COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Who is John Galt?

Powerline PrintOctober 23, 2008 Posted by Scott at 6:52 AM


We've previously noted the gusher of illegal campaign contributions flowing into the Obama campaign from contributors such as "Doodad Pro" and "Good Will." More recently, incidents have been reported in which people have seen credit card charges surface suggesting they donated to Barack Obama when they did not. Matthew Mosk and Sarah Cohen noted one such incident earlier this week:

Now comes the story of Mary T. Biskup, of Manchester, Missouri. Biskup got a call recently from the Obama campaign, which was trying to figure out why she donated $174,800 to the campaign -- well over the contribution limit of $2,300.

The answer she gave them was simple. "That's an error."

Is the Obama campaign knowingly receiving illegal contributions? Yesterday one of our readers reported the results of an experiment he conducted:

I've read recent reports of the Obama campaign receiving donations from dubious names and foreign locales and it got me wondering: How is this possible?

I run a small Internet business and when I process credit cards I'm required to make sure the name on the card exactly matches the name of the customer making the purchase. Also, the purchaser's address must match that of the cardholders. If these don't match, then the payment isn't approved. Period. So how is it possible that the Obama campaign could receive donations from fictional people and places? Well, I decided to do a little experiment. I went to the Obama campaign website and entered the following:

Name: John Galt
Address: 1957 Ayn Rand Lane
City: Galts Gulch
State: CO
Zip: 99999

Then I checked the box next to $15 and entered my actual credit card number and expiration date (it didn't ask for the 3-didgit code on the back of the card) and it took me to the next page and... "Your donation has been processed. Thank you for your generous gift."

This simply should not, and could not, happen in any business or any campaign that is honestly trying to vet it's donors. Also, I don't see how this could possibly happen without the collusion of the credit card companies. They simply wouldn't allow any business to process, potentially, hundreds of millions in credit card transactions where the name on the card doesn't match the purchasers name.

In short, with the system set up as it is by the Obama camp, an individual could donate unlimited amounts of money by simply making up fake names and addresses. And Obama is doing his best to facilitate this fraud. This is truly scandalous.

Our reader was not yet done. He tried the experiment on the McCain site: "I tried the exact same thing at the McCain site and it didn't allow the transaction." He then repeated the experiment at the Obama site:

I went back to the Obama site and made three additional donations using the names Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Bill Ayers, all with different addresses. All the transactions went through using the same credit card. I saved screenshots of the transactions.

Our reader reports, incidentally, that he was using his MasterCard for the contributions. We submit this report in the spirit of inquiry and would especially appreciate hearing from readers who can illuminate how credit card procedures might (or might not) allow this to happen.

UPDATE: Readers have replicated the experiment reported in this post. We will have to revisit the issue tonight or tomorrow and appreciate any information you can provide in the meantime.



155 comments:

  1. You have to read the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I am sure that you would enjoy it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. John Galt is the man who said no.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm sure I would, too. Do you have a copy?

    ReplyDelete
  4. A few, more reality based, questions

    Who is JPMorgan Chase,
    and why does he fund Obama?

    Who is General Dynamics
    and why does he fund Obama?

    Who is Lester Crown?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lester Crown (born 1926) is the son of Chicago financier Henry Crown (d. 1990), who created Material Service with two brothers in 1919, which merged with General Dynamics in 1959.

    He has been a perennial member of the Forbes 400 list since 1982. Lester controls family holdings, including large stakes in Maytag, Hilton Hotels, Alltell, Aspen Skiing Company, New York's Rockefeller Center, and pro basketball's Chicago Bulls. He also holds a stake in the New York Yankees, being a Partner since 1973.
    ...
    He has served as the president and chair of General Dynamics
    ...

    In a 2008 letter to "a large number of Jewish voters", Crown expressed his support for Barack Obama, the Democratic Presidential Candidate:

    "While my involvement in politics is motivated by a variety of issues, there is one issue that is fundamental: My deep commitment to Israel and to a strong U.S.-Israel relationship that strengthens both Israel's security and its efforts to seek peace," Crown wrote. "I am writing to share with you my confidence that Senator Barack Obama's stellar record on Israel gives me great comfort that, as President, he will be the friend to Israel that we all want to see in the White House - stalwart in his defense of Israel's security, and committed to helping Israel achieve peace with its neighbors."


    Obama's single largest financial backer.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Presumably, the large stake held in Bank One at the time of the 2003 Forbes 400 listing has converted to JPMorgan Chase stock and was derived from an interest in First Chicago, which was enumerated in the 1998 Forbes 400 list as First Chicago NBD shares

    All from wiki, do not even have to dive deep, to come up with the "Who really backs Obama" storyline.

    Lester Crown, he ain't no black man. Guaranteed

    ReplyDelete
  7. He is the landlord for GE and its' NBC subsidiary @ Rockefeller Center in NYCity.

    Birds of a feather, flocking together

    ReplyDelete
  8. General Dynamics, GE, JP Morgan Chase & Westinghouse all in the Obama camp.

    Why bother asking why?

    But one thing is guaranteed, it ain't that it's a "black thing".

    ReplyDelete
  9. KInd of amazing. The black churches are mostly political parties. And poor old Serratelli gets hammered for talking about infanticide, and abortion, and Obama.




