Federal law requires everyone who enlists or re-enlists in the Armed Forces of the United States to take the enlistment oath. This oath is a permanent oath of allegiance to the United States of America very much like the oath taken by my best friend Fely on the Fourth of July, 2008 to become an American citizen.
The U.S. Army strengthened efforts to recruit more skilled soldiers by offering a fast track to U.S. citizenship if immigrants enlist. Currently there are 30,000 non-citizens serving in the US Army alone. My own father was a Philippine national who became a US Citizen by serving in the US Navy in the 60s and 70s. "When your tour ends," Obama said to those now serving, "when you touch our soil, you will be home in America that is forever here for you, just as you've been there for us. That is my promise."
According to the Cato Institute, immigrants account for more than 20% of recipients of Congressional Medals of Honor, the country's highest award for battlefield valor, equating to more than 700 immigrants who served the U.S. in wars with heroism "beyond the call of duty,"
Few of us can imagine the horror of combat, the physical and mental injuries sustained by our troops in war. Many of our troops find it difficult to adjust when they rotate back to the "world" and some of these get in trouble with the law. Almost half of the Vietnam veterans with PTSD have been arrested or jailed.
Approximately 3,000 military veterans from wars in Vietnam, Grenada, Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan are currently deported or imprisoned awaiting deportation. Most of their cases involve misdemeanors and felonies. Some combat Veterans are being deported after serving time in jail, and some without any jail time at all.
I'm all in favor of law and order, but I'm also about keeping our promises.
Here we are, again.
ReplyDeleteApplying "group think" to what should be individual cases.
Sorting by predisposition, rather than by individual cases.
While I certainly support legal immigration to the US, and support making legal immigration easier, I have little sympathy for those that then abuse our generosity. In general.
I do not give much moral credit to those that have simply been "in" the military, myself included.
Though it does indicate some willingness to sacrifice for the greater good of society. At least to a greater extent than those that did not volunteer or worse, refused to serve when called. Like those seeking deferments from social responsibility, because they had better things to do.
Being a veteran should not provide a lifetime pass, but should guarantee a full and fair hearing and be a powerful mitigating circumstance, to be sure.
Our friend, Basil Quizon, a death march survivor, served in the USAF for many years after coming here.
ReplyDeleteCan't imagine he never had a DUI.
Were things different in the old days?
Meanwhile, millions of illegal leeches are given a free pass, and preferential treatment.
'Rat thinks that'll make em
"more like us."
Google Should Buy Gm
ReplyDelete...target ads so no buyers could remain ignorant of the facts.
And their patriotic duty.
No Fatalities!
ReplyDeleteJeeze Louise
Slideshow
Arceo said of the 33 cars involved in the crash, 13 were involved in a single collision. Sixteen people were injured, one of them seriously. Nine of them were transported to local hospitals.
9 after all that devastation!
Testament to crashworthiness of modern cars.
(lucky that 1 truck had some kind of low-hanging stuff that kept the guy in the car behind from being decapitated)
Harvard Woman Sets World Record in One Mile Crawl
ReplyDeleteI've always said it was the "Plan", doug. It has worked, before.
ReplyDeleteIt can only work this time if we can succeed in modifying the culture that is immigrating, since it is contiguous to ours.
That makes it more important to engage the problem, not less.
The Fortress USA option was reviewed and discarded by the power elites. There is no turning back the clock, no ability to return to our mythical past.
All there is, just a long slog forward into the unknown.
DR: I do not give much moral credit to those that have simply been "in" the military, myself included.
ReplyDeleteThis may have been a consideration before 9-11, when it was possible to serve a term without seeing a deployment to a combat zone. The American Legion currently accepts new members who served during certain periods of time such as the Panama operation or Gulf One, and even through the 90s there were only brief flareups like Somalia, Desert Fox, Bosnia, etc. But after 9-11 the US has been continuously at war in Afghanistan and Iraq. To serve in the Army or Marine Corps, in particular, has meant guaranteed deployment to combat zones, so enlistment today means a lot more than just getting the GI Bill or the right to shop at the PX.
The power elites chose to go with Fortress America, doug.
ReplyDeleteHave since President Monroe penned his Doctrine. Embrace our history, do not try to rewrite it to suit our times and reject the political correctness of sugar coating US faults and failures.
Look to how we can succeed, and help. Invest in Walmart, be an internationalist.
Put North America first, they did.
Obama’s scheduled visit comes as the bill’s backers need a jolt to come together, said Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry.
ReplyDelete“We have to talk about how to put the final pieces together,” Kerry said. “It’s good to hear from the president now, because it’s getting to that stage where you have to come to a decision with your heart as well as your head.”
(the little one)
Reid called the rare weekend session to meet his deadline of getting a bill by year-end. Republicans, unified in opposition, forced the Democrats yesterday to reiterate their support for cutting more than $40 billion in home health-care services funding under Medicare.
It was the latest Republican effort to highlight the bill’s potential impact on the elderly.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Republicans see the debate stretching into 2010 and that they gain the more the public learns. Republicans say Obama’s visit reflects a weakening Democratic position.
That is why, Ms T, it is important to proceed on a case by case basis and not lay a blanket solution upon an individual case.
ReplyDeleteIn the 70s and 80s I was out of the US for 4 of the 6 years served, but saw no combat while wearing an US Army uniform.
My son deployed once to Iraq, twice to Okinawa, in four years in the Marines. It does not make him or anyone else deserving of exemption from the law.
To cut spending, that has always been the "conservative' thing to do.
ReplyDeleteNow the "conservatives" object to scaling back Federal expenditures.
It is a topsy turvy whirled.
DR makes some good points on the lionization of veterans. During the sixties I spent two years on a US Army post in Germany. It was always startling to pick up the Stars and Stripes and read about the number of cab drivers murdered by US military personnel. Kaiserslautern (Kleber Kaserne) was one particular city with a notorious amount of crime by US personnel.
