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."

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Obama Style



“There are times where you can afford to redecorate your house and there are times where you need to focus on rebuilding its foundation.” - Barack Hussein Obama

I suppose Obama still cannot believe that he is President and needed an oversized presidential seal emblazoned in the middle of his new shagged carpet. Shades of Starbuck's cocoa mocha are relieved by gold striped wallpaper, harkening back to Michelle's Big Bird inaugural outfit.

I am not sure what the green hedge is doing over the mantle; It must be a green thing, however, we were reminded that the mocha latte rug is made from recycled something or another.

I am uncertain of the selection of the skid of plywood shaped coffee table is doing in the elegant yet powerful colonial Oval Office but hey, focus on the fruit bowl, picture Joe "this is a big fucking deal" Biden munching on an apple with his porcelain whitened choppers.

Mmm mmm mmm, Barack Hussein Obama.

_____________________________









August 31, 2010
Not-So-Magic Carpet Ride
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON
NY Times

HATTIP: Quirk

If we had wanted earth tones in the Oval Office, we would have elected Al Gore.

(Oh, yeah, we did.)

On the night we were reminded that George W. Bush ended up in the White House and heedlessly, needlessly started the war with Iraq, President Obama did his Mission Relinquished address from his redecorated man cave.

The Oval Office was done over by the chichi decorator Michael Smith, who was previously paid $800,000 for his part in refurnishing the lair of the former Merrill Lynch C.E.O. John Thain (a $1.2 million project featuring the notorious $35,000 antique cabinet, or commode).

The Oval Office, the classiest, most powerful place on earth, is now suffused with browns and beiges and leather and resembles an upscale hotel conference room or a ’70s conversation pit with a boxy coffee table that even some Obama aides find ugly.

It almost made me long for the Technicolor Belle Watling swagging and swathing style of the Clintons’ Little Rock decorator, Kaki Hockersmith.

The recession redo, paid for by the nonprofit White House Historical Association, was the latest tone-deaf move by a White House that was supposed to excel at connection and communication. Message: I care, but not enough to stop the fancy vacations and posh renovations.

As Obama himself said in February 2009 when he released his first budget: “There are times where you can afford to redecorate your house, and there are times where you need to focus on rebuilding the foundation.”

It might have been wise, given America’s slough of despond, to hark back to a time when presidents just went to work and took their office pretty much as they found it, without the need to make a personal statement. As the former White House curator Rex Scouten once told me, in the era from Taft to Truman, the green rug in the president’s office was changed only once, when it wore out, to a new green rug.

The new cream-of-wheat-colored rug is made of 25 percent recycled wool and features 100 percent recycled quotes around the border that have significance for President Obama. (Which means, of course, that the next chief executive will want to carpet copy-edit and put his or her own special quotes on the Oval rug. If the Tea Party triumphs, it might be “Don’t Tread on Me.” If Sarah Palin ascends, it will no doubt be a mama grizzly bear rug, personally bagged by her.)

The quotations chosen by Obama include F.D.R.’s “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”; Martin Luther King Jr.’s “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice”; Lincoln’s “Government of the people, by the people, for the people”; J.F.K.’s “No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings”; and Teddy Roosevelt’s “The welfare of each of us is dependent fundamentally upon the welfare of all of us.”

Given the cunning tableau created on the Mall over the weekend by Glenn Beck and Palin, in their artful and frightening mix of theology and Tea Party ideology, the president might be better served by a carpet that prompts him to get his groove back.

The first thing the once inspirational orator should embroider around the rug, the maxim that sums up so much of what’s wrong with the administration now, is the immortal line from “Cool Hand Luke”: “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”

Sidetracked by the mosque fight and now admirably plunging into brokering a Middle East peace, Obama clearly needs a reminder about what really counts as the Democrats prepare to get their clocks cleaned. The rug should quote James Carville’s famous admonition: “It’s the economy, stupid!”

There should be a special message for John Boehner, the Republican leader who has been strutting around as the Speaker-in-Waiting and who led the Republicans on Tuesday in their inane effort to deny Obama credit for anything by spending the day reminding people that it was W.’s war. The president should emblazon Kathleen Turner’s line from “Body Heat”: “You’re not too smart, are you? I like that in a man.”

Obama needs his rug to remind him to toughen up. When the self-styled Republican “Young Guns” — Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy — pull their wacky ideas out of their policy holsters, they should have to look down and read the warning from Al “Scarface” Pacino about his machine gun: “Say hello to my little friend.”

While he’s at it, the president who naïvely yearned for unanimity when he had a majority might put this legend around the border of his carpet: “Post-partisanship doesn’t work with Mitch McConnell.”

And for all of us who have that sinking feeling that the economic rug is being pulled out from under us, the president might stitch in the famous warning from “Jaws”: “We’re going to need a bigger boat.”




174 comments:

  1. I would have gone with a retro disco theme myself. How cool would that be?


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v24IoLpkOJQ&feature=related

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  2. Sheesh, you can't even find something nice to say about his not so well decorated oval office.

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  3. You have to admit, though, Michelle's fashion coordinators got their money's worth out of renovating her look.

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  4. Ha ha ha...I'm just about to watch the segment about the mixed reviews on Obama's decorated oval office.

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  5. Retail deliveries of passenger cars, multipurpose and sport-utility vehicles in China jumped 59 percent to 977,300, the China Automotive Technology & Research Center said. From Bloomberg

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  6. In the glare of publicity, Obama submits the Oval Office decoration to public review.

    Meanwhile, in the back channels, Obama Administration Submits Arizona Immigration Law to U.N. Review

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  7. Forget Zsa Zsa I just heard Michael Douglas has stage 4 throat cancer. I love that man.

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  9. Obama is all style and no (western) substance

    Just as the press ripped nancy over silverware, on this issue, I will ignore.

    How about our soldiers votes already being counted out?

    How about Obama doing nothing about preparing America for world without middle eastern /opec oil?

    President Obama's clock is ticking...

    What will he do to screw us in the next 26 months?

    Redecorating the office? The least of our issues.

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  10. I want that momma grizzly bear rug in there, and some moose horns on the wall. And Churchill's bust back.

    My brother and his wife gave dad a bear skin rug once, for Christmas. Big teeth too. Was quite the present that year. Most talked about, admired.

    By the way, a literature that presents it's heros warts and all, like the Jewish, is an advanced literature.

