Woody's Place

Kristen Kruek

The face of an angel.

Smallville's Kristen Kruek is one of the most beautiful actresses around.  The photo below has not been retouched or Photoshopped at all.

Who Eats This Stuff?

The Second Ammendment In Action

William Shatner demonstrates the second ammendment in action during an episode of Boston Legal:

I love that.

Hat tip to Third World County.

Democrats Are To Blame For Wrecking The Economy

Democrats keep pointing to "failed Bush policies" as the cause of this economic crisis, but they never say which policies specifically.  Why is this?  It's simply because they know that it's not true.  It's the Big Lie of our time, and they and their allies in the media will keep repeating it until the average citizen accepts it as fact. 

The truth of the matter is that the current recession was caused by the collapse of the housing market.  We all know this to be true, so why did the market collapse?  Were the homes all built so poorly they are falling apart now?  Why else would a home depreciate so much such a short time?  The truth is that there was an extraordinary increase in home values in the years prior to the collapse.  This is called a bubble, and all bubbles eventually burst.

Here's a chart showing the average US home value adjusted for inflation over the last century:

It's clear to anyone looking at the numbers that the housing boom we just went through was unprecedented, and logically one would expect the subsequent fallout to be unprecedented as well.  Hold on tight, this is gonna be a wild ride!

So the housing bubble led us to where we are now, but what led us to a housing bubble?  Was it mass hysteria?  Was it just HGTV shows telling us to "Flip That House"?  Was it unscrupulous bankers and realtors hitting us up on street corners and talking us into risky purchases?  Was it home builders raising prices through the roof?  No, the housing bubble was created by our own greed and desire to live above our means.  However, it was in large part enabled by the policies of Democratic politicians and their pursuit of "affordable housing". 

Honk If You're Paying My Mortgage

Via Where Are My Keys I have found what may be the best... bumpah... stickah... EVAH!

You can order them from the Tennesee Republican Party (see Steele, this is how ya do it!).

I can't wait for them to arrive so I can go out and needlessly burn fossil fuel in my big ass pickup truck just crusing around displaying this awesomeness.  Think Al Gore will mind?

UPDATE: While we're on the subject, here's a must see video from Glenn Beck on home values.

Led Zeppelin "Travelling Riverside Blues"

Now that I can finally look outside and see the ground without two feet of snow on top of it, it's time to roll out the Led Zeppelin, which always makes me think of summertime.  Here's one of my favorites:

If you are so inclined, check out the original version by Robert Johnson recorded in 1937.

Wii Fit Is Full Of $#!T

So yesterday was my wife's birthday and she got the Wii Fit fitness game for Nintendo Wii.  So I decide to give it whirl, just to see what it's about.  After completing the "body test" Wii Fit tells me I am apparently too fat to live.  I'm so large I need to call the fire department to come cut me out of my house since I can't fit through normal human-sized doorways.  I'm so heavy I need to rent a U-Haul just to get around town.  I'm so huge it's almost off the chart, literally.  According to the Wii Fit character I have a 70" wasitline.

Now, I know I'm chubby.  I could lose about 20-30 pounds for sure, but obese?  Come on Nintendo.  I think you left this game on the Japanese setting.  Not all people are built to be little munchkins like you guys.

My wife seems to like it though, which is what counts.  It was her birthday present, not mine.  Don't expect to see me back on that thing anytime soon though.  My pride just won't allow it.

While I'm on the subject, here is a picture of my wife's Wii Fit yoga trainer. I think her name is "OWW JESUS"... or at least that's what I hear my wife calling her.

Mo Money, Mo Money, Mo Money!

In Living Color "Mo Money, Mo Money, Mo Money!"

Denver's Rocky Mountain News Goes Out Of Business

Today Denver's 150 year old Rocky Mountain News announced that it had failed to locate a buyer and would publish it's last edition tomorrow.  While some on my side of the political spectrum may jump for joy over "old media" dying off, I was only saddened.  You see, this paper earned my everlasting respect back in 2005 when they published "Final Salute", a Pulitzer prize winning story on the casualty notification officers of the US Marine Corps. 

They are the troops that nobody wants to see, carrying a message that no military family ever wants to hear.

It begins with a knock at the door.

For a year, the Rocky Mountain News has followed Maj. Steve Beck as he takes on the most difficult duty of his career: casualty notification. As Beck and his comrades at Buckley Air Force Base keep constant watch over the caskets of the men they never knew, the Marines also comfort the families of the fallen, and choke back tears of their own.

It's all part of a tradition that started in 1775: Never leave a Marine behind.

After the knock on the door, the story has only begun.

Go read the rest if you have time, but be sure to have some Kleenex handy.  If you have a heart, you will shed many tears.  The men profiled are heroes who never see a battlefield, and few other news organizations would have spent an entire year investigating, much less beautifully honoring, this particular role within our military.

I for one salute the Rocky Mountain News and wish them all their employees well in the next chapter of their lives.

