Friday - November 07, 2008
Fundamentally Flawed
Wonder why you just can’t get liberals to understand? Maybe it’s because their beliefs are different, right down to the bone. This quote was in my daily email from those A Word A Day people:
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The man who is always waving the flag usually waives what it stands for. -Laurence J. Peter, educator and author (1919-1990)
Think about it for a second and you’ll see that this quote about sums it all up. And it’s from some famous educator as well, which only makes it worse.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/07/2008 at 10:42 AM
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •
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Permalink • Obama should turn his back on the EU, Will he have the freedom to do that?
My guess is no and most likely he may not want to. While not ALL Democrats are super left, it seems it’s the far left wing that controls that party. I think they love Europe and the Eu AND, if they can they’ll want to come together in a love fest.
Is that extreme thinking on my part?
Barack Obama should turn his back on the EU
Barack Obama has a lot to do. He should ignore siren voices from the European Union hailing a “new deal” for the world.
The Democrat President Elect has got the EU all excited, hot and bothered - see here. But, politely, gently and firmly, President Obama should turn his back on the EU.
The EU represents the politics of respectable consensus and embodies the low expectations of tarnished European political establishments, which are characterised by their estrangement from voters.
Contrast the high expectations that Mr Obama represents for American voters to the low, positively depressed, expectations surrounding Gordon Brown, or any other EU leader you care to mention.
Mr Obama’s victory, the high turnout and messianic support, represents one of those truly political moments when voters reject the establishment and express an incoherent, but real enough, desire for a new direction.
The new Democrat President Elect needs to focus on the domestic, real politics, real debate about what his America should mean not the comfort blanket of bureaucratic, consensoid governmental structures - especially those on the “multilateral” foreign stage.
Internationalism does not mean going through the official channels.
Both the American and European political establishments hope (in a vampire like way) that the hopes surrounding President Obama will confer some badly needed legitimacy on them.
But democracy is not and should not be about providing an infusion of legitimacy to confirm and reinvigorate the status quo and the living dead politics of the establishment.
Spiked has some interesting reflections on the meaning of the Obama effect. “The election of Obama brings to an end an important chapter in America’s culture wars. But will it create the space for a new political debate?,” asks Frank Furedi.
The US election shows that people, the voters, want something new - a sentiment in Europe too. Mr Obama will not deliver on those expectations if he listens to a tired old EU.
By: Bruno Waterfield in Brussels at Nov 5, 2008 at 14:42:31
Posted by peiper
on 11/07/2008 at 10:22 AM
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Permalink • Zo Responds to the Election
I’m sure you’ve seen his other videos, and this one is one of the best (I think I shed a little tear of joy while watching it)
Posted by Drew458
on 11/07/2008 at 10:21 AM
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Permalink • 100 TONS OF RUBBISH AND SKELETONS FROM 6 DOGS, STORED INSIDE HOME. GAK! RATS TOO.
HoleeeeeCOW! How can anyone live like this? This has to take a Moonbat prize for sure. And I thought the MIL was a pack rat. Although she was working her way up to this when she got too sick to continue to collect and store treasure.
Workmen clear 100 TONS of rubbish from elderly man’s home.
By Chris Brooke
Last updated at 10:12 AM on 07th November 2008It’s been a while since pensioner Merv Jones tidied up or vacuumed.
In fact, it’s been so long that he might never have been able to find the Hoover amid the astonishing 100 tons of rubbish and bric-a-brac in his home - assuming he ever looked for it.
Every room in the terraced house was filled from floor to ceiling with mouldering junk. It was even piled up in the hall. Both front and back gardens were also a mess.
Officials clear pensioner Merv Jones’s house, filled from floor to ceiling with 100-tons of rubbish, which made it almost impossible to get inside.After years of complaints from neighbours, council officials finally moved in to empty the building in Grimsby, filling skip after skip.
The extraordinary array of bric-a-brac had been collected over decades by the 73-year-old, including old rifles, ammunition and swords, along with hundreds of more ordinary items, such as dolls, electrical equipment, toys, pictures, books and ornaments.
As well as all the junk, there was a great deal of household rubbish. Windows were broken, pigeons had moved into the loft and bait traps had to be laid for the rats.
Mr Jones claimed: ‘I wanted to clear it myself. I was trying to get it done.’
The pensioner was put up in a hotel while his house was emptied over three weeks. North-East Lincolnshire Council intends to reclaim the cost of the operation from him.
