Pimp My Ride.........

You might remember those "Money for Guns" schemes from the 1990s where the major city police would pay cash if folks would turn in their guns. It quickly became obvious that the street urchins were turning in grandpa's old rusty rods and using the cash to upgrade their semi-autos and buy body armour. Way to go libtards !

A similar plan is being offered by the MIC to boost car sales. See this excellent story over at American Thinker for coverage of the "Cash for Clunkers" program.

What If You Could Turn Off The Internet

Imagine if you will the howling we would have heard from the progressive ranks if Bush would have proposed this legislation while he was still in office; the ability of the Executive to shut down key parts of the internet during a world-wide cybersecurity crisis. Surely something this sinister must have originated from deep within the undisclosed Cheney security complex.

ARRA and Comperative Effectiveness Research

I've been extremely busy this spring taking care of family and normal business but extra busy helping out my agency increase the ranks of the dependent classes by handing out ARRA funds. I quickly came to the conclusion that this has little to do with jobs or economic recovery and everything to do with keeping the Democrats in office. There is candy in this legislation for constituencies that don't even exist yet !

Which leads me to the topic of Comparative Clinical Effectiveness Research (CER). This was in ARRA simply because it was part of Daschle's book, but when he was canned early on for tax stupidity someone forgot to remove it from the bill.

Sandy Szwarc over at Junkdood Science does an excellent job of describing just what the progressives plan to do with this data as they move forward dismantling the best health care system in the world. We can only hope there is enough spine remaining in the Senate to save us from this nonsense.

1819: America's First Housing Bubble

"The Panic of 1819 lasted about three years — the Great Depression lasted well over a decade. When looking for solutions to our current mess, we should study a winning team; instead we seem determined to channel FDR, the same arrogant fool who took an economic downturn and stretched it into a decade-plus tragedy."

Fascinating analysis of America's first major post war financial crisis, the panic of 1819 by C. J. Maloney . This is a must read. If only the majority of morons in this country had only a mild interest in history. No such luck; it most likely would interfere with keeping up with American Idol.

Here's another nugget:

"The men of 1819 realized that a "free market" in order to work must be just that — free. They had in them what we completely lack: a trust in the American people to manage their own affairs. A trust in "free markets" is, at base, a trust in the people. Many look at freedom as a luxury today — one that we can't afford and dare not try. Our trust in ourselves is dead, but it wasn't always."

Go read the whole thing and between trips to the range, work in tutorials with your children (assuming they are old enough not to be bothered with nightmares).

Paying Off the Corporate Freak Show

Readers of this blog might recall my general disgust for corporate senior management particularly the freak show one generally sees in the pharma industry. However, when it comes to compensation and bonus packages (not counting some of the more outrageous golden parachute deals), these people generally earn their money. Think about it for a minute, would you really want one of those jobs? Sure, it might be fun for the first week or so but I doubt any sane person with any kind of life outside of work would actually want one for the long haul. Most people realize this and that is why the candidate pool is so small and why corporate boards and share holders alike generally endorse these seemingly outrageous compensation packages.

And then there is the current situation with AIG bonuses. If I were one of those AIG employees, I would be polishing the glutes in anticipation of asking certain members of Congress just exactly which cheek they would like to kiss first.

As an ultimate irony, yesterday we were treated to the headline that the MIC fired the chairman of GM. That certainly is interesting. The last I heard, such actions were normally reserved for Boards of Directors. I guess there must have been a line authorizing this in one of the bail-out packages that no one at GM bothered to read before taking the money. How embarrassing, to be fired by a community organizer who never actually held down a real job in the public sector.

But here is the scary part; ".......Because starting today, the United States government will stand behind your warranty." Wow, that sure is comforting. I can see where that will save the American auto industry.

We've tried to be a "buy-American" family over the years and we currently own two Dodge vehicles, both nearly ten years old and each having over 150K miles. They were paid off early by the way. We are about to start shopping for one of their replacements. Needless to say I plan to go out of my way to look at Fords (assuming they continue not to accept bail out money) or better yet, a Toyota.

