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."
Remember the shit storm that blew up in the pusillanimous pandering press because someone had the temerity to call Obama a liar when he was lying through his teeth at the idiotic State of the Union charade with all the bouncing betty’s.
ReplyDeleteOMG, what a fucking horror!
PLEASE, WILL SOMEONE SEND US A NIGEL FARAGE TO TAKE ON THAT CESSPOOL ON THE POTOMAC?
Is that too much to ask or pray for?
This is the direction Gingrich should take. Hell, if he loses think of the fun he would have doing it.
ReplyDeleteDo you ever rest?
ReplyDeleteWe need Sarah Palin.
ReplyDeleteb
PLEASE, WILL SOMEONE SEND US A NIGEL FARAGE TO TAKE ON THAT CESSPOOL ON THE POTOMAC?
ReplyDeleteChristie shows flickers of it.
Nigel could lose the shirt.
ReplyDeleteWith time running out — the deadline is Nov. 23 — it is unclear whether the lawmakers can strike a bargain, and, if they do, whether that deal will pass Congress by the next deadline, Dec. 23. In a potential preview of how he could respond to anything short of a compromise, Obama has been railing against Congress for its partisan gridlock.
ReplyDelete...
“It’s going to take a few more years to meet the challenges that have been a decade in the making. And I think the American people understand that,” Obama told donors at the Aulani Disney Resort.
“What they don’t understand is leaders who refuse to take action. They don’t understand a Congress that can’t seem to move with a sense of urgency about the problems that America is facing.”
It takes a tough and confident man to wear a pink shirt.
ReplyDeleteThe man has to hold the greatest elective office on earth.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on this one, Deuce. I could develop a serious case of long-distance, man-love. :0
ReplyDeletePuppy love, anyway.
ReplyDeletefawning adoration?
Hey! Maybe we could start a fan club.
He might lose the tie, too.
ReplyDeleteb
Imagine the satisfaction; he has stood in that well for several (many?) years, now, and told that bunch what a collection of assholes they were, and that they were creating the groundwork for a disaster.
ReplyDeleteAnd, the Disaster happened.
Now, he gets to stand there, and tell the bunch of assholes, that he clearly despises, I TOLD YOU SO!
Nigel Farage might be the most smug, self-satisfied man in the world, today.
Deservedly so.
And, he gets the Supreme, Added Bonus of being on the side of Patriotism, Democracy, and Self-Rule.
ReplyDeleteI'm quite sure he feels that, at this time, he could "split atoms with his mind." :)
USA and Australia cozy up a bit. Good.
ReplyDeleteHere
Anti-Swearing
ReplyDeleteYeah, I watched the news clip on that this morning. Staged approach ending with a company of Marines in Darwin. 2,500 including air and land forces.
ReplyDeleteNot only is it irritating China but Indonesia, also.
The US is currently enjoying its second stabilization phase since the peak in 1970. (Daily oil production has rebounded from a deep hole in 2008, from below 5 mbpd to above 5.5 mbpd). The first stabilization period lasted for more than 7 years, from 1977 to 1985. While it did not reverse the overall decline trend, which had resumed by 1990, this was certainly good news, just as our current production increases are good news. But the production history laid out graphically here is instructive and gives a clear warning: It would be unwise to herald the recent uptick in domestic production with a "new era" headline. Deepwater drilling, Gulf of Mexico, and Alaska were all "new era" events in their day as well. Or so they seemed.
ReplyDeleteNow, three respectable publications have recently cast the advent of new oil extraction in America as a kind of miracle. And indeed, technologically, the refinement of hydraulic fracturing techniques -- first used to extract natural gas, and now used to extract oil -- is miraculous. But a technique such as this, although replicable and repeatable, will not change the fact that newer, unconventional resources are developed and produce oil at a much slower rate. One year after the Black Giant of East Texas was discovered in the early 1930s, it was producing just 1 mbpd. The US no longer has resources such as this to exploit. The history of US oil production over the past 40 years should make this clear.
However, this did not stop . . . . .
This is a wonderfully, well-written little article with simple, easy to grasp graphs (3 of them,) that explains very well what is going on in our oil situation.
It's Not "Cataclysmic Doomerism," nor Screaming Hyperbole. It's informative, and the graphs are simple, and accurate.
Selling the Oil Illusion - American Style
I suppose I could tolerate an irritating Obama irritating China.
