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."

Friday, November 13, 2009

Remember the highlight of Obama's Russian Triumph?



I confess to utter contempt for the Russians. It is personal with me, but I try and temper my judgement, barely successful at times. I was stupefied by the inanities of GWB and his man-love for Vladimir Putin, KGB vavasour.

Had it not been done to the President of the United States, I would have been amused at the amateur hour performance of Obama when he was in Russia and his utter misunderstanding and naivete in dealing with them.

This was highlighted by the deal with the Russians to overfly Russia to support the Afghanistan debacle.

You will recall that we stabbed Poland in the ass on the sixtieth anniversary of the Nazi and Russian attack on Poland. Russia, you will recall, invaded Poland’s eastern front in 1939, two weeks after Nazi Germany overran Poland’s western border. Stalin and his thugs then murdered the entire elite Polish officer corps.

In a ceremony described as “moving” by Russian diplomats, President Obama officially canceled a Bush-era deal that would have placed a missile-defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland. Obama must have been wearing George Bush's presidential knee pads when he met Putin.

Never mind.

Back to Obama's diplomatic coup on the Russian overflights to Afghanistan. Let's check it out and see how it is going.

______________________________________________


Russian Deal on Afghan Supply Route Not a Deal Yet

By PETER BAKER NY Times
Published: November 13, 2009

WASHINGTON — When he met President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia in April, President Obama sought to open an important new supply corridor for Afghanistan by flying American troops and weapons through Russian airspace. Visiting Moscow in July, he sealed a deal for as many as 4,500 flights a year, in what he called a “substantial contribution” to the war and a sign of improving relations with Russia.


Notes from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and other areas of conflict in the post-9/11 era. Go to the Blog »
Seven months after the idea was raised and four months after the agreement was signed, the number of American flights that have actually traversed Russian airspace?

One. And that was for show.

The failure so far to translate words into reality amid bureaucratic delays, including one involving a Russian agency insisting on charging air navigation fees that the Kremlin had said would be waived, underscores the challenges of Mr. Obama’s effort to transform ties between Washington and Moscow. For all of the lofty sentiments expressed at high-profile summit meetings, actual change has never been easy to deliver.

The need to break through the logjam will soon take on fresh urgency if Mr. Obama decides to deploy tens of thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan. For eight years, the American military has struggled to find and maintain reliable supply routes into Afghanistan, but Mr. Obama may send more troops in a single order than at any point in the war, straining the system.

Because of the difficulties in getting supplies to Afghanistan through Pakistan, the new Russian air corridor “would be fairly important,” said Ronald E. Neumann, a former ambassador to Afghanistan and now president of the American Academy of Diplomacy. “This doesn’t answer the question of how much we’ll be able to rely on the Russian connection, and that will be a big part of how much of a difference it can make.”

Anthony H. Cordesman, a military expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington who has advised Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander in Afghanistan, said the United States “needs as many options as it can get” to send troops and equipment.

“There is no way to predict how reliable any given route will be during a war that seems nearly certain to last for three to four more years,” he said. “There is no way to guarantee Pakistani stability, and almost any major base could be the subject of a large-scale Taliban bombing. The U.S. can live without a Russian option, but it would be much better off with one.”

The uncertainty comes at a tenuous moment in Russian-American relations, as Mr. Obama seeks more support from the Kremlin in pressing Iran to scale back its nuclear program, and as the United States and Russia race to agree on a new nuclear arms treaty before the current one expires Dec. 5.

The problems with opening the air corridor as part of a so-called northern distribution network stem from a variety of technical issues that American officials are working to resolve, among them a dispute over who will pay. Under the pact that Mr. Obama and Mr. Medvedev sealed in July, the Russians agreed to waive air navigation fees typically charged for right of passage and air traffic control.

American officials said the new route would save $133 million a year in fuel, maintenance and other costs. But the Russian agency that collects the navigation fees has so far refused to exempt the Americans.

The Obama administration is sending a technical team to Moscow to try to work out what standards should apply to the flights, and spokesmen for the two governments played down the problem.

“We are working through procedural delays on the Russian side and hope to begin regular flights soon,” said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary.

Aleksei Pavlov, a spokesman for Mr. Medvedev, said the Kremlin had every intention of fulfilling the agreement. “We are eager to resolve this issue in the nearest future,” he said.

But such seemingly minor complications have bollixed Russian-American agreements before. President Bill Clinton and President Boris Yeltsin agreed in 1998 to open a joint early warning center in Moscow, where Russian and American personnel would work side by side to detect missile launches and avoid misunderstandings that could lead to accidental war.

Their successors renewed the agreement, but the center has been delayed for 11 years amid disputes over issues like construction liability. Mr. Obama and Mr. Medvedev vowed to try again last summer, but in the latest holdup, the Russians have delayed allowing American inspectors into the country to examine the still unopened facility.

The idea of sending American forces through Russia to a war zone is fraught with a complicated history and mutual suspicion. For years, the idea was out of the question. Then in 2008, Russia agreed to open a land corridor, but only for nonlethal supplies.

The agreement to allow American troops and weapons to fly over the territory of Russia, its onetime cold war enemy, was seen as a symbolic breakthrough as much as a logistical one, and administration officials argued that it was a triumph even if no planes actually ever used the route. Still, just as some people in Moscow appear apprehensive about American forces in their airspace, some American officials are wary of putting too much faith in the Russians, who could easily close down the corridor if political tension rises again.

The latest transit agreement formally went into effect Sept. 4. A week later, the Pentagon sent Moscow a general description of cargo and personnel that would be shipped under the agreement, as well as the regular destinations of the planes, according to an administration official. The Russians accepted the request, and the two sides arranged for a single test flight on Oct. 8, just before Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Moscow.

But the dispute over the air transit fees has yet to be solved, complicated by whether the planes used will be American military craft or contracted civilian planes. Moreover, the American side is still working to amend its overflight agreements with Poland and Kazakhstan so the flights can traverse those countries as well.

Administration officials said that they remained confident these issues could be worked out, and that they had requested a second test flight to try to advance the program. They said that they did not expect Mr. Obama and Mr. Medvedev to talk about the issue when the presidents meet in Singapore on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting, but that they hoped to resolve it at lower levels.

Clifford J. Levy contributed reporting from Moscow.


194 comments:

  1. You have to listen to Mark Levin It is the November 13 show in the audio rewind. It compares Justice under Obama/Holder to Justice under Roosevelt/Biddle.

    Eric Holder is a disgrace and a perfect representative of the Obama Administration.

    Mark Levin takes no prisoners and actually knows what he is talking about.

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  2. Trish,

    I understand your daughter's reticence aboard the SAS cruise.

    Five or six years ago my ex bro-in-law, a musician, and his wife, head of a university drama dept, somehow arranged to co-teach on a full cruise with their son.

