Archive for August, 2009

Bill Clinton and Obama and so on and so on…

Posted: August 17, 2009 by datechguy in doctor who, hobbies, opinion/news, personal, Sable Baseball
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A lot of random thoughts this morning so lets go through them Impromptus style:

You know I remember back in 92 when I was still a democrat and Paul Tsongas was running in the primaries against Bill Clinton. Tsongas was one of the most honest pols to ever come down the pike. I saw Clinton for what he was right off and couldn’t believe that people couldn’t see what was in front of their faces. After that primary I became an independent (or as it is called in Massachusetts “unenrolled”).

How many new “unenrolled” people are we going to see over the next year thanks to the actions of this president?

What is really amazing is how this is a communications phenom. The rise and resurgence of the Republicans begining with Reagan and continuing with Sarah Palin can all be traced to the new ability of the right to communicate. Twenty Years ago Came Rush Limbaugh, Then came Fox News, then came the internet, and now Sarah Palin defeated all of the major media using Facebook. All of these things are revolutions in communication, allowing like minded people to see they are not alone. It’s like an Army of Davids or something.

Back when I was blogging for Hiwired I interviewed Glenn Reynolds for our podcast about his Army of Davids book. It came up that the technology also empowered the crazy uncles as much as it did anyone else.

Oh and a quick plug for Zolex PC for virus removal. It’s run by a friend of mine and he does first rate work.

When I look at the MSM and their actions I end of thinking Peter Seitz and his famous quote a year after his ruling that created free agency in baseball:

“They were like the French barons of the 12th century,” he said. “They had accumulated so much power that they wouldn’t share it with anybody.”

BTW one of the things I noticed as a person who was on the net since the mid 90’s is that Rush was really ahead of the curve when it came to the net. I would see something on Drudge, Rush would then talk about it and it would drive further traffic to Drudge. I’ve never seen such an effective symbiotic relationship in media. Drudge should send Rush a thank you card every time he visits his accountant.

Speaking of facebook I still haven’t signed up, I’m going to resist the Facebook, myspace business for as long as it is humanly possible.

Yesterday my wife was on facebook and saw a rather interesting picture of an acquaintance of hers. Seems that this acquaintance and her friend had a picture taken of them at a concert posing next to a giant inflatable penis. The acquaintance’s friend flagged it with her name, and my wife saw it. If my wife can find it then her acquaintance’s boss can too. I guess technology does empower stupidity.

On that note my son just purchased an Apple laptop for college, it contains a built in web cam and he talks quite a bit with his friends on it. Let’s hope I don’t see him next to a giant sexual organ on the web anytime soon.

Speaking of Penis’ on the web in the 90’s we had the first president who was elected despite having admitted marijuana use in his younger days. Today we have the first president who admitted Cocaine use in his youth. Considering the number of paid web porn sites how many years do you think it will be before we have the first president or candidate who had a subscription to Hustler online or Abby Winters or something. After all these are all paid by credit cards and the records are kept somewhere. And once it is revealed we will find out exactly what kind of porn the president liked. Talk about too much information.

The web never forgets.

One final note on the subject. The final count for that day comparing the Sarah Palin post and the porn Parody post was a 22 x advantage for the Palin post in traffic. Of course if there was actual porn IN the post it might have been closer.

On a 180 degree turn the Madonna della Cava celebration was a big success, the heat was nasty but there was a large attendance, mass was packed, the food went over very well and even the band went home totally stuffed. Next year we hope to be even bigger.

We sold CD’s of the previous year’s procession and they sold briskly. I’m hoping that we will have some Marian Books such as St. Louis De Montfert’s True Devotion to Mary and The Secret of Mary available as well.

After all the primary purpose of Mary is to keep people from burning by leading them to her son. All the good food and good times in the world won’t do it without the prayer to back it up.

Turns out the brother of the organizer of the procession is my friend Vinny who works in Washington on ethics issues. I mentioned Rahm’s tax free home to him. Since it is legal I don’t seem much other than embarrassment coming from the story, assuming it ever gets reported.

It is more likely to come out then the Mohammad cartoons will show up in that Yale Book

Image copywright Jyllands-Posten

Images copyright the respective artists

Could you imagine the outcry if it they were refusing to print a picture of Piss Christ?

I guess that blows my chances of ever getting a grant from Saudi Arabia.

