Category: Dumbasses

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Skeptical Thought for the Weekend

Some might consider the following quote to be an example not of skepticism but of cynicism, but the differences between the two outlooks cannot be more profoundly illustrated. The cynic will habitually believe ill of whatever object or subject he regards. The skeptic will withold judgement until the weight of evidence is convincing one way or another.

I submit that the author of the following had enough evidence by the time he said such a thing to have arrived at a thoughtful assessment. I’m about the same age as he was when he said it, I believe, and I have, after much kicking and screaming and weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, been dragged forcefully by facts to believe the same:

“As Democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”–H.L. Mencken, 1880-1956

I submit for your consideration the current crop of presidential candidates. “Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right… ”

Who’d-a thunk it? Steeler Wheel as the prophets of doom?

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Right Truth, Leaning Straight Up, The Amboy Times, Cao’s Blog, Democrat=Socialist, Adeline and Hazel, Faultline USA, McCain Blogs, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, Wolf Pangloss, Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe

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Vital Signs

Some signs that the electorate is too stupid for the job it has:

Sitcoms. Slick cons making money off shows so stupid they have to have laugh tracks to tell the idiots who watch them when they’re “funny”. And those same idiots can vote.

Nightly “News” programs. People still watch these transparent propaganda things? Yes, they do. In a sane society, those who watch nightly “news” programs from the Mass Media Podpeople’s Hivemind would have their ballots sent straight to the crapper.

Contemporary so-called “music” and other entertainment. Heck, just the fact that the new Indiana Jones movie is blockbuster news (even I, avoiding TV bubblehad “news” like the plague, haven’t been able to escape the blitz) is enough to convince a sane person that our society has gone round the bend.

Congress. That this organ is filled with liars, poltroons, idiots, scumbags and creeps is evidence that the electorate is too stupid or corrupt (or both) to do its job properly.

Examples abound: our society is full to the brim with “people” (maybe they’re just minor podpeople performing the scut work for the Mass Media Podpeople’s Hivemind, who knows?) who are dumber than a bag of hammers… and still get to vote.

We are doomed. Doomed, I say.

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Losing Civilization

In all the meaningless babble from Obama and tear-jerking from those jerks, the Klintoons, one thing stands out: facts, reason and indeed rationality itself have no place in the methods of leftist statists. (For that matter, they have almost as small a place in the methods of right wing statists, but that’s another problem that, though similar, needs to be addressed separately.)

All this emotional manipulation recalls to mind a brief passage from Wolf Time by Lars Walker

Get them to make small compromises, one at a time. Never use reason. Use feelings, for feelings are the only truth of the soul. There are just two kinds of people, you know — idea people and feeling people. It’s the idea people who’ve gotten the world into the mess it’s in. So if they try to pin you down with logic, don’t be ashamed to resort to the weapons of the heart. Like tears. Most people… would rather surrender any principle than cause a scene.

That’s the “logic” that dominates those who want to rule by blinding the electorate… or by simply using the already existing willful blindness of the sheeple who predominate in the electorate. *sigh*

It doesn’t help to point out that the emperor has no clothes on if all the emperor has to do to “win” the encounter is to call down the wrath of the people for making so hurtful an accusation (with appropriate tears and whinings about being victimized by so rude an observation).

Or better yet, have others point out how rude it is to note the emperor’s nudity, as in the case of Barry Hussein Obama-Winfrey supporters claiming racism whenever anyone asks probing questions of fact of Barry Hussein Obama-Winfrey or “shock!* happens to mention his middle name. (Why? Isn’t it his name? Oh, that’s right. Reality doesn’t matter, just reality-based fantasy.)

The end result of abandoning reason to emotional blackmail is barbarism… or worse. At least barbarians have to learn to deal with cold harsh realities.

I suppose now I should address the same kinds of behavior in Repugnican’t politicians *spit*, but my mind’s feeling dirty right now just thinking about the obscenity of the Left.

Another brief passage from Wolf Time before twc fades to black for today…

Some time back the courts, understanding the nature of the times we live in, accepted the establishment of a new class of law — the Hate Crime. This was their first official recognition that there are some ideas that simply cannot be tolerated in a free society; that it is our right and duty to root out certain kinds of thought.

