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, February 10, 2010

Greece, who cares? Perhaps you!



Do you think AFSME and the NEA will act differently?



The Greek budget deficit is now 12% of GDP. It has a bloated public sector and huge unfunded liabilities to entitlement programs and government labor unions. Does that sound familiar? It should, the US federal deficit is forcast to be 11% of GDP this year.

Some say the US federal unfunded liabilities are $53 trillion. Others say don't worry. California recently released this bit of good news for Californians:

Unfunded pension liabilities for CalPERS and CalSTRS are $49 billion and a new accounting rule going into effect next year will result in an accounting for the first time of liabilities for retiree health benefits. A February 2006 Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) report estimates that the state's unfunded liabilities for retiree health care benefits and their dependents is between $40 billion and $70 billion and recommends that, in addition to current expenditures now reaching $1 billion per year, up to $6 billion per year be set aside to retire that unfunded liability. Also expected to be in the billions is the unfunded liability for retiree health benefits at local governments and school districts.

The annual cost to California's state budget for pensions rose from $160 million in 2001 to $2.6 billion in 2006, reducing funds available for other purposes. A large portion of that $2.6 billion payment went toward paying off previous pension commitments that had gone unfunded.

California.gov


148 comments:

  1. It's a clusterf*ck...

    The ONLY saving grace?

    The biggest crooks in the world are getting hammered..

    ReplyDelete
  2. A third of the people in Greece work for the government. They have a bigger deficit than the US.

    And there is a general strike now because the government is talking about forcing a wage freeze and changing minimum retirement age to 63.

    Go figure.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  3. A year ago, Ireland was being touted as the new capitalist Mecca. Larry Kudlow was saying the US should be following Ireland's example. They were cutting taxes. The economy was booming.

    Today, the only difference between Ireland and Greece is the language.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  4. Quirk


    Today, the only difference between Ireland and Greece is the language.



    I heard a complete opposing view just the other day...

    They said Ireland was willing to make painful cuts in public spending, was a good example of an actual turnaround story...

    Greece is a joke...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Unless the Germans intervene, the members of Club Med are in major trouble.

    While not current, it was my understanding that Ireland was making headway. In fact, SAM'S link to "Germany" makes mention of Ireland.

    Will Germany act again as the bank for the rest of the EU without something in return?

    ReplyDelete
  6. "Palin is a joke. A bad one."

    And you cannot convince me that, were she a man, she would be the object of such continuing adulation as we've seen.

    That an angry idiot should have such unique appeal when outfitted with boobs and long hair is, frankly, sad. And deeply cynical on the part of those who recognize it yet welcome her ability to bring 'em to Jesus. So to speak.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It's all on Germany's shoulders..

    Stratfor had a great post

    Stratfor
    Germany

    ReplyDelete
  8. And due to that ability, of which she herself is by now acutely aware, there is no getting rid of her.

    Although I'm sure that certain parties within the Party are, as we speak, desperately trying to figure out, with what combination of stealth and guile, to bench her.

    ReplyDelete
  9. "Palin is a joke. A bad one."



    No, She is an expression of what is RIGHT with America.

    If people actually LISTENED to what she said and not just try to make her into a cartoon, she had alot to say...

    To sum up her stance?

    COMMON SENSE

    I know it's confusing to many, the idea that there are easier ways to solve problems than the current administration's POV but really, take a deep breath..

    COMMON SENSE

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ethiopian Airline crash off Beirut was an act of Al-Qaeda terror