ReplyDeleteAt that time there were over 500,000 US military in Germany.
Today there are 140,000 veterans in US prisons.
The military is not a boy scout troop.
rat pearls of wisdom:
ReplyDeleteThe Zionists doing their best to gain equivalency with the NAZIs.
Maybe Rat needs to be demoted and not be so highly ranked?
At Gates of Vienna:
ReplyDeleterebelliousvanilla said...
Charlemagne, and your solution to the US becoming New Mexico is what? Because you, the people, might not want socialism now because you are a White majority, but Hispanics and Blacks vote massively to the left and they will be the majority by 2050. For example, in 1950, right now Obama's approval rating would be under 40 due to the demographics. The way I see it, you the people are screwed. The US will either break into 2-3 parts or become a happy California all over - socialist, bankrupt and multicultural. You should read the Path to National Suicide of Lawrence Auster.
And we don't need to kill their leaders. We just need to ban immigration and start deporting people. To be honest, I'd do away with the birth right citizenship. It's the stupidest thing ever - there should be a difference in between a resident and a citizen in terms of commitment to the country. For example, I get 91% on your citizenship tests. Most of your countrymen fail that test - how can you say that they deserve citizenship?
WIO:
ReplyDeleteWere you here when the Bar Dedicated This Song to DR?
Get up in the morning, slaving for bread, sir,
ReplyDeleteso that every mouth can be fed.
Poor me, the Israelite. Aah.
Get up in the morning, slaving for bread, sir,
So that every mouth can be fed.
Poor me, the Israelite. Aah.
My wife and my kids, they are packed up and leave me.
Darling, she said, I was yours to be seen.
Poor me, the Israelite. Aah.
Shirt them a-tear up, trousers are gone.
I don't want to end up like Bonnie and Clyde.
Poor me, the Israelite. Aah.
After a storm there must be a calm.
They catch me in the farm. You sound the alarm.
Poor me, the Israelite. Aah.
Poor me, the Israelite.
I wonder who I'm working for.
Poor me, Israelite,
I look a-down and out
Swiss ban on minarets was a vote for tolerance and inclusion
ReplyDeleteThe Swiss vote highlights the debate on Islam as a set of political and collectivist ideas, not a rejection of Muslims.
By Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of "Infidel," is the Somali-born women's rights advocate and former Dutch parliamentarian. Her forthcoming book is entitled "Nomad."
Another great resource, MLD
Climategate Junk Scientist Calls Skeptic A**Hole Live on TV (Video)
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the heated segment Professor Andrew Watson calls Marc Morano an ‘asshole’.
Keep it classy, junk scientist.
Breaking: Obama’s Safe Schools Czar’s Question to 14 Year Olds: “Spit vs. Swallow?… Is it Rude?” (audio-video)
ReplyDeleteThe clip is from a lecture by Scott Whiteman from Mass Resistance. Scott attended the GLSEN conference on March 25, 2000 undercover. He recorded this clip at the GLSEN Conference.
Here is the full exchange:
Male Teacher: … Spit versus swallowing – I don’t know about the calorie count of cum. All right. Is it rude? Let’s ask this question: Is it rude not to swallow?
Students: No! Oh, no! [Many "no's" from the children.]
Male Teacher: No. So it’s in good bedroom etiquette … [unclear] to spit out?
You just heard a public employee ask 14-year-olds if it was rude to spit rather than swallow during oral sex. Kevin Jennings who ran GLSEN is now Barack Obama’s Safe Schools Czar.
There’s more to come…
Lt Colonel Allen West in Israel
ReplyDeleteA military installation is supposed to be a place where our Warriors train for war, to serve and protect our Nation.
On Thursday, 5 November 2009 Ft Hood became a part of the battlefield in the war against Islamic totalitarianism and state sponsored terrorism.
There may be those who feel threatened by my words and would even recommend they not be uttered. To those individuals I say step aside because now is not the time for cowardice. Our Country has become so paralyzed by political correctness that we have allowed a vile and determined enemy to breach what should be the safest place in America , an Army post.
We have become so politically correct that our media is more concerned about the stress of the shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan. The misplaced benevolence intending to portray him as a victim is despicable. The fact that there are some who have now created an entire new classification called; “pre-virtual vicarious Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)” is unconscionable.
This is not a “man caused disaster”. It is what it is, an Islamic jihadist attack.
We have seen this before in 2003 when a SGT Hasan of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) threw hand grenades and opened fire into his Commanding Officer’s tent in Kuwait . We have seen the foiled attempt of Albanian Muslims who sought to attack Ft Dix, NJ. Recently we saw a young convert to Islam named Carlos Bledsoe travel to Yemen, receive terrorist training, and return to gun down two US Soldiers at a Little Rock, Arkansas Army recruiting station. We thwarted another Islamic terrorist plot in North Carolina which had US Marine Corps Base, Quantico as a target.
What have we done with all these prevalent trends? Nothing.
What we see are recalcitrant leaders who are refusing to confront the issue, Islamic terrorist infiltration into America , and possibly further into our Armed Services. Instead we have a multiculturalism and diversity syndrome on steroids.
Doug: There’s more to come…
ReplyDeleteThe epitome of mixed emotions: Your child gets an "A" in sex education class.
But really, Doug, even though that particular thing you mentioned is about as distasteful to me as it is to you, fourteen year olds think about nothing but sex, and the teacher here is talking about etiquette, not the morality of the act, which indeed should be left up to the parents and the priests/pastors of the student.
rat pearls of wisdom:
ReplyDeleteThe Zionists doing their best to gain equivalency with the NAZIs.
Since I don't read Rat I would have missed that, WiO.
Truly disgusting. Absolutely truly disgusting. Sickening, really.
An adult talking to minors like that should be arrested for Sexual Child Abuse.
ReplyDelete...I had few ideological Pervs Despoiling my healthy 14 year old fantasy sex lives.
