The first bird’s just a little classier and actually began as one of the “good guys”.
The economy, in one metric
When I bought my first car, with money earned from my first “real” job, I could purchase more than five gallons of gasoline with the proceeds of one hour’s minimum wage (not counting, of course the loss to taxes) .
In January of 2009, one hour of minimum wage could purchase a little over four gallons–a reduction in purchasing power of about 20%.
Now, one hour of minimum wage earnings can purchase–if one is fortunate to be in an “average gasoline cost” area–a little less than 2 gallons, or more than a 50% loss in the minimum wage earner’s dollar value, more than doubling the cost for many low-income workers to simply get to and from their work, such as it is. If they can find a job.
That’s one metric, but an important one. Any time ANYONE tries to defend The Zero, simply point out how his own administration’s policies in making it even harder for refineries to be built or even have access to plenty of feed stock (killing the pipeline from Canada to the Anadarko, OK refinery, for example), blocking American drilling in the Gulf of Mexico while sending YOUR tax dollars (and plenty of borrowed money, too) to Brazil to AID Brazil’s development of Gulf oil, and on and on and on have exacerbated fuel availability and costs, while allowing the Fed to engage in wholesale devaluing of the dollar by printing fiat money hand over fist have impacted everyone, but especially lower income people.
He and his ilk are uncaring, self-absorbed jerks at best, but I’ll not say what I really think.
Of course, diesel is much higher than gasoline, and diesel is a primary fuel for transport of, well, darned near everything, including food–another necessity that low income folks know is beating them up on prices.
Now, consider that the jackasses who manufacture the Consumer Price Index don’t think such costs as fuel and food should be included in figuring costs, because, well, they’re “gummint ‘workers'” and know they’ll be just fine, so they DGARA about real people. (Did I just imply that “gummint ‘workers'” aren’t “real people”? Yep. Most of ’em aren’t, IMO.)
Oh, well. <rant /off>
On NOT Slandering the “Prophet” of Islam
(Just don’t do it. Nope. Don’t.)
During his UN speech when he once again asserted a causative link between a Youtube video and the murder of four Americans, The Zero uttered these infamous words,
The good thing about this is that one can point out that, according to Islam’s OWN so-called “holy” texts, their (mythical? Some serious scholars say so. *shrugs* Who knows… or cares?) “prophet” was a mass murderer, rapist, pedophile, liar, oath-breaker, torturer, slaver, and thief. And not only was he all those things, but he commanded his followers to emulate those behaviors.
Facts.
So, it’d be really, really hard to slander Mohamed, the Butcher of Medina, unless one were to say he was the offspring of a rabid dog raping a syphilitic sow.
(Do notice the subjunctive mood indicating that I did NOT say Mohamed was the offspring of a rabid dog raping a syphilitic sow, because the subjunctive mood construction indicates the citation of an event that did not occur–that NON-event being the uttering of a claim that Mohamed was the offspring of a rabid dog raping a syphilitic sow–a claim I did not make. Of course, if someone were to bring DNA evidence forward… )
About The Zero’s Energy Claims, Part 1
Pure B.S., of course.
The Zero Lies, Naturally
(Yes, I did mean that post title to be amphibolous.)
Because it is his nature. Print out this lil chart for when you run into folks parroting his and his minions’ lies about how much better “his” so-called “economic recovery” has been than the Reagan recovery. Between this lil chart and the one in the previous post, you can at least determine whether your interlocutor is honest or not by how they respond.
