You Know The Guy

He's your supervisor. The control freak bully who tells you about the big project coming up, then puts off every decision about the scope and goals of said project. He doesn't reply to your emails, goes on vacation and can't be reached when you need answers, and loads you down with trivia instead of helping you clear your desk for the heavy workload you know is coming.

And finally, when the phone book sized proposal finally drops on your desk - months after it was promised - he has the gall to tell you the deadline has been moved up and it must be completed next week.

You know you're being set up, and there is an epic disaster fast approaching. You know when the hammer falls, your leader will be smirking and pointing the finger at you, and the itching you're feeling between your shoulder blades marks the spot where the knife is going to be.

What you can't figure out is if he is too stupid to see what is going to happen, or a sadist sacrificing the greater good for the evil pleasure of seeing someone crushed, or a just lunatic who fantasizes you are an enemy to be destroyed and damn the consequences.

This foul pustule now has a name... Commander in Chief.

I didn't think is was possible to hold this wart on the nation's ass in greater contempt.

I was wrong.

I have been trying...

... for a long time to try and get a handle not on what leftists believe - that's not really a problem - they will tell you what they believe until you are ready to stick a soldering iron in your ears just so your screaming can drown out their ceaseless blathering. And not on why they believe what they do - spend time with any four year old, and you will understand an unshakable belief in Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the tooth Fairy is their default position. In fact, one could say the path to adulthood is is marked by the slow erosion of fantasy, and its replacement by something approaching reality.

No, what I have been unable to grasp is how an adult can cling, in the face of obvious and irrefutable evidence, to the utterly irrational leftist orthodoxy which prevails on every subject from economics to guns to global warming. It has always stumped me.

And then I found this...



It is not a perfect answer, but it does help with the problem of perspective - and that is a start.

Sometimes I Could Just Weep

Over the past year, I have been discovering a little bit how they must have felt during the Stalin era:

Every day you are confronted with stark evidence the country is falling apart around you, and every day, some apparatchik stands up and says, "Glorious news comrades. The wheat harvest is five times larger (larger than what, they never say), unemployment is non-existent, and all that is keeping us from achieving world-wide socialist revolution are a few filthy reactionary wreckers and hoarders!"

After a while, it's just too much effort to dig the accumulated bullshit out of your ears, and you stop fighting against the never ending tide of people who insist you can shine your shoes with fertilizer and the great plains are a perfect place for hydro-electric dams.

People like Michael Bennet (asshole-Colorado):

... Sen. Michael Bennet says it will take new investments in education, energy and small businesses for America to fully recover from its economic slump.

In a discussion Sunday with about 30 people from southwest Colorado, the Denver Democrat said the American economy is still too reliant on consumption

Yes, we have been wasteful - what with spending our money on ourselves, and you know... consuming things. Because an economy based on consumption does horrible consumptive things like pumping oil out of the ground and consuming it instead of leaving it in place to accumulate interest. And steel. Us horrible consumers have spent years turning it into cars and washing machines - melting those pristine ingots into stuff we are just going to use up. Oh the suffering this has caused for the steel producers - just when they get a pile of steel made, a bunch of grubby consumers show up, buy it from them and make things with it, and they have to start all over again. Why, its like some kind of scam.

We must dedicate ourselves anew to making nothing, using nothing, building nothing - just like our pioneer forefathers did when they didn't build this country. Only that way will we save enough to...

...to make this democracy deliver on these big ideas like the new energy ideas we're talking about—and how you base an economy that is not only based on consumption and spending but also savings and investment

Savings and investment are great because when you save and invest you aren't spending which is bad because that is another word for consuming. So that cash you were going to waste on groceries? Don't. Save or invest it - that way when you need it, you'll be dead. Which is a double-good thing because dead people don't consume stuff.

Michael Bennet must have an Ivy League degree. You can't get this kind of retarded from a State U. Let's just check Wikipedia for his C.V. shall we? He worked for Dick Celeste? As a proud Ohioan, all I can say is - Colorado, you are welcome to every bit of this tool.

I don't feel sick at all, so rest easy comrades, the last line of the article threatens he'll be back at work in the senate on January 19th.

Oh joy.

Easy There...

A lot of people seem to be upset that Barbar is soaking up the tropical sun while the nation collapses. But having worked in places where having the boss out of the office is considered something of a vacation for those left behind, let me be the first to say I'll donate a couple of bucks to keep the sonovabitch in Hawaii for the next three years.

Big Thought Saturday

Occasionally, one of the voices of importance will say in effect, "We are going to have to accept the fact of our own decline. We must accustom ourselves to returning to being just one nation of many. We couldn't expect to be on top forever."

Is the American era ending?

Beats me.

But I can imagine some Roman Bigwig around the middle of fourth century saying the same things about the empire.

He was right, as in his prophecy proved correct.

Paradoxically, the words he used were wrong.

He should have said, "Pretty soon here, people will be coming to kick in your door, take your stuff, and burn your house. And we won't be able to stop them."
I wonder if he had said that, would the Romans have been more motivated to stand up for the idea of Rome? Or, had the men kicking in doors and taking stuff been their own government officials so long, that the people didn't see much difference between the new plunderers and the old?

Oh, by the way did you see the news?

Enough of this sort of thing and sharia law might start looking good to someone who just wants a little peace and quiet.

