History Can Be an Ugly Thing

I am so tired! No, I am sick and tired of this MYTH perpetuated by the likes of Tigerhawk that Boehner and McConnell's Congress has done all it could do considering the President we have. Yes friends, according to our country club colleagues everything that could be done has been done and that's all you need to know. Pardon me but I have to say, that is a crock of shit!

Now don't get me wrong, I like Tigerhawk well enough, even though, well he IS an attorney. Plus I take into consideration he lives Austin, Texas; a Prius driving, latte drinking university town where seven year olds are encouraged to explore their sexual identity, devoutly Catholic undocumented Mexican entrepreneurs (gangbangers) are welcomed with open arms to their "sanctuary city" and "micro-aggressive" words like "we are devoutly Catholic" are in no way tolerated (when uttered by Caucasians). I also am not offended that he went to Princeton, which as everyone knows has a dual mission. First to ensure the monied elite's idiot children receive a prestigious degree (and job placement) all the while limiting the damage to the institution's reputation and/or endowment due to the first (James Madison class of 1771, Brooks Shields '87 says it all).

No the fact is I admire and respect Tigerhawk, I just think his judgement needs a little work. Google Boehner/McConnell and "no government shutdown" and among the 457k results you'll see stuff like this.

Congress avoids government shutdown - CNNPolitics.com

www.cnn.com/.../government-shutdown-2015-funding-vote-senate-...

CNN

Sep 30, 2015 - Boehner: 2013 shutdown strategy 'never had a chance' ... McConnellsaid he had "no earthly idea" how much work would be completed before ...

Congress approves funding bill to avert government shutdown

www.usatoday.com/...government-shutdown/73032366/

USA Today

Sep 30, 2015 - 11 and avert a government shutdown at midnight. ... Boehner'sdecision made an immediate government shutdown less likely since the speaker nolonger feels ... McConnell told reporters Tuesday that he and Boehner have ...

Mitch McConnell amid Planned Parenthood uproar: No ...

hotair.com/.../mitch-mcconnell-amid-planned-parenthood-uproar...

Hot Air

Aug 5, 2015 - the shutdown is avoided, and all's well for Beltway Republicans apart ... leave McConnell and Boehner with no choice but to go to the mat this time: ... and they want Obama to shut the government down over the issue, and ...

It seems THE LAST THING our leadership wants is a standoff with the Democrats over, well ANYTHING! I wonder why that is? Of course in any dispute the drive-by media will blame the Republicans, that goes without saying. If a shutdown were to occur we can count on them to trot out bogus polls, rant and rave on their editorial pages and turn over their networks to all the "retirees and military veterans" who are being ruined by the reckless and irresponsible Republicans. Funny how welfare mamas are never showcased and the fact that 80% of the government is deemed "essential" and is still up and running (with the checks still going out) never seems to get mentioned.

So, we know who the media will blame, but who will the voters blame is the question. Surprisingly they aren't as stupid as some would suggest. Let's look at a little history.

• January 3, 1995: Republicans gained control of both houses for the first time since 1954.

• November 14–19, 1995: U.S. government shutdown
• December 16, 1995 – January 6, 1996: U.S. government shutdown
• March 12, 1996: Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act of 1996 (Helms-Burton Act)
• April 24, 1996: Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act
• July 30, 1996: Taxpayer Bill of Rights
• August 20, 1996: Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996
• August 22, 1996: Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (Welfare Reform Act)
• September 21, 1996: Defense of Marriage Act

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. In November 1996 Bill Clinton was reelected, the Republicans lost 8 House members and GAINED 2 Senate seats retaining control of Congress. A VERY productive Congress it was I might add, especially from the conservative perspective and all done with a very popular Democrat President.

The idea that Boehner and McConnell have done their jobs, the jobs they were elected to do, the jobs they PROMISED they would do is both asinine and insulting. They have done nothing but appease the President. They have had a hand in weakening us as a nation and making us less safe in our homes and the world less safe from tyrants and lunatics. They are the antithesis of leadership and deserve to be removed in shame and infamy. To suggest otherwise is to ignore history.

So Tigerhawk I urge you to look at the record. To conclude otherwise would be, well, just like a Princeton grad.

House GOP: Bullet points for your consideration

A few items to consider:

Because of the vast expansion of executive power under President Obama, which expansion you correctly deplore, the presidency is the entire ball game. Nothing else matters.

Because of the tough electoral college map, fed by the "Big Sort" of conservative voters in to a few states, the Republicans need to wage a nearly perfect campaign to win the White House.

In order for that to happen, we need for American voters to be comfortable that the GOP will govern "responsibly" -- meaning in a broadly center-right way rather than a broadly center-left way -- if it controls all branches of the federal government. Why? Because we need the squishy voters -- the small group of true swing voters, and the occasional Democratic voters who often don't give a shit and stay home -- to vote GOP and, well, stay home, respectively.

Right now, the House GOP is persuading the squishy voters, fed by a gleeful media, that the Republicans cannot govern responsibly.

For some reason, the House GOP's "Freedom Caucus" never got the memo that politics in a democratic republic are transactional. The old cant about politicians acting on their "principles" is just propaganda. If politicians actually were to do that, we would quickly become a dictatorship because only the "permanent government" would be able to make anything happen, and then without any effective oversight. The Freedom Caucus conservatives in Congress who purport to stick to their principles are in fact creating a power vacuum that is being filled by Barack Obama's administrative state.

Ironically, therefore, the Freedom Caucus is actually increasing the power of the executive branch by weakening the legislative branch.