    They are very, very smug leftists. Such that, for example, they had said that were the draft reinstated they would move to Canada to avoid having their son registered.

    Their take on the cruise was that most of the staff was of a mind similar to theirs and that they should do their best to counter the "Ugly American" image they were certain the world had of us...

    I don't imagine the culture has changed appreciably since.

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  3. You obviously don't get it, Duece.

    This was a "symbolic" breaktrough.

    The agreement to allow American troops and weapons to fly over the territory of Russia, its onetime cold war enemy, was seen as a symbolic breakthrough as much as a logistical one, and administration officials argued that it was a triumph even if no planes actually ever used the route.

    For any other president, the US diplomatic missteps under the Obama administration would have been ridiculed as amatuerish, and naive. Russia, Poland, Iran, Japan, Honduras, Isreal/Palestine, China and the Dalai Lama, etc. Gaffes, overnight 180 degree changes in policy, "dithering", a clear lack of understanding of the cultural traditions of our allies and our enemies. Some in this country might say these policies lack judgement, nuance, consistency.

    Yet, Obama is admired by most of the world (sure there are a few exceptions, Isreal, NK, maybe some of the muslim states, although the street likes him even in Iran.) But any blunders are ignored by much of the world as fledgling steps on the way to a new world order. They see Obama as a president that recognizes the US' true, albeit somewhat diminished, position in the world, that of a partner among equals.

    It's the symbolism stupid.

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  4. The lessons of history are fleeting. Especially to the young who have not lived through them or older guys who tend to view the past as the good old days. (Or guys like me who take a certain perverse pleasure in complaining on just about everything.)

    In a poll last July, only eight percent of eastern Germans said that the "German Democratic Republic" (as East Germany was officially known) had mostly "good sides" and a better life than today's unified Germany. However, an additional 49 percent agreed that "the GDR had more good sides than bad sides; there were some problems, but life was good there."


    Communist Nostalgia

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  5. Ah, well.

    It's Friday night.

    Three fingers of Glenfiddich.

    A fire.

    And "Under the Milky Way Tonight"

    Original: The Church

    Under The Milky Way Tonight

    or

    Cover: Sia (from the Lincoln commercial)

    Under the Milky Way Tonight

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  6. Nostalgia for the past is something of a universal, even the Native Americans had it, though life had gone on practically unchanged for centuries.

    "Was good, now heap shit."

    I remember the good old days when I won at the Casino.

    ---

    administration officials argued that it was a triumph even if no planes actually ever used the route.

    Lordy, with outlook like that, everything O screws up is a triumph.

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. "A former Louisiana congressman who famously hid $90,000 cash in his freezer was sentenced Friday to 13 years in prison for taking bribes, the longest term ever imposed on a congressman for bribery charges.

    William Jefferson, a Democrat who represented parts of New Orleans for nearly 20 years, was convicted in August of taking roughly $500,000 in bribes and seeking millions more in exchange for using his influence to broker business deals in Africa.

    The sentence was still far less than the nearly 30 years prosecutors had sought."


    (From the AP 10/13/2009)


    Shit Happens.


    /

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  9. The Obama administration has taken a giant step in its march to throw in the towel in the war against radical Islam. On FoxNews this morning, Peter King said of the decision to try the soldiers of al-Qaeda — who by their own account have no country but their cause — as civilians

    “may be the worst decision by a U.S. president in history.”

    It certainly is. It sends a signal to terrorists everywhere to attack civilians.

    The administration is justifying its decisions on the grounds that because the 9/11 attackers targeted civilians they should be tried as civilians. This makes no sense unless you are a Democrat who believes that the “holy war” that Islamic jihadists have formally declared on us is no different from the acts of isolated individuals who have decided to break the law. This is the approach to the war on terror that John Kerry championed in 2004. Now that Americans have had the poor judgment — the suicidally poor judgment — to make a leftist their president, this is the strategy our nation is set to pursue.

    The decision to try the jihadists in a civilian court is also a decision which will divulge America’s security secrets to the enemy since civilian courts afford defendants the right of discovery. It is also a propaganda gift to Islamic murderers who will turn the courtroom into a media circus to promote their hatred against the Great Satan...

    Front Page Magazine

    A symbolic victory for trial by a jury of ones peers.

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  10. Whit. Check email for an update. Encouraging news.

    ReplyDelete
  11. "It's the symbolism stupid."

    2164th, so there is no miunderstanding, I agree with where you were going with your post.

    My post in response was intended to be wickedly ironic; however, I can see if read the wrong way it may have come across as tragically obtuse.

    Could be the scotch.

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  12. The decision not to expand the US military footprint east to the Russian border was a good one, and can stand alone.

    I doubt that it was tied, as a quid pro quo, to the over flight agreement, though that was the position taken here, by the host.

    Stan's "Plan" to increase the nation building effort in Afghanistan is a poor one, at the very best.

    It ignores the Homefront.

    As is the military's standard.
    Though that is where they lose the wars.

    The enemy is, and has been, in Pakistan. If the war is not on that ground, we're wasting our efforts.
    Better that the Russians make it difficult for the US to expand our footprint, they are doing US a favor.

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  13. As to trying the miscreants as civilians, the US Government has gone to great lengths to avoid allowing them POW status.

    For a variety of reasons, both good and bad.

    But the miscreants are either POWs or civilian criminals, those are the only legal classifications that the US has.

    Mr Bush did not even try to change the law to include "enemy armed combatant". To be held for life without trial or the "Rights" or privileges guaranteed by the Geneva Accords to POWs, by Executive Order.

    Nor did Obama, for that matter.

    And it's a good thing they did not.

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  14. Army brats, embarrassed by their father's profession, when out with the elites on a whirled cruise.

    Symptomatic of the greater problem the planners of the "Long War" did not contend with. The lack of public support for foreign adventures that do not end in 90 minutes, or "24".

    Though Jack Bauer is gone, now, I do believe. His time has passed, that window closed.

    Symbolic of "Change", perhaps.

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  15. Q, I thought your post was deliciously on mark. I was tempted to cut and paste over mine. Keep them coming.

    No misunderstanding here pal.

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  16. Blogger DR said:

    Mr Bush did not even try to change the law to include "enemy armed combatant". To be held for life without trial or the "Rights" or privileges guaranteed by the Geneva Accords to POWs, by Executive Order.

    I think you will find my Mark Levin clip at the first comment enlightening.

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  17. And the beat goes on:

    Pew identified Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin as the states in the edge of disaster. Including California, the 10 states account for more than one-third of America's population and economic output, according to the report.

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  18. Safeway and Fry's (Kroger) supermarkets were threatened by a Union strike, over health benefits.

    Fry's advertised for workers @ $9.50 per hour and had over 6,500 applications. I went into my local store, the employees were pretty much "real" adults. Not kids, nor retirees.

    Now, I first made $9.50 an hour, here in AZ, back in 1976.