Ah, yes. When thoughts become criminal, only criminals will think…

*sigh*

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Tommy

Rudyard Kipling’s “Tommy” seems a timely comment on the Marines/Berkeley brouhaha, especially given the Code Pink pleas for help from Marines when they felt threatened by a passing motorist…

“While we were at the protest in Berkeley from 12 to 4 PM a white volvo drove by and a man spat upon code pink. They chased him down the street and got into a verbal altercation. The police were NO WHERE in sight. That’s not the best part, ready for this? Medea Benjamin yelled and I quote “Marines!” she actually yelled for our help because this man had stepped out of his car. Lol. I even asked her if she was yelling Police and she told me “I said Marines” then put her arm around my friend Allen (the Marine vet) Ironic?

An old story. Kipling’s commentary on the same sort of behavior is telling: unappreciative civilians disrespecting those who serve in the military are nothing new. The tag line is remarkably reminiscent of a Roman Centurion a couple of millennia back… (see “More”)

Tommy

I went into a public-‘ouse to get a pint o’beer,
The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no red-coats here.”
The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I:

O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”;
But it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins,” when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it’s “Thank you, Mr. Atkins,” when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but ‘adn’t none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-‘alls,
But when it comes to fightin’, Lord! they’ll shove me in the stalls!

For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, wait outside”;
But it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide,
The troopship’s on the tide, my boys, the troopship’s on the tide,
O it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide.

Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re starvation cheap;
An’ hustlin’ drunken soldiers when they’re goin’ large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin’ in full kit.

Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy how’s yer soul?”
But it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll.

We aren’t no thin red ‘eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints:
Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints;

While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, fall be’ind,”
But it’s “Please to walk in front, sir,” when there’s trouble in the wind,
There’s trouble in the wind, my boys, there’s trouble in the wind,
O it’s “Please to walk in front, sir,” when there’s trouble in the wind.

You talk o’ better food for us, an’ schools, an’ fires an’ all:
We’ll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don’t mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier-man’s disgrace.

For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country,” when the guns begin to shoot;
An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
But Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool – you bet that Tommy sees!

Continue reading “Tommy”

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DUI… sorta

Driving under the influence… of cough syrup and the Founders.

Made for an interesting mini-confrontation with a cop who had NO idea what the First Amendment guarantees. (Hint: criticizing government, government officials, petty bureaucrats, etc., is specifically the point of “Free Speech”.)

Apparently, when I went out for an errand last night, while my headlights and all other normal nighttime safety freatures were working, my tail lights were not.

Stopped. Fine. Appreciated the information (no tail lights at night can tempt some idiot driving beyond HIS headlights to run up my butt). Told ’em so, warmly.

Apparently, though, two heavily-armed LEOs felt “threatened” when I offered to check my tail lights to see if there were a loose primary and to check my fuse box (under the hood). Oooo! He wants to Get Out Of The Car!

For THEIR “safety” (remember: two armed officers, one Olde Pharte) I was “instructed” (with a grab and push on my door) to stay inside.

Told the one with his own ZIP code he was acting like a portion of his anatomy he beggared a third world country to cover and… he threatened to cite me for “interfering with a police officer in the course of his duty.”

“Why, officer?”

“Because you called me a _______.”

“Liar. I did no such thing and I’ll demonstrate it.” (Quoted back to him my exact words which did no such thing. Of course, I did specifically say he was acting that way.) He huffed off. Came back. Told me to go ahead and check my tail lights if I wanted to. I demurred with, “No thank you officer. I don’t want you to feel threatened.”

Partner came back and told me no ticket, just get ’em fixed. Offered to hold a light for me while I checked in back. Again, I demurred. Armed thugs (OK, maybe only one was) LEOs behind me in the dark. Right. I like that option.

I know there are police officers who aren’t full of themselves to the point that being criticized for acting like an ass doesn’t set them off, but frankly, I think the profession draws way, way too many petty tyrants who are too full of themselves for any good. Sure, maybe the cough syrup loosened my tongue a tad, but that makes not one single solitary difference: playing the petty tyrant card to attempt shutting me up when he didn’t like what I observed and opined about his behavior revealed that cop as an ass.

Not just acting like one.

Sam Adams woulda shoved him on his big fat Pillsbury Doughboy.

And Jefferson and the other guys woulda held Sam’s coat.

