COLLECTIVE MADNESS


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

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Half a Loaf?

40 comments:

  1. No loaf.

    Too many bread bugs in it.

    Let the states open their own bakeries.

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  2. Quit loafing and get that alfalfa in.

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  3. How's That Hopey-Changey Thing Working Out For You?

    It's $4.65 in San Diego.

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  4. The American Tradition flew 24 men to the Moon.

    The Crescent Moon Tradition flew 19 men into three American buildings.

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  5. WASHINGTON – The Republican-run House has overwhelmingly rejected President Obama's $3.6 trillion budget for next year after a vote forced by GOP lawmakers to embarrass Democrats.

    The vote was 414-0.

    Too bad. So sad.

    Had no idea there were zero Democrats in the House.

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  6. $4.65/gal in San Diego,

    and the stinking, bought and paid for Republicans are still fighting biofuels tooth and nail.

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  7. Yeah, no half a loaf; we've gotta have money to pay farmers NOT to grow crops.

    While others would deny the healthcare to others that recently saved their own life.

    What a bunch of gas-bags.

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  8. I think Mel will like this - I know Deuce will. :)

    Luisa Maita

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  9. I think I've fallen in love - again. :)

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  10. .

    Nice, Ruf.

    There's one tab near the top (right side) where when you hit it
    and it will play about 10 of her songs in a row. Nice when you are sitting there doing income taxes.

    Plus that section of YouTube has songs by artists like Bruna Caram and Bebel Gilberto. Good Stuff.

    .

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  11. Does anyone know what happened to Desert Rat?

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  12. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook has said the company is committed to improvements and has begun to monitor conditions, particularly working hours, in more detail. This week, as he was in China visiting high-level government officials, Mr. Cook also toured an iPhone assembly line at a Foxconn facility in Zhengzhou.

    ...

    Through the surveys--which were conducted on iPads and computers--the association found workers were roughly two-thirds male with an average age of 23.

    Assessing worker sentiment, the report says 48% of respondents thought working hours were reasonable, while 17.7% thought they worked too much. Some 33.8% wanted to work more to earn more, while 64.3% of workers thought their salary was not sufficient for basic needs.

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  13. This week has really reminded me of Election Day 2004. Liberals, then, were just plain convinced John Kerry was going to be elected president, so much so Bob Shrum actually called Kerry, “Mr. President.”

    ...

    Oops!

    I imagine a lot of liberals felt a similar letdown reading the transcript of Tuesday’s arguments on Obamacare. Almost immediately Justices Scalia and Kennedy jump in with tough questions, with the latter quickly getting to the heart of the matter: “Can you create commerce in order to regulate it?”

    Oops!

    The Court might very well uphold the law, but it will not nearly be the slamdunk that almost all liberals thought it would be.

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  14. Actually I think I've heard her before and until now didn't know her name.

    So that's a big thanks to you Rufus.

    You're right it's definitely me.

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  15. Honey bees have a different life cycle, with all the bees surviving the winter inside the hive. Honey bees are much better than bumble bees at producing honey, made from the nectar and sweet deposits of trees and plants brought back to the hive.

    ...

    Both honey bee and bumble bee populations have dramatically declined in recent decades. In Britain, bumble bees have been vanishing since the 1950s.

    A UN report last year said that a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder that had seen the number of honey bee colonies in Europe and the USA plummet since the 1960s, had become a global problem, with beekeepers in Japan and Egypt all reporting losses of their colonies.

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  16. On this day in 1999 traders broke out the Dow 10000 hats. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 10000 for the first time ever.

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  17. And if you have Sirius/XM and want relaxing music try channel 68.

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  18. A man walks into Ann Summers to purchase some see-through lingerie
    for his wife.

    He is shown several possibilities that range from $50 to $150 in
    price, the more see-through, the higher the price.

    He opts for the sheerest item, pays the $150 and takes the lingerie
    home.

    He presents it to his wife and asks her to go upstairs, put it on
    and model it for him.

    Upstairs the wife thinks 'I have an idea. It's so see-through that
    it might as well be nothing. I won't put it on - I'll do the
    modelling naked, return it tomorrow, get a $150 refund and keep the
    money for myself'.

    So she appears naked at the top of the stairs and strikes a pose.

    The husband says; 'Stone me, it wasn't that creased in the shop'.

    His funeral is this Thursday.

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  19. Good tip on that top/right button, Q. Thanks.