    Symbolic of "Change"?

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  19. How's that Obama advocacy working out for you hoss?
    Not even your bar mates buying your schtick anymore.

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  20. Better than McCain's rhetoric.

    Especially if one is a fan of Mrs Palin.

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  21. The Dow has recovered to the 10,000 range. Lots of wealth recovered, if one did not sell in the panic.

    May be time to sell, now.
    If one has little confidence in the United States of America.

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  22. Could always immigrate, if the duly elected Government here does not suit your tastes.

    The Swedes will pay a person to move there, or so I've been told.

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  23. Team Obamamerica looks to be following the right course in Hondoland, by recognizing the results of the coming elections as legitimate.

    That they did not come to this position sooner, worthy of a demerit, but no more than that ...
    If they now stay the course they've set.

    The political maneuvers to get to this point, of small import, as long as the November elections are recognized as legitimate, by US.

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  24. Mannie comes to the US, says that there has been a "Change".

    But in the end, he's left in the Brazilian Embassy, as time marches on.

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  25. Judge the results, not the rhetoric.
    In Lebanon, Georgia, Iraq, Somalia.

    There, in each, his policies and decisions have been effective.

    Following the course set by Mr Bush in Iraq.

    I'd say the likely quid pro que for Poland was the demilitarization of Georgia, by the Russians. Moving the tanks back and border police in.

    Afghanistan, well the jury is still out, but Mr Obama will soon announce the course we will be on, there.

    Then that decision will be open to critique.

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  26. I don't imagine the culture has changed appreciably since.

    Sat Nov 14, 01:06:00 AM EST

    It hasn't. And "very, very smug leftists" about sums it up.

    Our son encountered the same thing down here, attending the country's premier prep school, though he rather delighted in goading the "rich hippies."



    And rufus, my husband has in the past declined to inform people of his profession, preferring to wait until they get to know him a little first as a...normal human being.

    We take the whole Army thing for granted, of course, but are keenly aware that not everyone else does - that to some it is an odious way to make a living. And the further up the food chain you are, the worse.

    Among some people, some places, you are on the other hand a god (or the wife, son, daughter of one) which is sweetly amusing because far from the case.

    Young children of all backgrounds, especially boys, usually just want to know if you've personally killed anyone and if so, how.

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  27. Obama rubbed the tummies of some American despots, but eventually came to the decision that the Hondo's Courts and Legislature represent the legitimate government of Honduras.

    And that is a good thing.

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  28. Pretended to listen.

    Bet the President really knows how to do that.

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  29. Both of my children have on occasion amused themselves by telling friends and sundry others, "My mother was an interrogator." Jaws tend to drop on that one.

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  30. Turtles Are Casualties of Warming in Costa Rica

    Worldwide, there are seven sea turtle species, and all are considered threatened. (Turtle populations in the Atlantic have increased over the last 20 years because of measures like bans on trapping turtles and selling their parts.)
    (Global Warming stops when trapping stops)

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  31. I can go to the Escazu market on Saturdays and find turtle eggs for sale. I suppose the people digging them up for sale could be affected by sun spot activity. I'll have to remember to ask them.

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  32. Q states: Yet, Obama is admired by most of the world (sure there are a few exceptions, Isreal, NK, maybe some of the muslim states, although the street likes him even in Iran.) But any blunders are ignored by much of the world as fledgling steps on the way to a new world order. They see Obama as a president that recognizes the US' true, albeit somewhat diminished, position in the world, that of a partner among equals.

    It's the symbolism stupid.



    Yeah..

    It is ISRAEL....

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  33. Hopefully we will find "pragmatic local leaders" in Heroinland, just as we found Awaken Sons of Iraq, in Anybar.

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  34. that to some it is an odious way to make a living.

    That our generals care a whit what such people think says it all.

    We're in a world of shit.

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  35. Our President is an America-hating, muzzie, Communist, and our generals hide their lives' work to be popular with the cool, rich kids.


    And, we're sitting on peak oil.


    Bartender, give me a double of the "cheap" stuff. No use wasting the fine wine on a drunk like this one's going to be.

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  36. Diversity is our greatest strength, Rufus.

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  37. More precious than life itself.
    The General told us so.

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  38. Rufus, it is simply a matter of patiently dispelling stereotypes, which abound in some settings.

    The public is sadly ignorant enough when it comes to the individuals and inner workings of its own military.

    And I'm sorry you have a wild hair up your ass.

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  39. So oil is at peak...

    And instead of drill baby drill we have...

    beg and apologize baby, apologize...

    ReplyDelete
  40. Some days, of course, the Bar leaves me hankering for a flock of rabid lefties to contend with.

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  41. Andy McCarthy:

    Holder’s Hidden Agenda, cont’d . . .

    This summer, I theorized that Attorney General Eric Holder — and his boss — had a hidden agenda in ordering a re-investigation of the CIA for six-year-old alleged interrogation excesses that had already been scrutinized by non-partisan DOJ prosecutors who had found no basis for prosecution. The continuing investigations of Bush-era counterterrorism policies (i.e., the policies that kept us safe from more domestic terror attacks), coupled with the Holder Justice Department’s obsession to disclose classified national-defense information from that period, enable Holder to give the hard Left the “reckoning” that he and Obama promised during the 2008 campaign. It would be too politically explosive for Obama/Holder to do the dirty work of charging Bush administration officials; but as new revelations from investigations and declassifications are churned out, Leftist lawyers use them to urge European and international tribunals to bring “torture” and “war crimes” indictments. Thus, administration cooperation gives Obama’s base the reckoning it demands but Obama gets to deny responsibility for any actual prosecutions.

    Today’s announcement that KSM and other top al-Qaeda terrorists will be transferred to Manhattan federal court for civilian trials neatly fits this hidden agenda. Nothing results in more disclosures of government intelligence than civilian trials. They are a banquet of information, not just at the discovery stage but in the trial process itself, where witnesses — intelligence sources — must expose themselves and their secrets.

    Let’s take stock of where we are at this point. KSM and his confederates wanted to plead guilty and have their martyrs’ execution last December, when they were being handled by military commission. As I said at the time, we could and should have accommodated them. The Obama administration could still accommodate them. After all, the president has not pulled the plug on all military commissions: Holder is going to announce at least one commission trial (for Nashiri, the Cole bomber) today.

    Moreover, KSM has no defense. He was under American indictment for terrorism for years before there ever was a 9/11, and he can’t help himself but brag about the atrocities he and his fellow barbarians have carried out.

    So: We are now going to have a trial that never had to happen for defendants who have no defense. And when defendants have no defense for their own actions, there is only one thing for their lawyers to do: put the government on trial in hopes of getting the jury (and the media) spun up over government errors, abuses and incompetence. That is what is going to happen in the trial of KSM et al. It will be a soapbox for al-Qaeda’s case against America.

