: I am a guy now 33 years beyond my Econ 101/102 courses in which I got C's, if I remember right. I'm no economic expert...I barely understand a fraction of this stuff.

But I do know that this sort of thing scares the pants off me.

Backwardation

From what I can gather, the core of our monetary system (and that of others around the world) has just rotted through completely. Nobody who has gold is selling it. Our fiat currency is fatally ill, and the means of an individual protecting oneself is now gone.

That said: I'm buying ammo and ammo components.

And one other thing...

Not surprisingly, they're now calling for Blogo to resign. That would be the right thing to do, and there is a Lt. Governor there who could immediately step in, but the original question still remains: Who will be Illinois' junior Senator?

They're talking about having some sort of special election to fill this seat. The problem I have here is that there is already a process for filling that seat, and a special election isn't part of that. The Governor appoints the new Senator. The thinking is that whoever takes that seat would be tainted by this scandal, so who wants it?

I say that if the IL System is corrupt, then they should sleep in the bed that they have made. Don't make shit up just to keep from further embarrassing the Party.

I may have been born at night....

....But not last night.

Obama's Campaign Manager, David Axelrod, on Obama and Blagojevich and the question of who ought to be appointed as his successor.....

"I know he's talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them."

Now that would make emminent sense.... I don't care if it is corrupt Cook County, or a bunch of Mormoms from Utah: A senator ought to have an opinion on who ought to be appointed to the office to which he was elected but has now moved on from, and he ought to share those thoughts with his state's governor.

But that was way back on November 23. Today, after Blagojevich's scandal broke, the Axe and O show are singing a completely different tune. Axe....

"I was mistaken when I told an interviewer last month that the
President-elect has spoken directly to Governor Blagojevich about the Senate
vacancy. They did not then or at any time discuss the subject."

I don't know whether Obama or any of his team knew of the shakedown that Blago was attempting to run. It would be somewhat naive to think that an Illinois politician might have never heard of such a thing, but at this point there is no evidence to believe that O was part of the (alleged) corruption. But The One has a history of blaming staffers, or saying he or others had mispoke when their previously-uncontroversial statements came up to bite them. And when you couple this with the thing that is really, REALLY grating on me--that the YouTube of the Axe interview is now no longer available (thrown down the Memory Hole, no doubt)--you'll pardon me if my Suspicious Spidey-Sense is tingling.

There is something else going on here. Something that the O-bots, the Chicago Machine, and the press don't want us to dig into. The thinking now is that "Senate Candidate Number 5" is none other than Jesse Jackson, Jr (which would explain Jesse Jackson's tears in Grant Park). I also can't help but remember that Rahm ("Rahmbo") Emanuel is also a Chicago politician of some note. I can only speculate that Emanuel was offended at the depth of Blago's corruption and set up the governor for the fall he deserved to take.

The players here are too close for me to believe that Blago's indiscreet corruption was not known among them.

Oh, this is rich....

Via Glenn, I see that Dee Dee Myers now asks...

"...At what point does sexist behavior get taken seriously?"

In fairness, Myers' husband wrote a rather scathing Vanity Fair article on Bill Clinton (which drew a somewhat bizarre and equally scathing response) and was only in the Clinton White House for its first two years--missing the whole Lewinsky episode. She did (rightly) complain when she found out that she was being paid less than subordinates with lesser responsibilities.

However, Bill Clinton's problems with "bimbos" was not something he developed in Washington. This has been a lifelong problem for him, and for Myers to now decry sexist behavior from Obama's speechwriter towards a Hillary image is at least forgetful, if not disingenuous.

For future consumption....

....And I do mean "consumption"....

My First Officer and I are just back from The Wilkes House, where we enjoyed one of my layover favorites--good ole' Southern cookin'. I am now his favorite Captain. If you're in Savannah between the hours of 11am and 2pm, you simply must get yourself to Mrs. Wilkes House.