ReplyDeleteWhile it Is true that Nations have "interests," not "friends," it is also true that the vast majority of Amercans have always admired the Tremendous Courage, and Determination of the Jewish Defense Forces (and the civilians that they protect) in the face of horrifying numerical disadvantage.
ReplyDeleteAmericans have, also, held a special place in their heart for Australia, and Australians. Something about the their good humor, and gritty character, combined with Magnificent Bravery in Battle (even when being treated badly,) and the fact that they speak a "similar" language :) have long endeared the Aussie to the American Elite, and Redneck, alike.
I remember, during the Vietnam/post Vietnam days, when the New Zealanders, and it seemed, every other people on Earth were turning against us, the Aussies were always right there on our side.
I was very happy to see Bush push through the FTA with Australia, and am tickled to death to see them prospering in their International Commodities/Mineral Extraction Business.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteThe latest polls on the GOP nominees.
Three Dicks and Five Midgets
From the chart, the current leaders are Cain, Gingrich, and Romney.
Cain is falling in the polls but is still up there. He is evidently still liked by those people who know even less about foreign policy than he does.
Gingrich on the other hand has replaced Cain as the latest flavor of the week, possibly "Nutty Fruity Lemon". Likely, his recent popularity can be attributed to the fact he hasn't been a player (in all senses of the word) for some time. However, with his rise in the polls, we can expect that people will begin taking notice of him as well as shots at him again.
An example,
Even His Baggage Has Baggage
Perhaps Newt will be able to nurse this along enough to get another book deal out of it.
In the end, as Trish predicted a couple years ago in one of her previous incarnations, it’s likely Romney will be the nominee.
However, since I can’t bring myself to vote for some dick who would strap his dog to the top of his car for a 12 hour trip from Boston to Ontario, and because I find it increasingly hard to find any upside at all with Obama, I will likely vote for a third party as I‘ve done for the last 2 national elections.
There used to be only 4 political parties in MI. Now there are 10. And in 2012, I will likely break with tradition and rather than vote for the national Taxpayers Party, I will be voting for the Natural Law Party.
Of course, I can’t agree with every plank in their platform; but this key one got me hooked:
Wiki refers to the following plank,
"Natural Law" referred to "the ultimate source of order and harmony displayed throughout creation."[1] Harmony with Natural Law could be accomplished by the practice of Transcendental Meditation and more advanced techniques.[1] Due to scientific studies of these techniques, it considered this to be a science-based approach.[2]
The NLP proposed that a government subsidized group of 7,000[3] advanced meditators known as Yogic Flyers would lower nationwide stress, reduce unemployment,[4] raise the gross national product,[4] improve health, reduce crime,[1] and make the country invincible to foreign attack.[5] Hagelin called it a "practical, field-tested, scientifically proven" solution.[6] TM would be taught to the military, to students, in prisons, and to ordinary citizens.[1]
It doesn’t get any better than that kids.
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As President Obama heads for Australia and then Indonesia this week, South East Asian nations will be expecting him to spread the US security umbrella a little more firmly over their region.
ReplyDeleteChina’s increasingly assertive territorial claims over huge swathes of the South China Sea recently have unnerved several of the Asian giant’s neighbors. They will be relieved to hear the US president re-assert Washington’s Pacific priorities.
Finally a US president has awoken to the reality of China. It is good politics and good for the US. Obama has toughened up over China. It has frustrated me for a long time watching China and not understanding the apparent lack of concern of US politicians about their true intentions.
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ReplyDelete...the Aussies were always right there on our side.
I suspect it had something to do with the beer.
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I get sick ever time I picture Nixon toasting those Communist Chinese thieving bastards and the thought that China was on its way to become a western style capitalist society. I wonder what it was that woke Obama up?
ReplyDeleteDon't laugh at TM. The smartest guy in my high school class went into it full time, skipping college. His old man was a professor anyways. Went to Alaska and lived in an igloo, came back a couple years later bearded up good and said
ReplyDelete"It's great!!!"
Has been meditating and teaching at the TM institute ever since. At the reunions, he is the healthiest looking one there.
The TM meditators lowered the crime rate in Philadelphia for a weekend I read one time. Whole bunch of them got together and concentrated on Philly.
Crime rate went down.
b
Remember when that shit-croissant, Jacque Chirac, talked about a common vision and EU interest with China at the expense of the US. Wait till the Russians realize that they are going to lose Siberia. That should be choice.
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what it was that woke Obama up?
Political expediancy.
It's the same reason the pipeline decision was delayed to 2013, the same reason nothing will get done in OZ over the next year.
