TheOnesDay™ Post

A Democrat told a Republican, "I just got a great new hearing aid, thanks to ObamaCare."

The Republican asked, "What kind is it?"

The Democrat replied, "A quarter after two o'clock."

Who Needs Jobs When We Have Class Warfare Instead?

If Obama cares so much about jobs, why does everything he proposes destroy them? Isn't that kinda, well, counterproductive?

His latest brilliant idea was to raise revenues by increasing taxes on corporate jets. Sure, Barry, it sounds like a great way to put the screws to our class enemies. But what about the mechanics, pilots, and flight attendants? Or the noble workers who manufacture the planes? They're the proletariat, the good people -- why are you hurting them?

Oh, and as the Mandarin points out, the new tax would raise a pittance. Hey, as long as it punishes the fat cats it'll be worth it, right?

The Snap Beans Aren't Salty

This past Friday my stepson graduated high school. His older sister got married a few months back, but his graduation makes me feel older somehow. Maybe it's because he was only 4 when I started dating the kind and beatiful She Who Must Be Obeyed™?

As we discussed him going off to college, I pointed out to him that college students frequently come home as complete strangers to their parents, having changed religion, sexual preferences, and the like. I told him that we'd love and welcome him no matter how he changed, but if he came back a liberal or a vegetarian I would have to kick his ass. I hope he took that message to heart.

I can't call Borepatch my blogfather without offering up the occasional musical post. The Boy™ will be attending school in New Orleans, where he'll be studying jazz performance. One style of Jazz that I particulary enjoy is Zydeco, which grew out of a combination of Creole, Cajun, and African musical traditions. Indeed, the genre got it's name from the French phrase "The Snap Beans Aren't Salty" ( Les haricots ne sont pas salés, pronounced "leh-zy-dee-co sohn...", a colloqual expressing meaning "times are hard".

Times were (and still are) hard in New Orleans, but this performance by Buckwheat Zydeco must have raised the mood back in 1997.




Congrats, Jonathan -- we're very proud of you, and look forward to the great things you'll accomplish.

Hippies Kill Even More People -- News (not) at Eleven!

Via I Hate the Media: it seems that the organic veggie meltdown in Europe has killed more people than Fukushima and the Gulf oil spill combined. Yes, I realize that the former is an immediate threat, while the latter are long-term issues. However, it's a good opportunity to remind my readers* that the things the mass media pay attention to are not necessarily all that important. I mean, FFS! The earthquake and tsunami that caused the Fukushima disaster killed ~4 cubic shitloads of people -- many times more than the radiation ever will. The media, of course, prefers to focus on the (really, really scary!!one!!11) radiation.

Here's the deal, hippies: If you eschew technologies that improve crop yield and safety, then you have to expect people to die. Yes, organic brussel sprouts are 100% natural -- but so is e. coli, you dumb bastards. "Natural" doesn't necessarily mean "good", ok? As Borepatch (pbuh) would, say:  Grownups are talking here -- why don't you go to your room ?

* both of you.

I Can See the Light!

Texas has joined South Carolina and Arizona in legalizing incandescent light bulbs -- you know, the non-poisonous bulbs we've all used for years. Of course, it only legalizes bulbs made in the state (thanks, commerce-clause-befucking-SCOTUS!), but it's a start.


She Who Must Be Obeyed™ and I will be moving to Florida in approximately 18 days, 20 hours, 44 minutes, and 48 seconds. Florida is a great place, but the more I think about it, the more I wish I could have convinced her to move to Texas. Ah, well -- perhaps once The Boy™ graduates college.

Breaking News! Cantor and Kyl Pull out of Budget Talks with Dems!

Bipartisan budget talks led by Vice President Biden collapsed Thursday after the top two Republican negotiators pulled out, complaining Democrats won't drop their push for tax increases and calling on the president to get involved.

Read more:


Republicans growing a pair all of a sudden? Nah, it'll never happen!

Progressives are, for the most part, extremely technocratic. They truly believe that the elite, because they are so well educated, can build a top-down system that works "the right" way this time. They want to tear down the old system, appoint philosopher kings to rule us, and all will be well. It's not a new idea -- Plato, Constantine, and Thomas Moore all wrote about it. And you know what? It didn't work back in the old days, and it won't work now. Over the long term people can be counted on to work in their own interests, and even the most brilliant engineer cannot build a system that goes against human nature.

In a A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking wrote,

A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"

I think the current progressives are a lot like the little old lady in this story. Socialism, Communism, and Statism have never succeeded in the past, but next time they'll get it right. We haven't found the right philosopher king to rule us yet, but the next one -- Boy will he be great! And thus we get mediocre statists all the way down.