    Evidence has reached DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources that the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 which crashed after takeoff from Beirut on January 25, killing all 92 aboard, was blown up in mid-air.
    This was an al-Qaeda operation timed for one month to the day after its failed attempt to destroy an American Northwest airliner bound for Detroit.
    It is becoming clear that either a bomb was planted on the Ethiopian flight with a timer or a passenger acted as suicide bomber.
    Western security agencies in the Middle East involved in combating al Qaeda believe that its planners picked on the Ethiopian flight for more than one reason apart from the date: They had been tipped off that a group of French undercover agents, including Maria Sanchez Pietton, wife of the French ambassador to Beirut, and top Hizballah operatives, including secretary general Hassan Nasrallah, would be aboard.
    Mme Pietton lost her life in the crash, while the Hizballah travelers were saved by switching to another flight at the last minute.
    The first bodies recovered from the Mediterranean off the Lebanese town of Naama showed all the hallmarks of explosion victims: They were found strapped to their seats with their heads, hands and feet blown off and scattered, typical effects of an explosive blast.
    Eye-witnesses at the time heard a loud explosion and saw the plane enveloped in a ball of fire as it gained altitude after takeoff from Beirut international airport.
    Both France and Hizballah have denied they were targets.
    Lebanese officials, led by prime minister Saad Hariri, have spent two weeks trying to hide the fact that the Ethiopian airline disaster was caused by terror. But Lebanese health minister Jawad Khalifeh gave the game away by a slip of the tongue Tuesday, Feb. 9: “The plane exploded during flight and the cabin, as well as the bodies of those on board, were dispersed into the sea, in different locations,” he said, trying to explain why some of the corpses were found dismembered.
    He then tried to correct himself by saying he "didn't mean a military explosion."
    More confirmation of a terrorist hand behind the attack is found in the deep involvement of US intelligence, including the FBI, in the investigation of the disaster from the first moment. The US survey ship Ocean Alert was dispatched to the area of the crash and dropped a miniature submarine into the depths to retrieve fragments of the airliner from the seabed.
    A US intelligence and naval headquarters was set up at Beirut harbor to coordinate the salvage of the plane from the sea. Treating the crash as terror-related, Washington ordered the plane to be reconstructed from recovered fragments to establish the site of the explosion and its cause.
    US officials are also shy of discussing the case in public and admitting the crash was caused by an act of terror. It took place on January 25, shortly after President Barack Obama said “Al-Qaeda has been weakened." In an address to the American people to calm their anxieties after the Nigerian would-be bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had failed to detonate explosives carried in his underwear.
    Al Qaeda's success in blowing a civilian airliner out of the sky over the Middle East proved the opposite. It therefore became the subject of a comprehensive cover-up, joined by France. Before the black box, recovered Tuesday, had even been examined, French sources announced that human error by the pilot was the cause of the Ethiopian airliner crash.
    DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources recall a previous al Qaeda attack on a civilian airliner in the Middle East.
    Six years ago, on January 8, 2004, an Egyptian charter blew up after takeoff at Sharm al-Sheikh for Cairo, killing all 148 French citizens aboard on their way back to Paris from a Red Sea vacation.
    Neither Cairo nor Paris ever admitted that the disaster was caused by terrorists

    ReplyDelete
  11. I'm sorry, What Is.

    On this matter we are going to have to disagree.







    Just keep reminding yourself, Melody, that it's all over sometime...It's all over sometime...It's all over sometime.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Sarah Palin didn't go to Yale, or Harvard. Trish, and the elitists, will hate her (and, me) until the day they die.

    The "People," however, have just about had it with Yalies, and the boolah-boolah crowd, for awhile. They'll vote for her in a heartbeat. As will, I.

    ReplyDelete
  13. How many times has Debkafile been wrong over these things?

    ReplyDelete
  14. trish said...
    I'm sorry, What Is.

    On this matter we are going to have to disagree.




    I dont mind the boobs, long hair and easy on the eyes, but that's not what I see when I hear her...

    I see something else...

    As for her being perfect? Not hardly...

    But since the people in control now scare the crap out of me, I can take a common sense person that at least will take seriously the ideas of debt, defense and looking inward to America for energy independence.

    2 billion of the stimulus package for wind turbines has been spent by the Obama administration, 75% in china, creating hundreds of Chinese jobs, 25% in America...

    Amazing...

    ReplyDelete
  15. Deuce said...
    How many times has Debkafile been wrong over these things?




    about 3 out every 120 or so...

    how many times have they been right?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Reagan won the cold war, created 22 Million Jobs, and set the stage for the Greatest Expansion of an Economy in History. The "Elites" hate him to this day.

    Even after his death they can't find a kind word for the man. The closest they can come to praise is to call him the "Amiable Dunce."

    They despise you, and they despise me. As well they should.

    They want to control; and you and I want to be left alone. They want your money; and you and I want to keep our money. They want to return to their Royalist past; you want them to go fuck themselves. This will go on as long as the human race exists. Enjoy.

    ReplyDelete
  17. "Sarah Palin didn't go to Yale, or Harvard, Trish"

    And this has fuck-all to do with it.

    She could have a single semester from Slippery Rock for all I care if she appeared to be in any way a smart individual.

    I don't judge people according to where they went to school or the length of their education, having known countless supremely sharp human beings with unimpressive academic backgrounds - as well as some real head-scratchers upon whom elite and not undemanding educations seem to have been entirely wasted.

    I couldn't give fig about whether or where she went to school.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Palin is considered a cypher by much of the country, many of which did not go to Harvard or Yale, and many of which are not elitists, and suprisingly, many of which have never heard of Rufus.

    The fact that she is not considered a cypher by the rest is a sad commentary on our Star magazine and E Tonight culture.