Filled to the brim: The bric-a-brac was piled so high it nearly touched the ceiling.Residents regarded the property as a blight on their neighbourhood. Alyson Thomson, 58, a sales manager, said: ‘It is hard to imagine how he did it, but I believe he was living in the house. It has been complete hell being next door to him.’
She said that, as well as the weapons, council officials found propane gas and chemicals and had to stop work while the fire brigade was called in to deal with them. She also claimed six dog skeletons were found in the rubbish. ‘On the day they started clearing he challenged me in the street, saying “what have you been saying about me?”.
‘I told him what I honestly thought and the police cautioned me,’ Mrs Thomson added.
Council officials are believed to be investigating other addresses owned by Mr Jones.
A warrant for the house clearance was granted at Grimsby Magistrates’ Court under the 1936 Public Health Act, which allows authorities to take control of ‘filthy and verminous properties’.
story and a couple more photos at the link.
Posted by peiper
on 11/07/2008 at 09:01 AM
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous • Stoopid-People • UK •
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Permalink • NEW RULES FOR FAT DOG OWNERS CAN RESULT IN HUGE FINES AND POSSIBLY JAIL.
Don’t know what you guys will make of this. On the one hand it’s more govt. intrusion, right?
BUT ... there are a lot of very irresponsible dog owners who might be doing harm by their lack of care.
I had a cousin once who was so totally irresponsible she had some pets die on her. Not because she did anything to em. But what she didn’t do.
But really, a fine of almost $40,000?
Then too, there are folks who should never own pets.
Fat dog regulations aim to trim animal obesity
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 07/11/2008
New rules on animal cruelty leave dog owner Jasper Gerard scratching his head
Is this political correctness gone, well, barking mad? Ministers have just published a veritable table-thumper of a report telling us how to look after our pets.
Those who stray from the guidelines could face six months in jail or a £20,000 fine for cruelty to animals. For, just as children are developing the looks of Teletubbies, it is feared our canine population now resembles sucking pigs.
The internet is yapping louder than Battersea Dogs Home to the sound of animal lovers fighting with freedom lovers over whether the nannying ghost of Barbara Woodhouse is haunting Whitehall. “Has Britain,” demanded one site, “gone to the dogs?”
Not only does the code, issued by Hilary Benn’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, contain strict admonishments about diet ("chocolate is poisonous"), we are ordered to buy dog toothpaste; not to walk mutts “in the hot part of the day” (such a hazard in November); and to provide “somewhere to go to the toilet”, though, in a rare oversight, Defra fails to stipulate whether it should be en suite.
We are even told to provide “entertainment” and “mental stimulation”. So I sat Wyndham, my springer spaniel, in front of Newsnight; alas, the presidential election left him snoring.
What to try? Jane Fonda workout videos? Morgan Spurlock’s dog starring in Supersize Me II? Or Jamie Oliver’s follow-up to School Dinners - Dog Dinners?
Yesterday, I took Wyndham to Tunbridge Wells, Kent, to sniff out lardy Labradors and outraged owners. There was not a mutt in sight, let alone an obese one. I began to fear that Whitehall is on to something and that owners are failing to exercise their charges.
Visions of couch-potato pooches snoozing in front of daytime TV came to mind. Then I came upon my first dogs, tethered to a post. Their owner, IT analyst Brian Inman, was sipping coffee in a café.
“So, Mr Inman,” I started tentatively, mindful that a dog owner would take comments about their own weight more kindly than those about their beloved pets, “you clearly don’t starve your dogs.”
“One is a show dog,” he said, a tad defensively, pointing to his well-padded beast. “I only feed them twice a day, and very little.” Hmm: before I could warn him that I might have to pass his details to the man from the ministry, he added: “This smacks of government interference: shouldn’t it concentrate on children before dogs?”
Others disagreed. I accosted Tim Cosens walking his well-fed cocker, Holly. “She’s just had puppies,” he insisted. I don’t like to break it to him that Benn will soon be out here, shaking his head wearily while saying: “Save it, please, we’ve heard all the excuses...” Anyway, Cosens backs the report as “there are too many fat dogs”.
Next I found two dog walkers barking from the libertarian wing of the kennel. “It seems very Draconian,” said Barbour-clad Steve Budden, who had heard nothing of the regulations. Ditto Ian Marshall: “The nanny state is getting silly.” He has fed his dog fresh food ever since visiting a dog food factory: “It was all chicken beaks and claws,” he said. “Horrific.”