    WASHINGTON — A church-state watchdog group has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate whether the Roman Catholic bishop of Paterson, N.J., violated tax laws by denouncing Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama.
    In a letter sent to the IRS on Wednesday (Oct. 22), Americans United for Separation of Church and State accused Paterson Bishop Arthur Serratelli of illegal partisanship for lambasting Obama's support of abortion rights.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Motherfuckers set off four bombs in my neck of the woods this afternoon. Damn near killed my friend.

    Motherfuckers.

    ReplyDelete
  11. It's time to end affirmative action, now.

    The Supreme Court made that dumb decision, almost enshrining it as a right.

    Almost as a right.

    It's time to end it now

    Let them all take the tests together, and then, let the best ones go to the front of the class, based on the scores.

    I see the sign in the Post Office, once a week, No Discrimination Based On Race, Color, or Creed.

    Let that be the law of the land then.

    And you can start in your own life too. Judging by the content of the character, not the color of the skin, and nothing else.

    The American Way.

    ReplyDelete
  12. O/T ARM YOURSELF NOW

    Woman Attacked At ATM, Assailant Carves Letter Into Her Face
    Woman Robbed, Attacked With Knife At Bloomfield ATM

    POSTED: 4:03 pm EDT October 23, 2008
    UPDATED: 4:30 pm EDT October 23, 2008


    PITTSBURGH -- A 20-year-old woman who was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield was also maimed by her attacker, police said.

    Pittsburgh police spokeswoman Diane Richard tells Channel 4 Action News that the victim was robbed at knifepoint on Wednesday night outside of a Citizens Bank near Liberty Avenue and Pearl Street just before 9 p.m.

    Richard said the robber took $60 from the woman, then became angry when he saw a McCain bumper sticker on the victim's car. The attacker then punched and kicked the victim, before using the knife to scratch the letter "B" into her face , Richard said.

    Richard said the woman refused medical treatment after the assault, which happened outside the view of the bank's surveillance cameras.

    The robber is described as a dark-skinned black man, 6 feet 4 inches tall, 200 pounds with a medium build, short black hair and brown eyes. The man was wearing dark colored jeans, a black undershirt and black shoes.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Why do we have scores, if we are not serious about it?

    Maybe we shouldn't have scores.

    Because now, a lower score seems to give you an advantage.


    Maybe we should just go tribal, like Colin Powell.

    I can keep this up all day, all month.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Send Ash into inner D.C. as a teacher.

    See how long he lasts.

    ReplyDelete
  15. It's time to end affirmative action with a 7.62.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Ash, nice video, but I want to ask, why should we put those with lower scores at the head of the class?

    Your old man is a prof.

    You must know.

    Why is this?

    Explain it to me.

    ReplyDelete
  17. They don't go to the head of the class Bobal they just get into a class. There is a lot of literature on affirmative action and if you really care about the issue I suggest you read up on it evaluating BOTH sides of the issue.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Not so good reasoning.

    Let them start their own schools then.

    The white Rhodesian woman said "
    They didn't have any clothes on, for Christ's sake."

    You teach 'em.

    I've had it with it.

    Look at Rhodesia now, Ash.

    You go fix it.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Hatin Palin

    The stoning of Sarah Palin has exposed enough cultural fissures in American politics to occupy strategists full-time until 2012. We now see there is a left-to-right elite centered in New York, Washington, Hollywood and Silicon Valley who hand down judgments of the nation's mortals from their perch atop the Bell Curve.

    It seems only yesterday that the most critical skill in presidential politics was being able to connect to people in places like Bronko's bar or Saddleback Church. When Gov.
    Palin showed she excelled at that, the goal posts suddenly moved and the new game was being able to talk the talk in London, Paris, Tehran or Moscow.

    ReplyDelete
  20. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  21. PITTSBURGH (AP) - A woman robbed at knifepoint at a Pittsburgh ATM told police her attacker knocked her down and carved a "B" in her face after noticing a John McCain sticker on her car.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Affirmative Action -- the old guys say that the original idea was that there were lots of qualified people who would not even bother to apply for jobs (or Harvard) because they were the wrong color, religion, social group.

    Affirmative Action was originally a commitment to solicit applications from those qualified individuals and evaluate them fairly on the same basis as applications from the in-crowd -- may the best person win.

    I think we can all support true Affirmative Action.

    Then the Supreme Court interfered and turned Affirmative Action into a code word for Politically Correct Discrimination -- even though that is prohibited by the Constitution.

    It is a pity that we don't have "retention elections" for Supreme Court judges the way some states do for their own judges.

    ReplyDelete
  23. EFFECTIVE Affirmative Action would be vouchers for every Ghetto Family that wants them, Ash!

    ReplyDelete
  24. I had lunch today with RattlerGator. (I hope he doesn't mind my telling.) I did not know the man prior to reading his posts at the BC.

    What a fine, patriotic, right-thinking man. It was my pleasure.

    ReplyDelete
  25. "I guess I'm amused by a comment previously made by a candidate for the Texas Governorship:

    "I'm in favor of Gay Marriage.
    Why shouldn't they be miserable like the rest of us?!
    "

    ReplyDelete
  26. Yeah, Whit?
    Well *I* had lunch with Starling atop the tallest building in the World, in Dubai!

