Monday, November 5, 2012
quote of the day
You can swear up a storm and use God's name derisively and it's protected speech. Say it reverently in a public place and you're deemed way out of line.
Bill O'Reilly's wise words
Here’s the big lesson from mega-storm Sandy: Mother Nature sneers at
high tech, mocks modern convenience and couldn’t care less about what
kind of person you are. She will smack you if she wants to.
As we have become addicted to machines, many of us have forgotten about nature. We must have gizmos. Sandy laughed and took them away. Power, gone. Internet, dark. Cell phones, not happening. Even your landline phone, not available, because “all circuits are busy.”
Suddenly, it’s 1850 with one exception: battery-operated flashlights and radios.
So what is the lesson here?
Actually, there are a few.
First: No government agency can help you when disaster strikes. Any assistance will be after the fact and painstakingly slow.
Second: In order to ride out any storm effectively, you should be self-reliant and resilient. That means you have to anticipate problems and have some solutions at the ready.
For example, where I live on Long Island, the power infrastructure is a disaster and has been for years. The power company, LIPA, simply cannot keep the juice flowing under duress. I have accepted that, and so I bought a generator. However, during Sandy, the generator did not work. You can imagine how many four-letter words were uttered. But I had a Plan B. I know some guys who can repair generators, and they fixed mine very quickly. I have a long-term relationship with these guys and will reward them.
So, I rode out the storm pretty well, and that’s good because there are children in my home.
Not once did I think the local, state or federal government was going to help me in any way. When President Obama speaks about government being there for you, I roll my eyes. In the history of mankind, no government has ever been there for the individual. Ever.
Sadly, we are becoming a nation dependent on other people and very reliant on machines. Sandy’s destruction brought us back to the 19th century, as the collapse of the machines was something to see. Many people were lost without their appliances because they are not self-reliant. They do not think ahead. They do not figure out Plan B because they don’t even have a Plan A.
Life is hard, and then you die. But while you’re alive, you’ll be far better off if you forget about the big-government nonsense, deemphasize the machines and begin incorporating the discipline of self-reliance into your life.
Sorry for the lecture, but my father always said that out of bad things can come some good. Americans need to wise up, and with the election just a few days away, we have an opportunity to do so.
We the people need leadership that will solve problems, be fiscally responsible and promote individual responsibility. The charlatans that promise big-government protection will always be around, but they are no match for Sandy and her furious friends.
That is the lesson of this terrible storm.
As we have become addicted to machines, many of us have forgotten about nature. We must have gizmos. Sandy laughed and took them away. Power, gone. Internet, dark. Cell phones, not happening. Even your landline phone, not available, because “all circuits are busy.”
Suddenly, it’s 1850 with one exception: battery-operated flashlights and radios.
So what is the lesson here?
Actually, there are a few.
First: No government agency can help you when disaster strikes. Any assistance will be after the fact and painstakingly slow.
Second: In order to ride out any storm effectively, you should be self-reliant and resilient. That means you have to anticipate problems and have some solutions at the ready.
For example, where I live on Long Island, the power infrastructure is a disaster and has been for years. The power company, LIPA, simply cannot keep the juice flowing under duress. I have accepted that, and so I bought a generator. However, during Sandy, the generator did not work. You can imagine how many four-letter words were uttered. But I had a Plan B. I know some guys who can repair generators, and they fixed mine very quickly. I have a long-term relationship with these guys and will reward them.
So, I rode out the storm pretty well, and that’s good because there are children in my home.
Not once did I think the local, state or federal government was going to help me in any way. When President Obama speaks about government being there for you, I roll my eyes. In the history of mankind, no government has ever been there for the individual. Ever.
Sadly, we are becoming a nation dependent on other people and very reliant on machines. Sandy’s destruction brought us back to the 19th century, as the collapse of the machines was something to see. Many people were lost without their appliances because they are not self-reliant. They do not think ahead. They do not figure out Plan B because they don’t even have a Plan A.
Life is hard, and then you die. But while you’re alive, you’ll be far better off if you forget about the big-government nonsense, deemphasize the machines and begin incorporating the discipline of self-reliance into your life.
Sorry for the lecture, but my father always said that out of bad things can come some good. Americans need to wise up, and with the election just a few days away, we have an opportunity to do so.
