Thursday, January 31, 2013

Christie Hefner: Global Warming Boosts Chicago Murder Rate!!!

Ms. Hefner actually implies that hotter summers in Chicago raise the murder rates in her home town of Chicago. Joe Scarborough shot her down like a skeet shooter does a clay pigeon:
The average high temperature July, the hottest month in both Chicago and the much-safer New York City, is the same for both cities at 84 degrees Fahrenheit. Scarborough took a moment to sardonically thank Hefner for that statement on behalf of conservative bloggers.
Game, set, match.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

DC in bits and pieces

Jennifer Rubin has a column that outlines the various obstacles Hagel faces to be confirmed as Head Honcho at DOD. Feinstein and Obungler get reamed and Rubio gets praise for his immigration stance, which even Rush approves of.

Neil Heslin, Father Of Newtown Victim, Heckled By Pro-Gun Activists (VIDEO, PHOTOS)


This isn't heckling by any stretch of the imagination. Another complete hoax engineered by the dishonest corrupt media that tries to attack responsible gun owners. One person saying the Second Amendment must be respected isn't heckling. It's a statement about the Constitution and how responsible gun owners have a right to bear arms. Left-wing gobbledegook that tries to make an urban legend to promote its dishonest agenda.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Ed Driscoll on TNR's Owner's Gobbledegook.

Chris Hughes is a co-founder of Facebook and at age 29, richer than any guy in his twenties has any right to be.... Here's what he said about the newest toy in his collection, The New Republc.
The journalism in these pages will strive to be free of party ideology or partisan bias, although it will showcase passionate writing and will continue to wrestle with the primary questions about our society. Our purpose is not simply to tell interesting stories, but to always ask why these stories matter and tie their reporting back to our readers. We hope to discern the hidden patterns, to connect the disparate facts, and to find the deeper meaning, a layer of understanding beyond the daily headlines.
Yes, Happy Horseshit to be sure, but the first clause about "striving" sounds like "Methinks the lady doth protest too much" in a screeching soprano. Here's Jonah Goldberg:
The new New Republic claims it will be free of party ideology or partisan bias. I honestly don’t know exactly what Hughes means by this, but it strikes me as a very bad start. A New Republic that is liberalism-free has no reason to exist (much as a National Review that is conservatism-free is pointless). A liberal New Republic that pretends it’s free of liberalism while it attempts to advance liberalism is a huge step backwards. After all, why should the reader trust a bunch of committed liberal opinion journalists if they can’t even be honest about what they are or what they are trying to do?
Ann Althouse makes a different point:
Here‘s a HuffPo article from last March about Hughes’s purchase of TNR, noting that he was “a key player in President Obama’s online organizing efforts in 2008.” Why would we expect this man — who’s only 29, by the way — to strive to be free of party ideology or partisan bias? I’ve got to assume the striving is toward seeming to be free of party ideology and partisan bias, because that’s what journalists always say they are doing when they have ideological and partisan goals.

Based on that interview with Obama, I’d say Hughes is not striving that hard or he’s not good at what he’s striving to do or — most likely — he only wants to appeal to Democrats, so he only wants to do enough to seem to be free of party ideology and partisan bias to Democrats. Is this enough to make our target audience feel good about the nourishment they’re getting from this source? The good feeling is some combination of seeming like professional journalism while satisfying their emotional needs that are intertwined their political ideology and love of party.
Ed Driscoll sums it all up:

The New Republic’s subscriber base is much smaller than Newsweek’s before the lights went out (the New York Times claimed yesterday that TNR had 44,177 subscribers, with an additional 1,700 or so of newsstand sales for each issue). But do TNR readers also want to pretend that they’re reading a magazine that’s “free of party ideology or partisan bias?”

Perhaps they do: conservatives and libertarians are almost invariably happy to openly describe themselves as conservatives and libertarians; the left wants to believe that from the top down, they’re completely free of ideology and partisanship. They’re simply “pragmatic,” as Jonah notes, favoring FDR-inspired “bold experimentation” — all the while building a philosophy in which no portion of life is untrammeled by politics (because the personal is political is personal is political, ad infinitum). Liberal newspaper and broadcast journalists have played this game for 80 years or so — and continue to do so; they think the “I have no idea what my/what my colleague’s ideology is” claim is a selling point.
TNR is as dishonest and devious as the rest of the left seems to be.

And Chris Hughes can't hide it with an earnest prolegomena citing the dispassionate objective spin of TNR without his nose growing at a Pinocchio length of at least a yard/meter.

Monday, January 28, 2013

New GOP/Dem Immigration Proposal Rehash

Michelle Malkin is a veteran observer of the immigration wars:
Since Reagan, there have been seven illegal alien amnesties passed into law since 1986: ·The 1986 Immigration and Reform Control Act blanket amnesty for an estimated 2.7 million illegal aliens ·1994: The “Section 245(i)” temporary rolling amnesty for 578,000 illegal aliens ·1997: Extension of the Section 245(i) amnesty ·1997: The Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act for nearly one million illegal aliens from Central America ·1998: The Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act amnesty for 125,000 illegal aliens from Haiti ·2000: Extension of amnesty for some 400,000 illegal aliens who claimed eligibility under the 1986 act ·2000: The Legal Immigration Family Equity Act, which included a restoration of the rolling Section 245(i) amnesty for 900,000 illegal aliens]
Remember that Michelle is Filipino---the largest group trying for LEGAL immigration which is being totally overlooked---too Catholic!

Obama Wants a More Slavish Lapdog Media

Poynter has an interview with the First-Fool-in-Chief about the media.
One of the biggest factors is going to be how the media shapes debates. If a Republican member of Congress is not punished on Fox News or by Rush Limbaugh for working with a Democrat on a bill of common interest, then you’ll see more of them doing it.
You can read the rest if you want to see what a sod hole we re-elected last November.