Star Wars Imperial Currency

Wyatt Earp's Hate Mail

My long time blog bud Wyatt Earp recently blogged about Al Sharpton's latest "protest", i.e. attempt to blackmail a company using trumped up charges of racism.  His commentary caught the attention of a Sharpton disciple named Marlene, who was eager to apply her mastery of language, politics, history and racism in the comments section.  Here is an excerpt from her diatribe:

[...] Take heed new world order puppies, you like sheep, came as all the volunteer slaves of America, to think you could live a wholesome life in spite of God’s wrath of infringement for 400 years against Blacks in involuntary servitude. YOU STEPPED FOR SATAN ON 35 DECADES ON BLACKS WHO BUILT AMERICA, FOR YOUR AMERICAN DREAM. In the end you will find out all you own is your legacy of VOLUNTEERING FOR SLAVERY. BECAUSE YOUR HOUSES YOUR LOOSING WAS NEVER YOURS. HOW COULD IT BE?cause someone told you 400 years of slavery force didn’t matter? SEE YOU ARE THE VOLUNTEER SLAVES, THE PUPPETS AND SIMPLES OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER. You still worry about Blacks, when Hispanics are shitting on your land, suing you left and right, and raping and killing, and burrying pregnant White women. ie. chandra levy. [...]

Ye, that's only an excerpt...  Be sure to go read the rest of it, along with Wyatt's rebuttal.  Comedy gold.

Phoenix "Everything Is Everything"

French Indie rockers Phoenix are one of my favorite bands.  I really enjoy their mellow 70's-80's vibe and the summery sheen over most of their songs. 

Exit Question: When it's 90° out will I be posting music with a wintery feel? 

IowaHawk: Student Takeover Of White House Causes Dow To Soar

IowaHawk strikes again.  Combining the farce that was the NYU student protest / takeover and the kind of "change" Obama's been bringing to the stock market, we end up with something that is at the same time funnier, and sadder, than the actual events.

Dow Soars on NYU White House Takeover

Acting US President Skyler Lozano: bringing new hope to Wall Street NEW YORK - Major stock indexes posted broad gains on heavy trading early Tuesday on news that a rogue group of student protesters from New York University had taken over the White House and barricaded themselves in the Oval Office. The Dow posted a 1100 point (17%) gain in the first hour of trading, wiping out nearly all of its loss since January 20 and almost 35% of losses since November 4.

"Finally, we're seeing encouraging signs of sanity in Washington," said UBS market analyst Jane Cohen.

The market rally lifted issues across the board, with 87% of stocks showing gains. Market leaders included Apple ($116.05, +32%), Amalgamated Pachouli & Incense ($23.15, +53%), Keffiya Mart ($17.66, +49%), and Bongs.com ($41.10, +72%). The short list of losers included student loan guarantor Sallie Mae ($1.78, -78%) and General Deodorant ($0.83, -96%).

The market's long slide was reversed almost immediately after the students, recently expelled from NYU after a takeover of a school building, wrested control of the federal government after a 15 minute siege of the White House.

"They tricked us," complained exiled Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. "They said they were only coming by to chillax with some OG kush and talk about the stimulus bill and shit."

According to Secret Service officials, when the president and aides left the Oval Office in search of a seed tray and some kibble the students barred the door, effectively taking over the executive branch.

Be sure to go read the rest.  The guy is a smart ass brilliant.

UPDATE: Wow!  Mr. Hawk saw fit to add me to his website's Blurbs list.  I am truly honored to be included among such notables as Michelle Malkin, Mark Steyn and Obo The Clown.

Obama's Epic Fail

Obama's speech contained one lie after another.  Eventually I just turned it off.  This guy is a joke.  I hope the rest of the country wises up before it's too late.

Here's part of Obama 's address:

We have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election. A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future. Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn’t afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day. Well that day of reckoning has arrived, and the time to take charge of our future is here.

Now here is what he would have said if he were honest: 

We have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the partisan politics, personal gain, or the next election.  A surplus became an opportunity to steal from future generations instead of an opportunity to let the people invest in their own futures.  Regulations were gutted in the name of "affordable housing" thereby creating the sub-prime mortgage market, and all attempts to reform it were attacked as racist or anti-middle class.  People were encouraged to buy homes they couldn't afford by politicians promising them "a piece of the American dream" in order to win their vote.  Banks reluctant to loan to under qualified applicants were attacked by politicians and community organizers as racist and anti-middle class.  Your government then purchased the bad debt it helped to create and resold it to the stock market, thereby spreading the contagion, and setting up the inevitable crash.  Well that day of reckoning has arrived, but the time to take charge of our future will not arrive until 2013 at the earliest, because I'm more interesting in leveraging this for political gain than in actually fixing it.

But of course, he's not honest... he's a Democrat.  I don't know what I was expecting.  Things are so fucked up there's no way he can tell the truth.  He's got to create boogeymen out of banks and businesses and Bush all the while ignoring the real culprits, who are sitting right in front of him (and behind him).

We are so screwed...

Röyksopp "Remind Me" (From Geico Caveman Ad)

I can recall seeing the Geico Caveman airport TV spot for the first time and thinking "Man, I've got to get that tune!".  Well, after a little Google-ing I found the name of the band (Röyksopp) and had the MP3 in no time flat. 

I don't think they ever made an official video, but luckily somebody put the song to some footage of Lamborghini's racing around and put it on YouTube, so here goes:

Still a great tune.  The lyrics make no sense at all, but then again English is probably not their native tongue.  Röyksopp is from the Norwegian town of Tromsø, way up in the Arctic Circle, where I bet they are even more anxious for summer than I am.

UPDATE: Found a sweet panoramic photo of Tromsø.  Looks chilly, but highly defensible should anyone care to invade.  Click to embiggen.