    Not.
    (I HATE tall buildings!)
    ...esp those built by abused slaves.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Bogota on Alert after Explosions

    Trish may be coming home sooner that planned.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Yeah, you wish you had lunch with Starling or RattlerGator or Deuce or anybody else that was buying.:)

    ReplyDelete
  29. At least 18 people suffered minor cuts and hearing trauma, according to Clara Lopez, government secretary for the Bogota mayor's office.

    The explosives "were not high-powered, but definitely (caused) fear among the people," Lopez said in a phone interview.

    Authorities were searching for suspects and possible motives.


    Colombian Capital

    ReplyDelete
  30. Trish

    I hope you and yours are safe!

    ReplyDelete
  31. Slow day at the bar. I am just East of Scottsdale AZ out by the Mayo Clinic. It's a beautiful day in the desert. Cheers everyone!

    ReplyDelete
  32. Does not take much, to build a bomb. Not much at all.

    A little knowledge of chemistry, and just an limited application of that.

    Sometimes it is harder to set it off, than one would think. Terry Nichols had to get Islamic experts in the Philipines to show him how.

    Last time I compared he and McVeigh to habu, he got irritated. Not Nichols but habu.

    But he's inchin' that way again, 7.62.

    He or others may believe it'll be revolution, but it'll just be domestic terrorism, 7.62 or a bomb at a Federal building at a church or even a day care center.

    Even an ACORN or Planned Parenthood office.

    John Brown's body,
    it still lies a-mouldering in the grave.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Hope the check up is going well, I'm just west of there, oh, 8 miles or so.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Right along Shea Blvd, to 24th St.

    ReplyDelete
  35. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Look to the McDowell Mountains, gag.

    From where you are, all the way north to Pinnacle Peak, that was Kemper Marley's mountain. All of DC Ranch, all the mountain's west slope.

    Before much of anything else was there, other than Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home and school, that was there. He was pretty visionary in that regard, too.
    We had a little place at 108th St & Shea, room for fifty horses. Long gone, now.

    ReplyDelete
  37. They got right inside *our*
    residential footprint. That was the whole motherfucking point. Gonna make everyday life suck for us now. My one fear all along. Knew this was coming for months.

    Everyone's fine this time, gag. 'Preciate your asking.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Here is a slide show from Taliesin West, the backgrounds, as well as the subjects, gives an idea of the topography and climate.
    Those mountains in the background, those are the McDowells.

    ReplyDelete
  39. From the American Thinker

    Eliminating 25 million Americans
    Thomas Lifson
    That was the plan of the Weather Underground after taking power. The same Weather Underground headed by Barack Obama's friends William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, the people in whose house he launched his political career, and with whom he has worked and spoken on the subject of educational reform.


    Confederate Yankee discovered a video clip of testimony given by former Weather Underground member/FBI informant Larry Grathwohl, in which he speaks the following chilling words:


    I asked, "well what is going to happen to those people we can't reeducate, that are diehard capitalists?" and the reply was that they'd have to be eliminated.


    And when I pursued this further, they estimated they would have to eliminate 25 million people in these reeducation centers.


    And when I say "eliminate," I mean "kill."


    Twenty-five million people.


    I want you to imagine sitting in a room with 25 people, most of which have graduate degrees, from Columbia and other well-known educational centers, and hear them figuring out the logistics for the elimination of 25 million people.


    And they were dead serious.


    I suppose it is possible that Ayers and Dohrn have changed their political thinking, but they have remained publicly silent, and indeed have indicated no regret at all about their revolutionary past or goals.


    I don't believe it is simple paranoia to wonder about handing the presidency to a man who doesn't see anything wrong with working together with these people, and who has already had his campaign attempt to shut down opponents by means legal and otherwise.


    Watch the testimony yourself:


    (video clip here)


    Do not expect any reporter with access to Obama to ask him about the relationship with Ayers and Dohrn and their intent to cleanse America of opponents.

    Hat tip: Susan L

    ReplyDelete
  40. Went to Fallingwater in PA some years ago. Took the Big Tour with a tiny handful of people - who coincidentally were over from Belgium like us. Worth every bit the half grand.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Taliesin is "shining brow" in Welsh.

    ReplyDelete
  42. And thanks to the Chicago Way, habu, Ayers never served a day.

    Which would lead us to think the plan of the Weather Underground was not taken seriously, by the Federals ...
    ... or they were paid to make those errors that set him free.

    The Chicago Way.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Think it might justify 7.62 DR or are you throwing in with those who were serious about killing 25 million Americans.

    You compare me to McVeigh ..

    Hitler and Stalin seem to be your style.

    And if you're not the biggest RINO I've ever encountered then none exists.

    When TSHTF you'll be ;ong gone to your hidy hole with arty boy , what 15 miles to the rear?

    ReplyDelete
  44. Wright's use of open space and glass, he has quite a few examples in the area, and then with his presence in the area ...

    A lot of the houses in Carefree and around Pinnacle Peak show his influence.

    Large expansive living areas, with small bedrooms and baths. Low entry ways that open into volumes of open space.

    Rock and concrete w/steel

    ReplyDelete
  45. One of Wright's favorite sayings: What a man does, that he has. Which I believe is on a wall at Taliesin West.

    I have his collected writings. Two of the volumes among the few books I brought with me.

