Aug 31, 2010

Rethinking The Depression

Three Stories. All Relevant. My 2 Cents sprinkled around.

The Parent Model
[Link]
Excerpt: During the first half of this year, German and American political leaders engaged in an epic debate. American leaders argued that the economic crisis was so bad, governments should borrow billions to stimulate growth. German leaders argued that a little short-term stimulus was sensible, but anything more was near-sighted. What was needed was not more debt, but measures to balance budgets and restore confidence. The debate got pointed. American economists accused German policy makers of risking a long depression. The German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, countered, “Governments should not become addicted to borrowing as a quick fix to stimulate demand.”

The two countries followed different policy paths. According to Gary Becker of the University of Chicago, the Americans borrowed an amount equal to 6 percent of G.D.P. in an attempt to stimulate growth. The Germans spent about 1.5 percent of G.D.P. on their stimulus. This divergence created a natural experiment. Who was right? The early returns suggest the Germans were. The American stimulus package was supposed to create a “summer of recovery,” according to Obama administration officials. Job growth was supposed to be surging at up to 500,000 a month. Instead, the U.S. economy is scuffling along. The German economy, on the other hand, is growing at a sizzling (and obviously unsustainable) 9 percent annual rate. Unemployment in Germany has come down to pre-crisis levels.

My 1/2 cent - ironic that in 70 odd years, it's the Germans trying to teach the Americans how to prevent a Depression.

Little-known fact: Obama's failed stimulus program cost more than the Iraq war
[Link]
Excerpt: Expect to hear a lot about how much the Iraq war cost in the days ahead from Democrats worried about voter wrath against their unprecedented spending excesses.
The meme is simple: The economy is in a shambles because of Bush's economic policies and his war in Iraq. As American Thinker's Randall Hoven points out, that's the message being peddled by lefties as diverse as former Clinton political strategist James Carville, economist Joseph Stiglitz, and The Nation's Washington editor, Christopher Hayes.

The key point in the mantra is an alleged $3 trillion cost for the war. Well, it was expensive to be sure, in both blood and treasure, but, as Hoven notes, the CBO puts the total cost at $709 billion. To put that figure in the proper context of overall spending since the war began in 2003, Hoven provides this handy CBO chart showing the portion of the annual deficit attributable to the conflict:

My half cent - weren't we supposed to be selling that Iraqi oil to ourselves by now to pay for that situation?

FDR and the Lessons of the Depression
[LINK] Excerpt: In 1937, after several years of partial recovery from the Great Depression, the U.S. economy fell into a sharp recession. The episode has become a lightning rod in the ongoing debate about whether the economy needs further increases in government spending to keep employment from declining even more. Christina Romer, the outgoing chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, started this debate last year in The Economist by drawing a parallel to 1937 for anyone getting cold feet about increased government spending and soaring deficits. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman chimed in by claiming that the economy will repeat the experience of the 1930s if government spending is not increased.

The economy did not tank in 1937 because government spending declined. Increases in tax rates, particularly capital income tax rates, and the expansion of unions, were most likely responsible. Unfortunately, these same factors pose a similar threat today. Here are the facts: Real government spending, measured in 1937 dollars, declined by less than 0.7% of GDP between 1936 and 1937, and then rebounded in 1938. It is implausible that such a small and temporary decline reduced real GDP by nearly 3.5% in 1938 or reduced industrial production by about one-third. But in 1936, the Roosevelt administration pushed through a tax on corporate profits that were not distributed to shareholders. The sliding scale tax began at 7% if a company retained 1% of its net income, and went to 27% if a company retained 70% of net income. This tax significantly raised the cost of investment, as most investment is financed with a corporation's own retained earnings.

The tax rate on dividends also rose to 15.98% in 1932 from 10.14% in 1929, and then doubled again by 1936. Research conducted last year by Ellen McGratten of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis suggests that these increases in capital income taxation can account for much of the 26% decline in business fixed investment that occurred in 1937-1938.

