« January 2005 | Main | March 2005 »
February 25, 2005
The Gannon/Guckert issue
I'm not what you would call a "fan" of Ann Coulter. I think she's humorous, raises some good points and generally gives the left a good run for their money. I also think that at times she can go a little "over the top".
I do think her most recent column is dead on though.
I'm gonna try to get through to Randi Rhodes show today and get her riled up about Gannon/Guckert. Once I can get her to bite on the "alias" issue, I'm gonna ask her "So what's your real name Randi?"
Wish me luck.
Elsewhere, the Blogfather has some comments on the Gannon/Guckert issue.
Classical Values weighs in today as well.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)
February 24, 2005
Dammit, just STOP THIS LUNACY
Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!
The number of syllables in your title DOES NOT make you more important. In fact, it lets everyone know that you're an over-inflated suck up within an organization that is more interested in puffing themselves up than they are in actually accomplishing a task.
Teachers are not LEARNING FACILITATORS. They're TEACHERS!!!!
Bus driver is now a "Transporter of Learners" -- Gimme a break.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 1:49 PM | Comments (0)
February 23, 2005
Is alimony for your Pentium 2 next??
Apparently a woman who was upset with the way her computer was behaving, took it outside and SHOT IT.
In what can only be described as an example of police stupidity, the officers responding to the scene charged the woman with "Domestic Violence".
Seems like they blew this a little out of proportion.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:58 PM | Comments (1)
February 22, 2005
February 22, 2005
Morning Blogroll roundup ----
LGF points how how Australia really is a good ally to the US and one of the more responsible countries out there.
Powerline touts George Washington. Truely a most phenomenal man.
New Sisyphus gives up a great report of Bush's speech in Brussels.
Classical Values points out that neither the left nor right can lay legitimate claim to Hunter S. Thompson's legacy. I agree, and prefer to just consider him a very unique American.
Reform protests in Lebanon and Egypt. OH yeah, and Togo??? (Togo apparently slipped under my radar, I'm gonna have to learn more about this one.)
Captain Ed caught my attention this morning, he's wondering if the war in Afganistan can be considered over.
Seems to be a good day.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 8:06 AM | Comments (0)
February 21, 2005
Ah, feel the sympathy from the Democrats
I'm an atheist. I don't believe in God, and I certainly don't support organized religion. However, I could be wrong about my beliefs; I realize that. I firmly support the right of anyone to worship any God they so please as long as they don't interfere with or harm others in the practice of their beliefs, that includes crashing planes into buildings, selling Child-Crusaders into slavery or refusing to have a doctor set your child's broken leg.
That being said, I also have a certain amount of compassion for all human beings. I think that our relationships with each other should be respectful and sympathetic for the good of all mankind.
That also being said, I want to direct your attention to a site that just makes me shake my head and wonder every time I visit it. The site is DemocraticUnderground, by far the best collection of moonbattery on the planet. In particular I would like to point your attention to this thread about Jerry Falwell's recent hospitalization. It simply boggles the mind.
To think that DU was touted (by Dean and others) throughout the election as the "internet home" of the Democrat heart and soul, is simply. . . well. . . read through the thread and form your own opinions. While I'm not a fan of Falwell, I would NEVER wish what these people do on him in light of his illness. In fact, I wouldn't even wish some of this or feel this way about Saddam Hussein, Pol Pot, Hitler or anyone (although I would wish these, in particular, a speedy recovery so they could be justly executed).
Lemmings they are. . . . and we all know what happens eventually to lemmings.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 11:24 PM | Comments (1)
The King of Gonzo! - Dead at 67
Dr. Hunter S. Thompson has died. Apparent Suicide.
I'm pretty surprised how upset I am about this. His world view and mine are quite different. I can honestly say that Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Gonzo Papers, and The Fear and Loathing Letters all had an effect on HOW I look at the world, even if I don't agree with alot of what HST saw himself.