He is playing to the crowd.
Trinkets for the natives.
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Since the Russkies are nuclear armed, I'd suggest the Chinese take Siberia through ---- illegal immigration.
ReplyDeleteb
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ReplyDeleteAt the reunions, he is the healthiest looking one there.
Hmmm.
TM as a weight loss procedure. Sounds like a hook we could use at Souls R Us
.
Yeah, his body was in great shape, last I saw.
ReplyDeleteb
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ReplyDeleteWhole bunch of them got together and concentrated on Philly.
Crime rate went down.
Maybe it was because the TM guys were off the street.
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Frank Rizzo was an avid fan of T.M. , along with Joey Coyle, Ozzie Meyers and Little Nicky Scarfo. T.M. is very big in Bridesburg, Port Ricmond, North Philadelphia and the Latino hood north of Allegheny Avenue. Philadelphia is in a very trancendental state of mind. The last I heard it was spreading beyond 69th St. into Delaware County.
ReplyDelete:)
ReplyDeleteNaw, they only take donations.
Begging bowl, you know, robe and sandals, that kind of thing.
b
:)
ReplyDeleteNicky Scarfo is into it?
Shit it is growing.
b
There was a saffron robed temple cult in West Mount Airy that used to carry tin cups throughout Philadelphia airport in the pre-TSA days.
ReplyDeleteHey, anybody that can make a living off a tin cup . . . . .
ReplyDeleteMebbee we should run one of'em for office.
For some reason blogger will not let me make a link in comments, the dreaded trish disorder. I wonder why? Any suggestions?
ReplyDeleteIf you hear about China being in a "shooting war" it'll likely be over this. The Philipines are in a precarious position on this one.
ReplyDeleteThe Spratly Islands dispute is a territorial dispute over the ownership of the Spratly Islands, a group of islands located in the South China Sea. States staking claims to various islands are: the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China (Taiwan), Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Brunei. All except Brunei occupy some of the islands.
The Spratly Islands are important for a number of reasons: the Spratly area holds significant reserves of oil and natural gas, it is a productive area for world fishing and commercial shipping, and coastal countries would get an extended continental shelf. But some countries, like the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China, and Vietnam make claims based on historical sovereignty over the islands.
Wiki
The same thing happened to me the other day, Deuce. I don't have a clue why.
ReplyDeleteMaybe if you shut down, and restart your computer?
er, iphone :)
o
ReplyDeleteThat sort of worked.
ReplyDeletewebpage cannot be found.
ReplyDelete<a href="http://www.greatwhatsit.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/02/qstreetscene11.jpg”> near one of my favorite restaurants.</a>
ReplyDeletedid that come up as a link? it does not on mine, but the html looks good.
ReplyDeleteHmmm.
ReplyDeleteTM as a weight loss procedure. Sounds like a hook we could use at Souls R Us
Quirk
Might be a great idea a good business move, now that income is down so much after the fraud and false advertising charges were settled and the fines paid to the government.
b
America’s whipping up hysteria over the Iranian nuclear program, with the same figures that used to accuse Iraq of possessing chemical and nuclear weapons now repeating themselves with frenetic conviction. Iran has long been a hot topic in the West and anti-Iranian sentiments are at a high right now, so – with a little help of some dubious “expert” analysis – it could follow in Iraq's footsteps.
ReplyDelete...
“The IAEA claims a “high explosives initiation system” was developed with the help of a “foreign expert”, CNN reported. That foreign expert is called “the mystery scientist “, and “Russian” by some Western Media, even though the IAEA report does not name him.
...
The expert who joined CNN and explained Danilenko’s “Iranian job” was none other than former Weapons Inspector David Albright. Albright is notorious for vigorously advocating the existence of weapons of mass destruction before the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Investigators established Mr. Ortega-Hernandez’s route by talking to people who knew him, an official at the Secret Service said, and circulated photos of him to several hotels in the area. The investigation involved all of the Secret Service’s 122 field offices in the United States, the official said.
ReplyDeleteThe last known episode in which bullets struck the White House occurred in 1994, when one round fired from the area of the Ellipse penetrated a first-floor window and landed in the State Dining Room, and another was found in a Christmas tree near the South Portico. President Bill Clinton and his wife and daughter were sleeping upstairs.
No one was hurt.
Nope, no link. The html does look correct, however.
ReplyDeleteSo much for the "All's Jake" argument.
ReplyDeleteU.S. banks face a “serious risk” that their creditworthiness will deteriorate if Europe’s debt crisis deepens and spreads beyond the five most-troubled nations, Fitch Ratings said.
