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."

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Obama Deporting Veterans



Federal law requires everyone who enlists or re-enlists in the Armed Forces of the United States to take the enlistment oath. This oath is a permanent oath of allegiance to the United States of America very much like the oath taken by my best friend Fely on the Fourth of July, 2008 to become an American citizen.

The U.S. Army strengthened efforts to recruit more skilled soldiers by offering a fast track to U.S. citizenship if immigrants enlist. Currently there are 30,000 non-citizens serving in the US Army alone. My own father was a Philippine national who became a US Citizen by serving in the US Navy in the 60s and 70s. "When your tour ends," Obama said to those now serving, "when you touch our soil, you will be home in America that is forever here for you, just as you've been there for us. That is my promise."

According to the Cato Institute, immigrants account for more than 20% of recipients of Congressional Medals of Honor, the country's highest award for battlefield valor, equating to more than 700 immigrants who served the U.S. in wars with heroism "beyond the call of duty,"

Few of us can imagine the horror of combat, the physical and mental injuries sustained by our troops in war. Many of our troops find it difficult to adjust when they rotate back to the "world" and some of these get in trouble with the law. Almost half of the Vietnam veterans with PTSD have been arrested or jailed.


Approximately 3,000 military veterans from wars in Vietnam, Grenada, Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan are currently deported or imprisoned awaiting deportation. Most of their cases involve misdemeanors and felonies. Some combat Veterans are being deported after serving time in jail, and some without any jail time at all.


I'm all in favor of law and order, but I'm also about keeping our promises.

143 comments:

  1. Here we are, again.

    Applying "group think" to what should be individual cases.
    Sorting by predisposition, rather than by individual cases.

    While I certainly support legal immigration to the US, and support making legal immigration easier, I have little sympathy for those that then abuse our generosity. In general.

    I do not give much moral credit to those that have simply been "in" the military, myself included.
    Though it does indicate some willingness to sacrifice for the greater good of society. At least to a greater extent than those that did not volunteer or worse, refused to serve when called. Like those seeking deferments from social responsibility, because they had better things to do.

    Being a veteran should not provide a lifetime pass, but should guarantee a full and fair hearing and be a powerful mitigating circumstance, to be sure.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Our friend, Basil Quizon, a death march survivor, served in the USAF for many years after coming here.

    Can't imagine he never had a DUI.
    Were things different in the old days?

    Meanwhile, millions of illegal leeches are given a free pass, and preferential treatment.
    'Rat thinks that'll make em
    "more like us."

    ReplyDelete
  3. Google Should Buy Gm
    ...target ads so no buyers could remain ignorant of the facts.
    And their patriotic duty.

    ReplyDelete
  4. No Fatalities!

    Jeeze Louise

    Slideshow

    Arceo said of the 33 cars involved in the crash, 13 were involved in a single collision. Sixteen people were injured, one of them seriously. Nine of them were transported to local hospitals.

    9 after all that devastation!
    Testament to crashworthiness of modern cars.

    (lucky that 1 truck had some kind of low-hanging stuff that kept the guy in the car behind from being decapitated)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've always said it was the "Plan", doug. It has worked, before.

    It can only work this time if we can succeed in modifying the culture that is immigrating, since it is contiguous to ours.

    That makes it more important to engage the problem, not less.

    The Fortress USA option was reviewed and discarded by the power elites. There is no turning back the clock, no ability to return to our mythical past.

    All there is, just a long slog forward into the unknown.

    ReplyDelete
  6. DR: I do not give much moral credit to those that have simply been "in" the military, myself included.

    This may have been a consideration before 9-11, when it was possible to serve a term without seeing a deployment to a combat zone. The American Legion currently accepts new members who served during certain periods of time such as the Panama operation or Gulf One, and even through the 90s there were only brief flareups like Somalia, Desert Fox, Bosnia, etc. But after 9-11 the US has been continuously at war in Afghanistan and Iraq. To serve in the Army or Marine Corps, in particular, has meant guaranteed deployment to combat zones, so enlistment today means a lot more than just getting the GI Bill or the right to shop at the PX.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The power elites chose to go with Fortress America, doug.

    Have since President Monroe penned his Doctrine. Embrace our history, do not try to rewrite it to suit our times and reject the political correctness of sugar coating US faults and failures.

    Look to how we can succeed, and help. Invest in Walmart, be an internationalist.
    Put North America first, they did.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Obama’s scheduled visit comes as the bill’s backers need a jolt to come together, said Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry.

    “We have to talk about how to put the final pieces together,” Kerry said. “It’s good to hear from the president now, because it’s getting to that stage where you have to come to a decision with your heart as well as your head.”
    (the little one)

    Reid called the rare weekend session to meet his deadline of getting a bill by year-end. Republicans, unified in opposition, forced the Democrats yesterday to reiterate their support for cutting more than $40 billion in home health-care services funding under Medicare.

    It was the latest Republican effort to highlight the bill’s potential impact on the elderly.

    Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Republicans see the debate stretching into 2010 and that they gain the more the public learns. Republicans say Obama’s visit reflects a weakening Democratic position.

    ReplyDelete
  9. That is why, Ms T, it is important to proceed on a case by case basis and not lay a blanket solution upon an individual case.

    In the 70s and 80s I was out of the US for 4 of the 6 years served, but saw no combat while wearing an US Army uniform.
    My son deployed once to Iraq, twice to Okinawa, in four years in the Marines. It does not make him or anyone else deserving of exemption from the law.

    ReplyDelete
  10. To cut spending, that has always been the "conservative' thing to do.
    Now the "conservatives" object to scaling back Federal expenditures.

    It is a topsy turvy whirled.

    ReplyDelete
  11. DR makes some good points on the lionization of veterans. During the sixties I spent two years on a US Army post in Germany. It was always startling to pick up the Stars and Stripes and read about the number of cab drivers murdered by US military personnel. Kaiserslautern (Kleber Kaserne) was one particular city with a notorious amount of crime by US personnel.

    At that time there were over 500,000 US military in Germany.

    Today there are 140,000 veterans in US prisons.