Questioning oneself, and your relational perspective is always just as important as what you're actually observing.
Rest in peace you magnificent bastard.
--Jason
UPDATE: You can find the good doctor's last column HERE -- ESPN's Page 2.
Posted by JasonColeman at 1:46 AM | Comments (0)
Talk about a Lucky Bastard
Having lived in a Colorado ski area for 7 years, I have a healthy respect for avalanches. Beacons and shovels are a necessity for hiking or skiing the back-country and partners are a must. Being buried alive in an avalanche has to rank as one of the few things I've ever TRULY feared.
That being said THIS GUY has to be one of the luckiest bastards on the planet.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 1:36 AM | Comments (2)
IMDB and Netflix are trying to ruin my life
Yep, it's official, Netflix and IMDB are conspiring together with my cable company to take over my life. My laptop is helping them.
Netflix rocks for starters, it's much better than wandering around the video store looking for something that you feel like renting and then hoping that it's available. The problem is that my netflix's queue is well over 100 titles now. I've been trying to limit my additions to the queue to only one per day, and that's where IMDB and the cable company are coming in.
So here I am, kicked back watching some ensemble piece on HBO or whoever and I notice an actor or actress that is doing a particularly good job and I pop them into IMDB. BANG! There's a list of other films by said performer. Scan through the reviews and bam, it's over to Netflix and there goes another addition to the list.
Then there's the cross referencing issue that been popping up and making my life hell with IMDB. Whole new observations and discoveries are popping up as I jump back and forth between the two. For instance, I'm flipping channels and catch Keira Knightley in Love Actually, I think "Hmmm, that's the girl from Bend it like Beckham, isn't it." Quick pop over to IMDB and BANG! There in Miss Knightley's Filmography is a credit for STAR WARS EP 1.
Wha Wha WHAT!!!! Keira Knightly isn't in Phantom Menace!! Well it turns out she is. She's Sabe, one of the decoys/hand-maidens for Padme/Natalie Portman (who I never realized was in Heat. Dammit. There's more of my life wasted as I start crossreferencing other actors for their early work, extra appearances, etc. Fifteen minutes later, I've followed links to Ivana Milicevic, Kris Marshall, and a bunch of other actors to other movies and now my Netflix Queue is over 200.
I swear, the couch potato revolution has just barely begun.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:58 AM | Comments (0)
February 20, 2005
The spammers found me
Well, I guess I should be flattered, my blog has finally gotten the attention of the various spambots out there.
A few "spam" comments have appeared and been deleted, and about 100 spam related trackbacks appeared within the last few hours. I've deleted them all and temporarily disabled the trackback functionality of the site.
I'd been waiting to upgrade the Movable Type installation until I finished with two other web projects I'm working on, but now it seems I have to adjust the timeline a bit. So over the next couple of days I'll be updating to the newest version of Movable Type. Please don't be discouraged if the site goes down for a little while, it'll come back up after I've moved everything over and cleaned up the directories at my host.
I'm actually kinda glad this happened because I wanted to clean up the way the site was organized on the back end.
The pathetic thing is that SPAM works, it boggles me actually. That people would see a "Texas Hold'em" or "Online Casino" trackback or comment and think for half a second that it's legitimate just confirms that people are quite stupid when taken "en masse". It must work to some extent (which I find amazing) because the people doing it wouldn't go to the time and expense to create and maintain what one can only assume winds up to be a million (maybe even billion) dollar industry.
Oh well, at least I know what I'll be doing tomorrow night; rebuilding this site.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 11:13 PM | Comments (0)
February 19, 2005
Yardwork is ruling the day.
Much to be done in the yard today before it rains, rains, rains. It's almost time to start cutting the grass on a regular basis, UGH! Oh well, that's the price ya pay, I guess.
Anyway, I don't want to leave you hanging with nothing, so take a look at this interesting article from Deroy Murdock. Few new factoids in there for me, maybe they'll be new to you too.
