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 08, 2013

In their heyday, neoconservatives boasted that while anyone could go to Baghdad, real men hankered to go to Tehran. But as a venue for displaying American power, Baghdad proved a bust. In Tehran lies the possibility of finding a way out of perpetual war.



"American needs very little from the ME. We are now virtually energy independent from the region. Americans know that and will never again support another war orchestrated by the zip-cons. The Israel-firster lobby is desperately trying to create reasons for our continued waste of our trillions and our kids in the region to protect their supremacist agenda. Their pathetic attempt to hijack our FP is backfiring. Americans are watching and learning how the Israel-firster lobby is working against our interests. The Lobby's days are numbered....Fun to watch, actually.” 
-  MJMcMillan 12/7/2013 4:19 PM EST


With Iran, Obama can end America’s long war for the Middle East

By Andrew J. Bacevich, Published: December 6 

Andrew J. Bacevich is a professor of history and international relations at Boston University and the author of “Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country.”
What Jimmy Carter began, Barack Obama is ending. Washington is bringing down the curtain on its 30-plus-year military effort to pull the Islamic world into conformity with American interests and expectations. It’s about time.
Back in 1980, when his promulgation of the Carter Doctrine launched that effort, Carter acted with only a vague understanding of what might follow. Yet circumstance — the overthrow of the shah in Iran, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan — compelled him to act. Or more accurately, the domestic political uproar triggered by those events compelled the president, facing a tough reelection campaign, to make a show of doing something. What ensued was the long-term militarization of U.S. policy throughout the region.
Now, without fanfare, President Obama is effectively revoking Carter’s doctrine. The U.S. military presence in the region is receding. When Obama posited in his second inaugural address that “enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war,” he was not only recycling a platitude; he was also acknowledging the folly and futility of the enterprise in which U.S. forces had been engaged. Having consumed vast quantities of blood and treasure while giving Americans little to show in return, that enterprise is now ending.
Like Carter in 1980, Obama finds himself with few alternatives. At home, widespread anger, angst and mortification obliged Carter to begin girding the nation to fight for the greater Middle East. To his successors, Carter bequeathed a Pentagon preoccupied with ramping up its ability to flex its muscles anywhere from Egypt to Pakistan. The bequest proved a mixed blessing, fostering the illusion that military muscle, dexterously employed, might put things right. Today, widespread disenchantment with the resulting wars and quasi-wars prohibits Obama from starting new ones.
Successive military disappointments, not all of Obama’s making, have curbed his prerogatives as commander in chief. Rather than being the decider, he ratifies decisions effectively made elsewhere. In calling off a threatened U.S. attack on Syria, for example, the president was acknowledging what opinion polls and Congress (not to mention the British Parliament ) had already made plain: Support for any further military adventures to liberate or pacify Muslims has evaporated. Americans still profess to love the troops. But they’ve lost their appetite for war.
Two centuries ago, the Duke of Wellington remarked that “nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.” In our day, great battles are rare, while wars have become commonplace. Victory, meanwhile, seems a lost art. Nothing is half so melancholy as to compare the expectations informing recent American wars when they began — Enduring Freedom! — with the outcomes actually achieved. So in Obama’s Washington, moralism is out, and with good reason. Only nations with a comfortable surfeit of power can permit themselves the luxury of allowing moral considerations to shape basic policy.
Now, for the moment at least, realism has regained favor. In this context, that means aligning aspirations with available assets, and distinguishing between interests that are vital and those that are merely desirable. In Afghanistan, promises of enduring freedom withdrawn, realism offers “Resolute Support” as a consolation prize. When Obama’s national security adviser tells the New York Times that the president refuses to “be consumed 24/7 by one region” and intends to reassess U.S. Middle East policy “in a very critical and kind of no-holds-barred way,” that’s realism seeping through the Washingtonese.
None of this is to suggest that America’s War for the Greater Middle East has ended. Drone strikes, the Obama administration’s military signature, continue. Yet missile strikes alone, whether targeting Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen or Somalia, serve no larger strategic purpose. Wellington for one would have recognized Obama’s drone campaign for what it is: a rear-guard action, designed to allow the main body to withdraw.
This de-escalation is not without risks. For as America’s War for the Greater Middle East winds down, it leaves the Islamic world in worse condition — besieged by radicalism, wracked by violence, awash with anti-Americanism — than back in 1980. The list of dictators the United States has toppled or abandoned and of terrorists it has assassinated is impressively long. But any benefits accruing from these putative successes have been few. Ask Afghans. Ask Iraqis. Ask Libyans. Or ask any American who has been paying attention. (Just don’t bother asking anyone who works inside the Beltway, where the failure of the local NFL franchise to win games produces more worry than the U.S. military’s failure to win wars.)
Back in 1979, the “loss” of Iran provided much of the impetus for launching America’s War for the Greater Middle East. The shah’s overthrow had cost the United States an unsavory henchman, his place taken by radicals apparently consumed with hatred for the Great Satan.
At the time, the magnitude of the policy failure staggered Washington. It was as bad as — maybe worse than — the “loss” of China 30 years before. Of course, what had made that earlier failure so difficult to take was the presumption that China had been ours to lose in the first place. Discard that presumption, and doing business with Red China just might become a possibility. Cue Richard Nixon, a realist if there ever was one. By accepting China’s loss, he turned it to America’s advantage, at least in the short run.
So too with Iran today. The passage of time, along with more than a few miscalculations by Iran’s leadership, has tempered the Islamic republic’s ambitions. One imagines Nixon, in whatever precincts of the great beyond he inhabits, itching to offer advice: Accept the “loss” of Iran, which will never return to America’s orbit anyway, and turn it to U.S. advantage.
In their heyday, neoconservatives boasted that while anyone could go to Baghdad, real men hankered to go to Tehran. But as a venue for displaying American power, Baghdad proved a bust. In Tehran lies the possibility of finding a way out of perpetual war. Although by no means guaranteed, the basis for a deal exists: We accept the Islamic republic, they accept the regional status quo. They get survival, we get a chance to repair self-inflicted wounds. It’s the same bargain that Nixon offered Mao: Keep your revolution at home, and we’ll make our peace with it. Negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program provide the medium for achieving this larger end.
Any such deal would surely annoy Saudi Arabia and Israel, each for its own reasons committed to casting Iran as an existential threat. Obama just might choose to let them fret.
Although Americans have not yet fully digested the news, the United States no longer must defer to the Saudis. North American reserves of oil and natural gas are vastly greater than they appeared to be just a few years ago. As the prospect of something approximating energy independence beckons, the terms of the U.S.-Saudi alliance — they pump, we protect — are ripe for revision. Not so long ago, it seemed really, really important to keep the Saudi royal family happy. Far less so today.
Much the same applies to Israel. Easily the strongest power in its neighborhood and the only one possessing a nuclear arsenal, the Jewish state privileges its own security over all other considerations. It has every right to do so. What doesn’t follow is that Washington should underwrite or turn a blind eye to Israeli actions that run counter to U.S. interests, as is surely the case with continued colonization of the occupied territories. Just as Israel disregards U.S. objections to its expansion of settlements in the West Bank, the United States should refuse to allow Israeli objections to determine its policy toward Iran.
The exit from America’s misadventures in the region is through the door marked “Tehran.” Calling off the War for the Greater Middle East won’t mean that the political, social and economic problems roiling that part of the world will suddenly go away. They just won’t be problems that Uncle Sam is expected to solve. In this way, a presidency that began with optimism and hope but has proved such a letdown may yet achieve something notable

An Israeli Forest to Hide the Trees (Planting trees for ethnic cleansing):



212 comments:

  1. The Conga Line will begin to understand that the push polling by Israel Inc and their shareholders, Aipac, has overplayed their hand and misread what non-hyphenated Americans really think. We had a look at it with Syria. The American people are sick of hearing from the existential whining from the crowd that dictates the menu but hightails it to the rest room when the bill is presented.

    We need jobs. Developing an American First Energy Policy will create jobs in the US and get us out of the occupied colonies in the Middle East. No more phony princes and kings. No more having to listen to the miserable moaning and bullying of a Benjamin Netanyahu.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Syria was a set up by Obama to make AIPAC look bad. Reports are now coming out how the Obama administration demanded that AIPAC take the President's line.

      And those who are quick to jump on the Israel-last conga line swallowed it hook line and sinker. Just as those same naive, appeasing cowards have swallowed the Obama's apology/cuckhold tour of the world.

      No wonder that these "America-lasters" as so scared about America's role in the world.

      Obama has played them so well they are scared of their own shadow.

      Delete
    2. While I hate to rain on your parade, you are projecting your own antipathy onto your fellow citizens and it just ain't so. Knowing how you detest facts and evidence, let your feelings wreck havoc. But 64% v 12% shows you have over played your hand.