Next stop was Pets in Town. This shop has pioneered healthy dog living with dance classes, weight watchers lessons, even prescription diets. I place Wyndham on the scales. “Perfect,” said Lydia Anderson, who is Head of Fish but is helping out in Dogs today, “18.7kg.” Wyndham is rewarded for his labours with a (healthy) treat. “We have dogs in here weighing 70kg. They look more like polar bears.”
Lydia has strict views: “Bad owners should be prosecuted. Over-feeding is a form of neglect, leading to diseases such as diabetes.” Bad behaviour is often caused by poor diet. “Some dog food contains just four per cent meat: it’s like junk food for children,” she says. Perhaps ministers should target manufacturers more than owners. Pets in Town sells healthy feed that lists its ingredients.
“There are lots of healthy food ranges now,” explained its owner, Steve Ball. “It’s changed massively. Humans could learn a lot about healthy diets
from dogs.” As, it seems, could Hilary Benn. As far as Tunbridge Wells is concerned, he’s in the dog house.
Posted by peiper
on 11/07/2008 at 07:47 AM
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Permalink • Oooh, you’re a cheater!
This is what a score sheet looks like for league bowling:
| bowler | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | Total |
| Bob | 125 | 147 | 159 | 431 |
| Carol | 155 | 163 | 114 | 432 |
| Ted | 215 | 246 | 211 | 672 |
| Alice | 113 | 151 | 132 | 394 |
| Total | 608 | 707 | 611 | 1929 |
| Handicap | 15 | 15 | 15 | 45 |
| Grand Total | 623 | 722 | 631 | 1974 |
A series in bowling for the bowler is 3 games. Since the score can be from 0 to 300, each game has 301 possible scores. Since each score is unique to it’s placement - Game 1, Game 2, Game 3 - all scores are unique to the series, even if your game scores are 174, 174, 174. The series totals are the ones added up horizontally
Thus there are 301 x 301 x 301 = 27,270,901 possible game score combinations in a bowler’s series.
On a bowling league with teams of 4, the team’s game total is the total of each bowler’s score for that game. Plus any handicap,which is always a static amount, so we can ignore it. These scores are added vertically.
Thus a 4 person team’s total is the sum of one of the 301 x 301 x 301 x 301 = 8,208,541,201 score combinations. Do these numbers matter at all?
The scores are written in pencil. Then pencils do not have erasers. Let’s consider that someone tried to cheat by adding 2 points to one of the bowler’s scores after the score sheets were signed off and handed in. In the above example it was Alice in Game 1. She actually rolled a 111, but didn’t want to catch any grief for rolling yet another “shithouse” score this season. (It’s a bowling thing.) So she changed the trailing 1 to a 3. Then she changed her team’s total for that game from 606 to 608. Then she changed to total with handicap from 621 to 623 [all in green] Can she get away with it?
You can fudge a 1 to look like a 3. You can fudge a 6 to look like an 8. You can fudge a 7 to look like a 9. Trying to fudge any of the other digits by sneaking in an extra 2 points gives you something weird looking. That won’t work.
To be effective, a good “+2” cheat must change the score for that bowler’s game, that bowler’s series total, the team’s game total, that games Grand Total, and the overall Grand Total for the night. In this example, her cheat is the number in green. All the red numbers are the ones that also have to be changed to cover her tracks. Bowling score sheets are in a grid for exactly this reason. If the scores add up going across, but not down, or down but not across, it’s a math error. This happens all the time. Especially after several beers.
To narrow things down even further, a “+2” cheat would not only have to change these 6 numbers, those numbers would have to all end in either 1, 6, or 7 for the fudging not to stand out.
Maybe she doesn’t have to change all 6 numbers, but she will have to change her score for that game, her series total, and one of the team totals. The rest could be written off to poor math. Could they? Or would her changes stick out like a sore thumb?
In this example she only changed 3 of the numbers. The errors stand out. In most “cheating” circumstances only one of the numbers is changed. What are the odds that Alice can come across a perfect scoring opportunity that would let her skillfully changed all the right numbers and get away with it? Pretty darn slim. And she’d have to have that numeric event happen at the same time she had access to the score sheet with nobody looking. Even less likely.
