New Addition to Points of Interest

Just added a new site to the Points of Interest section of our blogroll. Check out Geekologie if you're interested in such things as pixelated wallpaper or toast with skull and crossbones.

If you've never bothered checking out any of the links in Points of Interest, you may also want to take a moment to look at gossip sites The Superficial or I Don't Like You In That Way, where snarkiness is taken to an entirely new level with a type of wit that makes my rolling around in pudding and trying to pass it off as a Bill Cosby impersonation just seem silly.

Cheney Assassination Attempt Not Funny

Somewhere out there the jokes are already being made and "Americans" are expressing their wishes that it had been successful.

Anyone taking part in such behavior should be ashamed of themselves. Unfortunately, for such people, shame is a word where the meaning is lost.

Travesty

Via Jay Bullock, a substitute teacher in Connecticut is facing 40 years in prison as a result of her computer illiteracy.

Having had to deal with the computer illiterate on a near daily basis, I can understand just how frustrating such people can be. But this is such a miscarriage of justice it would be laughable were it not true.

Thought for the day...

If the sum total of your political or personal beliefs can be expressed on a bumper sticker, I am sincerely saddened by your lack of intellectual depth.

Thank you.

(Inspired by someone who believes they're making a serious statement by claiming "Bush Sucks!")

Far Fetched?

Lost in the uproar over Charlie Sykes claiming that Michael McGee, Jr. used the term "Jew cops" when he in fact said "Jude cops" is the fact that McGee using such anti-semitic language isn't that far-fetched.

Had McGee kept his nose clean of bigoted language to date, I would understand how so many would be so quick to jump down Sykes' throat, and may even join in. But considering that McGee has a long track record of such behavior, isn't it a just a bit disingenous to argue that Sykes knowingly misrepresented McGee's statements in hopes of painting the alderman as something he isn't?

Having not heard the actual audio, it's difficult for me to say how easily McGee's comments may have been misinterpreted, but so far it appears it wasn't very cut and dry. Place the statement in the context of McGee's bigotry and the mis-hearing of it becomes all the more understandable.

Sykes screwed up and apologized. But let's not make it seem as if McGee is some sort of alter boy constantly singing the praises of every man woman and child regardless of race, creed or sexual orientation. He's a bigot through and through, and one critic's mistake in no way detracts from all of McGee's other faults.

And I thought my contract was bad!

From Best of the Web Today...

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A Wireless Plan for Your Family
Working Assets, "a progressive phone company," offers "The Right Choice That Supports Choice":

Planned Parenthood Wireless is a new choice for your cell phone service. By signing up for this service, you will help preserve reproductive rights, and ensure access to comprehensive family planning and medically accurate sex education for women and families around the world. You'll do something you do every day--talk on your cell phone--and you'll be helping Planned Parenthood as 10% of all monthly charges goes to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, at no extra cost to you.

Just make sure you're prepared to stick with it for the duration of the contract. We hear those early-termination fees can be murder.

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Kane Watch: Dubious Reporting

Gene, Gene the Spin Machine is up to his old trick of under-reporting a story in an effort to make his point.

Citing a New York Times article claiming that most Americans want the job in Iraq finished and calling the poll upon which the story is based dubious, Kane points out that the group who conducted the poll is " basically a bunch of political hacks who blindly support Republicans."

All fine and well if he had stopped there, but he continues with the following snarky remark...

...no wonder they [the pollsters] are still pushing the war even as Bush's
good buddy Tony Blair is cashing in his chips with a withdrawl of British
troops.

I would like to direct Eugene to Patrick McIlheran's blog (I'm sure he must know the guy) where a little more analysis is done on the troop withdrawl story than just reading the headline...

...The British are leaving troops in Iraq, mainly to train Iraqis. This
differs from what we're doing there -- because the British are in a different
part of Iraq, where conditions differ. As Prime Minister Tony Blair pointed out,
"The situation in Basra is very different from Baghdad," he was quoted in the
Times. "There is no Sunni insurgency. There is no al-Qaeda base. There is little
Shia on Sunni violence. The bulk of the attacks are on the Multinational Force.
It has never presented anything like the challenge of Baghdad."