    It will be a soapbox for al-Qaeda’s case against America.

    Obama’s agenda all along.

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  42. And I'm sorry you have a wild hair up your ass.

    Don't be "sorry" for me, toots. There was never a day in my life that I, or my children, deemed it necessary to deny who I was, or what I did for a living.

    It must be horrible living such a life.

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  43. But, no. Instead of a flock of rabid lefties I've got every aging, malcontented, former lower-enlisted SOB with time on his hands.

    Rufus, stop being an ass.


    As luck would have it, the Marine Corps Ball is this evening and I get to immerse myself in a sea of my own kind and solve the world's problems by midnight over endless shots of mystery booze.

    It's a living.

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  44. Glad I was left out of that group of SOBs.
    Bein a Draftee.
    Now Trish has to apologize to Ms T for calling her old.

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  45. WiO oil is not at peak. The recession has put that day of reckoning off by at least another ten years. They were crying "peak oil" in June of 2008 too, and we know that was a speculative bubble.

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  46. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  47. Doug: Now Trish has to apologize to Ms T for calling her old.

    I missed that Doug. Doesn't matter to me, as a Taoist I embrace the natural way of things.

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  48. Atlas Shrugs, lol, the teleprompter is saluting but BHO ain't

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  49. malcontented? - I have always been Very contented telling the cool, rich kids what I did for a living.

    former lower enlisted SOB - as differentiated from "current" lower enlisted SOBs?

    with time on his hands - I'm "retired." What's your excuse?

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  50. Teresita said...
    WiO oil is not at peak. The recession has put that day of reckoning off by at least another ten years. They were crying "peak oil" in June of 2008 too, and we know that was a speculative bubble.



    Anything over 60 bucks a barrel is a great price...
    I was referring to the idea that we should be pumping and selling... anything to take dollars away from spending on opec...

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  51. And one of my table guests has promised me a Cuban cigar.

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  52. How did anyone conclude from anything Trish has written that she or her family have had to or desired to hide who they are and what they do? She said that her daughter chooses to not reveal her family business while on board. I don't blame her for that.

    Perhaps there are or have been times when discretion is called for. So?

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  53. Being an ass is no excuse for boorish behavior.

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  54. Her dad has done the same.

    Fri Nov 13, 08:20:00 PM EST

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  55. You certainly do not need to smoke a cigar instead send it to me...

    You can get my mailing address for that Cuban cigar by contacting me at the elephant.bar@hotmail.com.

    :)

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  56. Maybe you should re-read the thread, Whit. Trish addressed me; it was Not the other way around.

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  57. Sometimes people just want to get through an event or a day without drama. There is nothing wrong with that.

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  58. By the way, they're saying that Obama's handshake was not snubbed. He was introducing members of the US Delegation.

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  59. If it weren't for that Wild Hare,
    She wouldn't have wielded the Blunderbuss.

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  60. I sympathize with Red's family. That is the reality of our time.

    Being a low level enlisted man in the UK during the sixties, we were told it would be prudent not to wear a uniform off base.

    I, however, had a plum assignment at a base called South Ruislip in West London and was living in South Woodford in what was at the time the leafy suburbs of East London.

    Rather than drive around London, I took the Central line back and forth to work in uniform. I never had any problems and if I got an occasional scowl they were outnumbered by smiles.

    My experience wearing a uniform was worse in Biloxi Mississippi. I need to reflect further on the sources of my malcontent.

    I'll check in after some mid-morning self-analysis.

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  61. I apologize, rufus. I've just stopped reading your posts.

    Ass onward!

    But given other posts I routinely ignore, that leaves me a little thin here.


    Guess I'll wander over to the Belmont Lounge and see what nutty fun's afoot.

    As always, have a lovely day.

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  62. After some thoughtful self-analysis it was definately not my uniform that was the source of my discontent. However, it did morph into malcontent later.

    In truth I am now in an early vernal stage of equilibrium, a regeneration, content with that which disturbs me. Less vexed, humbled by the results of my follies.

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  63. No, Deuce; I don't think so. I don't think that's the "reality" of our time.

    That might be the reality at cocktail parties frequented by the "rich, cool kidz."

    Trish called me a malcontented ass; and Whit called me a "boor." If that means I am someone who doesn't want his son, or daughter being ordered into an ill-defined, ill-equipped, ill-conceived adventure in Afghanistan by a group of generals so unsure of themselves that they're ashamed to identify themselves as soldiers when in the coveted presence of the "rich, cool kids,"

    then so be it.

    I'm a "boor-assed malcontent."

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  64. "Don't be "sorry" for me, toots."

    Fraid I have to side with the Rufster on this one. If you feel obliged to hide, deny, or obfuscate about what you do for a living, it just might be that you have made some bad life choices.

    "But, no. Instead of a flock of rabid lefties I've got every aging, malcontented, former lower-enlisted SOB with time on his hands."

    Don't do us any favors Trish. I can only understand about half your posts anyway. In the others you start out trying to say something, then give us a wink and a nod, then insinuate that if you told us anymore you'd have to kill us. Nobody here really gives a shit if your husband is a grunt, a general, or a liaison to Mossad. Just as they don't care if you are a housewife, pumping beers at the VFW, or an American Mata Hari. All we are looking for is an opinion.

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  65. Your 50 percent comprehension rate bests mine.
    ...as designed.

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  66. Other than that, how is your Saturday going?

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  67. Now, let us turn our attenshun to T.

    :)

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  68. T has found the (albeit, temporary) solution to "peak" oil.

    Just stay in recession for ten years. Why didn't I think of that?

    Oh, wait . . . I did.

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  69. Yeah,
    Just follow the lead of the Japanese.
    ...but with citizens in debt instead of sitting on piles of cash.

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  70. Doubt if the Japanese gangs confiscated as much wealth from the people as the Government/Sachs complex already has.

    ReplyDelete
  71. If you feel obliged to hide, deny, or obfuscate about what you do for a living, it just might be that you have made some bad life choices.

    Or it may mean that you're not obfuscating or attempting to hide anything but in the case of her daughter merely trying to enjoy one of the great experiences of a lifetime without the acrimony of politics.

    Oftentimes in life, discretion is the better part of valor.

    ReplyDelete
  72. Here's an article that says Saudi Arabia might be willing to use its Crazy, Wild Spare Capacity to Hold the Oil Price below $80.00 Barrel to "pressure" Iran.

    We'll see.

    ReplyDelete
  73. Whit, you keep insisting on "commenting" without taking the time to "Read."

    I gave you "Trish's Comment" in the Previous Thread that is being discussed, here.

    NO ONE is talking about "her daughter."

    ReplyDelete
  74. The Chi-Coms have increased their dollar holdings by 20 percent this year too!
    Nobody wants the game to stop.

    ReplyDelete
  75. Tragedy or Scandal?

