COLLECTIVE MADNESS


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

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

China Humiliated Obama at Copenhagen and Obama let them get away with it. (Did he have a choice?)



The truth of the matter is that I am not convinced man's affect on global warming is proven science, but I am dead certain China is an environmental nightmare and American politicians from Nixon forward sold out to Wall Street and collectively jumped the shark with the Chinese.

It is appalling to me to see what they are doing unopposed in the US and in Latin America. The Chinese are intellectual property pirates and have used the west to build an industrial and soon to be, an economic and military colossus. The Chinese choose an American industry to target and compete with that industry by stripping away all safety and environmental common sense rules, all legislated regulation, all worker social programs and bring products to the United States that no domestic producers can replicate at similar prices.

The US policies toward China have been diabolical to the point that the only way a US company can compete is to close US factories and set up new facilities in China. The Chinese recycle the dollars into a military expansion and a colonization effort on a global scale. The government of the United States of American let them get away with it.

The fruits of this folly became clear to a rookie US president in Copenhagen. I sincerely hope that Obama learned a lesson. Read this story and tell me if you share my indignation.

______________________

How do I know China wrecked the Copenhagen deal? I was in the room

As recriminations fly post-Copenhagen, one writer offers a fly-on-the-wall account of how talks failed



Mark Lynas
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 December 2009 19.54 GMT

Copenhagen was a disaster. That much is agreed. But the truth about what actually happened is in danger of being lost amid the spin and inevitable mutual recriminations. The truth is this: China wrecked the talks, intentionally humiliated Barack Obama, and insisted on an awful "deal" so western leaders would walk away carrying the blame. How do I know this? Because I was in the room and saw it happen.

China's strategy was simple: block the open negotiations for two weeks, and then ensure that the closed-door deal made it look as if the west had failed the world's poor once again. And sure enough, the aid agencies, civil society movements and environmental groups all took the bait. The failure was "the inevitable result of rich countries refusing adequately and fairly to shoulder their overwhelming responsibility", said Christian Aid. "Rich countries have bullied developing nations," fumed Friends of the Earth International.

All very predictable, but the complete opposite of the truth. Even George Monbiot, writing in yesterday's Guardian, made the mistake of singly blaming Obama. But I saw Obama fighting desperately to salvage a deal, and the Chinese delegate saying "no", over and over again. Monbiot even approvingly quoted the Sudanese delegate Lumumba Di-Aping, who denounced the Copenhagen accord as "a suicide pact, an incineration pact, in order to maintain the economic dominance of a few countries".

Sudan behaves at the talks as a puppet of China; one of a number of countries that relieves the Chinese delegation of having to fight its battles in open sessions. It was a perfect stitch-up. China gutted the deal behind the scenes, and then left its proxies to savage it in public.

Here's what actually went on late last Friday night, as heads of state from two dozen countries met behind closed doors. Obama was at the table for several hours, sitting between Gordon Brown and the Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi. The Danish prime minister chaired, and on his right sat Ban Ki-moon, secretary-general of the UN. Probably only about 50 or 60 people, including the heads of state, were in the room. I was attached to one of the delegations, whose head of state was also present for most of the time.

What I saw was profoundly shocking. The Chinese premier, Wen Jinbao, did not deign to attend the meetings personally, instead sending a second-tier official in the country's foreign ministry to sit opposite Obama himself. The diplomatic snub was obvious and brutal, as was the practical implication: several times during the session, the world's most powerful heads of state were forced to wait around as the Chinese delegate went off to make telephone calls to his "superiors".

Shifting the blame

To those who would blame Obama and rich countries in general, know this: it was China's representative who insisted that industrialised country targets, previously agreed as an 80% cut by 2050, be taken out of the deal. "Why can't we even mention our own targets?" demanded a furious Angela Merkel. Australia's prime minister, Kevin Rudd, was annoyed enough to bang his microphone. Brazil's representative too pointed out the illogicality of China's position. Why should rich countries not announce even this unilateral cut? The Chinese delegate said no, and I watched, aghast, as Merkel threw up her hands in despair and conceded the point. Now we know why – because China bet, correctly, that Obama would get the blame for the Copenhagen accord's lack of ambition.

China, backed at times by India, then proceeded to take out all the numbers that mattered. A 2020 peaking year in global emissions, essential to restrain temperatures to 2C, was removed and replaced by woolly language suggesting that emissions should peak "as soon as possible". The long-term target, of global 50% cuts by 2050, was also excised. No one else, perhaps with the exceptions of India and Saudi Arabia, wanted this to happen. I am certain that had the Chinese not been in the room, we would have left Copenhagen with a deal that had environmentalists popping champagne corks popping in every corner of the world.

Strong position

So how did China manage to pull off this coup? First, it was in an extremely strong negotiating position. China didn't need a deal. As one developing country foreign minister said to me: "The Athenians had nothing to offer to the Spartans." On the other hand, western leaders in particular – but also presidents Lula of Brazil, Zuma of South Africa, Calderón of Mexico and many others – were desperate for a positive outcome. Obama needed a strong deal perhaps more than anyone. The US had confirmed the offer of $100bn to developing countries for adaptation, put serious cuts on the table for the first time (17% below 2005 levels by 2020), and was obviously prepared to up its offer.

Above all, Obama needed to be able to demonstrate to the Senate that he could deliver China in any global climate regulation framework, so conservative senators could not argue that US carbon cuts would further advantage Chinese industry. With midterm elections looming, Obama and his staff also knew that Copenhagen would be probably their only opportunity to go to climate change talks with a strong mandate. This further strengthened China's negotiating hand, as did the complete lack of civil society political pressure on either China or India. Campaign groups never blame developing countries for failure; this is an iron rule that is never broken. The Indians, in particular, have become past masters at co-opting the language of equity ("equal rights to the atmosphere") in the service of planetary suicide – and leftish campaigners and commentators are hoist with their own petard.

With the deal gutted, the heads of state session concluded with a final battle as the Chinese delegate insisted on removing the 1.5C target so beloved of the small island states and low-lying nations who have most to lose from rising seas. President Nasheed of the Maldives, supported by Brown, fought valiantly to save this crucial number. "How can you ask my country to go extinct?" demanded Nasheed. The Chinese delegate feigned great offence – and the number stayed, but surrounded by language which makes it all but meaningless. The deed was done.

