Treasury Department Inspector General J. Russell George on the IRS scandal: "“It is not illegal, but it was inappropriate,” George said.
Gee, that sounds awfully familiar:
Friday, May 17, 2013
"Had Been Drinking With Her Husband and Friends..."
...when that evil AK-47 began firing all by itself and kilt her dead right there.
Never anyone responsible, just the gun attacking like a rabid dog.
I guess that in the pre-gun days the favorite excuse must have been oops it slipped out of my hand.
Never anyone responsible, just the gun attacking like a rabid dog.
I guess that in the pre-gun days the favorite excuse must have been oops it slipped out of my hand.
True Grits
I went to high school with a girl who, bless her heart, ordered "a grit" at the Cracker Barrel. She wanted to try grits without committing to an entire portion. The waitress obliged. And, my high school pal recoiled at what she described as "a hangnail on my plate!" Our lesson that day was one we might have learned in the classroom -- grit is gross and unappetizing and has no place on the plate but, grits are delicious.
Found here.
Found here.
Quote of the Day
Here’s the hard thing Republicans have to do if they don’t want this crisis [IRS scandal] to go to waste: they have to ignore their id, the temptation of the sugar high of partisan point-scoring. They must willfully set aside Obama’s presence in the fray, leaving the short term personalized attacks on the table, and go after the much bigger prize. Obama isn’t running for office again. Liberalism is. Making this about him is a short term boost to the pleasure center of the conservative brain. Making this about the inherent falsehood of the progressive project will help conservatism win.
The progressive answer to this is more rules and regulators, more agencies and safeguards and accountability projects. Republicans should recognize this intervention for the ridiculousness it is – creating more federal entities to watch over federal entities – and focus their arguments instead on the only solution which will actually work: removing power from the federal government and returning it to the states or the people. The only way to ensure that government doesn’t abuse a power is to make sure it doesn’t have this power in the first place.
Found here.
The progressive answer to this is more rules and regulators, more agencies and safeguards and accountability projects. Republicans should recognize this intervention for the ridiculousness it is – creating more federal entities to watch over federal entities – and focus their arguments instead on the only solution which will actually work: removing power from the federal government and returning it to the states or the people. The only way to ensure that government doesn’t abuse a power is to make sure it doesn’t have this power in the first place.
Found here.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Sometimes You Can Help
Got to work at 11:00 pm as usual. While I was printing out reports a guest in the lobby began to choke. The 2nd shift girl called 911, I went out to the lobby to help the guest. Used the Heimlich Maneuver on him, successfully. He asked us not to have an ambulance come out, although we encouraged him otherwise, of course. Was a bit jittery from the adrenalin jolt for a while afterward. Hope it's quiet the rest of the night.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Headline of the Day
"Britain's oldest pet dies as tortoise that survived two world wars passes away aged 130 after being bitten on the leg by a rat."
That's the sort of headline that makes you wonder if your own life is going to end that pathetically. A T.S. Eliot of a headline.
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
That's the sort of headline that makes you wonder if your own life is going to end that pathetically. A T.S. Eliot of a headline.
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Let's Be Clear: It's Only a Baby If You Value It as Human Life
Otherwise it's just a fetus.
The New York Times referred to three murdered children as “fetuses” in an article about the conviction of Kermit Gosnell Monday.
Gosnell, a former Philadelphia abortion doctor, was found guilty of first-degree murder Monday afternoon for severing the necks of three born-alive infants.
Dehumanization is always required before killing.
The New York Times referred to three murdered children as “fetuses” in an article about the conviction of Kermit Gosnell Monday.
Gosnell, a former Philadelphia abortion doctor, was found guilty of first-degree murder Monday afternoon for severing the necks of three born-alive infants.
Dehumanization is always required before killing.
Wrong Word
The word you're looking for is opaque.
The American Civil Liberties Union was curious about warrantless government snooping on citizens' text messages. So the group filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the Justice Department. Here's what they got back:
Fifteen pages, all looking like that. Most transparent administration in history.