    Celebrity is not substance. And lord knows we already get enough sound bites without her adding to the mix.

    She is painful to watch.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  19. Oh, and make no mistake, there are, probably, 40 Republican Senators (Scott Brown might be too new to be entrenched) that consider the Tea Partiers, and Sarah Palin, just as big a threat as do the Dems.

    You don't have to be a "Liberal" to be an Elitist.

    ReplyDelete
  20. And merely not having an Ivy League degree or two is not some kind of virtue.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Well, I must be a "Complete" moron, then; because all I've heard her say is:

    * Debt, and Spending is out of control.

    * Obama was too slow to react to McChrystal's request for Afghanistan.

    * Terrorists are not "criminals," and shouldn't be "mirandized."

    * We need to concentrate on Domestic Sources of Energy.

    * The Democratic Health Care Proposal would "Ration" health care to the Elderly.

    Please inform me, Q, and Trish, which of these you disagree with.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Sure got awful Quiet all of a sudden.

    ReplyDelete
  23. She attended Hawaii Pacific University in the fall of 1982 and North Idaho College in the spring and fall of 1983.]

    (In June 2008, the Alumni Association of North Idaho College gave her its Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award)

    She attended the University of Idaho in the fall of 1984 and spring of 1985, and attended Matanuska-Susitna College in the fall of 1985.
    Matanuska is part of University of Alaska.

    She returned to the University of Idaho in the spring of 1986, receiving her bachelor's degree in communications with an emphasis in journalism from there in 1987.

    After graduating, she worked as a sportscaster for KTUU-TV and KTVA-TV in Anchorage, and as a sports reporter for the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman.

    Exotic enough qualifications to be a woman of the people.

    She makes me nervous because you never know what she wil say.

    She would certainly make an interesting wife for a very self confident and accomplished man.

    ReplyDelete
  24. The Silence tells me that your objections aren't "issue-based."

    Then, what, pray-tell, is the objection?

    ReplyDelete
  25. Martha Elizabeth Beall Mitchell gained worldwide recognition for her outspokenness during the Watergate scandal, which forced President Richard Nixon to resign from office on August 9, 1974.

    She was a renowned character in Washington DC. During President Nixon’s reign, her husband, John Mitchell, was attorney general. Nixon once said, “If it hadn’t been for Martha Mitchell, there’d have been no Watergate.”

    Martha Beall was born on September 2, 1918, in Pine Bluff (Jefferson County).

    Her father, George V. Beall, was a cotton broker, and her mother, Arie Elizabeth (Ferguson) Beall, was a speech and drama teacher for fifty years in the Pine Bluff School District.

    Beall graduated in May 1937 from Pine Bluff High School, where she was known as friendly, outgoing, and extremely talkative.

    She attended Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, and the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County) before receiving her BA degree in history from the University of Miami. She was a school teacher for a year in Mobile, Alabama, but decided teaching was not for her and moved back home to Pine Bluff.

    In 1945, she was hired as a secretary at the Pine Bluff Arsenal and, after six weeks, was transferred to Washington DC with her boss, Brigadier General A. M. Prentiss.

    Beall met Clyde Jennings Jr., a young Army officer from Lynchburg, Virginia, and went out on a date with him. Soon after he was honorably discharged, they were married in Pine Bluff on October 5, 1946, at the Presbyterian Church on 5th Avenue.

    They moved to Rye, New York, and had a son named Clyde Jay Jennings. The couple separated on May 18, 1956, and got a divorce on August 1, 1957. Later that year, on December 30, 1957, she married John N. Mitchell, an attorney in New York City. They had one daughter, Martha (Marty) Elizabeth Mitchell Jr.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Deuce, I hear her say, exactly, the same things every time she talks. See points above.

    Everybody made a big deal out of the "Death Panels," and, sure as shooting, they were "in there."

    I Never hear her detractors criticize her on the Substance of her comments. Only on some vague suspicions (she may not be a "genius" like the won, or she "might" have a parochial world-view, or, maybe she should stay home and "take care of her family.")

    Don't kid yourself, Deuce; its a "us vs them" thing. It's Yale vs Id State. It's Washington, DC vs small town Alaska. It's the people vs the "ruling" class. Period.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I disagree with these two, for reasons I'll be glad to explain should you so desire:

    Obama was too slow to react to McChrystal's request for Afghanistan.

    Terrorists are not "criminals," and shouldn't be "mirandized."




    Points of agreement are immaterial where I consider them on the order of statements mechanically regurgitated by a Chatty Cathy doll.

    ReplyDelete
  28. And, interesting wife, aside, she was, obviously, a very effective, and popular, Governor.