None of this means that conservatives cannot get their way on important issues, but they cannot expect to win on everything. We know from the progressive fight for Prohibition (for example) that advocates of allegedly "extreme" positions can win their way in American politics if they focus on a single issue. The secret of the Anti-Saloon League and Wayne Wheeler was its single-minded focus. It would support any politician who supported Prohibition, even if other positions offended its members. If, as many say, reducing immigration is -- or ought to be -- the most important issue for conservatives, then the GOP needs to make that its top priority, and be willing to trade in order to get it. Sadly, the Freedom Caucus seems unwilling to compromise on any topic in order to win the long game on its top priority, probably because it has not reached internal agreement as to its top priority.

The House GOP needs to start supporting the image of the Republican Party among the squishies, and pronto.

Otherwise, start fitting out the Lincoln Bedroom for Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner, because they will be staying there a lot.

Not WAR, Not Yet!

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Cornell's new president defends free speech, and loudly

Trigger warning: This will irritate campus authoritarians and other victims.

When a university president stands up for ancient rights rather than runs from them, we applaud. So it is with Cornell's new president, Elizabeth Garrett, who took a moment to lead, rather than retreat, in the defense of academic freedom and its sibling, free speech on campus.

Cornell University president Elizabeth Garrett is “an avid supporter of freedom on speech,” carries a copy of the U.S. Constitution with her “at all times,” and “would never” require professors to include trigger warnings for sensitive course material, she said Thursday morning.

“With respect to trigger warnings, first and foremost I am an absolute defender of academic freedom. And what a professor chooses to do in his or her class has my absolute support, even if I don’t agree with them,” she said at a breakfast with several reporters at the Cornell Club....

“A university is about the fullest and freest expression of ideas and arguments,” she said. “There isn’t any idea that ought not to be tested and questioned. Because that’s how we get closer to the truth.”...

“I don’t believe there’s a ‘free speech zone’ on campus. The entire university is a ‘free speech zone,’” she said.

Hey, when she's right, she's right.

I've had a few lively debates with Beth Garrett, including at a wedding in which she was maid of honor and I was best man a long time ago, so this does not surprise me at all!

Make Sure it Helps

The fine art of Machiavellian politics, and trust me ALL politics is Machiavellian regardless of ideology, requires one (among other things) to almost constantly lie about one's motives. A Democrat proclaims Planned Parenthood a "women's health" organization knowing full well it's a very profitable abortion conglomerate with a very generous (and influential) political arm, therefore to be defended at all costs. A Republican declares that the latest trade mega-deal will "create jobs" and be "good" for the American worker when they probably have no idea what it will do but understand all too well it's on their big business contributor's "must have" list and have no choice but to support it.

Also politics is relative. It's relative to what is, what can be and who one can count on AT THE MOMENT. Friends today, enemies tomorrow. American politics is a blood sport more akin to a reality show like Big Brother or Survivor than anything written by Locke, Hume, Hobbs or Montesquieu. The rules are simple, whatever the hell you can get away without looking like a damn fool. In service of this rule, the number 1 rule is you never NEVER reveal your true motivation. The politician who speaks unfiltered truth is the one who gets in trouble (and as often as not everybody else).

Look at it this way, politics is like a movie. The great Stanley Kubrick once told Jack Nicholson that a film is not a picture of reality, it's a picture of a picture of reality. In other words it's reality twice removed. It's peeking through the keyhole into a telescope, that's how belief is suspended by the viewer thereby allowing oneself to be entertained. Politics is the same way. We suspend our common sense and believe what we're told because he's our candidate or belongs to our political party or supports our issue. We even spread the lies and support this unreal construct created by people who we know want to manipulate us. We do this when we all know in our heart of hearts it's all theater and everyone is a phony.

Incredibly many of us even admire the most successful liars and cheats. The Clintons are the best example of this fact (although there are tons of others). Everyone knows Bill Clinton, everyone knows Hillary Clinton, everyone knows they are liars and cheats and 35% of the voters don't care what she did or didn't do with her emails. What the difference? They'll all liars. But Hillary is OUR liar and the Clintons are GREAT at keeping the con.

Our liars not so much. Only last week Kevin McCarthy handed Hillary a gift when he suggested the Benghazi investigation was politically motivated, which is probably true. In doing so he committed the ultimate sin, he revealed motivation and made a fool of himself. He hurt his party. That in itself is enough to disqualify this man from consideration as Speaker regardless of his politics (and I don't care how much cash he generates from Silicon Valley). There are rules, and to be effective one must live by these rules. Kevin McCarthy cannot do the job as Speaker because he broke the NUMBER 1 RULE before he even got started. Now revealing motivation is one thing, but if you MUST tell the truth, at least make sure it HELPS.  

ADDENDUM: Events have made this post old news but I would like to give a shout out to North Carolina's own Mark Meadows, Walter Jones and even the carpetbagger Renee Ellmers (God knows she helped). Just like when we saved Ronald Reagan's political career in the '76 primary, we once again saved the conservative movement from "conservatives".

On Inter-Party Love

Mary Katharine Ham and Jake Brewer from the Washington Post

For those of you not under the bubble of the Washington media, there was a story here a few weeks ago that had a great deal of interest.  A young man who worked in the Obama White House and was of the progressive strain of the Democratic Party, died in a bicycle race.  He happened to be married to a Conservative political pundit, which created a modern-day Carville and Matilin story, only with the very sad outcome.

The whole tragedy got me thinking; could I be married to a woman with whom I had such stark political differences?  The answer turns out to be a resounding "NO", but what is behind it is worth a little discussion and introspection.

I have dated liberal women.  I have dated liberal women for brief periods of time and enjoyed it.  But I have never (to my knowledge)  been in a long romantic relationship with anyone left of center.  Either I tire of them, or they tire of me.  Mostly the latter.  I thought a lot about Jake Brewer, and I thought about what it takes to love someone with whom one disagrees.  I thought that perhaps Jake, and others who are able to love those of vastly different ideologies, was a better person than I.  That goes for Mary Katharine Ham also.