    ReplyDelete
  46. I think a simple cabin by the lake, like I used to have, is best.
    Cost about six thousand dollars, three rooms. One room with the fire place and little kitchen, and two rooms with bunks. Lived there alone, well, with my dog, while I was farming, before I met my wife. She of course wanted something better, so I had to move out.:)

    ReplyDelete
  47. To the rear of where, amigo?

    If Obama is elected and a wave of revolutionary terrorism ensues, that'll still be terrorism, amigo.

    If Obama is elected and the "true" Americans rally in the elections of 2010 and 2012, they'll be no need for terrorism.

    Whether the Weather Underground terrorists that blew themselves up, could have accomplished their mission of reshaping US society, that seems truly doubtful. Based upon their lack of mission competency.

    Tell us, amigo, why did Ayers go free, not spending a day in a jail?

    Especially if his conspriacy was so heinous. Which it certainly seems to have been.

    Were the Federals so inept, or paid to be.

    It is the Chicago Way, after all

    ReplyDelete
  48. So to sum up all your bilge you'd side with the Ayers way of killin 25 milllion Americans.

    You're hands would be clean however because you're just a mouth piece for the Democrats.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Here in Idaho, you can have a lean to in the National Forest, and they need a search warrant to enter, according to the court ruling.

    Glad you are safe, Trish. It sounds as if all your work is going to come to nothing, if Obama is elected, as he is against the free trade deal, which you say is critical, if I'm following the conversation right.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Were the Federals so inept, or paid to be.

    DR take off the tin foil hat, but by all means continue to defend what everybody in the universe knows he tried to do, He even admitted it but your gyro is so tunbled that you don't know which way is up.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Ayers seems to have gone free because of too much nicey dicey in the law courts, but I don't know the details.

    He walked, then said about himself 'Guilty as hell, free as a bird" or something like that.

    The linquists have it figured out he wrote Obama's books for him. That's what I read over at American Thinker I believe it was.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Why did he go free, habu?

    Crown cash, or just influence?

    The F22 has funded Obama, along with the JPMorgan Chase bank bail nationalization.

    He is a Crown company man, Obama is.

    It's the Chicago Way

    Fact is, Obama bragged on it.

    ReplyDelete
  53. I'll leave the five or six of you to continue listening to DR pontificate...later

    ReplyDelete
  54. I know he admitted it, that is the ENTIRE POINT numbskull!

    He was guilty as sin.
    He walked

    That is the Chicago Way, for those that are "connected".

    No doubt of that.

    Ayers is/was connected in Chicago.

    To Obama, to Daley and to Lester Crown.

    Lester Crown is the key to Obama's rise to power, not Ayers, who is just another bit player, in Chicago.

    ReplyDelete
  55. The pieces begin to fit

    Lester Crown ... is a member of Lake Shore Country Club, Northmoor Country Club, Standard Club, Economic Club of Chicago, and Northwestern University's John Evans Club.

    And Mr Ayers, Senior this is what is said about his knowledge of the Chicago Way

    Ayers only escaped a long prison sentence — despite his admissions to bombing the Pentagon and other crimes — because his extremely wealthy father was able to buy him the best legal team which found improprieties in FBI investigations.

    So his wealthy father ...
    Former Commonwealth Edison Chairman and CEO Tom Ayers was many men -- a prominent player in the cultural, social and economic advancements of Chicago.

    He was the Chicago establishment, serving on the boards of Sears, G.D. Searle, Chicago Pacific Corp., Zenith Corp., Northwest Industries, General Dynamics Corp. of St. Louis, First National Bank of Chicago, the Chicago Cubs and the Tribune Co.


    And he was

    Mr. Ayers was a staunch supporter of Northwestern University.
    He was chair of the school's board of trustees for 10 years, and a university building bears his name.


    So Mr Thomas Aters was on the Board of General Dynamic, with Mr Crown and were involved through their participation at Northwestern University, as well.

    The Chicago Way corruption runs so deep, that this is what the current Mayor Daley has to say, about Bill Ayers
    ...
    17Apr08 Chi-town Tribune

    He's been a valuable member of the community with regards to education. Helping young people," said Mayor Richard Daley, who was also friends with Ayers' father, Thomas, a civic activist and former chief executive officer of Commonwealth Edison.

    "Bill has contributed heavily to the quality of life not only in the city but in the entire world as well," Daley said.

    ReplyDelete
  56. Just the first page of the wiki entries....

    Lester Crown - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaLester Crown (born 1926) is the son of Chicago financier Henry Crown (d. ... During the 1950s, the Crown family had a controlling interest in New York's ...

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_Crown - 34k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

    Lester Crown & family, The World's Richest People - Forbes.comLester Crown & family ranked 158 among The World's Richest People In 2006.
    www.forbes.com/lists/2006/10/58EE.html - 7k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

    Lester Crown & family, The 400 Richest Americans - Forbes.comLester Crown & family ranked 52 among The 400 Richest Americans In 2005.
    www.forbes.com/lists/2005/54/58EE.html - 9k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

    More results from www.forbes.com »
    Legacy of Henry Crown - Aspen InstituteBob and Lester Crown risked their father's ire when they renamed the family holding company in his honor. By the 1970s the family had also begun to lend the ...

    www.aspeninstitute.org/site/c.huLWJeMRKpH/b.612923/k.6B79/Legacy_of_Henry_Crown.htm - 57k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
    Lester Crown defends Obama in mass e-mail | Aspen Daily News OnlineJan 22, 2008 ...