China's game

All this raises the question: what is China's game? Why did China, in the words of a UK-based analyst who also spent hours in heads of state meetings, "not only reject targets for itself, but also refuse to allow any other country to take on binding targets?" The analyst, who has attended climate conferences for more than 15 years, concludes that China wants to weaken the climate regulation regime now "in order to avoid the risk that it might be called on to be more ambitious in a few years' time".

This does not mean China is not serious about global warming. It is strong in both the wind and solar industries. But China's growth, and growing global political and economic dominance, is based largely on cheap coal. China knows it is becoming an uncontested superpower; indeed its newfound muscular confidence was on striking display in Copenhagen. Its coal-based economy doubles every decade, and its power increases commensurately. Its leadership will not alter this magic formula unless they absolutely have to.

Copenhagen was much worse than just another bad deal, because it illustrated a profound shift in global geopolitics. This is fast becoming China's century, yet its leadership has displayed that multilateral environmental governance is not only not a priority, but is viewed as a hindrance to the new superpower's freedom of action. I left Copenhagen more despondent than I have felt in a long time. After all the hope and all the hype, the mobilisation of thousands, a wave of optimism crashed against the rock of global power politics, fell back, and drained away.

200 comments:

  1. China getting more restrictive on trade, US says

    SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- China imposed more trade restrictions in 2009, increasing concern that the country is failing to comply with its obligations as a member of the World Trade Organization, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in an annual report Tuesday.

    "Despite the progress achieved in 2009, several specific issues continued to cause particular concern for the United States and U.S. industry, given China's WTO obligations," the U.S. Trade Representative wrote in its report.

    Intellectual property rights, industrial policies, trading rights and distribution services, agriculture and services were the main areas of concern, it said.

    The report came a day after the WTO upheld a ruling that China is illegally restricting imports of U.S. music, movies and books. See full story on WTO ruling against China.

    China joined the WTO in 2001, a move that opened up lots of new markets for the country but also required it to cut tariffs, scrap other import barriers, grant greater market access for goods and services from other countries and protect intellectual property rights.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank God for China.

    Maybe they awoke at least a few sleepwalkers.

    ReplyDelete
  3. awakened?

    woke up?

    ReplyDelete
  4. They were doing us a huge favor, and didn't even know it.

    In fact, they, surely, thought they were doing the opposite.

    Totalitarians always have problems with deals like that. They're so used to controlling information in their own countries that they don't seem to realize that closed doors, in the West, really aren't closed at all.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Fuck you.
    Either announce a new post
    WHEN IT IS POSTED
    or take my name off this worthless mutherfuckin blog!
    I don't exude pearls of wisdom for swine!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Fuck you too, Rufus,
    you have yet to address my assertions in the previous post.
    You are Crap!

    ReplyDelete
  7. You guys asked for it...

    You will recall the Resident Rodent pooh poohed this story.
    The Resident Rodent is FOS.
    ...but you already knew that,
    and,
    I repeat myself.

    Was AirTran Flight #297 a Terrorist Dry Run?

    Like Climategate, there is another story the national mainstream media has either missed or largely ignored, and that is the story of what really happened on November 17th on AirTran's Flight 297 from Atlanta to Houston.

    Much confusion remains about exactly what transpired that afternoon on a plane preparing for takeoff at Hartsfield International Airport. By every account, the undisputed facts are that a large group of men disturbed procedures and upset the flight crew to the point of causing a delay. At least one passenger allegedly refused to comply with repeated requests from flight attendants to discontinue his use of a cell phone (in compliance with FAA regulations) while the plane was taxiing on the runway, causing the pilot to turn the plane around. The entire group was asked to deplane, and TSA officials questioned them before allowing them back on the flight. The original flight crew was replaced. Twelve passengers not involved with the group of belligerent Middle Eastern men deplaned and requested another flight.
    ---
    Couldn't have gotten me on that flight for a million bucks.
    A billion plus an appropriate armement package, perhaps.

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

    ReplyDelete
  9. Have another drink there, Pineapple Doo Doo Head, or PDDH, as I'm beginning to think of you.

    What exact comments (if you can remember them) are you referring to sot?

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is the link
    to more brilliant commentary and outstanding links than you will ever find on this POS Thread!

    ReplyDelete
  11. ...a bunch about what a stupid brain dead muthafucker you are Rufus.
    ...but I repeat myself.
    The explanation for your situation has to do with Chelation.
    Follow the link above, vacuum head.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Chelation therapy is the administration of chelating agents to remove any remaining brain cells inside Rufus's Skull.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Okay, there's a girl, there, and she's wearing a tee shirt, showing off her real nice boobies.

    Is that it, doo doo head?

    (or DDH, as I'm narrowing it down)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Rufus is the Walking BrainDead.

    ReplyDelete
  15. No, Rufus, you have to read the WORDS.
    But, of course, anything beyond pictures is beyond your abilities.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Have you ever considered resigning your membership here?

    ReplyDelete
  17. You're just upset because Mel O Dee hasn't been around tonite.

    DDH + Mel O Dee

    DDH + Mel O Dee

    DDH + Mel O Dee


    Wheeee!

    ReplyDelete
  18. OMG, I've been stumped by a dead brain.
    WTF?

    ReplyDelete
  19. I'm a Member, here.

    Aw, shit; I'd never belong to no club that wuz THAT lax in it's membership requirements.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Yeah,
    Robert has the medal of the Flaccid Penis, right?

    ReplyDelete
  21. We used to say that a pony that wuz "stump-broke" had been, "Stumped."

    You been "Stumped," DD?

    I'm sorry. Did it hurt?


    heh, heh, heh


    Wuz it Mel O Dee?

    Wuz she wearin a "strap-on?"


    heh, heh, heh

    ReplyDelete
  22. You motherfukahs are too cruel for me, take me off of this blog to Mel o dy.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Mel O Dee stumpt DDH.

    Mel O Dee stumpt DDH.

    Mel O Dee stumpt DDH.


    tra la la

    early in the mornin

    ReplyDelete
  24. MLD is a fellow doo doo head?

    ReplyDelete
  25. To my friend Linear

    May your engine overheat
    May your battery spark and jump
    May your timing spit and miss
    Your transmission give out
    May you run out of gas
    Your tire blow a hole
    50 miles out of town

    ReplyDelete
  26. Oh, no, DD. Youse is the onliest geneine Doo Doo Head, here.

    Onliest you.