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  11. And that crap brown carpet, and those Shop-Co couches, my wife would have done much better.

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  12. Plus the casket for a table...

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  13. bob By the way, a literature that presents it's heros warts and all, like the Jewish, is an advanced literature.


    Shhhh, dont tell rat nothing...

    One day he might wake up and understand that the Jews are the NATIVES of the LAND, at least for 3400 years...

    His brain might explode...

    Oh that's right...

    You have to HAVE one 1st....

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  14. Come on, fellas, in the last thread we discussed how the lack of spending was hurting the economy. Imperiling rufus's chance of collecting his Social Security check.

    Now, when the President is out spending the big private bucks on paint, wall paper and carpet, Q posts a piece that says the President is "tone deaf".

    Playing both sides against the middle, Q is. The poor President, he cannot win for losing.

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  15. And that carpet looks like the wear tough crap from Carpet Mill that we put in our rentals.

    All in all....an interior disaster.

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  17. Those folks left the land a couple thousand years ago, then failed to pay the property taxes on it.

    That's when they lost their claim to title.

    Then their alleged descendants tried to steal it back.

    Four of those fellas just got shot trespassing on the posted land.

    Just a year or so ago, I read in the Story of "o" that was a legal deal. Shooting folks on posted land is morally justified, even if not legal, in the Story of "o".

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  19. The mythology of the Israeli centers on painting warts on their enemies, when none exist.

    That's what they did to the Phoenicians.
    That's what they did to Jezebel.

    It is what they're doing to the Islamoids.

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  20. Mel: Forget Zsa Zsa I just heard Michael Douglas has stage 4 throat cancer. I love that man.

    His soon-to-be-grieving widow will need some love.

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  21. One day he might wake up and understand that the Jews are the NATIVES of the LAND, at least for 3400 years...

    The word Hebrew comes from the verb abar meaning to pass over, through, take away.

    The first case of narrative use of this verb is Gen 15:17, "...there appeared a smoking furnace and a flaming torch that passed between these parts."

    Hebrew means one who transits.

    In other words, "imigrant".

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  22. All in all....an interior disaster.

    Hey, Bob.

    Did you ever figure out how to get that IKEA cabinet put together?

    .

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  23. migrant, Ms T, is one who pass overs, immigrant is one that stays.

    One that stays without the permission of those already there, an illegal immigrant.

    The Canaanites never gave those homeless and migrant folks from Egypt a Green Card.

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  24. They never were legal residents.

    They have no birthright, there being no 14th Amendment in the Canaanite statues.

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  25. Democrats like to name the seasons (see Recovery Summer). Here comes Oblivion Fall.

    Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah has come out strongly in support of the controversial Islamic center proposed for construction in New York, even as his party appears to be using opposition to the so-called "Ground Zero mosque" as a campaign issue.

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  26. That'd be in the Canaanite "statutes", as well as their statues.

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  27. Rat it always struck me as funny (not funny in a "ha ha" way) that the God Given Eternal Right To Property only extends back to the point in time just after the Europeans wrested the land away from the aborigines, in whatever continent you're talking about.

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  28. Not only is history written by, it is also defined by the winners.


    It's possible at some future date the history books will read 180 degrees from what they read today.

    .

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  29. Freddie Mac suffers six billion dollar quarterly loss. Who is Freddie Mac? You are.

    The entire US-Mexico border is to be guarded by predator drones, which is like watching your house be robbed on cam with no way to stop it.

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  30. I make my own furniture, Quirk. IKEA

    We're showered up and out the door
    To meet at eight o'clock a bore
    We'll be gone full half the day
    Remember as you blog and play
    To keep it civil
    Or dear folks
    You'll meet the divil

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  31. It all goes back to the eternal question, Ms T. Do you have a flag?

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  32. oh, and have a nice day, please do us all a favor?

    Crash your vehicle into a canyon...

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  33. Hamas gunmen murdered four Israeli civilians - all residents of Bet Haggai - in their car at the Beni Naim junction near Kiryat Arba Tuesday night, Aug. 31. They are identified as Yitzhak (47) and Tali (45) Ames, parents of six and Cochava Even Haim (37) and Avishai Schindler (34) who were expecting their second child. The gunmen fired a hail of automatic fire from a following car, then approached the bullet-riddled vehicle and fired again at point-blank range to make sure their victims were dead.

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  34. Teresita said...
    Rat it always struck me as funny (not funny in a "ha ha" way) that the God Given Eternal Right To Property only extends back to the point in time just after the Europeans wrested the land away from the aborigines, in whatever continent you're talking about.


    Jews were in their OWN Kingdom in Israel 2500 years before the Europeans created any Nation....

    And they BOUGHT and PAID for Hebron...

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  36. That is just how you were gong to deal with trespassers, as written in the Story of "o".

    Shoot 'em dead.

    Seems what you advocated came to pass, in Palestine, Arabia.

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  37. desert rat said...
    That is just how you were gong to deal with trespassers, as written in the Story of "o".

    Shoot 'em dead.

    Seems what you advocated came to pass, in Palestine, Arabia.



    You distort, you lie and you mislead...

    Nothing anyone says do you ever post correctly...

    You are a prick...

    I hope the worst for you and your black evil soul.

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  38. Hey, WIO, that's getting way out of line.

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  39. In fact, you're not the only person to have done this.

    What say, in the future, we ALL leave one another's family members out of our conversations.

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  40. We got a pleasant surprise with the ISM Manufacturing Report, today. Up to 56.3. Not bad.

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  41. rufus said...
    In fact, you're not the only person to have done this.

    What say, in the future, we ALL leave one another's family members out of our conversations.



    Sounds fine, but Rat on a regular basis brings up other's family members....

    Rufus.

    One standard for all except no standards of decency for the Rat?

    Come on...

    As for Family members...

    How do you know if that murdered pregnant Jewish woman who was executed yesterday was not a member of my family?

    Really?

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  42. Well, rufus, an Israeli spiritual leader prayed for genocide against the Palestinians, just two days ago.

    G-d answered him, with the death of those four Israeli.

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  43. In fact, to say something without saying anything?

    Nobody here KNOWS whom I have lost at the hands of Palestinians/Islamic assholes..

    But I will not disclose that type of personal info here...

    But let it be known for the record....

    Rat is a heartless prick and advocates the genocide of my people and as such?

    I do wish him pain and suffering from G-d.