Great Rejoicing!

I'm over 40, and had my physical this morning. Needless to say, I was dreading it. But miracle of miracles, the doc didn't give me the finger!

If he had told me he wasn't going to early in the exam my blood pressure would have been lower.

Reframing the argument? Rebranding liberalism? Or just out of touch lefties?

Imagine my surprise when I found out that Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her colleagues aren't a screaming, died-in-the-wool liberal/progressive. I didn't realize they were moderates!

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the four moderates on the court, dissented from Justice Scalia’s broader analysis and sought a much narrower holding.

– the New York Times , in an editorial about Wal-Mart v. Dukes entitled Wal-Mart Wins, Workers Lose.

The judges who signed dissent were, of course,  Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan -- so the four "moderates" are the four most liberal SCOTUS justices.

What do you think, folks? People don't use the word "liberal" any more because the American people realize it's a bad thing. The left then switched to "progressive" for the last few years. Is "moderate" the new  term for the hard left? Or is it just that the NYT editorial board is such a home of the looney left that the liberal justices are to their right?

H/T David Lat at Above the Law 

First OnesDay® Post!

Per Borepatch (pbuh), Wednesday is a good day to mock The One™.

Q. What is the difference between God and Obama?
A. God does not think he is Obama!

Fred Thompson Agrees with Me

Over at the Corner on NRO, Fred Thompson says elegantly what I said poorly: that we're screwed if our "representatives" don't stop putting short-term political interests ahead of the good of the country. Quoth Senator Thompson:

Suppose Republicans win next year because we are “not the other guys.” Then what? Winning is necessary but not sufficient to save our country from fiscal disaster. Two years later the Democrats will still be offering free stuff and the postponement of pain. We can’t win the several subsequent elections that will be necessary to put us on the right path unless we win the war of ideas and develop the ability to explain why restraint and reform are necessary and that fostering a nation of free people, free markets, and the rule of law is not only morally just and right but is the only way to sustainable growth and prosperity. Otherwise, we become participants in our own demise, for the sake of short-term political expedience.

Go RTWT.

H/t: Darlene at Popehat

The Greeks Are Revolting!

I am quite amused when I look at what's happening over in Greece. As you know, Greece had massive social programs that eventually caused their economy to collapse. The European Union stepped in to help them, but required significant spending cutbacks as a condition of the aid. In the US if you declare bankruptcy your creditors will make you cut back on your spending -- it's the same thing.

What's amusing, of course, is that there are thousands of people holding violent protests of these austerity measures. They think the Government should reneg on the agreements and continue the runaway social programs. I can understand their emotions -- they like their socialist system, and losing their benefits will be truly painful. However, that doesn't change the fact that the country out of frikkin' money. They're broke. They cannot possibly continue the way things are.

This is, of course, little different than what's going on in Washington. We're spending at an unsustainable rate, but our "representatives" refuse to do anything about it. The only way to save the country is to cut spending dramatically, and soon -- but doing so could cost a politician his job, so it's not going to happen. In short, they're trading away our future so they can hold on to power just a bit longer.

Are You There, Blogosphere? It's Me, Dan*.

On my way home from work today I noticed that the car in front of me was a pizza delivery vehicle -- and it was covered with Mensa stickers. It quite amused me -- looks like high intelligence doesn't necessarily correlate to career success. That explains our current president, methinks.

Intelligence -- even brilliance -- can be quite a cool thing. It can also suck big, hairy goat balls if you expect too much from it. And from this observance comes the title of my humble blog.

Our country, and our culture, is in the grasp of the control of an ineffective, misguided elite: people with the 'right' education, job history, and connections who seem to think they know better than the rest of us how our lives should be lived and our country governed. For much of our history it has been so and that hasn't been a problem. Now, however, it's become unacceptable and,quite frankly, pretty frikkin' annoying. I have started this blog in an attempt to address these technocratic bastages.

I'm not a great writer, so please forgive me if I sound stupid from time to time. I'd love to write as eloquently as Borepatch, but you're not going to read anything from me referencing both ancient Roman history and the need to vote out our "Representatives" . However, I hope to post thoughts that are occasionally amusing, and perhaps once in a white amusing.

Borepatch (pbuh) is fond of using the phrase "blogfather", so I have appropriated that to describe my relationship with him. If you don't read him on a daily basis you are dead to me.

Oh yeah, commenting: I like comments. Please feel free to post any comments you like. Also please understand that if you're too dickulent I'll have to ban you.

In closing, Obama delenda est.



*yes, I realize that quoting Judy Bloom requires me to surrender my e-peen. Alas, my wife confiscated it a long time ago. At best I can allow the confiscation of the sad, empty area where it once lived.