    ReplyDelete
  29. And, btw, we Know where She went to school, and who paid for it. And, What her grades were.

    ReplyDelete
  30. From Time, July 2, 1973:


    ...The real Martha was inimitable herself last week, as always. Irked by the hordes of newsmen frequently hovering outside her Fifth Avenue apartment, Martha emerged twice from the building Tuesday night, and was met both times by Associated Press Reporter Judy Yablonky.

    The second time she grabbed the doorman's hat and threw it, striking Reporter Yablonky in the face. She then struck the newswoman twice on top of the head and threatened to "thromp the hell" out of the reporter if she set foot on the building doorstep.

    The encounter ended when the Mitchells' twelve-year-old daughter Marty arrived home, took her mother by the hand and led her back upstairs.

    Doubtless fed up with journalistic prying into her private life, Martha got on the line to U.P.I.'s Helen Thomas (who is certain that this was the real Martha) and announced that she and Marty were "going South."

    Before leaving, she merely wanted to reiterate her view that Nixon should resign. "I don't like Agnew, but my God, I think he's better than Nixon. I've told my husband repeatedly that I may not be here many years, but Marty will be, and his grandchildren."

    For good measure, she telephoned NBC and spoke to Newsman Peter Hackes, insisting yet again that Nixon "knew all about" the Watergate coverup. It all had a familiar and increasingly sad ring.

    ReplyDelete
  31. I disagree with these two, for reasons I'll be glad to explain should you so desire:

    Obama was too slow to react to McChrystal's request for Afghanistan.

    Terrorists are not "criminals," and shouldn't be "mirandized."



    Nope, that tells me all I need to know.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Well, I'm not going to argue with you all day.

    You're favorably impressed by her, as are millions of others.

    I'm in the camp that's not.

    Might as well move on to the next subject.

    ReplyDelete
  33. That was my point in the scribbled palm vs. the dueling teleprompters post .

    FWIW, I like my women smart, trim, with nice behinds and an attitude. All good qualities but not necessarily presidential.

    ReplyDelete
  34. It's not so much that I'm impressed with Sarah Palin as that I'm singularly Unimpressed with her Critics.

    Look, I don't like Any politicians. As far as I'm concerned, they're ALL sleaze-bags.

    But, I, and, as you said, Millions of other Americans, think it's time for a sleazeball from the Conservative Pile.

    And, I do kind of admire her spunk.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Fuckin' A.

    Trish weeps for her country.






    It's not too early to break into one of the last bottles we brought with us, is it?

    I think it's the perfect hour.

    Who wants a glass of Diablo red?

    ReplyDelete
  36. Just one of my many, considerable talents.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Blogger rufus said...

    Sure got awful Quiet all of a sudden.

    Wed Feb 10, 02:41:00 PM EST
    .


    Blogger rufus said...

    The Silence tells me that your objections aren't "issue-based."

    ------

    See BC "Hate choo" 2-9-10, Rufus.

    Much of the thread helps to explain the phenomenon of snarkiness we're treated to by she-who-cannot-make-links and her echo chamber.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Being snowed in this past week, I have now mastered the perfect margarita. And found out that too many Mike's hard berry doesn't agree with my stomach.

    No wine you ask...because I was too lazy to go out and get some yesterday.

    ReplyDelete
  39. We haven't gotten much more snow here but the roads are terrible.

    I have two more bottles of our own wine.

    And my parents have about thirty but their wine preference runs to the exceedingly dry.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Quirk and Trish

    See my comments on the previous thread.

    ReplyDelete
  41. If it's something that's not going to add sunshine to my day, can't you at least drag them over here?

    ReplyDelete
  42. The hell with it. Might as well get drunk, I never get what I want.

    Shall we tie one on, Linear?

    Maybe I'll go to this stupid Planning and Zoning Meeting tonight, and yell at the bastards.

    Nah, I won't do that.

    I got a lawyer.

    What's that old saying about there be thee but for the grace of God?

    There's a guy here, just saw him, going to Albertson's, one of the guys that Christ must have tried to cure, and probably failed, a prophet can't cure in his own home town you know, pure New Testiment type, right from the graveyard, he stands on the corner, waves his hands about, and shouts at the cars.

    It can always get worse.

    He should be institutionalized, but we don't do that anymore.

    You got to charge them with a crime.

    And he's done nothing wrong, other than scare the children.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Sarah Palin has made her first mistake. I love that woman, but she shouldn't have endorsed Rand Paul.

    She's right on most of the issues though, if you read her Facebook.