  

UPDATE: Here's a link to the official video, which is for the "Someone Else's Radio Remix" version of the song.  The video is a pretty unique style of technical animation.  I belive it is by Tomas Nilsson, or at least it looks like his work.  You can buy the remix on Amazon for $0.99.

Hollywood's Double Standard On It's Influence

Hot Air's Allahpundit posed this excellent question in a post on Sean Penn's preening at the Oscars.

Why is it that Hollywood’s ability to influence the culture is not only acknowledged but celebrated by the industry when that influence is salutary, but denied and dismissed as conservative scapegoating when it isn’t, e.g., in glamorizing violence and teen promiscuity?

Yes.  Why is that?  They always seem to want and, since they dominate the media, actually get to have it both ways.  To our nation's detriment of course, but what concern does the parasite have for it's host?  The USA is just a morally bankrupt meal ticket to that crowd.

I can't recall seeing a film featuring Sean Penn since Fast Times At Ridgemont High and I don't plan on changing that anytime soon.   Same goes for Tim Robbins.  I can't stand that prick, or his harpy of a wife.

Fanboy Bedroom

The only female who's ever been in that bedroom is probably his mother, when she vacuums. 

Robin Meade

CNN's Robin Meade, host of HLN's morning show Robin & Co., is in my opinion the hottest woman on television.  Beautiful face, beautiful personality, beautiful figure... she's got it all.

Robin Meade is a human ray of sunshine, who brightens our mornings with her smile, happiness and the occasional wink and flirty remark.

Bye Bye Our Kid's American Pie

Submitted by a reader L.C. to Michelle Malkin:

Sing to “American Pie”

A long, long time ago…
we can still remember
How Ronald Regan made us smile.
And we knew if we had a chance
we could make those Democrats dance
And, surely we’d be happy for a while.

But this February should make us shiver
With every promise Nancy delivers.
Bad stimulus on the doorstep;
We shouldn’t take one more step.

We will remember when we cried
As we read Harry’s big fat lies,
But something is foul deep inside
The day responsibility died.

So bye-bye, to our kids piece of the pie.
Obama Drives us to the brink,
will leave us all high and dry.
Coburn and the boys were tryin’ all they could think
Singin’, “You’re making our economy die.
you’ve taken our kid’s piece of the pie.”

Can we still trust in our gov,
We will need our faith in God above,
If we want to make them go.
Do we believe in principles,
Can we be saved from those liberals,
And can Mitch and John keep their troops in tow?

Well, the Unions are in love with them
`cause they read the same liberal hymm.
They change all the rules.
Now we got those stimulus blues.

We’ll end up lonely and without a buck
Just a Green job and a hybrid truck,
Right now, we are out of luck
The day responsibility died.

We started singing,
“bye-bye, our kid’s piece of the pie.”
Obama drives us to the brink,
will leave us all be high and dry.
Coburn and the boys trying all they could think
singing “You’re making our economy die.
you’ve taken our kid’s piece of the pie.”

Now for two months we’ve been on our own
Ried, Nancy and Obama have clearly shown,
Their way is how it’s gonna be.
They’re jesters, jokes and drama queens,
Throwin’ cash around like they’re seventeen
Not listening to the voice of you and me,

And while they read a book of Marx,
We praise Friedman in the dark
The day responsiblity died.

We were singing,
“bye-bye, our kids’ piece of the pie.”
Obama drives us to the brink,
will leave us high and dry.
Coburn and the boys were tryin’ all they could think
singin, ” You’re making our economy die.
you’ve taken our kid’s piece of the pie.”

But we can not sign the blues
We will work for happy news,
Freedom is 21 months away.
We must go to the roof and shout “no more,”
Like we did 15 years before,
It is time to put an end to the Lib’s day.

For today believers in responsibility screamed,
Conservatives cried, But we still will dream.
Loud words must be spoken;
“Our Liberal government is broken.”
And three men to whom we could turn:
Pawlenty, Jindal and Coburn,
From their leadership we can surely learn.

Today, responsibility died.

‘Til then we will be singing:
“bye-bye, our kid’s piece of the pie.”
Obama drives us to the brink,
will leave us all be high and dry.
Coburn and the boys were trying all they could think
singing “You’re making our economy die.
you’ve taken our kid’s piece of the pie.”

The day responsibility died, indeed.

Book Review: Spellfire

Somehow, while amassing my huge collection of Forgotten Realms paperbacks, I skipped over Ed Greenwood's Shandril's Saga trilogy.  I don't know how I let that happen!  It's like reading Lord Of The Rings without knowing about The Hobbit.  Anyways, I've rectified my error and all of "Ed of the Green Wood's" novels are now accounted for in my Realms collection.

Spellfire, Greenwood's first novel, was published in 1988 and was intended to showcase the new Forgotten Realms game setting for TSR.  He deliberately set out to smash fantasy stereotypes, and the book is the better for it.  A female protagonist, a male love interest sometimes in need of rescue, and good guys losing once in awhile.  Ed doesn't gloss over the mundane stuff either, the characters eat, sleep and even relieve themselves, just like real people would.  It all adds to the richness of the story.

As the creator of The Forgotten Realms setting, Ed is uniquely suited to write a rich and detailed story, and he does not disappoint here.  Each chapter begins with a quotation from a fictional Realms notable, and every other paragraph seems to include some new bit of lore or description of some facet of his world.  Greenwood makes good use of language throughout, including many unique and plausible souding medeival terms and descriptions.