Well, of those 301 possible scores per game, you can meet the “ends in 1, 6, or 7” criteria with any of these scores: {x1, x6, x7}, where x goes from 0 to 290 in increments of 10. Which means 29 ranges. With 29 ranges you thus have 87 matches out of 301 choices. That’s 28.97%. If I get to multiply that out 3 times, once per game, I should find the percent of series totals that match the criteria: 0.2897^3 = 0.024147 or 2.41% rounded off for now. About 1 chance in 40.
If I get to multiply it across, I can also multiply it down, so a “cheatable” total for a 4 person team can happen in 0.2897^4 = 0.6995% of all possible totals. Around 1 chance in 150.
For the Overall Grand Total, find the odds by adding up the exponents and raising the number to that power; 0.2897^7 = 0.000171253504046166, then taking the inverse, 1/0.000171253504046166, and rounding off, which gives the odds: less than 1 in 5840. Pretty long odds. And that’s with perfect pencil skills.
So it is possible to do a perfect “+2” cheat when nobody is looking, but the perfect opportunity will never actually arise; you will either leave obvious math errors or some strange looking squiggles that are obviously not numbers. Cool. Good to know. Always good to have this kind of ammunition in the back of my mind. Yes, I’m still pissed over those accusations. Can you tell?
See what happens when my wife goes on a business trip? My mind just wanders, and tries to eff with the ineffable.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/07/2008 at 12:15 AM
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Permalink • Thursday - November 06, 2008
Spoil Your Kids
Got kids? Got money? Want to get them one of those ultimate Christmas gifts? Boy does a company called UGOBE have a toy for you!
Every Pleo is autonomous. Yes, each one begins life as a newly-hatched baby Camarasaurus, but that’s where predictability ends and individuality begins. Like any creature, Pleo feels hunger and fatigue - offset by powerful urges to explore and be nurtured. He’ll graze, nap and toddle about on his own -when he feels like it! Pleo dinosaur can change his mind and his mood, just as you do.
Pleo’s natural disposition is alert and inquisitive. He ambles about with a bright eye, swaying tail, and leisurely pace, content to explore the sights, sounds, shapes, and textures of his world—and that, of course, includes you.
If your Pleo loves a good tug-of-war or shows off in front of friends, congratulate yourself—it’s all the fun you’ve had together that has made him the good sport that he is. In his excitement, he just might let loose with a few hoots and honks.
Let’s not forget that this Camarasaurus is just a baby. Something in Pleo’s new environment scares him ---hear him whimper? Does Pleo ever get upset? Well, everybody has his limits -let’s just say you shouldn’t hang him by his tail for too long.
Leave a sociable Pleo alone too long or interrupt a game of tug-of-war and Pleo may become sad. How can you tell? That pleading call and forlorn look let you know that he’s looking for a friendly pat or another chance to grab his favorite toy.
Stroke Pleo from head to tail, and he’ll blissfully arch his back. Call out to him or shine a light, and see how he responds. Just like us, Pleo experiences the world through his senses.
Pleo is a fully articulated sensor loaded baby toy dinosaur, about 21” long, that can see, hear, learn, interact, play, sulk, explore, eat, nap, get angry or sad ... and teach your kid how to interact with animals. Pleo has a 32 bit main microprocessor and several 8 bit motor control microprocessors. Almost as good as a real pet, and no litter box. You can even download holiday themes - temporary personalities? - for her, including one that lets you use Pleo as a burglar alarm/watchdog. And a lifesystem operating system upgrade, in case your kid ever gets bored with the 1001 things this awesome little robot can do.
from the Hammacher Schlemmer ad blurb:
Winner of the prestigious Nuremberg Toy Innovations Award, this is the first fully-animatronic simulacrum of a one week-old dinosaur (a Late Jurassic period Camarasaurus.) It is programmed with distinct behavior routines that respond differently to stimuli, creating a one-of-a-kind personality for each one made. It has a sophisticated sensory system comprised of a color camera, two sound sensors, two infrared sensors, 14 servos, 106 gears, eight touch sensors, an orientation sensor, and four foot switch sensors, all of which form a biomechanical skeleton that delivers smooth, natural movements. The dinosaur’s unique accelerated lifespan passes through three distinct phases; when you first turn it on, it acts like a hatchling for the first 15 minutes. For the next two hours, it acts like an infant by exhibiting hunger. For the rest of its life, it acts as a juvenile, and is fully-responsive to light, sound, and touch. Its outer skin is Krayton rubber, and the young reptile’s rechargeable battery provides one hour of operation and requires four hours for a full recharge. Ages 8 and up.