In fact, the British are turning over their main base near Basra to the
Iraqis. Swaths of the south, the part of Iraq they cover, are in Iraqi control.

This withdrawal is a landmark of the very thing the surrender side here
claims can never happen: Iraqis controlling their own country...

Of course, attention to detail would have prevented Kane from blindly opposing success in Iraq.

____________________________

Housekeeping

Some long-overdue housekeeping has been performed on the Ask Me Later blogroll. For the most part it included the addition of blogs that I've put off far too long but certainly deserved to be here but I was accessing via the blogrolls of others. Unfortunately, a few had to fall off since they haven't been updated since the turn of the year.

Now, being on our blogroll and ten cents won't even buy you a cup of coffee, but it does mean I have the opportunity to read what someone is saying with relative ease. So, if anyone out there has recommendations, please let me know by dropping a comment to this post. I know there are a few blogs I've visited as of late that I didn't take the time to bookmark, so I'm just going to hope I run across them again!

You may now return to whatever it is you were doing.

____________________________

Kane Watch: Something missing?

Eugene Kane's column today covers the Tim Hardaway-anti-gay-remarks controversy. In it he discusses how it bothers him that, in general, the African-American community has a streak of homophobia. Overall, it's a good piece, but something is conspicuously absent.

Citing the high-profile bigoted remarks from Mel Gibson (anti-Semitic), Michael Richards (n-word) and Isaiah Washington (anti-gay), Kane completely ignores the far more pertinent and local tie-in to the story: Alderman Michael McGee, Jr.

With a long history of anti-gay remarks, one might think that bringing up McGee in this context would be tremendously appropriate. And what makes McGee's remarks even more striking is that, unlike Gibson, Richards and Washington, entertainers, and Hardaway, an athlete, McGee is an ELECTED OFFICIAL. The other four men here are ultimately inconsequential in our day-to-day lives, but McGee is someone put in office with the assumption that he serve the interests of his constituency. For better or worse, he is a community leader. And I have it on good authority that a number of McGee's constituents are, in fact, gay!

So far Kane has expended countless words in both his blog and column on four men who ultimately can do no worse than hurt feelings and embarrass themselves while he closes his eyes to the antics of someone who actually has an impact on the operation and future of this city.

I might think that odd were it not for the fact that Kane has pretty much admitted it's unlikely he'll stop defending McGee.

Goodbye journalistic integrity. Hello hypocrisy.

____________________________

Stand up for what you believe

Trust me, I do believe in this.

How I could not believe in something so near and dear to me is incomprehensible.

That's why I simply couldn't pass up an article titled "Standing up for the scrotum."

____________________________

What's worse?

A society that specifically targets unborn children for abortions based upon sex?

OR

A society where abortions are equal opportunity?

Big props to Jenna for a spot-on observation.

____________________________

Hey! You!

Who's our reader in Plano?

I know you're out there!

The Religion of Global Warming

Buzz recently turned me on to the journal of John C. Wright, a retired attorney, journalist and author with a very logical take on global warming.

[A] person can be a conservationist (which I am) without being an environmentalist (which I am not).

[...]

If any environmentalist out there became convinced that the only way to save the Earth was to cut down trees in order to increase the albedo of the planet and reflect more heat out into space, I would listen with grave attention to his argument. That argument, at least, would have indicia of honesty: it would be a statement against interest. Likewise, I would listen with attention if the environmentalist suggested igniting a few atom bombs in forest to produce smoke clouds: surely the nuclear winter would stop the global warming trend?

As it is, the only solutions ever suggested by any environmentalist are those aimed at industry. Whether the problem is global warming or global cooling, two opposite problems, the solution is the same: mug the free market.