      :-)

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttjh_kK62lY
      http://www.gallup.com/poll/161387/americans-sympathies-israel-match-time-high.aspx

      Delete
  2. You must be joking.

    My non political niece knows better and has said so.

    I may be able to score a free brain scan for Quirk and Deuce...... at Max Planck......

    g'nite

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, that settles it then. QED

      Delete
    2. QED?

      Quirk/Ed from Panama/Deuce?

      I will tyr. All I can do is ask. She is all most done there now and I don't know what the waiting line is like....

      :)

      Delete

    3. “I was the walrus, but now I am Anonymous
      ...and so my friends, you'll just have to carry on. The dream is over.”


      bob

      Delete
  3. In the process, we can cycle $100 billion annually into the real US economy that lies outside of Mordor.

    ReplyDelete
  4. .

    It would be nice.

    However, I still expect to see a counterattack by the neocons and their ilk in Congress spurred on by their keepers in the MIC, MSM, and agents of various foreign governments.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My niece writes back in re my request of brain scans for Q,E,and D:

      She writes:

      " I can take Quirk now but only on a late night emergency basis, after that he's out in the cold, listening to his stupid music.....for some truly odd reason I kinda like the idiot....as a scientific specimen.....does he have air fare?"

      Got air fare Quirk?

      Why should I even ask......

      Delete

    2. “It is much easier to condemn Islam and 'oppressive Muslim men' than to unpack the intricate relationships between global politics related to empire building and capitalist expansion as well as regional and national struggles revolving around political and economic power and resources.”

      ― Nadje Al-Ali, What Kind of Liberation?: Women and the Occupation of Iraq

      bob

      Delete
    3. Re: counterattack

      You are kidding or grossly uninformed. There is no need for a counterattack; the American public supports Israel overwhelmingly. See: poll above

      That will remain the case for the foreseeable future, your overlong rants notwithstanding.

      Delete
  5. It is a terrible thing for Iran who has never attacked anyone to possess nuclear weapons.

    it is totally acceptable for Israel who, has attacked Syria several times, continually attacks and kills Palestinians, attacks and kills Turkish citizens, allied with Saudi Arabia, the supporters of Al Qaeda, refuses nuclear inspections or treaties to ban nuclear weapons.

    Apart from AIPAC supported congressmen and Mr Netanyahu, it appears a majority are prepared to give peace a chance


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I will try and get you a brain scan as well, Jenny.

      I recall niece mentioning a "half scan special". (IIRC)

      I think this was for those with half the brain missing.

      I will get back to you.

      In the meantime Quirk Airlines is offering a one way ticket known as To Riyadh For Bimbos.........the ticket is free but the mandatory burkas are $2,000 dollars American.

      Delete

    2. “Don't look to the approval of others for your mental stability”

      Delete
    3. Jenny needs to be schooled in IranSun Dec 08, 09:33:00 AM EST

      JennySun Dec 08, 04:56:00 AM EST
      It is a terrible thing for Iran who has never attacked anyone to possess nuclear weapons.
      it is totally acceptable for Israel who, has attacked Syria several times, continually attacks and kills Palestinians, attacks and kills Turkish citizens, allied with Saudi Arabia, the supporters of Al Qaeda, refuses nuclear inspections or treaties to ban nuclear weapons.
      Apart from AIPAC supported congressmen and Mr Netanyahu, it appears a majority are prepared to give peace a chance

      Peace a chance? How many Syrians and Palestinians have been murdered and or driven from their homes in Syria? Oh that doesn't count. Iran? How many Americans in Iraq were killed or limbs blown off by Iranian supplied IED's? Oh that doesn't count. Iran? How many Missiles and Rockets have Iran supplied to Hamas and Hezbollah to fire on civilians in Israel? Oh that doesn't count.

      Jenny? I hope you visit Iran soon and I hope they capture you and treat you like they treat all western women they kidnap…

      Delete
    4. Logan Pearsall SmithSun Dec 08, 10:58:00 AM EST


      How many of our daydreams would darken into nightmares
      if there seemed any danger of their coming true!

      Delete
    5. Re: Jenny

      That is the voice of Desert Rat, It is not Jenny. Jenny is a far better writer.

      Delete
    6. Good morning Allen. You are correct. That was not me. That said, go fuck yourself ;-)

      Delete
    7. Jenny, my dear, I was hoping you would do that for me in the interest of science -that being your sole criterion for defining Marine.

      Have a great day; you've made mine.

      :-)

      Delete

  6. The Anonymous problem with feminism

    In one document, an Anonymous cell names four women as having "pull" in getting Twitter accounts suspended;
    two feminist activist groups are also criticised, despite having no such power.

    This hints that the Anonymous cell's problem is not feminists with influence over Twitter per se
    but the feminist goal of changing attitudes to gendered hate speech.

    And herein lies a delicate tension: what, for some Anonymous cells,
    constitutes feminazis instigating an evil Trollocaust against free speech,
    I understand as activists working with an awareness that rape and harassment don't happen in a vacuum,
    but in a cultural climate in which it is OK to intimidate women sexually.

    Meh – misogyny in activist movements.
    What else is new?

    Many people think of Anonymous as a whole new kind of beast, an unprecedented cyber child of our times.
    But, actually, the movement fits quite neatly into a history of leaderless resistance,
    which has been used in the service of sweet causes, such as environmentalism and animal rights,
    and less than savoury ones, such as the Ku Klux Klan and neo-nazism.

    If we think of Anonymous like leaderless resistance – as a mode of activism as opposed to a unified ideological entity –
    then it's easier to make sense of cells that hack epilepsy forums with flashing animations (lulz!) operating under the same umbrella as cells instrumental to Occupy or the Arab spring.

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/07/anonymous-problem-with-feminism

    ReplyDelete
  7. I am the victim of identity theft.

    Some rats have stolen my identity.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Like many Californians waking up this morning, I may have become an unsuspecting victim when signing up for ObamaCare.

      Delete
    2. synonyms: unnamed, of unknown name, nameless, incognito, unidentified, unknown, unsourced, secret

      bob

      Delete
    3. Modestas RinkeviciusSun Dec 08, 06:14:00 AM EST


      Sometimes all you need is a simple 'sorry.'

      Delete

    4. My friend, I am not what I seem.
      Seeming is but a garment I wear —
      a care-woven garment that protects me from thy questionings and thee from my negligence.

      The "I" in me, my friend, dwells in the house of silence,
      and therein it shall remain for ever more, unperceived, unapproachable.

      Delete
  8. If we are going to claim residence in the "reality-based" community, let us understand that we still Import 7 Million bbls of Oil each and every day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is After you net out the exported products (gasoline, diesel, etc.)

      Delete
    2. Let's don't go exchanging one bullshit story with another one.

      Delete
    3. Tell us the "Truth" about Obamacare, Mr. True Believer.

      aka, Sap.

      Delete
    4. Okay.

      Millions of Americans are going to get Healthcare.

      Delete
    5. Boeing wanted to build the 777-X line in Washington State. Olympia passed all sorts of tax incentives to make it happen, and the liberal, union-loving pols were all for it. The machinist's union voted down the contract, the same way the baker's union fucked themselves out of making Twinkies. Now Boeing is looking at building it in St. Louis.

      Delete
    6. I heard Boeing was scared outta Washington by all those Gay Marriages!

      Delete
    7. Boeing has turned into a clusterfuck. They should get on well in St. Louis.

      A hugely profitable company that now wants to fuck over its very skilled workforce. Washington should tell them to just hit the road. You left out the part where Boeing came back in the middle of the contract, and insisted on "renegotiating."

      Delete
    8. Rufus IISun Dec 08, 07:14:00 AM EST
      Let's don't go exchanging one bullshit story with another one.

      Well said and on the money. "Never cut off your nose to spit your face."

      Delete
  9. No CGI here.

    On Dec. 8, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt started his famous speech:

    Dec. 7, 1941: The United States naval base at Pearl Harbor is attacked by Japanese planes launched from six aircraft carriers. Four U.S. battleships are sunk, and four others damaged. Over 2,400 Americans are killed, including 1,177 on the battleship Arizona.

    Japanese losses were light, 29 aircraft destroyed, five midget subs lost, 64 killed and one midget sub sailor captured.

    An Associated Press story on the Dec. 8, 1941, front page of the Los Angeles Times reported:

    Japan assaulted every main United States and British possession in the Central and Western Pacific and invaded Thailand today (Monday) in a hasty but evidently shrewdly-planned prosecution of a war began Sunday without warning.

    Her formal declaration of war against both the United States and Britain came 2 hours and 55 minutes after Japanese planes spread death and terrific destruction in Honolulu and Pearl Harbor at 7:35 a.m. Hawaiian time (10:05 a.m., P.S.T.) Sunday.

    The claimed successes for the fell swoop included sinking of the United States battleship West Virginia and setting afire of the battleship Oklahoma.