The American Civil Liberties Union was curious about warrantless government snooping on citizens' text messages. So the group filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the Justice Department. Here's what they got back:
Fifteen pages, all looking like that. Most transparent administration in history.
All the Recent Scandals...
...including the just-released AP phone records story, lead me to believe that the MSM is actually in the process of throwing Barack Obama under the bus that he has driven over so many in his five years as President. I think that the recent gun defeat and the President's petulant tantrum news conference afterward marked the beginning of his lame duck status. The MSM seems to be transferring its allegiance to Hillary Clinton; I've already seen stories absolving her of any blame for Benghazi, implying that it was underlings responsible for that fiasco.
So: three more years of a lame duck, and the very real possibility of the GOP capturing the Senate in 2014. This is one of those times when you see the ineffectiveness of the US system as opposed to a UK-style parliamentary system, where the opposition could be calling for a vote of confidence at this point.
So: three more years of a lame duck, and the very real possibility of the GOP capturing the Senate in 2014. This is one of those times when you see the ineffectiveness of the US system as opposed to a UK-style parliamentary system, where the opposition could be calling for a vote of confidence at this point.
George Will Snarks On Benghazi
Not a movie review:
“This is a very live issue because we now know three things. We know that Mr. [Gregory] Hicks, the night of the attack speaking from Libya, said pretty much what it was: an armed insurrection, not a movie review conducted with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars,” Will said.
“Five days later on this program and on four other Sunday morning programs, the idea of an exceptionally boisterous movie review was still the administration’s position.”
“And then 14 days after the attack, at the U.N., it was the same thing,” Will continued.
“We started out with three arguments. Was security lax in Benghazi? Demonstrably. Could forces have been got there to rescue them? Doubtful. Has the nation been systemically misled? Certainly. Now, we need a select committee in Congress because the State Department’s misnamed accountability review board neglected to interview even the secretary of state.”
“This is a very live issue because we now know three things. We know that Mr. [Gregory] Hicks, the night of the attack speaking from Libya, said pretty much what it was: an armed insurrection, not a movie review conducted with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars,” Will said.
“Five days later on this program and on four other Sunday morning programs, the idea of an exceptionally boisterous movie review was still the administration’s position.”
“And then 14 days after the attack, at the U.N., it was the same thing,” Will continued.
“We started out with three arguments. Was security lax in Benghazi? Demonstrably. Could forces have been got there to rescue them? Doubtful. Has the nation been systemically misled? Certainly. Now, we need a select committee in Congress because the State Department’s misnamed accountability review board neglected to interview even the secretary of state.”
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Well, Well, Well...
...that trashy UK tabloid The Daily Mail made a plastic handgun using a 3-D printer, then smuggled it onto a train, past "airport-style security:"
Click the link for more pics and the story itself. How's that hopey-changey gun control working out for you?
Click the link for more pics and the story itself. How's that hopey-changey gun control working out for you?
Saturday, May 11, 2013
If You Bring a Lester Maddox Memorial Axe Handle To the Boy Scout Camping Trip...
...you might be a redneck:
Went on a Scout Camping trip with son's troop last night. Sleeping on the ground was bad enough but this morning we went trail bike riding and I am beat.
What has this got to do with "Drum Major?"
Well the boys trucked in fire wood to this state park that does not allow even foraging for wood and were attempting to build a fire using wood they had split a few weeks back with a machine splitter....the smallest chunks being maybe three pounds and a hand full. No tender.....no what we insensitive old farts called Squaw wood.
They attempted to light the fires by stuffing a teepee stack with paper. Several handfuls of useless white ash later I could stand it no more.
Nope, not one adult had brought an axe, hatchet, machete or Big Honking knife.
I took my old Spiderco Endura that some more long term folks might remember I broke the tip on pulling fence staple in an emergency and.....wait for it..... batoned myself a pile of splinters and thin strips and pencil sized bits. I used my Lester Maddox Memorial axe handle I keep in the back of the truck( lost my actual Pick mattock handle years back and found this axe handle) to drive the blade of the Spyderco through a few hunks of Oak.