    The military is not a boy scout troop.

    ReplyDelete
  12. rat pearls of wisdom:
    The Zionists doing their best to gain equivalency with the NAZIs.



    Maybe Rat needs to be demoted and not be so highly ranked?

    ReplyDelete
  13. At Gates of Vienna:

    rebelliousvanilla said...
    Charlemagne, and your solution to the US becoming New Mexico is what? Because you, the people, might not want socialism now because you are a White majority, but Hispanics and Blacks vote massively to the left and they will be the majority by 2050. For example, in 1950, right now Obama's approval rating would be under 40 due to the demographics. The way I see it, you the people are screwed. The US will either break into 2-3 parts or become a happy California all over - socialist, bankrupt and multicultural. You should read the Path to National Suicide of Lawrence Auster.

    And we don't need to kill their leaders. We just need to ban immigration and start deporting people. To be honest, I'd do away with the birth right citizenship. It's the stupidest thing ever - there should be a difference in between a resident and a citizen in terms of commitment to the country. For example, I get 91% on your citizenship tests. Most of your countrymen fail that test - how can you say that they deserve citizenship?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Get up in the morning, slaving for bread, sir,
    so that every mouth can be fed.
    Poor me, the Israelite. Aah.

    Get up in the morning, slaving for bread, sir,
    So that every mouth can be fed.
    Poor me, the Israelite. Aah.

    My wife and my kids, they are packed up and leave me.
    Darling, she said, I was yours to be seen.
    Poor me, the Israelite. Aah.

    Shirt them a-tear up, trousers are gone.
    I don't want to end up like Bonnie and Clyde.
    Poor me, the Israelite. Aah.

    After a storm there must be a calm.
    They catch me in the farm. You sound the alarm.
    Poor me, the Israelite. Aah.

    Poor me, the Israelite.
    I wonder who I'm working for.
    Poor me, Israelite,
    I look a-down and out

    ReplyDelete
  15. Swiss ban on minarets was a vote for tolerance and inclusion

    The Swiss vote highlights the debate on Islam as a set of political and collectivist ideas, not a rejection of Muslims.

    By Ayaan Hirsi Ali

    Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of "Infidel," is the Somali-born women's rights advocate and former Dutch parliamentarian. Her forthcoming book is entitled "Nomad."

    Another great resource, MLD

    ReplyDelete
  16. Climategate Junk Scientist Calls Skeptic A**Hole Live on TV (Video)
    At the end of the heated segment Professor Andrew Watson calls Marc Morano an ‘asshole’.
    Keep it classy, junk scientist.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Breaking: Obama’s Safe Schools Czar’s Question to 14 Year Olds: “Spit vs. Swallow?… Is it Rude?” (audio-video)

    The clip is from a lecture by Scott Whiteman from Mass Resistance. Scott attended the GLSEN conference on March 25, 2000 undercover. He recorded this clip at the GLSEN Conference.

    Here is the full exchange:

    Male Teacher: … Spit versus swallowing – I don’t know about the calorie count of cum. All right. Is it rude? Let’s ask this question: Is it rude not to swallow?

    Students: No! Oh, no! [Many "no's" from the children.]

    Male Teacher: No. So it’s in good bedroom etiquette … [unclear] to spit out?

    You just heard a public employee ask 14-year-olds if it was rude to spit rather than swallow during oral sex. Kevin Jennings who ran GLSEN is now Barack Obama’s Safe Schools Czar.

    There’s more to come…

    ReplyDelete
  18. Lt Colonel Allen West in Israel

    A military installation is supposed to be a place where our Warriors train for war, to serve and protect our Nation.

    On Thursday, 5 November 2009 Ft Hood became a part of the battlefield in the war against Islamic totalitarianism and state sponsored terrorism.

    There may be those who feel threatened by my words and would even recommend they not be uttered. To those individuals I say step aside because now is not the time for cowardice. Our Country has become so paralyzed by political correctness that we have allowed a vile and determined enemy to breach what should be the safest place in America , an Army post.

    We have become so politically correct that our media is more concerned about the stress of the shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan. The misplaced benevolence intending to portray him as a victim is despicable. The fact that there are some who have now created an entire new classification called; “pre-virtual vicarious Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)” is unconscionable.

    This is not a “man caused disaster”. It is what it is, an Islamic jihadist attack.

    We have seen this before in 2003 when a SGT Hasan of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) threw hand grenades and opened fire into his Commanding Officer’s tent in Kuwait . We have seen the foiled attempt of Albanian Muslims who sought to attack Ft Dix, NJ. Recently we saw a young convert to Islam named Carlos Bledsoe travel to Yemen, receive terrorist training, and return to gun down two US Soldiers at a Little Rock, Arkansas Army recruiting station. We thwarted another Islamic terrorist plot in North Carolina which had US Marine Corps Base, Quantico as a target.

    What have we done with all these prevalent trends? Nothing.

    What we see are recalcitrant leaders who are refusing to confront the issue, Islamic terrorist infiltration into America , and possibly further into our Armed Services. Instead we have a multiculturalism and diversity syndrome on steroids.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Doug: There’s more to come…

    The epitome of mixed emotions: Your child gets an "A" in sex education class.

    But really, Doug, even though that particular thing you mentioned is about as distasteful to me as it is to you, fourteen year olds think about nothing but sex, and the teacher here is talking about etiquette, not the morality of the act, which indeed should be left up to the parents and the priests/pastors of the student.

    ReplyDelete
  20. rat pearls of wisdom:
    The Zionists doing their best to gain equivalency with the NAZIs.


    Since I don't read Rat I would have missed that, WiO.

    Truly disgusting. Absolutely truly disgusting. Sickening, really.

    ReplyDelete
  21. An adult talking to minors like that should be arrested for Sexual Child Abuse.
    ...I had few ideological Pervs Despoiling my healthy 14 year old fantasy sex lives.
    Just a Beserkley Grad that recommended
    "Catcher in the Rye"

    BORING

    ReplyDelete
  22. George Will:
    Copenhagen is the culmination of the post-Kyoto maneuvering by people determined to fix the world's climate by breaking the world's -- especially America's -- population to the saddle of ever-more-minute supervision by governments. But Copenhagen also is prologue for the 2010 climate change summit in Mexico City, which will be planet Earth's last chance, until the next one.

