This horse is dead . . . oh, wait a minute . . .

I thought it was over.

To be sure, saying they "rolled over" is not the nicest way to describe NRO's editorial position, as expressed in their essay entitled "Born in the USA." The piece had a res judicata tone, and because of their stature among conservative thinkers and writers, NRO's pontifical pronouncements would presumably silence the less rabid of those who question the President's dual citizenship.

Freidman: 59 Is the New 30

"Baseball, basketball and football are played on flat surfaces designed to give true bounces. Golf is played on an uneven terrain designed to surprise. Good and bad bounces are built into the essence of the game. And the reason golf is so much like life is that the game — like life — is all about how you react to those good and bad bounces. Do you blame your caddy? Do you cheat? Do you throw your clubs? Or do you accept it all with dignity and grace and move on . . ."

A "Minor" Glitch?

Is foolish politics taking its toll? Is trouble lurking or is the MSM paying too much attention to fizzled out arguments from wack-jobs who won't shut up?

Guess who's having a birthday on August 4?

Listening to Car Tunes

We've talked before about staying in the flow, and I try. Bad as it may be on occasion, at least the effort and the search for the flow keeps me on the fringes of validating a claim that I am, at the very least, consistent.

Logical validity is a question of form. Certainly, it's poor form to say "I told you so," and an oblique reference to Greek mythology wasn't meant to be political commentary. I was talking about sports.

Yet, the synapses fire across the serotonin ocean, and combined with a touch of mystical subjectivity, smoky veils of truth waft heavenward, and we only share a perch on the cliffs of daily life, and wonder aloud, "HE SAID WHAT?" Stupidly.

Reason to the Rescue

Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie edit the Reason.com and Reason.tv websites. No surprise, because reasonable persons will differ, that I find myself sometimes sharing their editorial viewpoints, and other times arguing the opposite.

While MSM goliaths such as the Washington Post migrate to these plasma screen venues, they continue to report, consciously or otherwise, with all too easily identifiable tones of advocacy, and despite their claims of striving for objectivity, political reality has demonstrated time and again where and what kind of policies they truly favor. Whatever. Debating the role of the Fourth Estate is another topic for another post.

A Different Slant

For semi-retired web-watchers like me, who grind the daily battle against ennui, The Onion has served as a multi-layered pop pudding for sick and twisted minds, offering a brand of humor acquired over years of suffering fools gladly, endured by the prayers of anaesthetized enlightenment found in the alchemical corridors of tetrahydracannabinol, lysergic acid diethylamide, distilled spirits, and The 700 Club reruns.

Their recent sellout only manifests the disdain the paper's writers and editors hold for its readers:

"[J]ust imagining their pallid, toothless faces fills me with such colossal rage that at this very moment my nurse-maid is administering to me a near-lethal dose of laudanum just so I may find the composure to reach the end of this missive."

It's an un-subtle nudge about what they think is happening. Satire kills, so ask yourself, who, or what, indeed is the real target?

Here's a hint.

Gateway Drugs

"Don't expect grande wines or venti beers anytime soon at your local Starbucks. (SBUX)

But in a move to attract hard-to-find evening business, the struggling coffeehouse chain is about to test the addition of wine and beer to the menu at one of its Seattle stores."

Now THAT is my cup of tea.

Asian Chick Rocks Rush

This is so humbling. It makes me never want to play music (which I have since jr. high) ever again.

The machine is a Yamaha Electone. Watch the whole thing. It's a TOTAL jam for fans of our Canadian friends: Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee, and drumming holy man Neal Peart.

Bibliophilia

Why is this interesting to me? I don't know for sure. My online habituations are matters of mostly repeatable scripts and macros, scanning through favorite sources, getting the news that matters to me, and hopefully, finding quick answers to queries that arise from day to day living.

With Facebook, Tweeter, and other growing "social networks," we have grown to learn that virtual contact with other human beings who are likewise adept at manipulating 35 alphanumeric symbols (and assorted punctuation marks) is acceptable, and even entertaining part of this transitory mode.

Putting the "U. N." in unemployment

Rush Limbaugh meets Ross Perot. WTF?

Not everything here at WGS is political philosophy. Sometimes we'll just throw around numbers because, if nothing else, it validates those all-night cram sessions at the Keeney Street Apartments in La Mesa, CA, preparing to ace my senior level macroeconomics classes. (Transcripts available on request).

Actually, this representation of Unemployment as a percentage related to peak employment plotted against Time is meant to simplify, not complicate. Unfortunately, like Mark Twain said, there are "Lies, damned lies, and ... statistics."

I'll leave it with you dear enlightened Reader, to judge for yourself, interpret the findings, question scientific validity, and otherwise ponder the socio-political ramifications of what the chart says exists in the "real" world. It may be nothing at all.