This author doesn't dwell overmuch on the details of the battles, instead he seems to focus on the character's actions and interactions with each other during the course of the fighting.  You won't find many Salvatore style, detailed blow by blow descriptions of swordfights here.  In my opinion, this is fine trade off.  Less tense, but more fleshed out.

The book gets off to a great start introducing us to the main character, Shandril Shessair, a kitchen lass at a tavern in a sleepy corner of the Dales.  We get to see her innocence and her building frustration with the Cindarella-esque non-stop toil and drudgery that keeps her from seeing the wider world.  Shandril leaps a the chance to run away and join a band of adventurers as a thief in training and eventually discovers she has the gift of Spellfire, a legendary magical ability that makes her the target of nefarious groups that strive to posess or eliminate her.  The middle of the book gets a little slow at times, but Greenwood provides so much detail and his characters are so varied that you don't mind just hanging around in Shadowdale for awhile as Shessair explores her talents with Elminster and decides where her path should lead.  The climax goes by almost too quickly, but it serves it's purpose to conclude this part of Shandril's tale with a bit of a flourish.

Overall I really enjoyed this one, and I'm starting the second book now.  This trilogy is a must have for any Realms fan.

Teach A Bird To Fish...

...and he's awesome!  This bird uses bread to lure fish in then snaps them up.

Dumb animals indeed.  I think most animals are a lot smarter than we think.  I still love a good steak though.  Whatevs.

Obama Administration Brings Change To The Stock Market

Star Trek As "The Love Boat"

Brilliant!

I'd give a link to the website I found this on, but he's a big-time Obamaniac and would probably get all wound up about it.  Too bad.  He's got a lot of cool geek stuff over there, and I always prefer to give credit where credit is due.

Homemade Legend Of Drizzt Movie

It's not Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings, but for homemade it is amazingly well done.

The acting is a little amateurish, but then again they ARE amateurs.  Nice job on the Drizzt makeup and costume, very faithful to Lockwood's spot on illustrations.  All the costumes are really good actually.  Pretty decent swordplay, again for amateurs.  The Wulfgar character's wig looks a little too pretty, and he needs to be more of a Arnold Schwartzeneger / Conan type physique to play the part in my opinion.  Catti Brie works... I'd do it.  Bruenor may be a little over the top in his dwarfishness here, but it's fantasy so whatevs.  All in all I'm very impressed.

I've been thinking that the Drizzt series would make a great movie franchise for years now.  Salvatore's books have regularly appeared on the New York Times bestseller's chart and his books have sold over 10,000,000 copies!  Not to mention the huge Forgotten Relams RPG fanbase and the hugely popular Baldur's Gate and Demon Stone video game series.  There is an audience out there just waiting for something like this, somebody just has to make a cool movie out of it.  Here's hoping a producer with a few million bucks to spend sees this and gets inspired.

The Trillion Dollar Goat

From commrade Red Square at The People's Cube:

A man comes to the rabbi and complains about his life:

"I have almost no money, my wife is a shrew, and we live in a small apartment with seven unruly kids. It's messy, it's noisy, it's smelly, and I don't want to live."

The rabbi says, "Buy a goat."

"What? I just told you there's hardly room for nine people, and it's messy as it is!"

"Look, you came for advice, so I'm giving you advice. Buy a goat and come back in a month."

In a month the man comes back and he is even more depressed:

"It's gotten worse! The filthy goat breaks everything, and it stinks and makes more noise than my wife and seven kids! What should I do?"

The rabbi says, "Sell the goat."

A few days later the man returns to the rabbi, beaming with happiness:

"Life is wonderful! We enjoy every minute of it now that there's no goat - only the nine of us. The kids are well-behaved, the wife is agreeable - and we even have some money!" 

Where's he going with this you ask? 

Obama's "change" is precisely the goat that Americans bought when they lost the appreciation of how good they had it.  But the perception of misery is not set in stone; this self-inflicted disaster may as well serve as a remedy - an unpleasant but necessary shock therapy helping the misguided voters come to their senses and begin to appreciate what they had lost.  And once they get rid of the socialist goat, they will hopefully regain confidence in their own system and continue to enjoy liberty and prosperity as they always did - with the head held high and without the silliness of feeling guilty about it.

Yeah, someday we'll all look back on this and laugh.  What were WE thinking?  Unfortunately the trillion dollars will already be spent wasted and we our children will still have to pay it back. 

Be sure to go read the rest.

Too Little, Too Late

Air "Mer Du Japon"

Okay.  I'm really going to feature some major tolerance and diversity on this one... A French band singing in Japanese, with a video featuring lesbian ballerinas.

F.Y.I. The dancers make out for a moment at about 1:35, in case you want to skip (or skip to) that part.

Air is one of my favorite bands.  They have a mellow 70's vibe that warms up their electronic sound nicely.  Other recommended tracks include Modular Mix (great homemade video!), La Femme D'argent, and Cherry Blossom Girl (which features some nudity btw).

America's Racial Cowardice? Hardly...

Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder recently caused a little stir while addressing Justice Department employees about Black History Month.  Before I address the issue let me pause for two important questions.

QUESTION #1: Why do Justice Department employees need to stop doing their important work of pursuing criminals to sit in a circle and listen to the bossman wax poetic about racism?  How much taxpayer money was wasted on this little pep-talk?  How did it contribute to the Department's mission?

QUESTION #2: Are you f-ing kidding me?!  We just elected the first black President, and he appointed you the first black Attorney General and you're whining to us about America's racial cowardice?  WTF?