Bad for knife or not bad, example for the boys or not, we had an actual fire with in two minutes of lighting my batoned wood with those big split pieces "involved."
Glad I knew how to do it and had experience at it or we would have had no smoores or shiskabob last night.
For you younger readers, Lester Maddox was the Governor of Georgia once upon a time, he was also a racist restaurant owner who, when the civil rights movement meant that blacks might enter his Pic-Rick Restaurant, threatened them with an axe handle. He later sold replicas of the axe handle in the restaurant gift shop.
Went on a Scout Camping trip with son's troop last night. Sleeping on the ground was bad enough but this morning we went trail bike riding and I am beat.
What has this got to do with "Drum Major?"
Well the boys trucked in fire wood to this state park that does not allow even foraging for wood and were attempting to build a fire using wood they had split a few weeks back with a machine splitter....the smallest chunks being maybe three pounds and a hand full. No tender.....no what we insensitive old farts called Squaw wood.
They attempted to light the fires by stuffing a teepee stack with paper. Several handfuls of useless white ash later I could stand it no more.
Nope, not one adult had brought an axe, hatchet, machete or Big Honking knife.
I took my old Spiderco Endura that some more long term folks might remember I broke the tip on pulling fence staple in an emergency and.....wait for it..... batoned myself a pile of splinters and thin strips and pencil sized bits. I used my Lester Maddox Memorial axe handle I keep in the back of the truck( lost my actual Pick mattock handle years back and found this axe handle) to drive the blade of the Spyderco through a few hunks of Oak.
Bad for knife or not bad, example for the boys or not, we had an actual fire with in two minutes of lighting my batoned wood with those big split pieces "involved."
Glad I knew how to do it and had experience at it or we would have had no smoores or shiskabob last night.
For you younger readers, Lester Maddox was the Governor of Georgia once upon a time, he was also a racist restaurant owner who, when the civil rights movement meant that blacks might enter his Pic-Rick Restaurant, threatened them with an axe handle. He later sold replicas of the axe handle in the restaurant gift shop.
Meanwhile, In Rock Hill, SC...
...we see once again the futility of thinking that a piece of paper keeps a woman safe:
A Rock Hill man out on bond on two sets of charges including robbery, drugs and domestic violence, and barred by court order from seeing his ex-girlfriend while on bond, is in jail on $200,000 bond after allegedly breaking into the woman’s home Friday morning and sexually assaulting her, according to police and jail records.
It needs to be emphasized to women in this situation: a restraining order/order of protection should be viewed not as a magic shield, but as a permit to shoot your attacker, should he return. Women should be counselled to acquire a firearm and become proficient with it. A woman who trusts a restraining order to protect her is simply choosing to leave the term of her life up to her attacker.
A Rock Hill man out on bond on two sets of charges including robbery, drugs and domestic violence, and barred by court order from seeing his ex-girlfriend while on bond, is in jail on $200,000 bond after allegedly breaking into the woman’s home Friday morning and sexually assaulting her, according to police and jail records.
It needs to be emphasized to women in this situation: a restraining order/order of protection should be viewed not as a magic shield, but as a permit to shoot your attacker, should he return. Women should be counselled to acquire a firearm and become proficient with it. A woman who trusts a restraining order to protect her is simply choosing to leave the term of her life up to her attacker.
Friday, May 10, 2013
Whoops, Walked Right Into That One
That would be a steak knife in Rock Hill, SC:
A Rock Hill woman told police that she accidentally “walked” into a steak knife her brother’s fiancée was holding while they were drinking Wednesday night.
Police went to a Chestnut Street home at about 11 p.m. to investigate a stabbing, according to a Rock Hill police report. They found a woman, 47, with stab wounds in her upper left side.