Just a Beserkley Grad that recommended
"Catcher in the Rye"
BORING
George Will:
ReplyDeleteCopenhagen is the culmination of the post-Kyoto maneuvering by people determined to fix the world's climate by breaking the world's -- especially America's -- population to the saddle of ever-more-minute supervision by governments. But Copenhagen also is prologue for the 2010 climate change summit in Mexico City, which will be planet Earth's last chance, until the next one.
All eyes back on Olympia Snowe
ReplyDeleteSen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) is the Republican most likely to support the bill.
She voted for it in committee and is currently working to make small changes that could be used to justify her support.
Sen. Snowe voted against the bill before Thanksgiving so it's very important for Americans to thank her for that vote and encourage her to be strong.
Please call Sen. Snowe's Washington office at (202) 224-5344 or
send her an email here.
Sen Jim DeMint
"Since I don't read Rat I would have missed that, WiO."
ReplyDelete---
5 Demerits for Sheik al-Bob.
That is a sacrifice that members are required to
Endure and Contemplate,
Al.
Reading the Copenhagen news articles re: Pledges to reduce CO2 emissions levels. I get the impression that the countries are now lying just to get the zealots off their backs.
ReplyDeleteEvery pledge being completely ludicrous, if reality is allowed to sneak into the analysis.
ReplyDelete"...THE STINK OF INTELLECTUAL CORRUPTION IS OVERPOWERING..."
ReplyDeleteRex Murphy from CBC on Climategate: "Climate science has been shown to be, in part, a sub-branch of climate politics..."
70. Josh: @BC, re Copenscrewin
ReplyDelete"When you move your schedule to visit just the closing ceremonies, then all you need is a flat tire to miss the whole thing."
"...THE STINK OF INTELLECTUAL CORRUPTION IS OVERPOWERING..."
ReplyDeleteAmen.
Doug: Rex Murphy from CBC on Climategate: "Climate science has been shown to be, in part, a sub-branch of climate politics..."
ReplyDeleteThat's obvious to anyone when you consider that the only Nobel Prize ever awarded in the field of climate change was to a politician, not a scientist.
DR: The Zionists doing their best to gain equivalency with the NAZIs.
ReplyDeleteSure, no mention of the parents who dress their babies up as suicide bombers and firing rockets directly at Jewish schools in the Negev. THOSE are poor oppressed working classes being exploited by the Zionist Entity.
1.
ReplyDelete”Cry ‘Havoc’ and let slip the dogs of war!”
Since it appears this thread has already moved away from the original subject in a couple of instances I don’t suppose there will be any objection to my responding to the Rat’s comments directed at me from the last thread. (Even if you do, it won’t matter as I’ve been typing away for the better part of an hour.)
Good heavens. I post a casual observation, take my wife to the movies, and come back to Armageddon at the E-Bar. Oh, the humanity!
(And, hell, now my computer is covered in Rat scat.)
Damn, where to begin? Well, I guess at the beginning.
”Were the Jews pressured out of those countries by government actions that were subsidized by the United States?”
The simple answer is yes.
However, it is also irrelevant. It appears your trying to pull up another straw man Rat. Not really even tangentially related to the point I tried to make in my initial post. That point being that it’s a tough world out there. Shit happens. On all sides. Learn it, live it, love it, as one of our underappreciated philosophers is wont to say.
“Was the pressure on the Jews sanctioned and subsidized by the US funded United Nations, as it had been with regards the Palis?
As with many of your posts, amigo, I find myself befuddled, not knowing exactly what you are asking or its relevance. Yes? No wait. No?
”Are the Copts being pressured by the government of Mohamed Hosni Mubarak rather than public sentiment and pressure?”
Yes and yes.
Egypt and the Copts
As you know, sins can be of omission as well as commission.
”If so, I would advocate cutting all US funds and subsidies to that government. If that was not enough to modify behaviour, begin forced divestiture of private US economic interests from the Egyptian economy.”
Yeh, right Rat. Why don’t you clear that with Hillary and get back to us.
”You are trying to compare apples to oranges, across time.”
You are a constant source of amusement.
.
When you advertise an Emma Peeler, you gotta show your customers the results of Emma Peeled, which is a great deal of Em Appeal.
ReplyDelete2.
ReplyDelete(Rat's second post)
”Did the United States declare those actions to be illegal acts of persecution and a violation of international law, as it has in reference to the Israeli settlements, since the annexation in 1968?”
I would suspect yes to the first and probably yes to the second; however, I would have to Google it to be sure. But again, what is your point? Are you saying that the persecution of the Copts in Egypt, or the Baha’is in Iran, or the Maronites in Lebanon are unimportant or not violations of international law simply because the US hasn’t declared them as such?
.
3. (Rat's third post)
ReplyDeleteIt gets a little confusing from this point on Rat. You tend to wander off here in another direction as typical. Since Doug put in a post in between, I’m not quite sure if it was him or me you addressing on some of them; therefore, I’ll address the ones I’m sure of.
”Now, Quirk, from your brief statement, it would seem that FDR was President during these expulsions of Jews, from Arab lands.
Again, you confuse me Rat. Here is my original post:
”(Those who complain about the Palestinians who have been kicked out of Jewish occupied territories since 1967 oft fail to mention the approximately 1 million Jews who have been forced through persecution and/or intimidation to exit Muslim countries in the same time period. The same has been/is happening to Christians.)”
As far as I know, FDR was dead in 1967. Likewise, the persecution of Jews and Christians in Muslim countries continues today as noted in recent articles in the WaPO (For Jews, roiling Yemen no longer place to call home) on Jews (or the lack there of ) in Yemen.
Sorry the WaPo article must have a large amount of comments associated with it. It’s too large for me to provide a link. However, if needed I can provide excerpts such as:
“SANAA, YEMEN -- The last remaining Jews in Yemen are vanishing, driven out by politics, war and hatred. Once numbering 60,000, one of the oldest Jewish populations in the Arab world now has fewer than 350 members…”
.