    ( I am not like him, I do not take the law into my own hands)

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  44. Yeah, WIO, and we could be second cousins; who knows?

    But, really, Several of us have referred to to others' (immediate) family members, and it's Not a good thing to do.

    We have enough ways to be uncivil w/o stooping to that.


    On the other hand, a couple of us have probably given more information than we should have about some of our family situations, etc.

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  45. rufus said...
    Yeah, WIO, and we could be second cousins; who knows?



    We aint related.... They proved that last night when a bunch of jack-cherokee's were claiming to be lost jews...

    Sorry the DNA didnt work..

    But as for your point, Israel and Jewish people are a very tiny group of people (as compared to the rest of the world)

    Without giving detail but within the last 10 years, there have been at least 6 people murdered in the world news that I have been related to, close friend to, or the spouse of a friend to, or married to or have met....

    And you never wondered why I am so pissed?

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  46. I have never advocated for the death of an Israeli, nor Jew.

    Not once. Not ever.

    That I am now in the same league as Jezebel, the libeled Queen of Israel, sweet.

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  47. Just to give you one other fun filled factoid about me...

    When I go to schul I always say hi to our hired armed guard.. I always make sure he has his pistol (with extra clips) at the ready...

    Recently we had a family celebration at the schul, I offered the guard my AR-15 if he wanted it..

    He turned me down, but it was nice seeing those few extra State Trooper cars on the perimeter...

    High Holidays are coming, we will be putting on an extra 15 armed guards (off duty cops) per shift.

    that's my reality in the USA today

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  48. desert rat said...
    I have never advocated for the death of an Israeli, nor Jew.

    Not once. Not ever.




    No not once, thousands of times... and you never stop...

    You are evil

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  49. Demand for Petroleum Products is holdning up fairly well. Diesel use ticked up pretty good, but that was likely, I think, due to the combines getting in the fields early this year.

    EIA Report

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  50. There's just no point, rufus. It goes on and on and on. And on.






    Anyone here ever been hacked? I mean...completely hacked?

    (Please, no lectures.)

    Whoever did the job on my computer seems to have gone to an awful lot of thought and trouble.

    Now I have to wipe my hard drive. Or fuck it and just buy another laptop.





    Half awake...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKWKRMxXB0M&feature=related

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  51. I get the impression it's a group of evil geniuses rather than a lone wolf.

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  52. Me and Jezebel, libeled ad nauseum, by Israelis.

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  53. I can assure you it wasn't The Jackel Trish.

    I'd just buy a new lap top.

    (Advice from a computer illiterate)


    .

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  54. Buy a MacBook Pro and quit torturing yourself.

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  55. Could be the Tea Party.

    They could be aware of your shady past and some of your current liberal leanings and are looking for something to embarrass the current administration.

    .

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  56. We got a pleasant surprise with the ISM Manufacturing Report, today. Up to 56.3. Not bad.


    We bounced off 10,000 again Ruf.

    Just got a feeling that although things will be rough for a while, I don't think you are going lose your butt in the market.


    .

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  57. "I can assure you it wasn't The Jackel Trish."

    Do you spell that wrong just to bother me? And notice your missing comma?

    I is irritable. As you can imagine.




    A Mac? Okay, I'll look into it.

    While I still have money that hasn't been mysteriously Hoovered out of any number of accounts.

    Oh, wait til I break the news...

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  58. :)

    Good to see you haven't changed, Trish.


    .

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  59. These people think The Flintstones is a documentary.

    :)

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  60. I'm just like everyone else, right now, Q - Praying for "break-even." We've been half in bonds for several years.

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  61. I don't think I can wait for "very soon."

    I think I need one, like, today.

    Kinda cuts into my devotedly lazy schedule.

    Oh, well.

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  62. We've been half in bonds for several years.

    How do you do it?

    Individual bonds?

    Mutual funds?

    ETF's like LQD?

    .

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  63. The Anonymous post was there and now it's not.

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  64. Oxford Dictionary 3rd Edition.com?


    "The head of Oxford University Press, Nigel Portwood, recently caused a stir by openly considering the possibility that the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary might be published in electronic form only. What prompted those thoughts was the success of the online version of the O.E.D., as it is usually called, and the limited sales of the printed 20-volume edition..."

    The Oxford Dictionary

    .

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  65. Illegal immigration to U.S. down almost 67% since 2000, report says


    "The number of illegal immigrants entering the United States has plunged by almost two-thirds in the past decade, a dramatic shift after years of growth in the population, according to a new report by the Pew Hispanic Center.

    "Between 2000 and 2005, an average of 850,000 people a year entered the United States without authorization, according to the report released Wednesday. As the economy plunged into recession between 2007 and 2009, that number fell to 300,000..."


    Illegal Immigratrion Down

    .

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  66. Mosquito noise device at Gallery Place aims to annoy potential troublemakers

    "The Mosquito, an ultrasonic device, has been installed near the Gallery Place Metro station to discourage loitering by youths. Gallery Place business owners met with District officials a few weeks ago to voice their concern that loitering teenagers who sometimes get into fights in one of the city's busiest retail and entertainment strips were costing them customers. The result of that session premiered this week: a device that emits a high-pitched, headache-inducing sound that only young ears can hear...

    "It drives kids crazy," said Don Hemingway, vice president for business development at Miracle Recreation Equipment, a Missouri company that uses the Mosquito as part of a larger security device sold to playground owners. "It's pretty cool stuff. It gets in your head and it's just annoying, and you just want to get the heck out of there. We have other settings for adults if you have bums hanging around..."



    Clever


    .

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  67. WiO: I do wish him pain and suffering from G-d.

    The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I the LORD am your God. -—Leviticus 19:34

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  68. Rat's cousins held a rally:

    The Islamic militant group Hamas took responsibility for the shooting and vowed that more attacks would follow. About 3,000 Palestinians joined a rally in Gaza to celebrate the attack.
    "The Qassam Brigades announces its full responsibility for the heroic operation in Hebron," Hamas military wing spokesman Abu Obeida told The Associated Press

    When reached for comment, our very own Rat stated:

    "Those folks (jews) left the land a couple thousand years ago, then failed to pay the property taxes on it.

    That's when they (jews) lost their claim to title.

    Then their ALLEGED descendants (jews) tried to steal it back.

    Four of those fellas just got shot trespassing on the posted land.




    Yes our very own Rat, a tried and true member of Hamas..