But then I began to think about what I believe.  My political ideology stems from very fundamental and foundational views of the human condition and man's relationship to others and to the government.  In other words, my political ideology is not unimportant or ephemeral.  It is part of who I am, and because it is so dearly held, I have a basic prejudice against those who disagree with it.  And that prejudice boils down to this:  if I cannot trust their judgment on issues as transcendent as these, why would I trust their judgment on matters more trivial?  If my political bent sounds religious to you, you're onto something--because I'm thinking that as I read what I have written. I could find a woman with whom I am in complete agreement about how to raise children, division of labor in the house, finances, and what to watch on TV, who captivates me physically and intellectually, who shares my love of travel and of sitting around reading--but if she belittles free markets, if she embraces socialized medicine, if she fetishizes redistribution of income, if she believes in MORE government in our lives rather than LESS--I would have to look elsewhere.

To be blunt, I cannot fathom the life that these two accomplished young people had together.  I could not do what they did.  Don't get me wrong--there is not political harmony in my house.  We disagree on certain things--but on the big political questions, we are generally in accord.

Perhaps I put too much stake in politics.  That there are far more important things in life.  Perhaps these two discovered that in each other, and I have so very much to learn.  Such is likely.  But in the meantime, I stay mired in the muck of my own making.

Advertising advertising

'Nuff said.

A classic caption contest from the old days

Any discussion of Hillary Clinton's toughness, or whatever, is incomplete without reference to this photo from 2007:

Propose a caption in the comments.

Sunset over Texas

Last night, over the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

The Hammer's College Football Roundup: Woche Funf

Did you catch Clemson and those papist bastards playing down in Death Valley last evening? What a frustrating game to watch. I'm not a Clemson fan but as you know my hierarchy of being (in descending order) is WolfPack, God, country, sports bar, family, ACC, vehicle. Come to think of it move 'vehicle' up a couple of spots. Anyway I'm a fan of just about anybody who's playing Notre Dame and last night I was crapping in high cotton (for three quarters anyway). Then Clemson lost their nerve. They tightened up and started playing NOT TO LOSE. We've all seen it a million times. The Tiger offense went from a balanced, slashing, yardage machine to a run left, run right and then try up the middle, predictable three and out machine. It was ridiculous. Notre Dame was down 21-3 going into the fourth quarter then the Tiger defense starting giving the Irish the two things a good offense needs, time and space, and the Roman scum took advantage. If not for a couple of late mistakes by the Irish, Clemson would have lost by ten. Note to Dabo, run your damn offense. Sitting on the ball with a quarter to go almost never works. It's boring, the kids aren't having fun and things can go to shit REAL QUICK. Clemson is DAMN lucky they won.

I think we can now say Flawda and Michigan are back. The Gators looked so good against #3 Ole Miss it was scary. UF quarterback Will Grier looked great, throwing for 270 yards and 4 touchdowns. In my humble opinion the only thing keeping these guys from being top five is their running game. Put it this way, Florida TEAM rushing after five games is 703, LSU back Leonard Fournette has 864 yards after FOUR games. There you go.

How 'bout them Wolverines! Jim Harbaugh has got Big Blue cranking! Check this out, Mary-land had 76 passing yards with three picks and 29 yards on the ground. This is like the gold standard of offensive suck. If NCSU had played Mary-Land yesterday it woulda been a good game...unfortunately. Anyway I am really looking forward to Michigan/Michigan State!

But the week's suckiest suckfest was not in College Park, oh no, it was in Illinois somewhere (not a clue where U of I is, Urbana maybe?). Nebraska had the ball leading 13-7 and Illinois has no timeouts. All the Cornhuskers need do is take a knee a couple of times and game over. But what do they do? Why pass the ball of course...TWICE. The Illini get the ball back on downs and score winning 14-13. Well done coach. You want to know what's wrong with Nebraska? Sports management that's what. Those idiots took a league like the Big 8 with great football and great basketball and fuqed it all up. No more Oklahoma v Nebraska. The thing is Nebraska is NOT a Big Ten school and they know it. They are lost. They have no identity now. Oh well, they still got those hot farm girls LOL!

Ohio State won and Michigan State won, both ugly. TCU beat Texas like a drum (lots of problems in Austin), Baylor took no chances with Texas Tech and jumped on them early (well done coach), UCLA went down to Arizona State and what about poor Georgia? They were favorites over Alabama between the hedgerows but just could not overcome these disadvantages! The Tide killed them. Northwestern rolled and is undefeated along with the Iowa Hawkeyes who beat a pretty good Wisconsin team on the road.

In local action (local to me of course, who gives a shit where you are) my WolfPack, after putting up big numbers against chump competition played a bruised and batter (but talented) Lewis-ville squad and got their ass kicked. We came in ranked 16th nationwide in rushing offense, we got 45 yards yesterday. Add in a couple of big turnovers which resulted in at least a 14 point swing and, well we stunk. That is all.

UNC came back against Ga. Tech. I heard a bit of this game on the radio and I though Tech had it. Very disappointed in this game. The U lost to friggin' Cincinnati for Pete's sake! So long perfect record. Duke won, Va. Tech lost and UVA took a personal day (they needed one).


That's it. I wish it would stop raining but it's a good day for hanging around watching football and gettin' jiggy with mama. Now...don't you have somewhere you can go?

CW Marco Rubio for President Fund: $5400.00!!!!

Third quarter fund raising stats should be coming in from all of the candidates over the next few days, and we'll start to see some separation of the men and women from the boys and girls.  Running and winning takes some cash, friends, so think about digging deep and laying a little cash out there for Marco Rubio!  Use the form provided to the right on the blog or print the picture that I've included here.  I will soon post a link so that you can do all of this online, but I'd like to test it out first.

Big Fat Friday Free For All

Awww.....sorry to hear things haven't been going your way. Life can be tough like that. Why not take a few minutes so share with the people that care?