Thanks to Release the Hounds (a new addition to my blogroll) for the link.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 3:03 PM | Comments (1)
February 18, 2005
Quick Hits - Feb 17th
Well, I guess that bastard Kim Jong-Il, isn't dead after all. The North Koreans didn't release any pictures of him, but he was claimed to be sighted at a NK military base where he came out to watch some Russian dancing girls. Too bad. I was hoping he was already dead.
Rachel Marsden (who's basically the Canadian Ann Coulter) has a good essay on The Dangers of Limiting Free Speech.
Powerline is reporting that during the Richard Perle - Howard Dean debate in Portland last night, a Lefty stood up and threw a shoe at Richard Perle while screaming "you motherf___ing liar". It's another indication of how the left is breaking further away from sane behavior. I wonder if it was the right or left shoe. Here's an AP story about it.
I haven't commented on the Terri Schaivo case before, mainly because I wasn't sure about her condition. Conflicting reports about her abilities were hard to analyze with any certainty. Beth from My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy changed all that. I'm now pretty certain that this woman should NOT be euthanized. She's obviously responsive and their isn't a clear cut directive from her discussing her wishes and her husband seems to have conflicting motives. See the videos, then visit Blogs for Terri and decide for yourself.
Star Wars Ep. 3 is set to open up the Cannes Film Festival. This pisses me off, now the frogs get to see the final installment a week before we do. I wonder what this guy thinks about it?
Here's a funny story about what happens when you decide to break into a private business with the purpose of disrupting their activities. It's about time that some average joes stood up to the shenanigans of the Greenpeace morons.
Twelve new extra-solar planets have been discovered in the last month. This brings us up to 145, versus only 9 a decade ago. SETI is looking like a better and better idea everyday, you can help them by looking here.
It seems that measurements of methane levels by the Mars Express orbiter are suggesting that life may exist on Mars currently. Hmmm.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 10:26 AM | Comments (1)
February 17, 2005
I'm a slacker
Yes, yes, I know. Some of you have even emailed me. I haven't been posting lately and I feel bad about it.
One of the reasons I've been slacking is work, which is legitimate. Another reason is that I've found what could quite possibly be the coolest computer program/tool I've ever seen. It's called World Wind and it's freeware from NASA. The program basically combines the Big Blue Marble, LandSat, MODIS and USGS Satellite images into one simulation of the planet earth. You start viewing the composite Big Blue Marble image and from there you can rotate around the Earth and then ZOOM all the way in to the USGS images.
It's a great tool if you're a space geek (and I am). It's also something that anyone can easily use to get satellite images of your house, neighborhood, local lake, hunting area or whatever. Documentation is pretty scarce, and you need some play-time with it to get the hang of it, but it's still super-cool. I'm sure as I learn to use it, I'll be posting more about it and the cool things it can do.
It's a big download, about 170 megs, and it needs about 2 Gigs of harddrive space to work effectively. You also really have to have a broadband connection to the internet for it to work. The images are quite big and it just doesn't function on dial-up.
So that's what I've been Geeking out on lately. If you want to give it a shot, you can DOWNLOAD WORLD WIND.
More a little later, I'm going to clean up my office now.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 3:23 PM | Comments (2)
February 10, 2005
The NEW E.T.'s
When a person says "E.T.", images of the "Phone Home!" puppet come to mind for most. Others think of Grey's and Green's and world domination conspiracy theories emanating from the not so secret "Area 51".
Full Disclosure: I have been "removed" from area of the "secret base" in the past. Three times actually.
But there's another E.T. out there that people should take notice of. It's not Extra-Terrestial life, it's Exo-Terrestrial Life. Life on Earth that's not like "life as we know it." We generally consider "life" to be carbon based forms that use oxygen as it's primary fuel to keep all the various cellular structures running and giving us "life".