Nuking the Spin with One Chart
A List of The Zero’s Historic “Firsts”
From, A PRINTABLE CHEAT SHEET: A simple one-pager you can give to any undecided voter you know
- • First President to Violate the War Powers Act (Unilaterally Executing American Military Operations in Libya Without Informing Congress In the Required Time Period – Source: Huffington Post)
• First President to Triple the Number of Warrantless Wiretaps of U.S. Citizens (Source: ACLU)
• First President to Sign into Law a Bill That Permits the Government to “Hold Anyone Suspected of Being Associated With Terrorism Indefinitely, Without Any Form of Due Process. No Indictment. No Judge or Jury. No Evidence. No Trial. Just an Indefinite Jail Sentence” (NDAA Bill – Source: Business Insider)
• First President to Have His Attorney General Held in Criminal Contempt of Congress For His Efforts to Cover Up Operation Fast and Furious, That Killed Over 300 Individuals (Source: Politico)
• First President to claim Executive Privilege to shield a sitting Attorney General from a Contempt of Congress finding for perjury and withholding evidence from lawful subpoenas (Source: Business Insider)
• First President to Issue Unlawful “Recess-Appointments” Over a Long Weekend — While the U.S. Senate Remained in Session (against the advice of his own Justice Department – Source: Heritage Foundation)
• First President to Fire an Inspector General of Americorps for Catching One of His Friends in a Corruption Case (Source: Gawker)
• First President to “Order a Secret Amnesty Program that Stopped the Deportations of Illegal Immigrants Across the U.S., Including Those With Criminal Convictions” (Source: DHS documents uncovered by Judicial Watch)
• First President to Sue States for Enforcing Voter ID Requirements, Which Were Previously Ruled Legal by the U.S. Supreme Court (Source: CNN)
• First President to publicly announce an enemies list (consisting of his opponents campaign contributors; and to use the instrumentalities of government to punish those on the list – Source: Heritage Foundation)
• First President to Attempt to Block Legally-Required 60-Day Layoff Notices by Government Contractors Due to His Own Cuts to Defense Spending — Because The Notices Would Occur Before the Election.
(Source: National Journal)
• First President to Propose an Executive Order Demanding Companies Disclose Their Political Contributions to Bid on Government Contracts (Source:Wall Street Journal)
• First President to send 80 percent of a $16 billion program (green energy) to his campaign bundlers and contributors, leaving only 20% to those who did not contribute. (Source: Washington Examiner)
See more at http://tinyurl.com/obamafirsts
“The Obama Confession”
I’m not a major fan of those who consult the entrails of goats, read tea leaves and listen to the voices in other people’s heads (primitive village shamans and modern p-sychs alike), but the most perceptive among them do notice interesting things about people, even if they then feel compelled to construct fantastic mythologies to explain their gut-level observations. One contemporary village shaman who, despite his mythology constructed to explain his insights, does seem to at least have some valid insights is Andrew G. Hodges. His latest book, The Obama Confession: Secret Fear. Secret Fury, is a good example, IMO… especially since it agrees with my own gut level observations and reactions to The Zero. A brief sample from the beginning of the book, taking off from where the author recalls an incident in his residency where a young leukemia patient had died:
…Reassuringly as possible, I told the parents, “Johnny passed away about 30 minutes ago. I know you’ve been through a lot, but now his suffering is over and he’s in a better place.” Seemingly undaunted by the news, the mother asked me if I would give Johnny something for his cough. I wondered if the words “passed away” had simply gone over her head. So I gently repeated myself, “I’m sorry, but Johnny just died thirty minutes ago.” Without the slightest pause, the mother now urgently replied, “But doctor, are you going to give him something for his cough?” She simply could not face the loss of her son. It had overwhelmed her. At that point the family members assured me they would handle the problem, and I left having experienced one of the most shocking events in my life. A night I will never forget.
Looking back, the story made it clear that there are two types of people: hearers and non-hearers, seers and non-seers, those who face emotional trauma and those who don’t— and nobody faces it perfectly. Emotional trauma leads to denial, the greater the trauma the more the denial. And in this mother’s story we see the power of denial up close and personal. Let’s be clear— it was denial of reality— a sad reality which failed to escape others in the room.
Shifting to America
America today is on the brink of a similar tragedy. Some people— like the mother living in massive denial— simply cannot face it, and instead they distract themselves with minor concerns. To those people America simply suffers a mild cough which can quickly be cured, while others plainly see America in dire straits, on the brink of real disaster, suffering a crisis that threatens our national life. It’s a shocking story, unlike anything in our history
Moving America’s Secure Boundaries
America finds itself in a crisis which can be directly traced to President Barack Obama’s drastic modifications of our nation’s longstanding foundations of government. He has changed these fundamental stabilizers to suit himself, yet he and his supporters remain in massive denial of that reality…
Hodges MD, Andrew G (2012-07-14). The Obama Confession: Secret Fear. Secret Fury. Village House Publishers.
Working from Obama’s own statements and actions, the author then goes on to reveal what any person who’s been paying attention and who has both better morals than a rabid mink and more active brain cells than are found in the average used Kleenex has already been thinking at least in the back of his mind.
