Month: February 2009

BS Is Coming

Forwarded to my by a friend, seen in South Dakota’s state capital city as the State Legislature was coming to town:

I’m told that the BS in question refers to a local car dealer’s annual “blizzard sale,” although I’m not completely convinced of that.

Camille Paglia on talk radio

in Salon[*1] :

Speaking of talk radio (which I listen to constantly), I remain incredulous that any Democrat who professes liberal values would give a moment’s thought to supporting a return of the Fairness Doctrine to muzzle conservative shows. (My latest manifesto on this subject appeared in my last column[*2] .) The failure of liberals to master the vibrant medium of talk radio remains puzzling. To reach the radio audience (whether the topic is sports, politics or car repair), a host must have populist instincts and use the robust common voice. Too many Democrats have become arrogant elitists, speaking down in snide, condescending tones toward tradition-minded middle Americans whom they stereotype as rubes and buffoons. But the bottom line is that government surveillance of the ideological content of talk radio is a shocking first step toward totalitarianism.

Emphasis added.

I’ve thought this for quite a while

Rasmussen[*1] reports:

Forty-four percent (44%) voters also think a group of people selected at random from the phone book would do a better job addressing the nation’s problems than the current Congress, but 37% disagree. Twenty percent (20%) are undecided.

Say goodbye to PalmOS

Snookums won’t like this[*1] :

The Palm OS is a dead duck. Palm’s CEO Ed Colligan has signed its death sentence today. But while there will be no more new Palm OS products, their Windows Mobile smarty-panty-phones will survive (!):

Talking to investors today, Colligan said there was no point in keeping on with its development.

• No more Palm OS devices to be released by Palm. Only third-parties will do them.
• From now on, it’s only webOS (the operating system in the Pre, pronounced “huevos” in Spanish, which means “eggs” or “cojones”) and Windows Mobile devices.

Of course, she was mightily peeved when Graffiti went away.

Crisis and response

The Cato Institute’s William Niskanen[*1] :

This is the fifth time in my adult life that the president has asked for or asserted unprecedented authority on an expedited basis with little or no congressional review. Each of the prior occasions turned out to be a disaster.

The five crises?

August, 1964, the Gulf of Tonkin incident,
August 15, 1971, Nixon imposes wage and price controls,
October, 2002, Congress approves the Iraq War,
October, 2008, Congress approves TARP (aka Bailout 1.0),
And now, February, 2009, Congress approves the Spendulus

They appear to be coming quicker and quicker now, don’t they?

Hail the Fuehrer! Bow Down to the One! OBEY.

Things that annoy me

An ongoing series . . .

Among the things that annoy me are blogs that decide to go video (as a full vlog, or producing “shows” of greater or lesser lameness using easily available cameras and microphones and stuff), apparently on the theory that people have nothing better to do than spend hours and hours sitting and watching whatever silly-a$$ interview or commentary that they’re all hot-to-trot to post.

A hint to those sites: provide a text transcript, or don’t bother. I don’t watch video via the Internet as a rule unless I have a really, really good reason to do so. Otherwise, I have better things to do with my time–like going to some other site that I can read, scan, browse.

I learned to read for a reason, people. I like reading information on the Internet. Watching it? Not so much. Maybe I’m just a stick-in-the-mud, reactionary fuddy-duddy, but give me readable text articles, or give me death!

. . . And, unnecessary

Another Congressional Budget Office[*1] report states that the economy, left alone, would recover by the second half of this year.

The CBO anticipates that the current recession, which started in December 2007, will last until the second half of 2009, making it the longest recession since World War II.
. . .
In preparing its economic forecast, CBO assumes that current laws and policies governing federal spending and taxes do not change.

Of course, after Congress passes Obama’s trillion-dollar panic attack, the recovery may be delayed by a few months, but you can be sure that the triumphalists will be shouting “Success! Success!” of the big-government plan no matter what the objective facts on the ground might be.

Worse than doing nothing

That’s what the Non-partisan Congressional Budget Office[*1] says about Obama’s ‘Stimulus’ porkfest:

President Obama’s economic recovery package will actually hurt the economy more in the long run than if he were to do nothing, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

CBO, the official scorekeepers for legislation, said the House and Senate bills will help in the short term but result in so much government debt that within a few years they would crowd out private investment, actually leading to a lower Gross Domestic Product over the next 10 years than if the government had done nothing.