Looks like the First Amendment is the next target on this nasty POS's agenda.

Cell Phone Usage Monitored by Congress

Congress has made it a crime to unlock your cell phone from the carrier you selected and use outside carriers! The penalty is five years in prison and $500,000!!!

Looks like Congress is in the hands of AT&T and other huge carriers.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Assault Rifle Ban Won't Get Dem Support to Pass

Five Democrat Senators and Angus King will not support the current version of the assault rifle ban proposed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein:
At least six of the 55 senators in the Democratic caucus have expressed skepticism or outright opposition to a ban, the review found. That means Democrats wouldn’t have a 51-vote majority to pass the measure, let alone the 60 needed to break a Republican filibuster to bring it to a floor vote.
Even Joe Biden is backing away from the loud support he tried to garner two weeks ago.
In his comments yesterday, Biden made no mention of an assault weapons ban, and on Jan. 24 he downplayed its importance. “I’m much less concerned, quite frankly, about what you call an assault weapon ban than I am about magazines and the number of rounds that can be held in a magazine,” Biden said.
Looks like lights out, unless Susan Collins of Maine, like any woman, changes her mind.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Google Earth Helps Reveal NorK Gulag Slave Camps

North Korea has been pursuing a holocaust of its own dissidents or relatives of dissidents for decades without significant reprisals, due to the PRC's providing cover for the terror regime in the UN. Check the link for the images and article in the Telegraph of what the NYT and geek geezer Jimmy Carter would never reveal.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Obama Now Lord of the Flies = Beelzebub!

The Telegraph has a series of photos of a fly on Obama's face while he names Kerry as Secretary of State and Brennan as CIA chief. Check the link for the photos.

Reid & McConnell Agree to Filibuster Compromise

Fix the Senate Now and its crazy DJ Sen. Merkley have been put in their place and Merkley roundly rebuked for telling influential Dem far-left nutjobs which wobbly Dem Senators to lobby at the Inauguration. For once, Reid displayed a respect for the institution of the Senate and a far-sighted awareness that sooner or later a GOP majority in the Senate might use the FTSN amendment to the rules to harm Dem agenda items. McConnell and Reid have agreed on much in the past, including signing on to Boehner's debt-ceiling proposal [as did Pelosi] to the intransigent doofus sitting in the White House a year ago, thus precipitating the fiscal cliff.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Stricken Dolphin Asks For Human Help From Scuba Divers

A dolphin with a fish hook stuck in its pectoral fin and fishing line impeding its movement asked Laros, a scuba instructor, for help during a night dive off Kona, Hawaii. The link contains the YouTube video of the amazing rescue.

The scuba diver was able to cut the lines, but the hook remained in the fin. However, the dolphin appeared able to move fully when he/she swam away five minutes later.

When I scuba-dived weekly off the huge reef in the Red Sea near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, I would often see white-tip reef sharks, a relatively harmless shark which never attacked human divers near Jeddah. However, one Sunday in the waters about five miles offshore, me and my experienced partners [I had a PADI instructor's patch] were startled by a huge rush in the water and the sight of the abundant sea life zipping away for cover in the large reef columns nearby. I didn't see it, but my partners said a huge Great White shark had swum rapidly through the water nearby and caused the commotion.

Just a couple minutes later, a pair of dolphins swam near me and took up station about fifty feet away, the first time I'd ever seen such behavior. I then understood that the dolphins were guarding me from the Great White, and I recalled many stories from the other divers in Jeddah who mentioned dolphins harassing sharks that seemed to threaten humans.

That's my fish story for today. Strange, but true.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

John Brennan: Ultimate Illiterate Suck-Up Dunce?

POTUS Obama has to surround himself with yes-men in order to keep his narcissistic balloon filled to full grandiosity. Here are some links:
In 2007, when Bush was still President and waterboarding was okay, Brennan offered up his version of political fellatio on Bush:

In an interview on the CBS Early Show on Nov. 2, 2007, reporter Harry Smith asked Brennan,
“The president has gone on record so many times saying the United States does not torture. If we acknowledge that this kind of activity goes on, you know, what does that mean, exactly, I guess?”

Brennan answered, “Well, the CIA has acknowledged that it has detained about 100 terrorists since 9/11, and about a third of them have been subjected to what the CIA refers to as enhanced interrogation tactics, and only a small proportion of those have in fact been subjected to the most serious types of enhanced procedures.”

Smith followed, “And you say some of this has born fruit.”

Brennan answered, “There has been a lot of information that has come out from these interrogation procedures that the agency has in fact used against the real hard-core terrorists. It has saved lives. And let’s not forget, these are hardened terrorists who have been responsible for 9/11, who have shown no remorse at all for the deaths of 3,000 innocents.”


Of course, that was when Bush was in charge. But when Obama took over? A new tune from Brennan: [Link has YouTube recent stint on Morning Joe where the cretinous Brennan abjures the effectiveness of what he thought was useful in 2007]

This is the critical point that disqualifies Brennan from heading up the CIA. The Director of the CIA is supposed to be the Dutch Uncle–he’s the guy (or gal) who tells the President uncomfortable truths without worrying about the political consequences. That is not Brennan. Brennan would be better off as a National Security Advisor. That position rewards someone willing to kiss the President’s ass. A CIA Director, at least in theory, is the person who should be willing to tell the President he is wrong if necessary. Brennan, the consummate ass kisser, is incapable of doing that.

