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."
Another George Bush legacy:
ReplyDeleteThe best of both worlds of big government merged on Thursday: The Transportation Security Administration agreed to allow the American Federation of Government Employees to unionize its workforce.
In a press release, AFGE announced that the labor contract it agreed to with TSA on Thursday is the first-ever with TSA employees.
Sometimes astronomers say that Venus is the evil twin of Earth, because they started out similar, but then somehow Earth became a habitable, wet planet and Venus became a hell of heat, pressure and acid.
DeleteThe Syrian Revolution risks becoming the evil twin of the Libyan one.
In Libyan the Western game plan produced a solution that's just about habitable. In Syria it risks producing a hell, for all sorts of on their own apparently minor but cumulatively massive differences.
With Libya Gaddafi was widely hated around the world and was an easy sterotypical dictator figure to hate. With Syria most people around the world know little about Bashar apart from he looks like the eye doctor he once was.
With Libya the West managed to con Russia and China into a UNSC resolution to launch their war of regime change. Ain't going to happen again.
With Libya it was just about possible for Western media to hide or underplay Qatari and Western financial and military support for the rebels. With Syria it's become glaringly obvious as a factor in stoking the war.
With Libya, the Jihadi element was there. but never too dominant among the rebls. With Syria, the Jihadi element is significant and growing.
With Libya, though, lying western politicians and media tried to portray Gaddafi as the most evil dictator in history (when he was in reality only a little worse than averagely evil as dictators go) regime troops were as civil wars go, comparatively restrained, doing much less damage than, fo rinstance the Americans in Fallujah. In Syria, regime troops have been let off the leash and committed far worse atrocities.
With Libya there was a minor danger Al Qaeda could benefit from it with weapons and safe havens. With Syria it's a major danger.
With Libya, tribal and ethnic divisions have been stongly strained by the revolution but never quite came apart. With Syria there's a huge risk of sectarian catastrophe.
With Libya, the rebels; National Transitional Council, though it had many problems was at least one major unifying factor. Wtth Syria, there is little political structure unifying the rebels.
With Libya, the biased repiorting by western media was overlooked by most. With Syria it has become glaringly obvious and is causing growing anger.
With Libya its oil wealth made sure the west was careful about the country's fate and promised a future of reconstruction and affluence after the war. Syria has very little oil and not much wealth.
With Libya its vast open spaces meant a lot of the war was conducted across sparsely populated territory. With Syria the war is raging across a land full of people.
In Alaska, some kid got arrested for DUI floating down the Chena River in a rubber raft, drunk as a skunk. The comments in the comment section were "total outrage" comments. Pressure always need to be kept on law enforcement, as they are always pushing the envelope. I really doubt this guy will be found guilty by an Alaska jury however.
ReplyDeleteHomeland Security perhaps needs to be defunded, or radically toned down.
After all, with the closing of the southern border stations by Obama the need seems to have lessened.
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FUI
DeleteGood thing they didn't have any river cops on the Yakima back in the day. I'd a been fucked.
Delete:)
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The first is from the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) project run by physicist Richard Muller. That paper, "A New Estimate of the Average Earth Surface Land Temperature Spanning 1753 to 2011," reported that “the rise in average world land temperature globe is approximately 1.5 degrees C in the past 250 years, and about 0.9 degrees in the past 50 years.”
ReplyDelete...
To get some idea of the magnitude of the trends over which the argument is being conducted, let’s do some rough calculations. The BEST trend is +0.87 C over the past 50 years.
That implies a temperature increase of +0.174 degrees per decade. The satellite record from the University of Alabama Huntsville researchers John Christy and Roy Spencer finds a per decade increase of +0.14 C.
Thank you Australia
ReplyDeleteAustralia, which tries to tread a fine line between supporting its closest ally, the US, and not upsetting China, its biggest trading partner, yesterday rejected a proposal to base a US nuclear aircraft carrier group near Perth, saying it did not want American bases in the country.
The idea was raised in a Pentagon-commissioned report by the influential Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, which suggested relocating a carrier and its support fleet from the US east coast to HMAS Stirling, an Australian naval base south of Perth, as part of a new strategic focus on Asia.
But the Defence Minister, Stephen Smith, ruled it out, saying that while negotiations were under way to increase US navy access to the base, Australia would not be hosting a US aircraft carrier group, which typically including submarines, destroyers and fighter jets. “We have made it crystal clear from the first moment – we don’t have United States military bases in Australia, and we’re not proposing to,” he said.
Someone in the Pentagon better get back to looking at porn sites.
Here's a man that knows how to handle the police -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2182958/Farmer-takes-revenge-drug-arrest-driving-tractor-seven-police-cars.html
The article calls it a 'large tractor'. Piddle, piddle, piddle. They don't know large back there east of the Mississippi.
Here is a large tractor --
https://www.google.com/search?q=Big+Bud+Tractors&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=dDc&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=1bkbULuiJ4i42QX_0QE&ved=0CFEQsAQ&biw=785&bih=456
With a Big Bud you can take out not only the local police, but your State National Guard too.