    Lester Crown has donated $2100 to Obama's campaign, and many other Crown family members have also contributed. ...

    www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/lester-crown-defends - 33k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
    Brandeis University's "objective" center for Middle East Studies ...
    Apr 4, 2005 ... A portion of the Crown family's surplus wealth was apparently recently ...
    Lester Crown has also been actively involved with the American ...

    www.campus-watch.org/article/id/1856 - 21k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
    Engology, Engineer Lester Crown, Professional Engineering ..

    .The Crown family’s generosity to Northwestern is well known. In 1961 Henry Crown and his three sons — Lester, Robert (WCAS42), and John (L55), ...


    www.engology.com/eng5crown.htm - 12k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

    Has Philanthropist Lester Crown Been Duped by Islamists ...Dec 8, 2007 ... Lester Crown is Chairman of Henry Crown and Company, a family-owned and operated company which includes diversified manufacturing operations ...
    www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3275 - 43k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this


    Crown Family Gift Supports Financial Aid and Summer Fellowships at ...In 2000, the Crown family established the Lester Crown University Professorship in Ethics at Duke; in 1988, the family endowed an annual Crown Lecture in ...
    giving.duke.edu/development/news/2007/crown-support-0307.php - 10k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this


    BarackBook: Lester Crown"Obama Had A Special Connection To Maytag: Lester Crown, One Of The Company's Directors And Biggest Investors Whose Family, Records Show, Has Raised Tens Of

    ReplyDelete
  57. I'd never heard of the guy until Rat began to bring him up.

    ReplyDelete
  58. The Tribune another of Mr Crown's assets.

    Which now includes the LATimes, too.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Well, getting back to education, if I was a parent with a school age kid, I wouldn't opt for the public school system now.

    I'd go for a church school, or some such, or home school. A Catholic or Jewish school, maybe.

    Anything but the public school system, in the hands of
    Ash and Ayers.

    No school at all, would be better than that.

    A cabin in the woods, and some books....

    ReplyDelete
  60. Of course you never heard of him, bob.

    He is the power, in Chi-town.
    Top dog.

    General Dynamic, JPMorgan Chase.
    Northwestern Univ.

    Like you never heard of Kemper Marley, of Arizona.

    ReplyDelete
  61. I had my daughter in the Catholic school, til sixth grade. They used to have it all the way through high school, then dropped to eighth grade, now down to six.

    We have Logos School now in town. They beat the public schools in the tests. They go through high school.

    ReplyDelete
  62. It's like I've told my mother, bob. FARC has big, big gaps in its capabilities, but odds are anyway that one day you'll turn on CNN and some shit will have hit the fan and there'll be a lot of high-toned, idiotic "Whither Colombia?" blather. And that's just what it'll be. Blather. Don't you listen.

    They can mess with our lives. They can't sink the country. That was long ago - before they became the garden variety thugs and drug runners that they are. And before they were served a shit sandwich of their own.

    ReplyDelete
  63. I remember that bombing, Rat. So does my wife, the one in the 50's. Car bombing before car bombing was cool. But not Kemper, or this other guy.

    It's interesting, and frightening too.

    Welcome To Logos School, Moscow, Idaho

    ReplyDelete
  64. (Knock on wood. Today wasn't that day.)

    ReplyDelete
  65. No Quarter

    “Among [Obama’s earmarks are] an $8 million request for the ‘High Explosive Air Burst Technology Program’. Ultimately, $1.3 million in funding was awarded for the program,” writes Jeralyn.

    the defense project was overseen by General Dynamics, one of the nation’s largest military contractors. Obama’s Illinois finance chairman, James S. Crown, serves on the company’s board of directors and his family holds a sizable stake in the company.

    “Crown and his wife, Paula Crown,” Jeralyn adds, “are members of Obama’s National Finance Committee and have raised more than $200,000 for the Obama campaign, according to a list of fundraisers posted on Obama’s campaign website.”

    ReplyDelete
  66. Gotta see the "Godfather", kiss the ring, get the blessing, before making a "Big Move"

    "As Mr. Obama Moved Closer To Running, He Paid A Visit To James S. Crown And His Father, Lester, Billionaire Investors Who Presided Over A Sprawling Chicago Business Dynasty And Prominent Leaders In The Jewish Community."
    (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, "Pragmatic Politics, Forged On The South Side," The New York Times, 5/11/08)

    ReplyDelete
  67. And I know the downside of Logos School, too, they aren't perfect.

    But the kids dress well, and are taught something, and they beat the public school system in the tests.

    That says something.

    ReplyDelete
  68. And Prominent Leaders In The Jewish Community."

    That's hard to buy, as Obama is going to sell Israel out.

    I'd have to see a lot of evidence.

    ReplyDelete
  69. If my memory is correct wasn't Frank lloyd Wright, John Galt?

    ReplyDelete
  70. Why would prominent leaders in the Jewish community want to back a guy that is a closet muslim?

    Where's C4?

    ReplyDelete
  71. I'm probably the only guy here that hasn't read Atlas Shrugged.

    Just never seemed my cup of tea.

    ReplyDelete
  72. The last two paragraphs in a long WaPo piece about Obama's "big givers" put me on the scent.

    The Crowns, longtime Obama patrons, are among a handful who have given across the board: They raised more than $500,000 for Obama's campaign, they collectively gave $18,500 directly to the campaign, they donated $57,000 to the Victory Fund, and they sent $74,000 to the Committee for Change.