Okay, now let's move on.  Mr. Holder said:

"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards,"

"If we are to make progress in this area, we must feel comfortable enough with one another and tolerant enough of each other to have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us."

Okay, you want frank?  I'll be frank.

Let me point out that Holder is making this address to mark BLACK HISTORY MONTH.  Notice that we do not have an Asian History Month, nor a Hispanic History Month, Arab History Month or Caucasian History Month.  Until blacks stop rubbing their percieved greivances in everybody else's face we will never EVER get past the issue of race. 

Another major factor contributing to the racial divide is that most black Americans segregate themselves.  They do this in their dress, language, music, their choice of neighborhood, church, vehicles and nearly every other aspect of their lives.  The fact that this pursuit of a "racial identity" tends to set one apart from the culture at large is not the fault of whites, nor does it help us "heal the divisions", rather it heightens them. 

Let me ask a question... did Barack Obama attend a white church in Chicago?  A mixed church?  No, Barack sought out a church made up almost entirely of blacks, and he did that deliberately to enahance his credibility with other blacks by "keepin' it real".  This church also espoused "Black Liberation Theology" which sets black Americans apart from the rest of society and pursues their interests above all others.  Reverend Wright wasn't helping Obama to "bridge the racial divide", but instead to capitalize on it and leverage it for political power and personal gain.

I strongly resent the implication that I, or my race in general, are cowards on this issue Mr. Holder.  If race is still dividing America I think the rest of us have done more than enough, and it's time for the black community to move the ball forward. 

UPDATE: Heather MacDonald has done a great editorial on this issue over at City Journal.

UPDATE II: The MoxArgon Group weighs in with their extra terrestrial perspective on the matter.

UPDATE: III: Michelle Malkin is on it.

Sorry Bank, I'm Done Paying My Mortgage

I want to be WAY behind on my payments by the time Obama's plan kicks in.  My next door neighbor has been behind or in default for YEARS and has had several eviction notices served, utilities cut off, then filed personal bankruptcy.  He's been working the system for eight years or more now.  How many tens of thousands of dollars has he saved?  Now I'M the chump because I actually paid my bills?  Nah, I'm not going out like that.

Hey GMAC!  Your next.  WHAT pickup truck?  I don't know what you're talking about bub.  Talk to Obama.

Get Your Tax Cheat Stamp!

Obama's Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner "forgot" to pay $34,000 in taxes and yet he was hastily confirmed by the Senate and placed in charge of our economy and, ironically, the Internal Revenue Service.  Any regular employee of the IRS who'd done this would have been terminated, yet somehow it's okay for "the boss" to do it since he's politically connected.

A sad state of affairs in this new era of "hope" and "change" don't you think?  

Now you can express your displeasure with the Democrats appointing a tax cheater to run the IRS that the rest of us "common folk" are forced to to obey by stamping TAX CHEAT over Mr. Geithner's name on the new (probably worthless) currency.

You can order your TAX CHEAT stamp for only $12 from www.taxcheatstamps.com.  It's a small price to pay for four years of snickering civil disobedience and schadenfreude, right?

UPDATE: Geithner's IRS goes after tax cheat stamp creator with bogus audit a.k.a. using the IRS for political intimidation!

UPDATE: Here's a funny carton my cousin Bob e-mailed me:

Photo Faves: Bug Kid

Here's my daughter as we head into the "It's Tough To Be A Bug!" 3D movie inside the Tree Of Life at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

The funny 3D glasses combined with the "What?" look on her face is priceless to me.

What A Difference 8 Years Makes

INAUGURATION DAY:

2009:  Outgoing President George W. Bush quietly boards his helicopter and leaves for Texas, commenting only "Today is not about me.  Today is a historic day for our nation and people."

2001:  Outgoing President Bill Clinton schedules two separate radio addresses to the nation, and organizes a public farewell speech/rally in downtown Washington, D.C. scheduled to directly conflict with incoming President Bush's inauguration ceremony.

PRESIDENTIAL PARDONS:

2009:  President Bush leaves office without issuing a single Presidential pardon, only granting a commutation of sentence to two former border patrol agents convicted of shooting a convicted drug smuggler.  He does not grant any type of clemency to Scooter Libby or any other former political aide, ally, or business partner.

2001:  President Clinton issues 140 pardons and several commutations of sentence on his final day in office.  Included in these are:  billionaire financier, convicted tax evader, and leading Democratic campaign contributor Marc Rich;  Whitewater scandal figure Susan McDougal; Congressional Post Office scandal figure and former Democratic Congressman Dan Rostenkowski; convicted bank fraud, sexual assault, and child porn perpetrator and former Democratic Congressman Melvin Reynolds; and convicted drug felon Roger Clinton, the President's half-brother.

LEAVING THE WHITE HOUSE:

2009:  The Bush daughters leave gift baskets in the White House bedrooms for the Obama daughters, containing flowers, candy, stuffed animals, DVD's and CD's.  They also leave heartfelt notes of encouragement and advice for the young girls on how to prepare for their new lives in the White House.

2001:  Clinton and Gore staffers rip computer wires and electrical outlets from the White House walls, stuff piles of notebook papers into the White House toilets, systematically remove the letter "W" from every computer keypad in the entire White House, and damage several thousand dollars worth of furniture in the White House master bedroom.