    ReplyDelete
  23. All eyes back on Olympia Snowe

    Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) is the Republican most likely to support the bill.

    She voted for it in committee and is currently working to make small changes that could be used to justify her support.

    Sen. Snowe voted against the bill before Thanksgiving so it's very important for Americans to thank her for that vote and encourage her to be strong.

    Please call Sen. Snowe's Washington office at (202) 224-5344 or
    send her an email here.

    Sen Jim DeMint

    ReplyDelete
  24. "Since I don't read Rat I would have missed that, WiO."
    ---
    5 Demerits for Sheik al-Bob.
    That is a sacrifice that members are required to
    Endure and Contemplate,
    Al.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Reading the Copenhagen news articles re: Pledges to reduce CO2 emissions levels. I get the impression that the countries are now lying just to get the zealots off their backs.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Every pledge being completely ludicrous, if reality is allowed to sneak into the analysis.

    ReplyDelete
  27. "...THE STINK OF INTELLECTUAL CORRUPTION IS OVERPOWERING..."

    Rex Murphy from CBC on Climategate: "Climate science has been shown to be, in part, a sub-branch of climate politics..."

    ReplyDelete
  28. 70. Josh: @BC, re Copenscrewin

    "When you move your schedule to visit just the closing ceremonies, then all you need is a flat tire to miss the whole thing."

    ReplyDelete
  29. "...THE STINK OF INTELLECTUAL CORRUPTION IS OVERPOWERING..."

    Amen.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Doug: Rex Murphy from CBC on Climategate: "Climate science has been shown to be, in part, a sub-branch of climate politics..."

    That's obvious to anyone when you consider that the only Nobel Prize ever awarded in the field of climate change was to a politician, not a scientist.

    ReplyDelete
  31. DR: The Zionists doing their best to gain equivalency with the NAZIs.

    Sure, no mention of the parents who dress their babies up as suicide bombers and firing rockets directly at Jewish schools in the Negev. THOSE are poor oppressed working classes being exploited by the Zionist Entity.

    ReplyDelete
  32. 1.

    ”Cry ‘Havoc’ and let slip the dogs of war!”

    Since it appears this thread has already moved away from the original subject in a couple of instances I don’t suppose there will be any objection to my responding to the Rat’s comments directed at me from the last thread. (Even if you do, it won’t matter as I’ve been typing away for the better part of an hour.)

    Good heavens. I post a casual observation, take my wife to the movies, and come back to Armageddon at the E-Bar. Oh, the humanity!

    (And, hell, now my computer is covered in Rat scat.)

    Damn, where to begin? Well, I guess at the beginning.

    ”Were the Jews pressured out of those countries by government actions that were subsidized by the United States?”

    The simple answer is yes.

    However, it is also irrelevant. It appears your trying to pull up another straw man Rat. Not really even tangentially related to the point I tried to make in my initial post. That point being that it’s a tough world out there. Shit happens. On all sides. Learn it, live it, love it, as one of our underappreciated philosophers is wont to say.

    “Was the pressure on the Jews sanctioned and subsidized by the US funded United Nations, as it had been with regards the Palis?

    As with many of your posts, amigo, I find myself befuddled, not knowing exactly what you are asking or its relevance. Yes? No wait. No?

    ”Are the Copts being pressured by the government of Mohamed Hosni Mubarak rather than public sentiment and pressure?”

    Yes and yes.

    Egypt and the Copts

    As you know, sins can be of omission as well as commission.

    ”If so, I would advocate cutting all US funds and subsidies to that government. If that was not enough to modify behaviour, begin forced divestiture of private US economic interests from the Egyptian economy.”

    Yeh, right Rat. Why don’t you clear that with Hillary and get back to us.

    ”You are trying to compare apples to oranges, across time.”

    You are a constant source of amusement.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  33. When you advertise an Emma Peeler, you gotta show your customers the results of Emma Peeled, which is a great deal of Em Appeal.

    ReplyDelete
  34. 2.

    (Rat's second post)

    ”Did the United States declare those actions to be illegal acts of persecution and a violation of international law, as it has in reference to the Israeli settlements, since the annexation in 1968?”

    I would suspect yes to the first and probably yes to the second; however, I would have to Google it to be sure. But again, what is your point? Are you saying that the persecution of the Copts in Egypt, or the Baha’is in Iran, or the Maronites in Lebanon are unimportant or not violations of international law simply because the US hasn’t declared them as such?


    .

    ReplyDelete
  35. 3. (Rat's third post)

    It gets a little confusing from this point on Rat. You tend to wander off here in another direction as typical. Since Doug put in a post in between, I’m not quite sure if it was him or me you addressing on some of them; therefore, I’ll address the ones I’m sure of.

    ”Now, Quirk, from your brief statement, it would seem that FDR was President during these expulsions of Jews, from Arab lands.

    Again, you confuse me Rat. Here is my original post:

    ”(Those who complain about the Palestinians who have been kicked out of Jewish occupied territories since 1967 oft fail to mention the approximately 1 million Jews who have been forced through persecution and/or intimidation to exit Muslim countries in the same time period. The same has been/is happening to Christians.)”

    As far as I know, FDR was dead in 1967. Likewise, the persecution of Jews and Christians in Muslim countries continues today as noted in recent articles in the WaPO (For Jews, roiling Yemen no longer place to call home) on Jews (or the lack there of ) in Yemen.

    Sorry the WaPo article must have a large amount of comments associated with it. It’s too large for me to provide a link. However, if needed I can provide excerpts such as:

    “SANAA, YEMEN -- The last remaining Jews in Yemen are vanishing, driven out by politics, war and hatred. Once numbering 60,000, one of the oldest Jewish populations in the Arab world now has fewer than 350 members…”

    .

    ReplyDelete
  36. 4.