    The brain-addled “diversity” of General Casey will get some of us killed, and keep all of us cowed.

    - MARK STEYN

    ReplyDelete
  76. “Diversity” is one of those words designed to absolve you of the need to think. Likewise, a belief in “multiculturalism” doesn’t require you to know anything at all about other cultures, just to feel generally warm and fluffy about them. Heading out from my hotel room the other day, I caught a glimpse of that 7-Eleven video showing Major Hasan wearing “Muslim” garb to buy a coffee on the morning of his murderous rampage. And it wasn’t until I was in the taxi cab that something odd struck me: He was an American of Arab descent. But he was wearing Pakistani dress — that’s to say, a “Punjabi suit,” as they call it in Britain, or the shalwar kameez, to give it its South Asian name. For all the hundreds of talking heads droning on about “diversity” across the TV networks, it was only Tarek Fatah, writing in the Ottawa Citizen, who pointed out that no Arab males wear this get-up — with one exception: Those Arab men who got the jihad fever and went to Afghanistan to sign on with the Taliban and al-Qaeda. In other words, Major Hasan’s outfit symbolized the embrace of an explicit political identity entirely unconnected with his ethnic heritage.

    Mr. Fatah would seem to be a genuine “multiculturalist”: That’s to say, he’s attuned to often very subtle “diversities” between cultures. Whereas the professional multiculturalist sees the 7-Eleven video and coos, “Aw, look. He’s wearing . . . well, something exotic and colorful, let’s not get hung up on details. Celebrate diversity, right? Can we get him in the front row for the group shot? We may be eligible for a grant.”

    The brain-addled “diversity” of General Casey will get some of us killed, and keep all of us cowed. In the days since the killings, the news reports have seemed increasingly like a satirical novel the author’s not quite deft enough to pull off, with bizarre new Catch 22s multiplying like the windmills of your mind: If you’re openly in favor of pouring boiling oil down the throats of infidels, then the Pentagon will put down your e-mails to foreign jihadists as mere confirmation of your long established “research interests.” If you’re psychotic, the Army will make you a psychiatrist for fear of provoking you. If you gun down a bunch of people, within an hour the FBI will state clearly that we can all relax, there’s no terrorism angle, because, in our over-credentialized society, it doesn’t count unless you’re found to be carrying Permit #57982BQ3a from the relevant State Board of Jihadist Licensing.

    ReplyDelete
  77. Then, we have this comment from Jeffrey Browne:


    But what gets me is that virtually no one in the MSM wants to discuss why Saudi Arabia was able to increase their net exports from 2002 to 2005, in response to rising oil prices, while they were unable to increase their net exports from 2005 to 2008, in response to rising oil prices.

    ReplyDelete
  78. 143. Storm-Rider:
    Great article by Pamela Geller at American Thinker:

    “I have watched in abject horror the elites’ stunning reaction to this act of war. The denial, the submission, the excuses, the dodging, the self-flagellation, the shame — the deceiving of the American people by the media, the military, society, law enforcement, authorities and politicians, all the way up to and including the White House — amounts to the enforcement of Sharia law. Sharia law forbids criticism of Islam. And here we are…Devout Muslims should be prohibited from military service. Would Patton have recruited Nazis into his army?”

    Political Correctness is Cultural Marxism; and our Marxists are allied with the Islamists. Marxist law (”Living Constitution”) is arbitrary law.
    Sharia Law is arbitrary law.
    Arbitrary law is totalitarian law.
    Totalitarian law is no law,
    i.e.: the law of the jungle.

    ReplyDelete
  79. Here's something for you guys that like Cars that go "Vroom-Vroom."

    ReplyDelete
  80. 110. buddy larsen:


    Glen Beck’s show yesterday showed a clip of Beck doing a street shot for some other show when accosted by a guy which Beck later in showing the clip identified only by first name “Anthony” and that he is a retired Marine and Afstan vet. Anyway, this 30 something african american vet was laying into the war leadership, hard, specifically Obama, on the basis of what he is telling the enemy every day that goes by. he said he has fought those guys and knows how they think, and that Obama has no clue how well he is being calibrated by the enemy and how much he is helping them.

    Then this morning on Drudge there’s this Boston mom and sister who just got news last Tuesday that son & brother won’t be coming home from Afghanistan. I didn’t look at the video –i mean, of course she’s broken up, where’s the news there.

    Then i get an email from my eldest daughter, and –well i shoulda put 2+2 already but didn’t, she was HS friends with one of the KIA Aggies from Fredericksburg, which is right down the road from her high school. So then feeling blue i went and looked at the video, at this mom is in anguish, i mean in real anguish, calling out ”It is time, mr. president, to either end this thing or bring the boys home. it’s time, mr president, it’s time.”

    Crying women, pissed off vets, there’s a theme and i’m afraid it’s that they’re all –the mom, the sister, the Marine finding Glenn Beck on the street and managing to get the star’s attention and then just blistering the hell out of him in an urgent low-voiced, non-stop, perfectly-ordered step by step case against the premise behind the current strategy, my daughter’s sad message in sending me the local obits on her friend, they’re all in common feeling like our people are at this point just being thrown away like dust in the wind. dammit to hell –this is trying to make into Vietnam all over again. this standing on one leg is crap and it needs to stop. mr. president tear down your wall.

    ReplyDelete
  81. Probably, the greatest "Logistical" Team in the history of warfare was "Eisenhower, Marshall, MacArthur, and Nemetz.

    I'm quite sure that that team would take one look at "Afghanistan" and say, "You're out of your military minds."

    Seriously, I wonder if Any of those that are cheerleading a "surge" in Afpakistan have, Ever, considered its geographical location?

    I'll guarantee you that the U.S. Army has NEVER, seriously, "Gamed" fighting a Major Conflict w/o the use of Naval Transport.

    You CANNOT Consider putting 150,000 + Troops into Afghanistan w/o Considering that you might have to Fight your way from the Indian Ocean to the BattleGround.

    Look at the MAP!

    ReplyDelete
  82. Let me rephrase that. The fighting your way in is the easy part. What I meant to say was, "you have to MAINTAIN a "SUPPLY LINE" through Pakistan. For HUNDREDS of Nasty, Brutish Miles.

    ReplyDelete
  83. Allen brought up "Dien Bien Phu" the other day. I got to looking at the Map, and it occurred to me: Hell, the whole damned country is a "Dien Bien Phu."

    ReplyDelete
  84. Since when do American Presidents bow down to Japanese emperors? Look at Drudge.

    ReplyDelete
  85. Ah, he just thought the guy, being small, and yellow, was Chinese (and, thus, from Commie Hdqtrs.)

    ReplyDelete
  86. It's the Chosin Reservoir redux, rufus.

    Marching to the sea, where we will have had to established a beachhead.

    Worse case scenario, of course.

    ReplyDelete
  87. You see anything you like Here?