For a few decades now we've known about organisms on the ocean floor, clustered around volcanic vents that use sulphur compounds as their primary fuel. The discovery of such organism sent waves, not ripples, through the scientific community proving that life can exist in a variety of environments. The organisms were as different from other Earth life-forms as an IPod is from a glass of orange juice. It was a great day for science and revealed in a very real way that "we are most probably NOT alone."
Now we've got another player in the Universal Definition of Life-Forms. Organisms that are based on carbon, but use hydrogen as their basic fuel. Scientists have identified microbes in Yellowstone Hot Springs that use the most basic of all elements as their primary source of life sustaining energy. On a scarier note, similar organisms living on hydrogen have been discovered INSIDE THE STOMACH of other living beings, including humans.
The discovery is epic in that it adds yet another possibility for life to exist outside the planet Earth. After all if nature has developed THREE (and probably more yet undiscovered) very different life forms on our little blue green planet, it's almost certain that on other worlds, and not necessarily those similar to ours, life forms have developed in ways we can only imagine.
It's a great day for science. However, every time I read about stuff like this I feel so very very small. That's ok though, I'd rather be a small fish in a big pond than a big fish in a small pond.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 2:04 PM | Comments (0)
Stellar Escapee
There's a star making a break for it! It's hightailing it, trying to escape the very bounds of our universe. Interesting read.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 2:00 PM | Comments (0)
February 9, 2005
B15A Update
It's been a little while, so I thought it might be time to look back at what's happening with B15A, that rogue iceberg that's been killing off the Antarctic penguin population. (Ok, that's a little alarmist. The iceberg is causing problems, but it's not anything unusual. This process repeats itself at least once a decade.)
The big news is that U.S. and Russian icebreaker ships have cleared a seaway to McMurdo station and a U.S. fuel tanker ship and a cargo vessel have made it to dock down at that southernmost continent. Their arrival ensures that the scientific community will have the supplies needed to make it through the Antarctic winter, namely the food, equipment and fuel they need prior to the "travel blackout" that the harsh winter conditions mandate. (Air travel to Antarctica in the Winter is basically for medical emergencies only.)
The annual pre-winter clearing was made more difficult by the B15A iceberg that ran aground a few weeks ago and which has been playing havoc with the "fast ice" that builds up in the Ross Sea. This ice builds up every winter and then breaks up every summer to float out to sea. With B15A parked in the sea-ocean boundary, fast ice that broke up was unable to make it's way out to sea. This ice jamms up the Ross Sea and adds to next years collection of "fast ice" making transit to McMurdo even more difficult than it already is.
Ice clearing operations were made more difficult by the loss of one of the U.S. Coast Guards icebreakers to regular routine maintenance. The Polar Sea is currently in drydock, leaving all the work down south to the Polar Star. Furthermore, the Polar Star had recent problems that required her to be docked for repairs for approximately two weeks. Luckily, the Russian icebreaker Krasin was able to be contracted to conduct icebreaking operations with the repaired Polar Star.
So the Antarctic bases are resupplied, but the Penguins still have to walk 80km (on two inch legs) to reach the ocean. Looks like the well dressed bird population is going to take a hit. It will recover though, no worries there.
Here's what you've been waiting for (or maybe not), a new picture of B15A:
There's some light cloud cover, but you can see the build up of fast ice in the Ross Sea being blocked by the aircraft carrier shaped berg.
Older photos are also in this post.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 4:36 PM | Comments (0)
February 8, 2005
Quick Hits-Feb 8th
I didn't watch the Superbowl. The Saints weren't in it, so I could care less. I'm not watching the Superbowl until the Saints are in it and it's in their new stadium. Ok, well I'm not sure I'll keep that promise, but I needed someplace to put the links and I wanted to show you where the SuperBowl Commericials are.
If you're looking for the President's Budget Proposal, you can find it here.