    In addressing the balance of your post, I will have to start pointing out some logical fallacies that you habitually employ. As you know I try to be as delicate as possible in making my points; however, here I must point out that it appears you are either forensically challenged and don’t know the difference or you think that everyone else at the EB is forensically challenged and won’t notice.

    For instance, the balance of your post is another straw man diversion and has no apparent connection to my initial post. What do American electoral politics have to do with the point of my post as noted above. Regardless, I’ll respond to it because it is illustrative.

    ”The same FDR that formalized relations with King Saud and whose political party, the Democrats, enjoy en bloc support of over 73% of the US Jewish community.”

    If you are talking about the Jewish vote for Obama in 2008, I believe it was 78%. However, since then the support has been declining among Jews as amongst most groups in the US; although it is still high. In the 60’s somewhere as I recall. However, this again is irrelevant.

    ”If the lack of US interest in these expulsions was a major issue for that community, well then, you'd figure they'd not support the politicos that turned a blind eye to it, while recognizing the legitimacy of Sauds.

    This support of the Democrats by the US Jewish community, despite the Democrats historic embrace and subsidy of the Saudi monarchy and the Presidency of both Sadat and Mubarak, indicates this issue is of little import to that”


    For your info and future reference, an argument is made up of two parts: premises and conclusions. However, there’s a difference between truth and validity that’s often confused. Truth only has to do with statements while validity has to do with the structural arrangement of statements we call arguments.

    A statement is true if it reflects an objective truth while an argument is valid if its premises are true. However, while the truth of the premise is a necessary condition for a good argument, it is not a sufficient condition.

    What you have provided above is an example of the fallacies of begging the question and of denying the antecedent. The very point that has to be proved to be true is simply assumed to be true (begging the question). You also state that because the majority of American Jews voted for Obama they ipso facto don’t give a shit about persecution in Saudi Arabia or Egypt (denying the antecedant). You also ignore the facts that American Jews have historically voted Democratic and that as a group they are liberal and would thus tend to agree with Obama on a whole range issues. And if you really think about it, these are possible reasons they might, despite your assumption or assertions to the contrary, vote for Obama regardless of their opinions on the Saudis or Egyptians.

    Finally, you seem to be assuming that Jews, here and in Israel, possess a homogeneity of thought and opinion that is ridiculous. The Jews in Israel loved W. Yet in 2004, Bush got only 25% of the US Jewish vote. We’ve already talked about Obama’s popularity with the American Jews; however, only about 4% of Israeli Jews have a favorable opinion of him. Jewish opinion is all over the map, both here and in Israel, depending on the specific issue. Even in the US, I’ve heard your taking your chances by putting Jews from J Street and the ADL in the same room.

    In my opinion, your opinion doesn’t wash.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  37. 6.

    "And no, "misdirection" it was not a discussion of things Jewish, but of things American. Referencing the actions of the United States with regards to these expulsions you have so often written of."

    The original discussion centered on my post which discussed the overall shit storm that is the ME. It only became a discussion on America after you inserted the straw man.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  38. ”It is not me you sould be trying to convince, "misdirection", it is the thousands that read this little blog each day.

    That is the audience that needs convincing, that needs the facts, that just may care.

    They can read my factual analysis or your rants, then come to their own conclusions, as they will.
    One way or another, based upon what is presented and the tone that the facts are presented with.

    Amigo.”


    Rat, I’m not sure if it’s your arrogance or your pomposity but you do make me laugh. Face it, this blog is primarily made up of some aging white guys and a few cute (no offense intended ladies) chicas. Deuce and Whit put in a lot of work keeping it going and moving along well. It’s often pretty interesting. But frankly, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for some hacker to be looking at trying to download the next batch of Climategate e-mails at the EB.

    We don’t solve any of the world’s problems here (although we do have Rufus and now that Bob has an ethicist to help out perhaps things will change).

    The fact is we don’t prove things here either; we offer opinions and gather a little catharsis in the process.

    You may think of yourself as King Rat, and that enquiring minds are eagerly waiting your next “factual analysis,” but I sincerely doubt it my friend.

    But, heh, look at the bright side. You’ll always have Ash.

    Amigo

    .

    ReplyDelete
  39. "Face it, this blog is primarily made up of some aging white guys and a few cute (no offense intended ladies) chicas.

    "We don’t solve any of the world’s problems here..."



    Whoa, there. I thought this was the RAND Corp. watering hole.

    Doug! How did we end up in the wrong place?

    ReplyDelete
  40. Q, There are many things more lamentable in life than an aging white guy and a chica. Here is my vote for an aging white guy and his chica. May it always be so.

    ReplyDelete
  41. "At the end of the heated segment Professor Andrew Watson calls Marc Morano an ‘asshole’.
    Keep it classy, junk scientist."


    Doug, really? Considering the epithets that you routinely let fly here at the EB, that's a bit rich, don't you think?

    ReplyDelete
  42. See, Quirk, you are fun.

    The point is amusement, entertainment, is it not?

    I did misconstrue your original post as per the 1967 remark, missed it entirely.

    And of course there are strawmen to the left of us, strawmen to the right of us and strawmen a head.

    And we all use them.

    And yes, when "misdirection" replied, the conversation did go beyond the scope of our original repartee, since you were unavailable.

    My remarks as to the support for Obama in particular, the Democrats in general, by the vast majority of the US Jewish community is one of a question.

    I often read, here at the Bar, that we are at war with the Islamics, and that the global Jewish community is in the vanguard of that fight.

    Yet that same Jewish community supports, en bloc, those political partisans that legitimized the Sauds, back in the day.
    They supported Ms Clinton and her husband as they smacked down Bibi, in round 1 and now support Obama and Rahm Emanuel in round 2.

    There seems to be a disconnect between the "Jewish" position articulated here at the EB, and the one represented by the votes in the US and the remarks of the official paid spokesmen of that community, both here and abroad.

    Why?
    Are the majority of those US Jews all as anti-semitic as I am accused of being?

    And not an impolite remark in the entire mix.

    Glory be!