    ReplyDelete
  88. I kept saying the damned place was half the size of Texas. Whoops! It's The Size of Texas.

    ReplyDelete
  89. So, bob, who are the Vandals going to destroy today?

    ReplyDelete
  90. Now, some folks want to put 150,000 Troops in there and play COIN (nation-building.)

    Some of us think they're out of their fucking minds.

    ReplyDelete
  91. So, HOW MUCH does a gallon of gas for a Humvee cost in Afghanistan?

    Gee, Rufus, we don't know. How much DOES it cost?

    It costs us $400.00 gallon to put gas in those humvees in Afghanistan. How ya like Them apples?

    ReplyDelete
  92. And on this day in history Ohumble kowtows to the Japanese Emperor.

    Anon, we're up against it today, I fear. We're in Boise gainst the Broncos. We will be desconstructed, or I'll lose my bets.

    ReplyDelete
  93. It's on ESPN starting at 1:30.

    ReplyDelete
  94. Must have been an "American" Flag going by. Everyone's saluting Except ol' bumfuck

    Guess he was just too tuckered out from all that bowing, and scraping.

    ReplyDelete
  95. Wife's watching "Around The Bend" with Michael Caine.

    I mean, Michael Caine is in the movie, not in the living room with my wife.

    Had to go out and see what the chuckling was about. Says it's a good movie. Recommended by herself.

    ReplyDelete
  96. What is it with all this bowing down to all and sundry?

    ReplyDelete
  97. Blogger desert rat said...

    "Army brats, embarrassed by their father's profession, when out with the elites on a whirled cruise."

    The term I used first last night was "funny" and I've pondered on whether that was the right term. I then reached for ironic, which isn't really right either. I go back to "funny" not as in ha ha funny but rather as in odd. I find it odd that many here make a distinction between the "moneyed", the "elites" and the top level army folk. I mean, here on my perch outside the US it certainly appears that the top level army folk ARE the elites in the US. Not the only elites to be sure, but elites still and I find it odd that children of those elites should find it desirable to hide their familial past when hobnobbing with other elite children. I guess the son of a Wall Street Investment banker may find it easier to interact with others while hiding that horrible lineage.

    In short, the 'funny' thing I found in Trish's original comment was her suggestion that their were "moneyed" folk on that cruise and then their was her child when in the real world they are all offspring of the "moneyed" simply due to the fact that they can afford that ritzy cruise.

    ReplyDelete
  98. p.s. as whit has suggested, it certainly can be prudent in social situations to not immediately reveal all one can about oneself and your past.

    ReplyDelete
  99. I saw nothing of interest in the "child's" actions. She's a "child."

    My original comment was a "?," and it was directed at the actions of the husband (something I made, perfectly, clear.)

    ReplyDelete
  100. Cold Cash Jefferson gets thirteen years in the cooler.

    ReplyDelete
  101. Yes, I understand that rufus, and one should go forth in the world proudly doing what you do, or don't do it but there certainly are situations where it is more interesting, or prudent, to not volunteer too much information about oneself.

    ReplyDelete
  102. Well, whatever, I think I recall the 'moneyed' Trish saying this once in a lifetime cruise was going to stretch them pretty thin for awhile.

    "Moneyed' is in the eyes of the beholder.

    How's the sailboat running, Ash, and how's the golf game and tennis going?

    ReplyDelete
  103. Heck, I once volunteered the information that I was the son of a Professor on this blog and the howls of derision were heard from here to the Belmont Club. I think it reflects more on those (Bob are you reading?) then it does on me but still, I can understand how being the child of elite US military folk might invite some uncomfortable moments in many a social situation.

    ReplyDelete
  104. Say, by the way, if you want the experience of 'snow golfing' you can jet to McCall for a weekend. The course is still open, and there's a couple of inches of snow on the ground.

    ReplyDelete
  105. Good to see you are keeping up Bob. The sailboat is tucked away for the winter and I had a lovely week in Hilton Head playing resort golf but yesterday, I had to wait an hour to tee-off here in the great white north to allow the frost to thaw from the greens. Mind you it is mid-november and I got a round in so I'm a happy camper - on of the elite though - you decide.

    ReplyDelete
  106. If one of my children (that are, now, grown) are ever involved in an occupation the nature of which they wouldn't immediately, and proudly, announce to any stranger at the swankiest cocktail party in the land I hope someone hits them over the head with a Baseball Bat.

    Cause, THAT, my friend, is NO way to go through life.

    My God, what have we become when our generals are so desirous of the approbation of spoiled, wealthy lefties that they would be disingenuous as to their profession.

    I, honestly, cannot even Conceive of such a sorrowful circumstance.

    ReplyDelete
  107. There is a course out by my mother-in-laws that stays open year round. I haven't had the gumption to play it in the winter though - I don't mind cool but cold - naw. If'n I'm going to jet anywhere for golf it'll be someplace warmer than here. We drive to SC.

    ReplyDelete
  108. I dunno rufus, if I were the child of US General, I wouldn't go crowing about it in some back water bar in Brazil, or many other places in the world. I do find it "funny" that the worry exists on a cruise with other moneyed elites though.

    ReplyDelete
  109. We all love professors, Ash, many think these days however they're not what they used to be, agended up as many are. Unca Jerry was a professor, and a heck of a good man. While a democrat, he steered clear of the political realm, thinking mankind will always find a way to screw things up.

    A pessimist at heart, but outwardly optimistic, he minded his own business, mostly, and offered no 'comprehensive solutions'. He didn't try to tell other people what to think, just how to think.

    ReplyDelete
  110. And, Again Ash, no one has made any mention of the "Child" doing wrong. Enough of the misdirection. The conversation has been, entirely, of the Adult.

    ReplyDelete
  111. Hell, most kids that age would claim "orphanhood" if they thought they could get away with it.

    ReplyDelete
  112. A "general" sitting, sipping a beer in a back alley bar in Venezuela might want to be circumspect about announcing his career choice in such a situation. (just looking for one example for you there Rufus whom wrote "I, honestly, cannot even Conceive of such a sorrowful circumstance"). That seems to be such a "sorrowful circumstance".

    ReplyDelete
  113. No, Ash. You're "fibbing by omission." I sai this:

    announce to any stranger at the swankiest cocktail party in the land

    ReplyDelete
  114. Shit, I forgot Boise is Mountain Time. Sounds like it's 14 - 7 BSU.

    ReplyDelete
  115. yeah, stand proud at swanky cocktail parties!

    ReplyDelete
  116. In fact, immediately preceeding the aforementioned statement, I said this:

    My God, what have we become when our generals are so desirous of the approbation of spoiled, wealthy lefties that they would be disingenuous as to their profession.

    I, honestly, cannot even Conceive of such a sorrowful circumstance.


    I doubt that there would be many "spoiled, wealthy lefties" in that back-alley, Venezuelan bar.