There's been no sighting of Kim Jong-Il yet, but they're setting the stage for the coup. Military leaders are re-affirming their allegiance.
As are "spontaneous" groups of youths.
I tell you, I think the guy's dead. Pushing up Daisy's. Doing the dirt nap.
IF I'm wrong? Well then I'll feel stupid, but I gotta call it like I see it.
I know that it's not until 2029, and I know that it's not going to hit us, when when you put out an image like this one:
that's showing that an asteroid will pass between the Earth and the Moon, I get a bit nervous. But I already covered this.
Peace is breaking out all over.
And Liesl is throwing a party.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 4:22 PM | Comments (0)
I ROCK, I so so ROCK!!!!
Oy Vey!!! Do I rock or what?????
I wasn't even around and I won the damn big prize?!?!? Who'd have thunk that......
I'm too sexy for your cat, too sexy for your cat. . . . . .
Yeah, I'm tha shiznit........
Ok, serious, here's the link. Click it dammit, CLICK IT!
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 5:00 AM | Comments (1)
February 6, 2005
South Knox Bubba has it dead on with this post. Don't bother reading the comments, the LLL has hijacked them after the Instalanche.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)
Let the North Korea Sucession Games begin. . . . .
Last week I brought up the possibility that Kim Jung Il of N. Korea, may have been assassinated and we'd know more of the Dear Leaders fate on the twelth (his birthday).
Well, this weekend a number of sources are reporting that the Dear Leader is talking (through others) about the transfer of control to one of his sons.
Asia News touts Kim Jong-Chul, 23 as the next in line.
Reuters-India speaks to the dynastic wishes of the Kim family and it's Stalinist Patriarch.
My guess is that Kim Jong-Il is dead and the N. Korean government is planning to announce the succession this week.
Why do I think he's already dead? It's all speculation, but I believe that Kim Jung-Il was killed in a massive explosion. We know his train was in the area, and he hasn't been seen since. We also have the removal of his portraits. It appears that maybe someone pulled off a coup and are bracing the world for the announcement by giving Kim a lower profile.
Finally, on the eve of his birthday we have succession talk coming out of N. Korea. If this turns out to be the case it will be a remarkable feat of information engineering on the part of the N. Koreans.
We'll see this week though won't we.
I hope that I'm right, not just to pay myself on the back, but also because I believe that ANY change in N. Korea will be positive for the world at large. Any new government emerging would almost certainly back off of the hard edge that Kim Jung-Il is offering to the world. They know, as a nation, their economy is in a state of utter failure. They need the break along with some sort of economic aid, if they hope to retain any sort of control in the near future.
Pressure is coming from every direction to open up to inspections and disarmament, but The Dear Leader is the brick wall. Without Kim all things are possible. The moderates and even the conservative revolutionaries have to know they are between a rock and a hard place. If they choose to continue saber-rattling at the rest of the world, their economic situation will engulf them into famine and chaos. If they open up, the West will certainly ask for some sort of Democratic reforms.
The N. Korean people can see the success of their neighbors to the South. Any crack in the revolutionary dam will almost certainly lead to a cascading wave of democratic activity that will be supported by the U.S., Japan, South Korea and others.
Any new government that sticks it's head up on the 12th will certainly be keenly watched immediately for signs that peace can be achieved. I only hope that everyone keeps a cool head in the process.
In other N. Korean news, the N. Korean embassy has asked the Czech Republic to ban Team America: World Police-LINK NOT WORK-SAFE
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 8:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Death to America Day
I was going to blog alot this morning, but then I found out that today is "Death to America Day", so I did laundry.
Oh yeah, last chance to go vote for one of those other guys.
I did notice that Canada is thinking about coming on board with Iraq. I expect that more will want to get in on the new Demo-Capitalist state arising in the Middle East. After all, it is a safe investment (now) that can possibly give great returns in the long run. If things go south, they still look good for helping and can pull out whenever thier resolve to defend freedom does.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 3:55 PM | Comments (0)
February 5, 2005
Raptor Ready to fly
The United States' newest superfighter will be flying in active US units in December 2005, according to Lockheed-Martin.