    ReplyDelete
  43. Sorry if my comment came off as disparaging Deuce. Being an aging white guy myself I obviously didn't mean it that way. And heck, we need all the chicas we can get.

    As a matter of fact perhaps you could start a marketing campaign to try to attract more of the fair sex.

    For instance, perhaps we could have something like MLD Mondays where she gets to pick a subject for discussion that interests her.

    Ms. Trish Tuesdays?

    As a barkeep, Ms. T already has access.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  44. "There seems to be a disconnect between the "Jewish" position articulated here at the EB, and the one represented by the votes in the US and the remarks of the official paid spokesmen of that community, both here and abroad."

    Admittedly, our Jewish brethren here at the EB seem to be a bit more "Jewish" that what the polls would indicate the majority of American Jews are. But then I am merely going by the reported numbers.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  45. No offense taken Q. Maybe MLD would be interested in sponsoring a Friday's ladies night.

    Friday night with Melody?

    ReplyDelete
  46. "Friday night with Melody?"

    Good idea.

    (Of course, you realize that my original suggestion was merely to try to get on Bob's good side)

    ReplyDelete
  47. Quirk: And heck, we need all the chicas we can get.

    I'm trying to drag in some new folks from Top Conservatives on Twitter (#tcot), which has so much traffic you can't possibly imagine, both elderly white gents and cute chickas. I do that by posting links to new articles that appear on the EB.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Quirk: As a matter of fact perhaps you could start a marketing campaign to try to attract more of the fair sex.

    As far as I'm concerned, Deuce does that every time he posts eye candy.

    ReplyDelete
  49. For my part, I bow, of course, as is my pledge, my troth, my heart, to my Lady Melody's sovereign wish, whatever e'er that may be.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Trish wouldn't now dare carry a Ms. Trish Tuesday.

    Not after being alarmingly asked recently, "Have you ever gone by Trish?"

    ReplyDelete
  51. MLD Fridays...Much better idea.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Running Hard. The Pols might have their hands full.

    WASHINGTON (AP) - Sarah Palin poked fun at herself in a speech to journalists Saturday night, drawing laughter when she announced she "came down from my hotel room and I could see the Russian embassy."

    The 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate also joked that she had orginally thought of titling her book "How To Look Like a Million Bucks, or Only $150,000" before settling on "Going Rogue." In one of the controversies surrounding her candidacy, the campaign spent about $150,000 on her wardrobe.

    Palin was the Republican speaker at the winter dinner of the Gridiron Club, an organization of Washington-based journalists.

    Rep Barney Frank, D-Mass., represented the Democrats.

    Palin targeted her hosts, Democrats and Sen. John McCain's campaign staff, as well as herself.

    If the election had turned out differently, she said, "I could be the one overseeing the signing of bailout checks and vice president Biden could be on the road selling his book, 'Going Rogaine.'" Biden has sparse hair.

    The crack about seeing the Russian embassy from her hotel referred to Palin having told an interviewer during last year's campaign that her qualifications for high office included that "you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska."

    As for her hosts, she said she was glad to be appearing before an elite audience of leading intellectuals, "or as I like to call it, a death panel."

    McCain's campaign staff also came in for a barb from the former Alaska governor when she said she is touring the country by bus as she sells her book.

    "The view is so much better from inside the bus than under it," she said, referring to the poisonous relations between her and some of the McCain campaign staff.

    Focusing on criticism she has received from Steve Schmidt, a senior strategist in McCain's presidential campaign, she said, "If I need a bald campaign manager I guess I'm left with James Carville," a Democrat.

    In her book, she wrote that Schmidt felt she wasn't prepared enough on policy matters and even wondered if she was suffering from postpartum depression following the April 2008 birth of her son Trig, who has Down syndrome.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Back a couple of threads to Ruf's link on the new Chinese city of Ordos.

    Rufus, did you notice that the commentator said that most of the purchases were by "overnight millionaires" "rich from massive coal deposits?"

    I'm sure there are a number of coal to oil plants in the area...

    Commentator again; "This place has been described as China's Texas..."

    ReplyDelete
  54. gnossos: Commentator again; "This place has been described as China's Texas..."

    And though it's a part
    of the Lone Star State
    people don't seem to care
    They just keep on lookin' to the East

    Talkin' 'bout China Grove
    Woh oh, China Grove

    ReplyDelete
  55. Visiting in Honolulu a month ago driving in from out by the airport towards town at dusk. Lights from traffic and the city skyline very impressive.

    PhD in the car prattling on about going green. Electric vehicles, etc.

    I asked if they knew where the energy they were using came from.

    "Water power?" "Cable from Guam?"

    Not one said oil. I pointed to the refinery on our right. PhD said "A refinery? Here?" She's a native, left some time ago, back now five years or so...

    I have little hope...


    p.s. As some might expect all in the vehicle, save me, very strong Obamaites...

    ReplyDelete
  56. Quite right, T. It's a fairly short "Walk" from Alaska, to Russia, in the wintertime.

    Yes, Gnossos, they're building a new Coal-fired plant just about every week. They've got a billion point two people wanting to join the 20th Century (not to mention, the 21st.)

    ReplyDelete
  57. So Rufus, given the global warming debacle, do you think there is any chance whatsoever of the US utilizing it's coal resources, coal to oil, to reduce our foreign dependency?

    ReplyDelete
  58. Fricking Tom Friedman today was calling for a dollar a gallon tax on gasoline.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Coal to Oil?

    No, Gnossos, not a chance. It's not good technology. Very Expensive, and very dirty. The "dirty" you can work around, but the "expensive," not so much.

    We'll slay "this" dragon with "batteries," and biofuels.

    ReplyDelete
  60. Friedman is an idiot. We'll have our $5.00 gasoline soon enough.

    ReplyDelete
  61. We're sitting on what's been called the largest coal reserves in the world. We're insane not to take advantage of it.

    ReplyDelete
  62. Hard to believe but coal is a relatively inexpensive fuel.

    Our President has vowed to make it prohibitively expensive to get a permit for a coal-fired power plant.

