Books, movies, politics, and whatever I want

Archive for August, 2009

Monday Book Pick: Forge of the Elders

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Forge of the Elders, by L. Neil Smith

In world where Communism won, a team from the World Soviet, in old American Space Shuttles, go to visit an asteroid called Eris. Predictably, chaos is the result, when they find other Earthly intelligent beings, from more Libertarian realities, have gotten there first.

Monday Book Pick Archive

Ann Coulter on Cavuto: Liberal Economics 101

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

Obama adds $2 Trillion to the National Deficit

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

As that Supra-Genius Joey Biden said, “We have to spend in order to avoid bankruptcy.”

Well, his boss, our Dear Leader has put his ideological goals ahead of the well being of the nation and implemented his personal spending habits (which put him $300,000 in debt with an annual house hold income of over a half million dollars) as the President of the United States of America.

So, right before slipping out of D.C. to head to Martha’s Vineyard on vacation, the White House quietly announced that it is raising its projection for the national deficit to $9 trillion from $7.108 trillion.  The CBO has been saying $9 Trillion for a while, and most of DNC membership has been in denial.  Well folks, facts are stubborn things, and reality even catches up with our Dear Leader every now and then.

HT to Ace.

Friday B-Movie Pick: Commando

Friday, August 21st, 2009

Commando

Yup, another fine Arnold Schwarzenegger classic from 1985. Plenty of raw violence with just a dash of casual female nudity thrown in for flavor. A cult classic of the B-Movie genre. You probably won’t be studying this one in “film school”, unless the class is taught by Joe-Bob Briggs.

Friday B-Movie Archive.

Today’s Nifty Gadget

Friday, August 21st, 2009

As my gentle readers  may have noticed, I am a big fan of gadgets, from simple to bright & shiny electronics. This gadget falls under the simple, yet useful and cool category.

It’s a six in one multitool shaped like a key, and this fits very nicely on your key ring.

The small blade is very handy, and the design keeps it safe when it is on your keyring. This is one of my favorite multitools.  It’s handy, I typically have it with me (the massive Swiss Army Multitool my brother gave me years ago did a lot of stuff, but it was too damn big to carry around.  A tool you don’t have is of no use), and the tools on it (screwdrivers, small knife) are useful in everyday life.

Originly posted at Urbin Technology.

The Green Enron

Friday, August 21st, 2009

One thing that has been pretty clear for a while is that so-called “carbon offset credits” are mostly a scam run on the gullible. Even the NY Times has admitted it.

Also keep in mind that these so-called “carbon offset credits” are at the heart of the “Cap and Tax” scheme our Dear Leader and the congressional democrats are trying to shove down the throats of the American People.

Here is another block of evidence to support the “it’s a scam” school of rational thought.

The UK Telegraph reports the following:

Officers from HM Revenue & Customs searched both residential properties and offices in both Gravesend and London targeting an alleged network of organised crime.

Members are believed to have been trading large volumes of high-value carbon credits from overseas sources free of VAT.

Tax investigators believe these may then have been sold on to businesses in the UK charging VAT that is never paid to the authorities.

So far, the cash total in this “green” criminal enterprise $62.8 Million.

The nice man at Watts Up With That has noted that someone has already done a Masters Thesis on just how ripe the so-called “carbon offset credits” for fraud.

Let us look at the most famous peddler of these Modern Plenary Indulgences here in the United States of America, Al Gore.  Selling Carbon Offset Credits has been very, very good to Al Gore.  He owns a mansion and yacht.  Not just any mansion, mind you, but one that uses more electricity in a month than the average American home uses in a year! Like other eco-hypocrits pushing the Carbon Offset Credit Scam, Al Gore also isn’t giving up his use of private jets, which produce about four and half tons of carbon per hour of flight time.

Reynolds & Ringo meet at last

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

Glenn Reynolds, of Instapundit fame, interviews NY Times best selling author John Ringo.

John Ringo is known for writing Military SciFi mostly, but he has also written fantasy and won an award as romance author.

The main topic is John Ringo’s book, The Last Centurion which was my Monday Book Pick for October 24, 2008.

Politics and Star Trek

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

The nice man over at AuricTech Musings noted that Bill Whittle has an excellent video explaining the reality of the comparison of our Dear Leader and Star Trek’s Mr. Spock and why Spock was never a good choice for that center command chair.

To keep in this meme, I present Leigh Scott’s theory that if Obama is Spock, Sarah Palin
is James T. Kirk
.