Resist!
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Well shucks, try this then -
Deletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bud_747
Big Bud 747
I've been in one of them suckers, really really impressive, makes them acres just shrink up and vanish.
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Here is the Big Bud website -
Deletehttp://www.williamsbigbud.com/
They still make them last I knew. Wife and stopped in Montana one trip at a dealership and took some photos of the new ones. Looked very much like the old ones.
Keep fear in the hearts of your local police!
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If you look at the "Household Survey" part of the Jobs Report (the one you'd better look at when times are dicey,) we're sucking gas.
ReplyDeleteHousehold Report
The small, and mid-sized businesses that aren't picked up by the Establishment Report (and, the businesses that create all the jobs) are dead in the water.
The number of people "Employed," nationally, actually Fell by 195,000.
This ain't good.
And so, let's all vote for Obama! Forward! for four more years of this shit.
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This is why all the Big Corps are missing their "Top-Line" Expectations. We're out of money out here in the country; we can't buy squat. What money we do have we're spending on more fuel-efficient cars - and, gasoline, of course.
ReplyDeleteAnd so, let's all vote for Obama! Forward! for four more years of this shit.
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No, let's bring back the crooked bastards that caused the world-wide crash in the first place.
DeleteRight now, the Iranians are the only ones making any sense at all; They're taking the thieving Banksters out and Hanging Them.
DeleteHang Bwarney Frank!
DeleteHang Freddie. Hang Fannie.
Hang them all!
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Let's elect the thieving assholes that fight every attempt to bring down Energy Costs, and any and everything that could possibly lead to debt relief, and/or more employment.
DeleteYes! Let's elect the No Drill Baby Drill Democrats!
DeleteTake it from here Ruf. I got to go back to bed, didn't get much sleep last night.
On a local note here, we have an out of control cougar on the loose in town. Really tore up a horse, then was seen wandering around Locomotive Park. Don't know what drove him into town, maybe hunger, but it's and odd situation. If he is spotted, his days are numbered.
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the big "b" disregards the fact that drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has never been so prolific, as it is now, under the Obama administration.
DeleteRecycling worn out meme's and myths as facts does not make them so.
Comment on the return of TOTUS to the campaign trail --
ReplyDeleteGeneBob
"Now that he is reading his statements is it fair to claim "You didn't think that"?
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/08/the_return_of_totus_comments.html#disqus_thread#ixzz22UeRGCqg
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Token
ReplyDeleteThe man is not only a lying phony, evil, and crooked, but an imbecile incapable of stringing words together to form a coherent thought. Our ivy league educated, smartest president ever, even with his TOTUS , said in a speech in Florida, "I would OF brought a cake if I'd OF known." Just the sort of illiterate crap that we try to educate out of our kids by the seventh grade, and not the language of a college graduate, especially an Ivy Leaguer.
The man is an uneducated, Illiterate imbecile. Can't say that too often.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/08/the_return_of_totus_comments.html#disqus_thread#ixzz22Ufv1nLK
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That post illustrates how imbelic both you and the folk at American Thinker are. The sum total of the criticism is based on a mis-interpretation of pronunciation. Did he "of" or did he say "have"?
DeleteFriggin' imbelicals who pontificate as if they had the ear of God as opposed to a head of stone.
That's really ripe. "Of" and "have" sound nothing alike.
DeleteYou need a Canadian Health Service hearing exam.
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If you were speaking the Queens English maybe, but American accents, ummm yeah! You say tomato I say tomato.
DeleteBob,
ReplyDeleteWhy the hell can't you figure out how to login to your google account????
When you make a comment you will see below it:
"Comment as" and it has a drop-down menu. Select Google Account in which you are asked for the email address of your account and your password.
or is the problem that you can't remember things like your email and password beyond a few hours?
Listen up, nerdly, I was doing great after my d fixed it up but then my overpowering aura got to the mechanism again. I know you miss looking at the horse, you ass. When she gets around to it in her good time I'll be back in business again.
Deleteb
It is time you took control of your own life dude. Write down your email and password on a piece of paper and tape it to your wall so you can pretend you aren't quite so addled that you can't even remember your own name.
DeleteIt's much more complicated than that but I wouldn't expect you to understand.
DeleteObama can't talk right, and, ala Harry Reid, I have it on good primary source authority that you, Ash, cheat on your taxes, and would cheat on your wife too, if you could find someone to co-operate in the venture.
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riiiight, logging into google is soooo complicated - well, apparently for you anyway. Please don't chew gum and dare to walk at the same time - that's complicated too!
DeleteNo, it is not more complicated than ash says it is.
DeleteYou are, and have been, technologically inept.
No hope or change for you.
Actually I plead guilty to being technologically inept. Computers just piss me off when they go wrong. I'll have d fix it this weekend. We are going to a horse show. No fixee, no goee on my dimee.
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Ash, OBAMA USED TOTUS TO TALK TO A THIRD GRADE CLASS.