Years of lies have raised the threshold of my skepticism above what it would be on other topics. Proof beyond reasonable doubt will be required to convince me. When a boy scout or a hunter tells me he wants to preserve wild areas for hunting or recreation, I do not suffer the same level of skepticism: these groups do not have histories of being carried away by fashionable hysteria.

Does that answer the question? The reason why (speaking for myself) I do not count myself an
environmentalist, even though I am a conservationist, is that environmentalism has all the hallmarks of a religious movement, not a scientific study. I do not worship at your altars.

The time is here where environmentalists must be challenged at every turn, particularly when it comes to global warming, for their assertions are based more and more in some sort of faith rather than scientific study. While I don't believe there's anything necessarily wrong with faith, environmentalists have taken us very far down a path that is causing considerable amounts of money to be spent on something they assure us is based in science but doesn't stand up to the tests other scientific assertions would. If any religion were to so unconditionally demamd the money, resources and blind faith from our government and citizens that do global warming believers, with the same lack of concrete evidence, there would be rioting in the streets and challenges in every court in the land. Instead, we hand them our wallets and future in a single gesture.

UPDATE: Cardinal George Pell of Australia sees the blind faith as being a tad dangerous as well.

Christians don't go against reason, although we sometimes go beyond it in
faith to embrace the probabilities.

What we were seeing from the doomsayers was an induced dose of mild
hysteria -- semi-religious if you like, but dangerously close to
superstition.

____________________________

How Things Change

Just last week I was venting my frustrations over how some things are handled at my place of work. That, combined with something that took place yesterday made me wonder why I even bother caring so much about my job or my company.

This morning, I was called in to my boss's office where I was handed an employee recognition bonus for 10% of my annual salary.

I'm really not wondering anymore.

I, for one, welcome our robotic overlords

A Japanese venture company called Cyberdyne has developed a robotic suit.

A user is able to walk more easily and avoid muscle strains or lift objects
as heavy as 20 kilogrammes in this suit because it moves slightly before the
wearer’s limbs. Sensors on the suit correspond with the user’s brain signals,
which would tell muscles to move.

The suit called, Hybrid Assistive Limb, or HAL, is
expected to go rental mainly for rehabilitation and everyday assistance as early
as 2008...

Considering prior experiences with Cyberdyne and HAL, I'm a little skittish over this latest development.

____________________

About Time

A Tennessee lawmaker is proposing that death certificates be issued for abortions.

While some are calling this "preposterous," well, the title of this post pretty much sums up my thoughts on it.

Sweet

An important announcement regarding DR

Ooops...thanks to Steve for pointing out that the wrong date was associated with the next Drinking Right, which will be tomorrow night, the 13th.

Furthermore, the February Drinking Right will mark a significant change in the event. No longer will I, David Casper, serve as the default host! That's right, effective immediately, a different person will "host" this fabulous event each month!

Now, hosting isn't really too hard. If you have DR permalinked on your blog, that won't change, because scheduling information will remain here. And you don't even have to pick a different place or coordinate much other than promoting the event, showing up and drinking...right!

And as host, you get to "volunteer" the host for the next month's event!

So without any more delay, I would like to introduce you the the host for February's Drinking Right...ladies and gentleman...

Sean Hackbrath!

(no tag-backs)

Cop gets off, gets busted, gets off again

[h/t Fark]

An Irvine, CA, cop with a penchant for strippers escaped criminal prosecution after ejaculating* on a stripper whom he had pulled over for a traffic violation.

The stripper worked at a club called Captain Cream.

The former cop, who now works in construction, only ever achieved the rank of Officer Cream.

_________________________________

*I believe that's the first time the word "ejaculation" has appeard on this blog. Odd, considering that at when Ask Me Later first started, I was using it on a near daily basis. Huh...

Socialism and Christianity

I'm not a big fan of socialism. Never have been, never will be. But in his latest book, A Man Without a Country, Kurt Vonnegut does put it in an interesting perspective.