    ReplyDelete
  117. Broncos got the no huddle offense. Going through us like a knife through butter. Four completions in a row. Five now, to the 7 yard line. 6 completions in a row, touchdown. Whole drive took about a minute.

    We're in for it. 21 -7.

    ReplyDelete
  118. 7 plays in a minute 47 seconds.

    ReplyDelete
  119. Can you imagine, Ash, your father being ashamed to admit to the spoiled, wealthy lefties (or, righties) that he's a "College Perfesser?"

    ReplyDelete
  120. The cost of adding 40,000 troops - $40 Billion. One Million per Man per Year

    ReplyDelete
  121. It could be worse, Bob. You could be a student at Boise St., and have to get up with a hangover and go watch a football game on blue carpet.

    ReplyDelete
  122. And we're playing without our first string quarterback, again.

    But,the second string guy, he's doing better today, than last game, has them on the 22, second and 5.

    Seems the Vandies started out with a couple of turnovers. Maybe we're not finished yet.

    1st and 10 on the 14. Good run by The Diesel.

    2nd and 7 on the 11.

    3rd and 6 on the 10.

    4th and 9 on the 13. Sacked.

    Field goal. 21 - 10.

    I'll spare you the rest of the play by play.

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  123. My dad has a cabin in the mountains of Colorado at a "Fly Fishing Club". Most of the folk are hard core right Obama haters. He has noticed difficulties when discussing politics due to his profession. He certainly isn't ashamed of it but he might find it useful at times to not mention his profession when having a drink with these folk - I mean, when discussing Iraq for example he gets grief for citing an article in the NY Times or, gasp, Harpers. Well, these folk just roll their eyes at the notion that such lying librul rags would be used as justification for anything. I can imagine a General, while not ashamed of his profession, could feel that not mentioning his professional status at a swanky cocktail party might find life easier for a few hours.

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  124. Knife through butter, 28 - 10.

    ReplyDelete
  125. Well, anything to make life "easier" for the genrulz.

    ReplyDelete
  126. They think your father's full of shit?

    ReplyDelete
  127. especially at a cocktail party!

    ReplyDelete
  128. “Melody, the graceful curves of thy gorgeous tits
    Are driving me beyond my wits”

    “Then thou had best shape up, my buster
    Lest thou be a limp, and lacking, luster”


    “It is the previews of thy coming attractions
    That are driving me to these distractions”

    “Don’t be such a boorish twit
    Ease thee down a little bit”


    With something quite near to haste
    His arms were round her lovely waist

    “From here I see but silky lace
    Out of view of thy sweet face”

    “Robed I am, and feel constrained
    And what I wish is unattained”


    “Move they hips and thy left knee
    And I shall set thy body free”

    “How such a trivial simple motion
    Releases my primal emotion!”


    “Rest thee now upon thy back
    And I shall take a different tack”

    “It’s not a graceful way to lie
    But very good if one’s to sigh”




    Rough draft of the opening of my lame magnus opis, Imagination's Victory, a work designed to MeLD the sensual and spiritual. Kinda eases into the spiritual as it goes along.


    Boise scores again, might as well turn it off, save myself the pain.

    ReplyDelete
  129. Idaho 2nd and goal at the two. Time out. 42 seconds left in the half. Here we go.....just short inside the one. Another time out.

    Here we go....scores!

    35 -17

    Doing ok on offense, but can't stop Boise at all.

    ReplyDelete
  130. bob said...

    "They think your father's full of shit?"

    See Rufus, Bob makes my point very succinctly!

    ReplyDelete
  131. O Lord, Boise ran the kickoff back for a touchdown, with 14 seconds to go in the half! Nobody even touched him! Deflation.

    42 - 17

    Can't stand it no more, going downtown.

    ReplyDelete
  132. Well, you must like it. You keep coming back for more.

    ReplyDelete
  133. It was the National Anthem that he wouldn't salute. That's TWICE (that I've seen.)

    Has anyone EVER seen him salute (place his hand over his heart) for the National Anthem?

    ReplyDelete
  134. Well, he was in that church for twenty years and his wife has only recently been proud of the US.

    ReplyDelete
  135. Whit: Well, he was in that church for twenty years and his wife has only recently been proud of the US.

    Join me on Nov 2, 2010 to make Michelle ashamed of the US again.

    ReplyDelete
  136. When the US Army Officers are going to Princeton and Stanford and such other prestigious universities in pursuit of ever higher intellectual understandings, do they wear their uniforms, or go to class in civies?

    Anyone know?

    ReplyDelete
  137. Rat, I don't "know;" but, I'd lay 9:1 they wear civvies.

    ReplyDelete
  138. I wouldn't take that bet, rufus, not at those sucker odds...

    ReplyDelete
  139. 90:1, that'd be the odds I'd need to bet on Officers in uniforms, in class.

    ReplyDelete
  140. Tangle of Clues About Suspect at Fort Hood

    Investigators are trying to determine whether Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was a terrorist driven by extremism, a troubled loner, or both.
    Times Topics: Nidal Malik Hasan

    ReplyDelete
  141. I said I'd "Lay" 9:1, Rat - Not that I'd "Take" them. :)

    ReplyDelete
  142. You know, Obuttfuk's response to The National Anthem is not only very, very strange, but exceedingly troubling, if not Frightening.

    I think a lot of people want to ignore it right now. If he continues to do it . . . .

    ReplyDelete
  143. I can't get the Mexico Olympics out of my mind. What was the one guy's name? Carlos? Smith?

    With the clenched fist in the air

    ReplyDelete
  144. Tommy Smith and Juan ? Carlos

    POTUS does seem more from the 60's than decades later.
    Probly cause he hung out with all the worst perps from the 60's.

    ReplyDelete
  145. Probly woulda turned out OK if he just didn't have wings for ears.
    The derision drove him to it.
    Poor guy.
    Him and Hasan.

    ReplyDelete
  146. Rasmmusen has a big report on all the hot button issues. Obama comes out with the short stick on all of them, whether it's immigration, cap and trade, higher taxes, the stimulus, jobs, drill, drill, drill, energy, health care, deficits, all of them, save possibly Afghanistan.

    The independents are turning against him. Unless the economy improves dramatically, the dems are looking at a wiping in 2010, here's hoping, and that will check his programs.

    These 2010 elections are really important. We got to get back to some divided government.

    ReplyDelete
  147. What do you expect from a guy with a Kenyan alcoholic commie father, a crazy mother, raised partly in Indonesia, mentored by that Frank whathisname, with his books ghost written by Ayers, and a pastor like J. Wright?

    I'm surprised he can still pass for sane.

    ReplyDelete
  148. How "Sane" is he?

    He has to know that if he keeps refusing to acknowledge the National Anthem shit is going to start to happen.

    He knows all he has to do to keep that "shit" from happening is to raise his hand. But, he Won't?

