The Occasional Observer

There's usually very little for me to resolve that I haven't already been failing at all year, but here goes:

1) I resolve to laugh out loud every time I hear the 'Bomba say he's going to "fix" the economy with higher taxes and more regulation.

2) I resolve to ignore Ahmadinejad every time he says he's going to nuke Israel. I'm pretty he sure he's just kidding.

3) I resolve to stop driving and my car and using home heating oil. With all these green jobs the Dems are going to create I'm sure someone will figure out how to move my person from point A to B, and how to heat my house without the toxic release of any actual heat.

4) I resolve to buy land high in the Rockies under the evergeens. With sea levels rising I might just get a bargain on oceanfront property.

And if so, care to give us a few nuggets of things we'd be surprised to learn about Hamilton?

One of the few times I'm on board with NYT editorial. Thanks to my local scotch-drinking buddy for the tip.

At least when it comes to the debate over AGW. Read the whole article at the Daily Telegraph. Here's some choice parts:

...one of the most important stories of 2008 has been all the evidence suggesting that this may be looked back on as the year when there was a turning point in the great worldwide panic over man-made global warming. Just when politicians in Europe and America have been adopting the most costly and damaging measures politicians have ever proposed, to combat this supposed menace, the tide has turned in three significant respects.

First, all over the world, temperatures have been dropping in a way wholly unpredicted by all those computer models which have been used as the main drivers of the scare...

Secondly, 2008 was the year when any pretence that there was a "scientific consensus" in favour of man-made global warming collapsed...

Thirdly, as banks collapsed and the global economy plunged into its worst recession for decades, harsh reality at last began to break in on those self-deluding dreams which have for so long possessed almost every politician in the western world...

All those grandiose projects for "emissions trading", "carbon capture", building tens of thousands more useless wind turbines, switching vast areas of farmland from producing food to "biofuels", are being exposed as no more than enormously damaging and futile gestures, costing astronomic sums we no longer possess.

Now the proud papa of a little girl to go along with his son.

That second delivery happens fast, eh?

Congrats big guy!

If our contributors could say a quick prayer this morning at 10 AM EST for a special intention, I'd be very appreciative.

From Fox News Sunday:

WALLACE: Transition officials say that Biden plans to shrink his office, that he is not going to meet with Senate Democrats the way you did every week with Senate Republicans, that he is not going to have his own, quote, "shadow government" in the White House.

Biden has said that he believes you have dangerously expansive views of executive power.

CHENEY: Well, I just fundamentally disagree with him. He also said that the -- all the powers and responsibilities of the executive branch are laid out in Article 1 of the Constitution. Well, they're not. Article 1 of the Constitution is the one on the legislative branch.

Joe's been chairman of the Judiciary Committee, a member of the Judiciary Committee in the Senate, for 36 years, teaches constitutional law back in Delaware, and can't keep straight which article of the Constitution provides for the legislature and which provides for the executive...

I think that President-elect Obama will decide what he wants in a vice president. And apparently, from the way they're talking about it, he does not expect him to have as consequential a role as I've had during my time.

China blocks access to New York Times Web site

Proof that there is such a thing as benevolent dictatorship.


ht: Drudge

Cast your vote!

I left out Ford Flex and some of the Traverse cousins (Outlook/Enclave/Acadia) because the AWD versions came in over $32K. BTW, these are all CUV's with 3 rows standard. I didn't include the SUV's like Explorer or 4Runner where you can opt for a 3rd row of seats, but they're inaccessible and crappy b/c the vehicle wasn't originally designed for them.

Chevy Traverse


Toyota Highlander


Honda Pilot


Mazda CX-9


Hyundai Veracruz


Kia Borrego

...except those cast for anyone other than the Democrat. If you want to get your blood to boil, check out this link for a review of how the MN canvassing board is adjudicating the "challenged ballots" in the MN recount.

And remember, the Secretary of State in MN (in charge of administrating elections) was voted in through the efforts of MoveOn and ACORN.

Here's an example of a ballot that was initially counted a Coleman vote, but was challenged by the Franken camp. The canvassing board decided that this voter's intent could not be discerned, and counted the ballot as a "no vote":

Someone must've forgot to use his #2 pencil!

Just for looks, mind you. List your top 3.