Click here for official info on the F-22 Raptor.
Coupled with the Joint Strike Fighter YF-35 and the announcement that the new Marine One Helicopter for US Presidents will be Lockheed project, it seems that Lockheed is taking a big role in our Military Industrial Complex. Some people are complaining about these contracts, especially the Marine One helicopter procurement because a substantial portion of these platforms will be built in Europe, by European companies.
Is this a good thing? I'm not sure, but I'm not ready to say it's bad. I think that we should reach across financially now and say "Hey look Euros, we don't fight, we may bitch at each other a little, but there's not going to be a shooting war between us, so lets move on OK?" Followed with a series of "Here you go, make some stuff for us, we'll throw a bunch of dollars into your economy and maybe it's slow down the meteoric rise of your Euro." Which they desparately need.
People may not see the connection, but it's there, we're playing politics as usual and passing some economic aid over to the Euros by buying up a bunch of war material from them. It's quite ironic, how they don't want us to go to war in Iraq, but they want the contracts to supply our military. It's all hypocracy, I tell ya. Dollar Bill Diplomacy it seems, same ______, different day.
Overall I like the planes and think they're pretty rad units. Can't wait until more performance oriented videos start popping out.
Don't think that I'm opposed to the purchase of the fighters in any way, I'm not. We've been working on these for a long time, and have a good relationship with the foreign contractors. These relationships go a long way to smoothing out the rough edges in relations with our allies and friends. I'm totally supportive of them, as long as we don't buy too much from the French.
I wished everything could be made here, but that would only cause even more resentment (and that's really all it ever is) from our foreign friends. We need to share the wealth to move this Demo-Capitalist experiment on it's merry way. It's funny that we'll probably have F-22's in operation over Iran and/or Syria in a year's time, and the Euros will just have to lament that they were the ones that sold them to us. I expect they'll be more on board though. They don't want to be wrong three times in a row.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 8:28 PM | Comments (0)
This is why I read The Instapundit.
Hmmmm. Bush and FDR agreeing on Social Security. Yep, I feel really good about where The President's plan is going. It's the completion of a process. I'm firmly supportive of the Privatization Choice beging offered.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 2:58 PM | Comments (0)
Well Now. . . . .
Woke to a laugh today when I saw this
I was confused when I followed the link in my email, then I started hitting the links on the page, and everything became clear. The Blogger Babe of the Week is up, and I'm part of it. Oh lordy, I'm not normally one for blatant blogpimping devices, but when Beth was looking for nominations, I just ran with it. Here's her roundup of Blogger Babes (myself included), and you should read her site too, it is a daily requirement for me.
Oh yeah, here's my competition:
James Joyner of Outside the Beltway
Dan of Riehl World View
and, Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom
Looks like yours truely doesn't stand a chance. That's ok though, it's not about winning, it's about . . . . well I'm not sure what it's about, losing sucks. Go Vote! Or at least go read the sites. Yeah, that's the ticket, it's about hits.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 1:27 PM | Comments (3)
Donnie Fowler bows out
It appears that Donnie Fowler has bowed out of the race Chair. This
opens the way for Howard Dean to become the Democrat's counter-president. I don't agree with this tactic of the Dems to become the "opposition" party, and this seems like more and more sour grapes guilding up. A pull further to the left seems hardly what the party needs, but that's exactly what it's setting itself up for.
I wonder if this is the opportunity that the Libertarians need to make the jump up to the two party table. I'll have to see what Stephen at Liberty Flash thinks about that idea.
