Friday, August 30, 2013

More Proof That Everything Is Backwards

This episode of Bill Whittle's outstanding Afterburner video series raises a depressing question: How will we explain our compliance with the current political madness to our children and grandchildren?


Indeed, how will we explain to our progeny that we didn't demand our elected representatives focus on the greatest good for the greatest number of Americans? That we didn't demand a robust economy with a diversity of opportunity for all, free from intrusive and unnecessary bureaucrats? That we didn't demand all laws be enforced, or if they were to be ignored, then repealed, not saved for some possibly tyrannical use later on?

How do we explain that we know more about television shows and celebrities than we do the goings-on in Washington that directly affect all of us?

That we didn't demand the truth?

And common sense?

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

The RNC Needs a Message, Not a New CIO

JohnE has this post over at Ace of SpadeHQ: Q&A With Andy Barkett, The RNC's New Chief Technology Officer. It's about the RNC's efforts to match the DNC's massive technological GOTV Machine.

I have some problems with this approach, though. Especially this part:

We've talked about and we've begun to work on a mass customized model. The Obama team got down to where they could target smaller and smaller niche. We want to go further. We want to have a model of every single individual. So if that individual person has clicked on an email from us and said that they care about a particular issue, if we've knocked on their door and asked them a question, we want to understand every single one of those people on a personal level and know how to communicate with each one of them. So, where we want to get to is that when we send out an email blast, that email is customized to each recipient.


Umm, no.

I can't understand why the RNC feels the need to duplicate the NSA's illegal and unconstitutional snooping tactics. Just in case they haven't noticed, Americans aren't all that thrilled with such invasive methods, are they NSA?

Plus, it's wholly unnecessary.

These blithering idiots may, one day, awaken to the simple fact that their national message is far more important than anything they think they need to do on the technological front. Only when they start thinking, speaking and acting in the best interests of the majority of Americans will they start to win elections.

We're all too familiar with the many times this party has ignored the will of the people and caved in to the Prog/Coms on the Left (which is everyone in the Dim party).

Hey GOP: you want to generate some interest? Howzabout being a real opposition party and start standing up against amnesty for illegals. Stand up for capitalism and a robust economy. Start standing up for freedom, the rule of law, and against the NSA's expensive and unnecessary surveillance of innocent Americans. Call for prosecutions and firings of anyone in this administration caught violating any part of our Constitution.

Show some spine. People will come looking for you and you can save all this time, energy, and money micro-targeting voters.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

252 Reasons Why You're An Idiot If You Voted For Obama

That's really not the title of this post from Danfromsquirrelhill.wordpress.com. That would be Obama supporters will go hysterical over this well sourced list of 252 examples of his lying, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, etc.

It's long but worth your time. Even better, if you show it to someone who voted for him (or any Dimocrat for that matter) and their head explodes, you get extra credit.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Depressed? You Will Be After You Read This

I was surfing the Intertoobs this morning and found this link over at Instapundit. It's a short post from the Washington Times hawking an e-book called Enjoy the Decline by economist Aaron Clarey entitled Has America Seen It's Best Days?

According to Clarey, the answer is yes. This is the point where you, gentle reader, should consider removing any sharp objects within your reach.

The author asks why Clarey recommends we lie back, think of Norman Rockwell, and let the wave of Doom wash over us?


“What else are they supposed to do?” He asks. “If they try to stop it, they’ll waste their lives on a problem that cannot be fixed. Instead I’m much more practical. I recommend people take inventory of their lives and find out how to benefit the most from it, regardless of what’s happening in the public sector.”

OK, that's advice, but not necessarily what I wanted to hear. Certainly, What Has Been Done can be Undone? Right?

Right?

Oh, it's not just economics?


Beyond economics, Clarey claims that “Kim Kardashian and the fact rap is more popular than jazz” lead him to believe American social values are crumbling.


I have no particular animus towards either KK nor rap. I prefer art with a bit of substance and celebrities with some depth and I find neither in those examples. We've already seen people famous merely for being famous before. And popular music has always been more about marketing than talent (I'm looking at you, Bay City Rollers).