    ReplyDelete
  27. ...it WAS linear that started all this...
    hmmm,

    ReplyDelete
  28. So what does
    "Mel O Dee stumpt DDH"

    mean,
    Vacuum Brain?

    ReplyDelete
  29. Yeah, but LT's our frind.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Stumpt = Stump broke

    ReplyDelete
  31. You know, when you back that mare up to the stump, that you're standing on.

    ReplyDelete
  32. I prefer goats.
    It's a Muslim thing.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I thought that bag of dried mushrooms was for the soup.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Doo Doo Head

    You know, short for "Pineapple Doo Doo Head."

    But, I think I'll just call you, "DD," for short. That be okay?

    ReplyDelete
  35. Shit, score one for the "Deuce."

    ReplyDelete
  36. Well, I've finally had a good laugh, thanks to El Duco.

    I'm goin to bed.

    Later.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Duco gets no credit.
    All credit is due to my shame.
    This place sucks.

    ReplyDelete
  38. This is the link
    to more brilliant commentary and outstanding links than you will ever find on this POS Thread!
    ...but I repeat myself.
    Again.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Allen said,

    trish wrote: "L'Occitane Rose body wash, for me, MeLoDy."

    You are a dear!

    "The fragrance opens with the tops notes of Bulgarian, Moroccan and Turkish roses artfully blended with essential oils and distinctive cinnamon. At the heart of this L’Occitane perfume is violet and blackberry. Cedar, sandalwood, vanilla and musk essences are at the base of this truly captivating fragrance. For every woman and every occasion.

    "The only things missing are wart of toad and testicle of snail. O well, you can't have everthing. Essential oils could come from small Irish children...link

    A Modest Proposal

    ReplyDelete
  40. Okay, one last thing: The "Tiger" ad was hilarious. Good one. Mos Specially for a Doo Doo Head.

    ReplyDelete
  41. I shit, I noed that was too intellektull for a Doo Doo Head.

    It was an LT link.

    Great Link, LT.

    I broke out laughing. I'm still smiling.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Contribute to the doo doo head fund.
    doo doo heads are victim number ones.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Watermelon Marxists

    By John Griffing
    Global warming as a science is defunct. Evidence of scientific dishonesty abounds, and the recent e-mail revelations may be the last nail in the coffin. When all is said and done, temperatures are falling.

    But as a tool for watermelon Marxists -- green on the outside and red on the inside -- climate change orthodoxy represents an opportunity to achieve age-old dreams of communist wealth redistribution.
    Don't take my word for it.

    Listen to Cass Sunstein, Obama's new regulatory czar and perhaps the most powerful bureaucrat in America:
    It is even possible that desirable redistribution is more likely to occur through climate change policy than otherwise, or to be accomplished more effectively through climate policy than through direct foreign aid.
    He added:

    We agree that if the United States does spend a great deal on emissions reductions as part of an international agreement, and if the agreement does give particular help to disadvantaged people, considerations of distributive justice support its action, even if better redistributive mechanisms are imaginable.

    Furthermore, Sunstein thinks that "[i]f we care about social welfare, we should approve of a situation in which a wealthy nation is willing to engage in a degree of self-sacrifice when the world benefits more than that nation loses."

    Sunstein is not alone.
    Sacked environmental czar Van Jones talks of "eco-apartheid." To a like-minded audience, Van Jones exclaimed, "Give them the wealth! Give them the wealth! No justice on stolen land...we owe them a debt."

    President Obama is presumably on board, having pledged to "bankrupt" the coal industry, among other telling remarks:

    ReplyDelete
  44. If Obama is too stupid to realize that he was humiliated, then he deserves to go back again and again. The more energy he wastes chasing climate glory, the less he's using Air Force One to campaign for socialized medicine or re-electing Dems. Good for him.

    ReplyDelete
  45. To my friend Doug

    May the pineapples turn sweet
    May the waves come and go
    May the tourists retreat
    And in your bungalow
    May Sonia
    Whisper to you
    What all men should know

    ReplyDelete
  46. Come into my canoe.
    ...just sop it up w/a paper towel, please.

    ReplyDelete
  47. To my friend Rufus

    May you drink
    Beyond thought
    May your plans
    Make alot
    Of money for you
    And may you rule your realm
    With kindness, till death overwhelm

    ReplyDelete
  48. To my friend deuce

    An intelligent man
    Whose artwork commands
    Great respect
    And high praise too
    May you put up with us
    And the occasional cuss
    That all this talk demands

    ReplyDelete
  49. To Bobal:

    May the Melodic Fur be with you.
    May your sweetheart and wife never meet.
    May the wind at your back always be your own.
    May your wild oats never turn to shredded wheat.

    ReplyDelete
  50. May the Fur be with you!
    Amen

    ReplyDelete
  51. Why is cunt so much more attractive than dick?

    ReplyDelete
  52. ...and what does this have to do with Copenhagen?

    ReplyDelete
  53. To my friends WiO and Allen

    I don't know how you do it
    Facing the challenge
    Of being the best
    In a sea full of crap
    Your culture survives
    May it always thrive
    As the world goes its way

    ReplyDelete
  54. The Whirelled spins round the drain.

    ReplyDelete
  55. Islamic terrorists treated as citizens.

    ReplyDelete
  56. Elephant Bar Sitcom

    Casting Director's Report

    Bobal and MLD.

    Final casting completed.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Elephant Bar Sitcom

    Casting Director's Report

    Field of finalists narrows for role of WiO.


    Leading candidate for the role in his native habitat.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  58. I deleted my spam post to re-post this:

    Was AirTran Flight #297 a Terrorist Dry Run?

    Like Climategate, there is another story the national mainstream media has either missed or largely ignored, and that is the story of what really happened on November 17th on AirTran's Flight 297 from Atlanta to Houston.

    Much confusion remains about exactly what transpired that afternoon on a plane preparing for takeoff at Hartsfield International Airport. By every account, the undisputed facts are that a large group of men disturbed procedures and upset the flight crew to the point of causing a delay. At least one passenger allegedly refused to comply with repeated requests from flight attendants to discontinue his use of a cell phone (in compliance with FAA regulations) while the plane was taxiing on the runway, causing the pilot to turn the plane around. The entire group was asked to deplane, and TSA officials questioned them before allowing them back on the flight. The original flight crew was replaced. Twelve passengers not involved with the group of belligerent Middle Eastern men deplaned and requested another flight.
    ---
    Couldn't have gotten me on that flight for a million bucks.
    A billion plus an appropriate armement package, perhaps.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Elephant Bar Sitcom

    Casting Director's Report

    Latest casting call lineup for the role of Trish.