The Smartest Woman in the World

Who could help but think back to the early days of the Clinton adminsitration; remember all the buzz about Hillary, how we were getting two for the price of one, how she was the smartest woman in the world?

Read this and think twice. Of course it is being attributed to her being tired. The poor old fatass. Better this to the European Parliament than to be getting that 4am call on the hotline.

The fun we would be having if she were in the Whitehouse.

Charlie's Got it Right

"Forget the pork. Forget the waste. Forget the 8,570 earmarks in a bill supported by a president who poses as the scourge of earmarks. Forget the "$2 trillion dollars in savings" that "we have already identified," $1.6 trillion of which President Obama's budget director later admits is the "savings" of not continuing the surge in Iraq until 2019 -- 11 years after George Bush ended it, and eight years after even Bush would have had us out of Iraq completely." Charles Krauthamer, March 6, 2009.

Priceless...................

"to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic."

....."to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic"........ Strong words indeed and to those of us who have taken this oath either through service in the military or when becoming a federal employee it is easily spoken but rarely thought about at the time. much like this line:

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed "

Do you really think this is about deer hunting or the National Guard? There is a lot of uncertainly in this country right now and I am seeing the level of discussions about stupid government and one's personal safety reaching levels unheard of even during the early days of the Clinton administration or those dark weeks right after 9/11. Even well balanced commentary such as that from the Patriot Post in their latest edition is mentioning the possibility of some level of civil violence in our near future. I can only hope and pray that this will not be the case.

Call me crazy or paranoid but just in case, the kids will be getting a bit more time on the range, a little more background on the constitution, and GATC will be making time to prepare both physically and mentally hopefully without arousing too much suspicion or fear with the wife and kids.

Another timely quote from the Patriot Post:

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace." Thomas Paine, 1776.

The Silent Freak Show

I should have done this a long time ago but this past weekend I finally broke down and bought a pair of "sound isolating" ear buds for the IPod. Besides increasing the sound quality about 100X compared to the lame pair that came with it, these beauties block out the worst of the background noise. The sound quality is amazing too. I am hearing notes that I didn't know existed. Shure brand buds are highly recommended.

I am not the type to go around everywhere with an MP3 player. As a matter of fact, I rarely travel with my IPod preferring to have all the situational awareness that I can muster particularly on the commute to ground-zero. I detest the morons with the dreaded "screaming" earbuds. You know the ones, generally street urchins with their players turned up so loudly that you really have to wonder why they even bother with them in the first place.

The big reason for my purchase though was that I was pretty much fed-up with the crowd on my commuter bus especially on the ride home in the evening. The obnoxious cell phone chatter, the ridiculous ring tones, idle praise for the MIC, the guy who makes pig noises, the old fart that lets out a cough that would wake the dead just as you are trying to catch a nap. It definitely is the bar scene from StarWars; a freak show. Half of these people probably couldn't fine their way to the highway much less commute for an hour in their own vehicles.

Now I can set back in my acoustic cocoon and observe my fellow man. It's not pretty.

Oh the INDIGNITY !!

"The power of the secretary of State flows directly from the president. But Hillary does not have the inside track with Obama. Rice and Powers, close advisers in the campaign, and Gen. Jones — whose office is in the White House — all may have superior access. Holbrooke and Mitchell will have more immediate information about the world’s trouble spots."; Dick Morris, TheHill.com, 2/9/2009.

Miracle in Iraq

"When you become president of the United States you inherit its history, even the parts you would have done differently. Obama might argue that American sacrifices in Iraq were not worth what we achieved. But for the purposes of current and future policy, that is entirely moot. Despite Obama's opposition, America went on to create a small miracle in the heart of the Arab Middle East. President Obama is now the custodian of that miracle. It is his duty as leader of the nation that gave birth to this fledgling democracy to ensure that he does nothing to undermine it." Charles Krauthammer; Town Hall.com; 2/13/2009.