Yesterday was one of those wonderful 'day-trips' OS gets to embark upon with his beloved Mrs. OS. We're both soooooo grateful to be happily involved in work and lives that sometimes get too busy, thus it is lovely to have a day together, with a relatively light schedule.
Off we go, driving into the early morning mist with NPR news on, half-listening, when the unemployment figures for June are announced. OS sez with a start, 'Did he just say eighteen-thousand? That can't possibly be right! Gotta be a typo on his script!
Mrs. OS sez 'I heard one-hundred-eighteen-thousand.'
'OK, that's better...man, if it were only eighteen-thousand, that would be awful! The country has to generate at least 150k a month just to keep up with demographics...'
Of course, as the day wore on, the news played again, several times. And the ugly, ugly news sank in. Along with the 'revisions' that halved the numbers of jobs gained in April and May. Remember when the White House staff was crowing about the good news in April? Yep, those numbers...
Of course, we also heard from President Teleprompter, as he attempted to spin the numbers. He attributed the bad news to the fact that the House Republicans won't roll over, play dead, and raise the debt ceiling so he can spend moh munney-hunney.
(And raise taxes on employers while he's at it...)
Ahh, leadership!
Calculated Risk has the news in all its gory detail.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Streep As Thatcher: Coming In January 2012
Here's the teaser trailer:
OS expects a full-on assault on The Great Lady's record and character beginning in November. Expect the same sorts of things to occur to Merryl Streep, who portrays Mrs. Thatcher. She will be shunned in Hollywood from here on, but no matter, with her reputation now secured.
The Left, in the US, UK, and Europe, have much to fear from this, especially Obama, whose cravenness and inability to lead anyone anywhere except over a cliff are now well established, and will be more and more evident by January.
There is an entire generation of the culture that doesn't remember the Great Lady, and The Left will be eager to make damned sure she remains stuffed down the Memory Hole.
OS, on the other hand, plans to be at the first screening for which he can purchase a ticket.
OS expects a full-on assault on The Great Lady's record and character beginning in November. Expect the same sorts of things to occur to Merryl Streep, who portrays Mrs. Thatcher. She will be shunned in Hollywood from here on, but no matter, with her reputation now secured.
The Left, in the US, UK, and Europe, have much to fear from this, especially Obama, whose cravenness and inability to lead anyone anywhere except over a cliff are now well established, and will be more and more evident by January.
There is an entire generation of the culture that doesn't remember the Great Lady, and The Left will be eager to make damned sure she remains stuffed down the Memory Hole.
OS, on the other hand, plans to be at the first screening for which he can purchase a ticket.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Dominique Strauss-Kahn Criminal Case Collapses: OS Was, Well, Prescient About The Course Of Events
From Fox News, just in:
It's over, ya'll. The Gulfstream is warming up on the tarmac. Just gotta get the passport back (and probably don't need that, in reality. They can be re-issued.) All that remains is a decent week's interval to let the chatter die down, allow the prosecutors to shred the documents, threaten any of the staff who may consider selling/leaking their stories, make damn-sure nobody's law license gets lost over this complete fiasco. Except of course, the poor schlub staffer upon whom the entire affair will be blamed. It'll be some junior staffer, white-guy-with-a-state-university-law degree, so the scapegoating can't come back to bite DA Vance in the ass.
Other than that, move on, nothing to see here. Stuff it down the memory hole, ya'll. Never happened.
OS predicted this course of events soon after DSK was arrested, here and here. And, he admits getting caught up in the rush to judgement, to his discredit.
But, OS does stand by his original assertion, which is this: Whether DSK is guilty of rape or not, and it appears not, this guy has a long record of truly reckless behavior. What was he doing heading up an organization like IMF? He made decisions that determined whether people lived or died, nations stood or collapsed, and he was unable to do something basic like keep WeeWillie in his pants, at the age of sixty-two. What's wrong with that picture? What manner of people approved his appointment? Are we surprised at the chaos? Why are the GreatAndGood shocked that little people who live on MainStreets in the US, and HighStreets in the UK have zero faith in them?
So, off he will fly, with a bitterness in his soul about his treatment in the US, to pay off the women in France who have surfaced to collect their 100 grams of flesh for having slept with him, and then to run for President of France.
What could possibly go wrong?
It's over, ya'll. The Gulfstream is warming up on the tarmac. Just gotta get the passport back (and probably don't need that, in reality. They can be re-issued.) All that remains is a decent week's interval to let the chatter die down, allow the prosecutors to shred the documents, threaten any of the staff who may consider selling/leaking their stories, make damn-sure nobody's law license gets lost over this complete fiasco. Except of course, the poor schlub staffer upon whom the entire affair will be blamed. It'll be some junior staffer, white-guy-with-a-state-university-law degree, so the scapegoating can't come back to bite DA Vance in the ass.
Other than that, move on, nothing to see here. Stuff it down the memory hole, ya'll. Never happened.