“Unless the euro zone debt crisis is resolved in a timely and orderly manner, the broad credit outlook for the U.S. banking industry could worsen,” the New York-based rating company said yesterday in a statement. Even as U.S. banks have “manageable” exposure to stressed European markets, “further contagion poses a serious risk,” Fitch said, without explaining what it meant by contagion.
The “exposures” of U.S. lenders to major European banks and the stressed nations of Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, known as the GIIPS, are smaller than those to some of the continent’s larger countries, Fitch said.
The six biggest U.S. banks -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Citigroup Inc. (C), Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley (MS) -- had $50 billion in risk tied to the GIIPS on Sept. 30, Fitch said. So-called cross-border outstandings to France for all except Wells Fargo were $188 billion, including $114 billion to French banks. Risk to Britain and its banks was $225 billion and $51 billion, respectively.
Bloomberg
Fitch Statement
ReplyDeleteFunny, the Europeans couldn't stand their lessers being called PIIGS.
ReplyDeleteNow, it's GIIPS.
dick city
With Berlin jockeying to take the reins of the EU, a top German official says Europe is ‘speaking German’. But as Angela Merkel eyes a political union to rope in euro stragglers, the UK is challenging this drive in "the toughest hour since WWII."
ReplyDelete...
In a statement seemingly aimed at testing the grit of the Brits’ traditionally stiff up lip, Volker Kauder boldly proclaimed: "Suddenly Europe is speaking German. Not as a language, but in its acceptance of the instruments for which Angela Merkel has fought so hard.”
...
"Just looking for their own advantage and not being prepared to contribute – that cannot be the message we accept from the British," Kauder said Tuesday, as cited by the German daily Spiegel.
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ReplyDeleteMight be a great idea a good business move, now that income is down so much after the fraud and false advertising charges were settled and the fines paid to the government.
Slight correction. Should read 'now that "reported" income is down'.
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The new number-crunching leaders in Greece and Italy are getting their teeth into their countries' financial problems. But while they are struggling for recovery, Europeans are not convinced the monetary maestros can pull it off.
ReplyDelete...
“Monti – one of the first things he said is that ‘the main goal's financial stability. But of course we will take care of social problems.’
...
But that suits the EU, says the Institute for Democracy and Cooperation's John Laughland. Brussels has put in two men who will continue with the bank bailouts, and not support the public the way their predecessors did.
We've got a Natural Law Party out this way too --
ReplyDeleteNatural Law Party of Idaho
Sweeping the nation.....
b
Mothers for Natural Law try to help you eat more healthy food.
ReplyDeleteInfo About GE Foods
brought to you courtesy of your local Natural Law Party, lookin' out for you.
b
Natural Law Party, with its emphasis on healthy diets, ought to be a 'natural' for someone like Melody,
ReplyDeleteb
NASA’s Mike Fossum, Japan's Satoshi Furukawa and Russia's Sergey Volkov will return to Earth on November 22.
ReplyDeleteAfter Expedition 29 undocks from the ISS, its successor – Expedition 30 – will officially start its space mission.
The newly-arrived crew will stay at the Space Station for some four months and is expected to conduct 37 experiments during this time. The next crew, which is US astronaut Don Pettit, European astronaut André Kuipers, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, is scheduled to arrive at the ISS on December 23.
My father, after being wounded on New Guinea, spent some time on Australia. He loved it and always regretted, I think, not settling there after the war.
ReplyDeleteOver the years, it has been my pleasure to know some Aussies. A finer bunch of beer drinking Adam Smiths you will never meet. My only complaint: Who decided to turn Fosters into swill for the American market?
Here's Why To Worry About China
ReplyDeleteb
Anonymous Bob said...
ReplyDelete"Zionism equals Nazism."
This is the intellectual content and output of our Ratcrapper.
But the reverse proposition me and DR get from you and WiO, that anti-Zionism equals Nazism, why, that's just fine.
Allen: My only complaint: Who decided to turn Fosters into swill for the American market?
ReplyDeleteI'm just a dumb sheila with maybe a total of three weeks in Oz, but even I know you drink Swan Lager, not that Fahstahs piss.
Deuce: did that come up as a link? it does not on mine, but the html looks good.
ReplyDeleteBe careful about any carriage return between the "a" and the "href", Deuce. Gotta be a space.
Anonymous Bob can make clicky links but he can't blue his own frakkin name.
ReplyDelete