    On Dec. 8, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt started his famous speech:

    Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, members of the Senate and the House of Representatives: Yesterday, Dec. 7th, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

    Within an hour, Congress passed a declaration of war against Japan, bringing the United States into World War II. On Dec. 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

    ReplyDelete
  10. US costs in the Axis of Oil

    Last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates argued that President Obama’s order to cut $400 billion from national-security spending over the next 12 years will force the U.S. military to curtail some of its far-flung duties. “This needs to be a process that is driven by the analysis,” he said, “as well as missions that our elected officials decide we should not have to perform, or can’t perform anymore, because we don’t have the resources.”

    Well, even a blind pig finds an acorn once in awhile. While working on a recent piece on how to cut $1 trillion from the $7-trillion-plus U.S. defense budget over the coming decade, I stumbled upon a provocative analysis by Roger Stern, an economic geographer at Princeton University. He says the U.S. has “mis-allocated” — others might say “wasted” — $8 trillion since 1976 protecting the oil flow from the Persian Gulf that fuels much of the global economy. Especially since in 2010, when the U.S. was the destination of less than 10 percent of the oil flowing out of the Gulf.

    The U.S. has insisted, since the days of the Carter Administration, that the oil flowing out of the Persian Gulf is a vital national-security interest of the U.S. Beyond that, Presidents and the Pentagon have said, the narrow Strait of Hormuz is a vulnerable bottleneck for shipping headed out of the Gulf. Any troublemaker — especially Iran — could bring the U.S. and world economies to their collective knees by shutting it down by sinking a couple of tankers as they pass through. Consequently, the U.S. has poured tons of money into the region since then, including three wars. It has bulked up its military forces in the neighborhood — including the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, headquarters in Bahrain, smack dab in the middle of the gulf — to keep the oil flowing.

    Balderdash, says Stern. He uses more technical terms, but his bottom line is the same: Iran and other nations in the region have just as much, if not more, need to keep the oil flowing than the U.S. Think of it as your right hand — angry at your left hand for some casus belli — pinching their shared aorta to punish the left hand. Both would quickly begin turning blue. More critically, Stern argues, the U.S. military’s emphasis on the Gulf has diverted precious defense resources away from the western Pacific, where China poses a far graver long-term threat to American interests.

    “On an annual basis, the Persian Gulf mission now costs about as much as did the Cold War,” Stern says in his paper, which appeared in Energy Policy, a peer-reviewed scholarly journal, in April 2010 to scant notice. He also suggested it could be costly in more ways than one: “Without the extensive long-term US military presence in the Persian Gulf, it seems an open question whether anti-US suicide terrorism such as the USS Cole and 9/11 attacks would have taken place.”


    Stern's estimate of the annual cost to the U.S. military of defending the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf

    Stern’s paper pegs the cost of the U.S. military presence in the Gulf from 1976 to 2007 at $6.8 trillion. Last week, he estimated — at Battleland’s request — that the cost through 2010 was about $8 trillion.



    Read more: Have we wasted $8 trillion defending the Persian Gulf from a non-existent threat? | TIME.com http://nation.time.com/2011/04/24/a-question-for-the-obama-administration/#ixzz2mt8jeJ2O

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. others might say “wasted” — $8 trillion since 1976 protecting the oil flow from the Persian Gulf that fuels much of the global economy

      8 thousand BILLION dollars to protect the arabs. That arab lobby sure is powerful

      Delete
    2. Anon.

      He overlooked accounting the cost of guard duty for the EU and China. The US was not the slave of the Strait of Hormuz; our so-called friends and allies were/are.

      Delete
    3. The money was not spent to protect the Arabs, you dimwit.

      The money was spent to protect US.

      You are truly a dimwitted nitwit.

      The Rat was smarter than you are.
      He was just a fart in the wind, as it riffles the pages of literary constructs.

      bob

      Delete
    4. Re: The Rat was smarter than you are.

      The Rat's back. He cannot resist self-promotion and his brilliant "riffles".

      Gotcha :-)

      Delete
    5. AnonymousSun Dec 08, 11:09:00 AM EST
      The money was not spent to protect the Arabs, you dimwit.

      The money was spent to protect US.


      So America protects and invests in the middle east.

      Um... What a concept.

      Delete
  11. I stated above that it was costing the US $100 billion per year for its obsession to colonial powers in the Middle East.

    Wrong. the number is: $235 Billion annually.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting.

      235 Billon a year?

      Maybe America should not be giving money and aid to Egypt, Jordan, Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Pakistan and others.

      Israel get's just about 1.5% of that total. Hardly expensive as compared to funding actual enemy states of America.

      Delete
    2. So now, Anonymous ...
      I see you include General Dynamics, General Electric and McDonald Douglas as enemies of the United States.

      It is informative that you also include the soldiers, sailors and airmen and Marines of the United States as enemies of the America.

      bob

      Delete
    3. I don't see where I stated "you include General Dynamics, General Electric and McDonald Douglas as enemies of the United States." Please provide the exact quote.

      Rat is back and rat is still a liar.

      Delete
  12. That money is being misallocated from US towns, cities and states, wrecking the jobs and welfare of American workers, debilitating pensions and consequentially killing and maiming our soldiers in the military.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One year's expenditures, there, would just about build enough ethanol refineries (3,000) to make us Truly Energy Independent.

      Delete
    2. :-)

      "Free Energy," from your local still.

      Delete
    3. Not free; but, the Money would stay in America.

      Delete
    4. Germany will reportedly supply Israel with two guided missile destroyers, each valued at one billion euros (bought by US dollars based on Red Chinese credit). The destroyers will be used to protect Israel’s gas pipelines and enforce the blockade of their own coastal version of Camp X-ray at Gitmo.

      Delete
    5. Good for Germany.

      They built the subs for Israel too. Super silent. Nuclear capable.

      Free airline ticket available here for Mrs. Terestita Redinger to Gaza.

      Live the blessings of being a liberated arabic woman.

      One way only.

      Delete

    6. In our world, that's the way you live your grown-up life:
      you must constantly rebuild your identity as an adult,
      the way it's been put together it is wobbly, ephemeral, and fragile, it cloaks despair and ... when you're alone in front of the mirror, it tells you the lies you need to believe.

      Delete
    7. Teresita RedingerSun Dec 08, 08:39:00 AM EST
      Germany will reportedly supply Israel with two guided missile destroyers, each valued at one billion euros (bought by US dollars

      Wrong again. Germany is hoping for a cut of the natural gas action Israel has going offshore.
      '
      The cost is 1 billion euros, not $2 billion.

      It was exciting posting that nonsense, no doubt. Maybe you can make up for being corrected by blessing us with more racial slurs. You seem gifted in that department.

      Delete
    8. Bob,

      Have you noticed how racial slurs are handled. The only people who can be slurred are Jews. Try another group and you will be taken down. There is nothing more disgusting than such racial bigotry. So, bob, if you are in need of a vent, follow T and let loose with "Yids".

      For the numb skulls who were raised with anti-Jewish biases, try this:

      Definition Yid: an extremely offensive word for a Jewish person. Macmillian

      yid (jɪd Pronunciation for yid )

      Definitions
      noun

      (offensive, slang) a derogatory word for a Jew. Collins

      yid (yd)
      n. Offensive Slang
      Used as a disparaging term for a Jew.. Online Dictionary

      Delete
    9. Chaim Mordechai Rumkowski was a Polish Jew and businessman who was appointed as the German Nazi-nominated head of the Ältestenrat ("Council of Elders"), or Jewish authorities in the Łódź Ghetto.

      Some remember him for his haunting and tragic speech,
      Give Me Your Children,
      in 1942, when the Germans insisted on deporting 20,000 children to death camps.

      He was also remembered as an autocrat and tyrant who built a personal empire within the ghetto.
      He made work the basis of survival and created profit for the Germans

      Chaim Mordechai Rumkowski was a Fifth Columnist

      Delete
    10. "YAWN", Anon re: Chaim (Life)
      ...old hat...

      Delete
    11. Teresita RedingerSun Dec 08, 08:39:00 AM EST
      Germany will reportedly supply Israel with two guided missile destroyers, each valued at one billion euros (bought by US dollars based on Red Chinese credit).

      Please show where American aid has paid for these?

      Bet ya can't..

      Lying tart.,

      Delete
  13. That is the result of government planning, crony capitalism, corruption on a galactic scale, and an army of jackals and special interest groups in Washington pimping for their masters and our elected officials only too willing to get in on the action.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Obama has transformed crony capitalism as he is transforming the nation.

      A WMD Scale Transformer.

      Delete
  14. A firing squad may be a bit harsh (not by much) but remember when they threw Traficant in jail for getting his driveway coated?