Infiniti G37


Mercedes C350


BMW 335i


Cadillac CTS


Acura TL


Lexus ES 350


Audi A4


Chrysler 300c


Lincoln MKS


*as noted in the comments, some of these models start in the low-to-mid 30's, but by the time they're decked out you're probably nearing 40 anyway.

As a science major, I always questioned some of the entries on the Periodic Table.

I mean, c'mon--Californium, Europium, Promethium, Mendelevum...you're kidding, right?

Someone has clinched the Nobel for chemistry by tirelessly cataloging the awesomeness that forms the universe as we know and understand it:
















In case this pic is too small, here's a link to the hosting site (which must be the Smithsonian or some lab in Japan--somewhere filled with genius-type folk):

http://www.geekologie.com/2008/12/18/tblofawesome.jpg

Pfft--Einsteinium? Seriously???

Anyone interested in a weekly racquetball game? FWIW, I've played < 10 times in my life and am still pretty much a beginner.

Let me know...

did anyone catch a gander of this sweetness?


More here.

Tikka T3 Stainless

Be afraid deer. Be very afraid.

Following up on SHK's earlier post, here's more on the post-election conflagration between "good government" (know to opponents as 'big government') Republicans and "small government" (k.t.o. as 'fantasyland') Republicans.

First, Kristol, explaining what the "good governance" school thinks conservatism should look like, in a column titled "Small Isn't Beautiful":

...talk of small government may be music to conservative ears, but it’s not to the public as a whole. This isn’t to say the public is fond of big-government liberalism. It’s just that what’s politically vulnerable about big-government liberalism is more the liberalism than the big government. (Besides, the public knows that government’s not going to shrink much no matter who’s in power.)

If you’re a small-government conservative, you’ll tend to oppose the bailouts, period. If you more or less accept big government, you’ll be open to the government’s stepping in to save the financial system, or the auto industry. But you’ll tend to favor those policies — universal tax cuts, offering everyone a chance to refinance his mortgage, relieving auto makers of burdensome regulations — that, consistent with conservative principles, don’t reward irresponsible behavior and don’t politicize markets.

Similarly, if you’re against big government, you’ll oppose a huge public works stimulus package. If you think some government action is inevitable, you might instead point out that the most unambiguous public good is national defense. You might then suggest spending a good chunk of the stimulus on national security — directing dollars to much-needed and underfunded defense procurement rather than to fanciful green technologies, making sure funds are available for the needed expansion of the Army and Marines before rushing to create make-work civilian jobs. Obama wants to spend much of the stimulus on transportation infrastructure and schools. Fine, but lots of schools and airports seem to me to have been refurbished more recently and more generously than military bases I’ve visited.

W. James Antle III responds at AmSpec, dealing with the political effectiveness of Kristol's suggestions. He considers whether small-government or big-government Republicans fared worse with the electorate:

Since World War II, Republicans have seriously tried to cut federal domestic spending exactly three times. They did so most recently during Ronald Reagan's first two years in office and during the first two years of the Gingrich Congress. Republicans paid a steep political price both times -- neither the 1982 nor the 1996 congressional elections were kind to GOP incumbents -- but Reagan was reelected and the Gingrich majority still held. (The third group of Republicans who seriously tried to cut spending, the Do-Nothing Congress that stood athwart Harry Truman, didn't survive though many of their spending cuts did.)

In other words, the Republicans were in better shape after their spending battles than they were after eight years of big-government conservatism under Nixon-Ford or Bush 43. That's obviously not because the American electorate is comprised of doctrinaire libertarians. It probably has more to do with the fact there already exists a political party willing to satisfy voters' needs for new government programs. That party is called the Democrats.

MSNBC (of all places) has a poll asking whether or not "In God We Trust" should be removed from our currency.

Here's the link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10103521/

I'm sure we'll be treated to an impassioned soapbox sermon from Olbermann once he sees which way the vote goes...

"Did you see that guy throw a shoe a Bush's head? Wasn't that great?"

I consider myself a fairly staunch conservative, and strongly in favor of capitalism and relatively free market economies.

That said, one can't begin to feel twangs of populist sentiment after the recent series of debacles. Between the moronic levels of risk taking by financial firms that led to the disappearance of Bear and Lehmann and should've also wiped out AIG and others but for OUR taxpayer money bailing them out; the ineptness of Big 3; the absurd recent request by John Thain (CEO and Chairman of Merrill) to his board that he should receive a $10 M bonus (a request he properly withdrew after outcries of disgust); and now the Ponzi scheme by Madoff leading to $50 BILLION dollars of lost money, one can't help but start to question how free the free market ought to be.