No weigh in today. I've been a little naughty this week.

Trump's Leading, So Why Wont He Quit?

Trump 23, Carson 13, Fiorina 13, Rubio 9, Bush 8, Cruz 6, Kasich 2, Huckabee 2, Christie 1, Paul 2, Jindal 1, Santorum 0, Walker, Pataki 0, Graham 1

Talk about spoiled, arrogant, entitled, self-centered and stupid, the GOP establishment takes the cake (you know, apart from the DEMOCRAT establishment). Have a look at the latest poll. Now I would describe Bush, Rubio, Kasich, Christie and Graham as establishment candidates. Trump, Carson, Fiorina, Cruz and Huckabee would be "outsiders" in my view. So, let's do a little math. The "outsiders" account for 57%, the establishment 21% (Jindal and Paul defy categorization but they account for only 3%). These numbers sound about right to me.

So who makes up that 21% I wonder, or more to the point who is Washington working FOR? Who is for open immigration and sweeping trade bills? Who is for outsourcing American jobs like at Disney, half of Silicon Valley and (just today) Toys R Us? Who thinks the GOP is just fine the way it is and wants to change nothing? Well the donor class of course. The quid pro quo, mega-wealthy who are getting wealthier by the minute along along with their sycophantic "professional" Republicans who are loyal to party rather than ideals.

These people (along with the Democrat establishment) are attacking Trump on a daily basic. Incredibly they constantly call for Trump to withdraw from the race. Now Jeb is a different story. He has cratered since early summer losing about two thirds of his support but gee, somehow for him "the polls don't matter". You see he's bankrolled by the fat-cats and unless something better comes along he'll will be around to the bitter end (Rubio and Kasich are desperately trying to be that "something better"). If money can fix it, it ain't a problem and believe me, the establishment have no qualms about buying an election. Hell, that's what they do. Jeb said recently we've only started our television ads so let's wait and see how those play out. Yes of course, that makes perfect sense, the voters in New Hampshire have no idea who Jeb Bush is so let's introduce our candidate and watch those numbers go through the roof. You just can't beat those party consultants...absolutely brilliant!

At this point in time I'd say the dolts haven't figured out yet they aren't running against the outsiders, they're running against each other. Same goes for the outsiders. If Trump loses support either Carson or Fiorina pick it up, it doesn't go to Jeb or Rubio. So I have to conclude that unless there's some secret weapon waiting in the wings the establishment is in deep, deep do do.

Here's the problem. Sixty plus percent of Republicans say the Republican Party has "betrayed" them, 45% say they are "afraid" of their government. These kinds of numbers do not bode well for an insider from either party. People are pissed. People are sick and tired of being sick and tired. I think it's clear 2016 will be a year of throwing the bastards out, so my question is... why won't Jeb quit?

A "Good Man" Gone Bad

I'm getting a little sick of this "who me" attitude by the establishment. After Boehner's announcement that he's resigning, rather than being contrite they're doubling down. We've done all we could do they say. Everything possible to stop the Obama agenda was done and no one could have done more. All this is just a huge overreaction by the "crazies" and Speaker Boehner, being the "good man" that he is, is falling on his sword "for the good of the party". By the way, isn't it a shame we've lost this "true conservative" based on no more than the hysterical howls of "false prophets"?

What a crock! This is a lie from beginning to end. The fact is Boehner never had a plan. He never had an agenda for stopping Obama. It's simply wasn't a priority for him. Furthermore I'll even go so far to say if the opportunity to repeal Obamacare had been handed to the Republican leadership on a silver platter, they wouldn't have taken it. Some would argue it indeed was.

Maggie Thatcher once said you have to win the argument before you win the vote. What she meant was it's the job of every politician to educate and persuade. That's what leadership is. But just like GWB before, Boehner and McConnell ignore and ignored this vital function of leadership. For example, right now at this very moment our party leaders should be hitting Planned Parenthood with everything they've got. There is NO WAY funding for this criminal organization should even be an issue. But it is. Why? Because our "leaders" are intimidated by Obama. They are absolutely paralyzed with fear of a government shutdown for which they will be blamed (as they see it) and OMG they could, just might, lose their positions.

In our system of checks and balances if Congress doesn't protect its turf and push back against an out of control President, then what we end up with is an all powerful executive with near dictatorial powers. And so it has been with Obama. The idea Boehner "did all he could do" is true, but not for conservatives.

The Hammer's Just Super, Superficial Analysis of This Week's College Football Action: Week 4

Well... I think I'll take a shot at who the early Heisman pick might possibly be: LSU's sophomore running back Leonard Fournettte. This guy is 6-1, 230 pounds and has excellent quickness and great open field speed. He's burning up yards like the Road Runner averaging damn near 9 yards per carry. Two hundred yard games are becoming a habit with this guy. If he's not on your short list you need a new list. Anyway LSU is 3-0 with two of those wins on the road. Looks like they're back in the hunt after last year's disappointing record, 8-5 (4-4 in league).

But the game of the week was TCU at Texas Tech. Last week the Red Raiders went to Fayetteville and hung one on the Razorbacks (and talking a little smack in the post-game news conference). At 3-0 they were definitely on my "must keep an eye on" list. I really thought they had a chance against TCU in Lubbock (the armpit of Texas). But let's face it, neither of these teams play a lot of defense when just a small, tiny, minuscule, atom of a defensive effort would have won the game. Both racked up more yards than '68 Ohio State against Hampden-Sydney on PlayStation 3 and finally TCU got a lucky tip in the endzone to win. Great game to watch, unless you're the defensive coordinator.