    ReplyDelete
  15. There would not be a healthcare issue if this money was being recycled into a real domestic and private economy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Then Ruf's Government Trolls would have to get real jobs.

      Delete
    2. At least, some "real" jobs would be available.

      Delete
    3. The Obama-deranged, like the Bush-deranged before them, are spending so much time on "personality" issues that they are unable to see the larger, long-term issues.

      We have some enormous problems coming down the pike, and throwing rocks at Obama, or Bush, isn't going to solve them - to the extent that they are even "solvable," at all.

      Delete
    4. 41 percent of the "new jobs" were Government "Workers"

      ...obviously unsustainable to all.

      Except Marxists.

      Delete
    5. The Stock Market Bubble Bang will be a mere ripple.

      ...as was the Real Estate Bubble Pop.

      Compliments of Federal Big Govt. Policy.

      Delete
    6. Now those victims saved from the Evil Redlining Banks by the Federal Govt. only to be repossessed contribute to the record high numbers on Foodstamps, Welfare, and Medicaid.

      Nirvana has been achieved.

      Delete
    7. Government jobs were lost during October (the shutdown,) and came back in November. Or, is that too complicated for a Rushbo fan?

      Delete
    8. And, the banks are finally having to pay fines for the mass criminality involved in misrepresenting all of those adjustable rate mortgages that fueled the bubble.

      Delete
    9. And, the fact is, There are Fewer Federal Workers than when Obama took office.

      Delete
    10. The Feds COMPELLED banks to lend to buyers who were unqualified in Real World actuarial terms.

      Then the games began.

      And you predicted it would not amount to much, when I said it would.

      It did.

      Delete
    11. "There are Fewer Federal Workers than when Obama took office"

      Nice link.

      Thanks.

      Delete
    12. "Government jobs were lost during October (the shutdown,)"

      Think how groovy it would be if private sector workers continued to get paid after "losing their jobs" like Government "Workers" do.

      Delete
    13. We spent a whole night going over those Federal Employee numbers a couple of weeks ago.

      Delete
    14. Helpful response.

      ...and appropriate deception away from Big Govt. Corruption.

      Delete
    15. You're the one that misrepresented the November bounceback in federal employment.

      Delete
    16. One Link wrt Govt Jobs

      I await your contradictory link.

      (Tomorrow, when I awake. )

      Delete
    17. In the 1,420 days since he took the oath of office, the federal government has daily hired on average 101 new employees. Every day. Seven days a week. All 202 weeks. That makes 143,000 more federal workers than when Obama talked forever on that cold day in January of 2009.

      Under Obama the total federal workforce has surpassed two million for the first time since the first Clinton term, now sitting about the 2.2 ,million level.

      Federal workers have been awarded bigger average pay and benefit increases than private employees for nine years in a row. The compensation gap between federal and private workers has doubled in the past decade.

      Now comes a new poll revealing that Americans know what’s going on. A majority of Americans believes government workers make more money than private sector workers, according to the new Rasmussen Reports poll. Sixty-one percent of private sector workers believe that.

      Surprisingly, Republicans, independents and Democrats are united in agreement that government employees have it better than private sector workers although, predictably, Dems are slightly less sure.

      “The federal workforce has become an elite island of secure and high-paid workers, separated from the ocean of average American workers competing in the global economy,” according to a report this year by the Cato Institute.

      Delete
    18. Your link is from 2012, dickwad.

      Quirk fell for the same thing.

      Delete
    19. Thanks again for your devastating evidence.

      ...and compliment.

      Delete
    20. "rat bastard prick fuckface asswipe dickhead"

      OMG!

      Delete
    21. This was all legislated, before. I'm not about to run around the intertubes looking for evidence that you will just ignore, again.

      Delete
    22. Rufus II Sun Dec 08, 09:13:00 AM EST
      And, the fact is, There are Fewer Federal Workers than when Obama took office.

      I think you will find more contractors, however. As with everything political (in a bipartisan way) it is a shell game, or the old game "heads, I win - tails, you lose".

      Delete
    23. .

      What Rufus fails to point out to you Doug is that the Federal workforce remained strong and growing until hit by Sequester a program the Dems have been trying to reverse. Because of sequester, the numbers have been dropping for the past few months.

      .

      Delete

    24. The Sequester

      Success has many fathers while failure remains a bastard child.
      - Unknown

      Delete
    25. No, I didn't "fail" to point out anything. I stated a fact.

      Delete
    26. George Bush is offering Americans a new, expanded “ownership society.”
      updated 2/2/2005

      In his Jan. 20 inaugural address, Bush offered a grand vision of newly empowered Americans:

      “To give every American a stake in the promise and future of our country,
      we will bring the highest standards to our schools,

      and build an ownership society.
      We will widen the ownership of homes and businesses,

      retirement savings and health insurance
      preparing our people for the challenges of life in a free society.”


      The president’s Social Security plan is expected to be released late this month or in March.

      Stretching back to Aristotle
      While the details may be new, the ownership concept is not.

      Tom Palmer, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute, traces its origins through the country’s Founding Fathers and back to Aristotle, the Greek philosopher and political theorist.

      “What belongs in common to the most people, is accorded the least care,” Aristotle wrote.
      “They take thought for their own things above all, and less about things common.”


      http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6902224/#.UqSpWuJoH1U

      Delete
    27. 2002: Bush's Speech To the White House Conference on Increasing Minority Homeownership

      President George W. Bush addresses the White House Conference on Increasing Minority Homeownership at The George Washington University Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2002

      THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, all. Thanks, for coming.
      Well, thanks for the warm welcome. Thank you for being here today. I appreciate your attendance to this very important conference.

      You see, we want everybody in America to own their own home.
      That's what we want.
      This is -- an ownership society is a compassionate society.

      More and more people own their homes in America today.
      Two-thirds of all Americans own their homes,
      yet we have a problem here in America because few than half of the Hispanics
      and half the African Americans own the home. That's a homeownership gap.

      It's a -- it's a gap that we've got to work together to close for the good of our country,
      for the sake of a more hopeful future.
      We've got to work to knock down the barriers that have created a homeownership gap.
      I set an ambitious goal. It's one that I believe we can achieve.

      It's a clear goal,
      that by the end of this decade we'll increase the number of minority homeowners
      by at least 5.5 million families. (Applause.)

      Some may think that's a stretch. I don't think it is. I think it is realistic.
      I know we're going to have to work together to achieve it.
      But when we do our communities will be stronger and so will our economy.
      Achieving the goal is going to require some good policies out of Washington.
      And it's going to require a strong commitment from those of you involved in the housing industry.

      ...

      http://www.vdare.com/posts/2002-bushs-speech-to-the-white-house-conference-on-increasing-minority-homeownership

      Delete
    28. Fact Sheet: America's Ownership Society: Expanding Opportunities

      "...if you own something, you have a vital stake in the future of our country. The more ownership there is in America, the more vitality there is in America, and the more people have a vital stake in the future of this country."

      -President George W. Bush, June 17, 2004

      Expanding Homeownership.

      The President believes that homeownership is the cornerstone of America's vibrant communities and benefits individual families by building stability and long-term financial security. In June 2002,

      President Bush issued America's Homeownership Challenge to the real estate and mortgage finance industries to encourage them to join the effort to close the gap that exists between the homeownership rates of minorities and non-minorities.

      The President also announced the goal of increasing the number of minority homeowners by at least 5.5 million families before the end of the decade.
      Under his leadership, the overall U.S. homeownership rate in the second quarter of 2004 was at an all time high of 69.2 percent.

      Minority homeownership set a new record of 51 percent in the second quarter, up 0.2 percentage point from the first quarter and up 2.1 percentage points from a year ago.

      President Bush's initiative to dismantle the barriers to homeownership includes:

      American Dream Downpayment Initiative, which provides down payment assistance to approximately 40,000 low-income families;

      Affordable Housing. The President has proposed the Single-Family Affordable Housing Tax Credit, which would increase the supply of affordable homes;

      Helping Families Help Themselves. The President has proposed increasing support for the Self-Help Homeownership Opportunities Program; and

      Simplifying Homebuying and Increasing Education.

      The President and HUD want to empower homebuyers by simplifying the home buying process so consumers can better understand and benefit from cost savings.

      The President also wants to expand financial education efforts so that families can understand what they need to do to become homeowners.

      http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/08/20040809-9.html

      Delete
  16. Replies
    1. Some of that was interesting, Doug, the legal parts, but half hour of Mr Hairpiece is tough to handle.

      ********

      Deuce's tree planting video --

      Also too long for today's readership but the one lady had an interesting necklace.

      Final take: it's the ecology, stupid.



      Delete
    2. Christopher John FarleySun Dec 08, 10:31:00 AM EST


      Whisper to the flashing water your real name,
      write your signature in the sand,
      and shout your identity to the sky until it answers to you in thunder.”

