Books, movies, politics, and whatever I want

Archive for July, 2014

Quote of the Day

Wednesday, July 30th, 2014

“Never been a Romney fan. I actively dislike John McCain. Good grief, we’d be in so much better shape if either of them had been elected…”

Will Collier

Another look at the numbers

Tuesday, July 29th, 2014

When you point out that the current federal debt is $17.6 Trillion and climbing, far left democrat extremists are quick to point out that the deficit is down.

Which is true, but note that they don’t point out the deficit reduction is from a peak during Obama’s reign, but up from the time he took office.

Let’s look at the actual numbers.

The current federal deficit is $572.1 billion, with a federal tax revenue of $2.9 trillion. So Barry’s handling of the federal government is to spend over a half trillion dollars than he is taking in, even with the federal tax revenue at record high levels.

So what is that $572.1 trillion dollar deficit down from?

Let’s look at the federal deficit in 2012, after several years of Barry’s firm fiscal hand. it was at $1.1 Trillion. The  federal tax income was $2.4 trillion. Do the math here kids. Our Dear Leader hasn’t reduced spending, he has jacked taxes through the roof.  The deficit is down about $400 billion, and increase in federal tax income is up $500 million.  So he has also increased federal spending instead of paying down the $17.6 trillion federal debt.

Let’s go back to 2008, near the end of two terms of President George W. Bush. The federal deficit was $408.1 Billion with a federal tax income of $2.5 trillion. Note that the deficit was in fact lower than it is currently, and that is with $400 billion less in federal tax revenue.

So when a democrat claims that the deficit is down, that person is is in fact, deliberately lying by omission. The federal deficit under Obama has gone up, despite squeezing nearly a additional half a trillion dollars out of the pockets of tax paying US citizens in an economy that can be politely described as “stagnant” at best.

Monday Book Pick: Not A Good Day to Die

Monday, July 28th, 2014

Not A Good Day to Die by Sean Naylor

This is the story of Operation Anaconda. The book covers it from its first planning stages in January 2002, through its conclusion in early March 2002. Up to this point, the war in Afghanistan had been conducted mainly by US Special Forces troops working with various Afghanistan groups and calling in US air assets. Anaconda was the first operation to involve large scale use of regular US forces. In this case elements of the 10th Mountain Division and the 101st Airborne Division. The first third of the book covers the planning and the background of the key players. This is fairly dry, but interesting and informative on why and how the fog of war effected the operation. Intelligence said that there were 200-250 Al Qaeda fighters in the intended AO.  The plan was for Afghan forces, with Special Forces ‘advisers’ to confront the enemy, with ‘escape routes’  to be blocked by Afghan forces and elements of the 10th Mountain and 101st Airborne.  The motto, ‘no plan survives contact with the enemy’ is often referenced in various forms in this book.  There were a lot more than 250 AQ fighters, estimates put it at 800 or more.  They opened up the US forces almost immediately after they got out their helicopters with small arms, heavy machine guns, mortars, and in some cases artillery.   The US forces responded with much more accurate fire and air strikes.  Lots and lots of air strikes.  From the CIA’s armed Predator drones to B-52s dropping JDAM bombs. The most effective though were the Apache helicopters, which got close enough to see the enemy and pour firepower right were it was needed.  The fighting continued much longer than expected, in areas were it wasn’t expected, from a well dug in, and well supplied enemy force.  Many of which got too see Allah personally.  A well written book about a major operation that dispelled the common notion in early 2002, that the war in Afghanistan was almost over.

Monday Book Pick Archive

Round Up Post

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2014

Let’s start with a couple of RKBA related stories.  The city of Chicago, were over 40 people shot and four killed last weekend, has to pay the NRA nearly $1 million in legal fees.  A recent study shows that violent crime has gone down as conceal carry permits have been issued to more law abiding Americans.  This makes sense to anyone capable of rational thought and basic logic.  It makes moonbats go bat shit crazy though, since it doesn’t fit their far left extremist agenda.

Peggy Johnson, who famously said back in 2008 that if our Dear Leader was elected, she wouldn’t have to worry about paying her mortgage or putting gas in her car, has been hit with reality.

 The IRS admits that they scrubbed Lois Learner’s hard drive clean back in 2011.

A federal judge has tossed out a Obama administration request to have law suits against the IRS dropped.  Legal action by nearly a dozen Tea Party groups targeted by the IRS can go forward.  Expect more hard drive “crashes”.

Round Up Post

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2014

First, let’s take a look at our Dear Leader’s former city of residence, Chicago.  This is where he made his mark as a “community organizer”, found religion at Rev. Wright’s weekly sermons laced with hate speech, became a state senator, met and married his beard, and where the two daughters were born.  In that tribute to over fifty years of straight democrat reign, more than 40 people were shot last weekend.  That included four dead. One of which was an eleven year old girl at sleep over.  In case you didn’t know this fact already, Chicago has some of the strictest “gun control” laws in the country.  This illustrates why they are more accurately called “victim disarmament” laws.