    .

    ReplyDelete
  60. Elephant Bar Sitcom

    Casting Director's Report

    A likely finalist for the role of Rufus.

    ReplyDelete
  61. I am certain that had the Chinese not been in the room, we would have left Copenhagen with a deal that had environmentalists popping champagne corks popping in every corner of the world.

    What does it say about the whirled when the Chinese are leading it? To me, it says that the whirled has gone mad. I have never seen the profound lack of common sense and discernment which is currently on display.

    Above all, Obama needed to be able to demonstrate to the Senate that he could deliver China in any global climate regulation framework,...

    Deliver China? Come on, give me a break. Is this guy serious?

    No one can "deliver China" especially now that they're the "big dog", the Daddy Warbucks, the big Kahuna.

    We are whirled of idiots ruled by our idiot betters.

    ReplyDelete
  62. China watches while the rest of the whirled is in a race to the bottom.

    ReplyDelete
  63. Copenhagen is a perfect illustration of the current whirled situation.

    The developed whirled is dissipated.

    The third whirled, encouraged by watermelons, is grifting the developed whirled losers.

    China, sitting on the squandered US fortune, is anticipating the rest of the century.

    ReplyDelete
  64. If America is going down the tubes...

    And the Yuan is rising (against china's will)

    And America SLOWS it's consumption of chinese shit...

    What will the chinese use for money once the current 1 trillion or 2 is gone..

    and what will china do once the yuan is valued fairly and the rest of the world can compete against the chinese exporting machine?

    ReplyDelete
  65. In more important news...

    Lebanon and Syria have joined a mutual defense pack with Iran

    Lebanon has dismissed the UNSC resolution 1559 calling on all militias to disarm, which opens up the ability for iran and syria to trans ship arms without qualms of pesky things like laws....

    Hamas snipers are shooting at egyptian construction workers installing a metal underground wall separating gaza from egypt...

    Iran is reaching out to Egypt....

    Rioting in Iran

    ReplyDelete
  66. Those are good questions.

    China has a huge domestic market to develop and a state of the art manufacturing base plus a huge cash reserve.

    ReplyDelete
  67. Doug: Why is cunt so much more attractive than dick?

    Tastes great. Less filling.

    ReplyDelete
  68. Doug: Come into my canoe.
    ...just sop it up w/a paper towel, please.


    Canoe: (n.) An oval shaped object with a slippery surface. can usualy fit about three men inside.

    ReplyDelete
  69. WiO:and what will china do once the yuan is valued fairly and the rest of the world can compete against the chinese exporting machine?

    The problem with all totalitarian societies is that a large fraction of your potential workforce is in the "party" devoted to monitoring citizens outside of the party (ie. checking that everyone bought health care insurance, for example), and their salaries are paid for by tapping the total output of the country. In a global market, the country with the most individual freedom has the highest productivity.

    ReplyDelete
  70. whit: plus a huge cash reserve.


    Is it really that big?

    1 - 2 trillion?

    really?

    wall street BONUSES this fall alone were 150 BILLION, that's 10% of the total debt the chinese hold...

    The Chinese are building infrastructure like gang busters no doubt...

    500 new coal powered energy plants...

    But the simple fact is china is a poor nation, sure it has a ton of wealth (collected by a tiny %) and it is surrounded by land border of enemies...

    Not all is rosy in chinaland...

    The population is exploding, shortage of women, pollution beyond compare, non-existent work standards, let alone shaky construction technics that wouldnt pass a 2nd graders construction grade...

    Nope i could see china having real issues from the explosion of dissent, separative peoples (mongols, moslems, tibetians and about 400 other ethnic groups) as modernity arrives....

    There is no reason that China Incorporated is held together as ONE, other than force.

    As the 3 gorges dam is completed, heavy metals are now leaching into the water supply causing millions of people to contract GENERATIONAL high levels of toxins that have yet to be predicted...

    Couple that with earthquakes that level THOUSANDS of homes, factories, schools and the west never hear about...

    China is 3x'ing it's military budget and yet is something like 13% of the USA's.

    North Korea sits on it's lap and refugees are streaming into it and what happens if Nkor goes insane? millions of nkor people let alone a nuke situation....

    yep china is a clusterfuck for it'sself and all that surround it...

    glad we sit across an ocean...

    ReplyDelete
  71. In short, stand by for twenty-degree rolls and heavy seas...

    The world economy is not convalescing. It's just been pumped full of unaffordable medicines. Borrowing madly, countries as diverse as Greece and Dubai have been buying time, not fiscal health.

    Eighty billion in bad debts may not sound high in President Obama's Washington, but Dubai's just a city pretending to be a country. It produces nothing. There's no inherent wealth. It Madoff-ed the world with extravagant brochures and nutty projects.

    In Ireland and Spain, housing bubbles created the illusion of roaring economies -- and pandering governments inflated already generous social programs. In Italy and Greece, state giveaways, bubble economies and rabid corruption created national debts in excess of GDP.

    The Baltic states' economies are tubercular. Central Europe's headed for the post-modern equivalent of debtors' prison. And even Britain (and the global bankers' fortress, the City of London) is still in deep treacle. Then there's California (and New York).

    Then there are the great unknowns, a Russian economy that may be far more fragile than anyone wants to admit, as well as China, opaque and insatiable...One of the reasons China's desperate to keep expanding its trade is that its banking sector is flimsier than chopsticks -- plagued by uncollectible sweetheart loans made to favored firms and institutions.

    What of our own country, with its soaring debt, congressional irresponsibility and an administration whose No. 1 priority is expanding unaffordable entitlement programs? Draw your own conclusions.

    ReplyDelete
  72. "Tastes great. Less filling."
    LOL

    ReplyDelete
  73. "shortage of women"
    ---
    Can you IMAGINE, T?

    Jeeze!

    ReplyDelete
  74. I propose a one child only policy.
    ...only girls.

    ReplyDelete
  75. bob said...
    To my friends WiO and Allen

    I don't know how you do it
    Facing the challenge
    Of being the best
    In a sea full of crap
    Your culture survives
    May it always thrive
    As the world goes its way




    THANKS

    ReplyDelete
  76. "What of our own country, with its soaring debt, congressional irresponsibility and an administration whose No. 1 priority is expanding unaffordable entitlement programs?
    Draw your own conclusions.
    "
    ---
    Vacuum Brain Rufus says it's all good,
    Full Speed Ahead!