    He can't "bring himself to do it?"

    That's a little scary, folks.

    ReplyDelete
  149. There's also the question of what the administration may or may not have known about Hasan, and what they may have or may not have done regarding it. Maybe it will come out that they really nixed it up somehow.

    People are speculating about a terrorist attack in NTC during the upcoming terrorist trials. Might happen. You might not want to vacation in NYC during that time.

    ReplyDelete
  150. Ash, by the way, I meant to mention it, your father has nearly entered my pantheon, now I know he's in a Fly Fishing Club. He's on the cusp of salvation, regardless his political views.

    I worry about you, though.

    ReplyDelete
  151. Barako is begging Congress not to investigate hasan right now. Guess who's in charge of the Senate Committee.

    Joe Leiberman. Sorry, obuttfuck.

    ReplyDelete
  152. Lieberman's in charge? That's encouraging.

    ReplyDelete
  153. Obumble Botched The Bow



    No touching while bowing, that's the rule in Japan.

    ReplyDelete
  154. Peter Sellers couldn't keep his hand down.
    Dumbo can't get his up.
    ...as if we didn't know.

    ReplyDelete
  155. "I worry about you, though."
    ---
    I think it's hilarious that Ash edits what Ruf writes by default.
    ...so that it fits his "argument."
    Almost like he had years of training in the MSM.

    ReplyDelete
  156. I've done a lot of fly fishing over the years Bob - practically was born with a fly rod in my hand. The last bunch of years I've been teaching my kids the art. I must be a red-neck now...

    ReplyDelete
  157. Like one commenter said, a fist bump or a high-five would have done as well.

    A President shouldn't be bowing to anyone, after all we don't think the Emperor is a god.

    ReplyDelete
  158. Well, he didn't bow to the Queen of England (she's white, yu know.) He slapped that babydoll on the back. Amazing it wasn't on the ass.

    ReplyDelete
  159. Don't worry, Ash. Redneks don't flyfish. We mostly use "milk jugs," and dynamite.

    ReplyDelete
  160. Great Ash. My fishing has really tappered off over the years. Here, you mostly need to hike to do real good, and I'm just not into hiking much now. There was a time though....

    ReplyDelete
  161. That "sportfishin" takes too much time away from the still, and coon-huntin.

    ReplyDelete
  162. Damn classy gifts for the Brits:
    US Coded DVD's, IPODs of you know who, standing up the West at the Wall.
    He is what he is,
    and that ain't a red white and blue American.

    ReplyDelete
  163. Surprising he didn't give her a little pinch in the ass.

    Hiya, lizzie

    ReplyDelete
  164. It'd be a plush job, being an Emperor, and a god, wouldn't it? I imagine most matters of state you could push off on some underling, and go fly fishing, disguised.

    ReplyDelete
  165. On your own private trout stream, too.

    ReplyDelete
  166. What if we've elected a "Madman?"

    The Germans did.

    Societies do strange things when they're stressed out, and pissed off.

    ReplyDelete
  167. We've elected a con man for sure, a commie and muzzie at heart, whether he's truly mad seems undetermined. Though I don't see how he could help but be.

    We've got a big country, and elections coming up. I think it's probably beyond his power to totally mess it up. Least I hope.

    ReplyDelete
  168. I believe you're right, Bob. But, it might make for one hell of a show before it's over.

    ReplyDelete
  169. Have you read about This Rufus?

    ReplyDelete
  170. I was amazed the ACORN gang didn't take Jersey for the rich guy.

    ReplyDelete
  171. Poverty is worse in Fresno than Appalachia.
    Thanks to Pelosi and the Enviros.
    Can you imagine pulling out hundreds of acres of fruit and nut trees that you planted and worked your butt off for?
    ...years of investment, wasted.
    Perfectly fine orchards, trashed.
    ...for the environment.

    ReplyDelete
  172. I know about the "Delta Smelt," and the Central Valley farmers, Bob. That's the first I've heard of the Tea Partiers getting involved.

    That Delta Smelt thing, is a strange story. It's like that whole state is quickly going completely fucking insane.

    ReplyDelete
  173. Hell, it's not even for the "environment," Doug. It's for a specific 2" long minnow. Like the world doesn't have enough of those.

    And, btw, those pumps have been running for years, and the minners are still there, right?

    ReplyDelete
  174. Doug, in my opinion, those pollsters (even the republican ones,) having hung around the elite salons so long can't believe what their polls are telling them.

    I think when they get polls telling them that Christie is going to win by 6 in N.J. they assume they're missing something, and "adjusting" the margins, away.

    If this economy keeps going the way I think it will, I believe we might see an avalanche of Biblical proportions. Possibly, the biggest in History.

    ReplyDelete
  175. Eventually, even the ordinary shitheads are going to realize that Obama is doing some seriously weird shit. Like refusing to take his hands off his dick during the National Anthem.

    When this shit hits home this fucker might wake up some fine morning to a 12% approval number.

    ReplyDelete
  176. Smelt are like that Turtle story above:
    You're right, the pumps have been running since I was in High School.

    ...what they don't tell you is that Stockton and some other towns around there dump their sewage into the delta.
    ...all the chemicals, metals, oil, etc etc don't do the smelt much good.
    ...and all that crap ends up in the bay.
    Oysters Anyone?
    Fuckin Libtards are Suicidal.

    ReplyDelete
  177. "Like refusing to take his hands off his dick during the National Anthem."
    ---
    You've got it!
    That's a black thang,
    so he gets a pass on that.

    ReplyDelete
  178. Fruitcakes

    Paradise, lost and found
    Paradise, take a look around
    I was out in california where I hear they have it all
    They got riots, fires, mud slides
    They've got sushi in the mall
    Water bars, brontasaurs, chinese modern lust
    Shake and bake life with the quake
    The secrets in the crust

    Chorus:
    Fruitcakes in the kitchen (fruitcakes in the kitchen)
    Fruitcakes on the street (fruitcakes on the street)
    Struttin naked through the crosswalk
    In the middle of the week
    Half-baked cookies in the oven (cookies in the oven)
    Half-baked people on the bus (people on the bus)
    There's a little bit of fruitcake left in everyone of us

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  179. He can clutch his ding-dong while MC Hammer, or whatnot, is playing; but, I don't think the American People are going to continue giving him a pass on fiddlin with himself during the National Anthem.

    Maybe they will, but I'm betting against it.

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  180. He's a Yank-ee Diddle Dandy

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  181. He's a Yank-ee Diddle Dandy

    :)

    Thanks, Bob. That made me laugh. I can't top that one, so I'm going to bed.

    Still chuckling,

    nite all.

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  182. goodnight Rufus, I'm going to read then drop off to sleep. Nite Doug.

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  183. Nite, Bob.
    (Don't want to wake Rufus)

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  184. He needs some serious Beauty Sleep.

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