    ReplyDelete
  44. "Sure got awful Quiet all of a sudden."

    Sorry, Rufus but I had something more important than Sarah Palin going on. I just got a new xbox game.

    "Well, I must be a "Complete" moron, then; because all I've heard her say is:

    * Debt, and Spending is out of control.

    * Obama was too slow to react to McChrystal's request for Afghanistan.

    * Terrorists are not "criminals," and shouldn't be "mirandized."

    * We need to concentrate on Domestic Sources of Energy.

    * The Democratic Health Care Proposal would "Ration" health care to the Elderly.

    Please inform me, Q, and Trish, which of these you disagree with."


    And

    "The Silence tells me that your objections aren't "issue-based."

    I won't comment on the moron part Ruf, at least, as it applies to you. I'm trying to clean up my image. However, I fail to see how you can conflate these talking points with the “moron” delivering them.

    Try asking her a direct, specific question about any one of the matters you listed and she freezes up. The only passion she has is phony, ginned-up passion.

    I could care less about her having notes written on her palm. What bothers me was she was stupid enough to let the cameras see them and that she was so obvious about using them during the question and answer period.

    And the fact that she only had four things written down (sorry three, one was crossed out). The subjects were energy (one word?), something about the course of America, and some other piece of shit. If you believe in this stuff, you don’t need to be writing “energy” in your palm.

    She’s no better than anyone we have in Washington today and a lot worse than some. We deserve better.

    I’m embarrassed for her every time I see her talk without a script in front of her. It's painful

    .

    ReplyDelete
  45. It's not that I am IMPRESSED with Sarah as MUCH as I am scared shitless by Reid, Pelosi, Obama & Company..

    Barney Frank verses Sarah, I'd take Sarah

    and I could give you another 30 examples..

    but I'm too busy making money, hopefully faster than it's losing value...

    ReplyDelete
  46. My ass, she's right on most of the issues, I'll take Sarah, and I think she'd know to pull the trigger, if need be.

    Plus, she's an actual American.

    ReplyDelete
  47. "Quirk and Trish

    See my comments on the previous thread."


    Saw them LT. What can I say? Poor Sarah. Boo hoo.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  48. She'd support Israel for instance, as we should.

    She isn't a goddamned moslem.

    ReplyDelete
  49. I watched all of her interviews, I didn't feel pain. It was pretty naive, not knowing the cameras would pick up the redneck palm pilot.

    I think she was "really, really" nervous. Afraid she would leave out something important.

    I don't really expect her to get the nomination, but I treasure watching the left (and, the right-side elitists) whine, and moan, and rend their garments.

    ReplyDelete
  50. I must have missed that, I don't watch tv, but I know a good Lady when I see one, you read her face book, what can you disagree with?

    Fuck the tv.

    ReplyDelete
  51. So she's nervous, who wouldn't be, give her a break.

    She is a breath of fresh air.

    So she isn't one of these o so cool calm commentators, I've had a gut full of those fuckers.

    ReplyDelete
  52. People are starting to lose electricity. Highways are all closed. Our blizzard has started.

    ReplyDelete
  53. And here in Idaho it's about 60 degrees, down here in the valley.

    The meadowlarks are singing.

    The grass is growing.

    I'm lonely.

    And I am drinking too early.

    You are simply in the wrong place, woman.

    ReplyDelete
  54. I'm gonna vote for Sarah in a heartbeat.

    ReplyDelete
  55. "Quirk and Trish

    See my comments on the previous thread."

    Saw them LT. What can I say? Poor Sarah. Boo hoo
    .

    They were Viktor's comments. I don't think I even commented on that thread. Not that it matters.

    ReplyDelete
  56. Let's get drunk, Linear, I know you and I can tie one on.

    I can drink you under the table. Specially when I'm feeling bad, like now.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Who gives a crap if she has notes scribbled on her palm. It means nothing unless you dislike or fear her, then you will knit pick everything about her.

    I agree with Rufus's take on her.

    We've already had the "most brilliant men" in the Whitehouse. (Slick Willie and Obama).

    Who would you rather have in office, BHO or "the dunce", Geo Bush?

    ReplyDelete
  58. Sarah's my girl. I love that woman.

    I don't give a damn what she's got on the palm of her hand.

    She's a woman will pull the trigger, if need be.

    I like that about my Sarah.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Who would you rather have in office, BHO or "the dunce", Geo Bush?


    Give me a third choice.

    ReplyDelete
  60. Sarah, for Christ's sake, the third choice.

    ReplyDelete
  61. Sometimes you don't Get a "3rd Choice," Deuce.

    ReplyDelete
  62. I would have certainly liked one last November.