And the most telling regarding mainstream media bias:

NEWSPAPER HEADLINES FROM JANUARY, 2005:

"Republicans spending $42 million on inauguration while troops die in unarmored Humvees."

"Bush extravagance exceeds any reason during tough economic times."

"Fat cats get their $42 million inauguration party, ordinary Americans get the shaft."

NEWSPAPER HEADLINES FROM JANUARY, 2009:

"Historic Obama inauguration will cost only $170 million."

"Obama spends $170 million on inauguration - America needs a big party."

"Everyman Obama shows America how to celebrate."

"Citibank executives contribute $8 million to Obama inauguration."

Hat tip to Right Wing View Wisconsin.

FYI: Hitler Was A Socialist

Many people, especially modern liberals, focus only on Hitler's fascism, conveniently ignoring his socialist agenda.  Liberals tend to liken any conservative politician whose polcies they despise to Hitler.  This is a baseless comparison and runs contrary to historical facts.  Hitler was a leftist, socialist, environmentalist who was appeased/accomodated by liberals and opposed by conservatives during his rise to power.

Here are some exceprts from Dr. John J. Ray's fabulous and well documented exploration of the topic:

He had been something of a bohemian in his youth, and always regarded young people and their idealism as the key to progress and the overcoming of outmoded prejudices. And he was widely admired by the young people of his country, many of whom belonged to organizations devoted to practicing and propagating his teachings. He had a lifelong passion for music, art, and architecture, and was even something of a painter. He rejected what he regarded as petty bourgeois moral hang-ups, and he and his girlfriend "lived together" for years. He counted a number of homosexuals as friends and collaborators, and took the view that a man's personal morals were none of his business; some scholars of his life believe that he himself may have been homosexual or bisexual. He was ahead of his time where a number of contemporary progressive causes are concerned: he disliked smoking, regarding it as a serious danger to public health, and took steps to combat it; he was a vegetarian and animal lover; he enacted tough gun control laws; and he advocated euthanasia for the incurably ill.

He championed the rights of workers, regarded capitalist society as brutal and unjust, and sought a third way between communism and the free market. In this regard, he and his associates greatly admired the strong steps taken by President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal to take large-scale economic decision-making out of private hands and put it into those of government planning agencies. His aim was to institute a brand of socialism that avoided the inefficiencies that plagued the Soviet variety, and many former communists found his program highly congenial. He deplored the selfish individualism he took to be endemic to modern Western society, and wanted to replace it with an ethic of self-sacrifice: "As Christ proclaimed 'love one another'," he said, "so our call -- 'people's community,' 'public need before private greed,' 'communally-minded social consciousness' -- rings out.! This call will echo throughout the world!"

The reference to Christ notwithstanding, he was not personally a Christian, regarding the Catholicism he was baptized into as an irrational superstition. In fact he admired Islam more than Christianity, and he and his policies were highly respected by many of the Muslims of his day. He and his associates had a special distaste for the Catholic Church and, given a choice, preferred modern liberalized Protestantism, taking the view that the best form of Christianity would be one that forsook the traditional other-worldly focus on personal salvation and accommodated itself to the requirements of a program for social justice to be implemented by the state. They also considered the possibility that Christianity might eventually have to be abandoned altogether in favor of a return to paganism, a worldview many of them saw as more humane and truer to the heritage of their people. For he and his associates believed strongly that a people's ethnic and racial heritage was what mattered most. Some endorsed a kind of cultural relativism according to which what is true or false and right or wrong in some sense depends on one's ethnic worldview, and especially on what best promotes the well-being of one's ethnic group

As Dr. Ray points out this sounds like any modern candidate for the Democratic party.  Hitler, were he alive today, would be one of them...  Here's part of a manifesto he produced for the National Socialist German Workers Party in 1925:

Therefore we demand:

11. That all unearned income, and all income that does not arise from work, be abolished.

12. Since every war imposes on the people fearful sacrifices in life and property, all personal profit arising from the war must be regarded as a crime against the people. We therefore demand the total confiscation of all war profits whether in assets or material.

13. We demand the nationalization of businesses which have been organized into cartels.

14. We demand that all the profits from wholesale trade shall be shared out.

15. We demand extensive development of provision for old age.

16. We demand the creation and maintenance of a healthy middle-class, the immediate communalization of department stores which will be rented cheaply to small businessmen, and that preference shall be given to small businessmen for provision of supplies needed by the State, the provinces and municipalities.

17. We demand a land reform in accordance with our national requirements, and the enactment of a law to confiscate from the owners without compensation any land needed for the common purpose. The abolition of ground rents, and the prohibition of all speculation in land.

Who can argue that this is not a page right out of any modern US Democrat's secret dream book?  Abolish all investment income?  Check.  Confiscate war profits, i.e. Halliburton?  Check.  Demand nationalization of large businesses like "big oil", "big pharmaceutical" and "big banks"?  Check.  Free ride for old folks since you took away all their businesses and investments?  Check.  Push class warfare and pander to the middle class?  Check.  Attack department stores (the Wal Mart's of their day)?  Check.  No more private property rights?  Check.  I can truly imagine Barack Obama signing all of this into law.

The United States of America is currently rushing towards socialism.  Can fascism be far behind?  I believe they go hand in hand, especially during times of unrest and economic uncertainty.  The rise of socialism in the US timed with our current economic difficulties is no accident.  People in fear will reach out to anything for salvation, and leftists like Obama advisor Rahm Emmanuel have publicly vowed to use this crisis as an opportunity to get things done they normally could not.  Nationalized banks, nationalized auto companies, nationalized health care... those are only the beginnings.