You think Flawda might be back? They're 4-0 and 2-0 in conference. Now granted they haven't played anyone that great but ECU is no slouch and Kentucky surprised Misery yesterday so they ain't too bad. The Gators have done what's been asked, and that's all you can ask. But coming back in the fourth quarter 13 points down against Tennessee shows a lot of character. I don't know, I don't think they're there yet but the trajectory is good. Not a fan necessarily but I do miss The Vols and Gators being competitive. Did I ever tell you I almost went to Florida? It's true, the Hammer was almost a Gator. Of course I was almost a Clemson Tiger, a Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket and a Tulane Green Wave(er) as well. Can't remember the details but as I recall something about in-state tuition swayed my choice. $300 a semester vs $5k, yeah that was it I'm pretty sure.

Anyway speaking of teams I miss being good the Michigan Wolverines absolutely destroyed the BYU Men in Black on bicycles 31-0. I'd say they're a season away but Harbaugh has Big Blue back on track. They lost to a dynamite Utah squad first game in a competitive matchup and in two weeks have (presently) undefeated Michigan State in Ann Arbor. I like the Spartans as well but an upset wouldn't be surprising. In fact I'll stick my neck out and predict a Michigan win. This is a "statement" game and Harbaugh wants this one badly.

Since I brought up Utah did you see what the Utes did to Oregon? 62-20 in Eugene! Man this is some embarrassing shit for the Quack Attack! Phil Knight probably put some extra phytoceramides in his '55 Glenfarclas. That's the worst defeat for a duck since Phil Robertson got his first shotgun.

Also out West UCLA is looking DAMN GOOD. Jim Mora has a hotshot freshman quarterback and they owned a good Arizona team. It didn't help that Arizona's ball security was about as good as the federal govt's internet security, but hey, that's the way the ball fumbles.

Ole Miss is picking up where they left off last year. The Georgia Bulldogs are looking awesome and may actually be favorites against "Bama next week. Baylor is ringing the cash register, just like last year. There are a ton of undefeateds out there including our own Clemson, FSU and NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY (but that could change). CW's Virginia lost to Boise State and is 1-3, but of the three ACC teams I just mentioned, what would their record be against Notre Dame, UCLA (on the road) and Boise State?

Well that's it, enjoy your rainy Sunday.

Herewith, a dumpeth of the tabs

It is the cocktail hour on Friday, and I have many accumulated tabs with interesting stuff to read. Enjoy, or not.

Twenty cognitive biases that screw up your decisions. I sent this one to a number of my fellow corporate tools. Judging by the roaring silence that returned, they must have taken it personally. To be clear, several of these screw up my decisions.

The Bolsheviks kick out Trotsky. Or something like that.

An Aussie writes about Austin.

In dog-bites-man news, The New York Times reports on the earnings of college graduates, by gender, and entirely out of context.

How reliable are the climate models? Well, reliable enough that a pope believes them.

Islam's tragic fatalism. Money quote:

Today most Muslims have little knowledge about these old debates, but they live within cultural codes largely defined by the dogmatists, who gained the upper hand in the war of ideas in early Islam. In these codes, human free will is easily sacrificed to fatalism, science and reason are trivialized, and philosophy is frowned upon.

The "science and reason are trivialized" part seems particularly important. And that was in The New York Times, too.

Biotech stocks crater after Hillary Clinton advocates destroying their rate of return:

Call a doctor! The biotech sector just closed out one of its worst weeks in years after Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton raised concerns about what she described as “price gouging” by health-care and biotech companies.

Hey, by all means go after "rents," but start with somebody else's!

Judging by your blogger's Facebook feed, it is axiomatic on both the right and the left that John Boehner's resignation is a good thing. Conservatives and liberals seem to agree that this will hasten the destruction of the Republican Party, which, curiously, is the one thing about which they agree. We live in interesting times.

Have a good one.

Inequality: Do something about "rents"

The best article about inequality that I have ever read.

That is all for now, perhaps more later.

Big Fat Friday Free For All

What's got you down, friend? Your candidate beginning his long, slow fall? The Pope sound a little too Hollywood liberal for your taste?  Are you going to drive to Charlottesville to sit in the rain tonight watching a football game?

Share your pain.  That's what we're here for.

154.4 this morning.  That's right, Hammer.  Nearly three months after the great weigh in, five pounds under.

CW Marco Rubio for President Fund--$3700.00 as of Today!

Just checked the fundraiser page and this little blog has raised $3700 so far!  Let's keep it going friends.  The bottom line here is that he who cannot be named is largely going to self-finance (which I have no problem with), so we're going to have to raise some cabbage!  Print the jpg file below and mail your contribution in today!  Don't forget that all important Solicitor Tracking Number (1197).

Autumn Thoughts From The Shore

The geese are increasingly overhead these days, loudly demonstrating the Doppler Principle as they head south.  I'm in the mancave early this morning to get a few things done, and their honking puts me in an excellent state of mind.  Here in my little corner of the world, there are a few reliable signs of Autumn.  Councill Farms out on 50 turns their big roadside produce market into a pumpkin and mum emporium with games and activities for the kiddies.  There are of course, also the geese, some of whom choose our cove to rest in, though their noise indicates very little rest that I can observe.  Finally, the local gentry is beginning to break out their hunting cammies for everyday wear, a fashion choice with which I maintain a respectful distance, but popular here nevertheless.

My goose hunting buddy has moved to the Old Dominion, so I'm not sure if I'll do much of that here this season--though I am reliably informed that Mudge has his duck boat up and operating, so I may slip down there for some birds.  I'm still eating the deer I got last season, but soon it will be gone and there will be room in my freezer for another.  Mudge has apparently added a few stands to the hunting ground, and I look forward to spending some time there.  Always love when Mudge talks to me about hunting--he refers to "your (my) stand" when he talks about the place I sit.

We went to the trouble of installing a gas fireplace in our bedroom over the summer, replacing what appeared to be a fully functional traditional fireplace with this version.  The Kitten didn't like the idea of actual flames in the bedroom from the traditional version, so now we have this wonderful gas version with a timer.  I'm excited for it to come on at 4AM and get the room toasty warm for me when I rise an hour later into what previously was the cold, winter darkness.