    "By both raising the most money and donating to every committee, they become double big players,"
    said Fred Wertheimer, a campaign finance advocate who helped lead the effort to rid politics of soft-money donors, who were allowed to give unlimited amounts. "This has become the newest form of problem money."

    ReplyDelete
  73. From Pat Buchanan:

    ..."The media cannot get enough of the 'Saturday Night Live' impersonations of Palin as a bubblehead. News shows pick up the Tina Fey clips and run them and run them to the merriment of all.

    Can one imagine 'Saturday Night Live' doing weekly send-ups of Michelle Obama and her "I've never been proud" of my country, this "just downright mean" America, using a black comedienne to mimic and mock her voice and accent?

    "Saturday Night Live" would be facing hate-crime charges.

    How do we know? When the New Yorker ran a cartoon of Michelle in an Angela-Davis afro with an AK-47 slung over her shoulder, New Yorker editors had to go on national television to swear they were not mocking Michelle, but the conservatives who have so caricatured Michelle and the Messiah.

    Is there a media double standard? You betcha."
    _________

    There is your affirmative action and the real racialism practiced in America.

    ReplyDelete
  74. You didn't like the way it cleaned your palate after some of that high-grade Idahoe Grass.
    ---
    Useful Idiot

    ReplyDelete
  75. My wife is always bugging me to go see some of these Frank Wright homes.

    She has a long list of stuff to do:)

    But really, I like a small cabin on a lake, something simple. A dog, and the sound of the waves. Away from the maddening crowd. A fireplace, even a wood stove.

    ReplyDelete
  76. Thought it was going to be Brad Pitt, myself.

    ReplyDelete
  77. Something so small the wind can blow through, and do the dusting for you. Where you can do the laundry in the lake.

    ReplyDelete
  78. If my memory is correct wasn't Frank lloyd Wright, John Galt?

    Thu Oct 23, 09:59:00 PM EDT

    The inspiration for, yes.

    ReplyDelete
  79. I thought Brad Pitt was good in "Troy". Thought it was a well done movie, and he kind of fit the part.

    ReplyDelete
  80. What about Henry Ford? Would he make a good John Galt?

    What about Howard Hughes.

    Or Henry Kaiser.

    What about Jack Simplot?

    Bob definitely wouldn't fill the shoes.

    ReplyDelete
  81. Who'd have ever guessed, and he lived right up the street.

    ReplyDelete
  82. What am I thinking? No, no, no.

    FLW was the inspiration for Howard Roark in The Fountainhead.

    Somebody's gonna take my Rand card away.

    ReplyDelete
  83. While I haven't read her books, and so am speaking out of tune, I know Ayn Rand wasn't a good thinker. She rejected too much that is at the heart of human life, so I would never look to her for real advice.

    She's dead now.

    Or,

    is she?

    ReplyDelete
  84. Frank Loyd Wright designed the building where the Judge got his head blown off in the Jackson Bros Escape shootout.
    Very Dramatic.
    Much more blood was spilled.
    That Ayers couple is so sweet!
    Smart too!

    He Saw no evil
    Obama and Farakahn

    ReplyDelete
  85. hmmmm, Crown... They built a nifty fountain in Chicago if I remember correctly.

    http://www.millenniumpark.org/artandarchitecture/crown_fountain.html

    All that money - what are you gonna do with it??

    ReplyDelete
  86. Objectivism?

    What does that really mean?

    Rationality finally breaks down, and only experience is left.

    ReplyDelete
  87. So FLW was really Gary Cooper?

    But I know that Cooper didn't didn't live at the end of 108th St.

    Interesting thing about Wright, he had it all figured, in his head, before he ever sat down to draw it.

    Which he did with amazing speed.

    ReplyDelete
  88. Change the World, ash, change the world.

    That's what you do with all that money.

    Along with all of their big money compadres.
    Heck of a hobby.

    ReplyDelete
  89. Her non-fiction is a helluva lot better than her fiction, IMO. Either way, her writing style is a big fuckin' two-by-four.

    Maria Montessori, who Rand sort of championed, was asked after a speech, why do you have to hit your audience over the head like that? To which she responded something on the order of, "Notions firmly lodged aren't easily dislodged." That was Rand's style.

    ReplyDelete
  90. If there is a beautiful Frank Wright house on the edge of the lake, has it improved the world?

    Or, should bob ask
    Rat to teach him how to build a bomb, and blow it up, to improve things, get them back the way they should be? From the creativity of
    God's good hands?

    You decide.

    ReplyDelete
  91. Have you ever seen Ken Burns documentary on FLW? Excellent piece of work. That's where I learned of the speed of his drawing, especially with regard to Fallingwater. He had a few hours to do it, starting right after J. Edgar Kaufmann called and said, "I'm on my way to see the plans."

    ReplyDelete
  92. I don't think she is a good thinker, or, really, a thinker at all.

    Just my opinion. Objectively stated.

    ReplyDelete
  93. The staunch belief that banks could manage their own tolerance for risk underpinned Mr. Greenspan's aversion to heavy-handed banking regulation during his record 18-year tenure at the helm of the Fed.

    Mr. Greenspan was an early devotee of author Ayn Rand, whose 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged inspired a generation of libertarian thinkers who believe in the right of individuals to live entirely for their own interest.