Check out the rest of Dr. Ray's work and you'll see many many more correlations between Hitler and modern liberals.  It's a terrifying read, and puts to lie their use of his name as a slur against their political opponents when in fact it would more aptly apply to their own leadership.

Hat tip to Gonzo for the link to Dr. Ray.

UPDATE: Here's an Interesting and timely Michelle Malkin post on lefties and their Hitler complex.

UPDATE II: I'm getting a lot of Google searches for "Hitler nationalized banks", evidently from people worried about our President's current policy trajectory.  Here's a direct quote on the matter from Adolf himself:

"We don't have to nationalize the banks and factories. Instead we nationalized the people".

He didn't need to officially nationalize the bank, he just had to place some Nazi's in emplyment there and have the SS drop by every once in awhile to make sure the bank did exactly as he ordered them to.  If the banker steps out of line he's no longer the banker, and may no longer be a free (or even living) man.  Liberals keep clinging to this as some kind of defense, saying "Hitler was a capitalist!", but all industry and private enterprise existed only to serve the Third Reich, which is clearly not a free market by any stretch of the imagination... unless you're a demented left winger I suppose.  

UPDATE: Third World County points us towards a great piece at Spartacus Educational on the Nazi party's socialist characteristics.

Obama's Elf

Photo Faves: Sunset Sky

I snapped this one from my front yard one summer evening...  Nice mix of colors.

Man, I am really tired of winter and really really looking forward to summer.  How 'bout you?

Riding High

Three Liberals Get Pwned, One Twice Over

Via the Rott, here's a true story of sweet sweet revenge:

[...] Imagine my surprise when I go there the other night and find that there are people parked there.  The only other place open at that hour was the bar a block and a half down.  Whatever.

As I walked in, I had opportunity to look at the bumpers of the cars parked there. “Obama ‘08.” “Hope. Change.” “Obama/Biden.”  All three cars belonging to LIBERALS.  One loaded down with pithy little bumpersticker philosophies that Liberals so love. 

On my fucking property.

I looked up. My sign was still there “Customer Parking Only. Unauthorized vehicles will be towed at owner’s expense. [...]

Go read the rest.  It gets even better.

Ulrich Schnauss "Between Us And Them"

Ulrich Schnauss is an avant-garde electronic musician from Germany.  This is my favorite track from his 2001 album "Far Away Trains Passing By".

I got my teenage daughter hooked on Ulrich Schnauss's music, and now she listens to it constantly on her MP3 player.  In fact, it inspired an interest in all things German, and she recently began learing the language.  Pretty cool...

Obama's Politics Of Fear

From the Wall Street Journal:

President Barack Obama has turned fearmongering into an art form. He has repeatedly raised the specter of another Great Depression. First, he did so to win votes in the November election. He has done so again recently to sway congressional votes for his stimulus package.

In his remarks, every gloomy statistic on the economy becomes a harbinger of doom. As he tells it, today's economy is the worst since the Great Depression. Without his Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he says, the economy will fall back into that abyss and may never recover.

This fearmongering may be good politics, but it is bad history and bad economics. It is bad history because our current economic woes don't come close to those of the 1930s. At worst, a comparison to the 1981-82 recession might be appropriate. Consider the job losses that Mr. Obama always cites. In the last year, the U.S. economy shed 3.4 million jobs. That's a grim statistic for sure, but represents just 2.2% of the labor force. From November 1981 to October 1982, 2.4 million jobs were lost -- fewer in number than today, but the labor force was smaller. So 1981-82 job losses totaled 2.2% of the labor force, the same as now.

Job losses in the Great Depression were of an entirely different magnitude. In 1930, the economy shed 4.8% of the labor force. In 1931, 6.5%. And then in 1932, another 7.1%. Jobs were being lost at double or triple the rate of 2008-09 or 1981-82.

This was reflected in unemployment rates. The latest survey pegs U.S. unemployment at 7.6%. That's more than three percentage points below the 1982 peak (10.8%) and not even a third of the peak in 1932 (25.2%). You simply can't equate 7.6% unemployment with the Great Depression.

No, your wrong there.  Democrats can equate anything with the Great Depression if it gets them what they want.  The funny part is the very policies they are pursuing with this fearmongering (huge deficit spending, greatly expanded government, inevitable tax increases) may be the thing that tips us into a real depression!  Wouldn't that be ironic?

My Wife

I post photos of hot babes on the site every now and then, but I can't let Valentine's Day pass without posting my favorite babe of all time.

Pictured here is my wife on our wedding day.  She's the love of my life and I never tire of her smile, her laughter or her companionship...  or her good looks I suppose.

I'm a very lucky man.

$65,000,000,000,000.00, Yes That's Trillion

"The federal government is bankrupt," Williams told WND. "In a post-Enron world, if the federal government were a corporation such as General Motors, the president and senior Treasury officers would be in federal penitentiary."

Busted

Hat tip to Scotty for e-mailing me the original picture.  Sometimes true life is funny enough eh?

Photo Faves: My Daughter

This is one of those magic moments when everything comes together; good light, nice setting, and the personality of your subject coming through.

This is still one of my favorite photographs of my daughter ever.  She's a cutie pie.