My last cent - it wasn't spending, or not spending or even WWII that pulled the US from the Depression Era - it was that all the competition had been blown to hell, and the US was the only manufacturing base that was left standing. There was zero competition for 15 years. And when Japan and Germany were rebuilt with American Marshal Plan dollars - in part to stop the spread of Russian Brand Communism - those brand new factories were able to produce better products than the US. And, the US was also spending a majority of their GDP dollars in the defense of Western Europe and Japan (which we're STILL doing in 2010), which allowed for 'enlightened' social programs of Western Europe and also Japan, since an insignificant amount of their GDP were being spent on their own defense and military. I think my meter just ran out, so I better end with a quote...

Quote:
Socialism is like a dream. Sooner or later you wake up to reality. ~ Winston Churchill

Wife Beater Hurricane

Ah my friends at the AP are at it again. Apparently they just couldn't leave hurricane Earl alone. They just HAD to write it as if Earl's a wife beater.

*pssst* it was the name of a Dixie Chick song where they killed Earl for beating up his wife...

Give the gang at AP another two days, and they'll tell you how Earl proves that Al Gore was right about global warming.

UPDATE: the internet is full of this picture - > View larger image and the fear of where that sucker is going to hit.

Danielle and Earl Dueling in the Atlantic: Earl Threat to U.S. East Coast

Danielle and Earl are both spinning around in the Atlantic Ocean and NASA's Terra satellite captured one image of both storms at the same time, one in the Caribbean and the other approaching the North Atlantic Ocean. Both are expected to impact land.

Danielle is transitioning to an extra-tropical storm in the northern Atlantic and may impact southern Greenland. Before Earl reached hurricane status NASA's GRIP Hurricane Mission researchers flew out to analyze the storm. Earl is now threatening the U.S. east coast and earlier today, August 30, he became a major hurricane.

He's drunk, unemployed, and looking for that bitch Danielle who didn't get the blood stain out of his best overalls.

Aug 30, 2010

It's A Tough One

Clearly we need to appoint an umbrella czar.

Oh honey, just call in an air strike - it's what Bush would have done!

Real Libertarian Perspective

Wondering what others are thinking about that non-sense that Beck and Palin committed over the weekend?

Here was Ron Paul’s message to the Tea Party via The New York Times just the other day:

“As many frustrated Americans who have joined the Tea Party realize, we cannot stand against big government at home while supporting it abroad. We cannot talk about fiscal responsibility while spending trillions on occupying and bullying the rest of the world. We cannot talk about the budget deficit and spiraling domestic spending without looking at the costs of maintaining an American empire of more than 700 military bases in more than 120 foreign countries. We cannot pat ourselves on the back for cutting a few thousand dollars from a nature preserve or an inner-city swimming pool at home while turning a blind eye to a Pentagon budget that nearly equals those of the rest of the world combined.”

Note, this is what a REAL libertarian believes in. So, please, read the rest at: Digital Meeting Center

Help me USPS...

Lady, if you're counting on the United States Postal Service to save your rebellion, you are officially screwed. Should have gone with Fed Ex.

Dyslexic Number Oops

So they flipped the numbers - a bit. Oops. What damage could false or incorrect numbers possibly caused?

"It is not plausible that Himalayan glaciers are disappearing completely within the next few decades " ~Michael Zemp, World Glacier Monitoring Service

The extrapolar glaciation of the Earth will be decaying at rapid, catastrophic rates - its total area will shrink from 500,000 to 100,000 square kilometres by the year 2350," Mr Kotlyakov's report said. Mr Cogley says it is astonishing that none of the 10 authors of the 2007 IPCC report could spot the error and "misread 2350 as 2035."

Look - I don't want to be a denier here, but, come on guys - 10 authors let this one past. I agree that humans are changing their little space ship Earth -- and not in a fun 'I'd like to hang out here' kind of way. But, if we're going to make plausible arguments to try to not to wreck it, let's double check the work, okay?

Olde But Goodie

Just so we're clear...



If you're having trouble reading it - http://imgur.com/mwu1d.jpg, or click on the picture.

And if you're having trouble keeping the two apart, the graphic isn't going to help.

What was hilarious, to me, was that Al Sharpton's thrown-together-in-haste group couldn't get a speech out - and it was cut n' pasted from King's speech. The best part on their team was that they actually had organ play-off-music ala the Oscars.