4.
ReplyDeleteIn addressing the balance of your post, I will have to start pointing out some logical fallacies that you habitually employ. As you know I try to be as delicate as possible in making my points; however, here I must point out that it appears you are either forensically challenged and don’t know the difference or you think that everyone else at the EB is forensically challenged and won’t notice.
For instance, the balance of your post is another straw man diversion and has no apparent connection to my initial post. What do American electoral politics have to do with the point of my post as noted above. Regardless, I’ll respond to it because it is illustrative.
”The same FDR that formalized relations with King Saud and whose political party, the Democrats, enjoy en bloc support of over 73% of the US Jewish community.”
If you are talking about the Jewish vote for Obama in 2008, I believe it was 78%. However, since then the support has been declining among Jews as amongst most groups in the US; although it is still high. In the 60’s somewhere as I recall. However, this again is irrelevant.
”If the lack of US interest in these expulsions was a major issue for that community, well then, you'd figure they'd not support the politicos that turned a blind eye to it, while recognizing the legitimacy of Sauds.
This support of the Democrats by the US Jewish community, despite the Democrats historic embrace and subsidy of the Saudi monarchy and the Presidency of both Sadat and Mubarak, indicates this issue is of little import to that”
For your info and future reference, an argument is made up of two parts: premises and conclusions. However, there’s a difference between truth and validity that’s often confused. Truth only has to do with statements while validity has to do with the structural arrangement of statements we call arguments.
A statement is true if it reflects an objective truth while an argument is valid if its premises are true. However, while the truth of the premise is a necessary condition for a good argument, it is not a sufficient condition.
What you have provided above is an example of the fallacies of begging the question and of denying the antecedent. The very point that has to be proved to be true is simply assumed to be true (begging the question). You also state that because the majority of American Jews voted for Obama they ipso facto don’t give a shit about persecution in Saudi Arabia or Egypt (denying the antecedant). You also ignore the facts that American Jews have historically voted Democratic and that as a group they are liberal and would thus tend to agree with Obama on a whole range issues. And if you really think about it, these are possible reasons they might, despite your assumption or assertions to the contrary, vote for Obama regardless of their opinions on the Saudis or Egyptians.
Finally, you seem to be assuming that Jews, here and in Israel, possess a homogeneity of thought and opinion that is ridiculous. The Jews in Israel loved W. Yet in 2004, Bush got only 25% of the US Jewish vote. We’ve already talked about Obama’s popularity with the American Jews; however, only about 4% of Israeli Jews have a favorable opinion of him. Jewish opinion is all over the map, both here and in Israel, depending on the specific issue. Even in the US, I’ve heard your taking your chances by putting Jews from J Street and the ADL in the same room.
In my opinion, your opinion doesn’t wash.
.
6.
ReplyDelete"And no, "misdirection" it was not a discussion of things Jewish, but of things American. Referencing the actions of the United States with regards to these expulsions you have so often written of."
The original discussion centered on my post which discussed the overall shit storm that is the ME. It only became a discussion on America after you inserted the straw man.
.
”It is not me you sould be trying to convince, "misdirection", it is the thousands that read this little blog each day.
ReplyDeleteThat is the audience that needs convincing, that needs the facts, that just may care.
They can read my factual analysis or your rants, then come to their own conclusions, as they will.
One way or another, based upon what is presented and the tone that the facts are presented with.
Amigo.”
Rat, I’m not sure if it’s your arrogance or your pomposity but you do make me laugh. Face it, this blog is primarily made up of some aging white guys and a few cute (no offense intended ladies) chicas. Deuce and Whit put in a lot of work keeping it going and moving along well. It’s often pretty interesting. But frankly, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for some hacker to be looking at trying to download the next batch of Climategate e-mails at the EB.
We don’t solve any of the world’s problems here (although we do have Rufus and now that Bob has an ethicist to help out perhaps things will change).
The fact is we don’t prove things here either; we offer opinions and gather a little catharsis in the process.
You may think of yourself as King Rat, and that enquiring minds are eagerly waiting your next “factual analysis,” but I sincerely doubt it my friend.
But, heh, look at the bright side. You’ll always have Ash.
Amigo
.
"Face it, this blog is primarily made up of some aging white guys and a few cute (no offense intended ladies) chicas.
ReplyDelete"We don’t solve any of the world’s problems here..."
Whoa, there. I thought this was the RAND Corp. watering hole.
Doug! How did we end up in the wrong place?
Q, There are many things more lamentable in life than an aging white guy and a chica. Here is my vote for an aging white guy and his chica. May it always be so.
ReplyDelete"At the end of the heated segment Professor Andrew Watson calls Marc Morano an ‘asshole’.
ReplyDeleteKeep it classy, junk scientist."
Doug, really? Considering the epithets that you routinely let fly here at the EB, that's a bit rich, don't you think?
See, Quirk, you are fun.
ReplyDeleteThe point is amusement, entertainment, is it not?
I did misconstrue your original post as per the 1967 remark, missed it entirely.
And of course there are strawmen to the left of us, strawmen to the right of us and strawmen a head.
And we all use them.
And yes, when "misdirection" replied, the conversation did go beyond the scope of our original repartee, since you were unavailable.
My remarks as to the support for Obama in particular, the Democrats in general, by the vast majority of the US Jewish community is one of a question.
I often read, here at the Bar, that we are at war with the Islamics, and that the global Jewish community is in the vanguard of that fight.
Yet that same Jewish community supports, en bloc, those political partisans that legitimized the Sauds, back in the day.
They supported Ms Clinton and her husband as they smacked down Bibi, in round 1 and now support Obama and Rahm Emanuel in round 2.
There seems to be a disconnect between the "Jewish" position articulated here at the EB, and the one represented by the votes in the US and the remarks of the official paid spokesmen of that community, both here and abroad.