Read the book. It’s free for Kindle today, so all it’ll cost you is an hour or maybe two of your time, unless you’re one of those folks who need to sue all your past teachers for not teaching you how to (and to) read and letting you get away with slacking off in class. If you’re one of those folks, then shame on you. Have someone read the thing to you. (Actually, if you’re one of those folks, you will not have read this post anyway, so I’m just being snarky toward absentees. *heh*)
Do note that despite the author’s proclamation of a method for determining Obama’s true mind, the books seems strangely short of any analytical approach, just plenty of pronouncements based on th author’s and others’ observations. That’s OK, since the observations seem to be astute, but just note that the shaman’s professed techniques are not openly displayed. (My suspicion is that, in the model described in his other books, the guy “sees” things and then constructs his model to explain how he perceived what he did, without any real evidence for his model. Scientology does that–poorly–as does traditional psychoanalysis, etc. Any valid observations are usually the result of inherent talented observational skills honed by experience, not some model, IMO.)
Tired? Getcherself a “Gummint Job”
Forty years ago or so, I very briefly worked in a real “shovel ready” job using a real shovel on some government contract work. First day, the “feddle gummint” inspector came by and told me I was working too hard and to lean on my shovel for a while. True. Ever since then, I’ve looked askance at “gummint workers” and wondered just how hard they really do work and whether anything they do is really something that the “gummint” needs to do at all.
Do note that I know some government functions are necessary and that some of those employed to do essential work actually do work. I’m just not convinced that very much of what the federal government (or even state governments for that matter) claims it needs to do really needs to be done by government at all–or at that level–OR that most of those in government jobs are actually either working or working at anything that should be done at all, or be done by a government worker.
Further disclosure: Three members of my immediate and extended family are arguably “government workers.” One has for all his adult life worked as an employee of the National Parks Service, or some subsidiary or affiliated agency (he’s a real worker, but I have never approached him with a discussion of why I believe the Parks Service is unconstitutional, regardless what the Supreme Court has tortuously reasoned). Another holds down a state government position that is tasked with something that is constitutional under that state’s constitution. Is the work he does essential? No. Is it needed? Arguable. Perhaps. The last is a community employee who does not work directly for any city, county, state or federal agency but whose salary is funded by county, state and even (wrongly, IMO) by federal funds. The work this person does is work the community needs and indeed requires be done.
*shrugs* Some functions are necessary and proper. ALL government action should be at the lowest level possible–both in impact and in funding/supervision (subsidiary and transparent). That is, any necessary and proper task of government that can be funded and performed by a town itself, should NOT be funded or performed by the county or state or federal governments. Any necessary and proper task that cannot be performed at the lowest level possible should be examined carefully to determine whether or not it is indeed BOTH necessary AND proper for government to perform at all. I suspect that any honest examination of the necessary and proper functions of government would reveal that most things being done by government nowadays, at all levels, are neither necessary nor proper for civil government (at any level) to be fooling about with.
Of course, that’s the rub: honest examination. As Cwazy Unka Joe and his Immoderate “Moderator” demonstrated the other night, something approaching at least half of the country is unwilling to be honest about government–unwilling to the point that they have MADE themselves unable to be honest.
Remember, one of the reasons the Founders tried to moderate democracy with many different republican damping mechanisms is, in my restatement,
“In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history are in the majority and dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance.”
Just sayin’.
Anyone want to check my math?
Obamanoids–dupes in general, the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind (A.K.A. “Bylines for Barry”), The Zero’s campaign mouthpieces (TOTUS, Cwazy UNka Joe and all the other usual suspects) and the whole gaggle of leftard loons have invested tons of disingenuity into the meme that Romney doesn’t pay his “fair share” of taxes. Their argument, such as it is, is that his nominal 14-15% income tax rate on his investment income–the sum total of his income–is “less” than the average person pays. Leaving aside the 47% who receive more in benefits from the “feddle gummint” than they pay in taxes, if they pay any income taxes at all, what about that claim?
The corporations Romney receives his investment income have to make a profit. Those profits are distributed after taxes and reinvestment in the business to investors. So, say a company makes $100 in before tax profits. Yeh, yeh, a ridiculously small amount, but one that makes for easy numbers. After paying JUST the federal corporate income taxes, that number is reduced to about $72 available to return to investors who are then taxed a nominal 15% of that. So, assume only one investor, for simplicity. That investor would then receive about $61. All told, the “feddle gummint” has just gobbled up 39% of the income.
Average Joes don’t pay that sort of income tax rate, unless they’re too stupid to be able to use Turbotax and misfigure everything on their own. (ABOVE average–in income and privilege–“Timothys” however Do use Turbotax and fail to properly pay their federal income taxes for years, but the law only applies to the little people.)