Me? I just refused to take his B.S.

mini-micro-update: was a bad tail light blowing a fuse. Not burned out tail light: base was loose causing increased impedence.

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NASA/USAF Poo the Scrooch

*heh*

USAF/NASA Red Tape Cancels Launch of Model Rockets

“The planned launch of 50 Juno I model rockets from Cape Canaveral to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Explorer I launch has now been cancelled by the station’s wing commander. Although the CCAFS has no qua[l]ms about launching Deltas, Atlas and other massive rockets, they go into a complete tither when it comes down to launching a 12 inch long model rocket made of balsa wood and paper weighing just under 2 oz…

“…Thus, all over America on January 31, 2008 school kids and adults will celebrate the the day that the US Army launched Explorer I into space by launching model rockets. In spite of the winter conditions, the launches will take place in parks and school yards and back yards all over the United States- every place EXCEPT for Cape Canaveral.

“In 1958, the US Army restored the nation’s pride following Sputnik, but it seems that in 2008, the Air Force and NASA cannot even get out of their own red taped way to launch a simple rocket made of balsa wood and paper.”

A bit more at the link.

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“Mugger” Pledges: Will Give Money Back

…just not all of it and not exactly to the people it was taken from.

Yep, the Congress is promising an approximately $150B bill to return a portion of what it has ripped from productive citizens’ pockets, just not necessarily to those it took the money from (the aforesaid productive citizens), of course.

So, if the train stays on the track, expect perhaps as much as $600 per person in “beer money” to be distributed in a purely socialist fashion sometime this summer.

*pfui*

Big stinking deal. We’d be better off were that amount of “mugged” funds spent in a WPA-like investment in energy infrastructure: nuclear plants (MIT has placed the plans for a modular pebble bed reactor in the public domain–set up an assembly line and tell the Saudis and Chavezes of the world to go suck a sour lemon); new, more efficient, oil refineries; biomass to oil or methanol plants, etc.; conversion of railroads to electicity (with enough PBRs, that’d be a real step toward energy independence).

All that could be funded out of congresscritters favorite pork, without raising a dime of taxes. HEck, use ONLY pork and we could probably start paying down the national debt, too…

With the $100+/barrel oil now being held over our heads dealt with, other steps to really help the economy in substantive ways”

1. Abolish the IRS/16th Amendment in favor of the FairTax
2. Institute a 10% across-the-board import duty on ALL imports, no exceptions.

Those two things alone would make American products much, much more competitive in the international markets and start rebuilding America’s manufacturing capabilities, providing even more jobs, over and above the “jobs” (government funded jobs are parasitic on the economy–OK, a few offer some symbiotic benefits) that building new energy infrastructure would provide.

And it’s jobs, not government handbacks (or handouts, for those who didn’t pay in) that would be the real economic stimulus we need.

Of course, expecting something sensible from Congress is like expecting fairy dust to make pigs fly. First, you have to find the fairy dust (No, you can’t get any from homosexual activists. They don’t even pollinate). Then you have to catch the pig. Then you have to get clearance from the FAA to conduct fairy dust-flying pig experiments, an environmental impact assessment from the EPA, an OSHA evaluation of risks to the flight crew, etc., and an ASPCA/PETA signoff on the plan…

Come to think of it, that sounds a lot easier and more likely to happen than Congress growing some brains and then finding the balls to actually do the right thing.

BTW, I blame Rosemary for getting my crank turning on this topic. 🙂 She talked about the Fed cut, its possible effect on the housing market, and pressure on congresscritters to bail out irresponsible home “buyers” (who really, for the most part, just went into more debt than they could afford to “buy” a house they hadn’t earned and couldn’t afford to maintain).

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, The Virtuous Republic, Shadowscope, Leaning Straight Up, Big Dog’s Weblog, Cao’s Blog, A Newt One- The Truth Surge, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Woman Honor Thyself, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, Wolf Pangloss, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, CORSARI D’ITALIA, and Dumb Ox Daily News, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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Sheeple Without a Shepherd

Call this an editorial, an opinion piece with a twist: I leave Mike Huckabee twisting in the wind of his own bloviation, as recorded in the YouTube piece below. “Mike Huckabee for Dogcatcher: the stray dog packs’ best friend!”