    Mr. Greenspan appeared with former Treasury Secretary John Snow and Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox at a hearing of the House of Representatives oversight and government reform committee.


    Bank Regulation

    ReplyDelete
  94. Isn't Falling Water falling down now? Not that it is Frank's fault, but I think I read that somewhere.

    ReplyDelete
  95. As my chief piece of evidence, I testify that Coeur d'Alene Lake, which used to be God's Paradise, is now lined wall to wall with beautiful homes, Frank Wright style.

    And, it's now a bunch of shit. And, the rich don't even hang out there, like I used to do, when it was good, before they came.

    If I make that last sale, Rat, I'm headin' out, to a cottage by a lonely lake, but I'm not telling where.

    ReplyDelete
  96. Bernadette Noe doesn't believe that her husband, Tom Noe, did anything wrong in his management of Ohio's former $50 million rare-coin fund, which he was convicted in 2006 of stealing millions from.

    ...

    "I'm not going to concede he did anything that he shouldn't have done," said Mrs. Noe in an interview with Denny Schaffer, a former Toledo-area radio personality. It was Mrs. Noe's first radio interview since her husband began serving a two-year federal prison sentence for funneling more than $45,400 in illegal campaign contributions to President Bush's re-election campaign.

    ...

    Chris Redfern, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, said Noe's conviction "speaks volumes" about his conduct. But he questions whether Noe, in part, was a "scapegoat."


    Didn't do Anything Wrong

    ReplyDelete
  97. Frank Lloyd Wright had issues with designing a roof, they leak and often have poorly executed water drainage. His ceilings are too low. You have zero options on where to place furniture. Interesting to look at from afar but...

    ReplyDelete
  98. I think it is a high maintainence building, at least, bob.

    wiki says

    Structural problems

    Fallingwater's structural system includes a series of bold reinforced concrete cantilevered balconies. However, the house had problems from the beginning. Pronounced sags were noticed immediately with both of the prominent balconies - the living room and the second floor.[21]


    The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy conducted an intensive program to preserve and restore Fallingwater. The structural work was completed in 2002. This involved a detailed study of the original design documents, observing and modeling the structure's behavior, then developing and implementing a repair plan.

    The study indicated that the original structural design and plan preparation had been rushed and the cantilevers had significantly inadequate reinforcement. As originally designed by Wright, the cantilevers would not have held their own weight.[14]

    The 2002 repair scheme involved temporarily supporting the structure; careful, selective, removal of the floor; post-tensioning the cantilevers underneath the floor; then restoring the finished floor.[14]

    Given the humid environment directly over running water, the house also had mold problems. The senior Mr. Kaufmann called Fallingwater "a seven-bucket building" for its leaks, and nicknamed it "Rising Mildew" (Brand 1995).

    ReplyDelete
  99. The F22 has funded Obama, along with the JPMorgan Chase bank bail nationalization.
    ==

    And who is funding the MSM? I mostly see car ads. Seems like big oil is not such a friend of the Republicans.

    ReplyDelete
  100. By the time he got out here, he was in an enviorment where it hardly rains. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  101. The Johnson Wax building had similar issues. The workers had to set buckets next to their desks when it poured.

    ReplyDelete
  102. Bob,

    My grandparents on my mom's side had a 41' sailboat moored at a small marina on the north shore of the lake just east of Fernan Lake Village in say '78 or '79. They used to take us for cruises on the lake in the summer.

    My grandparents on my dad's side had a place right on the Spokane River with a dock just down river from the head. Same time frame. Great times growing up around there. Great memories.

    ReplyDelete
  103. Who owns the MSM, mat, not who is providig a client base, that is the more revealing question.

    The only "real" newsman that owns both papers and television stations is Rupert Murdock.

    The others are bean counters.

    GE, Westinghouse, Mickey Mouse.

    ReplyDelete
  104. I must have worked on at least five hundred historic architectural restoration projects, three or four Wright buildings, I would not really care to live in his residential work.

    If he were designing today, he would be spending half his time in court.

    DR, that is funny, no doubt there was an attraction.

    ReplyDelete
  105. Would you rather live in Falling Waters at it's best, or a hut on the lake, with your dog, alone, and young, with the music of the wind? And the sound of the waves lapping on the shore and the boathouse in the morning? And the smell of the cedars. And the occasional skunk? When the slight wind always came from the east, in the morning. And nobody around. And a shotgun, and grouse to hunt?

    I loved it.

    When you first read Tolstoy, and that wonderful Jewish philosopher who wrote "I and Thou", Martin Buber. And you tried to read "Being and Time" and cut through the German gas.

    But I wax poetic.

    ReplyDelete
  106. Who owns the MSM, mat, not who is providig a client base, that is the more revealing question.
    ==

    I disagree. The MSM survives on the donations of big oil. If it wasn't for big oil, there would be no economic rational to owning these propaganda outlets. Without the economic rational, there would be nothing to hide behind.

    ReplyDelete
  107. In Philadelphia, the AIA has an annual event called the Beaux Art Ball around halloween. It was for the architectural community but has become much bigger, flamboyantly so and the gays love it.

    It is always held in either a new building under construction or restoration. They have a costume theme or black tie or a combination and have a few contests. One year someone came dressed as Wright with about ar dozen others dressed in thematic costumes and two guys dress as char woman with mops and buckets.

    you probably had to be there to appreciate how funny it was.