    ReplyDelete
  77. Definition of a perfect vacuum:
    Inside Rufus's Skull.

    ReplyDelete
  78. OK,
    I admit I'm no better than al-Bob.
    MLD, if you have a sweet crotch,
    contact me, al-Doug@96753

    ReplyDelete
  79. ...then there's the resident Rodent:

    Claiming individual rights for the fuckin ARABS ripping off Air-Trans/Plotting for the downfall of the frigging US of A.
    WTF???

    ReplyDelete
  80. Vacuum Brain, al-Bob, and the Rodent, if that doesn't spell the end of this great country, I don't know what does.

    ReplyDelete
  81. bob wrote:

    "Of being the best
    In a sea full of crap"

    Thanks, bob (I think). It is truly an honor to be a floater. :-)

    "Each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible."
    ___Frankl

    What is to be said of a man who can write voluminously for years without once using a question mark?

    "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things."
    ___Isaiah

    ...lots and lots of questions there...

    When men abandon their innate divinity and think themselves little more than serpents, entropy becomes the norm.

    Why is this important? Suppose you are a man who two months ago discovered that your arrested prostate cancer has spread, stealthily into your hip; suppose two weeks ago you discover that your wife has raging ovarian cancer; and suppose you have a twelve year-old daughter - you need answers; you need consolation. If your life has been lived as a snake, you won't find peace.

    But, bob, you already know this.

    Best

    Have a Merry Christmas, my friend, holding close the love of your youth.

    Grow old along with me!
    The best is yet to be,
    The last of life, for which the first was made:
    Our times are in His hand
    Who saith "A whole I planned,
    Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!''…

    Not once beat "Praise be Thine!
    I see the whole design,
    I, who saw power, see now love perfect too:
    Perfect I call Thy plan:
    Thanks that I was a man!
    Maker, remake, complete,--I trust what Thou shalt do!"…


    Robert Browning, Rabbi Ben Ezra

    ReplyDelete
  82. ...then there's the god damned JOOS!

    ReplyDelete
  83. To my friends Trish, Miss T amd Melody

    Every bar must have
    A trinity of femininity
    To move us ever on
    As Goethe said
    And to slap us down
    Keep us in line
    When we lose our heads

    ReplyDelete
  84. Those women are a little plump, Linear.

    ReplyDelete
  85. Floaters are Traitors in a Sea of Crap.
    Only the must goes in the low-flows pass mustard.
    No more clogged toilets.
    I shit you not.

    ReplyDelete
  86. The only way to keep anyone "in line" here, bob, is to shoot them.

    I regret this is not possible, just pleasant to contemplate.

    ReplyDelete
  87. The Fascist Comes Out.
    All hands on deck for the fascist.

    ReplyDelete
  88. Have I offended everyone yet?

    ReplyDelete
  89. Some journalist remarked recently of the internet: It's 1 AM in a south Boston neighborhood, everyone's drunk and the bars are closing.

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  90. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  91. As usual, doug-o, you misrepresent my position.

    As per that airplane flight, the Federals came, investigated and found that there was no threat to the plane.

    Citizens on the plane then got off, rather than protect their right to travel. They were intimidated by the rag heads, those Muslims being in "full attire".

    Rather than stepping up, as citizens, to protect their rights, they ran away from the common responsibility. That public servant, a Federal employee, ran, rather than defend his rights.

    His call, but telling as to the gumption of that servant, leading the retreat, rather than organizing a defense.

    That you would have followed that coward, truly Polynesian.

    ReplyDelete
  92. We have a motherfucking, Amerika Hating Communist as POTUS,
    What are we going to do about it?

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  93. Wed Dec 23, 11:10:00 AM EST
    Your grammar is unintelligible.

    The FACTS are that Air-Trans has been targeted multiple times, either as a scam rip-off for dough, or as a practice prelude to another 9-11.
    You, sir, are a shill for the enemy's of America.

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  94. "Rather than stepping up, as citizens, to protect their rights, they ran away from the common responsibility. That public servant, a Federal employee, ran, rather than defend his rights.

    His call, but telling as to the gumption of that servant, leading the retreat, rather than organizing a defense.

    That you would have followed that coward, truly Polynesian.
    "

    WTF are you talking about?
    The citizens are guilty because the federal agent is fucktard fascist wannabe?

    ReplyDelete
  95. What are we going to do about it?

    Wed Dec 23, 11:12:00 AM EST


    I nominate Doug the J3 and I wanna see some fucking plans by COB today.

    ReplyDelete
  96. What I'm going to do Doug, is take that piano and shove it up your ass and turn the hydraulics on and then you'll see how sweet my pussy is.

    ReplyDelete
  97. Lots of Motherfuckers here are guilty of defining 9-11 down.
    Not gonna influence me, except to strengthen my resolve against all such wusses.

    ReplyDelete
  98. I cannot wait, MLD!
    My lifelong Fantasy!

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  99. "I nominate Doug the J3 and I wanna see some fucking plans by COB today."
    ---
    Translation in ENGLISH, ;uuleze, cunt?

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  100. ;uuleze = Puuleze
    Cunt = Cunt

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  101. So my wife is not an officer, does that make me inferior?

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  102. Good, I'll get Bob to join us. He can sprinkle some oak leaf clusters of gold on your balls while you're trying to figure out if this really is your life long fantasy.

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  103. What a filthy mouth we have today, Doug.

    J3 is Plans and Ops.

    COB is Close of Business.

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  104. See what you did, bob?

    It's Doug's favorite new word.

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  105. What's the matter Doug, the mushrooms aren't good for the soup, either.

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  106. You and all-Bob are entertainment, MLD.
    I have yet to fathom what "Trish" really represents.

    ReplyDelete
  107. ...other than a military dedicated to defeat.

    ReplyDelete
  108. on the one hand,
    on the other hand...

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  109. "I wanna girl
    Just like the girl
    Who didn't marry dear old dad..."

    Piano Bar - catchy title for a new blog

    Has a winch ever been used during rectal repair? No, I don't mean the surgical tech.

    Thanks, bob, for introducing "cunt" to the bar. I
    just cunt understand why.

