"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
Author: David
Over-educated Curmudgeon, Bit-Bucket Tuner and Budding Brewmeister.
This HuffPo post is typical of the least offensive arguments Obamaniacs* muster against reasonable questioning of the least transparent presidency since Richard M. Nixon’s. Heck, The Zero is less open than Tricky Dicky was.
“We fully plan on hearing from birthers about why his authentic certificate still raises doubt. Here are some of our predictions of what lingering questions they will have about the birth certificate.”
Then follows this graphic full of ridiculous straw man assertions of “objections” those the HuffPo target demographic labels “birthers” will have to the newly-released document:
Typically appallingly dishonest argument from a HuffPo Obamaniac.
And, of course, the expected “objections” have no relation whatsoever to the few questions I’d likeanswered about the document, and, also of course, the HuffPo post ignores all the other issues with The Zero’s legitimacy.
*Since these people have consistently engaged in dishonest labeling of skeptics as “birthers” and worse–accusations of racism whenever folks question The Zero abound–I don’t feel that the rather mild “Obamaniac” descriptive is unwarranted.
And Woody has the perfect response to such disingenuous “straw man” arguments as the HuffPo presents:
So, rebooted after some Win7 updates on this Win7 compy. Didn’t really have to, but although I’ve not had the problems with Win7 requiring regular reboots that I’ve had with other Windows versions, I’ve generally made it a practice to reboot after updates whether it was required or not. Besides, it’d been quite a while since this computer had been booted and I wanted the lil script that automagically defrags my swap file and Registry Hives to run.
But, “non-system disk error” on reboot gave me a moment’s pause. Checked the optical drive. Nope. No unbootable optical disk there. “Hmmm, am I going to have to check the cables, run a rescue CD, what?”
Nah. I’d plugged a USB floppy drive in a couple of weeks ago to check some old floppies for usable data. Left one in. BIOS was looking there for a boot disk. Ejected the floppy and CTRL+ALT+DELed the thing. All’s well. Just another example of what can happen when I’m short a few cupsa coffee.
Update: OK, is this guy just jerking us around or what? Despite my attempts to take the “birth certificate” issued today by the White House as authentic, the thing just screams “Put up!” I finally downloaded the actual WH PDF and looked at it instead of the widely-disseminated cropped version in jpeg format. Here it is screen-capped and with one lil annotation by me:
Go ahead. Download the “official” White House pdf file. Look at the area I noted in the red ellipse. The info presented is apparently supposed to be reproduced as a photocopy (?) from a bound version of a document and then printed out on some security paper? Except… that lil area inside the ellipse doesn’t work too well in that regard, now does it?
And I’m still a bit concerned about the lack of some kind of embossed/imprinted seal as seems to have been the practice, at least at one time, for Hawaiian birth certificates.
And, what’s this business from the WH about having to get a special exemption to get a copy of the birth certificate? The official State of Hawaii site handling such things says,
“Vital records (birth, death, marriage, and divorce certificates) for events that occurred in Hawaii are received and preserved by the Office of Health Status Monitoring, a unit of the Department of Health (DOH). In Hawaii, access to vital records is restricted by statute (HRS §338-18).
“Certified copies of these records may be issued to authorized individuals and used for such diverse purposes as school entry, passports, Social Security participation, driver’s licenses, employment, sports participation, survivor’s benefits, proof of property rights, and other needs.
“This is only an ordering system for certified copies of vital records. The certified copies being ordered WILL NOT be issued online as a part of your transaction. You will receive the ordered certified copies via first-class postal mail within 4-6 weeks…
“…You may order certified copies only of your own birth and marriage certificates or of an immediate family member (e.g., a parent of his/her child’s birth or marriage certificate) on this web site…”
No “special exemptions” required. No waiting three years. CERTIFIED copies available through the mail in 4-6 weeks. And the cost is only $11.50 ($10.00 for the first copy of a document and $1.50 “electronic processing”), not a couple of million dollars (as The Zero and his minions have made it by fighting to delay producing a birth certificate).
Why the lie about needing a “special exemption”? What’s with the weird look? And why do all this so clumsily and “reluctantly”?
Misdirection? Distraction? What is it The Zero and his handlers do not want folks thinking about?
Now, the red herring is in the open. After nearly three years and a couple of million dollars in legal maneuvering to avoid producing a long form B.C., The Zero has finally released an apparently legitimate document showing he was born in Hawaii… as a British citizen, under the laws in effect at the time. *heh*
Now, let’s see the passport Barry Soetoro used to travel to Pakistan in 1981 and the documentation of his time at Occidental College.