OS predicted this course of events soon after DSK was arrested, here and here. And, he admits getting caught up in the rush to judgement, to his discredit.
But, OS does stand by his original assertion, which is this: Whether DSK is guilty of rape or not, and it appears not, this guy has a long record of truly reckless behavior. What was he doing heading up an organization like IMF? He made decisions that determined whether people lived or died, nations stood or collapsed, and he was unable to do something basic like keep WeeWillie in his pants, at the age of sixty-two. What's wrong with that picture? What manner of people approved his appointment? Are we surprised at the chaos? Why are the GreatAndGood shocked that little people who live on MainStreets in the US, and HighStreets in the UK have zero faith in them?
So, off he will fly, with a bitterness in his soul about his treatment in the US, to pay off the women in France who have surfaced to collect their 100 grams of flesh for having slept with him, and then to run for President of France.
What could possibly go wrong?
And The Great Recession Just Grinds On: Syracuse Symphony In Chapter 7, Bank To Seize And Liquidate Assets
This is another sad moment for the musical life of the nation.
Syracuse, NY - In the math of bankruptcy court, the case of Syracuse Symphony Orchestra Inc. seems easy enough.
The folded symphony has $327,000 worth of stuff and $4 million in liabilities.
M&T Bank, the biggest secured creditor, is likely to get everything, leaving nothing for the hundreds of unpaid vendors and staff and people who bought concert tickets they could not use.
“I’m very sorry,” trustee Mary Fangio said at the creditors hearing Wednesday afternoon in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Syracuse.
In the court, Philip MacArthur and Bill Harris were thinking about how to keep the SSO’s library of sheet music. They are musicians, MacArthur on the oboe, and Harris, on the trombone, who retired and now lead the union that represents the musicians’ contract with the SSO. With their colleagues, they made a career’s worth of hand-written notes on the sheet music they say can never be replaced.
Here's hoping M&T will see reason, and convey the library to a legitimate organization nearby, such as a university or public library, so it can be preserved and one day put back into use.
It has nearly zero cash value, in that it is organized around the local situation and tradition, and would not be of that much use elsewhere. Yet, to replace it from the ground up would require much cash and years of work.
Here's wishing the city and orchestra well.
Syracuse, NY - In the math of bankruptcy court, the case of Syracuse Symphony Orchestra Inc. seems easy enough.
The folded symphony has $327,000 worth of stuff and $4 million in liabilities.
M&T Bank, the biggest secured creditor, is likely to get everything, leaving nothing for the hundreds of unpaid vendors and staff and people who bought concert tickets they could not use.
“I’m very sorry,” trustee Mary Fangio said at the creditors hearing Wednesday afternoon in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Syracuse.
In the court, Philip MacArthur and Bill Harris were thinking about how to keep the SSO’s library of sheet music. They are musicians, MacArthur on the oboe, and Harris, on the trombone, who retired and now lead the union that represents the musicians’ contract with the SSO. With their colleagues, they made a career’s worth of hand-written notes on the sheet music they say can never be replaced.
Here's hoping M&T will see reason, and convey the library to a legitimate organization nearby, such as a university or public library, so it can be preserved and one day put back into use.
It has nearly zero cash value, in that it is organized around the local situation and tradition, and would not be of that much use elsewhere. Yet, to replace it from the ground up would require much cash and years of work.
Here's wishing the city and orchestra well.
Global Warming Solved! Let's Kill All The Farting Camels In Australia!
Really. It's a serious proposition.
From Australia's National Post:
The kill-a-camel suggestion is floated in a paper distributed by Australia’s Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, as part of consultations for reducing the country’s carbon footprint.
The scheme is the brainchild of an Adelaide-based commercial company, Northwest Carbon, a land and animal management consultancy, which proposes whacking feral camels in exchange for carbon credits.
Camels were introduced to the Outback in the 19th century to help early settlers cope with hot, arid conditions.
Now they number around 1.2 million and, say some, are a pest because of the damage they inflict to vegetation and their intestinal gases.
Each camel, according to the champions of a cull, emits 45 kilos (99 pounds) of methane, the equivalent of one tonne a year in carbon dioxide (CO2), the main warming gas.
Northwest Carbon says it would shoot the camels from helicopters or corral them before sending them to an abattoir for eating by humans or pets.
Yeah, baby, yeah! That'll save the polar bears, by gum!
Of course, OS has questions to raise: If farting camels can be rounded up by helicopter and gunned down, what about people whose diets are based upon rice and beans--which is a huge part of the world? Perhaps we should kill all the residents of Burundi and Ecuador, along with all their camels, cattle and dogs and cats. They all fart, you know.
And...don't polar bears fart? Maybe they're the source of it all! Why not start with them? What about environmentalists and global warming scientists? Don't they occasionally let fly? What about Labor MP's and Democrat Senators? Who chooses?
When we begin, when do we end? How do we know when we've slaughtered enough animals and people? If we burn all their bodies, doesn't that create more global warming than a lifetime of their farts? Are some farters more worthy of death than others?