      Delete
    3. William Tecumseh ShermanSun Dec 08, 10:36:00 AM EST


      Merely a literary construct, nothing as serious as 600,000 DEAD Americans

      Delete
  17. Am I dreaming or did Rufus call someone a "dick wad"?

    This is truly gross and not fit for a refined establishment such as this.

    Caesar should censor that immediately.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Calling Caesar the Censor, who censored me for posting a couple of articles from JihadWatch.

      Really, Rufus, think of your parents and how they raised you......think of the children.......the grandchildren.......

      Delete
    2. Here. Where I am anonymous and alone in a white room with no history and no parading.

      So I can make something unknown in the shape of this room.
      Where I am King of Corners.

      bob

      Delete

    3. “All men dream: but not equally.

      Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds ...
      they wake up in the day to find it was vanity

      The dreamers of the day are dangerous men,
      for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.”

      Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph

      Delete

  18. No one knows who they are more than someone who changes their identity
    ― M.C. Humphreys


    bob

    ReplyDelete
  19. Btw, for those that didn't notice, Federal Spending for the first two months of this fiscal year (Oct. and Nov.) is Down $30 Billion from the same two months, last year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And, Revenues are Up $30 Billion over the same period.

      Delete
    2. That's a lot of ups and downs.

      Now I'm confused, so it's back to bed!

      G'nite

      out

      bob

      Delete
    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  20. This is wonderful --

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OZ5MoUXKgc

    "Let Christ be born in thy spirit, let Him become Thee, and Thee He. Then Thou hast a worthy birth indeed"

    Meister Eckhart

    This songs represents the coming, finally!, of a higher stage of consciousness, where no savior is needed, thou hast saved thyself.

    I think I noticed in the video, in the background, a depiction of Dante's circle of heaven, painted by Gustave Dore.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In this country, as also in Israel, the women sing.

      Delete
    2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXMgGtBv6gk

      Delete
  21. Barack Obama did not tell the whole story this autumn when he tried to make the case that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack near Damascus on 21 August. In some instances, he omitted important intelligence, and in others he presented assumptions as facts. Most significant, he failed to acknowledge something known to the US intelligence community: that the Syrian army is not the only party in the country’s civil war with access to sarin…
    In the months before the attack, the American intelligence agencies produced a series of highly classified reports, culminating in a formal Operations Order – a planning document that precedes a ground invasion – citing evidence that the al-Nusra Front, a jihadi group affiliated with al-Qaida, had mastered the mechanics of creating sarin and was capable of manufacturing it in quantity.
    But in recent interviews with intelligence and military officers and consultants past and present, I found intense concern, and on occasion anger, over what was repeatedly seen as the deliberate manipulation of intelligence. One high-level intelligence officer, in an email to a colleague, called the administration’s assurances of Assad’s responsibility a ‘ruse’. The attack ‘was not the result of the current regime’, he wrote.
    The distortion, he said, reminded him of the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, when the Johnson administration reversed the sequence of National Security Agency intercepts to justify one of the early bombings of North Vietnam. The same official said there was immense frustration inside the military and intelligence bureaucracy: ‘The guys are throwing their hands in the air and saying, “How can we help this guy” – Obama – “when he and his cronies in the White House make up the intelligence as they go along?”’

    Whose sarin?
    http://www.lrb.co.uk/2013/12/08/seymour-m-hersh/whose-sarin

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alfred Nossig .was a Polish Jewish sculptor.

      Following the Nazi German invasion of Poland, Nossig co-operated with the Abwehr.
      While living in the Warsaw Ghetto, Al would provide regular reports to the Nazis.
      This done during the deportation of Jewish residents to concentration camps.

      Alfred Nossig was a Fifth Columnist.

      Delete
    2. Ed,
      There have always been people like you and Nossing in the world. Indeed, the first crime (as opposed to sin) recorded in the Torah was the murder of Abel by his brother Cain.

      Delete
  22. Bozo never tells "the whole story:.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Stories happen in the mind of a reader, not among symbols printed on a page.

      Delete
  23. DeuceSun Dec 08, 02:34:00 AM EST
    The Conga Line will begin to understand that the push polling by Israel Inc and their shareholders, Aipac, has overplayed their hand and misread what non-hyphenated Americans really think. We had a look at it with Syria. The American people are sick of hearing from the existential whining from the crowd that dictates the menu but hightails it to the rest room when the bill is presented.

    We need jobs. Developing an American First Energy Policy will create jobs in the US and get us out of the occupied colonies in the Middle East. No more phony princes and kings. No more having to listen to the miserable moaning and bullying of a Benjamin Netanyahu.


    allenSun Dec 08, 10:56:00 AM EST
    While I hate to rain on your parade, you are projecting your own antipathy onto your fellow citizens and it just ain't so. Knowing how you detest facts and evidence, let your feelings wreck havoc. But 64% v 12% shows you have over played your hand.

    :-)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttjh_kK62lY
    http://www.gallup.com/poll/161387/americans-sympathies-israel-match-time-high.aspx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Abraham Gancwajch . was a prominent Jewish Nazi collaborator.
      Operating with impunity in the Warsaw Ghetto during Second World War.
      Abraham was described as the "kingpin" of the ghetto underworld.

      Abraham Gancwajch who was a Fifth Columnist.

      Delete
    2. Ed,
      There have always been people like you and Nossing in the world. Indeed, the first crime (as opposed to sin) recorded in the Torah was the murder of Abel by his brother Cain.

      Delete
    3. .

      Re: counterattack

      You are kidding or grossly uninformed. There is no need for a counterattack; the American public supports Israel overwhelmingly. See: poll above

      That will remain the case for the foreseeable future, your overlong rants notwithstanding


      :)

      Gee, Allen, and we were getting along so nicely. We haven't exchanged posts in a couple days and it was such a nice interlude. Now you have gone and ruined it. Ah well, so be it.

      First, wrt 'overly long rants', let me point out that my post that you responded to above was 35 words long. Your response? Thirty-seven words long. It appears you were either 'kidding or grossly ill-informed'.

      Now speaking of the poll you linked to, I notice it was taken back in March and was centered on the 'so-called' Israeli/Palestinian peace process, a subject that isn't really related to the subject at hand, that subject being the nascent changes that appear to be developing in the US relationship with countries in the ME.

      Regarding your link, the so-called peace process on the two-state solution, a decades long justification for billions in baksheesh, has been dead since at least the early 90's if it was ever viable at all. The current Prime Minister of Israel in an unguarded moment has assured us of that fact. The kabuki continues but we all know the end result. What the American public thinks? That they prefer Israel to the Israeli installed PA? It doesn't change the facts on the ground one iota, but take comfort in it if you wish. However, you might also want to take a look at the views of the young people mentioned in the same link. The future remains before us.

      Now, as to the subject at hand, American opinion seems to be somewhat different. We saw this first when Obama's decision to 'do something' in Syria to defend his ill-spoken 'red line' comment was smacked down by US public opinion. We also have the Reuter's/Ipson poll taken in November that showed Americans supporting the US efforts on the Iran nuclear deal by a 2 to 1 margin. And, 'Even if the Iran deal fails, 49 percent want the United States to then increase sanctions and 31 percent think it should launch further diplomacy. But only 20 percent want U.S. military force to be used against Iran."

      A counterattack won't we necessary?

      Hopefully, all of your ilk will feel the same. However, I am less sanguine.

      I believe that within the next 6 months one or both of the following will occur:

      1. The whack-job neocons in Congress at the bidding of their 'real' constituencies, the MIC, AIPAC, elements of the MSM, Saudi oil money, will attempt to push through additional sanctions so as to scuttle the current negotiations.

      2. Countries in the ME who fear a deal with Iran will attempt to disrupt the whole process by launching military operations, likely black flag operations, in order to sabotage the process. Let's face it, it wouldn't be the first time we have seen it there.

      Hopefully, I'm wrong.

      .

      Delete
    4. Sin is, if my understanding is close, usually rendered as something like "missing the mark".

      Crime is an entirely much more serious matter. You can get deleted for that.

      Celine Dion, in my video above, did not "miss the mark" at 3:10 in the video.

      In that simple gesture, she hit a bases loaded home run.

      3:10
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OZ5MoUXKgc

      Delete
    5. Quirk,

      As other numbers that cast Israel in a good light, you are disturbed by the poll. But facts is facts. The love affair between the vast majority of Americans and Israel is unabated and will remain that way into the foreseeable future. You may find such an atavistic attachment infuriating, but, as they say, "Tough."

      If you find a poll that contradicts mine, please post it. Otherwise, your little train is just blowing smoke climbing a steep insurmountable grade. The way to change that is to change the deeply embedded Judeo-Christian ethical-moral attachments of millennia. Some extremely smart guys have gone before you (e.g. Martin Luther)
      but knock yourself out.