"Socialism is no more an evil word that "Christianity."
Socialism no more prescribed Joseph Stalin and his secret police and shuttered
churches than Christianity prescribed the Spanish Inquisition.
Christianity and socialism alike, in fact, prescribe a society dedicated to the
proposition that all men, women, and children are created equal and shall not
starve.
Adolph Hitler, incidentally, was a two-fer. He named his
party the National Socialists, the Nazis. Hitler's swastika wasn't a pagan
symbol, as so many people believe. It was a working person's Christian
cross, made of axes, tools.
About Stalin's shuttered churches, and those in China today:
Such supression of religion was supposedly justified by Karl Marx's statement
that "religion is the opium of the people." Marx said that back in 1844,
when opium and opium derivatives were the only effective painkillers anyone
could take. Marx himself had taken them. He was grateful for the
temporary relief they had given him. He was simply noticing, and surely
not condemning, the fact that religion could also be comforting to those in
economic or social distress. It was a casual truism, not a dictum.

Good for Mayfair

JSO is reporting today that Mayfair Mall will institute restrictions on unaccompanied youth this spring. I think that's fantastic.

I wonder how long it will take for "some" community leaders to cry out that this policy is racist, unfair or some combination of the two.

It's amazing to me how many people feel that the youth of this city are entitled to things. Whether it be a ride on a bus amid obnoxious behavior, or using the mall as a gathering place instead of using it as a place to shop.

When I was growing up, things were taken away from us because we abused the privilege. In this city, it seems that people forget what a privilege is, and have expected business owners to pay the cost of unruly behavior.

Well congratulations and well done to Mayfair Mall for taking a step in regaining control. To be honest, it's an equal drive for me to get to Mayfair or Bayshore. When the latter opened up, I quit going to Mayfair altogether because I was sick of the kids pushing people around. I may just take a trip back there this spring.

Kane Watch: Digging Deeper

It seems some writers in this city can't seem to figure out when they're dead wrong, so they keep digging that hole deeper. It seems some writers in this city don't like to talk about racism when it pertains to hate from blacks towards whites. It seems some writers in this city live in a fairy land where all black folks are nice to white folks, and white folks who live or travel through rough parts of town never, ever experience discrimination or racism.

Give me a break.

In case you haven't figured it out, the writer in question is Mr. Kane because Mr. Kane likes to say things like, "This bus attack story was unusual in many ways, mainly because you don't hear about whites being attacked on Milwaukee County buses by blacks. It usually doesn't happen."

It's not that these events are uncommon, it's that they are not reported or are not to a degree which requires police involvement. This however, does not mean that they don't happen. Mr. Kane thinks that racism only counts if the victim is put in the hospital. Sorry, Gene, but that's just not the case.

In my five years in Milwaukee I have been on the receiving end of racist behavior numerous times. The worst was an incident on Lincoln Memorial Drive before Sheriff David Clark took over. I was stuck with all the cruisers, and there were a few points where I honestly feared for my life. People were beating on my car and screaming racial slurs at me.

Here's my question for Kane: Because they did not drag me out of my car and beat me, does that make the incident any less racist?

Here's another question for Kane, why is it that when I go to Mayfair mall, for example, and as a white woman who is shopping, I sometimes can't walk past a large group of some young black kids without being the target for some intimidation tactic or racial slur? Is that also not racist behavior because I did not end up in the hospital?

I am certain that as a single, white woman Mr. Kane knows everything there is to know about black racism towards whites...oh wait. Kane isn't a single, white woman. Oh yeah, he also lives in the burbs. I wonder, when was the last time he took the bus down North Ave? Kane says, "You don't hear about whites being attacked...." No, Gene you don't hear about whites being attacked. Most likely because you've never asked, and/or when you've been told you just make excuses for the kids who did it.