If Brennan is named to head the CIA, his appointment will mark the nail in the coffin of the CIA. The CIA will now be fully a political organization incapable of telling the President the truth. Such a development augers ill for the future of the American Republic.
Here's an excerpt from Brennan's grad thesis:
“Since the press can play such an influential role in determining the perceptions of the masses, I am in favor of some degree of government censorship,” Brennan wrote. “Inflamatory [sic] articles can provoke mass opposition and possible violence, especially in developing political systems.”


So Brennan is a Nazi as well as a suck-up. Himmler without a uniform. Far right to far left. Very flexible and as the YouTube from Morning Joe demonstrates: very stupid.

'A Cloud No Bigger Than a Man's Hand'

That Cloud is the 80 Russians evacuating from Syria. Could it be a harbinger of Russian withdrawal as Assad appears to face his doom? Dunya!

Asian 40kya Linked to Chinese & Amerindians

DNA from a 40,000 year old East Asian:
was related to the ancestors of many present-day Asians and Native Americans but had already diverged genetically from the ancestors of present-day Europeans, they said.
Read the rest of the link for this fascinating triumph for Svante Paabo at the Leipzig Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Antropology which is currently the best genetic tracing institution on the planet.

Rubio Elected in 2016?

Matt Lewis in WEEK says that four years from now, we'll be inaugurating Marco Rubio as first Latino C-in-C. Let's hope he's right, cuz Hillary is not my cup of tea.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Obama Calls for "Collective Action"

Obama's Inaugural Address was distinguished by pure Grandiosity. He prattled and prated as though he had won the election by a 60-40 margin instead of 52-48, lower than his 2008 margin.

"Collective" reminds one of the notion born of the French Revolution where the concept of "Nation" indicated a sense of the general will. Obama mouthed the words "We, the People," but really meant, "We, my People," the magic 52% who are persecuted by the rich and need government on THEIR side. Obama regards the 48% of the opposition as some sort of enemy rather than those needing conversion. He'd rather attack the GOP than work with the entire 100% to improve the economy, or so the language of his speech implies throughout.

As one economist put it, the best cure for aiding the people is to get them all JOBS. Not to expand government for positions filled by Democrat cronies.

And rather than work for a better economy, this second-rater, oops, termer, would rather chase will-o'-the-wisps like climate change than work to expand businesses.

Does anyone recall this stooge talking about climate change during his campaign?

Just like he never mentioned Health Care expansion in 2008.

The Con-Man-in-Chief has just been sworn in...!

O Canada! Whither Thy Maple Leaf?

Canadians have another thing to feel inferior about. Their signature Maple Leaf has been morphed into a Norwegian variety on their latest banknotes! And the woman spokesman didn't even apologize!
“It’s rather sad. It’s not the first time that it’s happened,” said Julian Starr, a botany professor at the University of Ottawa who specializes in plant identification and classification. “It’s almost Canadian in the fact that we can’t even get our symbols right.”

However, the Bank of Canada, which makes bank notes, says the $20 bill does not depict a Norway maple leaf, but rather a “stylized” design.

“We created an image for the bank note that represents a stylized Canadian maple leaf, if you will, so that it wouldn’t represent any specific species, specifically not the Norway maple,” said spokeswoman Julie Girard.

Ms. Girard said the bank worked with a botanist who specializes in trees. However, she declined to reveal the scientist’s name, citing privacy reasons.
STYLIZED! Canadians are not even sure enough of their identity to stamp their OWN Maple Leaf onto their OWN currencies...!

Monday, January 21, 2013

Obama's BS Inaugural Address

Philip Klein has an accurate sum-up of this ridiculous Communist Manifesto drawn up by the current generation of Commissars and their General Secretary of the Democrat Party:
He declared that, “We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit.” This is Barack Obama, bold leader speaking (with an extra twist of irony given that the signature legislative accomplishment of his first term was supposedly aimed at containing the growth of health care costs). Then, he said, “But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.” Translation: he isn’t going to do anything to seriously reform Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, and wants more economic stimulus spending, too.

So, within a breath of calling for hard choices, he rejected the need for them. I can think of no more fitting summation of Obama’s presidency.
The national IQ has been declining dramatically as the public schools of the USA are being scuttled by insane teachers' unions. This choom-smoking socialist-communist looks just fine to the generation of cretinous klutzes taught by brain-dead drudges in our public schools. I'm all for Vouchers just to provide some relief from idiotic teachers and their PC dominatrix-administrators.

Why the Jets Continue to Disgrace Themselves

Woody Johnson is either very dishonest or very dumb.
Don’t pin this one on me. That’s what Woody Johnson has been telling people about the acquisition of Tim Tebow, according to a report by ESPN New York.

Former Broncos general manager Ted Sundquist said the Jets owner told him during his interview with the Jets that Tebow was “forced” on him, presumably by fired GM Mike Tannenbaum.

Johnson told Sundquist he eventually “jumped on board” with the idea to get Tebow, because his football people convinced him.

That’s contrary to what many have felt all season — that Johnson was the one behind bringing in the Tebow circus, which ended up being an epic disaster. Pundits figured the owner was interested in Tebow because his cult-like popularity would help sell tickets and PSLs.

“They realized it was divisive and hard on the locker room and they wanted an exit strategy,” Sundquist told the website.
They [i.e., Woody's "football people"] realized it was divisive? They hadn't thought it through enough to figure that out...???

Yeah, and they kept the stupidest Head Coach in the NFL while firing Tebow, who never got a chance to peddle his wares. Ryan even had a tattoo of Sanchez on his fleshy body, perhaps on his toes?

Why the Harbaugh Brothers' Parents Live in Mequon, WI

Mequon is a northern suburb of Milwaukee, very upscale and home to many Brewers, Bucks and the parents of John and Jim Harbaugh.

As it happens and as one can see from the article linked above, Jack and Jackie Harbaugh are the parents-in-law to Indiana U. basketball coach Tom Crean, whose team is presently top-ranked in NCAA b-ball, last time I checked.