    ReplyDelete
  63. To see the way some are comparing Palin to Reagan, you would think she is running against the man.

    It's interesting to see the visceral reactions she evokes. For a dummy, she is certainly seen as a threat. It is because she is seen as such a threat, that she is so roundly trashed. For now, the Republican establishment will be content to let the left do the trashing. Later, if need be, they will pile on because she represents the "silent majority" which is becoming rather restive and less inclined to either major party.

    ReplyDelete
  64. You did well, Rufus, you aren't to blame for any of this shit.

    ReplyDelete
  65. For your edification:
    Portugal, Ireland Greece and Spain are being referred to as the "PIGS" of Europe.

    BTW - some pundits feel that the US has seven pigs of its own but I have yet to hear of the acronym for California, Michigan, Florida, NY, Arizona and wherever the other two are.

    ReplyDelete
  66. ...where ever...

    ...who ever...

    whatever.

    ReplyDelete
  67. DALLAS – Charlie Wilson, the former congressman from Texas whose funding of Afghanistan's resistance to the Soviet Union was chronicled in the movie and book "Charlie Wilson's War," died Wednesday. He was 76.

    ReplyDelete
  68. For what it's worth, Idaho still has a surplus, in the budget.

    But that's because, we still have farmers, running the legislature.

    ReplyDelete
  69. Deuce said...
    Who would you rather have in office, BHO or "the dunce", Geo Bush?


    ANYONE But BHO....

    Well not, Rev Wright, Barney Frank, Jimmy Carter, Jesse Jackson to name a few...

    I'd would not have minded many others....

    But we have King Obama....

    and that is horrible

    ReplyDelete
  70. Lucky me. I found three bottles of wine I forgot about. Time has been very kind to at least one of them.

    ReplyDelete
  71. Montgomery County sheriff died today, also. Is it me or does it seem like people are dropping like flies?

    ReplyDelete
  72. I was Robin Hood in a previous life.

    ReplyDelete
  73. Fuck it, I'm gonna tie one on, and I don't care who cares.

    ReplyDelete
  74. "People dying today that never died before."

    Ernest Hemingway

    ReplyDelete
  75. "They were Viktor's comments."

    Sorry, LT. I was multitasking at the time and not paying enough attention.

    My bad.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  76. I think I was probably just "robbing the hood" in My former life. ;)

    Say "Happy Birthday" to Rufus, childrin. Me, and Glenn Beck. Kind of a big day for the Republic, I'd say. :)

    ReplyDelete
  77. Do you have fire to go with those three bottles wine?

    ReplyDelete
  78. I have the fire going in anticipation of losing electricity. lost it twice today. If I'm not mistaken I heard thunder as well.

    ReplyDelete
  79. I was probably more like Jane in my past life.

    ReplyDelete
  80. I don't know for sure, but I'm lonely, I know that.

    Old Ernie, he could put a word or two together, in his old age, then he blew his brains out.


    But, he made a big mistake. You don't do that inside, you do it outside, so Mary doesn't have to clean it up.

    Cause the police won't do it for you, nor the fire department.

    ReplyDelete
  81. My sister heard thunder today.

    ReplyDelete
  82. Thunder is God's speaking to us.

    ReplyDelete
  83. Goddamn that looks cold.

    ReplyDelete
  84. I don't thin so, Robert.

    I think Thunder is the sudden increase in pressure and temperature from lightning that produces a rapid expansion of the air surrounding and within a bolt of lightning.

    In turn, this expansion of air creates a sonic shock wave which produces the sound of thunder

    ReplyDelete
  85. Cut n' Paste courtesy of Wikipedia

    ReplyDelete
  86. You never did have a mythy mind, Rufus, so I understand.


    So if you don't understand the deeper meaning of the logic of the sound of the thunder, I understand, you just don't "get it".

    ReplyDelete
  87. Do you know what frustrates me the most? Well, besides men. My best friend just writes random comments that have no meaning and then when you question her she goes right around the original comment and keeps you guessing. And you still don't know what she's talking about when you're done a half hour later. Grrr....

    The thunder is coming my way. And it's not God, it sounds more like the devil to me.

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  88. Anyone having problems with yahoo email?

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  89. My condolences to my northern neighbors and a hearty "Happy Birthday" to Rufus.

    Although it's cold here in the deep south (with a fierce wind chill), all in all, it's a benign place to spend the winter. I'm especially reminded of how nice the winters here are when I read the disheartening posts of my fellow barflies in the northern climes.

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  90. I answered my own question. Now it seems Ok.

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  91. Mine is working fine.