ReplyDeleteHe is dumber than a stump and the only reason he gets any votes is that there are people like yourself even dumber than he.
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What the hell? We (most of us, anyway) use contractions such as "could've, should've, would've" all the time. Phonetically, it sounds like could of, should of, would of.
ReplyDelete.
DeleteThe guy can speak perfect English if he feels like it. However, he
varies his patois with his audiance. Those who pay any attention at all see the lingual shifts when he is talking to the nation, the NACP or a black church, when he heads south of the Mason-Dixon line, etc. He's a friggin cameleon, a phoney through and through.
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He used the TOTUS to talk to third graders.
DeleteAnd sometimes he can't read the TOTUS. Corpse man. Introduced himself. Called his wife Michael. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Guys an idiot. Had Ayers write his book. If his grades had been worth a shit they'd be all over The New York Times.
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ReplyDeleteFree Pussy Riot Now!!!
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Free pussy. The best kind of pussy.
DeleteDamn Stalinist bitch pig cop woman in that first picture.
Deleteb
Dumb decision on not allowing the carrier group in Perth. I know exactly where the Stirling naval base is. That would've been a win/win. Mucho dinero to the local Perth economy with all the drunken sailors blowing their wad.
ReplyDeleteDumb.
I agree. Doesn't make any sense to me.
DeleteIf the Australians want to take on the Chinese alone......
Must have been a purely economic decision.
Usually the worst kind of decision.
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ReplyDeleteNovember 30, 2010
The Honorable Harry Reid The Honorable Mitch McConnell
522 Hart Senate Office Building 361A Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC, 20510 Washington DC, 20510
Dear Majority Leader Reid and Minority Leader McConnell:
We are writing to make you aware that we do not support an extension of either the 54 cent-per-gallon tariff on ethanol imports or the 45 cent-per-gallon subsidy for blending ethanol into gasoline. These provisions are fiscally irresponsible and environmentally unwise, and their extension would make our country more dependent on foreign oil.
Subsidizing blending ethanol into gasoline is fiscally indefensible. If the current subsidy is extended for five years, the Federal Treasury would pay oil companies at least $31 billion to use 69 billion gallons of corn ethanol that the Federal Renewable Fuels Standard already requires them to use. We cannot afford to pay industry for following the law.
The tariff on ethanol makes our country more dependent on foreign oil. The tariff is nine cents per gallon higher than the ethanol subsidy it supposedly offsets, and this lack of parity puts imported ethanol at a competitive disadvantage against imported oil. This discourages transportation fuel imports from Brazil, India, Australia, and other sugar producing countries, and leads to more oil and gasoline imports from OPEC countries that enter the United States tariff-free. Eliminating or reducing the ethanol tariff would diversify our fuel supply, replace oil imports from OPEC countries with ethanol from our allies, and expand our trade relationships with democratic states.
The data overwhelmingly demonstrate that the costs of the current ethanol subsidy and tariff far outweigh the benefits. According to a July 2010 study by the Congressional Budget Office, ethanol tax credits cost taxpayers $1.78 for each gallon of gasoline consumption reduced, and $750 for each metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions reduced. The Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University recently estimated that a one-year extension of the ethanol subsidy and tariff would lead to only 427 additional direct domestic jobs at a cost of almost $6 billion, or roughly $14 million of taxpayer money per job.
Historically our government has helped a product compete in one of three ways: subsidize it, protect it from competition, or require its use. We understand that ethanol may be the only product receiving all three forms of support from the U.S. government at this time.
Eliminating or reducing ethanol subsidies and trade barriers are important steps we can take to reduce the budget deficit, improve the environment, and lessen our reliance on imported oil. We look forward to working with you on responsible energy tax policy.
Sincerely,
Dianne Feinstein, United States Senator
Jon Kyl, United States Senator, United States Senator
Jack Reed, United States Senator
Richard Burr, United States Senator
Benjamin Cardin, United States Senator
Mike Enzi, United States Senator
Jim Webb, United States Senator
Bob Bennett, United States Senator
Barbara Boxer, United States Senator
John McCain, United States Senator
Sheldon Whitehouse, United States Senator
Tom Coburn, United States Senator
Susan Collins, United States Senator
Bob Corker, United States Senator
Jeanne Shaheen, United States Senator
Mark Warner, United States Senator
Chris Coons, United States Senator
Damn Republican Senators -
Deleteb
Yeah, ethanol is unsubsidized, now, in any way. Has been for awhile.
DeleteAnd, despite the fact that we continue to pay farmers "not to farm," and that we're in the worst drought since the Great Depression, ethanol still sells for about 10% less than RBOB (considerably more than 10% for the higher octane additives that it replaces.)
And, we still have two Carrier Groups in the Persian Gulf, and Fifteen Thousand Troops in Kuwait.
What's your point?
The bipartisan nature of the letter.
Deleteb
It's the local communities that have to keep the police in line. It is the Mayor and/or City Council that is the boss. If a community doesn't want the police with machine guns they can simply not allow their police to have machine guns. It is the people that elect the Mayor and City Council. The people have the last say.
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