I'll be back (with the wife) for future afternoons of consumption.

Limited government....

Via Will over at Vodkapundit, here we see yet another cry, a plead, a begging for more limited government. That these are the best of our country, and that they can manage to get elected over and over again is a frightening thought. Read them all, but this is my favorite....

"...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...."

Oh, Great.

"...Shinseki will be named as Barack Obama's Secretary of Veterans' Affairs...."

Sorry, but Shiseki was wrong about Iraq, and Rumsfeld was right. As was evident at the start, the extra troops that Sheseki was insisting on were not needed to take down Saddam's army. Taking the extra "hundreds of thousands" of troops into Iraq would have had us there with the larger, more oppressive footprint that would have reinforced the impression that we were there to occupy, rather than free Iraq. It is incorrect to assume that the extra Surge troops would have brought about success earlier. Not that this was the plan all along, but the Surge troops succeeded because they were applied at a point where the Iraqi public (at least the Sunni) had grown tired of the al Qaeda excesses and began their Anbar Awakening.

Shinseki is to Bush what McClellan was to Lincoln--a General who wanted to build his Army to an enormous level before using it.

The reason behind this selection is simple: The Prophet Obama (PBUH) has been drawing considerable criticism from the Angry Left for his choices for Defense, State, and National Security Advisor, and for his approach to the economic troubles we are in.

Shinseki is a bone thrown to the Angry Left.

This is the start of what I believe will be a long series...

...That I am calling "Heartbreak: The Obama Years".

Episode 1: Campaign Promises on Ending the War in Iraq Now Muted by Reality

[I really love that one. The Reality-Based Community (sic) now finds itself "muted by reality". Those NYT headline writers really know how to stick the knife in.]

The Fred!! on Obama, Congress, the economy and the bailout....

Oh, this is a great idea....

Bill Clinton eyes role, too

"Former President Bill Clinton says he is open to the possibility of a role in the Obama administration but said he otherwise plans to be deferential to both the president and Clinton's wife, the soon-to-be secretary of state...."

Yeah. Good luck with that, Barry.

Sippican Cottage...

"...Ponzi wept."

[FWIW, beyond the fact that I don't care either is the idea that the present-day vision of "caring" (read: "Give us more money you don't have") is contributing to rather than solving the problem.]

Ben Stein...

This is sincerely breaking my heart, but I am beginning to question my affection for Ben Stein. I have kept a subscription to The American Spectator (at no small expense) largely because I love reading his column every month. The obituaries he has written to his mother, father and friends have touched me over the years and leave me wishing to be remembered as fondly as Stein remembers his lost loves.

However, Stein has become quite fickle on our Global War against Islamic Terror, specifically as it has been played out in Iraq. At one point, he said that he thought that "Mr. Bush is going to go down in history as one of the great peacemakers and democracy-builders in the history of the world". Then, not a year later, he said that Bush should admit that Iraq had become a "quagmire".

I first noted my disillusionment with Stein here.

And now, here is another example of how my heart is breaking at losing my cyber-friendship (if in my mind only) with Stein. In the interests of the economy, he is endorsing the same big-government, big-spending programs that got us into the hole that we're in.

More bad economic news...

Why 'Powerful' Rally Won't Last: 'A Lot of People Still Have to Deleverage'

Lifted Shamelessly...

...from the always lift-worthy Gerard.

A fisking of...

WSJ: Obama Eyes $500 Billion in Stimulus; Paulson Weighs Ramping Up Aid Again

Aides to President-elect Barack Obama and President George W. Bush are rushing to craft measures to shore up financial markets and prevent a policy vacuum from further harming the economy during the transition of power between the two men.

OK. Let me get this right...President HopeandChange--the guy who incessantly decried the "failed Bush economic policies"--is telling us he will continue these same policies?

Mr. Obama's team is putting together a new economic stimulus plan containing more than $500 billion in federal spending and tax cuts over the next two years, Obama aides and advisers said Sunday. That package would be far more aggressive than anything envisioned during the campaign.