Do go ahead and read the post, if you will, but first, here’s yet another update:
ignorantia elenchi, loosely “irrelevant conclusion”. It’s irrelevant that The Zero was born in the U.S. to an 18-year-old American woman since his father was a British citizen and British law at the time conferred citizenship on ANYONE born of a British father, no matter where born or under what circumstances, making Barry’s “native born (American) citizenship” null and void. Dual citizenship does not seem to meet the “native born” qualification. And then there’s the “Barry Soetoro” issue, where he was listed as an Indonesian by his adoptive father in school records and possibly attended Occidental as a foreign student. Let’s get those records out too, Barry, ‘K?
Not that they really matter, as we now know he was born a British citizen anyway, now that we have an apparently legitimate document verifying his father as Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a British citizen.
*heh*
Of course, all the usual suspects will look at the document purporting to be a full and complete record and ignore what it really shows or argue that it doesn’t really matter that he was born with dual citizenship, instead of the kind of citizenship that “native born” has meant in the past and meant when he was born.
But, it is a moderate “win” that he and his minions wasted so many millions to delay producing an apparently legitimate document (that still doesn’t have the quality or quantity of information my lil ole B.C. has… or even The Donald’s hospital B.C., let alone the photostat of his official B.C., though that could just be an artifact of crappy record keeping in Hawaii) to prove… that he is apparently not a “native born” citizen. *heh*
Of course, if The Zero were to start actinglike an American–showing appreciation for and an emulation of distinctly American values instead of showing such contempt for the US and acting in all ways to undermine the country–then the matter wouldn’t matter so very much at all.
I said, above, “apparently legitimate” indicating I had some small doubts. If I had a better graphic to work from those might be assuaged somewhat. Here’s what I mean:
Here’s the problem. If you “embiggen” the photo of the 1963 vintage Hawaiian long form (the closest I’ve been able to find so far), and look in the upper right hand quadrant, you’ll see something I’ve seen on every other B.C. I’ve viewed from various states, in one form or another: an impressed/embossed seal. It’s faint, but quite easily seen. Now, study the graphic released of The Zero’s apparently authentic B.C. Can you find the seal I’ve missed? Yeh, yeh, the released graphic has a rubber-stamped “signature” but that’s it. Where’s the embossed seal?
Again, I am NOT saying the released graphic is somehow faked up. I would wonder about the standards of record keeping in Hawaii if this is an example.
Microwave pressure cooker
1.5 cups pinto beans
3 cups water (or a wee tad more)
dehydrated garlic chips and
onion powder (or flakes) to taste
~20 minutes on high
Nicely cooked pot of beans. Could’ve added some bacon or a ham hock if I’d had it handy, but this is good. (Maybe next time I’ll add some “white” pepper… )
*sigh* The lil microwave pressure cooker that I picked up several years ago for $3 at a flea market is starting to show some wear around the ring where the gasket is installed. Still works, but I can see having to replace it down the road, so I went looking for it. Exact match: ~$52 at Amazon. *gag* I just have to find it for less. Oh, it’s worth the price and can afford it, but… nah, I’m just too much of a tightwad to pay that for one. (Update: OK, have found it for $45. That’s 25% less than the manufacturer–Nordic Ware–sells it for, direct, but I’d still rather find it for less… *heh*)
First two pics from a town ~12 miles south-southwest [of twc central–ed.]. Keep in mind that the clearance between the river and the bridge is usually 15′ or more. One of four ways into town, and two others are flooded out as well. So, that’s one town in the county where most of the kids can’t get to the schools… IF they can get out to go, as pics further down illustrate. Fortunately, given the river’s use for recreation, there are a lot of boats in the area:
Oh, and do keep in mind that the routes in as far as these pics were taken are also still flooded in several places. Pics below are of a road washed out nowhere near low land areas, in fact in an area elevated above one of those other accesses to the same town that’s closed due to flooding. The dirt/gravel road, one of many here in America’s Third World County, is THE access to a group of about 30 homes on a rise above a (very minor) state highway:
Most of the folks in the county do NOT live in the towns but out, mostly away off paved roads. ANY place with “Hollow” (e.g., Thief Hollow) or “Creek” (e.g., Buffalo Creek) in its name is sure to feature several washouts or flooded areas similar to those pictured above. Most of the photos I have access to (lots more than these) are from school bus drivers attempting their routes in 4X4s.