UPDATE: Stephen from Liberty Flash responds. Good read.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 1:00 PM | Comments (0)
February 4, 2005
Close call
Astronomer's are tracking the closest ever fly-by of an asteroid that Earth has seen in the modern age. The Asteroid, named MN4, will pass so close to the Earth that it will be inside the orbit of many geo-stationary satellites orbiting the Earth. It will also be visible to the naked eye by observers in Europe, Africa and West Asia. It's not a tiny rock, but it's not huge either. Scientist's estimate that if the rock were to strike the Earth, local devastation would be sever, but not enough to create dramatic climate change. There appears to be little risk of the object striking us, however, it's a very, very close call.
UPDATE: I should note that this fly-by is in 2029. Also, in case you didn't realize (I didn't), there's a Torino Scale that measures the severity of impact, kinda like a Richter Scale on steroids.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 1:26 PM | Comments (0)
February 3, 2005
Fallen Hero
On April 4th,2003, Sgt. Paul Smith was killed in the successful defence of his comrades in arms. For his heroism and courage under fire, Sgt. Smith has been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. The highest honor our nation can bestow and first such award since 1993. I cannot give justice with my words to Sgt. Smith, so I encourage you all to visit the Saint Petersburg Times site to learn more about this extraordinary man, husband, and soldier.
(Thanks Beth, for the link.)
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 11:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Disappointing Democrats
I'm going to post more about Social Security and the SOTU address a little later, but I just got through watching the speech for a third time while reading along with the transcript. One thing stood out that I just can't wait to comment on. I should have done it last night, but I didn't want to fly off the handle.
The Democrats did their normal "no clapping", "no standing" thing for the political issues they disagreed with; but when the President used the word "bankrupt", the Democrat side of the aisle actually booed and moaned quite audibly. I'm sure that this was an organized effort and not spontaneous at all, but I need to point something out.
When your ASSETS are less than your LIABILITIES, you are in a de facto state of bankruptcy. To deny this is ludicrous. It's a fact that within the next 20 years (could be as soon as 13) the Social Security system will be paying out more than it takes in. They'll then start using the built up surplus and when that runs out, the system will still have more LIABILITIES than it does ASSETS. That my friends IS bankruptcy. Get that through your heads people.
If the program can't pay for it's promises, then it's bankrupt. To boo and hiss, doesn't change this. "Bankrupt" is a strong term, and we all know that it's not the "Government" that would be bankrupt, but the program itself would be. The Democrats don't seem to have a problem with this because they are not in power. So they are just going to moan, cry and save their filibusters for the Social Security vote.
Frankly, the behavior of the Democrats last night made me sick. This behavior is becoming endemic in the Democrat Party that they will position themselves on the opposite side of any issue the President seems to promote. We don't need an "opposition" party in the United States, what we need are two VIABLE parties. The Democrats don't seem to care about two viable parties and just are content to rage against the machine. Where do they get the idea that this is helpful? I just don't get it.
Ok, well, I'll post more later on this, but while I have you here, I'd like to point you to this blog. Especially this post. Take a look, interesting stuff. Oh yeah, and I love THIS.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 2:59 PM | Comments (0)
February 2, 2005
War on Toys
We all now pretty much know that the AP got duped into running with the story about and American G.I. (Joe) captured in Iraq. It didn't take long for the blogosphere to determine that something wasn't right with the picture. Within hours of the story's emergence, doubts started arising and finally a toymaker came out with the evidence to crush the claims. The "soldier" was actually a doll and the whole thing a hoax.
This seems to be very indicative that the "insurgents" (read terrorists) are running out of effective mechanisms for turning the tide in Iraq. They've also recently resorted to trying to "trick" people into becoming suicide bombers, and when that fails they're resorting to using the mentally handicapped (yes, I know that's not a politically correct term).
Closer to home, people are taking their ire out on dolls here in America. Latino groups are now criticising the Marisol doll. COME ON PEOPLE, WE'RE TALKING DOLLS HERE!!!!!
For a funny read click HERE.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 2:46 PM | Comments (1)