And the other side, they changed their tune to be more religious in nature, and were also cutting and pasting Obama's and King's speeches. The speeches were rambling and trying very hard not to be political - it was more like a Promise Keeper's parade than a TEA party rally.

It was interesting to see that when they knew they were going to get clobbered with the King Anniversary, how they changed the tone and the graphics -- but those pictures weren't created in a day. They weren't just whipped up and sent to the printshop overnight.

But the main take away here is that the people that the Left are pointing their fingers at and laughing at these folks via John Stewart, and they are still not being taken seriously. They're branded a joke and racists - and the Left have no clue why they're going to get spanked in the mid-term. And, more importantly, if two idiots like Sarah Palin and Glen Beck can raise the flag to rally the troops to march into Washington -- someone a little more charisma and is a tad more clever could tell them what kind of shirt to wear and do it again. And a lot less peacefully.

Aug 29, 2010

Sunday Comics - The Week in Review

It's the end of the week - and here's where we put some crap, er, cap, on the things we didn't get to - or can be summed up with a cartoon.

John McCain continued his quest to continue serving in the Senate until he's 82...

And the image of John McCain lying to Arizona voters reminded me of this one of Obama flat out lying to the American people.

There was a bit of an egg recall. For more information, watch Food, Inc.

And some dope talkshow host got filled out his paperwork to have a love in on the Washington Mall. Much has been written about how he's plagiarizing Obama and how the march is on the same day that Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech there. Frankly, Al Sharpton would have shown the world how far Dr. King's dream has come... oh? But anyway, I feel that, like bad advertising - if you ignore Beck, he'll just go away.


Tiger Wood's divorce was finalized and 2 million Pakistanis are STILL in danger of dying from water borne illnesses. There was another anniversary recognized this weekend, and it was the end of New Orleans. I recommend the documentary Frontline just ran [Law and Disorder] on that situation.

See you next week.

Aug 28, 2010

Bus-krieg


Hitler's aged a lot better than Eva.

With all that Nazi gold, I'm kind of surprised to see him on public transportation.

Saturday Morning Cartoons


From 1953, it's Tom and Jerry in Neapolitan Mouse.

Stay Classy, Liberals

When things aren't going your way - play the race card. If that isn't working, apparently you call in a death threat? Well, that's classy. And to think that it's the left that's preaching tolerance and peace -- but that's only if you agree with them, apparently.

Now what doesn't make sense is that Dick Armey and FreedomWorks has to give up all their campaign money to hire a security guard? And FreedomWorks is the only source on this story... so are they calling in their own death threats to get some press? I wouldn't put it past them, but either way this is a pathetic, stupid place we've gotten to in political discourse.

Paris Blows

Good, maybe now we won't have to hear about this waste of skin and bones ever again. Right? Right? I mean, cocaine isn't a little DUI that gets you thrown in jail for ten minutes... The prosecutors should throw the book at her to make an example out of her. Right? I mean, that's what they do in the movies and stuff?

Aug 27, 2010

Recruiting Another Zero

Are we coming back to the post-Vietnam era of military recruiting? Is this what judges think is an appropriate action to take for someone that obviously can't conform and is not looking for any type of discipline. I can't wait to read the follow-on story of this kid going to jail for killing American Soldiers:

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A judge ordered an Alabama man to join the military as a condition for of his probation for a provocative Facebook message about the mass killing at Virginia Tech.

Zachary Lambert pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of harassing communications, and a judge in Montgomery placed the 23-year-old man on probation. She ordered him to follow through with his plans to join the service to stay out of jail.

A recruiter says the Army can't take Lambert while he's on probation, but the judge says that part of the sentence can be adjusted if Lambert enlists.

Lambert was a student at Faulkner University in December when he posted a message on Facebook about breaking the record of the Virginia Tech shooter, who killed 32 people.

Blasphemous Friday

Advertising agency Muckmouth, Auckland, New Zealand created a blasphemous campaign for Eshe Streatwear. The campaign includes four posters posted all over the streets of Auckland, branded skateboards and t-shirts.

Advertising is known to break taboos since before the scandalous Benetton campaigns breaking down the taboos of race, sex and politics. This campaign is now taking a stab at religion and picking on widely publicised scandals around it, such as pedophilia in the Catholic church and tele-evangelists making fortunes by commercialising religion. According to Wikipedia church attendance in New Zealand is around 15% and it must be even lower among the young population. So, it's safe to say the campaign will not be opposed by too many down under.