Oh and I’ve stopped putting up the Carter Arthur Watch. I think this administration has reached the point where comparing Obama to Carter is an insult to Carter. That’s pretty bad.

One more Carter thing. I noted in my review of Spys in the Vatican that Zbigniew Brzezinski didn’t bother with realism when it came to Poland and the soviets and was willing to displease the state department to protect Solidarity. I wonder if that was an aberration for him or did he change over the years?

I haven’t been watching or liveblogging Morning Joe either. They are still the fairest people on MSNBC (not a high standard to reach) but I just can’t put up with the anti-palin stuff anymore. I’ll still catch it on occasion but it’s no longer must see TV.

And I’d still be very pleased to have any kid raised by Mika as a daughter in law and not just because they might produce grandchildren as handsome as her.

One last Morning Joe note. Christine Hefner (a handsome woman too) was a panelist on the show for a while last week. It would be a fun project to figure out exactly when having the former head of playboy on a regular discussion panel was no longer a big deal.

You know I don’t think there is a better fast food item than Wendy’s Spicy Chicken Sandwich I’ve never tasted a fast food product that compare to it. It is spiced absolutely perfectly.

And there is only a few weeks until the first of the New Tom Baker Doctor Who Audios are available.

I don’t see them on the Mike’s comics site yet but I’d like to give them first crack at my dough.

Speaking of Doctor Who audios India Fisher’s run as the Doctor’s Companion Charley Pollard that started with #16 Storm Warning in 2001 will end this year with #126 Blue Forgotten Planet scheduled for late next month.

That run of 9 consecutive years is far longer than any companion in history. It should be noted that the final two years were with the 6th doctor rather than the 8th who she started out with.

Well that’s way long enough for a single post so I’ll close with a plug for Rich’s comic blog. He went on Hiatus for a week to go to a convention suspending his Doctor Who/Forever Knight strip Forever Janette and his Ancient Roman comedy strip based on Fvlminata House of Paulus for a week. Instead of writing a blurb about the trip he put up a comic to tell the story. I wish I had that much talent.

She’s still a nut but a consistent one

Posted: August 17, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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I always had a (very) tiny bit of sympathy for Cindy Sheehan, I always theorized that the loss of her son broke her and the left took advantage of it.

Then she started hanging around with Chavez and that disappeared in a hurry.

Now although I had to say it I have to give her props.

She’s still crazy, she’s still wrong, but I’ll say this for her, she is consistent:

This morning the anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan — the woman who spent so much time leading well-publicized protests outside President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas — announced that she will demonstrate next week at Martha’s Vineyard

And she hasn’t changed her beliefs due to a new white house occupant:

Secondly, we as a movement need to continue calling for an immediate end to the occupations even when there is a Democrat in the Oval Office. There is still no Noble Cause no matter how we examine the policies.

Thirdly, the body bags aren’t taking a vacation and as the U.S.-led violence surges in Afghanistan and Pakistan, so are the needless deaths on every side.

She is of course dead wrong about the war still but she hasn’t fallen under the obamaspell.

Will anyone other than Byron York cover it?

Update: Even Kathleen Parker has noticed.

Obama, who, in fact, invokes Jesus in speeches more often than Bush did, according to an analysis by Politico, not only embraced his predecessor’s initiative but has given it the loaves-and-fishes treatment by expanding the mission. As described by DuBois in a video posted on the White House blog, the office’s mission extends even to “figuring out the role of faith-based organizations in combating global climate change.”

Why does Obama get a pass?

In part, because he’s not Bush. But also, perhaps, because the media are more approving of the issues and policies Obama wants to advance.

One may argue, as Bush critics have, that the previous administration similarly tried to advance policy through its faith-based office. What one may not argue is that Obama has been treated to the same scrutiny as his predecessor.

Update 2: Victor David Hansen explains it even better:

there is a growing fear that Obamism is becoming cult-like and Orwellian. Almost on script, Hollywood ceased all its Rendition/Redacted–style films. Iraq — once the new Vietnam — is out of the news. Afghanistan is “problematic,” not a “blunder.” Tribunals, renditions, the Patriot Act, and Predators are no longer proof of a Seven Days in May coup, but legitimate tools to keep us safe. Words change meanings as acts of terror become “man-caused disasters.” Hunting down jihadists is really an “overseas contingency operation.” Media sycophants do not merely parrot Obama, but now proclaim him a “god.” New York Times columnists who once assured us that Bush’s dastardly behavior was proof of American pathology now sound like Pravda apologists in explaining the “real” Obama is not what he is beginning to seem like.