I work with a fellow who has, in the last week, spent over $100 on cab rides because he has grown tired of riding that North Ave. bus home. He says it's not worth it to endanger himself. This is not because he read of the beating that recently occurred. This is because he has personally been assaulted on the bus before while being called racial slurs. Oh yeah...he's white. The aggressors were teenage black males. When I heard about the "Great Bus Hate Crime," I actually thought that it was him, because he has told me how many times he's been assaulted on that bus.

But really, these things don't usually happen, right Gene?

It's unfortunate that it's so easy for Gene to classify "some" whites as racists so easily, but when the facts are starting him right in the face, to defend the racist actions of blacks as being "unusual" or not very serious.

Racism is racism is racism. It's that simple. Until all sides confront just how bad the situation is in this city, it's going to be awhile before we can overcome some of these issues.

Science never ceases to amaze me

This, readers, is the newly published formula for use in determining the liklihood that one person was attracted to another as the result of "beer goggling."

Far be it from me to use the wonders of science nefariously, but I'm going to.

One, I'll be using it to avoid finding myself waking up with a serious case of coyote arm.

Two, I'll be using it to determine just how many more beers my next target will need.

Kane Watch: The Great Bus Hate Crime...Denial

My very first ever full fisking of Kane...


Bus story cries out for some perspective

Ah, yes, of course. And Kane is there to deliver it.

I really wanted to write about how cold it's been, but it seems some folks would rather hear about the Great Bus Hate Crime.

It gets cold in Wisconsin every year (maybe a little colder this year than last, but it's nothing new). Rarely do we hear about black teens beating on white folks while throwing out racial slurs. Of course, Kane always does seem to want to ignore stories just like this. Do I need to mention McGee?

It seems a white guy was attacked by a group of black people on a bus in Wauwatosa two weeks ago. The Wauwatosa police decided to seek charges including a hate-crime enhancer against one suspect because most of the people on the bus were African-American and someone reportedly used a racial slur.

I can't imagine the hate crime enhancer has anything to do with most of the people on the bus being African-American, but rather that an African-American assailant called the victim "cracker" while beating on him. If a white man beat up a black man on Water Street late on a Saturday, I wouldn't go anywhere near calling it a hate crime. If the white guy kept dropping the n-word during the beating, well, seems to be that might qualify.*

Some folks have jumped on the Great Bus Hate Crime story as the latest example of rampant black-against-white hate crime in Milwaukee that goes largely unreported because of liberal media bias.

"Some folks" might. But other folks aren't pointing to "rampant black-against-white hate crime." They're pointing to any crime, be it white-on-white, black-on-white, white-on-black or the far too frequent black-on-black. What people see this as the latest example of is an increasing amount of crime in Milwaukee's black community that's growing far too random for people's comfort.

But there's a legitimate question whether this case meets the standard of previous high-profile racially motivated incidents.

The victim on the bus didn't suffer enough injuries to require hospital treatment, which makes this one different from the bloody beating of Frank Jude Jr. by off-duty Milwaukee cops.

He also wasn't threatened with a gun or a German shepherd, which makes the case different from the hate crime involving two former firefighters accused of chasing a black fisherman out of their Waukesha County neighborhood.

A person was beat up because he was white. His glasses were broken and his eyes too swollen to put in his contacts. He suffered from humiliation and emotional distress because he was white. Michael Richards had a break-down on stage, uttered the n-word far too many times, and every African-American interest group in the nation was calling for his head. To the best of my knowledge, he didn't hit anyone in the audience.

The victim on the bus is a 20-year-old student at Milwaukee Area Technical College; the suspects are reportedly a bunch of black teenagers on their way from Mayfair Mall back to the central city of Milwaukee.
Some have said the bus attack suggests it's dangerous for whites to ride buses with black people. That's ridiculous. People of different races have been riding buses together in this town for decades. There are definitely racial problems in Milwaukee, but it's not limited to the buses.

You keep bringing up the Jude case so I will as well: The cops involved in the beating were some bad apples. Is that any justification for the black community in Milwaukee to show as much distrust for the police in general? No. Just as it's not justifiable for white people to be afraid to be the only white person on a bus. You may not be able to stop people's fears, but you damned well better understand them.