Every time we go back to my native Wisconsin, my wife beelines it to Mequon, where the most tony stores [read expensive] are located.

When Tom Crean was coaching Marquette, my alma mater hired Jack Harbaugh to be the assistant athletic direct for the Golden Eagles. He retired in 2008, but stayed in friendly Mequon rather than displace himself to Bloomington, to be with his daughter Joani.

As for myself, my grandparents lived in Fox Point back in the day, adjacent to Mequon, and one of my first memories was falling off a pier in Mequon and looking up and seeing circles in the water above my head!

P.S. Jack & Jackie, Jim and John and Joani, enuf with the "j's" already...!

Lupe Fiasco, Rapper, Thrown Off Stage At Inaugural Concert (VIDEO)


Ha ha ha... It seems that even Chicago rappers aren't swallowing Barry Soetero's brand of Happy Horsefeathers. Lupe is singing about the wrong issues to take on the free-spending tyro dictator, but give him credit for standing up for what he mistakenly believes in.

The rapper was thrown off the stage for going on too long about antiwar issues, according to the 'official communiqué' of the event, but it looks suspiciously as though Lupe violated the rules of Groupthink governing the American Left. Tsk, tsk, bad Lupe. When are you going to conform to the Party Line?

Looks like "Speaking Truth to Power" is solely the prerogative of the HYPOCRITICAL Dimmorat Left...!

Barbaric Shi'ite Iran Stages Public Hangings

The eighteenth century is alive and well in Tehran, as the inane insane insufferable Mullahs decreed that Iran officially is adopting the "Bloody Code" of eighteenth century England when hundreds were hanged publicly for the delectation of onlookers.

The two malefactors had stabbed a man and grabbed his satchel, which contained only $20, but were unlucky enough to be caught on a surveillance camera.

Unlike the bloody-minded Brits of yore, the crowd of 300 in Tehran actually booed the proceedings.

The laughable description of Islam as "The Religion of Peace" becomes more ridiculous as its dark underbelly is being revealed almost daily in Syria and Algeria and Tehran in both its Sunni and Shi'ite manifestations.

The relatively "tame" Muslims we have here in the USA would not remain so were they to become a major demographic element as the UK with its nasty Pak terrorists has already manifested clearly with the bus and tube bombings of 2005.

And the new protests in Saudi Arabia and the Gulfies by conservative Wahhabi prelates should show the ridiculous feminist airheads here stateside that their PC support for Islam is as silly and shallow as the rest of their various manifestos.

Celebration of Doctor Martin Luther King Day

I had the great experience of hearing a speech by Dr. King at St. Louis U. back in 1965. He was totally impressive and I was sitting in the front row so I got the full impact of his magnificent baritone. The substance of his speech was also moving to me. The March to Selma was taking place and King filled me with youthful ardor.

I ended up afterward talking to a famous Jesuit priest, Fr. Daniel Berrigan, who told me the political questions of the country were going to be resolved in urban areas.

This was before Watts rioted, so I took his premonitions with more than a few grains of salt.

Many years later in the late '80s, every MLK holiday, I would fly to LA to have a symposium on oil and gas in the Arco Tower [now Library Tower]. I recall gazing on the snowy tops of the San Gabriel Mountains from the top of the tower when things got dull inside the conference room.

I also vividly remember calling my wife from LAX and she told me that the results of the amniocentesis had come back and that I was going to be the father of a little girl. Nice memory.

Baba Wawa Falls, Cuts Forehead

Barbara Walters is 83 years old and was visiting the British Ambassador's residence when she fell.
“Out of an abundance of caution, she went to the hospital to have her cut tended to, have a full examination and remains there for observation. Barbara is alert — and telling everyone what to do — which we all take as a very positive sign,” said Jeffrey Schneider, senior vice president of ABC News.
I myself have fond memories of the Brit residence, where Tim Holloway, my good friend and colleague in Saudi Arabia, had the Ambassador put on a formal lunch for me and my spouse back in the mid-'80s.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Chuck Schumer: NRA Is 'A Fringe Group' (VIDEO)


"Now 40 percent of the guns that are sold in America have no check, even felons can get them," Schumer said. "If we can plug that up, that would be great." Chuck should go get his brain checked to see if he has an IQ over 90. Felons aren't going to gun shows to get their assault rifles. They have a supply as plenteous as the assault rifles that Fast & Furious sent to Mexican drug lords. Chuck wants to take guns away from law-abiding folks who want to defend their homes from roving gangs. After five Jamaicans robbed our house, the head of the Boca SWAT team told me to buy a pistol.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Ravens vs. 49ers in Super Bowl

The Falcons & the Patriots lost, the Patriots by upset from the Ravens.

This Super Bowl is the first between brothers, and the Harbaughs' parents live in my native state of Wisconsin.

So despite the teams being located on opposite coasts, the coaches are from the Midwest.

Harbaugh was a runner-up for the Heisman at the U. of Michigan, where I got my MA & would go to games in the Big House.

As an afterthought, Jim Harbaugh quarterbacked the Bears when I lived in Chicago during the '90s. His folks went to my parish and the word was that he'd hit the weight room with Dave Wannstedt, now the coach at Pitt.

I always thought he was a suck-up, but now I figure he must have been picking up coaching tips.

The 49er comeback from 17-0 was the largest in the history of NFC Championship games. Matt Ryan threw an interception and fumbled in the second half to keep the Falcons off balance. SF scored quickly after Ryan's bobble.

Tom Brady also threw two interceptions and Ridley fumbled so as to destroy the Patriots' chances after NE led 13-7 at the half.

It was the first time in over 60 games that the Pats led at the half and Brady lost the game.