Our persimmon tree fruits this time of year, dropping its lovelies on the ground for my hungry dogs to lap up.  The Kitten is driven to distraction by this, as it also means that they gain a few pounds.  So we put up a little green mesh fence around the base of the tree to separate them from the source of their girth.  They circle forlornly, looking back at the house occasionally to seek some indication of what great wrong they had committed to be punished thusly.

Capitalism: The World's Only Hope

"Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system."
Pope Francis

Clearly our communist Pope needs a lesson in something other than Marxian economics. To begin with "trickle-down" was a pejorative term invented by Democrats Tip O'Neal and Jim Wright to describe Reagan's across the board tax cuts of the early 80's. They wanted a catch phrase the low-info crowd could understand and remember. It was used quite a bit and still in use today (obviously) along with "VooDoo economics" a term our Republican progressives gave their Democrat progressive pals on a silver platter (thanks George I, pre-shate that). So if the Reagan years is the "trickle down" the Pope is referring to, I would suggest he read something other than Das Kapital or the non compos mentis ramblings of Jose Carlos Mariategui. Tell you what Mr. Pope, try comparing the Reagan BOOM to any country at any point in history. It's like comparing... well here's an illustration.

The Reagan BOOM                   Obama's "Expansion"

Did you get that? Good. Also, don't tell me we abuse and exploit our poor. We do a good job in the US taking care of our "less fortunate". Too good a job in my estimation. Good Grief we bend over backwards to provide opportunity and education to our wealthy "downtrodden". And when I say wealthy I mean just that. Here's a nice chart you may wish to peruse.

As you can see our air-conditioned, plasma tv, Obamaphone loving bottom 10% live better than the top 10% in most of the world. They are given more goodies than all but Canada, Sweden and Australia, and those countries don't have a tenth the scumbag, lazy-ass, pieces of shit we have in this once great country. And how do we afford to provide such a bounty to the non-producing, human refuge within our borders (and beyond)? It's called capitalism. Or would you prefer a system like Cuba? 

One of Fidel's "homes" / Line at government "store"

So Pope, how 'bout backing off the badmouthing of Capitalism! If you had a brain in your head you'd know it's the only thing that DOES WORK! It offers more hope to mankind than your brand of Christianity ever could. 

A shining little moment in fact-checking

Saturday morning, imagine my surprise to read this little gem in the Austin-American Statesman:

In a tweet, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott suggested a legislated end to government aid to clinics affiliated with abortion providers including Planned Parenthood fueled fewer pregnancies and abortions.

"After Texas defunded Planned Parenthood, both the Unintended Pregnancy & Abortion Rates Dropped," Abbott wrote on Twitter Aug. 25, 2015.

"PolitiFact Texas" accordingly does its thing, and concludes that Abbott's tweet was "mostly false," because the trend toward lower teen pregnancies and fewer abortions in Texas was already in place before the new restrictions that provoked so much controversy. Fine, easy-peezy.

But isn't the headline just a little bit wrong? Wouldn't something along the lines of "Wendy Davis was wrong: Defunding Planned Parenthood and restricting abortion had no effect" be more useful?

It seems to me that if Abbott is wrong, Wendy Davis and her ilk were also wrong. While one might theoretically thread the needle to an asymmetric conclusion, that offends Occam's Razor, which offends me.

Final reminder-note to irritate everybody: I am pro-choice, but oppose government money going to abortion, so I give my own money to charities that make it possible for poor women to get them. I thought that might be relevant.

Carry on.

Run Joe RUN!

Can you imagine the conversation among women when they know Joe Biden is in the vicinity?
"Watch the old guy, he's grabby. And don't let your Kathy near him either, he doesn't age discriminate".

Carly In The Cross-Hairs

Getty photo

During the last debate, one of the participants pointed to a Yale professor's assessment of Carly Fiorina's time as CEO of HP.  Fiorina dismissed it as the ramblings of a noted Clintonista.

Well, the professor in question--has laid his objections out in fairly substantial fashion at Politico, citing both her tenure at HP and her explanations therefor, in addition to attempting to build his non-partisan bona fides.

I have cited corporate bankruptcies here as evidence against one of the candidate's fitness for office, and so it should surprise no one that I am raising the issue of Ms. Fiorina's time at HP as evidence of hers.  The article is worth reading, as most of us have only gotten Ms. Fiorina's gussied up view of her performance.

I still think she is a qualified and substantial candidate, but there is plenty here to chew on.

The Hammer's College Football Roundup: Week 3

Tough day at Ala-Goddamn-bama. When you go through two quarterbacks with three interceptions, add in a couple more turnovers and have plays like this go against you, well you can figure the football gods ain't exactly looking out for you today. Henry got his yardage but Ole Miss was too much for them. On one of the interceptions a defensive back absolutely flattened Tide QB Cooper Bateman on a crackback block. It was a thing of beauty, completely legal, clean hit but it illustrates that when you're on that field you had best be aware of your surroundings otherwise you might lose your smile.
Down the road Auburn didn't do much better. One of the Auburn linebackers this week when asked about LSU's running game said 'no big deal, we got a good front seven and hey man, no sweat, we're on it'. Yeah, sure you are. LSU gashed the War Eagles for 400+ yards on the ground with Fournette racking up an incredible 228. No Eagles here, war or otherwise, just turkeys and the feathers are all over the field (tip of the hat to Hollywood Henderson).