Well, the Republican’t sheeple of Iowa have adequately demonstrated that they are either

  1. too stupid to be out without a keeper (or, alternatively, as an old cowpoke I once knew was wont to say, too dumb to pour piss from a boot)

    2. or

  2. fully on board with the move to surrender U.S. sovereignty at the behest of The Governor from Tyson Foods

Personally, I’m going for the (kinder, gentler, more) charitable interpretation: dumber than a bag of hammers. (On that note, I will say I had a conversation with an elderly gentleman just last night who was really sold out for The Governor from Tyson Foods… until I played the following Youtube video for him… )

Trackposted to Nuke’s, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Right Truth, The World According to Carl, Shadowscope, Blue Star Chronicles, Celebrity Smack, Big Dog’s Weblog, Cao’s Blog, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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Hosting Woes

Note: the post below is replete with opinion based on a year’s suffering through with Fatcow (sucks dead bunnies through a straw). Be warned.

Napolean is reported to have said,

Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity.

By this time, there is some small degree of doubt on my part that stupidity alone can account for all the misbehavior of my former hosting company, Fatcow (sucks dead bunnies through a straw). After all, I canceled the account last month and was assured (“assured” by a Fatcow representative–now there’s a laugh!) that I would not be charged by Fatcow for any further service.

I shoulda known.

Sure enough, a charge showed up yesterday on my bank account. From Fatcow. Wonder of wonders, it at least reflected ONE of the two offers of three free months’ service (not quite 1/3 and a little more than 1/4 of an annual charge had been deducted from my account–IOW, not anything like an honest 3 months’ service, let along the SIX monts’ service Fatcow–sucks dead bunnies through a straw–people had CLAIMED they were crediting my account with. Oh, and yes, the account charged is a debit account. Philosophical reasons. Just ask sometime.) But… if they were going to steal from me–and they were stealing from me–why deduct ONE of TWO offers for free service?

Idiots? Diabolical? Diabolical idiots? I’m going with door number three.

So, I called Fatcow (sucks dead bunnies through a straw) to discover what tales the people there would spin (surely you do not think I would expect anything approaching honesty or accountability!).

It’s all my fault, I discovered. Of course. I canceled at the wrong time. Why, I should have known that they’d be swamped in December and allowed for the inevitable failure of the cancellation to wend its way through to actually being effected! Shame on me for expecting that the poor, beleagered minions of Satan at Fatcow would have the time or inclination to actually DO THEIR JOB any time in December! No! Impossible! What in the world was I thinking?!? Why, as much expect honesty from a politician *spit* or news from a Mass Media Podperson!

But wait! There’s more! Not only that, but Fatcow has also supposedly issued a refund for the theft!

“Gimme your money!”

Days (or weeks or months) later, “Here’s your money back. I’ve used it in the meantime, but you have it back, now dontcha?”

Except… I don’t have my money. They stole theirs (with a canceled authorization) some days ago, but the return they say was effected… isn’t in my hands.

Question: If someone steals money from me and then shrugs me off with a callous, “The check’s in the mail,” type answer, what am I to think?

Riiiiight. As I said, “I don’t care what your records show. Your records have lied–or Fatcow reps have lied–repeatedly to me in the past. Give me my money.”

Pushed that last one hard enough I at least got someone to say (do you think I can believe them? Me neither) that Fatcow’s legal department would give me a call.

Now, that’s a call I welcome. What could be more fun than talking to the lawyers of the most disgusting, incompetent, dishonest business I have ever done business with?

Just waiting for the state attorney general’s office to open so I can lodge a complaint for fraud, theft, whatever I can.

Fatcow sucks dead bunnies through a straw.

Methinks a comment that differs to no small degree from the opening quote could well apply to all the lies, distortions, incompetence and outright idiocy I have experienced at the hands of Fatcow (sucks dead bunnies through a straw). At least some of the “I’ve followed policy and helped you all I can” B.S. I’ve had to put up with, now even past when I had severed all ties with Fatcow (sucks dead bunnies through a straw):

When a stupid man does something he knows is wrong, he always claims it is his duty.–G.B. Shaw

Update: Well, Fatcow (sucks dead bunnies through a straw) did finally come through with the refund. Finally. Doofuses.

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Trackposted to Nuke’s, Outside the Beltway, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Allie is Wired, Woman Honor Thyself, Shadowscope, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Big Dog’s Weblog, Wolf Pangloss, and Conservative Cat, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.