    ReplyDelete
  63. The inmates are running the asylum and bad as the Republicans may be, if this situation doesn't turn around next year and in 2012, my friends, you can "kiss it goodbye."

    ReplyDelete
  64. Whit: We're sitting on what's been called the largest coal reserves in the world. We're insane not to take advantage of it.

    What's going to happen is that we're going to keep financing our multi-trillion dollar entitlements by selling this coal to China. You've heard of Aramco, the Arab-American oil company, now welcome Chimericoal LLC.

    ReplyDelete
  65. Whit: Our President has vowed to make it prohibitively expensive to get a permit for a coal-fired power plant.

    That's fine, then all the GOP candidate has to do in 2012 is say "Drill, baby, drill!", especially if gas is $5 like they say.

    ReplyDelete
  66. We'll use them, Whit; but this Global warming balogna has to run it's course, first.

    Coal is very good for electricity generation. That's what we'll use it for. With the scale of a large power station you can afford to install the scrubbers, etc. to make the surrounding area livable.

    Keep in mind, though, that the coal we have left isn't nearly as high quality as the coal we've burned in the past.

    ReplyDelete
  67. Remember the posts we did on the UN traveling medicine show? Well, it seems that the local outreach programs have paid off. The third whirlders are going to Copenhagan with a Christmas list of things they want us to pay for.

    ReplyDelete
  68. I'm afraid they're going to get "coal" in their stockings, Whit.

    If the U.S. Senate ratifies "Anything" that comes out of Copenhagen I'll be giving free hand jobs in the parking lot.

    ReplyDelete
  69. The lefties love to claim that "Amerikkka" is racist to its core.

    The resident socialist on This Week with George..., Katrina van den Hoevel, repeated the Democrat meme that Obama has received a "record number of death threats."

    I heard the other day that the head of the Secret Service says that Obama has received the same level of threats as Bush and Clinton. Nothing out of the ordinary.

    ReplyDelete
  70. Will you also be working Copenscrewin, ruf?

    ReplyDelete
  71. Ed Scott (09:54:34) :

    Sceptics in Wonderland
    by Christopher Essex

    December 6, 2009

    The Wall Street Journal recently published an article by Daniel Henninger critical of scientists who allowed the culture of Climategate to develop in their professions.

    Christopher Essex, a leading Canadian applied mathematician and award-winning author, has written to Henninger.

    Dear Daniel

    My friend Willie Soon passed on an article from your “Wonder Land” column. It’s very good. It is an angle that I have anticipated for a very long time.

    Wonderland is certainly where I have been trapped for more than twenty years. But it is not nearly as nice as Alice’s version. Thoughts of the inquisition come to mind instead.

    Many of we scientists have been ringing the alarm bells from the beginning on this. We have been telling everyone who would listen about who we were dealing with. We have known all along.

    Climategate is no surprise at all to us. Evidence for this is in my book with Ross McKitrick from 2002, Taken by Storm. It won a $10,000 prize, and is now in a second edition. But few were listening. If my book had a title like Oh, my God, we are all going to die, I am sure that it would have been on the NYT bestseller list at once.

    Even though I understand where you are coming from, I find it rings flat with me to have to face people asking where the scientists were when we were overcoming so many many obstacles to get a rare fair hearing. The scientists have been tied up and gagged in the back room. I hate that. We were there screaming our lungs out all along.

    Damn it all, my friends Ross McKitrick and Steve McIntyre had to have a hearing before US congress to get that ridiculous hockey stick broken! It should have been a simple matter. The thing could hardly hold together under its own weight.

    Ross and I had a whole chapter on the hockey stick in our book, long before that controversy came to light. We used similar techniques to compute the US GDP with tree rings back to the year 1000, and we got a lovely hockey stick.

    I did not want in on the original hockey stick paper, because of my objections to the merits of the underlying physics, but I did comment on the drafts. In the second edition, there is an account of how the thing got broken by Ross and Steve.

    That science needed to get settled in Congress should have got people’s attention right there that there was something seriously wrong.

    Science is alive and well in the individual scientists who are not caught up in gaming the system for bigger grants. I call it small science. Many of them are doing very unfashionable things, and are happy to get no recognition for it.

    That is where you can find the real scientists. That is where the future will be.

    A milestone in this mess can be said to be when John Houghton of the IPCC said it was the IPCC’s job to “orchestrate” the views of science. Everything that has happened flows as an inevitable consequence of that.

    Some important research fields have been “orchestrated” out of existence. Even before Climategate, I have been saying that we have set ourselves back a generation by taking the money from governments with so many strings attached.

    Governments leaders wanted something where they could absolve themselves of the responsibility for making informed decisions. They would have to read science stuff otherwise. They ordered up a kind of unnatural scientist that would tell them precisely what they wanted to hear.

    But they gave the puppeteers clubs to deal with those of us who remained true. And the perps of Climategate are what they got. All of my colleagues have had to endure these bullies and criminals for a very long time.

    You should understand that (real) scientists have had to pay the heaviest price for the creation of these monsters for decades. And they were not created by us.

    Best wishes,

    Christopher


    Christopher Essex is Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Western Ontario.

    ReplyDelete
  72. They're "Copinscrewing" the Local Whores for Free.

    Us, They be Charging. :(

    ReplyDelete
  73. Coal to oil

    Ruf, my understanding is that the "clean" part is a done deal.

    Guys I spoke to a couple years ago who worked on the prototype plant in the '70s said it was economical in their back of the envelope figures with oil at ~$40/bbl.

    Shenua spokesman in 2006: "The economic prospects are impressive, Zhang said. "We will have good business returns if the crude oil price stays above US$30 a barrel."

    ....

    ReplyDelete
  74. The Hide the Decline Trick, explained

    If you get tired of the "inside baseball" scroll down to the final graph, which is probably pretty close to the "Real" temperature of the last two millenia.

    ReplyDelete
  75. I could be wrong, Gnossos. We'll see.

    ReplyDelete
  76. Doug claims that such a thing has happened before.

    Of course, well, . . . . . . . . .pineapple comes to mind, but . . . . . . . .