    It explains so much...

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  69. How is your hearing?

    Hearing Test

    I think I listened to a little too much rock music when I was younger.


    .

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  70. Teresita said...
    WiO: I do wish him pain and suffering from G-d.

    The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I the LORD am your God. -—Leviticus 19:34


    Rat aint a stranger... he's an evil worshipper of Baal..

    Try again Sweetie...

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  71. whit,

    ...still out here waiting...

    "Let my people go..."

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  72. Teresita said...
    WiO: I do wish him pain and suffering from G-d.

    The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I the LORD am your God. -—Leviticus 19:34


    I wish for G-d to cause Rat pain...

    Your misquoting is wrong on so many levels...

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  73. Quirk said...
    How is your hearing?

    Hearing Test

    I think I listened to a little too much rock music when I was younger.



    What did you say?

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  74. Iraq Through The Looking Glass

    "...Also, the general framework of withdrawal was scheduled as part of the Bush/Petraeus status of force agreements with the Iraqis. Obama is to be congratulated for keeping to it, but chastised for suggesting that it was his own — and more so for not referencing the surge that made it all possible.

    "So, again, it was a weird moment: Are we supposed to think that after 20 months a president is responsible for his own record (e.g., Bush need not be credited for his lonely, but critical support for the surge that allowed the withdrawal), but not quite responsible when it is inconvenient (Bush must be blamed for leaving a bad economy that Obama’s borrowing cannot cure)?



    The NRO View

    .

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  75. Walking down the road with a couple friends, the conversation went something like this:

    "What day is it?"

    "It's Wednesday."

    "Wednesday? I thought it was Thursday?"

    "Thirsty?"

    "So am I. Let's go have a beer."

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  76. WiO,

    Obama, Netanyahu condemn killings as talks open

    There is a name missing...Hmm...That bodes well, doesn't it?

    As my friend Illan Feldman teaches, the soul is all good; the rest is noise. I'll be meeting him at 15:30 today. Great man, Rebbe and Zionist.

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  77. Somebody brought up history and it's variability.

    Got me to thinking about possible futures.

    Two polar opposites came to mind: [1] the muslims prevail and the whirled is ruled under sharia by the califate, vs [2] the Jews prevail and gain dominance, though they never sought it, but just accepted it when it occurred.

    As if I needed another reason to support Jews and Israel.

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  78. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  79. Quirk wrote:

    "I sold my boat a few years ago."

    I've heard the two happiest days in a boat owners life are the day the boat is bought and the day the boat is sold. Is the second true? I've still got my boat. Was yours power or sail?


    Trish:

    "Anyone here ever been hacked? I mean...completely hacked?."

    I've been working with Microsoft recently trying to rid one of my machines of a virus. So far it's beaten all the Microsoft technicians. How hacked are you? Did they really get into your bank accounts? Mac users love to say "get a Mac" upon any word of a virus. Ironically the first virus I ever experienced was on a Apple computer. It was my first Mac and the viruses (viri?) spread on discs - sorta how the military got hack last year (usb thumb drivess were the vehicles there).

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  80. Still all about me.

    The proof of the equivalency prevails.

    I win, again.

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  81. linear,

    Re: top dog

    Thanks, but No Thanks

    We will consider ourselves blessed if we can have a teeny, tiny bit of land to call our own - other than an Arab dug grave, of course :)

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  82. Neither of those are the scenarios that will prevail, lineman.

    The UN will be patrolling a demilitarized Jerusalem, the backwater capital of two truly unimportant countries.

    Watch it happen.

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  83. Gideon Levy, the highly regarded columnist from the Israeli daily Haaretz, has also made a comparison between Germany in the 1930's and Israel today.

    Thus comparing Germany of the 1920s and early '30s to Israel at the start of the third millennium is not only permissible but imperative for gaining an insight into how barbarous regimes develop, grasping the differences (and there are many profound ones), and discerning the similarities, which ought to worry us.[4]

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  84. Here is what Gideon Levy writes on the prevalence of racism in Israeli society:

    Now that we can use the term "racism," the time has come to admit our society is absolutely racist, that all its components are racist. The legal system, for example, is no less tainted than Petah Tikva's Morasha school. In many cases there is one law for a Jew and another for an Arab. The Bank of Israel, a state institution no less than the Morasha school, with 900 employees, has always been "clean" of Arab employees except sometimes one or two. Some 70,000 Israeli citizens, all Arab of course, are living in unrecognized villages, without electricity or running water, without an access road and sometimes without a school. Why? Because they are Arabs. Every week at soccer matches we hear racist epithets and chants, the kind teams in Europe are severely penalized for. Here, the referees do not even bother reporting them....

    And we have said nothing yet about the attitude toward foreign workers, the occupation (the greatest racist curse) nor about the attitude toward Mizrahim since the founding of the state. The list is long and shameful.[6]

    Here are the words of Yael Lotan, another Israeli author and journalist, on the subject of racism and criticism of Israel.

    It should be perfectly legitimate to criticize Israel. Giving it uncritical, unqualified support in all its actions, its violations of dozens of UN Security Council resolutions, its policy of assassination and destruction that is a racist position, a position that says "Arabs don't count, Arabs have no rights, Arabs are vermin and whatever is done to them in Palestine, Syria, Iraq or Lebanon is legitimate. And Islam is the same as Fascism."

    Now that is real antiSemitism.


    Israeli Criticism of Zionism and of Israel's Treatment of the Palestinians:

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  85. WorldNetDaily

    JERUSALEM – If Israel and the Palestinian Authority fail to reach an agreement within the next year, the Obama administration could support a United Nations resolution that would unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state, senior PA officials told WND.
    ...
    While the PA does not believe it will see an actual Palestinian state within a year, it expects in that time it will take over many more neighborhoods in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem that are normally controlled on the ground by Israel.

    The PA said the expectation is based on pledges by the Obama administration.
    ...
    Last year, Ahmed Qurei, former PA prime minister and member of the Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee, told WND in an interview that the PA "reached an understanding with important elements within the administration" to possibly bring to the U.N. Security Council a resolution to unilaterally create a Palestinian state.

    Asked to which "elements" he was referring, Qurei would only say they were from the Obama administration.

    Despite widespread assumptions the U.S. would veto any such U.N. Security Council resolution, PA officials told WND the Obama administration did not threaten to veto their conceptual unilateral resolution.