Why?
Are the majority of those US Jews all as anti-semitic as I am accused of being?
And not an impolite remark in the entire mix.
Glory be!
Sorry if my comment came off as disparaging Deuce. Being an aging white guy myself I obviously didn't mean it that way. And heck, we need all the chicas we can get.
ReplyDeleteAs a matter of fact perhaps you could start a marketing campaign to try to attract more of the fair sex.
For instance, perhaps we could have something like MLD Mondays where she gets to pick a subject for discussion that interests her.
Ms. Trish Tuesdays?
As a barkeep, Ms. T already has access.
.
"There seems to be a disconnect between the "Jewish" position articulated here at the EB, and the one represented by the votes in the US and the remarks of the official paid spokesmen of that community, both here and abroad."
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly, our Jewish brethren here at the EB seem to be a bit more "Jewish" that what the polls would indicate the majority of American Jews are. But then I am merely going by the reported numbers.
.
No offense taken Q. Maybe MLD would be interested in sponsoring a Friday's ladies night.
ReplyDeleteFriday night with Melody?
"Friday night with Melody?"
ReplyDeleteGood idea.
(Of course, you realize that my original suggestion was merely to try to get on Bob's good side)
Quirk: And heck, we need all the chicas we can get.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to drag in some new folks from Top Conservatives on Twitter (#tcot), which has so much traffic you can't possibly imagine, both elderly white gents and cute chickas. I do that by posting links to new articles that appear on the EB.
Quirk: As a matter of fact perhaps you could start a marketing campaign to try to attract more of the fair sex.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I'm concerned, Deuce does that every time he posts eye candy.
For my part, I bow, of course, as is my pledge, my troth, my heart, to my Lady Melody's sovereign wish, whatever e'er that may be.
ReplyDeleteTrish wouldn't now dare carry a Ms. Trish Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteNot after being alarmingly asked recently, "Have you ever gone by Trish?"
MLD Fridays...Much better idea.
ReplyDeleteRunning Hard. The Pols might have their hands full.
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON (AP) - Sarah Palin poked fun at herself in a speech to journalists Saturday night, drawing laughter when she announced she "came down from my hotel room and I could see the Russian embassy."
The 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate also joked that she had orginally thought of titling her book "How To Look Like a Million Bucks, or Only $150,000" before settling on "Going Rogue." In one of the controversies surrounding her candidacy, the campaign spent about $150,000 on her wardrobe.
Palin was the Republican speaker at the winter dinner of the Gridiron Club, an organization of Washington-based journalists.
Rep Barney Frank, D-Mass., represented the Democrats.
Palin targeted her hosts, Democrats and Sen. John McCain's campaign staff, as well as herself.
If the election had turned out differently, she said, "I could be the one overseeing the signing of bailout checks and vice president Biden could be on the road selling his book, 'Going Rogaine.'" Biden has sparse hair.
The crack about seeing the Russian embassy from her hotel referred to Palin having told an interviewer during last year's campaign that her qualifications for high office included that "you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska."
As for her hosts, she said she was glad to be appearing before an elite audience of leading intellectuals, "or as I like to call it, a death panel."
McCain's campaign staff also came in for a barb from the former Alaska governor when she said she is touring the country by bus as she sells her book.
"The view is so much better from inside the bus than under it," she said, referring to the poisonous relations between her and some of the McCain campaign staff.
Focusing on criticism she has received from Steve Schmidt, a senior strategist in McCain's presidential campaign, she said, "If I need a bald campaign manager I guess I'm left with James Carville," a Democrat.
In her book, she wrote that Schmidt felt she wasn't prepared enough on policy matters and even wondered if she was suffering from postpartum depression following the April 2008 birth of her son Trig, who has Down syndrome.
Back a couple of threads to Ruf's link on the new Chinese city of Ordos.
ReplyDeleteRufus, did you notice that the commentator said that most of the purchases were by "overnight millionaires" "rich from massive coal deposits?"
I'm sure there are a number of coal to oil plants in the area...
Commentator again; "This place has been described as China's Texas..."
gnossos: Commentator again; "This place has been described as China's Texas..."
ReplyDeleteAnd though it's a part
of the Lone Star State
people don't seem to care
They just keep on lookin' to the East
Talkin' 'bout China Grove
Woh oh, China Grove
Visiting in Honolulu a month ago driving in from out by the airport towards town at dusk. Lights from traffic and the city skyline very impressive.
ReplyDeletePhD in the car prattling on about going green. Electric vehicles, etc.
I asked if they knew where the energy they were using came from.
"Water power?" "Cable from Guam?"
Not one said oil. I pointed to the refinery on our right. PhD said "A refinery? Here?" She's a native, left some time ago, back now five years or so...
I have little hope...
p.s. As some might expect all in the vehicle, save me, very strong Obamaites...
Quite right, T. It's a fairly short "Walk" from Alaska, to Russia, in the wintertime.
ReplyDeleteYes, Gnossos, they're building a new Coal-fired plant just about every week. They've got a billion point two people wanting to join the 20th Century (not to mention, the 21st.)
So Rufus, given the global warming debacle, do you think there is any chance whatsoever of the US utilizing it's coal resources, coal to oil, to reduce our foreign dependency?
ReplyDeleteFricking Tom Friedman today was calling for a dollar a gallon tax on gasoline.
ReplyDeleteCoal to Oil?
ReplyDeleteNo, Gnossos, not a chance. It's not good technology. Very Expensive, and very dirty. The "dirty" you can work around, but the "expensive," not so much.
We'll slay "this" dragon with "batteries," and biofuels.
Friedman is an idiot. We'll have our $5.00 gasoline soon enough.
ReplyDeleteWe're sitting on what's been called the largest coal reserves in the world. We're insane not to take advantage of it.
ReplyDeleteHard to believe but coal is a relatively inexpensive fuel.