PoliFact's "Lie of the Year" Turns Out to be True...!!!

PoliFact isn't very factual at all. The Democrat-biased agitprop machine said that it was preposterous when Romney averred that Chrysler was moving Jeep production to China and such an allegation was the "Lie of the Year" among all the BS thrown by Obama & some by Romney. Reuters has put PoliFact's garbage to bed with this article:
Fiat (FIA.MI) and its U.S. unit Chrysler expect to roll out at least 100,000 Jeeps in China when production starts in 2014 as they seek to catch up with rivals in the world's biggest car market. ...

"We expect production of around 100,000 Jeeps per year which is expandable to 200,000," [Chrysler CEO Sergio] Marchionne, who is also CEO of Chrysler, said on the sidelines of a conference, adding production could start in 18 months.
So the joke's on the silly union thugs and parasites who thought they were getting a free ride forever piggybacking on Chrysler...

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Stan the Man Musial and Earl Weaver Die the Same Day

Stan Musial was quite an unusual hitter, in that his batting stance had him holding the bat high above his head. Yet he retired with an incredible career average of .331 in 23 years. I saw him several times in County Stadium and once or twice in St. Louis where I lived a year. Always a gentleman and a native of the same part of Pennsylvania that Arnold Palmer is from. Here is Stan's HOF plaque in Cooperstown.

Earl Weaver was another unforgettable part of the baseball-loving life I led back in the late '70s & early '80s. I'd go to Memorial Stadium and see Earl kicking dirt and covering home plate with it. He'd get kicked out of the game but more times than not, the Birds would start a comeback or finish off their opponent.

Both Musial and Weaver were personally two of my favorite baseball memories, though I have dozens of players and games and events that I recall.

Someday I'll do a rundown of all the strange things I can remember that I've seen. Baseball is too formulaic now, perhaps, but Panda Sandoval and Cabrera [whose first major league HR I witnessed in SunLife Stadium in 2003] & Cubbies & Red Sox & Brewers.

Since my godfather, Dr Richard Mangan, took me to baseball games in old Borchert Field to see the Triple A Brewers back in '51 & '52, I've been attached to the game or perhaps it to me.

Richard Sassoon Love Affair With Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath is one of my favorite poets. The short story by Andrew Wilson leaves out a lot of details, including her winning a contest to work at a woman's mag in NYC for a summer and the fact that she loved W.B. Yeats so much that the apartment at FitzRoy Rd. that she died in was chosen by her because Yeats had lived there during one of his sojourns in London.

NYT Afraid to call a Terrorist a Terrorist...

The NYT has a long article about the terrorist attack in Algeria without using the word "terrorists." To the NYT, the attackers are "militants," which makes them seem like armed missionaries. Of course, one sentence in the article does leave that impression:
One Algerian who managed to escape told France 24 television late Friday night that the kidnappers said, “We’ve come in the name of Islam, to teach the Americans what Islam is.” The haggard-looking man, interviewed at the airport in Algiers, said the kidnappers then immediately executed five hostages.
Yes, that's the so-called "Religion of Peace" alright...

Corrupt Obama RICO's Dole Out Rewards

Obama's Crime Schemes reward participants with overseas posts as Ambassadors to the USA. As a former FSO, I find the practice reprehensible, especially when complete dunces are rewarded.
Ms. Wintour had a prize in mind, according to several people close to the White House: appointment as ambassador to Britain, the United States’ most prestigious diplomatic post.

But by the time Ms. Wintour returned home to New York, officials had told her the job in London would almost certainly go to someone who had done even more for Mr. Obama: Matthew Barzun, a genial former technology executive who spent 20 grueling months as finance chairman of the president’s national fund-raising operation.

As Mr. Obama begins his second term in the White House, the donors and bundlers who raised more than a billion dollars to get him there are pressing hard for appointments. The sheer scale of Mr. Obama’s fund-raising machine has led to an especially intense scramble for plum ambassadorships, with as many as 300 people vying for just 30 or so positions, according to several people involved in the process.

“The president now has six years of relationships, not two years,” said Andy Spahn, a public relations and political consultant who, along with Jeffrey Katzenberg, the film producer, was Mr. Obama’s top Los Angeles fund-raiser. “So I expect that it will be a lot more competitive this time around.”

Interviews with more than a dozen donors, Democratic officials and advisers involved in the discussions revealed some unspoken rules: Volunteer for more than one country. Be prepared to serve for only two years, so that a second round of envoys can be appointed before Mr. Obama leaves office. Don’t mention how much money you raised for the campaign (but don’t expect much if you didn’t raise at least a million dollars). Let it be known where you want to go, but don’t publicly campaign for the job.

“You have to find the balance between waving the flag to get your name out there and waving the flag so much you smack people in the face with it,” said Jonathan Prince, a former State Department official under Mr. Obama.

Nearly every aspiring ambassador contacted for this article did not return phone calls or declined to comment about any interest in specific jobs. But speculation about who is in line for what often makes its way into the press; last month, The Hollywood Reporter published the names of several West Coast donors said to be on Mr. Obama’s short list for diplomatic posts — a list as closely scrutinized by Hollywood for who wasn’t on it, other donors said, as for who was.

For some would-be diplomats, the hunt began the day after Mr. Obama’s re-election in November, when the president’s top aides began asking his leading fund-raisers if they had interest in serving. Mr. Barzun has been an informal facilitator for donors and fund-raisers, along with Rufus Gifford, his counterpart on Mr. Obama’s campaign staff. Inside the White House, a small group of senior aides — including the counselor Pete Rouse; Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser; the deputy chief of staff, Alyssa Mastromonaco; Brian McKeon, a national security staff member; and Mr. Obama’s personnel director, Nancy Hogan — have met regularly to discuss potential choices.