    "The U.S. has a history of never before vetoing any U.N. move to create a new state," a PA negotiator pointed out.

    ReplyDelete
  86. Was yours power or sail?

    Power.

    I had friends with sail boats and I liked sailing a lot (could tell you some stories); however, if we are going somewhere my wife likes to get there rather than be getting there (especially if there is work involved in the getting there).

    At least, I was able to strike a compromise well less than a "go fast" boat.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  87. I've got sail. I race it primarily but sometimes the family and I go cruising.

    ReplyDelete
  88. "The head of Oxford University Press, Nigel Portwood, recently caused a stir by..."

    Sounds like a fun finish-it-yourself sentence.



    "How hacked are you?"

    Quite.

    "Did they really get into your bank accounts?"

    Dunno.



    I listened to the forty and older Mosquito test.

    Not too annoying.

    Really, really annoying? Overhead music. It's invaded just about every commercial and many public spaces.

    Whose rotten idea was that?

    ReplyDelete
  89. While the total level of illegal immigration may be down, Q, the death toll is as high as ever

    Deaths of illegal immigrants in Arizona have soared this summer toward their highest levels since 2005 — a fact that has surprised many who thought that the furor over the state's new immigration law and the 100-plus degree heat would draw them elsewhere along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.
    ...
    In July, 59 people died — 40 in the first two weeks when nighttime temperatures were the hottest in recorded history, hovering around the low 90s. The single-month death count is second only to July 2005, when 68 bodies were found.
    ...
    Eighteen more people died in the first 23 days of August.

    Even with the prospect of a torturous death, and the bitter wrath they face in Arizona, immigrants, including Ortega, say the state's vast, sparsely populated terrain is still the best place for border jumpers.

    "In Tijuana, you have two walls that you have to get over," said Ortega, who first came across in 1976 to work in West Coast agricultural fields. "This is much easier here. You just have to watch out for the snakes. That's why I prefer to walk in the daytime and not at night."

    He admits he's afraid when he crosses, but states flatly, "It's worth the risk."

    Migrants say Arizona worth risk of crossing

    While the convention business, which books about four years out, has dried up, here in AZ. A direct result of SB1070, as was predicted by those that knew.

    The conventions having a lot of other, less controversial places to go.

    ReplyDelete
  90. Sofia Gomez, of an aid group called Humane Borders, said crossers are traveling through even more remote areas than in previous years. At the same time, anger over illegal immigration has led to people shooting up the water stations her group has placed in the desert.

    "They're taking a higher risk and they're not making it," Gomez said.

    So far this year, the body count is at 171, the same number the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office had seen at this time in 2007, the year the office saw a record 217 deaths.

    ReplyDelete
  91. Whose rotten idea was that?

    Know what you mean.

    They've got stuff like this blasting.


    The Posies


    .

    ReplyDelete
  92. Q, hard to beat Vanguard Balanced Index Fund (VBINX) for sleeping at night.

    ReplyDelete
  93. Yea, Ruf.

    I been thinking of going the mutual fund route.

    I used to (still do) stash unused cash in the Fidelity Cash Reserves just as a holding spot. It used to earn 3 - 4%. I just noticed today its been earning 1/10th of a percent this year.

    Safe but no cigar. :)


    Got to do something.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  94. He admits he's afraid when he crosses, but states flatly, "It's worth the risk..."


    The conventions having a lot of other, less controversial places to go...



    The illegals make their own decisions just as the people of Arizona do.

    Whether either's decisions change due to circumstances we will have to wait to see.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  95. Yep, life is all about choices, no doubt of that.

    ReplyDelete
  96. For all windows users I highly recommend the FREE Microsoft Security Essentials. It is quite good virus protection.

    What are the symptoms of your hacking trish?

    ReplyDelete
  97. VBINX

    Q, I'm not touting "this" fund (there are a lot whose charts look very similar. In fact, my wife puts a little money in a 401k - low risk, Principal, I think - and their chart is almost identical.)

    Right now, I want to be as diversified as possible. Hell, I'd like to have some gold and/or silver just to jingle in my pockets. :) I have never, in my life, been as "un-opinionated" as I am, now, about what's coming down.

    I don't think we're going into "depression," but I sure as hell don't think we're looking at "boom times," either. I just flat, freaking don' know.

    ReplyDelete
  98. Let me rephrase that. I've never "known." It's just that this is the first time in my life that I've known that I "don't know." :)

    ReplyDelete
  99. Q, I'm not touting "this" fund..."


    Rufus, you dick.


    I just went out and bought a whole shitload of VBINX based on your recommendation.


    Damn.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  100. I've got sail.


    Sail is cool.

    What kind do you have?


    .

    ReplyDelete
  101. "What are the symptoms of your hacking trish?"

    Mirror sites that link to wholly invented sites with, ahem, novel content. It's like going down the rabbit hole. Fictitious repeating ads.

    I mean that's what I can see.

    What else is going on, I don't know. And it's the "don't know" part that gets me.

    ReplyDelete
  102. I'd first try downloading Microsoft Security Essentials and try running that and see if it cleans it up.

    http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

    Another app that can help out with browser redirects is the free version of Adaware

    http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

    I highly recommend you get going on the MSE though. That would be your best bet.

    ReplyDelete
  103. microsoft just called me a few moments ago regarding the virus we've been trying to get rid of and they gave up. I've spent hours with the technicians in India working away remotely but this one's got them flummoxed. I've got to reformat the beast. Silly me didn't have MSE installed on that computer before I got the infection. Gotta re-format that sucker. "Go vanilla" as one tech dude told me years ago in reference to a different computer (an Amiga) and a different problem.

    ReplyDelete
  104. Well, you're probably broke, now. Sorry.

    ReplyDelete
  105. C&C 34.

    I wasnt't really familiar with it but I looked it up on Google. Very nice. Beautiful boat.


    A friend had a 32 ft. Catalina we used to go out on a lot. Good times.

    The best times though was on my best friend's 24 ft. Westerly. He got it right after we both got divorced. Hit the bars all night and then back to the boat. Extremely good times.

    I was working crazy hours at the time and used to lay around the boat most of the day. It was in a marina along the Nautical Mile (one marina right after another) in St Clair Shore.

    I used to sit around the boat all day looking into the next marina. Ritzy place. Can't remember the name. Anyway it was amusing to see these old codgers coming in with 36' and 40' sailboats, decks dripping with young blonds, and trying to get the boats into the wells after drinking all day.