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  110. You mean the IC, Doug, because technically that's the bread and butter.

    "...other than an IC dedicated to defeat."

    Fixt it for ya.

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  111. That's right Doug, it's entertainment. Isn't that what you or someone said the other day...it's the Internet, it's a game, no one's here to make friends. So what's with the fuck you, cunt? Because that sounds a little like animosity to me.

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  112. For Trish, MLD.
    No animosity toward you,
    I gaurantee.

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  113. Right back atcha.

    What ever it means.

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  114. If someone wanted to convey their point/the facts
    would not one think they would speak in ENGLISH??

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  115. Now, Ms Melody, it is still about boob. His choice of words is being amplified by the echo chamber of doug-o's skull.

    You, dear lady Sumo wrestler, are just collateral damage.
    Ms T understands, she favors increased collateral damage as a part of the psychological play of the game.

    As for that flight that never was, doug.

    The NASA diver should have stayed on the plane and protected the citizens from the threat he perceived, after the Security Federals cleared those rag head attired passengers to fly.

    That he did not, typical of our public servants.

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  116. As opposed to:

    "You mean the IC, Doug, because technically that's the bread and butter.

    "...other than an IC dedicated to defeat."

    Fixt it for ya."

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  117. Agreed, 'Rat, sorry for the misunderstanding.

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  118. I wasn't taking it personally at all but those are very strong words and usually mean the end to a very interesting fantasy. That's the way I took it. Sweet Melody turn resident bitch and you couldn't handle it. So you had to end it.

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  119. Wed Dec 23, 11:56:00 AM EST -
    blee blleee boob boo blleee be boo

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  120. As ODNI we aren't even going back to the military. And have only kept a glancing relationship with it here. And isn't that lucky for us, keeping a healthy distance from the determined defeatocrats of the Armed Forces of the United States?

    I think so.

    The IC...It's so much cooler now.

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  121. I have no dog in this fight with you, MLD, other than to elbow my pal al-Bob.

    ReplyDelete
  122. "The IC...It's so much cooler now."
    Thanx, per usual.
    cieadkd@ausrsoviet

    ReplyDelete
  123. ...fits in with the current Admin.

    ReplyDelete
  124. I do think that whit referenced this tidbit, really a ground breaking development that was skipped over, in favor of the secretions or love, that have cum to permeate the EB.

    The brazen murder of several family members of a Mexican Naval hero threatens to start a dangerous new chapter in the country's drug war, in which cartels increasingly resort to terror tactics to try to force the government to back off. More than a dozen hit men carrying AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles burst into a house in eastern Mexico around midnight Monday, gunning down several relatives of 3rd Petty Officer Melquisedet Angulo, the 30-year-old who was hailed as a national hero last week after being killed in a battle that left drug lord Arturo Beltrán Leyva dead.

    -- Wall Street Journal

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  125. Because, amigos, that cold easily happen, here in this part of North America, too.

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  126. Betcha an Amero to a bagel, there was not a Muslim on the hit team that gunned down the family of 3rd Petty Officer Melquisedet Angulo.

    ReplyDelete
  127. Mexico is long ago and far away, Amigo.

    ...I missed your response to my complaint that amnesty would only encourage the next wave of illegals.

    Could you please repeat it?

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  128. Doug once told me that Latin Americans are THE threat - and the Muslim thing is by comparison a lot of hooha.

    ReplyDelete
  129. I know this, Doug.

    And, as I'm being used as collateral, I'm certainly not damaged.

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  130. "That you would have followed that coward, truly Polynesian."

    Good deal! Polynesians have now been targeted for ethnic slurs. What a relief! The XXXX finally catch a break and get some company.


    Next up: "Polywood is controlled by fat, tattooed, pig eating Polynomials, intent on ruling the world through the manipulation of Campbellian and Zoromasterian myths."

    This is just too kewl.

    Do Polynesians have a Sabbath, or are they always on the dark side, doug?

    "Today, December 22, 2009, a date which will live in infamy, thousands of stinky, pineapple wielding Polynesians attacked the USS Ronald Reagan in international waters. The dastardly attack was launched during a moonless night from hundreds of motley catamarans and canoes.

    Naval spokesman, Ensign Shirley Glib (aboard the Reagan), reports that, while casualties were light, the Reagan will be pulled from the line and its many tasks of global policing to undergo repainting. Most casualties came from roaring intoxication, the pineapples having been highly laced with local 100 proof hooch. On a personal note, Glib petulantly stated that her reassignment due to unforeseen pregnancy will be delayed and that her %!"?> replacement will be spending Christmas and the New Year with HIS family.

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  131. It's hard to keep up sometimes.

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  132. There is a war going on in North America and religion, that is a very, very minor factor in it.

    Catholics and Protestants, Christians all.
    But then this fight, it is not about Biblical interpretations.

    It is all about supply and demand.
    Of products deemed illegal by the Federals, a list of prohibited items, growing since 1913.

    ReplyDelete
  133. Both are, in my book.
    Chavez and Castro are our friends?

    ...or the (Zeyala or whatever) guy you relexivly backed in his quest against the rule of law, Trish?

    ReplyDelete
  134. What about the second wave of illegals following Amnesty, 'Rat?

    ReplyDelete
  135. Polynesia is a geographic area, one in which doug-o resides.

    Does that make him a Polynesian, or is he still an American.

    Can Polynesia really be part of America?

    It seems hard to fathom, from a map. Looks more like an expansion of soverignty, outside of America.

    Setting the precedent for US to become the United States of the Whirled, rather than being limited, in a stifling way, to the Americas.

    ReplyDelete
  136. We encouraged them to come, doug.

    Sure as shootin'

    Those folks making FICA payments with no hope of recovery from their black market Social Security numbers, they were. The Federal Socialists just loved the way that was working.

    ReplyDelete
  137. Who is "we" whiteman?

    I never did.

    ReplyDelete
  138. When I pledged allegiance did that mean no dissent?

    ReplyDelete
  139. I also never hired anyone to clean my toilet, Mexican, Filipino, or otherwise.

    ReplyDelete
  140. ...although it is a point of fact:
    modern Filipino immiigrants are by and large, Patriots,
    the majority of today's "Hispanics"
    not so much.

    ReplyDelete
  141. "That you would have followed that coward, truly Polynesian."

    Get back Joe-Joe! ...caught you with just a triffle of that brownshirt showing...