My own caveats:

1. Original post is linked from TheBusinessInsider.com

2. It would have been nice to see the chart from 1913

3. The patterns suggest this isn't going to happen very soon.

4. Nobody really knows whether we will match the lows of 1948

How then should the self-employed, the shop owner, the sole proprietor, the small business person, or anyone else who accepts risk in order to avoid the serf-like conditions of the modern workplace respond? Never fear. Just ask a big, fat white guy:

"If you're smart and running a small business, your effort now is not to hire workers; it's to stay in business. And you're looking down the road and saying, "Okay, what happens to me and my business if cap and trade's passed? What happens to me if health care passes?" And, by evidence of what's happened the last nine months, you have to say things are going to get even worse because the government sector is going to get bigger, and to get bigger the government sector has to deplete the private sector. The government can't produce anything. It can print, but it can't produce anything. Not without the private sector working -- and that's being dwindled away." (Title link)

But wait, there's more. If you are still reading this post, (I'm impressed) then you likely will have heard that unemployment is only a "lagging" indicator, i.e., these numbers are the last thing to tell you about the state of the economy. How can a person be optimistic about business prospects when faced with such evidence? I think it stems from a world view that disdains empiricism. Pie-in-the-sky Obamanauts are the people who believe humans directly cause so-called "global warming," when faced with NO evidence of it. But I digress.

There's more to come. For now, I've quenched any lingering chart fetish.

© 2009 Roy Barin Santonil

Wedded Bliss

Don't ask me why the divorce rate in America is over 50%. I always love my wife's cooking! Wink, wink. 

The Associated Press
Thursday, Jul. 09, 2009

NAPLES, Fla. A southwest Florida woman was arrested after deputies said she assaulted her 71-year-old common-law husband after he complained about her cooking. A Lee County Sheriff's Office arrest report shows 66-year-old Meredith Hart Mulcahy was charged with battery on an elderly person Tuesday night.

Deputies said the man got into an argument with her about undercooked potatoes and burnt bread. He went to the bedroom and began eating, and authorities said the woman then threw a phone at him.

Deputies said Mulcahy became belligerent in the back seat of the patrol car and told them that she "burned the bread she was cooking because she was so intoxicated." She was in the Lee County Jail on Wednesday pending a $1,500 bond.

Governor Gossip

I'm a loser, baby.
So why don't you kill me?
--- Beck, "Loser" from the album Mellow Gold (1993).

Either I have a knack for jinxes, the CIA is monitoring my posts (making me paranoid), or my humble opinion is equivalent to a pundit's kiss of death.

Exhibit A (posted less than 4 months ago), shows how I was foolishly enough of a fool to fool with the foolish fool's pastime of political prediction. How foolish of me. How not inscrutable. Did I mention foolish? Whatever it says about politics, it's just plain embarrasing to be so naive about sex at my age. Stop snickering.

Exhibit B was an excercise in 20/200 hindsight (not good, by the way), still there is this annoying die-hard possibility that by sponsoring timely, bi-partisan legislation my ex-candidate may not be necessarily a TOTAL loser.

As for the title link, Mark Davis writes for the Dallas Morning News, and occasionally pinch-hits for Rush on the radio, so you KNOW he's a bigoted, racist homophobe, right?

The set-up:

"Talk about nerve. The very notion of leaving an elected office occupied for barely two years. Even if it is to run for president, that makes it even more peculiar in view of the candidate's lightweight résumé of political experience."

The punchline: He's not talking about Sarah Palin.

So who's next? Someone we've never heard of? Someone blessed by the Northeastern media? Another "creepy misfit?" Stay tuned!

© 2009 Roy Barin Santonil

Charles in Charge

The year is 1625. Do you know where your government is?

A charismatic young leader, supported by a coalition of intellectual elitists on the one hand and a dependent underclass on the other, has gained control of the country. With each month that passes, the leader and his court reveal themselves to be more hostile to the interests of the middle class. Vast new spending bills are introduced to fund an extension of government power. New taxes of all kinds, the extension of old taxes to cover a broader array of goods and services, the introduction of stealth taxes and special emergency levies, the borrowing of vast sums of money: all of these excesses deeply disturb the public, especially the middle class who are asked to bear all the burdens, even as the abuses are cheered on by an foolish elite and an acquiescent underclass.

Charles I of England is the king for whom my home state is named and who, according to Traditional Anglican Catholics, was martyred for the sake of Apostolic Succession.

Fallen Anti-Heroes?

Dr. Herb London is a Humanities professor at NYU, and author of works including Decade of Denial, where he examines American culture in the 1990's.

The link piece written at Human Events mentions, in passing, Michael Jackson, Daniel Boorstin, Bernie Madoff, Paris Hilton, Donald Trump, Sully Sullenberger, Richard Phillips, William Shakespeare, David Letterman, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Anniston, and, of course, The Oprah. Here is an excerpt wherein, I think, he leaves us with the open-ended declaration:

"At the moment, what we observe is confusion, a phantasmagoria of faces and names, here for minutes and gone, devoured by the impatient cultural beast. If some prefer real heroes, people with solid accomplishment, they are obliged to search beyond the popular media. But where does one go in a world that changes at the speed of light and thirsts for new celebrities each day? The answer is not immediately apparent."

Herb . . . we need more, buddy.

Happy Fourth of July, We the People!