    Well you have to consider I was easily amused in those days. The beer helped.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  106. Well, you're probably broke, now. Sorry.


    Tell it to my wife. You dick.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  107. "I highly recommend you get going on the MSE though. That would be your best bet."

    Thanks, Ash.

    One of the embedded links in a mirror site took me to another mirror site touting an interesting new reference work: The Elements of Motherf#%!$ing Style.






    Gee...

    ReplyDelete
  108. Yeah, it is a pretty boat. Good value. They made them between '78 and '82 and you can get them for a reasonable price. My family of 4 can cruise pretty comfortably on it and I keep it at a club that is big on racing. There used to be 15 to 20 of them on the start line in the old days. Now we get 7 or 8 out on a Tuesday night which isn't bad for level racing. Last weekend I tried handicapped racing. IRC 3 was our fleet and there were 15 boats on the line at the start. Pretty exciting, and nerve racking, with all those boats real close to each other jockeying for position.

    I get my sailing fix racing as you can only sail around Toronto Island so many times before you go a little bonkers. Beer, and wine, help though. Sailors do tend to drink a bit... *hic*

    ReplyDelete
  109. I'll tell you Ash, the best thing about the Westerly was that it belonged to someone else.

    We'd head down to Put-in Bay and my friend worried about his boat the whole trip.

    The rest of us just drank and enjoyed ourselves.

    It was a lesson I should have learned before buying my own boat.


    .

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

    ReplyDelete
  111. I hear ya! That is why I asked about the second best day in a boat owners life.

    I bought a 100 year old house - needed renovating. I got two kids. I have my own business. Got a boat - just added more damn chores to my list.

    The upside to racing is I've got strapping young men to do all the work. I sit at the wheel and make decisions and drive. When I'm cruising with the family - I'm the crew.

    It also cost money...

    I was just telling a friend yesterday on how one can experience boat ownership without owning a boat:

    Go to the bank and withdraw a stack of 100 dollar bills from your bank account (borrow if you must). Purchase a big honking fan. Put fan in your washroom aimed at the shower. Put on a few layers of clothes and then all your rain gear. Turn on the cold water in the shower, turn on the fan. Climb in and start tearing up those 100 dollar bills.

    Nope, it ain't all cocktails and calm waters with gorgeous babes draped across the deck - sadly.

    ReplyDelete
  112. Never was involved in any racing.

    The Westerly was built in England for the oceans. It wasn't fast at all. But it made up for it in other areas.

    We were coming back from a trip to Put-in Bay on a 4th of July weekend. It rained big on and off for the whole time. The guy's drive shaft went out on the way down (he bought the boat then put a Cummins engine in himself).

    Anyway the only way we could get back up the Detroit River was to sail. When a big storm came up we would just drop the sails except for the jib and try to make progress (sounds kind of stupid now.)

    Anyway we are sailing betwen Belle Isle and Windsor when a big one hits us. The owner of the boat was half in the water, the boat was on its side, and we were heading for the riverside park in Windsor before we got the line to the jib loose.

    That will sober you up pretty fast.

    Later we heard that the Coast Guard station on Belle Isle was clocking wind gusts of 80 mph (might have been 80 knots per hour).

    That was another time being the owner of the boat had it's downside.

    If we ever meet, I'll have to tell you about the time some Canadiens tried to break into the boat while we were sleeping on it.

    Crazy Canucks.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  113. That boating stuff, sounds like playing polo without a sponsor or a patron.

    Those six horses you have to have, they'll eat you alive.

    ReplyDelete
  114. Hey, Ruf.

    I was just kidding.

    I've got a lot to do this week so I decided to make out a "To Do List". It's taken me a day and a half so far.

    If I'm too lazy to complete a "To Do List" much less get what's on it done, you know I wouldn't have rushed to buy VBINX.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  115. That's the point rat.

    The sponsor or the patron is the owner of the boat.

    You just have to make sure it isn't you.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  116. I gotta go.

    I've got a list I've got to get done.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  117. Raced a Hobby Car one season. I could have bought a NASCAR ride for what I blew on that piece of junk.

    Most fun I've ever had with my clothes on. :)

    ReplyDelete
  118. Now, if the death rate for illegals in AZ is the same as it was and ...

    Study: Illegal immigration from Mexico declines overall, but not in Texas

    Makes one wonder, where has the decline occurred?

    Dallas Morning News

    According to the Pew center's estimates, an average of 150,000 unauthorized immigrants from Mexico arrived annually between March 2007 and March 2009 — 70 percent below the annual average of 500,000 during the first half of the decade.

    The Pew center said that the unauthorized immigrant population peaked at 12 million in March 2007, about six months after the recession officially hit the U.S. And the nonpartisan research center noted that 72 percent of the overall foreign-born population was in the U.S. legally in 2009.

    Apprehensions of illegal immigrants have decreased at the U.S-Mexican border with increased law enforcement there. But removals from the interior of the U.S. have steadily climbed.

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said they'd like to expel a record 400,000 people for the fiscal year, ending this September.


    Which if true, that they will have expelled 400,000 undocumented migrants by September ...

    President Obama is doing a real bang up job, putting GW Bush and his team to shame.

    Wonder of wonders, going well against the stereotyping that prevails on the "Right".

    Those 400,000 expelled a decrease in the illegal population that is well beyond the cause and effect of recessionary economics.

    No, those 400,000 expelled would be a direct result of enhanced law enforcement, brought on by the Obama Administration and the improved enforcement of existing law, as compared to the administration of GW Bush, of Texas.

    ReplyDelete
  119. The enforcement of existing immigration law, just what the patrons of the Elephant Bar have been advocating, since well before the election of Barack Obama.

    It took the election of Barack Obama to bring it about.

    Lord have mercy!

    ReplyDelete
  120. Used to have a patron, the fellow had 18 of those Popeye Chicken stores around California.

    He could barely stay in the saddle when he started to play, but he had a check book that couldn't be beat.

    That was all of twenty years ago, fatherhood putting an end to my semi-professional polo career. Even with a patron, the demands of family made that game far to costly a hobby.

    But was it ever a good time, while it lasted.

    ReplyDelete
  121. Quirk wrote:

    "hen a big storm came up we would just drop the sails except for the jib and try to make progress (sounds kind of stupid now.)"