ReplyDeleteOur President has vowed to make it prohibitively expensive to get a permit for a coal-fired power plant.
The inmates are running the asylum and bad as the Republicans may be, if this situation doesn't turn around next year and in 2012, my friends, you can "kiss it goodbye."
ReplyDeleteWhit: We're sitting on what's been called the largest coal reserves in the world. We're insane not to take advantage of it.
ReplyDeleteWhat's going to happen is that we're going to keep financing our multi-trillion dollar entitlements by selling this coal to China. You've heard of Aramco, the Arab-American oil company, now welcome Chimericoal LLC.
Whit: Our President has vowed to make it prohibitively expensive to get a permit for a coal-fired power plant.
ReplyDeleteThat's fine, then all the GOP candidate has to do in 2012 is say "Drill, baby, drill!", especially if gas is $5 like they say.
We'll use them, Whit; but this Global warming balogna has to run it's course, first.
ReplyDeleteCoal is very good for electricity generation. That's what we'll use it for. With the scale of a large power station you can afford to install the scrubbers, etc. to make the surrounding area livable.
Keep in mind, though, that the coal we have left isn't nearly as high quality as the coal we've burned in the past.
Remember the posts we did on the UN traveling medicine show? Well, it seems that the local outreach programs have paid off. The third whirlders are going to Copenhagan with a Christmas list of things they want us to pay for.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid they're going to get "coal" in their stockings, Whit.
ReplyDeleteIf the U.S. Senate ratifies "Anything" that comes out of Copenhagen I'll be giving free hand jobs in the parking lot.
The lefties love to claim that "Amerikkka" is racist to its core.
ReplyDeleteThe resident socialist on This Week with George..., Katrina van den Hoevel, repeated the Democrat meme that Obama has received a "record number of death threats."
I heard the other day that the head of the Secret Service says that Obama has received the same level of threats as Bush and Clinton. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Will you also be working Copenscrewin, ruf?
ReplyDeleteEd Scott (09:54:34) :
ReplyDeleteSceptics in Wonderland
by Christopher Essex
December 6, 2009
The Wall Street Journal recently published an article by Daniel Henninger critical of scientists who allowed the culture of Climategate to develop in their professions.
Christopher Essex, a leading Canadian applied mathematician and award-winning author, has written to Henninger.
Dear Daniel
My friend Willie Soon passed on an article from your “Wonder Land” column. It’s very good. It is an angle that I have anticipated for a very long time.
Wonderland is certainly where I have been trapped for more than twenty years. But it is not nearly as nice as Alice’s version. Thoughts of the inquisition come to mind instead.
Many of we scientists have been ringing the alarm bells from the beginning on this. We have been telling everyone who would listen about who we were dealing with. We have known all along.
Climategate is no surprise at all to us. Evidence for this is in my book with Ross McKitrick from 2002, Taken by Storm. It won a $10,000 prize, and is now in a second edition. But few were listening. If my book had a title like Oh, my God, we are all going to die, I am sure that it would have been on the NYT bestseller list at once.
Even though I understand where you are coming from, I find it rings flat with me to have to face people asking where the scientists were when we were overcoming so many many obstacles to get a rare fair hearing. The scientists have been tied up and gagged in the back room. I hate that. We were there screaming our lungs out all along.
Damn it all, my friends Ross McKitrick and Steve McIntyre had to have a hearing before US congress to get that ridiculous hockey stick broken! It should have been a simple matter. The thing could hardly hold together under its own weight.
Ross and I had a whole chapter on the hockey stick in our book, long before that controversy came to light. We used similar techniques to compute the US GDP with tree rings back to the year 1000, and we got a lovely hockey stick.
I did not want in on the original hockey stick paper, because of my objections to the merits of the underlying physics, but I did comment on the drafts. In the second edition, there is an account of how the thing got broken by Ross and Steve.
That science needed to get settled in Congress should have got people’s attention right there that there was something seriously wrong.
Science is alive and well in the individual scientists who are not caught up in gaming the system for bigger grants. I call it small science. Many of them are doing very unfashionable things, and are happy to get no recognition for it.
That is where you can find the real scientists. That is where the future will be.
A milestone in this mess can be said to be when John Houghton of the IPCC said it was the IPCC’s job to “orchestrate” the views of science. Everything that has happened flows as an inevitable consequence of that.
Some important research fields have been “orchestrated” out of existence. Even before Climategate, I have been saying that we have set ourselves back a generation by taking the money from governments with so many strings attached.
Governments leaders wanted something where they could absolve themselves of the responsibility for making informed decisions. They would have to read science stuff otherwise. They ordered up a kind of unnatural scientist that would tell them precisely what they wanted to hear.
But they gave the puppeteers clubs to deal with those of us who remained true. And the perps of Climategate are what they got. All of my colleagues have had to endure these bullies and criminals for a very long time.
You should understand that (real) scientists have had to pay the heaviest price for the creation of these monsters for decades. And they were not created by us.
Best wishes,
Christopher
Christopher Essex is Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Western Ontario.
They're "Copinscrewing" the Local Whores for Free.
ReplyDeleteUs, They be Charging. :(
Coal to oil
ReplyDeleteRuf, my understanding is that the "clean" part is a done deal.
Guys I spoke to a couple years ago who worked on the prototype plant in the '70s said it was economical in their back of the envelope figures with oil at ~$40/bbl.
Shenua spokesman in 2006: "The economic prospects are impressive, Zhang said. "We will have good business returns if the crude oil price stays above US$30 a barrel."
....
The Hide the Decline Trick, explained
ReplyDeleteIf you get tired of the "inside baseball" scroll down to the final graph, which is probably pretty close to the "Real" temperature of the last two millenia.
I could be wrong, Gnossos. We'll see.
ReplyDeleteDoug claims that such a thing has happened before.
ReplyDeleteOf course, well, . . . . . . . . .pineapple comes to mind, but . . . . . . . .