Mr. Obama has followed recent tradition in making appointments; like every president going back to Ronald Reagan, he has filled about 70 percent of the posts with career diplomats and 30 percent with political appointees, often but not always top donors. Dangerous spots like Yemen are invariably filled by diplomats, according to statistics compiled by the American Foreign Service Association. Highly sought European and Caribbean countries usually go to political appointees. At least three Obama fund-raisers are interested in Italy this time around, according to people familiar with the roster of potential candidates. They include Azita Raji, a San Francisco philanthropist; John R. Phillips, a Washington lawyer married to the former Obama aide Linda Douglass; and Robert Mailer Anderson, a novelist.

But Asian countries are increasingly desirable. Steve Westly, a California venture capitalist and top Obama fund-raiser, has discussed with administration officials the ambassadorship to China, among other jobs, according to people with knowledge of the talks. The post is currently filled by Gary Locke, the former commerce secretary, who may depart later this year.

Deep pockets are an unofficial requirement for many postings. While ambassadors currently earn a maximum base salary of $179,700, and housing is provided with the job, in some capitals they can expect to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on entertaining. So those who can “self-finance” have a competitive edge.

The expectation is so ingrained that Timothy J. Roemer, a former congressman, felt compelled to bring up his bank account when Mr. Obama named him ambassador to India. “I told the White House and the State Department early on, I can’t afford to do the job like that,” Mr. Roemer said.

Not everyone wants a gilded posting in a European capital. Ellen Susman, a Texas philanthropist who contributed $100,000 to the “super PAC” supporting Mr. Obama, has alerted people involved in the decision-making of her interest in serving as director of the State Department’s Art in Embassies program, responsible for managing the art collection that hangs in American embassies around the world. (Ms. Susman declined to comment.) Others are more interested in policy positions within the State Department or elsewhere in Mr. Obama’s administration.

“There are some people who just want to be an assistant secretary of state for Latin America or something,” said Robert Rizzi, a partner in the Washington office of O’Melveny & Myers, one of several law firms that help clients navigate background checks for high-ranking jobs.

Most presidents, Mr. Obama included, seek to find ambassadors who have business or personal ties to a nation. Philip D. Murphy, a former national finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee who is now the ambassador to Germany, ran Goldman Sachs’s Frankfurt office for four years and is fluent in German.

“In my view, some of the best ambassadors and some of the worst ambassadors have been political,” said John D. Podesta, who ran Mr. Obama’s transition team in 2009. “They have close connections to the president and are understood to be close to policy-making decisions.” But those who “think they’re entitled can cause problems in a bureaucracy that needs to respect foreign service officers.”

Cynthia Stroum, for example, a major Democratic fund-raiser whom Mr. Obama named ambassador to Luxembourg, resigned in January 2011 — one month before the State Department’s inspector general released a scathing assessment of her “aggressive, bullying, hostile and intimidating” management style.

The sheer number of names in Mr. Obama’s hat this year means that most will end up with nothing. Some will be offered a semi-desirable country that they are unlikely to accept, a move that allows Mr. Obama’s team to satisfy their donors without actually hiring them.

Other postings depend, musical-chairs-style, on what people further up the food chain do. Mr. Barzun will get the United Kingdom post if he wants it, according to several donors and advisers with knowledge of the discussions inside the administration. Ms. Wintour was a potential candidate for France but is no longer seeking the appointment, they said — which could clear the way for Marc Lasry, a successful hedge fund investor who was one of Mr. Obama’s staunchest defenders on Wall Street and is seeking the same posting.

A spokeswoman for Ms. Wintour said she was happy with her job at Vogue. Mr. Lasry declined to comment.
I'm sure the wrinkled crone feels just fine about being jilted by the biggest fraud of the 21st century.

And there are hundreds of hard-working linguistically qualified FSOs who could do better jobs than the flunkeys with money being appointed to Asian posts---and some European as well.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Holder Begs Judge Not To Allow FOIA Info on Fast and Furious

Eric Holder should be impeached from his office of AG. He is part of the web of corruption and legal crime [obstructing justice & treason] that Oblunder has instigated over the last four years.

David Brooks on Democrat Strategies

David Brooks is the NYTimes pet liberal "conservative" columnist, who along with Ross Douhat, who is more genuine in his conservatism, holds the right side of the balance which is totally skewed leftward on the gruesome grisly Grey Lady:
President Obama’s second inaugural comes at an interesting moment, what you might call the end of the era of the Grand Bargain. Throughout his first term, Democrats and Republicans didn’t achieve a Grand Bargain on spending and taxes, but there was a sense that history was moving in that direction.

The Simpson-Bowles commission sketched out a vision of what a Grand Bargain might look like. Obama and John Boehner tried to craft some semi-Grand Bargains. There was a lot of talk at think tanks of what the best combination of tax reform and entitlement reform might be.

The “fiscal-cliff” fiasco has persuaded many smart people that a Grand Bargain is not going to happen any time soon. A political class that botched the fiscal cliff so badly are not going to be capable of a gigantic deal on complex issues. It’s like going into a day care center and asking a bunch of infants to perform “Swan Lake.”

Polarization is too deep. Special interests are too strong. The negotiators are too rusty. Republicans are not going to give up their vision of a low-tax America. Democrats are not willing to change the current entitlement programs.

So as the president enters his second term, there has to be a new controlling narrative, a new strategy for how to spend the next four years.

As you know, I am an earnest, good-government type, so the strategy I’d prefer might be called Learning to Crawl. It would be based on the notion that you have to learn to crawl before you can run. So over the next four years, legislators should work on a series of realistic, incremental laws that would rebuild the habits of compromise, competence and trust.