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  92. Do you know what frustrates me the most? Well, besides men.

    :)

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  93. The husband got twelve more inches of snow and it was still coming down, if more lightly, a half hour ago.

    And the roads are once again pretty uniformly unpassable.

    They are predicting gusts of up to 50 MPH when it clears tonight.

    I guarantee no household goods at all delivered this week. He'll be lucky if the cable/internet guy actually comes Friday.

    Poor man's going out of his mind.

    The neighbor across the road has wood. At least that's good to know.

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  94. The Palestinian Authority on Wednesday accused former intelligence official Fahmi Shabaneh of “collaboration” with Israel and issued a warrant for his arrest.

    ...

    The warrant was signed by PA Prosecutor-General Ahmed Mughni, who also accused Shabaneh of attempted “blackmail.”

    The arrest warrant is only effective in PA-controlled territories and does not apply to Jerusalem, where Shabaneh, who holds an Israeli ID card, lives with his wife and five children.


    Warrant for Shabaneh

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  95. Anyone having problems with yahoo email


    me,goddamn I never get what i want.

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  96. As may have been mentioned here previously, an alternative to the status quo needs a spokesman with an agenda to give it traction into 2012.

    Whether Gov. Palin ever gets the nomination again is not the cause of the bipartisan angst. Her articulation of a populist agenda is.

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  97. One minute from now Susan is up to bat for bob at the P and Z. She will do fine.

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  98. See Trish, I told you he would find a way. Now all he has to do is make sure his matches don't get wet.

    It is horrible here. So far 70.3 inches of snow this season and most of that was this past week.

    Did I mention that I hate winter. And winter with snow, even worse.

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  99. Allen, the goings on of the ladies and men in the circles of love in Weiss makes the goings on in a midsummers nights dream, or a midwinters nights dream, seam like child's play. But I do agree with him, love is at the base of it all.

    Now I demand you read Black Elk Speaks.

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  100. If you haven't read Black Elk, you don't know shit.

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  101. Allen with all due respect, I'm sitting here in the middle of a frickin' blizzard watching the news, having anxiety and wondering when the hell I'm gonna get out of here. I'm lucky I haven't lost my electric. My sister did.

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  102. You read Black Elk too, Melody, you got some time on your hands.

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  103. I don't like feeling trapped. It makes me do things that I shouldn't be doing.

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  104. Oh, that didn't sound to good.

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  105. What's amazing bout that book is, the description of the other world, and how it remembers itself all those years, his great vision, and how it changes the man.

    Read it.

    It's true.

    How the boy lay on the floor of the tepee, aged nine, and the two spitits came down, like arrows falling....it is beautiful....and how he raised up.....and went....

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  106. breaking records for the snowiest winter and demoralizing millions of people still trying to dig out from the previous storm

    DEMORALIZING...DEMORALIZING...Hmm...

    This about a nation that shrugged off the destruction of much of its Pacific fleet and set about setting things aright.

    ...from the Greatest Generation to the Cravenest Generation...It is good that our fathers are gone.

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  107. Read it.

    If I can't give you anything else, let me give you that.

    I know whereof I speak.

    There is a river there....there is a judgement there....you won't believe it...the circle of all nations is one circle of the all the nations...read it...I will send it to you, if you ask...

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  108. Allen, you have to read it now, too.

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  109. how two spirits came down, like arrows falling....



    it's amazing, if you've read this stuff like I have, forever, spirits often come in twos, and no one can figure why....

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  110. Thank you, Melody. I love you. But everybody knows that.

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  111. bob,

    I read the book many, many moons ago, at about the same time as Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Barclay's Apology, a Kempis, Bonhoeffer etc.

    Everywhere, at all times, amongst all people there are those with eyes to see beyond the mere present.

    A mouse is one. A mountain is one. The universe is one. None are the One.

    As you say, "love" is the key to an understanding of immortality.

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  112. O, I am glad you have, Allen.

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  113. And, I loved those books by Weiss. Thank you.

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  114. Sarah infuriates the Left because the Left is filled with sexists who loudly proclaim they are not, in the same way we see the Left is also filled with racists who loudly proclaim they are not.

    Bush had Colin Powell and Condi Rice for Secretary of State, but to the Left, his cabinet was lily white, because conservative blacks aren't truly black.

    To the Left, Conservative women aren't truly women. So the Left focuses on, for example, Ann Coulter's Adam's apple, suggesting she's a man in drag. And Palin doesn't fit the Left's profile of a true woman, because, for example instead of aborting her Down's syndrome baby, she went and had it. So in Palin's case the Left just comes out and says what they really feel about women deep inside: We're stupid.