Let's slow down a bit and look at this again. Bush announced a $168 billion tax rebate program in February as a means of "economic stimulus". Then, in March, the Treasury and the Fed engineered the J.P. Morgan Chase takeover of Bear Stearns--another $30B. The FDIC had to takeover IndyMac--to the tune of $8.9B--in July.The insurer AIG needed a $85B bailout in early September. Fannie and Freddie were bailed out for an unknown(!) pricetag. A week later, we were bailing out all of Wall Street with $700B. This, of course, became an issue in the campaign. Recently, they've been wrestling with how to bailout the Big Three in Detriot--$25B.

Update: As if all this weren't enough (and courtesy this morning of DrewM. at Ace's Place), how about another $800B to further unfreeze lending. [Will this ever end? Ever?]

So, with that as background, I have two questions...

• Have we really, really not been aggressive enough in addressing our economic problems? Does anyone seriously believe that Bush hasn't been doing exactly what Obama is proposing here?
• What am I to understand by "$500 billion in federal spending and tax cuts"? What is the division between additional federal spending and tax cuts? Where should we expect to see this additional federal spending? Who benefits from these tax cuts? (And is this a walkback from Obama's promise to increase taxes on the top 5%?)

Back to the fisking....

Democratic leaders in Congress are preparing to rush passage shortly after New Year's to have a stimulus-plan bill ready for Mr. Obama to sign once he is inaugurated Jan. 20.

Welcome to the West Wing, Mr. Obama. Here is your housewarming gift.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bush's outgoing Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, is now considering a more activist stance in his final weeks in office than he had signaled as recently as last week. He is considering tapping the second half of the government's $700 billion financial-industry rescue fund, and rolling out new programs in response to worsening market conditions, according to people familiar with the matter.

Let's keep something else in mind here. Hank Paulson (like Bush) is no conservative. He never has been.

Among other things, he is seeking ways to make it easier for households to borrow money. He is also looking for ways to reduce the burden of foreclosures on homeowners.

Wait a minute. Just. Hold. The. Damned. Phone.

Isn't the availability of easy credit the reason we're in this pickle in the first place? And we want to cure the problem by doing more of the same? Is this not the definition of insanity?

The moves came as officials at the Treasury and the Fed spent the weekend on yet another emergency rescue plan, this one for giant Citigroup after its stock fell 60% the past week. Citigroup's deterioration underscores the fragile state of markets and the economy during Washington's long transition of power.

And now, Citi. $20B. "A necessary safeguard". More insanity, if you ask me.

Mr. Obama is planning a press conference Monday to introduce the leaders of his economic team, which is headed by Harvard economist Lawrence Summers, who will run the White House National Economic Council, and New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner, his choice for Treasury secretary.

The president-elect is likely to use the event to assure investors and consumers that he will take rapid, large-scale action in the coming weeks and months. The message will be: "This is an extraordinary time, and extraordinary responses are going to be needed," said one aide.

Isn't this exactly what we've been hearing from Bush? Have any of these programs worked? I am far from well-versed in macro-economics, but isn't debt destruction necessary here?

Mr. Obama is also expected to try to calm Wall Street worries about trying to rewrite the rules of existing aid to Wall Street, and excessive spending in his new administration, according to Obama transition officials.

OK. I'm confused here. Are we getting more regulation or less? Do we want more "excessive spending" or less?

So far, the main government response to the economic crisis has been the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, designed to help banks and other financial institutions. Mr. Obama's economic-stimulus plan would be separate from that.

OK. Now I think I'm beginning to see. $700 billion, not preventing the collapse of Wall Street banking, is seperate from the $500 billion that Obama proposes to spend elsewhere. Exit question: Why should we expect O's $500B to be spent any more wisely?