The Great Ressession Is Not Over

Bernanke Signals Stepped-Up Efforts to Spur Economy

The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, gave his strongest indication yet that the central bank was ready to resume huge purchases of longer-term debt, and was
determined to prevent the economy from slipping into a cycle of falling prices.

While Mr. Bernanke emphasized that deflation was "not a significant risk for the United States at this time," he said the Fed "will strongly resist deviations from price stability in the downward direction." It was his most robust statement to date that the Fed would do its part to avoid a Japanese-style deflation from taking hold.

Read More:


Too late, Ben. Deflation and a decade of Japan's stagnant styled economy are here, and they're going to stay. Can't say the same for you, your boss or the morons in Congress who said they were going to come in and fix it. They wanted it, they got it. They threw a bunch of slush funds at it, took over a bunch of companies, continued to escalate foreign wars - and then decided to take over another 19% of the GDP with Obamacare. And they still haven't rolled up their sleeves to get the bad mortgages out of circulation - or dealt with Fredie or Fannie. Yeah, it's ALL Bush's fault. I didn't say Bush and his policies didn't build the kindling, but the Democrats are running around yelling fire - when they asked for, and are currently holding the garden hose. Don't kid yourself, they're just as much to blame for all this as everyone else, too. No one's getting out of here without some soot on their faces.

Start investing in ammo, gang. That is, while you can still get it.

John K Meets Justin Bieber

Legendary Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi sketches Justin Bieber.

More here.

[johnkstuff.]

The first time I had ever really heard of this no-talent-ass-clown was on SNL. I think it was the one where Sara Palin came on to plug her movie with Steve Carell? Anyhow, I was thinking - who let this child come on SNL? He couldn't read the teleprompter - not even close. And then when the musical act started, I actually said, get out of the way, kid, the music part is starting up. And when he stayed up there - I guess you can call that 'singing' - I was amazed that their standards had fallen so low in the booking department. I later found out he was an 'internet sensation.' With who, or whom? Certainly not the type of people who are allowed to stay up and watch SNL?

Eh, that's what I get for actually tuning into watch that trainwreck of a television show NBC doesn't have the balls to cancel.

So at least that chunk of a turd Bieber has inspired two works of art - the first, slowing his crap down 800% is about as good as the Tibetan Monk CD I purchased in 1992. The second is posted above you... I also last cared about John K, yeah, right around 1992.

Aug 26, 2010

3-D Touch. Whatever For?

So, there's this holo-deck thing coming out of Japan.

The article has the balls to ask what the hell is this good for? What are the practical applications?

They equally have the balls to say for, er, education and 'video game' applications. Right. The word "Sticky" and "Poke" are also in the third sentence.

No, no - it'll be used to teach future surgical students how to cut fat tissue out of our asses.... ssuuurrreee...

I have the number one use for this technology with a bullet - and it'll be 'educational' for sure...

Me, and Larry Flint, have the same exact idea.

Quote of the Day

Bush Campaign Chief is Gay... So What?

Yep. Everyone knew it, and now they know it for sure.

From the article: "Privately, in off-the-record conversations with this reporter over the years, Mehlman voiced support for civil unions and told of how, in private discussions with senior Republican officials, he beat back efforts to attack same-sex marriage. He insisted, too, that President Bush "was no homophobe." He often wondered why gay voters never formed common cause with Republican opponents of Islamic jihad, which he called "the greatest anti-gay force in the world right now."

Right? And that whole anti-gay agenda that the Republican party endorses? Yeah, he really wishes he could have done something about that, back then... when he was in CHARGE.

But before I slap the Blasphemes's Hipocrite of the Week on this guy - Defense of Marriage Act" was Clinton, same as "Don't Ask Don't Tell." Well, at least Obama repealed both of those anti-gay acts - oh, he hasn't. Well, maybe he's been too busy? In the next two years then?

Inside the Secret Store

Fortune Magazine is running an article on the 'Secret World of Trader Joes.'