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  115. Why sure, Ms T, if you do not agree with the self-anointed intellectuals, you must be a moron, just ask boob.

    He has declared everyone but MLD to be one, at some time or another. She misses the boobie standard of moronic behavior, only because of loneliness in the land of the Vandals.

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  116. As a man whose wife worked for years in the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, and who knows the game really really well, I can tell you, some of these kids, that they say are "retarded", are a hell of a lot better people than some of my relatives, and that's the truth.

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  117. You are an idiot Rat, and eveyone knows it.

    Ask Trish, for instance.

    Or, anyone else.

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  118. Or Allen, or WiO, or or even Deuce, or Whit, or Melody, or anybody else. Ask MIss T, or Sam. You are a shithead, and everybody knows it. Ask Linear even, or Gag
    Reflex.

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  119. You attacked my wife, and my daughter, for getting raped.

    You are a piece of crap, humanly speaking.

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  120. That may well be, boobie, but at least I'm sober.

    Stay that way, too.

    I'll be aware of my actions, as I approach that river, and I won't be sending women to fight my last fight.

    Rather be dead, then send a proxy to my last battle, not when I still was capable of doing it myself. Especially when that fight was all that was left to my life.

    I'll not watch from the back of the room, afraid.

    I will not just sit at home, nursing a drink, waiting for the woman to call, with news of my future, as decided by others.

    Better to just pay the ferryman.

    But as a intellectual of the left, boobie, that is the course you've chosen, leaving your battles to be fought by others, that's the story of your earthly existence, guess that made you the clever farmer, aye?

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  121. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  122. Must be really quiet there with all that snow around.

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  123. I never attacked your wife nor daughter, just said they were socially irresponsible for letting that felon run free, unmolested by the police.

    Free to attack some other innocent, because of their lack of citizenship skills.

    Because they did not "feel" like reporting the crime.

    If it was not reported, boobie, it did not happen.
    No Call, No Foul.
    Ho Harm was done.

    Or the good citizen would not let it happen again, to another innocent girl.

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  124. "That may well be, boobie"

    Christ, it is such a joke, this boobie shit.

    No one likes you Rat, you are a joke.


    I'm to bed. It isn't worth it.

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  125. No group has claimed responsibility for the lethal attack.

    The Khyber district is considered as a main supply route for NATO troops in Afghanistan. It is also a hotbed of homegrown militant groups.

    The main Pakistan-Afghanistan highway that passes the town has also been closed for all kinds of traffic following the lethal bombing, a Press TV correspondent reported.


    18 Killed

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  126. I guess, boob, that if I had that kind of dereliction of social responsibility on my conscience, I'd be a drinker, too.

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  127. You are a prick, Rat, no one likes you, the girls wish to be let alone.

    But, you wouldn't understand that, asshole.

    Goodnight.

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  128. Why do we have a main supply route going through the middle of a hotbed of homegrown militant groups again?

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  129. Christ, can you believe it, this asshole criticizes me, when I have done the best for my daughter.

    You are nothing but a prick, Rat, and everybody knows it.

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  130. The wanted to be left alone, at the expense of some one else, boobie.

    What they WANTED was or should have been SECONDARY to their social responsibility.

    But a cretin socialist, like yourself, would not know social responsibility if it hit you in the face.
    Because it did, and you and yours shirked it.

    Sure as shootin'

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  131. It was EASIER to "let it go"?

    But it really has not been, EASY, has it?

    And guess what, it won't "let go".

    Not while the guilty run free and the innocent hide.

    While you sit back and abide it.

    Have another shot or rum, boobie.

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  132. You are really a sad man,
    Rat.

    And, everyone knows it.

    Goodnight dear.

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  133. Not sad, at all, boob.

    Except for the state of our society.

    The lack of social responsibility from folks that call themselves "conservative" Americans, it really is shameful.

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  134. Well, why don't you ask my daughter, you peckerhead, then you might have a different answer.

    You are disgusting.

    A piece of shit, as everyone here knows.

    Melody and Trish would agree with that.

    I'd bet.

    Go to bed now, rat's ass.

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  135. You are a moral coward, boobie.

    You certainly seem proud of it.
    Your daughter made the wrong choice, your father would be shamed, as a Civil Servant, that his progeny let the innocent people of the town down.

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  136. A man who has himself as a client has a fool for a lawyer.

    Lawyers love fools, the breakfast of champions.

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  137. A moral coward.

    No one here would agree with you.

    I did the best for my daughter.

    Trying to understand her situation, from her point of view.

    You are the worst piece of crap.

    God, you are a disgusting bastard.

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