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Showing posts from April, 2013

Random Thoughts From a Semi Lucid Mind

·          Rating a tams NFL draft before any of the players take the field is like rating your meal   after you order it a restaurant ·          ”Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”    An Obama the tyrant administration statement?   No, that would be Hank Paulson, George W. Bush’s Treasury Secretary. ·          Good thing the sequester hasn’t affected the White House Correspondents Dinner. ·          Apparently Mississippi’s Northwest Rankin High School was unaware that the Constitution’s 1 st Amendment and the Supreme Court have ruled that school prayer is unconstitutional.   It seems the school held an assembly where a member of Pinelake Baptist Church opened the assembly praising Jesus Christ   and warning students against sex, pornography, and homosexuality.   Perhaps next time the school board should bring in

Boston Bombing, the Tsarneavs, and the next steps

As the flood of new reports and interviews on the marathon bombing and the Tsarnaev brothers mounts,   analysis will ensue and every pundit, expert, and host will offer guesses, hypotheses, and theories.   Today Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was in front of the magistrate and a criminal complaint was filed against him that could lead to the death penalty if convicted.   That, of course, is a long ways off.   In the meantime, we have more questions than answers, more opinions than facts, more emotion than logic, and more politics than justice.   And no shortage of stupidity, yes Brian Kilmeade I am talking to you. The usual calls from Republican lawmakers such as Peter King, Mike McCaul, and Michele Bachmann will center on the growing concern of radicalized domestic Muslims, because, after all,   that is the only source of terror.   So while investigators try to stitch together the timeline, and they will, we will learn why Tamerlan Tsarnaev did what he did and how he convinced his brother D

What a Week.

What a week. Marathon bombing, ricin in the mail, Senate vote on background checks, fertilizer plant explosion, and the shoot-out manhunt in Watertown.   If there was ever a week for Kim Jong Un to step away from the brink quietly this would have been the one.   At least, the ridiculous antics and the media created frenzy of the Jodi Arias trial was put on the back burner.   I cannot remember a single week producing such strong and wide ranging emotions; shock, horror, rage, sadness, disappointment, and ultimately satisfaction.   We will continue to mourn the deceased, ask why, wonder how, question who was responsible, say our thanks, pray for the injured, call loved ones, offer a shoulder, pledge support, applaud the brave, assign blame, and hope for the best and plan for the worst.   No wonder so many people felt physically and emotionally drained. In times of crisis, nobody circles the wagons like Americans.   Whether it’s a terrorist attack, a natural disaster, or tragic ev

The ‘World’s Greatest Deliberative Body’ Looked More Like Puppet Theater.

  Today there is anger, disappointment, and shock on the left and glee, gloating, and snark from the right.   Yes, today in the U.S. Senate 54-46 was a losing score; no there isn’t a vote spread, it’s just the American Senate where 60 is the new majority.   Today, an already watered down bipartisan bill, the Manchin-Toomey bill, a bill that would mandate criminal background checks for all gun purchases via the internet or at gun shows was defeated.   The watered down version exempted family member transfers, private party sales, and ‘non-commercial’ sales and yet it was still defeated.   This bill, a far cry from the President’s goal of universal background checks, could not muster the necessary procedural 60 votes.   Depending what poll you look at, the American public, republicans and democrats, gun owners and otherwise, NRA members and not, universally supported increased background checks.   Why?   Because most intelligent Americans realize that there is a difference betw

Jobs, Income, and How We Can All Win

A great deal of data can be mined from the frequent reports issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).   In every report there is usually a mixture of good and bad news, but the key is looking at data in different reports, analyze the results, and offer a conclusion.   Now I am not an economist, but the media’s fixation of solely the job creation numbers and the unemployment rate is lazy ‘journalism’. I am not expecting Brian Williams to suddenly become Paul Krugman, but I do expect data, analysis, and hypothesis from someone in the media. Let’s start with the business side.   One of the most common talking points you will hear is that companies are not investing because the economy is sluggish.   Perhaps the opposite is true.   Richard Katz in the Oriental Economist says Businesses do not invest because the economy is weak; the economy stays weak because businesses do not invest.   The fact that $1.7TRILLION is sitting on the balance sheets of U.S. corporations tells you t

By The Numbers April 6

2.40: The reduction in the average monthly social security benefit if government switches to chained-CPI (C-CPI) from current CPI. 4: The number of   Democrat Senators: Mary Landrieu, Tim Johnson, Joe Manchin, and Mark Pryor who still oppose same-sex marriage 55 : Percent of America’s rivers and streams in “poor condition for aquatic life” according to the EPA. 76 : Percent of Americans who want more emphasis on solar power development versus 31 % on the production of coal 90 : Percentage of Americans that support expanded background checks 131 : Number of vacation days President Obama took during his 1 st term compared to the 1,060 President Bush took during two terms. 154 : Number of bullets fired by Adam Lanza in just 5 minutes 1,000 : Cost ($) of the permit for Marine veteran Gregory Schaffer to fly an American flag outside his home in Hypoluco,FL 3,000 : Estimated number of unexploded bombs still buried in Berlin 163,170 : Number of claims filed aga

Weekly Wrap Up Thoughts, Questions, Opinions, and BS

1)       If 98% of female Catholics use birth control, does that mean thy are bad Catholics or the church hierarchy is wrong? 2)       Is it possible to have a two-state solution when the Palestinians can’t agree on their own state? 3)       Who wins the battle within the GOP: the donors or the base? 4)       Why do Conservatives hope for the worst and plan for the best? 5)       Politically speaking, are guns to Liberals like abortion is to Conservatives? 6)       Was Harry Truman the last president who honestly didn’t give a shit about popularity polls? 7)       How long should it take for democracy to thrive following decades of dictatorship?   A lot longer than we think. 8)       Is there a more underappreciated show on television than FX’s Justified? 9)       Which of the potential bad outcomes does Syria become: Assad stays, prolonged civil war, a Sunni al-Qaeda breeding ground, all of the above? 10)    If Mike Huckabee is a Christian then Rush Limb