The woman and her brother told police the stabbing was an accident, the report states. The brother, 43, told officers that his fiancée, 46, was using a steak knife to take their air conditioning unit out of the window because she did not have a screwdriver.
He said everyone in the house had been drinking beer and “having a good time” as his sister told his fiancée not to take the air conditioner out of the window, the report states.
The woman said she walked toward her brother’s fiancée, who turned around quickly. That’s when the woman says he accidentally walked into the knife, the report states, puncturing her upper left side.
Wonder if the brother's fiancée was named Bladie Mae?
A Rock Hill woman told police that she accidentally “walked” into a steak knife her brother’s fiancée was holding while they were drinking Wednesday night.
Police went to a Chestnut Street home at about 11 p.m. to investigate a stabbing, according to a Rock Hill police report. They found a woman, 47, with stab wounds in her upper left side.
The woman and her brother told police the stabbing was an accident, the report states. The brother, 43, told officers that his fiancée, 46, was using a steak knife to take their air conditioning unit out of the window because she did not have a screwdriver.
He said everyone in the house had been drinking beer and “having a good time” as his sister told his fiancée not to take the air conditioner out of the window, the report states.
The woman said she walked toward her brother’s fiancée, who turned around quickly. That’s when the woman says he accidentally walked into the knife, the report states, puncturing her upper left side.
Wonder if the brother's fiancée was named Bladie Mae?
Where a Vet Can Get a Job
Workin' On the Railroad.
OMAHA, Neb. — Mark Major once led a team of soldiers in combat in Iraq. Now he leads a team of railroad employees. The difference, he says, is obvious: "I'm not getting shot at anymore."
But it's the similarities between serving in the military and working for the railroad that draw Major and many other former military members to this type of work.
"For a veteran — a person who thrives off excitement, a mission and a chain of command — you tend to seek out companies like that," said Major, who has worked for Union Pacific for about two years.
As thousands of American soldiers return to the civilian workforce after service in Iraq or Afghanistan, many are finding jobs on the nation's rail lines. More than 25 percent of all U.S. railroad workers have served in the military.
Veterans have a long history of railroad work. Civil War veterans, for example, helped complete the transcontinental railroad in the 1860s. But railroad opportunities are especially welcome now because the unemployment rate for recent veterans remains higher than for the rest of the nation.
Major helps manage intermodal freight trains for the railroad in Oakland, Calif. He sought out a railroad job when he was getting ready to leave the military because of the challenges and independence it offered and because he had known other soldiers who went to work for a railroad and liked it.
"I'm infantry," Major said. "The 40-hour workweek, sitting in a cubicle doesn't really appeal."
Please tell me that Major made it to O-4. The possibility of having a real Major Major in the US Army is just too delicious to overlook.
OMAHA, Neb. — Mark Major once led a team of soldiers in combat in Iraq. Now he leads a team of railroad employees. The difference, he says, is obvious: "I'm not getting shot at anymore."
But it's the similarities between serving in the military and working for the railroad that draw Major and many other former military members to this type of work.
"For a veteran — a person who thrives off excitement, a mission and a chain of command — you tend to seek out companies like that," said Major, who has worked for Union Pacific for about two years.
As thousands of American soldiers return to the civilian workforce after service in Iraq or Afghanistan, many are finding jobs on the nation's rail lines. More than 25 percent of all U.S. railroad workers have served in the military.
Veterans have a long history of railroad work. Civil War veterans, for example, helped complete the transcontinental railroad in the 1860s. But railroad opportunities are especially welcome now because the unemployment rate for recent veterans remains higher than for the rest of the nation.
Major helps manage intermodal freight trains for the railroad in Oakland, Calif. He sought out a railroad job when he was getting ready to leave the military because of the challenges and independence it offered and because he had known other soldiers who went to work for a railroad and liked it.
"I'm infantry," Major said. "The 40-hour workweek, sitting in a cubicle doesn't really appeal."
Please tell me that Major made it to O-4. The possibility of having a real Major Major in the US Army is just too delicious to overlook.
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