Sadly, the Case Brother has Liquidated the Historic Maui Pineapple Company.
ReplyDeleteAfter a Century of family management, Case brought in some of his computer millionaire minds and destroyed the company in less than a decade.
(a complete paragraph w/o mention of any individual failure closer to the EB Fambly.)
Shell sold out their next windfarm here to
ReplyDelete"concentrate on the mainland"
Real reason:
New one has to have storage:
Can you imagine Megawatt-Sized battery farms?
Shell was talking water storage.
Bet the new company is never Economic.
The environment's gonna expire recycling batteries.
Hey Viktor:
ReplyDeleteI was just quoting Gateway Pundit.
You know I'm the Bar Choir Boy.
"Doug!
ReplyDeleteHow did we end up in the wrong place?"
---
It's a Randyanne Bar in My Mind,
and I'm Stickin to it!
Wall Street Journal - Darcy Crowe - 1 hour ago
ReplyDeleteCARACAS (Dow Jones)--One of President Hugo Chavez's top collaborators will resign from his post following the arrest of his brother as part of a brewing banking scandal.
Venezuela Widens Purge Of Bankers With New Arrest New York Times
See, Hugo is taking some EB advise, arresting the bankers, lining them up and ....
Is that really the kind of government we would want, here?
Isn't Bernie Madoff being in jail penance enough for bilking his community for all he could.
ReplyDeleteOr should he have been shot?
What would Hugo do?
ReplyDeleteUS 'comfortable' with Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, says Robert Gates
Defense secretary reassures Americans that Washington has beefed up security around Islamabad's weapons
"Friday night with, Melody?
ReplyDeleteHm...Is my life that pathetic that you know where, I am every Friday night? And when, I am here everyone else is out, so, I'm usually singing alone. And what's the sense in posting something when most of the time it never gets discussed?
Comma intervention.
ReplyDeleteIt's what laptops are for, Melody, you can go where'er you want, and run the bar from there.
ReplyDeleteAnd, anyway, we never stay on topic.
ReplyDeleteIt's not good form around here to stay on topic.
Colder here today than yesterday, damn chill wind of about 25 mph blows the body's heat to the next county. Still no real snow, though.
Religion of peace strikes again. Man converts to Judaism, stabbed four time to death by Saudi graduate student.
ReplyDeleteHere
"He dedicated his life to trying to understand the people of the Middle East," said the professor's sister Linda Miller, of Holden, Mass. "He never said an unkind word to anyone in his life."
Just say something Racist, MLD.
ReplyDeleteA sure showstarter.
That's about the most disgusting provocative thing anyone could do, Al.
ReplyDeleteHe got what he deserved.
Melody: And what's the sense in posting something when most of the time it never gets discussed?
ReplyDeleteThe trick is to keep the comments from surpassing 200, otherwise it goes to two pages and it's a pain in the ass. But the EB has always been the place for the chatty folks from Belmont Club who were pissing off Wretchard with our dozens of little pissant posts per thread.
What was he a graduate student of, this Saudi? Advanced Q'u'r'a'n ?
ReplyDeleteIn his statement, Mr. Mollen said there was "no indication of religious or ethnic motivation" in the killing. He said no other arrests were expected.
ReplyDeleteJust another rainy day killing, al-Doug. No religious or ethnic motivation here, nosireejack.
I would say being corrected on my grammatical errors is in the top most five things I hate.
ReplyDeleteProfessor Ash, Where Art Thou?
ReplyDeleteI remember the old Time or Newsweek, or both, covers with the Snowball Earth. If the temperatures outside my window are any indication, I think we're gonna freeze to death.
Don't worry about it. Half the time no one can figure out what Trish is trying to say.
ReplyDeleteI would say being corrected on my grammatical errors is in the top most five things I hate.
ReplyDeleteSun Dec 06, 08:53:00 PM EST
Name the other four.
By the way, "White Christmas" beats "Meet Me in St. Louis" by a mile, according to my wife.
ReplyDeleteNeither comes close to "Ernest Saves Christmas", though.
One thing I dislike is people asking me to list the things I dislike.
Rude people
ReplyDeleteLiars
When things don't go my way
Inflatable lawn ornaments
Should, I go on?
By the way, "White Christmas" beats "Meet Me in St. Louis" by a mile, according to my wife.
ReplyDelete- bob
She's lying.
A fresh poll, conducted last week by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research of Washington, D.C., for the state's largest newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, shows Reid's approval rating again stuck at a dismal 38 percent. This will disappoint a Reid camp that has furiously saturated the airwaves with advertising to, as the campaign puts it, "reintroduce" Harry to Nevada voters.
ReplyDeleteApparently Nevadans didn't need a reintroduction. Reid's getting the thumbs down from 49 percent of Nevada voters -- the same high level as the start of the year.
Turn Out The Lights--The Party's Over
Looks like Harry Reid may be toast. About time too. Dick Morris has been saying the Republicans may take back even the Senate.
Be nice to get back to some divided government. I like divided government, on most things. Stalemate the bastards.
In Idaho, we used to have, a legislature every two years, rather than every year.
Things went better that way, in my view.
Less opportunity for mischief.
T keeps her inflatable lawn ornament in her bed.
ReplyDeletePeople in the military or diplomatic corps using ACRONYMS (Abbreviated Code Rarely Or Never Yielding Meaning) for every damn thing thus leaving us civilians out of the conversation loop.
ReplyDeleteMeLoDy...
ReplyDeleteHave we seen that name before?
I'm not sure, I have a favorite movie but this is my all time favorite Christmas song
ReplyDeleteWhit, where have you been sweetheart? T, has nicknamed me that months ago and they have been calling me that ever since. Most of the time, anyway.
ReplyDelete"As a matter of fact perhaps you could start a marketing campaign to try to attract more of the fair sex."
ReplyDeleteEr...Then again.
I got a soft spot for the little drummer boy too.