    ReplyDelete
  77. Sadly, the Case Brother has Liquidated the Historic Maui Pineapple Company.
    After a Century of family management, Case brought in some of his computer millionaire minds and destroyed the company in less than a decade.
    (a complete paragraph w/o mention of any individual failure closer to the EB Fambly.)

    ReplyDelete
  78. Shell sold out their next windfarm here to
    "concentrate on the mainland"

    Real reason:
    New one has to have storage:
    Can you imagine Megawatt-Sized battery farms?

    Shell was talking water storage.
    Bet the new company is never Economic.

    The environment's gonna expire recycling batteries.

    ReplyDelete
  79. Hey Viktor:
    I was just quoting Gateway Pundit.
    You know I'm the Bar Choir Boy.

    ReplyDelete
  80. "Doug!
    How did we end up in the wrong place?
    "
    ---
    It's a Randyanne Bar in My Mind,
    and I'm Stickin to it!

    ReplyDelete
  81. Wall Street Journal - Darcy Crowe - ‎1 hour ago‎
    CARACAS (Dow Jones)--One of President Hugo Chavez's top collaborators will resign from his post following the arrest of his brother as part of a brewing banking scandal.


    Venezuela Widens Purge Of Bankers With New Arrest New York Times


    See, Hugo is taking some EB advise, arresting the bankers, lining them up and ....

    Is that really the kind of government we would want, here?

    ReplyDelete
  82. Isn't Bernie Madoff being in jail penance enough for bilking his community for all he could.

    Or should he have been shot?

    What would Hugo do?

    ReplyDelete

  83. US 'comfortable' with Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, says Robert Gates


    Defense secretary reassures Americans that Washington has beefed up security around Islamabad's weapons

    ReplyDelete
  84. "Friday night with, Melody?

    Hm...Is my life that pathetic that you know where, I am every Friday night? And when, I am here everyone else is out, so, I'm usually singing alone. And what's the sense in posting something when most of the time it never gets discussed?

    ReplyDelete
  85. It's what laptops are for, Melody, you can go where'er you want, and run the bar from there.

    ReplyDelete
  86. And, anyway, we never stay on topic.

    It's not good form around here to stay on topic.


    Colder here today than yesterday, damn chill wind of about 25 mph blows the body's heat to the next county. Still no real snow, though.

    ReplyDelete
  87. Religion of peace strikes again. Man converts to Judaism, stabbed four time to death by Saudi graduate student.

    Here

    "He dedicated his life to trying to understand the people of the Middle East," said the professor's sister Linda Miller, of Holden, Mass. "He never said an unkind word to anyone in his life."

    ReplyDelete
  88. Just say something Racist, MLD.
    A sure showstarter.

    ReplyDelete
  89. That's about the most disgusting provocative thing anyone could do, Al.
    He got what he deserved.

    ReplyDelete
  90. Melody: And what's the sense in posting something when most of the time it never gets discussed?

    The trick is to keep the comments from surpassing 200, otherwise it goes to two pages and it's a pain in the ass. But the EB has always been the place for the chatty folks from Belmont Club who were pissing off Wretchard with our dozens of little pissant posts per thread.

    ReplyDelete
  91. What was he a graduate student of, this Saudi? Advanced Q'u'r'a'n ?

    ReplyDelete
  92. In his statement, Mr. Mollen said there was "no indication of religious or ethnic motivation" in the killing. He said no other arrests were expected.

    Just another rainy day killing, al-Doug. No religious or ethnic motivation here, nosireejack.

    ReplyDelete
  93. I would say being corrected on my grammatical errors is in the top most five things I hate.

    ReplyDelete
  94. Professor Ash, Where Art Thou?

    I remember the old Time or Newsweek, or both, covers with the Snowball Earth. If the temperatures outside my window are any indication, I think we're gonna freeze to death.

    ReplyDelete
  95. Don't worry about it. Half the time no one can figure out what Trish is trying to say.

    ReplyDelete
  96. I would say being corrected on my grammatical errors is in the top most five things I hate.

    Sun Dec 06, 08:53:00 PM EST

    Name the other four.

    ReplyDelete
  97. By the way, "White Christmas" beats "Meet Me in St. Louis" by a mile, according to my wife.

    Neither comes close to "Ernest Saves Christmas", though.

    One thing I dislike is people asking me to list the things I dislike.

    ReplyDelete
  98. Rude people
    Liars
    When things don't go my way
    Inflatable lawn ornaments

    Should, I go on?

    ReplyDelete
  99. By the way, "White Christmas" beats "Meet Me in St. Louis" by a mile, according to my wife.

    - bob

    She's lying.

    ReplyDelete
  100. A fresh poll, conducted last week by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research of Washington, D.C., for the state's largest newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, shows Reid's approval rating again stuck at a dismal 38 percent. This will disappoint a Reid camp that has furiously saturated the airwaves with advertising to, as the campaign puts it, "reintroduce" Harry to Nevada voters.

    Apparently Nevadans didn't need a reintroduction. Reid's getting the thumbs down from 49 percent of Nevada voters -- the same high level as the start of the year.


    Turn Out The Lights--The Party's Over

    Looks like Harry Reid may be toast. About time too. Dick Morris has been saying the Republicans may take back even the Senate.

    Be nice to get back to some divided government. I like divided government, on most things. Stalemate the bastards.

    In Idaho, we used to have, a legislature every two years, rather than every year.

    Things went better that way, in my view.

    Less opportunity for mischief.

    ReplyDelete
  101. T keeps her inflatable lawn ornament in her bed.

    ReplyDelete
  102. People in the military or diplomatic corps using ACRONYMS (Abbreviated Code Rarely Or Never Yielding Meaning) for every damn thing thus leaving us civilians out of the conversation loop.

    ReplyDelete
  103. MeLoDy...

    Have we seen that name before?

    ReplyDelete
  104. Whit, where have you been sweetheart? T, has nicknamed me that months ago and they have been calling me that ever since. Most of the time, anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  105. "As a matter of fact perhaps you could start a marketing campaign to try to attract more of the fair sex."