    Hey, if brown is not your color, try yellow. XXXX had to wear it for centuries and look what it did for us.

    ReplyDelete
  142. What about the second wave of illegals following Amnesty, 'Rat?

    ReplyDelete
  143. "Both are, in my book.
    Chavez and Castro are our friends?"

    You weren't speaking of Venezuelans or Cubans. Rather of Mexicans in the US.

    And you said that whoever Trish's husband was hunting down, it was of comparatively little or no import.


    That was some time ago, when you and a lot of other people were spun into the ceiling everyday on this particular topic.

    Then we elected a "crypto Muslim" to the WH and the object of daily concern changed again.

    ReplyDelete
  144. It is indeed hard to follow some of the lines of argument here.


    As for me, Melody has been so nice to me, I will always put my armor on, mount my steed, aim my lance at anyone who should attack her.

    Well, I've tried to crawl down from my explosion the other day, best I can.

    I'm sitting down at the end of the bar, alone, nursing a Khalua and creme, and I know who I wish would join me.

    ReplyDelete
  145. Merry Christmas to all the merkins at the EB. Quite a kerfuffle.

    ReplyDelete
  146. Israel has made a major policy annoucement in light of the prisoner exchange with Hamas, approx 1000 Hamas terrorists will be exchanged for one Jewish Corporal.

    We, the State of Israel accept the Arab position that Jewish blood is in fact more valuable than arab blood. From now one the ratio of 1000 to ONE is the rule. If hamas shoots one rocket we shall shoot 1000 back. If they murder 10 civilians in a terrorist attack, no we will not be the animals they are and murder 10,000 civilians but rather we will assassinate (to use the good arab word) 100 hamas/islamic jihad/pa/plo/force 17/martyrs brgd/whatever name of the week leaders The arab world wants to cement the fact that JEWS are worth more than arabs? SO BE IT..

    ReplyDelete
  147. Allen...


    Us real XXXX'ers LOVE yellow, after all we are the canaries in the coal mine of the world.


    If we were multi-colored they would want our feathers...

    If were looked like chickens? they would eat us...

    So I'll keep Yellow as the XXXX Color, along with purple, blue & white...

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  148. Going down to Albertson's this morning, to get the milk and eggs, and the paper, there was a beautiful deer in the park there, that I drive by. This may be the same one I saw last year, eating from the crabapple trees there. I'm only a couple blocks away from a wheat field. He comes from over there. Full sized deer, antlered. Beautiful, the way they walk, a little disjointed, if you know what I mean. A little halting, step by step.

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  149. The goat is the traditional Swedish Christmas symbol.

    Go figure.

    Christmas Goat Destroyed

    I'll need to ask Bob about this along with his recipe for carp.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  150. Well Good Morning, Habu.

    The best to you, this Holiday Season.

    I'm a happy man. I have spoken with, and touched the hand, of my goddess, Sarah Palin.

    ah, I know she isn't perfect.

    But I like her alot.

    What do you think of her?

    Would she make a good President?

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  151. I wouldn't put too much trust in that idea, Q.

    I don't know the answer there.

    But then, I'm three generations gone from Sweden, and really don't know what they do.

    I like their women though.

    I will always remember, on my one trip there, how my brother and I were walking along some seashore, and came upon a maiden, full breasted and nude, maybe 25 years or so, blond, sunning herself, and how she gently turned over, and covered herself, delicately.

    Wow.

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  152. Re: Quirk's goat link

    "Vandals are seldom caught, but in 2001 a 51-year-old visitor from Cleveland, Ohio, spent 18 days in jail for setting it ablaze."

    WiO......PLEASE!!!.....Tell me it wasn't.....

    "In 2005, the goat was burned down by two arsonists dressed up as Santa Claus and the Gingerbread Man. They were never caught."

    ...those pesky Polynesians...they're everywhere; they're everywhere...and so clever too...almost like "you know who"...If Santa Claus had not been wearing a mauve merkin and the Gingerbread Man a coconut shell codpiece, no one would have been the wiser.

    ___

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  153. Merkin is a word I didn't know. Now I've looked it up, and since "fuck you" is the phrase of the day, well then, "Fuck You" too.

    May your heart give out
    You big phoney lout
    And let's hope you die in Florida
    And not disgrace the land of Montana

    ReplyDelete
  154. Goat thing?

    Aint me....

    I aint got no goat thing....

    But it is funnier than shit to go to the Restaurant Depot and see in the meat cold room halal whole goats.....

    I took my kids just for shits and giggles.... They were SOON shocked...

    No moreshocked than dam XXXX Tongue meat in the deli case.... (that STILL gets to me)

    Every people on the planet have something odd to eat...

    Dont even start about my trip to Paris....

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  155. Now there was my trip to Munich, sitting in a very nice hotel's MENS sauna, when these NEKKED Swedish girls just came on it...

    They had to correct me about my towel, they said I should not hold it in my lap but rather sit on it...

    I took them up on it and man, were they disappointed... But 20 years later? I still have a perfect memory of them....

    lololololololol

    ReplyDelete
  156. :) heh

    I quess we can call them 'liberated' WiO.

    ReplyDelete
  157. ah, hell, I remember that girl to this day, lazy by the Baltic, or where ever it was.

    And that Sioux woman, there in the Dakotas, the most beautiful woman in the world, in the universe, there at the airplane gate, burned into my memory.

    ReplyDelete
  158. Scroll down just a tad for 3 Good articles on Manufacturing Output vs Jobs.

    Bottom line: Jobs down - Output Up.

    ReplyDelete
  159. "I don't know the answer there."

    You disappoint me Bob.

    With your Nordic tradition? Your love of Campbell. Your being a bard.

    Heck, you could have made up something pretty interesting. We wouldn't have known the difference.

    Didn't Thor have some kind of a cart pulled by goats? And Odin, didn't he have Frigga by way of intercourse with a goat?



    .

    ReplyDelete
  160. bob,

    Re: "merkin"

    I caught that too. But, hey, as Uncle Milty used to say, "Ya got lemons? Make lemonade...sssh!"

    Between merkins and Polynesians, it's turning into quite a day.

    For those who wondered how we knew the goat vandals were Polynesians given only the merkin and codpiece, well suffice to say, we of the MXXXXXXX are highly trained professional observers. You have to wake p-r-e-t-t-y early in the morning to sneak a Polynesian past us.

    ReplyDelete
  161. Don't know the answer to that, Q.