On Monday, Mr. Obama will likely offer for the first time an explicit pledge to honor all commitments already made by the Bush administration in the TARP program, without imposing new conditions even if there are changes are made to the program in the future. Obama officials also say the president-elect will promise to find spending cuts to try to keep short-term stimulus spending from ballooning the budget deficit over the long term.

Finally! A place where I can agree with the Prophet Obama. Spending cuts! More please! Faster! (But I thought O's approach was to have more federal spending?)

While Mr. Obama is moving quickly to give markets unusually early clarity on what he'll do when he takes office in January, Bush aides are rethinking how they'll handle their final weeks in power.

The Bush Treasury is in the middle of injecting into banks some $250 billion of TARP funds, and Mr. Paulson had suggested earlier this month that he wasn't planning to do much beyond that before he leaves office in two months. Another $40 billion of the
TARP money has been invested in American International Group, Inc., the giant insurer.

But last week's deterioration in the markets heightened concern at the Treasury that it might need to take confidence-boosting steps before Mr. Obama's team takes over. On Friday, Goldman Sachs Inc. revised down its projections for economic growth, saying the economy is in the process of contracting by 5% in the fourth quarter and would contract another 3% in the first three months of 2009. If Goldman is right, it would mark the worst performance since the 1982 recession, one of the deepest contractions since the Great Depression.

You know what? As a political matter, I don't mind at all that Bush and Paulson are spending that money now. [I fully disagree with each of these bailouts, but that is another question.] Obama spent his campaign blaming every bad thing on Bush. The libs have no goodwill--none--towards Bush and conservatives (Again. Bush is not a conservative.) Bush's legacy will not benefit one whit by setting aside some of this money for Obama's use. I say: Spend the money if you think it is necessary.

Goldman placed the blame largely on Washington. "The main reason for the downgrade to our forecast is the policy impasse that has developed in Washington and the tightening in financial conditions it has provoked."

Of course. Blame everything on Washington. Not that they don't deserve blame, but when dishing it out, one ought to look in the mirror first. Goldman, BTW, was once run by Robert Rubin, who now runs Citibank, and was also formerly run by one Hank Paulson. Are the dots beginning to be connected here?

For the sake of time, I'll dispense with fisking the rest of this article, but if it isn't already apparent, I am less-than-impressed with the Bush/Paulson/Bernanke approach to our economic problems, and it appears that Obama will not improve things at all. The rest of the article....

Since winning the presidency Nov. 4, Mr. Obama has expressed reluctance to begin steering economic policy, repeatedly saying the country can have only one president at a time. Large-scale economic stimulus is all but impossible before Mr. Obama takes office, since Mr. Bush has said he would oppose big new spending plans before he leaves the White House.

But Mr. Obama and his team have chosen in recent days to signal fairly explicitly that a sizeable boost will come as soon as he takes office.

Obama advisers decline to detail publicly just how large the stimulus would be. But several senior aides have pointed to analyst reports calling for $500 billion to $700 billion to be injected into the economy.

In an appearance before chief executives in Washington earlier in the week, Mr. Summers suggested stimulus of that size was possible. He also said stimulus should be "speedy, substantial, and sustained"-- a shift in tone from his calls earlier in the year for "temporary" and "targeted" aid. "We're going to need impetus for the economy for two to three years," he now says.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the new Congress, which will be dominated by Democrats, will have a stimulus package completed "during the first couple of weeks of January."

Mr. Obama's selection of Mr. Geithner for Treasury secretary has, in effect, given his administration a greater role in the current handling of the financial crisis. That's because Mr. Geithner has already been a close partner of Mr. Paulson in managing the bailouts in his role as New York Fed president.

The selection of Mr. Geithner is providing comfort to Treasury officials, who view his selection as an indication they will be able to push ahead with using more of the $700 billion rescue fund to respond to the financial crisis than perhaps Mr. Paulson had suggested last week.