I’ve driven most of the county over the years–it’s a great “mini-vacation” to explore a new-to-me area on a weekend afternoon, for example–and there are more than a few areas that I know folks are breaking out the emergency generators and feelin’ pretty good about the root cellar being well-stocked, because, 4X4 or not, they are NOT getting out for a while.
While chasing down the rabbit trail that comprises my mental processes, this wild hare jumped out at me.
1. Term limits for politicians: two terms at any one political office, then they must leave and work at a minimum wage job at manual labor, with NO OTHER RESOURCES allowed for a period equal to whatever public office terms they have served, with NO money r benefits or perquisites whatsoever (including welfare or tax refunds or whatever) from ANY government source or any source dealing with any aspect of their former office. This would perhaps tend to focus their attention while in office a bit closer on the effects their policies have on common folk.
2. Every seven years, anyone in so-called “Civil Service” would be required to take two years off under similar circumstances.
3. ALL Civil Service employees and elective offices to have their retirements limited to EXACTLY whatever common folks might have–Social Security and retirement plans individuals have actually paid their own money into.
4. Health care? Whatever they can pay for themselves, either in cash or via self-funded health insurance.
5. Military gets a bye. There’s not a politician or Civil Service employee that’s worth the lowest, faithful grunt. No, not one. Period. Full stop. End of story. Some may be worthwhile, but until they volunteer to literally lay down their lives to defend the Constitution and their fellow citizens, politicians and Civil Service employees aren’t worthy to carry the slop bucket of the lowest-ranking, faithfully serving enlisted man.
There were some very, very sound reasons the Founders designed the Constitution to define a timocratic republic, and very,very sound reasons they eschewed mob rule (democracy).
And there are some very, very shrewd–and really stupid–reasons why our political masters have sold the sheeple a bill of goods concerning democracy.
Chew on those two thoughts for a while and get back to me, ‘K?
From around Elk River, here in America’s Third World County:
About 6 miles south-southeast of twc central.
Now, I’ve canoed under that bridge with the river at normal levels, and the underside was ~20′ overhead. Water’s sure stacking up downstream as the water’s fed into the river upstream at a continuous pace of “pretty darned fast”.
BTW, there’s a pretty good drop off from where you can see that lil stand of electric poles and transformers on down to the usual river bed and a pretty good lil stretch of bottom land there. The pic was taken from a side road that MODOT has now listed as closed.
Luckily, our lil “crick” about 300′ back of twc central isn’t really rising nearly as fast or as much as the creek further downstream that it’s feeding (and which itself feeds,way on down, into Elk River), but if things keep going, we might just see some water approach our back door. Hope not. Be a mess to clean up.
Just barely south of where Lovely Daughter lives, in Benton County, AR, this roadside park just east of Highway 71:
You can’t tell from the pic, but the water’s flowing pretty strongly through there.
Here’re some shots from a town about 12 miles south-southwest of twc central. The first features a two-story building on a campground on a slight rise from Elk River. The second is a little later and of the highway from which the roof of the building in the first photo can be looked directly across to:
…and by better folks than I–and said better, to boot–but it bears repeating: Governments exist to pay* government employees**. Period. All the rest is just fiddly bits.
*The “pay” for some is primarily in an ability to exercise illegitimate power over the lives of citizens, hence millionaires running for Congress. Their congressional pay and benefits may be minuscule compared with their already existent wealth; it’s the perquisites, honorifics and exercise of personal power that appeals to all too many of these scum.
**Note that I did NOT say “government workers” as such a class is relatively small in any government. In our fedgov, for example, line troops and much of the support staff in the military are workers. Staff pukes are quite often a drain on whatever military mission exists. Congresscritters and their staffs are fegov employees, all, and almost all of them are worthless as workers whose efforts actually benefit the country as a whole. Indeed, were they to continue to be paid with the requirement that they do absolutely NOTHING, the benefit to society would be immense.
My Wonder Woman has the day off today (and maybe tomorrow, given the flooding here in America’s Third World County) and has spent it mostly on getting ahead in a grad class. Still, she took a break a bit ago, and flipped through channels to see if there was anything worth watching on daytime TV. No luck, but while she was flipping through, she paused briefly on an infomercial about some flootzy brand of hair care products. All I heard was the B-rank celeb proclaiming that the “creator”/marketer of the stuff is,
“[P]assionate about giving everyone beautiful hair…”