David Brooks: The Worst Case Most Likely Scenario

From the New York Times:

Between 1990 and 2007, the total mortgage debt held by Americans rose from $2.5 trillion to $10.5 trillion. This rise was part of a societal credit bubble that burst in 2008. To cushion the pain of that collapse, federal authorities decided to replace private debt with public debt.

In 2008, the Bush administration increased spending by about $1.7 trillion, and guaranteed loans, investments and deposits worth about $8 trillion. In 2009, the Obama administration spent $800 billion on a stimulus package, $1 trillion on a second round of bank bailouts and committed another trillion on health care reform and other bailout plans.

Americans generally welcomed the burst of public activism. In “Democracy in America,” Alexis de Tocqueville wrote about what happens to a people beset by anxiety: “The taste for public tranquility then becomes a blind passion, and the citizens are liable to conceive a most inordinate devotion to order.”

In normal times, Americans would have been skeptical of proposals to double or triple the size of federal programs, but amid the economic fear, that skepticism fell away. Wall Street traders hungered for a huge federal bailout replete with strings. Economists produced models that assumed that government could efficiently spend huge amounts of money, and these models were accepted.

The Obama administration was staffed with moderates who found that there was no reward for moderation. Liberals attacked them for being tepid. Republicans attacked them because it was enjoyable to see Democrats attacked. Over time, the administration drifted left and created what you might call Split Level Technocratic Liberalism.

President Obama defended spending initiatives in broad terms. He had enormous faith in the power of highly trained experts and based his arguments on models and projections. The actual legislation was cobbled together by Democratic committee chairmen, often acting beyond the administration’s control.

During 2010, the economic decline abated, but the recovery did not arrive. There were a few false dawns, and stagnation. The problem was this: The policy makers knew how to pull economic levers, but they did not know how to use those levers to affect social psychology.

Go read the rest.  Pretty on target except for the part about the Obama administration being staffed with moderates. 

$100 From God

A little boy wanted $100.00 to buy a video game and prayed for weeks, but nothing happened.  Then he decided to write God a letter requesting the $100.00.

When the post office received the letter addressed to "God, USA", they decided to forward it to the President.

The President was so amused that he instructed his secretary to send the little boy a $5.00 bill, assuming this would appear to be a lot of money to a little boy.

The little boy was delighted with the $5.00 bill and sat down to write a thank-you note to God, which read: "Dear God: Thank you very much for sending the money. However, I noticed that for some reason you sent it through Washington D.C. and those damn Democrats took out $95.00 in taxes!!!"

This Is What You Get When You Put Democrats In Charge

Maxine Waters sits on the House Financial Services Committee, but apparently has very little understanding of finances.  What she does have is feelings, and like most liberals that's all that matters to her.  She is outraged.  It's not clear about what in particular, but she really is angry with these "captains of the universe" as she calls them. 

Don't miss the "... I don't know what you're talking about." reply she gets at 5:40.  The entire group looks absolutely dumbfounded that she could possibly be sitting in judgement of them, and they probably have a point.  Thank you California voters!  You must be so proud...

If she wasn't one of the people tasked with leading us out of this mess it would be funny.  As it stands it's more terrifying than anything else.

Hat tip to Tiger Hawk.  Great stuff.

Printing Money Like It's Going Out Of Style

Via Where Are My Keys here is a chart showing the Federal Reserve Bank's monetary base:

 

The vertical gray lines are recessions through the decades.  The blue line is the money supply.  Click to see the big version and marvel at the unprecedented spike we just had. 

I'm concerned that when the rest of the world discovers that the Emperor has no clothes, i.e. Obama and Congressional Democrats have no intention if actually fixing the problem (real stimulus), instead of just leveraging it (Rahm Emanuel: "never let a crisis go to waste") to further their leftist agenda (billions for welfare, green eco-bullshit, wetlands preservation, STD prevention etc.), foreign investors will flee the dollar.  The collapse of the dollar in the current situation would likely lead to hyperinflation and tip us from recession into a true depression. 

But then again, I'm not an economist, so let's hope I'm way off base here m'kay?

Mathematicians Discover Largest Number

From IowaHawk:

PALO ALTO, CA - An international mathematics research team announced today that they had discovered a new integer that surpasses any previously known value "by a totally mindblowing shitload." Project director Yujin Xiao of Stanford University said the theoretical number, dubbed a "stimulus," could lead to breakthroughs in fields as diverse as astrophysics, quantum mechanics, and Chicago asphalt contracting.

"Unlike previous large numbers like the Googleplex or the Bazillionty, the Stimulus has no static numerical definition," said Xiao. "It keeps growing and growing, compounding factorially, eating up all zeros in its path. It moves freely across Cartesian dimensions and has the power to make any other number irrational."

Be sure to click over and read the rest.  That guy is comedy gold. 

Nitzer Ebb "Hearts And Minds"

I've gotten some ribbing for the last couple of tunes I posted being light and poppy or even a little feminine, so now I'll go the opposite direction.  Nitzer Ebb is pretty hateful and venemous souding by comparison, and never more so than in "Hearts And Minds".

Those guys could really kick some ass in the studio.  Listen to the sinister souding break at 2:55, that's some awesome industrial soundscape right there.  Twenty years old and still a great jam.

Must See Video: 12 Year Old Girl Rails Against Abortion

Via Hot Air and The Other McCain.

You've got to love her quoting Dr. Suess at the end.  Priceless.

P.S. If her 5,000 an hour statistic is correct then in the time it took you to watch this clip 440 babies were killed.