What's In The Box?

Let's play a game called "What's in the box?" It works like this - imagine a box (duh... why do you think we named it that you big silly), inside is either: 1. A pile of gold coins; or 2. An angry venomous snake.

You play this game by reaching in and grabbing... wait for it... WHAT'S IN THE BOX. Amusing, no?

It's a good game for cutting through pretense and revealing what people are really like.

Some folks won't play no matter how much they stand to gain - the fear of being bitten outweighs any possible benefit.

Some will say, "Gold? I'm going to get me some of that!" shove their arm into the box, and start grabbing around.

Others, will balance the risks against the rewards: How much gold? What kind of snake? What are the odds, what are my chances? They may end up bitten, but at least are making a stab at critical thought.

Note the symmetry - two ends and a middle in a neat package. This represents the world we deal with. Motivations are, if not entirely rational, at least understandable.

But there is a type of person who does not reside on this continuum. They can watch you put a snake in the box, shake it up to get the critter good and irritated, and even write "Warning! Live Angry Poisonous Snake Inside!" and still they will reach in the box. They act as though they believe the snake will be turned to gold by the force of their will; that the world is what they say it is.

Admittedly, it seems to work out that way often enough that people will start believing it is true. Bernie Madoff appeared able to turn snakes into gold... for a time.

For the non-continuum people, I don't think it's a question of gain or loss, but of control. They must prove the universe conforms to them, and not the other way around. It's not about the gold; it's about the winning. All challenges are personal, and none are small. There is no difference between a coin flip for a dinner check and a world war.

They are Kieth Olbermann.

After watching this video, I was puzzled because I've been to a couple of tea parties, and from what I can tell, this is pretty much the identical group of people. There are Ayn Rand fans, Ron Paul Fans, Sarah Palin Fans, and a large contingent of "never protested anything in my life, but there is a trainwreck coming, and I want it stopped" fans. But if there were any racists present, they kept it well hidden. If you were to poll these people, you'd probably find they disagree on more issues than they agree on, but what they agree on outweighs minor quibbles about gay marriage, guns, and Iraq. What they agree on is stopping the trainwreck.

Over there on the continuum, the smart (at least smartish) members of the political class are watching and trying, bless their hearts, to figure out... What's In The Box. The democrats are hoping it's something that won't hurt them; the republicans are hoping it's something that will help them, and they're all hoping they aren't the one who gets pushed into the cellar with the candelabra and shovel to see what the noise is.

But Olbermann has decided the box is full of racists and hate mongers. Has to be - he has said so. By sheer force of will he's turned gold into snakes. He has a cable talk show, and the ear of The Ones Who Matter, and fans, and so on and on. The protesters are racists. Q.E.D.

Should you fall into one or the other of our broad political groups, you should be used to name calling (you commie, nazi, dimmocrat, republithug knuckle dragger). However, for those who are politically active for the first time, being reviled and, not always figuratively, spat upon, is probably a new experience. "Hi, I'm Kieth, and I'll be spitting on you this evening, we have a lovely little vitriol - a '72 I believe - goes with everything, and also some bile if you are in the mood. For dessert the chef his whipped up a little sneering condescension ."

Olbermann is not alone in turning gold into snakes. Similarly blessed are: the Washington Post, New York Times, the Speaker of the House, and the president along with his advisers.

In a democracy, a politician's future depends on finding and winning a constituency. And when one presents itself, giftwrapped in a box, a wise politician will at least make a pretense of listening to them. Hell, even an angry crowd is a crowd, and every politician needs crowd. Winning the crowd is how you stay in office - It's kind of expected.

Maybe, "win the crowd" means something different to non-continuum people. Maybe to them, it means, "In the next appropriations bill, we'll write an earmark for some bike path improvements, and a library." It is a time tested tactic for winning over even the crankiest voters. I'll bet Mr. and Mrs. Teaparty will go right home and shut up once they see the nifty new bike path they have been gifted. It really isn't a bad bet if you are the one doing the handing out. And has the added plus of letting you avoid mingling with, well frankly, the commoners.

The current crew in charge must figure, having once turned gold into snakes, the reverse is just as easy, and come next election, they are going to reach into that box and pull out handfuls of gold.

They think it's guaranteed.

About last night...

I haven't see this mentioned explicitly, but the next big fear for the Democrats is if things improve economically in Va. and N.J. - an alternative to their plans will have been shown to work.

Now, honesty compels me to admit the economy might improve on its own - the business cycle is hard to repress - even by our current ham-handed-dolts-in-charge.

But people being what they are - firmly convinced post hoc ergo propter hoc, the new governors in those states will get the credit anyway, and the dems know it.

They are trapped into wishing ill on the citizens of New Jersey and Virginia to advance their own (never let a good crisis go to waste) agenda.

Would a Chicago lawyer and product of the Cook County Democratic machine be so low as to try to sabotage any recovery in those states to punish them for voting wrong?

I'd like to think not. But people being what they are, it should be watched for nonetheless.

As I recall, no one believed a king would order the death of an archbishop.

Um... except for the guys who did the cutting -- I guess they believed it.

But that type of sycophantic follower never ends up near the seat of power anymore, because only kings and czars , not presidents, have any use for blindly obedient hatchet men.

Uh-huh.