This story cries out for some perspective, particularly in a community where sensational crimes involving homicide, gang rape and outrageous child abuse emerge from both the black and white communities. Given the level of violence in some areas of town, it's hard to muster up any outrage over a fight on a bus.

I'll be sure to remember that the next time a black person is denied entrance at a downtown nightclub.

It's also hard to believe some folks are suddenly so concerned about the racial climate in Milwaukee because a white guy was on the receiving end this time.

We've always been concerned about it. Any observation a white person makes is labeled as racist.

The head of the NAACP weighed in on the Great Bus Hate Crime after being asked for comment. Funny, but I don't remember which white organization was asked to comment about the Jude beating or when the black guy from Milwaukee was threatened while fishing.

There isn't a "white organization." And, by the way, when you're challenged over the fact that there isn't a "White History Month," don't respond by saying, "every month is white history month." It's just childish and ignorant.

But it was encouraging to hear the bus victim address his bad experience with some thoughtfulness. He told a Journal Sentinel reporter he actually felt sorry for the people who attacked him.

"There's something wrong in this (community) when people don't understand how to interact with each other."
Wow...some level-headedness in this story. People like McGee/Jackson, who feign insult and make calls of racism whenever he's the so-called "victim" might take a page from this kid's book.

I think the Great Bus Hate Crime struck a nerve because of simmering anger from whites in Milwaukee who believe black people are excused for the same acts of racial animosity for which whites would get crucified.

You're right. One point for you.

I don't think that's true - Jude's attackers, remember, were never charged with hate crimes - but it's a conversation worth having. The Great Bus Hate Crime might help that conversation along if enough people are willing to share their opinions.

Love to see it. Doubt people will want to hear them. Or, at least, they'll hear them, and more calls of racism will be made.

Next column, I write about the cold weather for sure.

Better bury this story as soon as possible.

My Space

I typically like to think of "my space" as that area others shouldn't intrude unless invited or having plied me with copious amounts of alcohol. Frankly, that concept is preferable to what myspace.com has to offer.

To some extent I get why it's so attractive...to 12-year-olds. But what the hell is the deal with 20/30-somethings literally living on the thing. I signed up just because I had to if I wanted to learn anything about it. But I've gotta say that people I know who are on it with the regularity they are should be embarrassed with themselves. I've witnessed people who talk in person on a daily basis post comments on one another's' profiles because...because...well, I have no idea why!

Again, if you're 12, Myspace is probably just keen. If you're 25, grow up. Leave Myspace to the perverts and the dumbass pre-teens with parents lacking in parenting skills. If you're so deprived of a personality in person, trust me, the nifty picture, obnoxious background, annoying song and cryptic comments from your friends ain't doing you any favors.

And if you're a business with a Myspace page, declare bankruptcy today.

It's about time

I woke up this morning with a horribly sore throat. I'll be the first to admit that half of me thought it was the result of extremely dry air in my apartment, but the other half of me recalled how I was once laid out for nearly two months because of strep. I was in sales, and I have to say that being unable to talk really put a crimp in my commissions.

So I stayed home.

As the day rolled on, I grew fairly certain that the sore throat was more the result of dry air than any sort of infection, but I opted to stay home nonetheless. It wasn't so bad. Recently installed cable entertained me, and a kind and attractive benefactor brought me Taco Bell (or, as I more commonly refer to it, a "Mexican laxative.") And I didn't feel guilty about not going in to work, because I also spent a lot of the day dialed in to work, checking e-mails and making occasional phone calls.

So I stayed at home. And worked.