Treasury spokeswoman Michele Davis on Sunday said Mr. Paulson had always planned to implement new programs when they were ready, and never ruled out tapping the remaining half of the $700 billion fund. "We're looking at a variety of programs to support the market and we'll implement them as soon as they're ready," she said.

Treasury's immediate focus is on establishing a program, along with the Federal Reserve, that would help increase the availability of auto loans, student loans and credit cards -- which Mr. Paulson believes will help alleviate strains in the consumer borrowing market.

A person familiar with the planning said the Treasury and the Fed have agreed on the structure of such a program and are working on the details, such as whether the Fed should buy assets itself or provide loans to entice private investors to buy securities. The Treasury is expected to contribute $25 billion to $100 billion to the program, which could be announced within a few weeks, this person said.

Treasury is continuing to look for a way to prevent more foreclosures on homeowners, including trying to improve a proposal floated by Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair. Democratic lawmakers have been pressuring Mr. Paulson to use some of the $700 billion rescue fund to help people in danger of foreclosure.

Treasury had also been designing another capital-injection program aimed at financial institutions beyond banks, in addition to considering making more money available to banks that have already received a government infusion.

And only because the truth is so damned funny sometimes, I offer this.....


In The Know: Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?

I am not making this up...

So, anyhooo, on my way to work today, a small pickup truck passed me with a number of bumperstickers on it. Some people just want to let us know everything about them by simply looking at the ass end of their vehicles. He had a Arizona Coyotes sticker, some kinda scuba sticker, and a couple of others I didn't recognize.

And, of course, the obligatory Obama '08 sticker.

Why is this story post-worthy?

His license plate began with the numbers 666.

I kid you not.

I did my part....

Today is National Ammo Day. I had thought about this earlier in the week, but frankly had forgotten about it. On my morning errands, I stopped in at Sportsman's Warehouse, and seeing a sign on their door that they're have a "Sales Tax" Sale, I decided I wouldn't leave empty handed.

Ammo is on my list for the upcoming December gunshow (I--along with about 10,000 others--will be looking for a couple AR lowers), so I was going to buy anyway. I'll probably come home from the gunshow with a couple handguns, and perhaps will sell some long guns.




Yesterday, I took one of the Colt Pocketlite's into the gunsmith for a little work, and found out that they are more valuable than I had thought. I really don't have much need for another .380, and I had considered selling these two at the gunshow, but the new knowledge of their value has me reconsidering. Perhaps I'll keep them; perhaps I'll pass them to Dau#1-and Dau#2ofAzlib; perhaps they'll go to the highest bidder.

Anyhoo, 250 rounds of 40S&W are now safely in my hands.

Peter Schiff...

Almost 10 minutes long, but worth the time...



More here....



FWIW, for as much as I love Ben Stein, I have begun to become disillusioned with him. I don't know where he turned, but for a guy who passionately writes about the hate and death brought to the world by Hitler's Germany, Stein seems to turn a blind eye to the War against Islamic Terror. The Marxist Obama has a similar blind eye, and this is not just limited to our foreign enemies. Obama will attempt to ruin the economy too.

Bittersweet...

Today Dau#1ofAzlib and her new husband left for his assignment in the Air Force.

We are quite happy for her. She came back from her honeymoon looking very happy. He's a great guy, and is everything a parent would want out of a son-in-law.

That said, she has been a great kid, and we're going to deeply miss seeing her regularly. Many tears were shed today. I suspect more will be shed tomorrow.

Post-Election Thoughts...

The family is still in our post-wedding process of saying goodbye to Dau#1ofAzlib, so I may have more to add to this later, but this sure seems like a good place to begin my thoughts on how to bring conservatism back to a majority of America.

Am I the only one (v 2.0)...

...Who wonders if Joe Biden has already taken up residence in that "Undisclosed Location"?

Thanks for asking....

...Yes.

The Wedding was fantastic!

Am I the only one...

...Who wondered: Why would Michelle Obama dress as a Black Widow?