We the people need leadership that will solve problems, be fiscally responsible and promote individual responsibility. The charlatans that promise big-government protection will always be around, but they are no match for Sandy and her furious friends.
That is the lesson of this terrible storm.
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Nevada newspaper
The race in Nevada may be tight, but one local newspaper isn’t
mincing words about which candidate they’d prefer in the White House,
come January.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal goes where few media outlets will: criticizing President Obama. In their editorial endorsement column (via David Burge), the Review-Journal holds little back, slamming the president as unfit to remain the nation’s commander-in-chief. The paper specifically cites the Obama administration’s response to the 9/11 terrorist attack in Benghazi.
If you’ll recall, Obama travelled to Las Vegas just hours after the news of the attack surfaced. At that time, however, the White House was calling it a spontaneous demonstration, not a terrorist attack:
The Las Vegas Review-Journal goes where few media outlets will: criticizing President Obama. In their editorial endorsement column (via David Burge), the Review-Journal holds little back, slamming the president as unfit to remain the nation’s commander-in-chief. The paper specifically cites the Obama administration’s response to the 9/11 terrorist attack in Benghazi.
If you’ll recall, Obama travelled to Las Vegas just hours after the news of the attack surfaced. At that time, however, the White House was calling it a spontaneous demonstration, not a terrorist attack:
The Obama administration sat by doing nothing for seven hours that night, ignoring calls to dispatch help from our bases in Italy, less than two hours away. It has spent the past seven weeks stretching the story out, engaging in misdirection and deception involving supposed indigenous outrage over an obscure anti-Muslim video, confident that with the aid of a docile press corps this infamous climax to four years of misguided foreign policy can be swept under the rug, at least until after Tuesday’s election. [...]It concludes with more stinging criticism:
Not only did the White House do nothing, there are now reports that a counterterrorism team ready to launch a rescue mission was ordered to stand down.
The official explanation for the inadequate security? This administration didn’t want to “offend the sensibilities” of the new radical Islamic regime which American and British arms had so recently helped install in Libya.
The official explanation for why Obama administration officials watched the attack unfold for seven hours, refusing repeated requests to send the air support and relief forces that sat less than two hours away in Italy? Silence. [...]
When Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney promptly criticized the security failures in Benghazi, the White House and its lapdog media jumped all over him for another “gaffe,” for speaking out too promptly and too strongly. Prompt and strong action from the White House on Sept. 11 might have saved American lives, as well as America’s reputation as a nation not to be messed with. Weakness and dithering and flying to Las Vegas the next day for celebrity fund-raising parties are somehow better?
To return to office a narcissistic amateur who seeks to ride this nation’s economy and international esteem to oblivion, like Slim Pickens riding the nuclear bomb to its target at the end of the movie “Dr. Strangelove,” would be disastrous.BOOM. Now that’s an endorsement.
This administration is an embarrassment on foreign policy and incompetent at best on the economy – though a more careful analysis shows what can only be a perverse and willful attempt to destroy our prosperity. [...]
Candidate Obama said if he couldn’t fix the economy in four years, his would be a one-term presidency.
Mitt Romney is moral, capable and responsible man. Just this once, it’s time to hold Barack Obama to his word. Maybe we can all do something about that, come Tuesday.
Quote of the Day
"The crowd adored Obama, although not as much as I think he adored himself." Richard Cohen, liberal writer.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Quotes of the day
In 2008, his campaign was about “Change,” “Hope,” “Unity,” and in 2012
it has been “Big Bird,” “Binders,” and Bayonets.” If we become so
shallow as a people that elections are primarily decided by trivia
instead of the issues that will really determine the fate of our nation,
then ultimately we’re doomed to fail.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Politics of Insult article
Four years ago, then-candidate Barack Obama decried what he described as "the politics of insult."
"You don't deserve a bunch of name-calling," he told a Virginia crowd in the summer of 2008. "You don't deserve a bunch of mudslinging."
But lately, there have been more than a few insults flying on the 2012 campaign trail. Whether it's with cute turns of phrase like "Romnesia" or more serious invective, the president's campaign has gotten increasingly aggressive over the last few weeks in its denunciation of Mitt Romney.
The tone likely reflects the polls, which have been tightening ever since the Republican nominee's opening debate performance. Whatever the reason, it's evident that the "politics of insult" have not faded.