    ReplyDelete
  108. A cabin on an Icelandic fyord would be perfect for summers.

    ReplyDelete
  109. No, there'd be electric cars and drugs.

    That is the biggest economic driver that I see on TV, drugs.

    But the ability to shape opinions and buying habits, it is not limited to, nor defined by oil.

    Oi, it is just another of the products.

    ReplyDelete
  110. Can any blogger out there answer these questions? I repeat: Has any major television network, any national news magazine, or any major daily newspaper ever mentioned Barack Obama’s membership in, or endorsement by, the New Party, and then gone on to explore and explain what the New Party was, including its ties to ACORN?

    Isn’t the membership of a major party nominee and currently favored candidate to become president of the United States in a third party a major news story? Is it not the height of press irresponsibility to ignore this fact?

    Now some folks might be disturbed by Obama’s New Party membership and/or endorsement, and some may not. But isn’t this something the American people are entitled to know and decide on for themselves?


    Where's the Press?

    ReplyDelete
  111. Fernan Lake

    Don't Sam.

    Don't do that to me.

    I screwed my old girl friend near there, when I was young.

    And she took off to Veges, four marriages ahead and a thousand lovers later....

    ReplyDelete
  112. I've built the cabin in the woods, bob.

    Lived, full time, in some others have built

    It's not very social, push come to shove.

    Nothing wrong with that, but the inner Hayduke may start to ragin'

    ReplyDelete
  113. People need to be with people, or they die.

    ReplyDelete
  114. I screwed her in the back of a station wagon, Sam.

    Then ,later, she took off.

    ReplyDelete
  115. No, there'd be electric cars and drugs.
    ==

    LOL. Yeah, electric cars. Lots of those on the road.

    ReplyDelete
  116. You got to have both.

    But it is good to get away once in a while.

    ReplyDelete
  117. If you go to Iceland , you may want to bring your own entertainment to be on the safe side

    ReplyDelete
  118. British Columbia has a lot of nice stuff. Babine Lake, many others. I'm thinking about there.

    Meet up with Ash:(

    Meet up with Mat:)

    ReplyDelete
  119. Bob, you best learn Cantonese first.

    ReplyDelete
  120. Apparently when you speak Cantonese, $400,000 for 400 sq ft is a bargain.

    ReplyDelete
  121. That's what I've heard. Darn near like China, on the west coast. That's what my lawyer told me, and he get's around.

    ReplyDelete
  122. I'm in. Being part cherokee, I'm raising a Cherokee

    ReplyDelete
  123. D.R. thanks for the wishes, but I'm just staying at the Marriott at Mayo. I am probably the only able bodied person staying here. Plenty of folks here at the motel are patients, though. Kind of sad.

    Hiked up to the top of Scottsdale Mt. this morning. Drove up to Payson and back yesterday. Out here working, then gonna play some golf.

    Usually stay at the Courtyard at Scottsdale and FLW, but they have Scottsdale blvd so torn up there it's too hard to get around. I don't think much of the FLW blue cone at the corner, damned ugly.

    I'm like Deuce, I like looking at his work, but don't want to live in any of them.

    ReplyDelete
  124. The most beautiful woman I ever saw in my life was a Sioux Indian woman at the airport at Fargo, North Dakota.

    Hell, I still can't over it.

    ReplyDelete
  125. I wish we had a court reporter there in Pannslyvania.

    I don't know What's Going On

    The Judge still hasn't made any ruling on anything as far as I can tell.

    ReplyDelete
  126. You are our house conspiracy theorist, Rat.

    Why did the Kenyans rough up Corsi, and send him home.

    Ash won't answer the question.

    Just askin'.

    ReplyDelete
  127. "McCain's critics are offended that he raised the issue of William Ayers.

    What's astonishing is that Obama was himself not offended by William Ayers.
    "

    - Krauthammer

    ReplyDelete
  128. It's Propostition K that is the big one there in San Francisco, Doug.

    Bernie Ward missed out on all the fun, just by a few months.

    ReplyDelete
  129. Charles said,

    It is, as James said, incidentally secular. But the Left is essentially a deism, even when it adopts a secular skin. It’s hidden god is power. Power over man is its ultimate goal.

    It is power over man, not nature, that it craves.
    ………………
    It occured to me a couple years ago that the modern mind was formed by the novel form. The novel presents a form of internal dialogue very very different from internal dialoge of previous ages. Internal dialogue of the novel has character talking to him/her self.

    In previous ages a person would pray (to God) or (gods).

    ReplyDelete
  130. But you remind me LAbob:

    Good news from the courts re:
    San Fran's Sanctuary City Policy.

    ...just in time,
    Big Pow Wow about same coming up soon in your namesake city, LA.

    ReplyDelete
  131. When you are having an argument like they are having in San Francisco, with Gavin Newsome against the proposal, you have already lost the argument.

    Night, Doug.

    ReplyDelete
  132. Far as I could tell, it doesn't say anything about a mind fuck, so he should rightly still be kept securely confined away from a microphone.

    ReplyDelete
  133. Nite LaBob,
    May you have big Tom Tom Dreams!

    ReplyDelete
  134. ...to be followed up with some delights delivered by that forked tongue!

    ReplyDelete