You can also download software that let’s you create your own tricks for Pleo, like making her dance, as well as a couple troubleshooting tools.
This is some darned amazing stuff ... Pleo sells for about $349 but might show up at Target or Wal Mart for a bit less. Extra battery pack, $49.
OK, I took out the video because it was a right pain in the buttocks. It’s the last one over at the Pleo web site. Go there and see it.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/06/2008 at 03:58 PM
Filed Under: • Amazing Science and Discoveries • Fun-Stuff •
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Permalink • Now with sound
Can also be seen here full screen size.
Hear them whine! Hear them yip! Watch them nap! Catch them at feeding time! See them play! Just leave the sound on and drive your own dog crazy! Iiiiiiitt’s PuppyCam!
Hey, at least it’s not another post about what’s his face. See? It’s change you can believe in!
The dogs are all of the Shiba Inu breed. They turned 4 weeks old on Tuesday, and have been TV stars since birth.
Females:
- Autumn (Purple collar)
- Ayumi (Yellow collar)
- Amaya (Red collar)
Males:
- Aki (Green collar)
- Akoni (Black collar)
- Ando (Blue collar)
Posted by Drew458
on 11/06/2008 at 03:08 PM
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Permalink • flag of convenience
Seattle rediscovers patriotism, now that The One shall be King. Get used to stuff like this, it’s only the beginning.
Red, white and true blue: City hoists Old Glory Barack Obama’s presidential win held a poignant significance for liberal Seattleites: This is their America, too.
The feeling was evident in jubilant partying in the streets, in quiet moments of reflection and in blossoms of red, white and blue.
With newfound patriotism, Seattleites want to wave the flag, hang it from their homes and stick it on their cars.
“The thing that’s kind of astounding to me is I never ever would have cared to own a flag,” said Rosemary Garner, 42. “This is the first day in my life I actually feel this funny sense of pride about my country. It’s a very foreign feeling, but it’s a good one.”
Garner, a self-described “flag virgin” who lives on Capitol Hill, bought eight flags Wednesday—some to wave and others to stick on her car to “mix and match with some nice Obama and peace signs. Then I bought a couple of flags for some friends who wanted to hang them from their truck along with their biodiesel stickers.”
How does Seattle feel about the election?
The answer is in the numbers: King County voted 72 percent for Obama. Incumbent Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott, whose district includes Seattle, won 85 percent of the vote.
The answer is in their words:
“I’m finally proud to be an American again, after eight years of being ashamed,” 66-year-old Mark Lowney said, ticking off a list of complaints, including the Iraq war.
“It’s just a rare feeling to feel that type of, I don’t know, national connection,” said Noah Kriegsmann, a 33-year-old builder from West Seattle. He feels that Obama’s win will help America’s standing in the world, and he bought a flag to fly on his truck, though he admitted it felt strange to see the flag in his hand.
“I have just historically felt shame for what the symbol of this country is internationally. Being in someplace like Morocco, and Canadians have their flag on their backpacks—I would never ever do that,” he said.
“I voted for McCain, but I’m not sour grapes,” said her friend, who did not want her name used. “I’ve tried to be supportive of all our presidents, whoever it is. It is a hard job—and worthy of respect.”
At All the King’s Flags in Ballard, people have been snatching up American flags.
“Just today I’ve had a noticeable rush on U.S. flags,” said James Sawyer, assistant manager. “I had a lady come in and she said she’s happy to be an American again, that’s why she was buying a flag.”
There’s more too, including an excerpt from the Flag Act, to remind the new Suddenly Americans in Seattle that the flag really isn’t just for wiping your ass with and then setting on fire. I’m sure there will be a steep learning curve for them, so this article will have to be reprinted several times until they can overcome their old reflexes.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/06/2008 at 01:14 PM
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Permalink • ANOTHER BATTLING BRIT. 1854 AND THE VALLEY OF DEATH. WHAT A STORY HERE.
First-hand account of the Charge of the Light Brigade unearthed
A graphic first-hand account by the last survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade, describing his ride ‘in the valley of death’ during the Crimean War, has been unearthed.