Update 3: Ed Driscoll notices and draws a parallel to Vietnam.

I still remember that dark day when Army officials announced that even if we pursued graduate or professional study after college graduation, we could no longer expect immunity from the draft. This decision had a greater impact on us than all the horrible images of napalmed babies.

Strangely enough, the American politician who understood us best may have been Richard Nixon. Cynical manipulator that he was, he sought to calm the campuses by removing the irritant that had provoked our protests in the first place. By committing the country to an all-volunteer army in 1971, he effectively undermined the anti-war movement. It may seem strange at first glance that the most brutal U.S. attack of the entire war — the notorious Christmas bombing of 1972 — generated hardly a ripple of protest from America’s colleges and universities. Our silence is easily understood, however, when one takes note of the fact that draft calls came to an end at precisely that same moment in history — December 1972. By removing our own tender bodies from the line of fire, in other words, President Nixon significantly dimmed our heroic concern for the suffering masses of Southeast Asia.

There is no longer a political advantage to attacking the war so the left doesn’t give a damn. History repeats itself.

Great tea party kid don’t get cocky

Posted: August 16, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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One of the things I absolutely love about baseball is the lack of a clock. Unless you have rain or extra innings you can’t win without getting 27 outs.

That means even if you have a 10-0 lead after one you have to get those 27 outs. Even more important is the fact that if one team is able to get 10 runs in an inning there is absolutely no reason why another team can’t before the game ends.

In football the closest match is halftime. If a team is losing 34-3 at the half there is absolutely no reason why the other team can’t reverse that score in the 2nd half.

We are still in the first quarter in terms of the Obama administration. Our current success not withstanding there is absolutely no reason why he can’t turn things around and even manage to get this lemon of a bill passed.

President Obama still has all the intrinsic advantages of the presidency, liberal bloggers who support a liberal agenda and a media that will jump through hoops to protect him and attack his foes.

If anyone thinks we can let up or underestimates Obama, or believes the ballgame is over then they are not only kidding themselves but don’t belong in the business.

And you know what; I wouldn’t expect principled liberals to give up on what they believe either. Their innings aren’t over.

Update: Great minds think alike

Update 2: Anyone who quotes Yogi Berra in defense of my opinion deserves his own update.

Maybe the Madonna can save me $2000 a year!

Posted: August 16, 2009 by datechguy in catholic, opinion/news
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Blogging will be kinda light today as I will be at St. Anthony di Padua Church in Fitchburg working on today’s Madonna della Cava mass and procession and the party etc afterwords.

The procession with the Band, Banners, et/al will start at 10, followed by mass, free food and music and closing with a Rosary in Italian. We had 300 people last year (I was on a cruse so I missed it) and expect a larger crowd in the 2nd year of the revival of the tradition that ran from the 20’s to the 60’s at the parish.

Not only is this a fine devotion but thanks to Rahm Emanual maybe I can save a few grand in property taxes if I get more involved. Robert Stacy McCain found the story at the American Freedom blog. Barbara there explains:

The Cook County Assessor’s and Cook County Treasurer’s online records indicate Emanuel’s Chicago neighbors pay between $3,500 and $7,000 annually. However, Illinois Review has
been unable to locate any evidence that the former Clinton advisor and investment banker is paying his fair share of Cook County’s notoriously high tax burden.

Why wouldn’t 4228 North Hermitage property owners Rahm Emanuel and wife A my Rule pay property taxes?
One reason may be because Emanuel and Rule declared their 4228 North Hermitage home as the office location for their personal non-profit foundation called the “Rahm Emanuel and Amy Rule Charitable Foundation”. As the non-profit’s headquarters, their home could be exempt from paying property taxes.

So all I need to do is incorporate the society with my house as a headquarters and presto my $2,000+ in property taxes annually will disappear, but as Barbara further explains I’m thinking small…

What a racket! Take all your income and donate it back to yourself via tax exempt orgs where you can spend it on as expenses to operate your car, pay the electric and water bills, etc.

I get the feeling the Madonna might not take kindly to this whole idea so tempting as it is I’m going to have to give it a miss, however the story establishes why so many White House people were tax dodgers. Rahm didn’t want them paying taxes that he wasn’t paying himself.

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