I mean, really. We have long asked...



Somebody, somewhere commented that Michelle Obama is going make us think back fondly to the charm of Hillary Clinton. I'm afraid that that may understate things.

The kid is starting to add it up...

I've mentioned it tangentially a couple of times here, but we have an upcoming wedding in our family.

So anyhoo, Dau#1ofAzlib (the upcoming bride) told me this morning that futureSILofAzlib wants some advice about guns. Thus far, he's been uninterested in guns, but I'm guessing the now pressing prospect of needing to protect a family, and a potential reaction to the recent (disastrous) election results has had him come away with the idea that guns may be soon harder to get.

As Drudge says....Developing.

Swiped shamelessly from...

Gerard.

Coincidence?

You decide.

(Obama photo h/t to Gerard)

I'm beginning to get a hinky feeling about this...

[Love that word, BTW. "Hinky". Makes me feel like a private detective, or something. I guess it means "suspicious", but it sounds like it can mean all sorts of things. Anyhooo, I digress, before I even get started.....]

It was either on one of the blogs I infrequently get to or one of my internet acquaintances, a guy who I listen to when he speaks, who has a theory about global politics/economics. For the sake of telling this story, I'm going to say it's the later, but I could be wrong. Anyway, it's kind of a long story, but he believes that the Powers That Be are acting according to a script and that all the large geo/economic/political acts that we're all now watching are part of that script. The PTB have built up a large house of cards of debt, and the only way to consolidate things from here is to crush our economy and to end up with a global currency (which they, of course, would control). Control the currency, and you control everything (which is why our Founding Fathers were [rightly] concerned about the power of a Central Bank).

Anyhoo, he believes that the PTB are looking at a number of issues circling around things. One of the larger items on their plate is the question of: What to do about Iran? They're obviously crazy with an apocolyptic view of the return of the 13th Imam or Seventh Seal, or whatever their damned thing is. A rational world has to believe they're serious when they start talking about destroying Israel or London or whatever other city is bugging them. Iran just has to be dealt with. The question is: When?

As much as we may see this as a conflict between America and our western allies and Iran, China and Japan are really big players here. They apparently have bought off on the idea of subdueing Iran. Again, timing is the key.

The Chinese Olympics this summer were a really big deal for them. They had invested a lot of prestige on this event, hoping to make the world believe that they deserve a place in the First World. So attacking Iran before these Olympics was out of the question. Parenthetically, the Russians embarassed the Chinese by their little adventure into Georgia during the Olympics.

What form will the attack take?

The Israeli's have a deep interest here. The Iranians are absolutely irrational about Israel. Both Israel and Iran have conducted exercises which, for any observer, would look like an attack on the other.

As the theory goes, the determinant then goes to our election. If the Israeli's think that we'll elect a President Obama, then the attack may take place before the election. If they think we'll elect McCain, then the attack will occur between the election and the inauguration. In any event, it will occur on Bush's watch.

So why do I write all this?

I'm glad you asked.

When I read that "US special forces launch rare attack inside Syria" and "Syria: US conducted cross-border raid", it may have been exactly what we're saying: Taking down a foreign fighter network, or grabbing/killing an al Qaeda bigwig.

But part of me has to ask: Is this an "October Surprise"? Did we eliminate a Syrian radar or anti-aircraft site to create a corridor for the Israelis to get to Iran?

Like I said: "Hinky".

Hubris...

I am sure I'm not the only one to notice this, but I am seeing, both in the media, the polling and among friends and work collegues, a frightening level of hubris regarding the election of The One.

They think they have this won. They may be right, but I can't help but hope that they're not.

And if The One does fail in his quest, I am concerned that we will see violence. They are utterly convinced that The One is this country's Savior.

Good Gawd...

I certainly "hope" so.

Signs Pointing To A McCain Victory

Listen:

Goldstein: ...[T]his country and its foundational principles are at a crossroads....