By Nick Britten
Last Updated: 12:02PM GMT 06 Nov 2008Pte James Olley, of the 4th Light Dragoons, who was in the van of the 1854 cavalry action, tells of how he relentlessly fought the Russians despite having an eye blown out and a chunk of his head torn off.
The three-page document is believed to be one of the only eyewitness accounts by a frontliner and is expect to fetch about £2,000 at auction.
Pte Olley, who was aged 16 at the time, recalled how he charged into battle against the Russians and was shot through the left eye.
He added: “I still rode on and fought through the lines of the enemy.”
He wrote: “A little further on my horse was shot down - I caught one of the horses, which was coming back without its rider who had been shot out of his saddle.
“I turned it round facing the enemy - I mounted it and rode down to the Guns, when I was attacked by a Russian Gunner who I cut down with my sword.
“I received a severe wound on my forehead which went through the skull bone.
“The man I cut down.”
The account is a sobering antidote to the romanticism that has grown up around the disastrous charge into the face of Russian artillery by British cavalry under the command of Lord Cardigan during the Battle of Balaclava.
With such lines as “All in the valley of Death / Rode the six hundred”, Tennyson’s poem The Charge of the Light Bridge is a typical example.
Despite his injuries, Pte Olley, from Holt, Norfolk, lived until 1920, when he died at the age 82.
He wrote how he had raised the alarm that morning, having spotted the Russians advancing, before “every man was called to his horse”.
“All the Light Brigade were soon in their saddles ready to do their duty or die - order was given to advance and back up the Turks.”
After a couple of advances and retreats, they were ordered to charge the Russians.
Pte Olley said all went well initially before they were suddenly overwhelmed.
He wrote: “After a time we prepared to return when, to our surprise we found that we were overpowered by the enemy.
“When we got through we rode into our encampment what few there were left of us.”
The document, signed and dated 1897, goes on sale at Ludlow Racecourse on November 6.
OKAY PEOPLE NOW PLEASE GO TO THIS LINK http://tinyurl.com/6k5hvk WHERE YOU WILL FIND A BIT MORE INFO INCLUDING A SAMPLE OF THIS GUYS HANDWRITING.
Amazing! Looking at this guys photo, I swear I’d never challenge this guy even as an old man. Does he look like he’d be easily frightened?What a contrast to that wimpy embarrassing blot on the Royal Navy who (recall last year was it) was taken with other navy personal by Iranians and cried about losing his ... what the hell was it he lost? An iPOD or some such device? Remember that silly looking clod? They kept him in the navy as I recall. This old fellow would kick his dumb ass. Try telling this guy you had a hard childhood or ate too many twinkies or yeah, try political correctness on the likes of him? Ha.
I know this photo isn’t too good. The one in yesterday’s paper wasn’t bad and had more detail. But for some reason, the Telegraph didn’t give us an online photo, and the Daily Mail did but they enlarged it online and so lost detail. But the written stuff at the Mail is good. I LOVE this stuff.
Posted by peiper
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Permalink • Barack Obama, come to save the world. (GOOD. NOW ARE WHITES, “FREE AT LAST?")
Barack Obama, come to save the worldBy Bryony Gordon
Last Updated: 8:01pm GMT 05/11/2008Well, that’s a relief, isn’t it? Barack Obama is the new president of the world and we can all sleep soundly in our beds, having sweet dreams that involve skipping through fields hand in hand with loved ones to a soundtrack of The Greatest Love of All, as butterflies flutter overhead. Goodbye terror, farewell loser, hello change. Whatever will wannabe Miss Worlds wish for now?
(the point of this article was that young Brits in numbers were encouraging Americans to vote Obama while they didn’t even know and show no interest in, their own politics here at home. Article is followed by lots of angry comments on her comments.)
Barack Obama’s historic victory: Now we need to find out what ‘change’ means
By Simon Heffer in New York
Last Updated: 7:01pm GMT 05/11/2008This is a pivotal moment in America’s history and, therefore, that of the world. In a country that forced black people on to separate buses within recent memory, and drove them away from polling stations at elections, the advent of a black president has a resonance that should not be understated. It is easy to be distracted by an event that proves, as the new president-elect said in his victory speech on Tuesday night, that in America anything is now possible, and old bigotries and barriers have finally been broken down. But that is not the sole, or main, significance of what has happened.