The following were overheard on the 2012 campaign trail:
"Bullsh--ter"
The president took a rip at Romney after a recent interview with Rolling Stone. In the article, published over the weekend, writer and historian Douglas Brinkley said that editor Eric Bates told the president that when he asked his six-year-old daughter if she wanted to say anything to Obama, she said: "Tell him: You can do it."
According to the piece, Obama then said: "Kids have good instincts. ... They look at the other guy and say, 'Well, that's a bullsh--ter, I can tell.'"
Obama later explained in an interview with a Denver reporter that the comment came during a "casual conversation" after the formal interview ended. The president appeared to defend the sentiment, though, saying people know that he means what he says.
"The basic point I've been talking about in this campaign -- people know what I mean," he said.
"Romnesia"
First came "Big Bird," then "binders full of women." But another favorite quip of late on the Obama campaign trail has been "Romnesia." It's the campaign-invented term for the condition that makes the Republican nominee allegedly forget or ignore his past positions. And the delivery of that punch-line has become increasingly involved.
"In the closing moments of the election, Governor Romney is hoping you, too, will come down with a severe case of Romnesia," Obama told a Cleveland crowd last Thursday. "So I'm here to tell you, Cleveland, if you start feeling a temperature, if you're eyes are getting a little blurry and your hearing is getting a little muffled, if you're feeling a little weak, you need to know that whatever the symptoms are, don't worry, Obamacare covers preexisting conditions. We can fix you up."
"Romney Hood"
At an Aug. 6 campaign stop, the president added a new zinger to his repertoire. He said Romney's tax policies were like "Robin Hood in reverse." He had a name for it - "Romney Hood."
Romney, though, returned the insult. In an interview with Fox News, Romney said that if he were to coin a term "it would be 'Obamaloney.'"
A felon?
In a July conference call responding to a Boston Globe piece that questioned when Romney actually left his old private equity company, Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter raised some serious claims against the GOP nominee.
She said he was either "misrepresenting" his position at Bain Capital in filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission, "which is a felony," or he was misrepresenting his position to the American people.
While the Romney called the comment over the line -- with Republicans saying Cutter had effectively called the Republican nominee a potential felon -- Cutter said that wasn't what she was going for. Her advice for Republicans was to quit "whining."
Tied to a woman's death?
An August ad from Priorities USA, the biggest Obama-supporting super PAC, made waves when it featured a former GST Steel employee talking about how his wife died of cancer after he lost his job and benefits -- when Bain Capitol closed down the factory.
"I do not think Mitt Romney realizes what he's done to anyone, and furthermore, I do not think Mitt Romney is concerned," Joe Soptic said in the ad.
The suggestion that the Republican nominee was tied to Soptic's wife's death drew outrage from Republicans. But Priorities USA co-founder Bill Burton defended the ad, and said it wasn't trying to blame Romney for her death.
"Vampire"
Another, prior, ad about the demise of GST Steel featured Joe Soptic again, and other ex-employees, bashing Romney and Bain Capital for making money off their plant and then allegedly leaving it behind.
They compared Bain -- and by extension, Romney -- to a mythical monster.
"It was like a vampire, it came in and sucked the life out of us," former steelworker Jack Cobb said in the video.
"Liar"
Charges of being dishonest were hardly uncommon this year, during the Republican primary and later in the presidential race.
After the first presidential debate, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said on CNN that Romney put out "lie after lie after lie" to look good. The Democratic National Committee's Brad Woodhouse was quoted in The Wall Street Journal saying people "have pointed out what a liar Mitt Romney is."
Obama adviser David Axelrod, in a conference call after the first debate, used the more Dickensian term, "artful dodger," to describe the challenging candidate.
While Romney's campaign complains that Obama has made the race about small things, the Obama campaign for its part has similar gripes against team Romney.
Over the weekend, after the Romney campaign mocked Vice President Biden for mistakenly referring to former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine as "Tom Kaine," Obama spokeswoman Lis Smith retorted, "Once again, Mitt Romney's campaign is showing their focus on the big things -- like one letter in Tim Kaine's name."
"You don't deserve a bunch of name-calling," he told a Virginia crowd in the summer of 2008. "You don't deserve a bunch of mudslinging."
But lately, there have been more than a few insults flying on the 2012 campaign trail. Whether it's with cute turns of phrase like "Romnesia" or more serious invective, the president's campaign has gotten increasingly aggressive over the last few weeks in its denunciation of Mitt Romney.