Someone, appoint a commission, issue a White Paper. We must-must-must save the planet from its inhabitants.
HT Anglican Samizdat.
From Australia's National Post:
The kill-a-camel suggestion is floated in a paper distributed by Australia’s Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, as part of consultations for reducing the country’s carbon footprint.
The scheme is the brainchild of an Adelaide-based commercial company, Northwest Carbon, a land and animal management consultancy, which proposes whacking feral camels in exchange for carbon credits.
Camels were introduced to the Outback in the 19th century to help early settlers cope with hot, arid conditions.
Now they number around 1.2 million and, say some, are a pest because of the damage they inflict to vegetation and their intestinal gases.
Each camel, according to the champions of a cull, emits 45 kilos (99 pounds) of methane, the equivalent of one tonne a year in carbon dioxide (CO2), the main warming gas.
Northwest Carbon says it would shoot the camels from helicopters or corral them before sending them to an abattoir for eating by humans or pets.
Yeah, baby, yeah! That'll save the polar bears, by gum!
Of course, OS has questions to raise: If farting camels can be rounded up by helicopter and gunned down, what about people whose diets are based upon rice and beans--which is a huge part of the world? Perhaps we should kill all the residents of Burundi and Ecuador, along with all their camels, cattle and dogs and cats. They all fart, you know.
And...don't polar bears fart? Maybe they're the source of it all! Why not start with them? What about environmentalists and global warming scientists? Don't they occasionally let fly? What about Labor MP's and Democrat Senators? Who chooses?
When we begin, when do we end? How do we know when we've slaughtered enough animals and people? If we burn all their bodies, doesn't that create more global warming than a lifetime of their farts? Are some farters more worthy of death than others?
Someone, appoint a commission, issue a White Paper. We must-must-must save the planet from its inhabitants.
HT Anglican Samizdat.
Monday, July 4, 2011
For The Fourth Of July: The Declaration Of Independence
The link is here.
OS hopes you take a moment to read it again.
Notice the clear use of language, and contrast it with our current culture's love of spin, of nuance, of deniability. Jefferson wrote eloquently, with the intent of conveying ideas with power and clarity. No spin here, friends and neighbors.
Also, observe the dual appeal to both Providence and Reason. Not either/or, but both. The French Revolution spurned Providence, and soon lost any sense of Reason. It disintegrated into a bloodbath, and ushered in Bonaparte, who bathed the world in suffering. Sans both Providence and Reason, any enterprise is doomed from the beginning.
Finally, these men had skin in the game. They knew signing that document was an act of treason against the Crown, and they knew that potentially meant the loss of all things--wealth, freedom, family, life itself. They signed anyway, big, clear signatures, to let the world clearly know who they were and what they were about.
OS's prayer on this July 4 is that we reclaim that clarity, that faith in both Providence and Reason, and the courage to live our lives with that sort of skin in the game.
July 4 is an anniversary of sorts for OS. The entire tale cannot be told, but on July 4, 1988, OS heard those words recited at a neighborhood celebration, and summoned the courage to make some large decisions about life. Sitting here now, surveying the scene, he could not possibly have imagined what awaited him. It was a long war to get here, and OS is pretty scarred-up from some of the battles he had to fight.
But he wouldn't trade it for the world.
Thanks, Mr. Jefferson. God bless the United States of America.
OS hopes you take a moment to read it again.
Notice the clear use of language, and contrast it with our current culture's love of spin, of nuance, of deniability. Jefferson wrote eloquently, with the intent of conveying ideas with power and clarity. No spin here, friends and neighbors.
Also, observe the dual appeal to both Providence and Reason. Not either/or, but both. The French Revolution spurned Providence, and soon lost any sense of Reason. It disintegrated into a bloodbath, and ushered in Bonaparte, who bathed the world in suffering. Sans both Providence and Reason, any enterprise is doomed from the beginning.
Finally, these men had skin in the game. They knew signing that document was an act of treason against the Crown, and they knew that potentially meant the loss of all things--wealth, freedom, family, life itself. They signed anyway, big, clear signatures, to let the world clearly know who they were and what they were about.
OS's prayer on this July 4 is that we reclaim that clarity, that faith in both Providence and Reason, and the courage to live our lives with that sort of skin in the game.
July 4 is an anniversary of sorts for OS. The entire tale cannot be told, but on July 4, 1988, OS heard those words recited at a neighborhood celebration, and summoned the courage to make some large decisions about life. Sitting here now, surveying the scene, he could not possibly have imagined what awaited him. It was a long war to get here, and OS is pretty scarred-up from some of the battles he had to fight.
But he wouldn't trade it for the world.
Thanks, Mr. Jefferson. God bless the United States of America.
In Celebration Of July 4: Reagan's Inaugural Address 1981
No comment needed.
May God bless the United States of America.
May God bless the United States of America.
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