We could do some education reform, expand visa laws to admit more high-skill workers, encourage responsible drilling for natural gas, maybe establish an infrastructure bank. Political leaders would erode partisan orthodoxies and get back into the habit of passing laws together. Then, down the road, their successors could do the big things.

I may be earnest, but I’m not an idiot. I know there is little chance that today’s partisan players are going to adopt this kind of incremental goo-goo approach. It’s more likely that today’s majority party is going to adopt a different strategy, which you might call Kill the Wounded. It’s more likely that today’s Democrats are going to tell themselves something like this:

“We live at a unique moment. Our opponents, the Republicans, are divided, confused and bleeding. This is not the time to allow them to rebuild their reputation with a series of modest accomplishments. This is the time to kick them when they are down, to win back the House and end the current version of the Republican Party.

“First, we change the narrative. The president ran in 2008 against Washington dysfunction, casting blame on both parties. Over the years, he has migrated to a different narrative: The Republicans are crazy. Washington could be working fine, but the Republicans are crazy.

“At every public appearance, the president should double-down on that theme. The Democratic base already believes it. The media is sympathetic. Independents could be persuaded.

“Then, wedge issues. The president should propose no new measures that might unite Republicans, the way health care did in the first term. Instead, he should raise a series of wedge issues meant to divide Southerners from Midwesterners, the Tea Party/Talk Radio base from the less ideological corporate and managerial class.

“He’s already started with a perfectly designed gun control package, inviting a long battle with the N.R.A. over background checks and magazine clips. That will divide the gun lobby from suburbanites. Then he can re-introduce Bush’s comprehensive immigration reform. That will divide the anti-immigration groups from the business groups (conventional wisdom underestimates how hard it is going to be for Republicans to back comprehensive reforms).

“Then he could invite a series of confrontations with Republicans over things like the debt ceiling — make them look like wackos willing to endanger the entire global economy. Along the way, he could highlight women’s issues, social mobility issues (student loans, community college funding) and pick fights on compassion issues, (hurricane relief) — promoting any small, popular spending programs that Republicans will oppose.

“Twice a month, Democrats should force Republicans to cast an awful vote: either offend mainstream supporters or risk a primary challenge from the right.”

Just as Senator Mitch McConnell made defeating President Obama his main political objective, Democrats seem likely to make winning back the House their primary political objective. Experts are divided on how plausible this is, but the G.O.P. is unpopular and the opportunity is there.

This isn’t the Washington I want to cover, but it’s the most likely one. How will Republicans respond to this onslaught? I have no idea.
I would refer the reader to Keith Hennessey's blog below for some good ideas for the GOP to get their mojo back.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

GLPiggy notes the hit-piece story in the NYT whining that all those $50,000/year jobs in N. Dakota are keeping high school grads out of college where they should be going...

Really? We know the readers of the Times are stupid, but the comments below stagger the imagination.

Subsequently, the NYT has another completely stupid nerdyhit-piece [two within three weeks!!!] on the North Dakota fields, this time knocking how rude and unschooled in NYC-style chivalry the oilmen are to women who go to bars. Gosh all hemlock, they should send some Harlem babes up to Williston to spice up the nights...
No comments :

WSJ Proposes GOP Dodging Debt-Ceiling Deadline


So it was, and so it is now. If Mr. Obama now not only refuses to lead, but prevents others from doing so, then congressional Democrats should bear the political weight of voting to raise the debt limit every three months until voters make their choice in the next election. If any POTUS in the last decades going back to Carter signifies a "failure in leadership," it's Barry Soetero, the Choom King.

GOP Has Good Shot at Retaining House in 2014

POLITICO has an unbiased piece on the 2014 House elections.
Republicans aren’t wasting time going after some of their foes. The NRCC has already assigned a tracker to Barrow, a fifth-term congressman and the last white Democrat from the Deep South. And on Wednesday, the NRCC released a memo detailing its top seven Democratic targets, all of whom reside in districts that favor Republicans. In the committee’s cross hairs are: Matheson, McIntyre, Barrow, West Virginia’s Nick Rahall, Minnesota’s Collin Peterson, Arizona’s Ann Kirkpatrick and Arizona’s Ron Barber.
The Democrats are arguing that the GOP is badly split between the Tea Party and the so-called "Moderates." “Right now, the Republican House is clearly under a lot of pressure from the two sides o
f the party — the rational one and the irrational one — and that pressure may force [Speaker] John Boehner to choose between the two or balance the two,” said Jef Pollock, a Democratic pollster who works on House races. “If the right wing pushes us to the brink on the debt ceiling and we default, that’s when Americans ask, ‘What have we gotten into?’ And that could be very helpful for the Democrats.”
However, there are going to be almost two years between the events of this March and November, 2014. Lots of time for Dictator Barry Soetero to push the economy over the cliff all because of his outrageous out-of-control spending.

Video Games Connected to Gun & Other Violence?

Here's an article by CNET on this topic:
Christopher Ferguson, of Texas A&M International University, argued in one paper that "the negative effects of violent games have been exaggerated by some elements of the scientific community, fitting with past cycles of media-focused moral panics." To put it in historical perspective, Ferguson wrote, the Greek philosopher Plato worried about the deleterious effect of poetry on youths. Hand-wringers have been worrying about the effect of movies since there have been movies. And to put it in my generation's terms, parent groups worried that the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons would turn teens into ax-wielding occultists. I can say with some certainty that none of the socially challenged junior high kids with whom I played D&D turned into ax-wielding occultists.

But what about those "certain" personalities? Researchers generally believe that people with psychopathic tendencies (not, notably, people with autism) can at least be affected by video game violence. That's the same personality type, mind you, that most think shouldn't have access to dangerous weapons.