    Actually, that's a pretty good tactic. Standard storm procedure - shorten sail but you've got to keep something up to give to movement hence you can steer. They even make little tiny storm sails. When things get real bad you "heave to". Basically that means put you your storm sail, strap her down tight, then tack but don't release the sail. You essentially sit still hobby horsing in the water with a bit of leeward drift. You just hope there isn't any shore close by to the leeward.

    There is a whole different skill set cruising as opposed to racing. Any sailor that says they haven't run aground is, well, lying. I've done it, more than once, and Lake Ontario is a big deep lake. Then there is the white knuckle nights at the wheel with the young kids and wife asleep below and thunder storms kicking up around you.

    I'll never forget the morning when we sailed all night, the winds came up from the east (running the length of lake) so the wave got big and lumpy and the kids crawled up on deck looking green. My young son (5 at the time I think) said "Dad, I've got to go poo" "No, no, you don't want to go below" I replied. "I've got to go poo Dad".

    Well, I took him down to the head, he pulled his pants down and sat on the crapper and started to poo. Then he threw up. My sea legs got a good test that day. The ole wife said "I'm not going down there!" ah, the joys of sailing.

    ReplyDelete
  122. I wanna here about the crazy Canucks!

    ReplyDelete
  123. Rat, A buddy at the yacht club warned me: "You think sailing is expensive - just hope your daughter doesn't get into equestrian!".

    ReplyDelete
  124. and polo must be worse - the sport of kinds isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  125. I'll testify to the validity of that, ash.

    The cost of the horse, just the beginning of that adventure.

    Gotta have a "good" horse for a daughter. Trainer/coach, boarding, entry fees for shows, wardrobe, maintenance on the horse, feed, shoes and veterinarian. It never stops.

    I've seen the Hunter/Jumper circut just eat people up. Guys who thought they were "well to do", well they weren't.

    The cowboy events are not as bad, but will still suck up every spare dime you'd ever see.

    I've seen addiction to horses end many a marriage.

    ReplyDelete
  126. My daughter tried it out last spring and didn't seem to cotton to it - thankfully.

    ReplyDelete
  127. Played on the same field as Major Ferguson one time, the guy that maintained Prince Philips' horses, whose daughter married the other Prince.

    He had two SAS officers with him, guys looked like James Bond types, right out of central casting.

    But yeah, you had better have REAL DEEP pockets, if you want to be competitive on the polo field.

    A friend of my dad's, he was married to the granddaughter of Mrs McCormick, of Chi-town fame. He played a little for recreation. He told me he had to choose, polo or his Ferrari.
    I sold his horses for him.

    ReplyDelete
  128. Our Chicken man, he hired Will Rogers's grandson, Chuck, me and "Ace" Murphy.

    "Ace" was really good a 2nd generation player and a little under rated, Chuck played to his handicap, and I was an unknown ringer.

    We played in Scottsdale for two seasons and Indio CA a couple times each of those years. Loads of fun, lots of parties and such.

    But even so, it was just for fun, the Argentinians had the horses and the talent to dominate in Indio. It was not even worth their time to come to Scottsdale.

    ReplyDelete
  129. We came close to putting an arena polo deal together in Las Vegas, but they went with a Medieval themed show, instead.

    That would have been a life changing experience, playing professional polo in Las Vegas. Best it never happened, in retrospect.

    ReplyDelete
  130. Vegas?

    You should have gone with the "Bear Roping," Rat.

    ReplyDelete
  131. Hard to do an hour, of bear roping, rufus.

    ReplyDelete
  132. You just need a good horse, Rat. One that can run for 59 minutes. :)

    ReplyDelete
  133. Run Real Fast for 59 minutes. :)

    ReplyDelete
  134. Really, Really Fast for 59 minutes. :)

    ReplyDelete
  135. That'd have been it, rufus, that'd have been it.

    ReplyDelete
  136. Time to empty your balls, gentleman.

    Full screen, speakers loud!!

    F-18

    ReplyDelete
  137. The funny thing is, Obama might even try to do it.

    Citing anecdotal evidence of random acts of violence against Muslims, Khera urged the US to “prosecute” those who “speak hate” against Islam. Khera failed to mention the 911 terror attacks by his coreligionists in the Pan-Islamic movement, the Fort Hood Massacre, the attempted Times Square bombing, or numerous other acts of Pan-Islamic violence which are encouraged by Pan-Islamic hate speech against Americans in Saudi-funded mosques across the US every Friday.

    ReplyDelete
  138. allen would love if "speaking hate" against Israel were prosecuted. So would WiO.

    ReplyDelete
  139. Enough! (spit)

    Enough anger, enough cursing out, and enough blaming others for 'the situation'. Yes, I am referring to the latest gruesome terror attack near Hebron, and most of our reactions to it.

    ...

    Make a commitment NOW to use these emotions you have, to DO something POSITIVE. Take your anger and use it to tip the scales in our favor, to make the world more just, to make it safer, and to do for the victims, Yitzchak, Talia, Kokhava and Avishai, our brothers and sisters, what they cannot do anymore for us.

    Let's do what we CAN, and not sit back and just be angry. Anger is NOT enough.


    Not Enough

    ReplyDelete
  140. Oh, whit, I love a seven foot tall, economically literate country and western singer!



    Talked to my brother, IT guy, about my problem, Ash.

    Not that I don't trust your solution; he just happened to call and does something computer-y for a living.

    So I got a different recommendation that worked for him last year. He sounded breezily confident.

    Then I talked to someone else who said, "Nah. It's basically hopeless. You'll get rid of the virus, boot back up, and it'll replicate from your network."

    "Thanks."

    He's been through five or six conspicuously costly hard drives.

    Some due, at least I gather, to illegally downloaded movies with Chinese subtitles.

    ReplyDelete
  141. Suicide bomb blasts rock Lahore; at least 28 dead

    Sunnis Muslims attack Shiite Islamists in Pakistan!

    A little more than talk

    ReplyDelete
  142. allen would love if "speaking hate" against Israel were prosecuted. So would WiO.

    They would have to throw Jesus into jail too:

    REV 3:9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

    ReplyDelete
  143. He's been through five or six conspicuously costly hard drives.

    Linux is free, never gets a virus, and never trashes your hard drive. But no, people want to keep giving money to Microsuckware.

    ReplyDelete
  144. Netanyahu ... acknowledged the Palestinians' claim to the land.