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  20. I hope Rat's just taking a "walkabout."

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  21. Some U.S. retailers are anxious for an Apple rival to emerge in the market, said people familiar with the matter. Some retailers that sell iPads have chafed under Apple's rules that require stores to promote its products more prominently, these people said, and the retailers generate less revenue per sale of Apple products versus other electronic devices.

    Google has taken other steps to be a consumer electronics brand. The company is directly overseeing the manufacturing of a Google-branded music and video streaming device, to be used in people's homes, which it is expected to sell to consumers later this year, people familiar with the matter have said.

    It is unclear whether Google will offer the device as part of its new online store.

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  22. I'm running Windows 98, Mel, had to find an old version of Flash Player before I could watch your Zoo Bee Zoo Bee Zoo Bee Do video.

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  23. The world came unhinged in the fall of 2008.

    The United States had been in recession since the previous December, according to the Bureau of Economic Research, and in March 2008 the Fed had brokered a panicked fire sale of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase. But the real drama did not begin until September, when the government nationalized mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, the government took over AIG, global credit markets froze, and a run began on money market funds.

    ...

    The closest Elizabeth Price Foley comes to attempting this is when she quotes Jefferson’s 1821 letter to Charles Hammond:

    When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government or another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.

    What did Jefferson think would be the check against the centralizing tendencies of government? “It is the manners and spirit of a people,” he wrote in Notes on the State of Virginia, “which preserve a republic in vigor.”

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  24. The U.S.S. Constitution ("Old Ironsides"), built in the late 1700's - is still in active service today, as an American warship. GO NAVY!

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  25. I've been on 'Old Ironsides'.

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  26. Come and listen to a story 'bout a man named Bob
    Farmin' on the land growin' corn on the cob
    Then one day he was shootin' at a cat,
    And up through the ground come a Arizonan rat
    (Cowboy that is, no amigo, mean hombre)

    Well the first thing you know ol' Bob's a spittin' mad
    Kin folk said Bob that rat ain't that bad
    Said Washington is the place you oughta be
    So he loaded up the truck and he moved to Miss T's
    (Wasp that is, Philipinos, lesbians)

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  27. I've had that damn tune in my head since yesterday afternoon

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  28. Not bad at all Sam for a man that has been drinking. :)


    Obama/Rufus Defense Program - Give It All Away For Absolutely Zero In Return


    What did Jefferson think would be the check against the centralizing tendencies of government? “It is the manners and spirit of a people,” he wrote in Notes on the State of Virginia, “which preserve a republic in vigor.”

    Well we're good and fucked then. Too many folks like Rufus, cringing, just falling all over themselves to give D.C. the whip with which to chastise them. From cradle till grave - an early one too - they want someone else to run their health care, for instance. The manners and spirit of a people? Well, it is to belch and turn one's life over to a community organizer, and crack open another brewski.

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  29. Fine tune it a little bit here:

    Come and listen to a story 'bout a man named Bob
    Farmin' on the land growin' corn on the cob
    Then one day he was shootin' at a cat,
    And up through the ground come a Arizonan rat
    (Cowboy that is, desert dweller, mean hombre)

    Well the first thing you know ol' Bob's a spittin' mad
    Kin folk said Bob that rat ain't so bad
    Said Washington is the place you oughta be
    So he loaded up the truck and he moved to Miss T's
    (Wasp that is, Philipinos, lesbians)

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  30. Kinda dances off the tongue, don't it?

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  31. Ok, Quirk, you got the next verse, amigo.

    I know you can do it. You've got one hell of an imagination.

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  32. The Ballad Of Bob The Farmer (version 1.2)

    Come and listen to a story 'bout a man named Bob
    Farmin' on the land growin' corn on the cob
    Then one day he was shootin' at a cat,
    And up through the ground come a desert dwellin' rat
    (Cowboy that is, Arizona native, mean hombre)

    Well the first thing you know ol' Bob's a spittin' mad
    Kin folk said Bob that rat ain't so bad
    Said Washington is the place you oughta be
    So he loaded up the truck and he moved to Miss T's
    (Wasp that is, Philipinos, lesbians)

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  33. :)

    Ok, that's the final cut. Quirk, verse 3 all yours.

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  34. Yeah, happy with that.

    Quirk, maybe something with Rufus and corn and ethanol.

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  35. Or you could continue down the path of Bob moving in with Miss T.

    Or both.

    Hell, there might be 2 verses there somewhere.

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