Did you see Stanford kicked Southern Cal's ass in the Coliseum? What did I tell you? Stanford has been doing shit like this since I was in diapers (well the first time I was in diapers). They lose to teams they should kill and beat teams they should get killed by. Don't ever bet a Stanford game! The Trojans were giving 10 and lost by 10. Next week it'll probably be the exact opposite.
Misery had a tough time against friggin' piss-ass UConn winning 9-6. Didn't see anything about the game really but the Tigers got a safety first quarter and a third quarter touchdown to UConn's two field goals. Sounds like they phoned this one in.
Lewisville lost again, this time to Clemson. They showed a little life but they're 0-3. Petrino might need a girlfriend. The Gamecocks got owned by Georgia, they got real quarterback problems in Columbia. Georgia Tech lost to the Irish in South Bend and UCLA snuck by BYU 24-23.
Ohio State looked like crap against Northern Illinois but you know, it's Ohio State. They just went through the motions and got a W. No big deal.

In ACC action I'm pleased to report the Virginia Cavaliers got their first win of the season at home against a powerful William and Mary squad. CW attended the game and apparently thought it was Halloween with the getup he plastered all over Facebook. As you can see he went dressed as either a middle-aged drunk who wandered into WalMart in his pajamas or a young, hip, twenty-something metrosexual looking for a big night out of mimosas in one of Charlottesville's cool clubs. Either way it was a BIG MISS! As we all know CW is a teetotaler, but in terms of fashion maybe he needs a drink. He damn sure needs SOMETHING!
FSU spanked BC, Carolina destroyed Illinois (worried about those guys!) Duke lost to what appears to be a damn fine Northwestern team. Va. Tech beat Purdue and Pitt (ACC MY ASS!) lost to TigerHawk's Iowa (he denies ever having heard of Princeton during football season). The WolfPack won again against ODU in Norfolk. Hey, is Norfolk not the ugliest town in America? I swear I'd rather be stranded in Pyongyang wearing an Uncle Sam outfit than that shithole! Oh well, we got a win.

That's it, now kiss my ass and bring on the pros.

Virginia 35 William and Mary 29

As we left the stadium as the sun went down last evening, Brother Tom--who had graced Rob and me with his insightful football analysis all afternoon, had a truly inspiring moment of insight.  "Neither fan base is happy".  And he was right.

William and Mary fans had a right to be pissed...they outplayed us, but had a few big play breakdowns that sealed their fate.  But they played better.

Virginia?  Defense was a sieve.  Offense couldn't move the ball for the final 1/3 of the game.  Penalties, penalties, penalties.  No time outs left with 5:30 left in the game.  Special teams miscues.  Coaching. Coaching. Coaching.

Mike London simply isn't a big time coach.  He doesn't seem to be able to stay focused and manage the game for its entirety.  Flashes here and there, but he can't maintain.  It's time to go.

Annals of death: The stuff we care about, and don't

In the last 20 hours or so I heard two bits of curious thinking from, well, liberals, in quotidian refinement of the endless Narrative to which we are all subject in these parlous times.

Last night your blogger and his fetching better half took in Steve Earle and the Dukes at Austin's classic Paramount Theater. The show was great and entertaining, apart from the usual left-wing political digression that one has to endure at so many artistic moments these days. Earle rambled on incoherently about the environment for a couple of minutes, and then talked about what an awesome thing it was that we banned DDT, in order that the large birds could rebuild their population. For some reason that defies easy explanation for somebody so learned as Earle, he skipped over the part about 198 million human cases of malaria every year, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of needless deaths, 90% of which occur in Africa. I bet he also thinks #blacklivesmatter, but not, giving weight to his expressed preferences, if they are African.

All of this would be much easier to take if it had not been limpid-pool clear for more than a decade that the ban on DDT -- as opposed to banning aerial spraying, which is an entirely different matter -- was responsible for millions of needless human deaths. But nooooo, Earle was delighted that there was a pair of nesting red-tailed hawks on a building near his Manhattan apartment and apparently wholly uninterested that more Africans die every year from malaria than the aggregate American deaths in all of World War II. And the ignorant but very satisfied Austin audience applauded.

This evening I enjoyed a short drive from the office to the Lady Bird Lake running trail, and got more than usually irritated at NPR. It seems that the feds have released new data on workplace deaths in the United States during 2014. NPR used the report to go after the oil and gas industry, which piled up occupational deaths at a rate roughly five times the baseline carnage of 3.3 per 100,000 workers. This was all very interesting, if only NPR had mentioned that in 2014 the oil and gas sector in the United States was at the peak of a multi-generational boom, and that deaths were no doubt going to collapse in 2015 along with the rig count. Whatever. Here are two facts that NPR did not report:

Women accounted for a mere 8% of the workplace fatalities. Since NPR would normally obsess about a 12:1 gender disparity in any data, one can only conclude that it deliberately ignored this elephantine factoid in the room because people might wonder if it accounted for some of the aggregate average disparity in pay between the genders.

As curiously, there were significant differences in fatality risk by "race," counting as the government does. Latinos died at a rate of 3.6 per 100,000, a tad higher than whites (3.4 per 100,000), but well ahead of African-Americans (3.0 per 100,000) and Asian-Americans (a desk-jobbish 1.7 per 100,000). In our social-justice world, how to you fail to call attention to those disparities? Oh. Wait. Because narrative.

The people who shape our culture wouldn't know intellectual honesty if it bit off their big toe and ate it with a nice Chianti.

Carly Fiorina, Planned Parenthood, and the Government Shutdown

For those with the stomach and the curiosity, I invite you to the 5:59 mark of the video above.  Then, read Vox.com's Sarah Kliff, who claims Mrs. Fiorina is wrong about what she described, saying "But the things Fiorina describes — the legs kicking, the intact "fully formed fetus," the heart beating, the remarks about having to "harvest its brain" — are pure fiction".

Now, I am not The Hammer.  I don't advocate a "burn it down and start all over" strategy because Republican leaders have been insufficiently aggressive and/or successful in attaining the things that they ran on.  But for crying out loud--if we do not stand for the protection of that BABY on the platter in that video--because that's what it was--ex utero, it is no longer a fetus--then we stand for nothing.