America is in economic turmoil. Its place as the world’s superpower makes it a magnet for challenges by rogue and aggressive states, and more of these are certain to come - President Medvedev of Russia has already started squaring up to President-elect Obama. Neo-conservatism tried, and largely failed, to deal with those and other lesser challenges over the past eight years. From January, a very different one will be applied. Barack Obama has come this far on a tsunami of rhetoric and charisma. Now he must undertake a responsibility for which those qualities will not necessarily qualify him. He must govern.
On a balmy election night in the plaza outside the Rockefeller Centre - a skyscraper and estate built in the depths of the last great economic meltdown as an act of defiance towards it - a packed crowd watched Mr Obama’s march. Despite the solidity of New York behind the Democrats, there was still no great euphoria - that has been confined to America’s equivalent of the chattering classes, and to the new president’s home turf in Chicago. There has, though, been an act of faith by the US electorate on a gigantic scale, as it thrusts this unproven and untested man into the teeth of these challenges. The public is relieved to hear the burial service read over the grave of the 43rd, discredited presidency. We must now see how long it will be able to suspend its disbelief over the programme of “change” promised for the 44th.
We have seen this in Britain: one is constantly reminded of the advent of New Labour in 1997, the massive expectations of “change” and - inevitably - the consequent disappointment and disillusion. The Republicans claim Mr Obama made spending promises totalling $1.3 trillion during the past 21 months. It highlights the confrontation with reality that he will have to face when he enters the White House on January 20. Yet this is only part of it. To match the Democrat victory for the presidency, there has been an even more significant set of gains for the party in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
His party can now with ease get any law it wants on to the statute book. Mr Obama needs, in that context, to begin his transition to power by asking himself one important question. Did he, and his party, win so heavily because America has shifted notably to the Left - or did they do so simply because they were not Republicans?
If the answer is the first contention, we may well be about to see the greatest era of radicalism in American politics since Roosevelt. If America really is no longer an instinctively conservative nation, Mr Obama can proceed with tax increases, the extension
of public services such as healthcare, the introduction of environmental legislation, the legitimisation of many millions of illegal immigrants, and the provision of federal funds to pay for abortions. It is not beyond possibility that Mr Obama could even find himself taken prisoner by his own party, as Nancy Pelosi, as Speaker of the House, leads it through a radical programme that takes the new president at his word about “change”.
Posted by peiper
on 11/06/2008 at 03:21 AM
Filed Under: • Editorials • Politics •
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Permalink • Wednesday - November 05, 2008
Mor Prufe of Stoopid
NJ voters passed the Voter Bond Approval, which was also on the ballot.
It was very sneakily worded. It looked like a measure for the state to raise money by selling bonds, and it seems that doing so would require voter approval ...
Public Question #1
VOTERS TO APPROVE STATE AUTHORITY BONDS PAYABLE FROM STATE APPROPRIATIONSQUESTION
Do you approve the proposed amendment to the State Constitution which provides that, after this amendment becomes part of the Constitution, a law enacted thereafter that authorizes State debt created through the sale of bonds by any autonomous public corporate entity, established either as an instrumentality of the State or otherwise exercising public and essential governmental functions, such as an independent State authority, which debt or liability has a pledge of an annual appropriation as the ways and means to pay the interest of such debt or liability as it falls due and pay and discharge the principal of such debt, will be subject to voter approval, unless the payment of the debt is made subject to appropriations of an independent non-State source of revenue paid by third persons for the use of the object or work bonded for, or are from a source of State revenue otherwise required to be appropriated pursuant to another provision of the Constitution?INTERPRETIVE STATEMENT (on the ballot)
This amendment to the State Constitution will require voter approval of new laws that allow the State to borrow money by issuing bonds through any State agency or independent authority backed by a pledge of an annual appropriation to pay the principal and interest on the bonds. New laws to allow the issuance of these State authority bonds for State government purposes will be subject to voter approval. State courts have ruled that the State constitutional requirement that the Legislature and Governor must seek voter approval for bonded debt does not apply to such borrowing. That requirement is followed only for proposed State bonds that contain a binding, non-repealable pledge to pay off the bonds directly with State taxes. Most State authority bonds can be issued without voter
approval because the payment of the bonds is backed only by a promise of the Legislature and the Governor that they will enact appropriations in the future to meet the bond payments. The courts have said this is a legal means of avoiding submitting the issuance of debt for voter approval. Laws to permit such debt that are enacted after this amendment becomes part of the Constitution will have to authorize voter referenda for approval of such debts. Exceptions to voter approval for authority bonds will be permitted if the bonds are to be paid off from 1) a source of revenue dedicated by the State Constitution, which only the voters can establish, or 2) an independent non-State government source of payments for use of projects built or obtained with the borrowed money, such as highway tolls or user fees.