It's not the expose on Scientology or what goes on in a Jehovah's Witnesses's meetings - but it's kind of interesting, and since it's kind of religious for the white people I know, especially the suburban wife variety, I thought I'd share with you.

The privately held company's sales last year were roughly $8 billion, the same size as Whole Foods' (WFMI, Fortune 500) and bigger than those of Bed Bath & Beyond, No. 314 on the Fortune 500 list.

Its stores sell an estimated $1,750 in merchandise per square foot, more than double Whole Foods'. The company has no debt and funds all growth from its own coffers.

Here's the Link (new window) for the larger article.

Aug 25, 2010

Cubs Create Peanut, Win, Free Zone

One little girl with a peanut allergy creates a special area for herself. It's not like someone was smoking...

Frankly, I'm surprised that the Cubs didn't just fold completely and ban the substance - it's a legume - not a nut, from the Friendly Confines?

It only takes one letter? Shouldn't this be in the form of a petition? With lots and LOTS of signatures? A community of allergic little girls who come out of their bubbles to go to the ball game? Or how about ONE game for allergic kids?

So pretty soon we'll have to sing, "Buy me some hot dogs and cracker-jack," because no one will know what the hell a peanut is. And doesn't Cracker-Jack have peanuts in it too? But when's the last time you saw Cracker Jack being sold at Wrigley. At least a couple years. Maybe it should be, "buy me an 8 dollar Bud Lite and Italian-Ice?" So much for peanuts.

Good science knows, they've already created a Lou Piniella free zone... and they've been fairly successful at creating a win free zone too.

Aug 24, 2010

Damn, you fat


President Obama pranks Trip Director Marvin Nicholson by placing his toe on the scale while the latter weighs himself in the volleyball locker room at the University of Texas in Austin.

[whflickr / thepoliticalpartygirl.]

Def Slam

While the "Ground Zero Mosque" site is two blocks away from Ground Zero, rap mogul Russell Simmons' apartment is across the street. This week he put various religious symbols in his windows to support religious freedom.

Now everyone near Ground Zero can see towering symbols of all the world's wonderful religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and, what is that - Hippie? Either way, wouldn't it be nice if this just all went away?

Chewbacca Pink?


This Worthington top is in the women’s plus section and features the option for “Chewbacca Pink” as the color.

Do they think their customers are giant, hairy Amazon women? Perhaps it was just some random idea to make the color pink seem more interesting. Maybe they were hunting down wild pink Chewbaccas for their fur.

(JCPenney via Reddit via Technabob)

Aug 23, 2010

McCain Expected to Win

Gawker.com is predicting a John McCain win.

They're quick to mention how 'real conservatives' hate John since he's for campaign finance reform law, voted against the Bush tax cuts, supported "amnesty" in comprehensive immigration reforms, among other things — and very hesitantly supported him in 2008. Everyone thought that the Tea Party-backed Hayworth might finally get the job done. That's not going to work. Polls in the past couple of months have shown McCain with a 20- or 30-percentage point lead. One showed him ahead by 45.

But here's the deal - John is another one of the olgarcy ruling class of Americans that keep getting re-elected and re-elected -- and John doesn't even bring home the bacon to AZ. Especially since he lost the big one.

How does he do it? Well the $21 million he's spent, compared to Hayworth's (approximately) $3 million on the campaign MIGHT have something to do with it? At this point, why doesn't he just give everyone a check at the polling box and save his fellow Arizona citizens the constant drum beat of 'friends' before every sentence?

The goal of serving the people of the United States shouldn't be to die in your Senate chair.

Blasphemes: Now who can argue with that?

Has Jesus really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

Venezuela More Deadly Than Iraq

Big story in the New York Times, wondering why Hugo Chavez's Venezuela ha a higher death count than Iraq...

Off the bat, it's a socialist regime - law and order is the last order of business.

Hugo's answer to the photos of death and funerals? No more photos of death and funerals. Seems like an easy sweep under the rug, doesn't it?

I think US'Mericans take their liberties for granted. Most US'Mericans can't even grab the concept of an overly oppressive government on one hand -- controlling media and nationalizing industries whenever they see fit, and ignoring their other governmental duties - such as defense and general security...

Hold on, the more I read this article -- it sounds an awful lot like the City of Chicago, doesn't it?