The tone likely reflects the polls, which have been tightening ever since the Republican nominee's opening debate performance. Whatever the reason, it's evident that the "politics of insult" have not faded.
The following were overheard on the 2012 campaign trail:
"Bullsh--ter"
The president took a rip at Romney after a recent interview with Rolling Stone. In the article, published over the weekend, writer and historian Douglas Brinkley said that editor Eric Bates told the president that when he asked his six-year-old daughter if she wanted to say anything to Obama, she said: "Tell him: You can do it."
According to the piece, Obama then said: "Kids have good instincts. ... They look at the other guy and say, 'Well, that's a bullsh--ter, I can tell.'"
Obama later explained in an interview with a Denver reporter that the comment came during a "casual conversation" after the formal interview ended. The president appeared to defend the sentiment, though, saying people know that he means what he says.
"The basic point I've been talking about in this campaign -- people know what I mean," he said.
"Romnesia"
First came "Big Bird," then "binders full of women." But another favorite quip of late on the Obama campaign trail has been "Romnesia." It's the campaign-invented term for the condition that makes the Republican nominee allegedly forget or ignore his past positions. And the delivery of that punch-line has become increasingly involved.
"In the closing moments of the election, Governor Romney is hoping you, too, will come down with a severe case of Romnesia," Obama told a Cleveland crowd last Thursday. "So I'm here to tell you, Cleveland, if you start feeling a temperature, if you're eyes are getting a little blurry and your hearing is getting a little muffled, if you're feeling a little weak, you need to know that whatever the symptoms are, don't worry, Obamacare covers preexisting conditions. We can fix you up."
"Romney Hood"
At an Aug. 6 campaign stop, the president added a new zinger to his repertoire. He said Romney's tax policies were like "Robin Hood in reverse." He had a name for it - "Romney Hood."
Romney, though, returned the insult. In an interview with Fox News, Romney said that if he were to coin a term "it would be 'Obamaloney.'"
A felon?
In a July conference call responding to a Boston Globe piece that questioned when Romney actually left his old private equity company, Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter raised some serious claims against the GOP nominee.
She said he was either "misrepresenting" his position at Bain Capital in filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission, "which is a felony," or he was misrepresenting his position to the American people.
While the Romney called the comment over the line -- with Republicans saying Cutter had effectively called the Republican nominee a potential felon -- Cutter said that wasn't what she was going for. Her advice for Republicans was to quit "whining."
Tied to a woman's death?
An August ad from Priorities USA, the biggest Obama-supporting super PAC, made waves when it featured a former GST Steel employee talking about how his wife died of cancer after he lost his job and benefits -- when Bain Capitol closed down the factory.
"I do not think Mitt Romney realizes what he's done to anyone, and furthermore, I do not think Mitt Romney is concerned," Joe Soptic said in the ad.
The suggestion that the Republican nominee was tied to Soptic's wife's death drew outrage from Republicans. But Priorities USA co-founder Bill Burton defended the ad, and said it wasn't trying to blame Romney for her death.
"Vampire"
Another, prior, ad about the demise of GST Steel featured Joe Soptic again, and other ex-employees, bashing Romney and Bain Capital for making money off their plant and then allegedly leaving it behind.
They compared Bain -- and by extension, Romney -- to a mythical monster.
"It was like a vampire, it came in and sucked the life out of us," former steelworker Jack Cobb said in the video.
"Liar"
Charges of being dishonest were hardly uncommon this year, during the Republican primary and later in the presidential race.
After the first presidential debate, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said on CNN that Romney put out "lie after lie after lie" to look good. The Democratic National Committee's Brad Woodhouse was quoted in The Wall Street Journal saying people "have pointed out what a liar Mitt Romney is."
Obama adviser David Axelrod, in a conference call after the first debate, used the more Dickensian term, "artful dodger," to describe the challenging candidate.
While Romney's campaign complains that Obama has made the race about small things, the Obama campaign for its part has similar gripes against team Romney.
Over the weekend, after the Romney campaign mocked Vice President Biden for mistakenly referring to former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine as "Tom Kaine," Obama spokeswoman Lis Smith retorted, "Once again, Mitt Romney's campaign is showing their focus on the big things -- like one letter in Tim Kaine's name."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)