ReplyDeleteBing sang the Vandal Fight Song once, too.
Who was MLD Before she was MLD?
ReplyDeleteYeah Bing grew up in Easter WA, right?
ReplyDeleteAvatar X, doug
ReplyDeleteSpokane, Washington, al-Doug.
ReplyDeleteIt can only be sung by them. It brings a tear to my eye every time, I listen to it.
ReplyDeleteWell, they're good, but not the only ones can sing it
ReplyDeleteShould, I change it back to, MLD, I don't want to confuse the aging white men at the EB.
ReplyDeleteAnd this girl isn't bad either
ReplyDeleteI'd like to hear Tina Turner cut into it.
ReplyDeleteBob, it's Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy. The combination is what makes it. I don't really think, I've heard anyone else sing it that way to be honest.
ReplyDeleteSuch confusions
ReplyDeleteMight lead to contusions
Amongst old white men at the bar
If we are uncertain as to who you are
Stiok with MeLoDy.
Oh, for the love of God.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnqj31VPNoE
" I don't really think, I've heard anyone else sing it that way to be honest."
ReplyDelete---
Trish said you lied.
"I'm just sorry I can't believe you anymore."
I really don't think anyone is uncertain as to whom, I am, no matter what name, I go by.
ReplyDeleteAnd, as beautiful, as Faith Hill is you can't pass up, David Bowie's, accent. He can talk to me all day.
Punkin' Up The Little Drummer Boy
ReplyDeleteTrish, didn't say, I lied. She said, Bob's wife was lying.
ReplyDeleteYou're right.
ReplyDelete"...aging white men at the EB."
ReplyDeletePerhaps a poor choice of words.
Maybe should have been something like...
"...seasoned corporate honchos, ex-military bad asses, mercs, and roues"
might help with T's recruiting efforts.
Well maybe not T's, but just saying.
.
Now you have my attention.
ReplyDeleteFor 5 1/2 more minutes.
ReplyDeleteNot everyone was bored by Obama's speech. Some were alarmed:
ReplyDeleteISLAMABAD, Pakistan — President Obama’s timetable for American forces in Afghanistan rattled nerves in that country and in Pakistan on Wednesday, as American diplomats worked to convince the two countries at the center of the president’s war strategy that the United States would not cut and run.
experienced men o' the wide world who know what's wanted how to deliver it and when
ReplyDeleteThe Worst Possible Afghan Strategy
ReplyDeleteSo says a Canadian writer and one is tempted to agree with him.
It's that bug out date, right before our elections, that get's me.
Our great commander, thinks only of his politcal self.
From children to the elderly to soldiers, he thinks nothing of the lives of others.
His aunt, by the way, the one in the States illegally, is still getting by on a few bucks a month.
You'd think he'd send her something each month, though it is proper he butt out of the deportation proceedings, as he has done. But probably because he doesn't give a damn, one way or the other.
Probly cause it's fixed.
ReplyDeleteOnly democrats can feel holier than thou while sitting on millions as their parents, etc go on the public dole to eke out a subsistance.
ence?
This is a series of comments I made over at Robert Rapier's blog:
ReplyDeleteWe could put a 25 million gallon/yr ethanol refinery in all 3,000 Counties for about the same money we gave AIG. We could have it done in 5 years.
If so ordered, the automakers could make every new car, and light truck Flexfuel Next Year.
We would, for all intents, and purposes, be OUT of the Oil "Importing" Business.
December 06, 2009 6:40 PM
rufus said...
It would be a One-Time Cost to us of just about what we're spending in the Middle-East Every Year.
December 06, 2009 6:44 PM
rufus said...
It would knock about $15,000,000,000.00/Mo off our Current Accounts Deficit, and turn our Dollar into Solid Currency, again.
December 06, 2009 6:49 PM
The beauty of ethanol is that every locality has a feedstock. We can save a lot of money on transportation costs by keeping it local.
December 06, 2009 6:59 PM
rufus said...
I'm sitting here watching the "local" channel. A local National Guard Battalian is getting ready to deploy to Iraq.
We have about 120,000 Great Guys in Iraq. THAT is just about how many people would be employed by my LOCAL ethanol Refineries.
I don't know about you all, but I'd one hell of a lot rather have them over here making fuel for my car than "Over There" guarding "Theirs."
December 06, 2009 7:05 PM
I guess that should have been "Great Guys, and Gals.
ReplyDeleteMea Culpa, Chicas :)
Whose idea was this? Bob, Whit, Rat? Biodiesel Crops on the Side of the Road
ReplyDelete10 Million Acres.
What is 'rent seeking'?
ReplyDeleteWe've heard Linear use the term.
This may be what he is refering to.
A temp history (in graph) for the Gulf Coast for the last 1,000 years.
ReplyDeleteA Whole Lot Hotter, Then a Whole Lot Colder, and Now, About Right.
'Electing Obama makes war more, not less, likely.'
ReplyDeleteI believe Trish said this at one time.(if I recall correctly)
Gaming Iran--Scenarios
And, an article from the past, from Mark Steyn
In 1971, in the lobby of the Cairo Sheraton, Palestinian terrorists shot Wasfi al-Tal, the Prime Minister of Jordan at point-blank range. As he fell to the floor dying, one of his killers began drinking the blood gushing from his wounds.
They Are All Jews Now
Looks like, now that the banks have started "paying back," the Deficit in $200 Billion less than originally estimated.
ReplyDeleteGee, I wonder who predicted this?
Yeah, the banks got to play the markets with our money, (as the Fed Pumps up the market with our money) while the FHA partially fulfills the banks traditional role of lender,
ReplyDelete(again with our money, this time directly down the drain)
including their more recent govt mandated role of lender to those who cannot pay off the debt.
Our money works wonders for some, it seems.
...just not for the masses.
It is 'The Medal of Honor' awarded by congress not the congressional Medal of Honor
ReplyDelete