The sad part is that I think I got more accomplished today than I would have had I been in the office. Sad, because, I work for a company that's very likely a leader in the industry when it comes to technological advancements but still operates as if it's 1957 and the only true way to measure the quality of its employees is by whether or not their butts are in their seats from 9 to 5. Telecommuting is frowned upon, in spite of considerable expenditures on the tools making them possible. Although a recent study (sorry, no link, heard it on a radio show) shows that the number one "perk" after pay employees consistently cite when asked about the quality of their job is flexibility, "flex-time" is non-existent with my company. I've watched co-workers be reprimanded for being five minutes late even though they regularly produce work in greater quantity and quality than 95% of their peers. Meanwhile, people who are in their seats at 9 and out of them at 5, but spend the day reading the paper or surfing the net, are held in high regard simply because they abide by an antiquated HR policy ignorant of the modern workplace.

It's the 21st century. We may not have jet packs, but we do have the ability to extract the worker from the work place, and witnessing a multi-billion dollar corporation drop the ball worse than Tony Roma is disappointing. It makes me lose faith in those who make decisions in an entity to which I offer my loyalty in return for which I ask not only for a paycheck, but also the confidence that sound decisions are made when it comes to how employees are treated. The issue is that in my company the average age of an employee goes up every year and recruiting new talent grows increasingly difficult. How are we to compete for young, bright talent when we operate as if computers were just invented and the internet is merely a fad?

Anyone who knows me would hear these complaints and worry that I wouldn't be too far off from marching into the CEO's office and demanding answers. After all, I'm a shareholder in the company and feel that it's my right to question operational decisions that may ultimately impact its ability to compete in a rapidly advancing marketplace. But the truth is that I like getting paid, as money buys bourbon. So how should someone in my predicament handle this?

I should state for the record that, for the most part, I'm happy with my job as well as the company. Heck, I've been working for so long that when it comes to me, I really have no problem with working in the environment I describe. But it concerns me, as a good "corporate citizen," that while we may succeed in the marketplace of our product, we fail in the marketplace of sustainability simply because we're getting older and seem to demonstrate little desire to change that. Certainly, we make the efforts to get younger talent, but don't offer them what they look for when measuring one job against another.

So, dear reader, I turn to you. How do you take a gigantic, lumbering mechanism and encourage it to try and survive rather than waddle into extinction? How can a lowly cog get its voice heard?

Or is it a lost cause?

Crunching the Numbers

Someone much smarter than I has done it. Frankly, it's all a bunch of gobbledygook to me, but when you read a statement indicating the budget deficit has shrunk by 58% in the last three years, it's worth taking a read.

Political Wisdom

(received in my inbox this morning)

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress....
But then I repeat myself.
-Mark Twain

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a
man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the
andle.
-Winston Churchill

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support
of Paul.
-George Bernard Shaw

A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man ...which debt
he proposes to pay off with your money.
-G Gordon Liddy

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what
to have for dinner.
-James Bovard, Civil Libertarian

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich
countries to rich people in poor countries.
-Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to
teenage boys.
- P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live
at the expense of everybody else.
-Frederic Bastiat, French Economist

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases:
If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops
moving, subsidize it.
-Ronald Reagan

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
-Will Rogers

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs
when it's free!
-P.J. O'Rourke

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as
possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
-Voltaire

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics
won't take an interest in you!
-Pericles

No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in
session.
-Mark Twain

Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it.
-Unknown

The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at
one end and no responsibility at the other.
-Ronald Reagan

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The
inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.
-Winston Churchill

The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the
taxidermist leaves the skin.
-Mark Twain

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill
the world with fools.
-Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher

There is no distinctly Native American criminal class...save Congress.
-Mark Twain

What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
-Edward Langley

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough
to take everything you have.
-Thomas Jefferson

Let's Get Naked

I hadn't heard this song in quite some time, but caught it playing in a bar last night and was reminded how much I liked it when it first came out.

Trivia: What was the other hit by the Naked Eyes?




There is always something there to remind me.

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Stopped in at Fox 6's Blog-A-Palooza last night where countless other bloggers joined in. Not quite Drinking Right, because, well it was at a coffee shop! But I did get to meet some new people, see some familiar faces and see one unfamiliar face who I knew but had never met.

You know who you are.