      67% v 12% and, lest we forget the value of numbers, Israel 13 v Others 0

      Delete
    6. .

      Lord, you are obtuse.

      Americans also love baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet. What does that have to do with Obama's attempt at reset in the ME?

      .

      Delete
    7. .

      If you find a poll that contradicts mine, please post it

      Why would I bother to try to find a poll that disputes yours? Your poll is irrelevant to the subject at hand.

      .

      Delete
  24. We should all stop in a moment of silence, giving thanks to the Almighty for estrogen.

    Alexa Vega: the difficult jump from spy-kid to bombshell lady-assassin
    http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/alexa-vega-spy-kid-bombshell-article-1.1483361

    ReplyDelete
  25. .

    allenSun Dec 08, 12:33:00 PM EST

    Jenny, my dear, I was hoping you would do that for me in the interest of science -that being your sole criterion for defining Marine.

    Have a great day; you've made mine.

    :-)



    You have also made my day, Jen. This little exchange reminded me of one regarding assholes named Allen. A while back I came across the following post but decided not to respond to it since we were already well into another blog stream. But then, why let it go to waste?

    1. allenFri Dec 06, 04:30:00 PM EST

    [Quirk] Gee, Allen, you were pretty wordy earlier. Spouting off about everything. Now, all you can do is repeat yourself like the rat. What's the matter asshole?

    That is visceral, as is the frequent habit of telling people to stick things "up your ass". Visceral does have a meaning. Check it out.

    What is this fixation with "asses", assholes" etc? The new DiCaprio movie has him taking an extremely large, cylindrical candle up the ole chute. You do not want to miss that – high octane. Take a date; you will then have something to talk about. Try not to nervously tug on the hem of your skirt.

    You were a service member when, again?

    Best,

    :-)

    Re: gook ...a learning moment...just wanted to see what the reaction would be to two slurs of different races...You did not disappoint.



    As for the meaning of visceral, I know perfectly well what it means. I have made the point here before that while I argue with everyone here at one time or another, there is only one person I actually dislike.

    “What is this fixation with "asses", assholes" etc?

    It appears it is you who should be tending to their vocabulary. Almost any standard dictionary will give you the meaning of ‘asshole’ as I apply it to you. It is a perfectly apt word when applied thusly.

    As for fixation?

    Let’s see, you have already given us that description of the DiCaprio movie and the candle at least three times in the last couple weeks. It seems to hold a perverse fascination for you. One could almost say you seem to be fixated on it.

    And I recall the infamous ‘anus’ incident where you kept bringing up the subject for months refusing to drop it until I eventually had to post an anatomy lesson with diagrams for you and prove once and for all that [wait for it] you didn’t know your ass from a hole in the ground.

    Still hitting those ‘clubs’ down in Atlanta, Al?

    You were a service member when, again?

    I was never a service member, Al. But then, I never said I was.

    What’s your point, 7.56?

    Re: gook ...a learning moment...just wanted to see what the reaction would be to two slurs of different races...You did not disappoint.

    Right, Allen, just like you were saving that remark about the 7.56, saving it up, waiting for Rufus to get a false sense of security, saving it for just the right moment to prove that you weren’t just an asshole but rather that you were the complete asshole.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Speaking of assholes and the appropriateness of its application.

      1. allenFri Dec 06, 03:51:00 PM EST

      The wall of fame has grown with two additional invectives from our own Terresita. "From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks":

      nig

      Yid

      Re: "silly-assed rants" Oh, this is such a pleasure. Do you mean these kinds of rants?

      phony-balony, drug-addicted bitch.
      Pissant
      phony piece of shit.
      You are one crazy dick.
      bitch.
      lying maggot
      you are a Fraud
      Junkie. Another Rush Limbaugh.
      asshole
      asshole, allen
      deranged motherfucker
      phony motherfucker
      asinine
      asshole
      idiot phony motherfucker
      sad-sack maggot
      goofy, drugged-up ass
      full of shit as the druggie.
      asshole
      pop a pill, prick
      phony motherfucker
      dipshit
      asshole
      Motherfucker!!!
      Dumbfuck
      phony sonofabitch
      asshole
      unpleasant asshole
      nuttier'n hell
      work the VA for drugs (which he could, of course, sell to allen.)
      lying piece of shit,


      Two comments:

      First, there appears to be a growing consensus here regarding you, Allen.

      Second, just eyeballing the distribution you've listed, I think I could safely say that were we to construct a pareto chart of the descriptions, asshole would stand out as the most prominent one.

      .

      Delete
    2. Gee, Quirk, thanks for making my point.

      "Growing consensus". You are such a card! The only thing growing on this blog is the number of people leaving it. As to consensus, the pathological needs for attention will turn several other contributors against one another by tomorrow. Indeed, it has already happened today.

      You have a microcosm of eight (8).

      The failure of this blog to address forcefully the anti-Semitism exhibited by the use of "Yids" makes the point.

      As always, I appreciate your analysis. When you have a bit of free time, please define "asshole".

      :-)

      Delete
    3. .

      I could define 'asshole', Allen, but that wouldn't really be doing you any favors. Instead just go to any standard dictionary. After you have checked out all the possible meanings for the word, also check out the words before and after it. In that manner, you will build vocabulary.

      It was a tip given to me by the nuns in the fourth grade.

      By the way, after thanking me, your next few sentences were a little vague. Can I read them as meaning you are leaving again?

      .

      Delete
    4. War is Peace
      Love is Hate
      Good is Bad.
      Allen is right.

      Delete
  26. More than 200 Israeli-founded businesses in Massachusetts booked $6.2 billion in revenue in 2012 and employed about 6,700 people in the state, according to a study released Thursday by the New England-Israel Business Council.
    The employees supported more than 23,000 jobs statewide, and the total economic impact that year was $11.9 billion according to the study, conducted by Boston-based global strategic consulting and research firm Stax Inc.
    The study also found that Israeli-founded businesses secured almost $700 million in venture capital funding fro 2010 to 2012 across 73 deals, representing more than 6 percent of all venture capital funding in the state. Those businesses returned almost $2 billion to investors in mergers and acquisitions from 2010 to 2012, across 14 deals.
    Other key findings, according to the study, include:
    Israeli-founded businesses represented 2.9 percent of the Massachusetts GDP in 2012.
    Between 2010 and 2012, Israeli-founded businesses in the state experienced 12.6 percent compound annual revenue growth and 5.3 percent compound annual job growth.
    The employment base of Israeli-founded businesses grew five times faster than the state’s overall employment growth rate in the three year period 2010-2012.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So the Massachusetts RomneyCare mandated health insurance was not detrimental.
      Not to either to growth, jobs or general prosperity.

      Point taken!

      Delete
    2. Maybe if you had Romney as President and not some cheating copycat?

      You'd have a point

      Delete
  27. Agence France-PresseSun Dec 08, 03:53:00 PM EST

    Mexican military seeks to oust cartel from port

    Soldiers standing on the back of pick-up trucks patrol Lazaro Cardenas,
    one month after ousting the municipal police in this major Mexican port that had become a drug cartel’s cash machine.

    While troops armed with assault rifles ride in borrowed police vehicles,
    a vice admiral has taken over the administration of the Pacific port,
    which handles the largest general cargo volume in Mexico.

    The military was sent by President Enrique Pena Nieto on November 4 to clean house,
    forcing the city’s 113 local police officers to undergo vetting exams
    while replacing the port’s two top civilian jobs with naval officers.

    The government has said it received anonymous tips about unspecified corruption and “collusion” at the port.

    The Knights Templar cartel has used Lazaro Cardenas to import precursor chemicals from Asia and make methamphetamine in makeshift mountain labs in the western state of Michoacan.

    In January last year, 195 tons of such chemicals were seized in 12 containers from China.

    But the cartel has branched out,
    extorting container truck companies as well as exporting iron ore to China
    after illegally extracting the mineral in Michoacan, according to government and industry sources.

    The deepest port in Mexico has grown exponentially over the past decade,
    with cargo movement doubling to 36 million tons this year.

    Stacks of containers rise like metal towers,
    as giant cranes move them onto and out of ships heading to or arriving from Asia.

    Benjamin Rodriguez, president of the local Business Coordination Council,
    said the the military has made the city safer.

    “The port is a strategic point for organised crime,” Rodriguez told AFP.

    “There’s extortion and another resource they have recently handled is minerals.
    They have become mining entrepreneurs,”
    he said.