OK. I just have to note...

....this is my 500th post.

Now back to a largely unread blog near you.

Joe Biden steps in it (again)...

So, anyhoo...Joe Biden embarrassed himself (if that is possible) and Barack Obama the other day by saying "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy." Obama himself has now explained that Biden "sometimes engages in rhetorical flourishes". (**snicker**)

But now we see that Biden has clarified his remarks to two bloggers.

Jim Treacher "quotes" Biden as explaining that it will be "a great comfort when the Obama administration strangles the U.S. economy and sets off a long, terrifying race war."

And in his Iowahawk "interview", Biden offered "There will be a point -- maybe one week, maybe two weeks after the inauguration -- when the opinion polls will look bad. Really horribly bad. Despite our best efforts, a couple of mid-size cities will inevitably be vaporized. People will be complaining. 'Why are you nationalizing the Safeway?' 'When is Omaha going to stop glowing?' 'Why do the Chinese soldiers keep asking for my papers?' When this happens, we will need you to keep supporting us because, trust me, you really won't want to be observed not supporting us. "

Funny stuff.

Journalism, honor and the roots of our crisis...

I found this over at HotAir, read it and frankly found so many paragraphs to clip that I could not do it justice. Instead, I'll just parrot Allahpundit and quote this too...

"...If you want to redeem your honor, you will swallow hard and make a list
of all the stories you would print if it were McCain who had been getting money
from Fannie Mae, McCain whose campaign had consulted with its discredited former CEO, McCain who had voted against tightening its lending practices.

Then you will print them, even though every one of those true stories will point the
finger of blame at the reckless Democratic Party, which put our nation's
prosperity at risk so they could feel good about helping the poor, and lay a
fair share of the blame at Obama's door...."

Do read the whole thing.

You may say...

"...avoiding moral dilemmas".

I call that "avoiding 'You want to extract cells from where?'"

Bonus: "...they become pluripotent". Hey, that's what she said! **rimshot**

h/t: Purple Avenger at Ace's Place.

No....

My name is not Donald Gately, but it might as well be.

Edgar Winter...

One of the coolest musicians from my childhood was Edgar Winter. He was (is?) kind of a blues-y rock guy, and with his completely unusal albino looks, drew quite a bit of attention.

Anyhooooo, he and his group were on my flight the other day. So, apropo of nothing, here is 10 minutes of Winter's Frankenstein...

The depth of the failure of our educational system...

As if everyone who isn't smarter than I hasn't already written on this, but we are facing a deep, deep financial crisis. I only understand about a third of what I'm reading on this, but I've read enough to have me fear that we're going to have a global meltdown of currencies, and the mountain of debt. The sub-prime mortgages are just the tip of the iceberg. The Mortgage Backed Securities are all questionable, which has led to the banks and financial institutions which invested in these to go down too. The next bubble will be the Credit Default Swaps, but the bigger bubble will our money. If you care to become as frightened as I am, then click here. I don't pretend for a minute to understand this stuff, and I am willing to acknowledge that maybe this is a crank with an internet site, but what he presents is very scary stuff. The Fed is bankrupt.

This chart is the root of my nightmares...

Folks, bubbles can't be inflated forever. This money supply is going to pop. When that happens, the things you need in life--food, water, electricity, gas--are going to become outrageously expensive. The things you don't need in life--an iPod, a ticket to the movies, a RV--are going to drop like rocks.

And because many, many people around the world are going to become very uncomfortable, very fast, I am concerned that all-out war is not out of the question. It is how governments placate their citizens.

But the topic of this post isn't just our rapidly deterioriating economy and what will happen next, but rather this poll. We have serious, serious problems if Americans cannot understand that the money that we just "bailed out Wall Street" with is just a figment of the Fed's imagination. Using that "money" to buy three months of gas is about the dumbest thing I've ever heard--short of using it to bail out Wall Street.