So how did we arrive at this sorry state?


“The Baby Boomer Generation. Without a doubt. When you go from Frank Sinatra to Jim Morrison in 8 years, that’s not a slow transition from musical tastes of society, that is an immediate change purposely forced by a generation determined to ignore wisdom, taste, culture and value just for the sake of doing so


“But music is only one aspect. Fashion turned hideous, divorce became an Olympic event, the idea of outsourcing your children to daycare became standard, nearly every aspect of work, effort, and ethic was thrown out the door and every non-economic aspect of society shows it.”



Purposely forced upon us, you say? Do you mean by, oh, an enemy who wished to defeat us without firing a shot? Like the old Soviets of the 1960's?

Like this...



Gain control of key positions in radio, T.V., and motion pictures.

Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.
 
Break down culture standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and T.V.

Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

So, this wasn't a normal progression of American society, Mr. Clarey? Tell me more.

“People, going back to FDR, Woodrow Wilson, and more recently the Baby Boomer, Gen X and Gen Y Generations actually believe they don’t have to work,” he explains. "The concept of Keynesian economics where we just “shuffle money around and POOF” economic growth occurs, not to mention it’s MAINSTREAM economics is proof as to just how stupid, naive, and gullible the average American is. 



Ahh, Free Market Economics. I can almost remember what that was. That was the arcane idea that innovation, quality, and merit were to be rewarded. A rising tide raises all ships.

How quaint.

Surely our state of affairs can be reversed. But how?

“Eliminate all income taxes and replace it with a single sales tax at state, federal and local levels and make a constitutional amendment limiting the total amount to less than 20% GDP,” he states. “This would assure productive people and businesses their labor would not be confiscated as well as send a signal to the parasitic classes that they will have to work.”



Oh, I get it now: bad governmental policy lies at the root of our problems. Who could've guessed that a bunch of politicians with little to no experience in the private sector crafting ill-thought-out laws could have such a negative effect on everyone's life?

Gosh, it would be nice if we could somehow reacquaint our society with positive values once more. Even nicer would be to gain some control over our government again so we could look forward to a better tomorrow for ourselves and our families and have our elected representatives do the most good for the most people. More freedom, not less.

I'm with Aaron Clarey: I just don't see this happening.

Pardon me while I draw a warm bath. Now where did I put that razor blade...



Monday, August 12, 2013

You Get Three Guesses Who This Brainwashed Kid's Parents Voted For, and the First Two Don't Count

I really, really wish this video wasn't true.

Really.

Somebody's got a lot of 'splainin' to do to this poor little kid. Like how you don't pray for the destruction of your country or the guy and the ideology doing it.

The sad thing is, had his parents any knowledge of the Constitution and how it was implemented in order to stop the current abuses of power, the kid would probably be singing its praises.

As the twig is bent, so grows the tree.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

The Riddle of the Angel Priest UPDATED! Real Priest Found!

Here's an interesting story: a young accident victim is trapped in her car. She's seriously injured but awake through it all. At one point she asks for the emergency service people to pray out loud  with her. Out of nowhere, a priest appears, anointing oil in hand, and calms both the young woman and her rescuers, then disappears.

This is, as the young'uns say, way cool.

It's possible that the priest was just passing through the area and happened upon the scene. This is the most likely scenario, at least to me. He may be found eventually and we'll learn his name and his parish.

But what if he's never found? His appearance on a road that had been closed for a quarter-mile in both directions was unexpected and his departure from the accident scene went unnoticed.

OK, that's still not unusual. Many good Samaritans don't stick around after they've helped someone. But where this story takes a turn is that the priest doesn't appear in any of  the nearly 70 pictures taken at the scene.

This story just got way cooler...

UPDATE: Here's an interview with one of the police officers at the accident scene who shook hands with the priest.


UPDATED UPDATE!

The priest has been found. Rev. Patrick Dowling. Thank you, Father. What you did at the accident scene was just what was needed for the emergency responders and the victim.



h/t The Drudge Report