    Rodriguez said he has asked visiting Chinese businessmen:
    “How is it possible that they are sending raw minerals to China?”

    http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1376044/mexican-military-seeks-oust-cartel-port

    ReplyDelete
  28. South Korea announces expanded air defence zone
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25288268

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25288268

    http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Pacific_Theater_Areas%253Bmap1.JPG&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_West_Pacific_Area_(command)&h=873&w=1199&sz=142&tbnid=2FTN-kweEh1KrM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=124&zoom=1&usg=__5KX0x2uJmjd5wCeEiyWy5YokKqY=&docid=dxqVP60CAwxNKM&sa=X&ei=IsKkUuvvN8vokQfN4ICADg&ved=0CCwQ9QEwAA

    ReplyDelete
  29. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DbZWRSDdIw

    Jennifer Hudson

    ReplyDelete
  30. At the time Deuce closed the old bar, some fellow, I think maybe named John but can't recall, wrote him please keep it open. He was in some situation I think of being a shut in. Deuce reconsidered and out of goodness reopened the site.

    I have always admired that action by Deuce, and hope to hang around as long as it is open.

    I take it then that the true purpose of this blog is to provide a little human fellowship with others we may not even know.

    While there will be nasty disagreements over everything we ought to keep the language down. I am trying. It's hard sometimes. People disagree.

    Let's try though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It used to be fun, educational, enlightening. I will never forget Deuce's touching peace about a boy and his father and the bond of hunting and learning from our older relatives.The first snow and the excitement of the party. It was done around Thanksgiving years ago. It touched everyone and the responses were from the heart. But that was then and this is now - red toothed, all talon and claw..

      Delete
    2. I remember your grandfather's hat......

      let's do more of that type thing and less of the other

      Delete
    3. Do you, indeed. I hadn't thought of it in years. Thanks...

      Remember Friday nights when someone would link a tune and soon everybody was in on the act. Beer fizzed, wine was decanted, and Scotch was neat. By 2-3 AM people were using one finger to type, with noses on the keyboard.

      Delete
    4. But every paradise has its serpent. There is a multi-storied temple complex in Turkey, recently (relatively) discovered. It dates back to 12,000 BCE (I'm working from memory). It contains scores of monoliths richly carved with every animal known to the builders. The most common animal is the serpent. The building of this complex took several thousand years. Google it. It's amazing and given the present understanding of history and anthropology should not exist because it predates agriculture and animal husbandry.

      Delete
    5. Göbekli Tepe

      The World's First Temple
      http://archive.archaeology.org/0811/abstracts/turkey.html

      Delete
    6. Henric Ştefan Streitman .was a Romanian Jew, a journalist, translator and political figure,
      who traversed the political spectrum from socialism to the far right.

      He was a physicist, social commentator and publisher,
      known for both his polemical stances and his erudition.

      Streitman turned to Nazi collaborationism during World War II,
      serving the NAZI cause becoming president of the Central Jewish Office.

      Henric Ştefan Streitman was a Fifth Columnist.

      Delete
    7. Red tooth and talon and claw are all you get, da two a yuz, when you libel me, and allege that I said the N word.

      Delete
    8. Teresita,

      Have you a brain tumor? You referred to us as "Yids". Then, you cry like a rotten child when given a taste of your own medicine. You used an inexcusable racial slur. Wretchard would have drop kicked you into next Thursday. Take it elsewhere; you will get no consideration from me. Your complaint is entirely bogus.

      Delete
    9. allenSun Dec 08, 11:40:00 AM EST
      Bob,

      Have you noticed how racial slurs are handled. The only people who can be slurred are Jews. Try another group and you will be taken down. There is nothing more disgusting than such racial bigotry. So, bob, if you are in need of a vent, follow T and let loose with "Yids".

      For the numb skulls who were raised with anti-Jewish biases, try this:

      Definition Yid: an extremely offensive word for a Jewish person. Macmillian

      yid (jɪd Pronunciation for yid )

      Definitions
      noun

      (offensive, slang) a derogatory word for a Jew. Collins

      yid (yd)
      n. Offensive Slang
      Used as a disparaging term for a Jew.. Online Dictionary

      Delete
    10. Not one time did I say on this blog the N word, 'lessun I wuz quoting Huck Finn.

      Delete
  31. It was Nov. 23, more than two weeks after Typhoon Haiyan ripped through this city and the surrounding provinces, killing more than 5,700 people. Many, placed in body bags by rescue crews, still lay on the streets.

    ...

    "We are hoping to find Dad, alive or dead; we don't have any plan to stop," said Ray Dominic. If he is dead, the family wants to give him a proper burial.

    Then, he added, "at least we will know where Dad is."

    ReplyDelete
  32. This may help explain Germany's generosity in the sale of two destroyers to Israel.

    The destroyers will be used to protect Israel’s gas pipelines.

    In April, Der Spiegel reported that Israel may sell technologically advanced attack drones to the German military.

    Germany selling Israel two guided missile destroyers
    http://www.timesofisrael.com/germany-israel-sign-multimillion-dollar-arms-deal/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chaim Mordechai Rumkowski.
      was a Polish Jew and businessman who was appointed as the German Nazi-nominated head of the Ältestenrat ("Council of Elders"), or Jewish authorities in the Łódź Ghetto.

      Some remember him for his haunting and tragic speech,
      " . . . . Give Me Your Children" . . . .,
      in 1942, when the Germans insisted on deporting 20,000 children to death camps.

      He was also remembered as an autocrat and tyrant who built a personal empire within the ghetto.
      He made work the basis of survival and created profit for the Germans

      Chaim Mordechai Rumkowski was a Fifth Columnist.

      Delete
    2. Ford was the only Detroit car maker to survive on their own, no small thanks to their strong performance outside the US. The Fusion, Focus and Taurus were all born in Germany and were effectively "imported" to the US, so really they are selling European designs to the Americans.

      Delete
  33. My budgie broke his leg today so I made him a little splint out of a couple of matches. His little face lit up when he tried to walk... unfortunately, I had forgotten to remove the sandpaper from the bottom of his cage.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Speaking in Detroit the other night, Sen. Rand Paul was asked if he’d run for president in 2016. It’s a question he gets a lot these days.

    ...

    “If I’m a very able politician, I’ll tell you in a year whether I’m able to persuade my wife. Right now, I don’t know yet, but I thank you for your interest,” he said.

    ReplyDelete
  35. 'In one thing, you have not changed, dear friend,' said Aragorn: 'you still speak in riddles.'

    'What? In riddles?' said Gandalf. 'No! For I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to; the long explanations needed by the young are wearying.' He laughed, but the sound now seemed warm and kindly as a gleam of sunshine.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. allenSun Dec 08, 11:40:00 AM EST
      Bob,

      Have you noticed how racial slurs are handled. The only people who can be slurred are Jews. Try another group and you will be taken down. There is nothing more disgusting than such racial bigotry. So, bob, if you are in need of a vent, follow T and let loose with "Yids".

      For the numb skulls who were raised with anti-Jewish biases, try this:

      Definition Yid: an extremely offensive word for a Jewish person. Macmillian

      yid (jɪd Pronunciation for yid )

      Definitions
      noun

      (offensive, slang) a derogatory word for a Jew. Collins

      yid (yd)
      n. Offensive Slang
      Used as a disparaging term for a Jew.. Online Dictionary

      Delete
    2. I find the tenor of discussion on this blog Flippant, so to speak. And everyone wants to fit in.

      Delete
  36. Neocons are not conservatives, they are Wilson/FDR/JFK liberals who switched parties due to their rejection of Johnson's "War on Poverty". Neocons are not conservatives, they are not libertarians, they have no religious values at all, other than a profoundly manipulative approach to the end-times dispensationism of many evangelical Protestants.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So, they are lovers of "Yids"?

      Princeton Poll: Support for Israel v Support for Palestinians
      64 % v. 12%

      Delete
    2. "Żegota" (Polish pronunciation: [ʐɛˈɡɔta] ( listen)), also known as the "Konrad Żegota Committee",[1][2] was a codename for the Polish Council to Aid Jews (Polish: Rada Pomocy Żydom), an underground organization of Polish resistance in German-occupied Poland active from 1942 to 1945.
      The Council to Aid Jews operated under the auspices of the Polish Government in Exile through the Government Delegation for Poland, in Warsaw. Żegota aided the country's Jews and found places of safety for them in occupied Poland. Poland was the only country in occupied Europe where there existed such an organization.

      Delete
    3. I said it once, but now the blog will be filled up with the word from here til Kingdom Come by a fake Marine who's best friend on the blog calls pinays "Flips" and "Huk huks". It doesn't get any better than this.

      Delete
    4. As much as you are a fake Gook. You are a racist, anti-Semite, who let her petulance override her disguise and blurted out herself - "Yids".

      Had you done this on the job, you would have been canned for hate speech.

      Hey, what's done is done; wear your brown shirt and jackboots with pride. You've come out of the closet and brought your friends in tow. Goosestep with pride. Of course, given your race, you would have been gassed in the good old days.

      You have done a favor for me. Your behavior and the response of your co-contributors proved the point I have made for years: you are anti-Semites. Period.