We have learned that congressional subpoenas cause IRS hard drives to crash. The IRS’ refusal to supply information under subpoena has gotten so blatant, that even Lanny Davis, former Clinton spokes weasel, says it is time for special prosecutor.  The count of IRS hard drives that crashed due to subpoena as seven.  It just almost tripled.

It should not be a surprise to anyone paying attention, but the Obama White House knew of the upcoming flood of illegal aliens crossing the boarder well in advance.  They didn’t do anything to avoid it. Remember their motto, “Never let a crisis go to waste.”

Another Clinton spokes weasel, David Axelrod, made tweet that pointed out the Mitt Romney as right, and Barry was, once again, completely and utterly wrong.

Monday Book Pick: Sunset of the Gods

Monday, July 21st, 2014

Sunset of the Gods by Steve White

Jason Thanou is back (26 Aug 2013 Book Pick) and things are getting even weirder in his trips to the past. He finds out that there are worse things than finding that the anicent Greek Gods were aliens mucking with human development. At least they were slowing dying out. One a mission to observe, from a lot closer viewpoint than he planned, the battle of Marathon, things go pear shaped right quick when he runs into Pan!

Monday Book Pick Archive

Quote of the Day

Saturday, July 19th, 2014

“The only way Putin is in danger from Obama, is if Putin is blocking the door to a fundraiser Obama’s late to get to.”

Kimberly Guifoyle

Friday B-Movie Pick: The Octagon

Friday, July 18th, 2014

The Octagon

Going way, way, back to 1980 for this Chuck Norris classic. In this movie, he takes on his brother, played by Tadashi Yamshita (OK, one of them was clearly adopted), who went over to the “Dark Side” and set up a Ninja training camp for mercenaries. Norris, who is busy training for his next big fight, doesn’t want to get involved, but does anyway. Many the Ninja fall to his deadly, Ninjia killing inside crescent kicks. Of course there is the big brother on brother fight to the death, and plenty of gun fu as well.

Friday B-Movie Pick Archive

Time to review some numbers

Tuesday, July 15th, 2014

Let’s start with the BLS unemployment numbers.

The U3 number for June 2014 was 6.1%. Now if you were paying attention, you would know that there was a net gain of over 200,000 jobs in June.  Which is generally a good thing, since it was about double what is needed to just offset population growth.  Anemic growth by other recovery standards, but pretty damn good in the Obama economy.  If you were paying attention to the details, you wouldn’t be popping the corks on the bubbly yet.  Those 200,000 new jobs were part of the 700,000 new part time jobs, offset by a loss of 500,000 full time jobs.  Yup, in the Obama economy, full time work with benefits is out, and wearing a name tag and asking, “Would you like fries with that?” is in.

It gets worse for minorities.  They key democrat voting blocks of blacks, hispanics, and the ‘youth vote’ have gotten the nasty end of the shafting in the Obama economy.  These are the official government June unemployment numbers from the BLS.  Look ’em up if you don’t believe ’em.

Hispanics: 7.8%

Blacks: 10.7%

Aged 16-19: 21.0%

You know that the overall 6.1% number is only so low because the feds have stopping counting more and more of the long term unemployed. “Not in the labor” force is at 92.2 million and still climbing.  If they were added back in, that number would be comfortably in the double digits.  So inflate the minority numbers by the same factor and you have 2 out of ten black Americans out of work.

Compare and contrast to the Reagan Recovery, where unemployment for minorities when down and their net income went up. To be honest, unemployment was down and net income was up for everyone.  That is what you get when you have an economic policy geared for growth, rather than ‘income distribution.”

Monday Book Pick: Nine Princes in Amber

Monday, July 14th, 2014

Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny

The first book in the Amber series. Two sets of five books, plus a fist full of short stories and an amazing amount of fan fiction. It starts with a common theme for the author. The protagonist has to discover who he is, and why he is in a bunch of trouble. In this case he just isn’t a very long lived mercenary who wakes up in a private ‘sanatorium’, where the staff tries to keep him heavily sedated. Nope, nothing that simple. It gets weirder from there damn quick and stays there! Zelazny has the delightful talent of taking the line between fantasy and Science Fiction and using it to play jump rope. For Carl Corey is really Prince Corwin of Amber. The Kingdom at the center of all the varied realities. Toss in some wonderfully detailed sword fights (Zelazny was a fencer and an Aikido instructor), massive battles, treachery, and that special blend of wry Zelazny humor, and you will be be looking for the next book in the series straight off.

Monday Book Pick Archive