Sarah Palin is Captain Kirk. Why? Because she just passed the Kobayashi Maru.

Since Sarah Palin burst onto the national scene she has been savaged. The media, the Left, the Right, the Middle, you name it. People either love her or hate her. In the media it seems people love to hate her. The “elites” on both sides of the aisle hate the populism she represents. Traditional feminists hate the fact that she has both a family and a career; something that their paradigm teaches is impossible. Her future rivals hate her because she isn’t a typical politician. Her authenticity makes Mike Huckabee look about as real as the Guinea Pigs in “G-Force”.
Palin was faced with her own Kobayashi Maru. How could she effectively govern the state of Alaska while facing ridiculous ethics charges and the scrutiny of the national media? How could she increase her exposure in the lower 48 while staying true to the people in Alaska who elected her? Perhaps if the wingnuts in Alaska didn’t stalk her with silly lawsuits she would have simply put her larger ambitions on the back burner and continued to do her job as governor. But it wasn’t meant to be. She was perfectly set up to fail. Her popularity in Alaska would decline. The national media would point to it as an indicator of her overall effectiveness. The Klingons…I mean the left, would have won.
But Palin defied them. She changed not her strategy, but the very rules. She resigned her position, turning the state over to her loyal Lieutenant Governor to continue the plans and policies she put into motion. Like any good story, it was an unexpected twist, yet when viewed in retrospect it was the only way it could play out.
..
For all his talk of being different, representing “hope,” and bringing “change” Obama has turned out to be quite the bore. He is the consummate insider, a recycler of old ideas and failed policies. People wanted to beam up to the starship and explore strange new worlds. We wanted to boldly go where no man (or woman) has gone before. Obama is in the wrong franchise. He and crazy Doc Brown, I mean Joe Biden, gassed up the DeLorean and took us back in time. To 1976.
Palin passed the Kobayashi Maru. She is qualified to command the ship. She has all the qualities we want in a captain; valor, principals, vision and most of all, the ability to change the rules.

Go watch the video and read the article. Both Mr. Whittle and Mr. Scott make solid good points.

The ObamaCare Smoking Gun

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

This isn’t the first Smoking Gun. Our Dear Leader and Congressman Barney Frank (d-MA) have already come out and said they were for a so-called “single payer” government run, tax payer funded, “Health Care” system that will put all private payment options out of business. Now, by way of Hot Air, is Rep. Anthony Weiner (d-NY), is very clear that that he wants a fully government run system deciding what your health care is going to be.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Ed Morrissey has a very good break down of the problems with Weiner’s arguments. Go read the whole thing.

Update: Videos of Barney Frank getting slammed in his own loopy liberal district for supporting this disaster of a “Health Care” bill. My own Congresscritter, Rep. McGovern, got called out for his support of the bill during a recent meeting with his constituations, but at least he handled himself with more grace than Rep. Frank.

A brilliant observation on branding

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

Bill Whittle of PJTV has a very insightful segment on branding and politics.   He pulls no punchs in pointing out the democrats get it and how the RNC is pretty much completely clueless on the subject.

Yup, something else that the RNC has screwed the pooch on.  Add it to the list.

Mr. Whittle makes two excellent points in this video.  First, the RNC has the better message (they may not live up to it all the time, but that is another issue).  Fiscal conservatism, individual rights and responsibilities, the US Constitution, all that stuff.  It’s healthier for the nation, its citizens and allies.  The RNC packages that message as “eat your vegatables”, not as a tasty smoothie that, oh ya, happens to be the best thing for your body since whatever the last thing that was best for your body was.  The DNC’s message of socialism, statism, and turn in your grandma for reading the Constitution, is by comparison, the junk food that is going to harden your arteries and give you a fatal heart attack, but its wrapped up in  pretty package and loaded with tasty cancer causing chemicals. Barack Obama and the DNC are like the Marlborough Man, the brand sold a lot of cigarettes, and killed a lot of their customers.

The other point is that Mr. Whittle makes is that the branding can turn on you.  There has been a distinct rise in negative messages using the Obama “O” logo, and even BHO’s face, which the DNC and its lackeys where so careful to associate with an angelic halo whenever possible, has been associated with a clown faced psychopath, who’s main goal is the destruction of society and the advancement of destructive chaos.   Expect more of this as our Dear Leader‘s poll numbers drop and more people pick up on the truth of Mr. Whittle’s message.