    Er...Then again.

    ReplyDelete
  106. I got a soft spot for the little drummer boy too.

    Bing sang the Vandal Fight Song once, too.

    ReplyDelete
  107. Who was MLD Before she was MLD?

    ReplyDelete
  108. Yeah Bing grew up in Easter WA, right?

    ReplyDelete
  109. Spokane, Washington, al-Doug.

    ReplyDelete
  110. It can only be sung by them. It brings a tear to my eye every time, I listen to it.

    ReplyDelete
  111. Should, I change it back to, MLD, I don't want to confuse the aging white men at the EB.

    ReplyDelete
  112. I'd like to hear Tina Turner cut into it.

    ReplyDelete
  113. Bob, it's Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy. The combination is what makes it. I don't really think, I've heard anyone else sing it that way to be honest.

    ReplyDelete
  114. Such confusions
    Might lead to contusions
    Amongst old white men at the bar

    If we are uncertain as to who you are

    Stiok with MeLoDy.

    ReplyDelete
  115. Oh, for the love of God.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnqj31VPNoE

    ReplyDelete
  116. " I don't really think, I've heard anyone else sing it that way to be honest."
    ---

    Trish said you lied.

    "I'm just sorry I can't believe you anymore."

    ReplyDelete
  117. I really don't think anyone is uncertain as to whom, I am, no matter what name, I go by.

    And, as beautiful, as Faith Hill is you can't pass up, David Bowie's, accent. He can talk to me all day.

    ReplyDelete
  118. Trish, didn't say, I lied. She said, Bob's wife was lying.

    ReplyDelete
  119. "...aging white men at the EB."

    Perhaps a poor choice of words.

    Maybe should have been something like...

    "...seasoned corporate honchos, ex-military bad asses, mercs, and roues"

    might help with T's recruiting efforts.

    Well maybe not T's, but just saying.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  120. Not everyone was bored by Obama's speech. Some were alarmed:

    ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — President Obama’s timetable for American forces in Afghanistan rattled nerves in that country and in Pakistan on Wednesday, as American diplomats worked to convince the two countries at the center of the president’s war strategy that the United States would not cut and run.

    ReplyDelete
  121. experienced men o' the wide world who know what's wanted how to deliver it and when

    ReplyDelete
  122. The Worst Possible Afghan Strategy

    So says a Canadian writer and one is tempted to agree with him.

    It's that bug out date, right before our elections, that get's me.

    Our great commander, thinks only of his politcal self.

    From children to the elderly to soldiers, he thinks nothing of the lives of others.

    His aunt, by the way, the one in the States illegally, is still getting by on a few bucks a month.

    You'd think he'd send her something each month, though it is proper he butt out of the deportation proceedings, as he has done. But probably because he doesn't give a damn, one way or the other.

    ReplyDelete
  123. Probly cause it's fixed.
    Only democrats can feel holier than thou while sitting on millions as their parents, etc go on the public dole to eke out a subsistance.
    ence?

    ReplyDelete
  124. This is a series of comments I made over at Robert Rapier's blog:


    We could put a 25 million gallon/yr ethanol refinery in all 3,000 Counties for about the same money we gave AIG. We could have it done in 5 years.

    If so ordered, the automakers could make every new car, and light truck Flexfuel Next Year.

    We would, for all intents, and purposes, be OUT of the Oil "Importing" Business.

    December 06, 2009 6:40 PM



    rufus said...
    It would be a One-Time Cost to us of just about what we're spending in the Middle-East Every Year.

    December 06, 2009 6:44 PM


    rufus said...
    It would knock about $15,000,000,000.00/Mo off our Current Accounts Deficit, and turn our Dollar into Solid Currency, again.

    December 06, 2009 6:49 PM


    The beauty of ethanol is that every locality has a feedstock. We can save a lot of money on transportation costs by keeping it local.

    December 06, 2009 6:59 PM


    rufus said...
    I'm sitting here watching the "local" channel. A local National Guard Battalian is getting ready to deploy to Iraq.

    We have about 120,000 Great Guys in Iraq. THAT is just about how many people would be employed by my LOCAL ethanol Refineries.

    I don't know about you all, but I'd one hell of a lot rather have them over here making fuel for my car than "Over There" guarding "Theirs."

    December 06, 2009 7:05 PM

    ReplyDelete
  125. I guess that should have been "Great Guys, and Gals.

    Mea Culpa, Chicas :)

    ReplyDelete
  126. Whose idea was this? Bob, Whit, Rat? Biodiesel Crops on the Side of the Road

    10 Million Acres.

    ReplyDelete
  127. What is 'rent seeking'?

    We've heard Linear use the term.

    This may be what he is refering to.

    ReplyDelete
  128. A temp history (in graph) for the Gulf Coast for the last 1,000 years.

    A Whole Lot Hotter, Then a Whole Lot Colder, and Now, About Right.

    ReplyDelete
  129. 'Electing Obama makes war more, not less, likely.'

    I believe Trish said this at one time.(if I recall correctly)

    Gaming Iran--Scenarios


    And, an article from the past, from Mark Steyn


    In 1971, in the lobby of the Cairo Sheraton, Palestinian terrorists shot Wasfi al-Tal, the Prime Minister of Jordan at point-blank range. As he fell to the floor dying, one of his killers began drinking the blood gushing from his wounds.

    They Are All Jews Now

    ReplyDelete
  130. Looks like, now that the banks have started "paying back," the Deficit in $200 Billion less than originally estimated.

    Gee, I wonder who predicted this?

    ReplyDelete
  131. Yeah, the banks got to play the markets with our money, (as the Fed Pumps up the market with our money) while the FHA partially fulfills the banks traditional role of lender,
    (again with our money, this time directly down the drain)
    including their more recent govt mandated role of lender to those who cannot pay off the debt.

    Our money works wonders for some, it seems.
    ...just not for the masses.

    ReplyDelete
  132. It is 'The Medal of Honor' awarded by congress not the congressional Medal of Honor

    ReplyDelete