At a minimum it would be nice if executive compensation were somehow tied to shareholder approval. If I own a piece of the company, I'd like a say in how they are compensated. Simply having the right to dump the stock as a vote of "no confidence" appears to be an insufficient mechanism.

Don't ya think?

Ahmadinejad told reporters that the Israelis "have reached the end of the road..."

"By committing these atrocities they want to pressure the Palestinians to influence their elections."

"We can see the hands of Bush and Obama in these crimes," he said.

ht: Drudge

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's administration will offer Israel a "nuclear umbrella" against the threat of a nuclear attack by Iran, a well-placed American source said earlier this week. The source, who is close to the new administration, said the U.S. will declare that an attack on Israel by Tehran would result in a devastating U.S. nuclear response against Iran.

But America's nuclear guarantee to Israel could also be interpreted as a sign the U.S. believes Iran will eventually acquire nuclear arms.

For more, see here.

Blagojevich is refusing to go. The longer he stays in office, the longer this story remains front page material. And the longer questions swirl about Obama and shady Chicago politics.

Not so good news: Obama's inability to lead. This scandal is the latest example; he called for blag's resignation only after numerous other dems did so. Similarly, he refused to issue an opinion on many other topics during the campaign until after McCain or Hillary did. Why is this not so good news? Well, ordinarily I'd say it's great news. If he can't lead, he can't raise our taxes and spending, and he'll be seen as inept. This is all well and good, but with the specter of a major WMD attack by 2013 standing at 50-50, I'd much rather have a strong leader in office who will immediately know how to respond, and won't need polls or on-the-job training to explain it to him. Oh, and if you want to read the douchiest article you've ever seen, read this response. This article contains more misinformation, wildly incorrect assumptions and head-in-the-sand type reasoning than most I've seen, even for CNN. There are so many holes in this guy's logic it's hard to know where to start. Most specifically his assumption that terrorists' capabilities are somehow frozen in time and will never progress. Yeah, that's the smart bet. I'd certainly base all my homeland security decisions centered on that premise. What a d-bag.

The man hasn't even taken the oath of office yet. Check this out:

The FBI affidavit said Blagojevich had been told by an adviser "the president-elect can get Rod Blagojevich's wife on paid corporate boards in exchange for naming the president-elect's pick to the Senate."

UPDATE:

"I had no contact with the governor or his office and so I was not aware of what was happening," Barack Obama told reporters today in the wake of the Blagojevich arrest, the Chicago Tribune reports.

But Jake Tapper notes that on November 23, Obama adviser David Axelrod was singing a different tune. "I know he's talked to the governor," Axelrod said on Fox News Chicago in response to a question about Obama's involvement in filling his Senate seat (see the 1:20 mark of the video below).

See here.

From the Chicago Trib:

A source said today that Gov. Rod Blagojevich was taken into federal custody at his North Side home this morning. The U.S. attorney's office would not confirm the information, and a spokesman for the governor did not immediately return a phone call for comment.

A three-year federal corruption investigation of pay-to-play politics in Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration has expanded to include his impending selection of a new U.S. senator to succeed President-elect Barack Obama, the Tribune has learned.

UPDATE: Love this headline from Race 4 '08:

Culture of Corruption Watch: Total Freakin’ Idiot Edition

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Obama: Don't stock up on guns

"I believe in common-sense gun safety laws, and I believe in the second
amendment," Obama said at a news conference. "Lawful gun owners have nothing to fear.

In other news, these are not the droids you're looking for.

ht: Drudge

It drinks pretty good. I don't hear noone COM plain.

allow this Marine to instruct you:


From blackfive.net.

This one goes out to Fredo, Beetz McDogg, and most significantly, Caribou Express.

Rock on gentlemen...



Ed note: I thought the first video was funnier than the second, so need to water down the original

I realized that my last holiday wish post was rather serious so to get back to my usual level of immaturity I present the following:

Forget the .30-06--here's my new hunting rifle.

Who am I kidding--I'm gonna use this thing for any task I possibly can...anyone need a can opened? Please???

SNL actually did something funny. Of course NBC pulled it because it didn't fit in their liberal agenda.