      Delete
    5. Nothing that I did not say long ago.

      Teresita's hatred for Israel, Judaism, Zionism and Jews knows no bounds.

      It's good that she has come out of the closet.

      She's like"queers for palestine" the very people she supports? would in fact necklace her.

      Delete
    6. You are welcome to your opinion, Wii, but no one is welcome to their own facts. And the fact is, I never said the N word.

      Delete
  37. bob,

    Scientists now believe that the probability of another habitable planet in our galaxy is 1/1000 of 1/1,000,000,000,000 - in short, exceedingly small - almost impossibly rare - as close to zero as possible.

    ReplyDelete
  38. The light spectrum is made of radiation from gamma radiation to radio radiation. All have different wave lengths. Within the light spectrum there is a sliver of radiation that penetrates our atmosphere and makes life possible. This sliver represents 1/1,000,000,000,000 of 1/1,000,000,000,000 of the light spectrum. All other forms of unfiltered natural radiation would be lethal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There are two kinds of people in the world: those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.

      Delete
    2. The fellows who worked the astronomy and statistics hold chairs at major universities. And then there is you. I think I will go with the NASA and other PhDs.

      Delete
  39. bob,

    I have deep faith that the principles of the universe will be both beautiful and simple. ___Einstein

    Hidden within the first sentence of Torah, open to the pure soul only, are all the secrets of the universe.___Boaz Alon

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As the high priest said. "Of course G-d eats the essence of the (burp) animal we (belch) sacrifice and we just force ourselves to eat the remains."

      Delete
    2. Ahh, but Jews do not practice cannibalism or vampirism with the Eucharist: Consubstantiation and Transubstantiation.

      We prefer a lamb or goat shank, matzo and plenty of wine for Passover, our expropriated ancient holiday.

      Delete
    3. "Żegota" (Polish pronunciation: [ʐɛˈɡɔta] ( listen)), also known as the "Konrad Żegota Committee",[1][2] was a codename for the Polish Council to Aid Jews (Polish: Rada Pomocy Żydom), an underground organization of Polish resistance in German-occupied Poland active from 1942 to 1945.
      The Council to Aid Jews operated under the auspices of the Polish Government in Exile through the Government Delegation for Poland, in Warsaw. Żegota aided the country's Jews and found places of safety for them in occupied Poland. Poland was the only country in occupied Europe where there existed such an organization.

      Delete
    4. Let the record show that Teresita began the derogation of the Jewish faith. Love ya, lady. When you decide to go to the dark side you pull out all the stops.

      Delete
    5. By the way, Teresita, you are talking about a sacrificial system that ended in 70 CE. It did have the advantage of seeing that the Cohens and Levites were feed. We took care of our own.

      Delete
  40. She was one of the few infinitely blessed writers of the species. Her gift, to me, was her talent for distilling life's complexities into essential truths.

    "There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and have recovered hope".
    ___George Eliot

    Her last (and possibly best novel) Daniel Deronda was published the year before her death. It was the story of a privileged young English gentleman, who discovered his Jewishness by accident and traveled a long road of discovery, leading to Zionism (Eliot was a Zionist).

    Eliot spent three years accumulating research for the book. Learning Hebrew, reading hundreds of pieces of literature and history. She studied under several rabbis, simultaneously. In short, she immersed herself in a project she learned to love with each passing day. She was well aware of all the catchy little slurs of the day and detested them as the murmuring of ill bred savages - words such as "Yid", "Kike", "Fick Dich, du Judenschwein arschloch (asshole), Jew lizardhas etc.

    Eliot also foresaw that in the not too distant future Jews would have to flee Europe. She believed their only hope of survival was a Jewish homeland, a point she pressed hard with every politician she encountered - not a few.

    In its entirety, Daniel Deronda was eerily prophetic not just about the fate of the Jews but the hemorrhaging and termination of the European elites.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Żegota" (Polish pronunciation: [ʐɛˈɡɔta] ( listen)), also known as the "Konrad Żegota Committee",[1][2] was a codename for the Polish Council to Aid Jews (Polish: Rada Pomocy Żydom), an underground organization of Polish resistance in German-occupied Poland active from 1942 to 1945.
      The Council to Aid Jews operated under the auspices of the Polish Government in Exile through the Government Delegation for Poland, in Warsaw. Żegota aided the country's Jews and found places of safety for them in occupied Poland. Poland was the only country in occupied Europe where there existed such an organization.

      Delete
    2. “To me the Zionists, who want to go back to the Jewish state of A.D. 70) are just as offensive as the Nazis.

      With their nosing after blood, their ancient "cultural roots," ...
      their partly canting, partly obtuse winding back of the world they are altogether a match for the National Socialists.


      That is the fantastic thing about the National Socialists,...
      that they simultaneously share in a community of ideas with Soviet Russia and with Zion.”

      ― Victor Klemperer, I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941

      Delete
  41. Complaining of boredom? You might want to be more specific.

    ...

    "Of particular concern is the relative frequency of apathetic boredom observed in the present research," lead psychologist Thomas Goetz of the University of Konstanz in Germany and his colleagues wrote. Among high-school students studied, they found, apathetic boredom made up 36 percent of their boredom experiences.

    Boredom is ubiquitous, but relatively rarely studied compared with other emotions such as anger or happiness. That's likely because boredom is inconspicuous and quiet — it doesn't manifest with yelling fits or beaming grins, Goetz told LiveScience.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Boredom is ubiquitous,

      There's no Freudian slip buried in these comments is there, Sam?

      :)

      Pop open a Fosters.

      I Don't Want To Be...

      .

      Delete
    2. Not a bad tune. VB better than Fosters.

      Delete
    3. I have read and believe it too that many people in many countries in Europe were delighted at the outbreak of World War I, where life had become so awfully dreadfully tedious.

      The bands came out and drummed, the people clapped and waved, the men marched.....what fun.....no more card playing.....

      World War II was a different matter however........

      Delete
    4. Boredom is ubiquitous.

      :)

      Delete
    5. My God my dear Quirk, Sir, how can you post such drivel as that last and still sleep at night?

      ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

      Delete
    6. Idle hands are the devil's workshop.

      Delete
  42. I was reading a piece in the science part of Real Clear Politics the other day about the odds now of life out there, number of habitable planets, etc etc etc. In some ways the odds seem low but there is a lot of stuff out there.......I will go and try find it........

    Couldn't find it.....it was some time ago......but did find this -

    THE INVASION OF THE CRAZY ANTS
    -

    http://www.slate.com/blogs/wild_things/2013/12/06/yellow_crazy_ant_invasion_some_success_on_johnston_atoll.html

    Caught my eye as it seems this place has been similarly invaded recently, but most of the ants are rats.

    To me these days I take the idea of other life out there as a certainty, may have been in the 'past' however or in the 'future' or in some other universe.......or many place now.......there are "bunches and bunches and bunches" of places out there, as my niece might say.

    :)


    ReplyDelete
  43. Question:

    Is it true that, on average, women prefer males singers, and men prefer women singers?

    This thought came drifting in with an email exchange with OGF about song. Upon my request she sent me a list of her favorites, almost all males......

    She may love Pavarotti, who bellows, and Caruso, who brays, but I like this....

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ-8jYpa1-o

    Sorry for being heavy on the Silent Night right now but for several unseasonable reasons it is on my mind.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDki7Vj0oIA

      And they can be soooooo graceful !!

      Delete
    2. bob,

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBqTQ6-AJl4

      Delete
    3. bob,

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_psFfD9Ib4

      Delete
    4. What Israeli Historians Say About 1948 Ethnic Cleansing
      By Charley Reese


      In an article in the Ha’aretz newspaper, Danny Rabinovitz wrote,
      “What happened to the Palestinians in 1948 is Israel’s original sin...Between the 1950s and 1976, the state systematically confiscated most of the land of its remaining Palestinian citizens.”

      Shahak stated in his article,
      “In this context let me mention the pioneering work of Erskin Childers [Irish journalist].
      Childers was first to show that the Zionist claim that Arab propaganda had called on the Palestinians to run away from their homes was a gross lie.
      He inspected all broadcasts [the BBC recorded them and kept transcripts as did the American government] of the Arab radios of the time to find that no such call had ever been made.”

      
      Finally, this quote from the diary of Yitzhak Tabenkin, a charismatic leader of the kibbutz movement. In his diary, Tabenkin stated,
      “the ideals of Hitler which I like:
      ethnic homogeneity,
      the possibility of exchange of ethnic minorities;
      the transfers of ethnic groups for the sake of an international order which for me are a particularly valuable feature.”

      No wonder some people prefer myth to truth.


      http://www.wrmea.org/wrmea-archives/179-washington-report-archives-1994-1999/september-1999/9607-behind-the-myths-what-israeli-historians-say-about-1948-ethnic-cleansing.html

      Delete