    But if you are accute, and know your numbers, you will realize, that the numbers of the warriors from Valhalla, add up, with a little fixing, to the old numbers from Mesopotamia, and in the Bible too, if I am not confused.

    You can check Joe Campbell on that.

    This goes to show, how basic ideas are transferred around, in the myths of humanity.

    ReplyDelete
  162. 3 Good articles on Manufacturing Output vs Jobs.

    Bottom line: Jobs down - Output Up.






    Dont need to READ about it... Just DID it....

    We lived through the largest December ever with 30% LESS labor....

    I am tired but I can pay my bills and taxes and start the year in the BLACK.....

    And my season JUST started til the end of may....

    Margins are squeezed, fedex and ups are raising shipping rates by 4.9% come jan 4th...

    But I figured out how to use the Flat Rate Envelope better and moved over 1000 boxes with that instead of a 3 pound box....

    saved about $2700 JUST on that....

    INNOVATION....

    Planning for next holiday...

    Designing my boxes to FIT optimum shipping rates...

    Having my part-time employee stock up now for feb, even going so far as packing, wrapping and enveloping my boxes so all we do is slip in invoice and poof - out the door...

    Yep, gots to LOVE this recession.....

    Driving the meaningless competition out....

    Thank G-d that easy money is GONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!






    Say it with me brother....




    Cha........





































    Fuckin.................


































    CHING!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  163. WiO,

    Congrats!!!

    (also, Mazel Tov!)

    ReplyDelete
  164. Pesky Polynesians?

    Who ever heard of such a thing?
    From the islands of the tropical Pacific?

    Where they allowed a handful of foreigners to control their countries, their futures and eventually their culture.

    ReplyDelete
  165. "Well, I've tried to crawl down from my explosion the other day, best I can."

    Bob, you still sound a bit glum. You got's to lighten up. You owe it to your fans. Its the holidays.

    Keep pumping that Kalua and thinking about that Swedish maiden. In no time, you will be back to that same solipsistic, randy, sot we all know and love.

    Maybe you could give us a poem. Perhaps some ribald limerick on one of your favorite subjects. How about Ash? Of course you'd have to think up some words that rhyme with Canuck.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  166. The Government expanded their mail subsidies to your line of distribution, wi"o".

    We've been using the third class mailing subsidies for printed materials for thirty years, because the subsidies were there to promote exactly what we were doing. In fact we designed many of our products specifically to optimize those 3rd class mailing standards.

    Many folks complained of the cost, but I thought the ability to put a 32 page tabloid in any readers mailbox for around thirty cents to be fortuitous.

    Neither FedEx or UPS could do it.

    ReplyDelete
  167. Allen, I got to go to bed.

    But I'm sure I'm right, on Valhalla, and the numbers from Mesopotamia, and how it is reflected in the ages of the Patriarchs in the Bible.

    I don't know what this means, except that it is a reflexcion, in the old writings, of an earlier way of thinking about things.

    It's buried there deep, the old concept of fate, and the stars, which as I understand from the Bible narrative, there was a movement away from.

    I will look this up, and get back to you.

    If I'm wrong, I wish to be told so, so I can get my thinking straight.

    By the way, I'm no poet, just a bunch of crappy doggeral.

    But I wish I was.

    Maybe in another life.

    ReplyDelete
  168. it pains me but i have to agree with DP on his assessment of our public servants. all the ones i have ever known have been the biggest maggots; i have always wondered how they got their jobs and why.

    one bad ass Hawaiian!
    BJ Penn (on top) world light weight MMA champ

    ReplyDelete
  169. Terista,

    Meant to mention this a coupla threads back;

    Was channel surfing during dinner and caught the end of "Employee of the Month."

    Thought of you...

    (Not the second ending during the credit roll... wished I'd missed that, spoiled my happy place. )

    ReplyDelete
  170. gnossos, you mean the Soprano's episode?

    Anyway, new topic on the EB, just in time!

    ReplyDelete
  171. "By the way, I'm no poet, just a bunch of crappy doggeral."

    Bob, your starting to get me worried. We're not going to have to call suicide watch are we?

    Actually, that first poem on the last stream wasn't bad. Of course, you'll never get it in the "New Yorker" with that cunt line.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  172. Thanks Bob, being the second of four girls, I had no one to stick up for me and I needed a lot of sticking up for back then.

    ReplyDelete
  173. I think maybe he passed out. I usually put vodka in my Kahlua and cream.

    ReplyDelete
  174. I'm thinking Doug finally passed out. (fingers crossed)

    ReplyDelete
  175. Trish,
    I apologize for my crude remarks.
    It would be nice if you took back this untruth:

    "And you said that whoever Trish's husband was hunting down, it was of comparatively little or no import."

    I believe you are confusing me with someone else, or I uttered something I have never believed, which seems unlikely, as I also don't remember concocting that particular lie.

    ReplyDelete
  176. (I must have rolled over on the Barroom floor at the exact moment you typed that, Whit)

    ReplyDelete
  177. ...I appreciate the fact that I received no bumps or bruises in the course of my beauty rest.

    ReplyDelete
  178. The Miracle of Light--God is Light

    ...To put the vastness of creation into perspective, Blair uses a sheet of paper: "Imagine that the distance from the earth to the sun (93 million miles, or about 8 light minutes) is compressed to the thickness of a typical sheet of paper. On this scale, the nearest star (4.3 light years) is at a distance of 71 feet. The diameter of the Milky Way (100,000 light years) would require a 310 mile high stack of paper, while the distance to the Andromeda galaxy (at 2 million light years one of the most distant objects visible to the naked eye) would require a stack of paper more than 6000 miles high! On this scale, the 'edge' of the Universe, defined as the most distant known quasars some 10 billion light years hence, is not reached until the stack of paper is 31 million miles high -- a third of the way to the sun on the real scale of things!"

    ---------------

    Note to management--

    Y'all might consider a sidebar blogroll spot for Washington Rebel. Not only is their blog a worthy addition, they provide nice gratuities in return for the favor.

    ReplyDelete
  179. I did say the Mexican/Hispanic threat was the larger.
    As I stated above, though, both are.

    ReplyDelete
  180. Damn.

    Everbodies gone on and left me talkin' to myself.

    Again.

    ReplyDelete
  181. I had to leave LT. Watching Doug embarrass himself was making me feel uncomfortable.

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

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