    "The Jewish people are not strangers in our homeland, the land of our forefathers. But we recognise that another people share this land with us.

    "And I came here today to find an historic compromise that will enable both peoples to live in peace, security and dignity,"

    ReplyDelete
  145. "Linux is free, never gets a virus, and never trashes your hard drive."

    Gaaaaa! Another recommendation.

    Linux has snob appeal to the hardcore geek. That's why you love it. The operating system of the select and discerning few.

    ReplyDelete
  146. WiO,

    Earlier today you said something about going to the J, which had armed guards. Ours in Atlanta does. Some synagogues do, as well. I just cannot understand why Jews are so...ugly (that's Southern for touchy)

    Another day has past without Whit answering my question about his censorship...this from a guy who will permit any obscenity other than truth. Come on, Whit, just say, "Because I can"…because that really is the sum of the matter, and as all the little Munchkins will attest, "You be the man!"

    ReplyDelete
  147. Ash,

    You are a liar. I would fight to the death for the right of a low life like you to exercise free speech.

    ReplyDelete
  148. T,

    What are you smoking, girl.

    ReplyDelete
  149. I'm getting city slickered by those bastards, but I'm so Mellow I don't seem to care much.

    Whatever you do, don't buy a Toshiba.

    Whit, don't answer Allen, I for one like him around.

    Teresita, what are you smoking?

    g'nite

    ReplyDelete
  150. Answer: revelation weed

    ReplyDelete
  151. Ash said...
    allen would love if "speaking hate" against Israel were prosecuted. So would WiO.


    No, but I do favor the quartering of all arab/islamic terrorists....

    I do love the idea that it should be allowed that Jews can fire back at palestinians as indiscriminate as the arabs shoot at the Jews..

    We could true peace in the middle east if every time an arab shoots off a sniper rifle, tries to stab a Jew, blow up a pizza parlor or some such action that Jews were permitted to respond in kind...

    Put Jew haters in jail for hate speech? Hell no, I want to publicly shame them and harass them back..

    ridicule, shame, embarrassment...

    drive their businesses into the ground...

    but lock them up for bad speech? naw...

    ReplyDelete
  152. T: They would have to throw Jesus into jail too:

    REV 3:9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.



    I thought you said Jews never actually lived and had a kingdom in Israel...

    Then how could they actually put Jesus in jail?

    all that New testament stuff is just made up shit....

    don't ya know?

    Jesus never lived.. Jesus was a Jew...

    Never walked in a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, so say Hamas, Arafat and Rat....

    In fact, to imply that any of the old and new testament stuff is real is nonsense..

    I guess that also means that Islam is shit too...

    then we're back to just a property dispute....

    after all Mohammed and Jesus? total bullshit..

    and Moses? just a Jew, never talked to G-d...

    Go ahead smartass, throw the baby out with the bath water....

    ReplyDelete
  153. Trish,

    buy a mac, save yourself tens of hundreds of hours of problems.

    ReplyDelete
  154. "...save yourself tens of hundreds of hours of problems."

    Not to mention, they're really sleek-looking.

    ReplyDelete
  155. WiO,

    My goodness, WiO, you and I would throw poor Joshua into jail. Who would have known?

    I must confess confusion: How does one throw god into jail. Even more confusing is the matter of how does one kill god?

    It is a mystery, as their saints are quick to say. That was usually followed by, "Hey, why are you slackers standing around stairing into navels? Let's get out there team and kill some Jews!"

    Sleep well, my friend. I will :-)

    What a Maroon

    ReplyDelete
  156. A little too Catholic creepy maybe.

    ReplyDelete
  157. I'm sure you meant "Why, J, you're awake."


    Or even, "Why, TJ, you're awake."


    .

    ReplyDelete
  158. Not a big deal anyplace else, but in Michigan and Ohio, this is a very big deal

    Michigan an Ohio State will continue to meet the last week in November.

    U-M, MSU happy with Big Ten's new setup


    "The Big Ten has ushered in a new era of conference football.
    But while it is moving forward, it will pay homage to the past, maintaining several longstanding rivalries, including The Game -- Michigan vs. Ohio State as the final game of the regular season.

    "Commissioner Jim Delany, who spearheaded the expansion effort by adding Nebraska as the 12th team in June, revealed the two, six-team Big Ten divisions Wednesday during a prime-time special on the Big Ten Network..."



    Nebraska Added to Big 10


    .

    ReplyDelete
  159. Tabloids Hack Royal's Phone, Scotland Yard Dawdles

    "AS OF THIS SUMMER, five people have filed lawsuits accusing News Group Newspapers, a division of Rupert Murdoch’s publishing empire that includes News of the World, of breaking into their voice mail. Additional cases are being prepared, including one seeking a judicial review of Scotland Yard’s handling of the investigation. The litigation is beginning to expose just how far the hacking went, something that Scotland Yard did not do. In fact, an examination based on police records, court documents and interviews with investigators and reporters shows that Britain’s revered police agency failed to pursue leads suggesting that one of the country’s most powerful newspapers was routinely listening in on its citizens."

    Murdock's Minions Arrested


    .

    ReplyDelete
  160. Labor Gains Edge in Disputed Australian Election


    "New figures show that 's conservatives overstated savings from their election promises by up to10.6 billion Australian dollars ($9.7 billion), in a blow to their chances of forming a ruling coalition after inconclusive elections...

    Are The Conservatives Conservative?

    and

    "Australian key lawmaker backs Labor to govern.

    Labor edged closer to retaining power in on Thursday when an independent lawmaker said he would support her center-left Labor Party to form Australia's first minority government in almost seven decades..."


    Independant Backs Labor

    .

    ReplyDelete
  161. US 'milkshake murder' convict seeks case dismissal in HC.

    "The expatriate American housewife who won a retrial after being convicted of murdering of her banker husband in with a drugged milkshake and a blow to the head will ask a judge to dismiss the case against her, a lawyer said Thursday.

    "The first trial grabbed headlines around the world with its juicy detail on the breakdown of a wealthy expatriate marriage in this southern Chinese financial hub, spawning two books and a TV special.

    "While prosecutors portrayed Robert as a loving father, his wife said the former investment banker for and was a heavy drinker and cocaine user who was frequently sexually abusive. She also acknowledged having an affair with an electrician who worked at the couple's vacation home in...



    HC Milkshake Murder


    Milkshake or Closer Enough


    .

    ReplyDelete