For those of you who have the good fortune not to live in New Jersey, this is an example of the weasel worded government we have to deal with every day. For those of you who do live in New Jersey, this was a test of your ability to read between the lines and to filter out the bullshit. You failed, utterly.
Read the above and figure out what you think it really means, then read the truth below the fold:
Posted by Drew458
on 11/05/2008 at 01:20 PM
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •
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Permalink • a blade of grass, growing
I went up to the grocery store to pick up some breakfast and to buy the Morning After newspapers. I can’t tell you the last time I bought an actual newspaper, and I could write for hours about the naive idiocy I’ve read in the stories therein. But that’s another post.
I was coming up the aisle and saw an old man trying to get some soup cans off the bottom shelf. He had to squat down with his shaky knees while holding onto the shopping cart handle. Various lady shoppers were detouring around him, wearing various looks of annoyance and impatience.
“Hey, do you need a hand with those?” I asked him.
“I sure could.”
So I knelt down on the floor and got the cans for him. Dozens. Every last can of Beef Noodle soup in the store. He sure must love this kind of soup! No, it wasn’t for him. He was buying it for the soup kitchen over in Phillipsburg. ( a small city in NW NJ that has a lot of low- and no- income families ). He goes shopping for them in the off-hours when the stores aren’t too crowded. I let him know that I’d grown up working in grocery stores, and that any store will always get him a clerk to help him if he asks at the desk. He thanked me for my help and we both went on our way.
I got my OJ and was on my way to the check out when I passed him in the frozen food aisle. He was buying the bargain brand Banquet frozen dinners by the dozen. I jokingly said that he didn’t have any trouble reaching those. We chatted again, and that’s when I noticed his shirt had the Order of the Arrow monogram. I was in Scouts when I was a kid. Cub Scouts, Webelos, Arrow of Light, Boy Scouts, Merit Badges, the whole bit. Nearly 30 years later and that arrowhead still impresses the hell out of me. In my day it was a very rare sign of the best of the best. We talked some more. “Scouts doesn’t teach morals anymore”, he said, “I don’t know what the world is coming to. It’s just one more activity, like soccer camp. Parents just drop off their kids and leave. They don’t even attend the Eagle ceremony, and that’s the biggest event in a young man’s life. And now the country is turning Socialist. That’s not what I served three tours in Vietnam for. I didn’t have to go back the last two times, but I felt my country needed me. And when we all came home, what happened then was disgusting.” Turns out he is also the Scout’s Shooting Sports Program Director for this whole big chunk of the state. Teaching boys how to shoot guns. In New Jersey. Talk about an uphill battle.
So I talked a bit more with this kindred spirit, asking him about the food bank. Were the Scouts involved? Were they funding this? No to both. The whole thing was out of his pocket. “I’ve been part of the food bank in Phillipsburg for 10 years. We used to help out 78 families, now there’s 459.” I said that we always had a can or two for the food drive barrels, and that I’d always gone out of my way to put old clothes, cleaned, in the Goodwill boxes, until I learned what a con that is. [Those clothes get shredded, the pulp gets sold to China, and some of the earnings get distributed. Meanwhile the management gets paid enormous salaries. None of the clothes actually go to your neighbors in need.]
So I got his card, wished him luck, and gave him $20 to help his efforts. And you’re damn right I thanked him for his military service and let him know that it was the right thing to do.
We don’t need big government programs to help each other out. What we need are more people like this guy, John Kauza, to make an effort close to home. Willing to get involved, willing to actually do something. One more blade of grass, growing, sending down roots.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/05/2008 at 11:53 AM
Filed Under: • Heroes •
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Permalink • So now it starts
via the Gates of Vienna, we find out that Russia has thrown down the first test of Barry’s Mettle.
Russia’s president Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday became the first world leader to throw down a gauntlet to US president-elect Barack Obama, declaring that the Kremlin would station missiles in the tiny Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, which borders Poland, in response to US plans for an anti-missile system in Eastern Europe.
Remember, Joe told us the world would test him right away...I guess he was right.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/05/2008 at 11:51 AM
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
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- Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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