Does the government have to stay shut down forever?  No.  Might we actually in the end, fold and pass something that funds Planned Parenthood?  Maybe.  Is closing the government and making American lives inconvenient for a few weeks in order to bring the light of shame upon the practice of infanticide for profit worth the cost?  You goddamn bet you .

UPDATE:  A handy discussion of the serve and volley on this subject at The Federalist.

Communists, Muslims and Communist-Muslims

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•It never fails, one is what one is be they an individual or a political party. The British Labour Party's brief foray into moderation is over and they have come home to their roots with new leader Jeremy Corbyn. Just as Bill Clinton was an anomaly, a political outlier, Tony Blair's "New Labour" has gone the way of Boehner and McConnell's backbone...never to be heard from again. Today Blair is reviled within Labour as much as Jimmy Carter or Richard Nixon were by their parties years ago (or Boehner and McConnell now). It's in the DNA, you are what you are. Welcome home comrade.

•Reportedly our beloved President is taking 10K Muslim refugees "from Syria" almost immediately, the overwhelming majority military age males. 300-350K are in the pipeline. Well gosh, where are the Christians? They are the ones being persecuted by all sides in the Islamic world are they not? How about women and children? Wouldn't they get first priority? Is this a humanitarian effort or a means to inject a few more Boston bombers into the US?

•At this point in the game is there any doubt that to the extent Baraq Obama has a religion, that religion is Islam? I'm not making an accusation nor am I speculating. I am making a judgement based on the evidence, and the evidence is clear. Radical Islam is stronger, more influential, more wealthy and much more dangerous under the "leadership" of our President than anyone could have possibly predicted. It's really quite astounding if you think about it. Militarily we are weaker than we've ever been in my lifetime, the Russians are setting up shop in Syria and we're allowing Iran a nuclear program. The frog is now boiling.



 

The West and the rest

Anybody who has ever dealt with investment bankers knows that "league tables" are the all-important standings among the intensely competitive firms that raise money for the businesses of the world. Smaller firms which cannot lay claim to any global ranking slice the data to show local or segment dominance -- "we lead in pre-revenue biotechnology follow-on offerings for companies with sub-billion dollar market capitalization," and such.

But what about the freaking global league tables? See below for a map of the world with the countries sized by "free float equity market capitalization" -- what public companies in those markets are worth, in the aggregate, and be proud.

That shit be real.

'nuff said

Transactional democracy and "free stuff"

Apropos of Monday's post on democracy and transactions, we offer this rather arresting chart from Heritage via TaxProf and Instapundit:

Looked at this way, Mitt Romney's infamous "47 percent" comment might have been "60 percent" and remained within the boundary of political truth. Which, of course, only would have made it more catastrophic.

Fortunately for people who earn more than they consume and pay more in taxes than they collect in benefits, American voters are not, as individuals, moved only by their individual economic considerations. Democrats wonder "what's the matter with Kansas?", meaning that they are bewildered by voters who "need" more from government but vote against the party that would deliver more. And there are of course people in the top two quintiles who vote for more "free stuff" even though it comes out of their own pocket. Indeed, the real fights in American politics are often about questions of values or symbols that influence identity far more than mere money. That does not mean they are any less often available to be traded for votes, but they are certainly less susceptible to rendering on a graph.

We see the economic and non-economic considerations most acutely in the candidacy of Donald Trump. He guns for the popularly "undeserving" rich by proposing to tax carried interest as ordinary income, which hurts the "hedge fund guys" and will surely result in more "free stuff" for some people in lower quintiles. He argues forcefully for reduced immigration on that basis as well -- an influx of low-skilled workers who compete against our least-skilled certainly depresses the wages of workers in the lower two quintiles. But Trump also appeals to American identity, with most of his rhetoric around "winning," national greatness, and a fundamentally traditionalist view of American exceptionalism, including some of its best (leadership) and worst (nativist) strains. Whatever one thinks of Trump, his meritage of "free stuff" and inspirational themes feels like a winner -- or might be if it were polished up a bit and disassociated with Trump the man -- however much the mixture offends both the ideological purists and the politically correct.

Last Night's Debate: Dumpster Fire, With A Few Bright Spots

Conducting a debate with 11 people at one time is a tough job, and I would not wish to volunteer for it.  That said, CNN did, and it was a complete dumpster fire.  There was far too little Hugh Hewitt and far too much Jake Tapper.  Most of all, there was far too much focus on the front-runner, whose time speaking doubled some of the field, and when he wasn't speaking, he was being referenced.

The big story of the night was Carly Fiorina, and justifiably so. Her performance was strong, very strong, and she had some of the most memorable riffs of the night, including this bit on Planned Parenthood. 

Although I am biased of course, the punditti seem to agree that my man Rubio came in second.  I was concerned with how quiet he was in the first hour, that his strategy of not being the springbutt was backfiring in this format, but he came on strong throughout most of the night.  Here is one of his very strong moments from the debate.

I thought both Jeb Bush and Chris Christie helped themselves last night, and Mike Huckabee once again showed how light he can be on his feet in debates.  Ted Cruz just plain bothers me--we aren't connecting on many levels, even though I agree with him on several subjects.

There are two huge surprises thus far in this race; the first is the identity of the front-runner, and the second is the prolonged fade of Rand Paul.  He had some real moments of lucidity last night, and if you want a candidate who projects a more careful and less adventurous foreign policy, he's your man. But he simply is nowhere to be found.  I truly believed he would come in second place in this race, and I said it many times.  It looks like I will be wrong on this, as in many other things.

Ben Carson.  I really like the guy.  Someone on Twitter wrote last night "Ben Carson for My Next Door Neighbor".  I think that sums him up.  I'd really like to have the dude as a friend.  Less sure of having him as my President.