You know who else is from Chicago? Discuss.

Soldiers Punished for Not Attending Christian Concert

Being marched off to a 'concert' for Spiritual Fitness is not only infuriating, unfair, it's also Un Constitutional. At what point were the soldiers rights not violated, exactly?

If the event were held off post, and promoted as something to do in downtime - that's one thing. This was not 'voluntary.'

Religious concerts should not be sponsored by the military or any government agency. Having such concerts on post is a form of sponsorship of religion -- and that's exactly what our troops are supposed to be fighting against.

Sounds more like the Salvation Army than the US Army.

Original Article

Aug 22, 2010

He's the man who would never let you down

The Week In Review - Sunday Comics

We made it through another week. I'm not quite sure how. Anyhow, here's where we wrap up crap we covered, and stuff we didn't get to with some cartoons.

First off, China's GDP just beat out Japan. Welcome to #2, China, how did you do it? Was it your complete disregard to the environment, human rights, or...
Mr. Obama stepped in the WTC/Mosque-it's-a-local-issue-but-it's-not-and-it's a prayer-center-troll-bait-not-a-mosque debate. At least he was clear, and stuck with his original statement.
Or, another way to look at it, Mr. Obama became John Kerry for the issue.

Wrangle continues to plague the Democrats... but compared to some other Democrats, he's a rank Amateur. And he's had 40 years of practice!

Oh, it's not all Charlie's fault.
Meantime, the oil spill is over - except for the invisible layer that's being detected. How does that work, again?
But that's nothing compared to Fredie and Franny...
Why cap it now?

WikiLeaks Founder was found to be vulnerable to an attack, Farvre DID come back to the Vikings - this week, Blago went down for lying, and so did Roger Clemens. Pakistan continues to tread water as 2 million people and 1/5 of the country is underwater, and still - no one seems to care.

See you next week

Left Behind

Black Males – Failing in Public Education

The 2010 Schott study has been released detailing the dire state of Black males in public education.

This isn't a black issue, it's an American issue. If a farmer had 50% of his product not even make it to the marketplace - that farmer wouldn't be in business very long. That's exactly what we ALL need to be thinking. Unless major changes in our attitudes toward the success of the African Male are not changed quickly - we're all going to lose. And I'm not talking about race riots or everyone buying security systems for their homes -- I mean if we can only hope or expect half of a class to have a success rate across the High School finish line, that speaks volumes of what America has become, and speaks a library of where we're headed.

Simply stated: The words 'volumes' and 'library' will not be words Americans will be using in the future.

Aug 21, 2010

Saturday Morning Cartoons


Bonus Saturday Morning Cartoon...

Please don’t be offended if you have an iphone, just a cute video that’s been making the rounds – apple is a marketing genius. Be warned, it contains rough language.

"Evangelist" and "Disinformation"

When asked why 18% of Americans believe President Obama is Muslim ...

"... is because we have people who are supposed to be responsible public leaders, like Franklin Graham, who are spreading what seems to me like a sort of disinformation campaign... What Franklin Graham should say: 'Barack Obama says he's a Christian, he's a Christian, end of story."

Prothero also pointed out that Obama prayed with Franklin and his father, America's most famous living evangelist, Rev. Billy Graham, in May but Franklin still repeatedly used the "if" word to answer King's questions Thursday on whether Obama has accepted Christ.

Prothero said:

"Franklin Graham doesn't seem to be interested in focusing on preaching the gospel of -- of Jesus. He wants to be spreading misinformation about the religion of Islam.

... Why are we listening to Franklin Graham?"

Why indeed?

Besides -- and let me be clear -- ALL THIS 'OBAMA IS A MUSLIM' CAME FROM HILLARY CLINTON, not the Republicans! (Link)

To all that is good about scientific theory, we sure have a short attention span. All of this 'Secret Muslim crap came out of Hillary Clinton's Iowa campaign headquarters. Remember when she FIRED her people for doing it, but wouldn't come out and say that Obama wasn't a Muslim? In fact, she said the exact thing this creep Graham was saying. Here's the transcript from 60 Minutes:

CLINTON: Of course not. I mean, that's--you know, there is not basis for that. You know, I take him on the basis of what he says. And, you know, there isn't any reason to doubt that.

KROFT: And you said you'd take Senator Obama at his word that he's not a Muslim.

CLINTON: Right. Right.

KROFT: You don't believe that he's a Muslim or implying? Right.

CLINTON: No. No. Why would I? No, there is nothing to base that on, as far as I know.

KROFT: It's just scurrilous --

CLINTON: Look, I have been the target of so many ridiculous rumors. I have a great deal of sympathy for anybody who gets, you know, smeared with the kind of rumors that go on all the time. [Emphasis added]

Doesn't anyone remember that silly headdress Obama was in when he visited Kenya? They even made a New York Times cover with him on it? That was only two years ago, people?!

Anyhow, it doesn't matter anyway. What does matter is that The USA Today has a section called Faith & Reason...

How does THAT work? Do they also have a Fairy Tales & Logic section in their comic book they call news?

Star Gazer Fades Out


`Star Gazer' host Jack Horkheimer has died

Jack Horkheimer, longtime host of public television’s Star Gazer and executive director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium, passed away today of a respiratory ailment at age 72.

From the Miami Museum of Science’s announcement:

Jack was executive director of [the] Planetarium for over 35 years and was an internationally recognized pioneer in popularizing naked-eye astronomy. He was also a recognized media celebrity, often being the foremost commentator on all astronomy related happenings nationwide.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

TELEPHONEME | MK12 from MK12 on Vimeo.

TELEPHONEME was created by the Kansas City design and filmmaking collective MK12.

For more information, refer to this excellent electronic press kit.

“These X-ray films were made by the Voice Research Laboratory to prevent languages from being forever lost to the study of man.

You could look at it as a kind of detective story.”

Gag Order on Wikileaks

Swedish authorities say they have issued an arrest warrant for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, on accusations of rape and molestation.

Did Julian Assange really do this? Is he drunk with fame and testosterone from Pentagon Papers 2010? Is he really dumb enough to discredit himself and his mission by being this stupid? I don't know - that's up to the courts to sort out - no matter how much cash and time that takes.

No matter what, Wikileaks credibility has been damaged. Pundits and critics will now have something to work with. These allegations will be repeated over and over again to drive home the talking point that Wikileaks in particular, and whistleblowers in general, are criminals.

And it will work. Unfortunately.

And if you were into conspiracy theories and evil counter intelligence agents from Hollywood movies - all you need to do is to make the accusation. You don't have to put him on a plane to Gitmo, or have him killed - just discredit the person, and you've done the damage. Simple and neat.

Read More:

Aug 20, 2010

Blago Trial on Illinois: Over By Dere - ANIMATED

A little lost on the whole Blago corruption saga? Don't worry, my favorite Taiwanese company NMA has just animated it for you. Now you know you should be catching up with Illinois: OverByDere!

Fringe Wins

Yesterday, on day 576 of his presidency - the Pew Research group decided to publish data that 18% of Americans believe their president is a Muslim.

On the surface - the study almost proves the Trey/Matt postulate that 1/4 of the population is batshiat nuts.

However, in my tiny mind, questions abound...

Why does such a poll take place? Why would they be asking the general population this question? Do we still not know who our President is? Is this because of the Birthers? Is it because he took a stand, then backed away from his stance on the mosque a couple blocks away from the WTC site? Is it because we see Mr. Obama on the golf course rather than a church Pew? Or is because the White House would rather remove the association with Mr. Obama and Rev. Wright? It worked great in Chicago - not so much the rest of the Nation.

So now we have pollsters that have to ask what religion the sitting president follows. Shouldn't we already know that -- that is, if we give a flitting care? Shouldn't that question been figured out before the Iowa Caucasus?

Is this poll more for the newsmakers to make news out of nothing, as most polls are?

Is this just troll bait for the fringe on both sides to kick up the dust - again - for no good reason? Is it a distraction to the equally useless mosque in New York debate? Is it to distract us from the terrible jobs numbers and the complete failure of Keynesian economic policies to help restart the economy's engine?

No matter the intended purpose - the White House stepped in it. They should have kept their mouths shut. They didn't. They now look stupid. Well, more than usual.

Personally, I think he is agnostic and doesn't dare tell anyone. Shhhh.