Basically, the research done so far validates common sense. If your kid has violent tendencies or indicates he or she has a low level of empathy (psychologists say a good indication of this is often cruelty to animals), then it would be wise to keep them away from violent games, violent images, and -- most of all -- weapons. Like I said... common sense.
Read the whole commonsensical link and find out what a schlub Oblunder is about violence.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Time/CNN Poll Says Support For Gun Control "Down a Bit"

CNN notes that a 10% drop in gun control support is 'down a bit.' Can you imagine what these dishonest jokers would have said if it were UP 'a bit?'

My guess it would be something along the lines of "Gun Control Support Skyrockets!" The lying hypocrites on the Left just can't tell the truth, ever.

Here's Time's stupid Swampland blog claiming that the poll showed "a rise in the number of citizens desiring gun control." Exactly the opposite of what the CNN snippet said.

CNN Advocacy Matches ABC & NBC's

Today I only saw one piece of CNN's unsubtle gun control crusade. The reporter was at the Vegas Gun Show and neglected to tell the country that it was sponsored by NBC Universal.

The reporter was aping wired moron Matthews over at Hardball on MSNBC was foaming at the mouth about the Gun Show, asking who in the world attends such horrible events---evidently ignorant that the 'horrible event' was sponsored by the wired moron's parent company. Here's another smoking gun.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Albion's Children

I’ve been reading a wonderful history of America's pageant named Albion’s Seed, by distinguished historian David Hackett Fischer. Broadly speaking, the book describes the four major migrations from England after 1620, starting basically with Winthrop’s Massachusetts [1629-1640], the Royalist settlement of Virginia [1645-1660], William Penn’s Quaker settlement of Pennsylvania, and finally the backcountry settlement from the British Borderers & Scotch-Irish [1700-1775].

Historians have never treated these four migrations in such an encyclopedic 800-page fashion all in one book until DHF took up the task, which is full of wonderful insights and exhaustive research.

The four “declensions” of the migrations above are roughly:

1] From Puritan to Yankee

2] From Royalist to Whig

3] From Meetinghouse to Countinghouse

4] From backcountrymen to frontiersmen

The Seventeenth Century in England had religious persecution and outright civil war front and center. Each of the four migrations were stimulated by religious impulses, from the Arminian Anglicans [strict hierarchy & class distinction] to the Antinomian Quakers [Innter Ligh & anti-slavery]. Each of the migrations preserved somewhat in amber after arriving in the new continent, that specific slice of time characterizing the crisis which impelled the migration.

Thus New England preserves a sort of Cromwellian self-righteousness, Virginia & the tidewater a Cavalier aristocracy, the Delaware Valley & Maryland a pacifist do-gooder mentality combined with financial acumen, and finally the Presbyterian-based backcountrymen whose dislike of authority reflected a sort Celtic twilight in the clannish, tribal anarchist style befitting nomads and raiders.

DHF’s encyclopedic examination of the theology, folkways, and lifestyles of these four branches from the original English tree exhumes many buried skeletons and enlightens many dusty closets and opens windows to forgotten or buried pasts.

What becomes increasingly clear is that as cosmopolitan England moved on from the travails of the Seventeenth century with the Restoriation & Glorious Revolution, the colonies experienced no such similar closure.

Indeed, as in The Cousin’s War and other books I have read on the pre-Revolutionary scene, DHF makes it clear in great detail that the East Anglian roots of the Puritans were far different, and stayed different, from London’s mainstream. The Borderers were living a couple of hundred years behind the more evolving areas of British social, cultural, and political development in even the 18th century, and retained many of the border raider cultural traits of their Celtic ancestors---particularly those from the Northern Part of Ireland. The Plantations in Ireland were settled by Presbyterians who originally migrated from Ireland to Scotland lowlands in the 5th-6th centuries and returned with a vengeance and a new faith to settle Ulster almost a millennium later.

Andrew Jackson serves as a prototypical backcountry specimen. To my mind, Benjamin Franklin serves as a model for the Delaware Valley aristocrat, though he was born in Boston. George Washington/Thomas Jefferson are the archetypical Virginians, and fussy prissy John Adams perhaps exemplifies New England’s autocratic mentality.

But no rule fits for people like Alexander Hamilton nor his murderer Aaron Burr. A lot of early Americans are basically economic and political buccaneers who invent their own path to prominence. Below is a footnote from Wikipedia’s long piece on Oliver Cromwell:

1. Winston S. Churchill, 1957, A History of the English Speaking Peoples: The Age of Revolution, Dodd, Mead and Company: New York (p. 9): "We have seen the many ties which at one time or another have joined the inhabitants of the Western islands, and even in Ireland itself offered a tolerable way of life to Protestants and Catholics alike. Upon all of these Cromwell's record was a lasting bane. By an uncompleted process of terror, by an iniquitous land settlement, by the virtual proscription of the Catholic religion, by the bloody deeds already described, he cut new gulfs between the nations and the creeds. "Hell or Connaught" were the terms he thrust upon the native inhabitants, and they for their part, across three hundred years, have used as their keenest expression of hatred "The Curse of Cromwell on you." The consequences of Cromwell's rule in Ireland have distressed and at times distracted English politics down even to the present day. To heal them baffled the skill and loyalties of successive generations. They became for a time a potent obstacle to the harmony of the English-speaking people through-out the world. Upon all of us there still lies 'the curse of Cromwell'.

^ Abbott, W.C. (1929). Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, Harvard University Press, pp.196–205

Kimball's Kafka Alive & Well in Connecticut Coastline After Sandy

Roger Kimball is the editor of Arma Virumque, the first two words of the Aeneid. Roger may know much about the mythology of the Founding of Rome, but he is clueless about how to manage "les petits fonctionaires" of the modern slave-state [pretending to be a democracy.]

Roger and his family had the misfortune to live on the shoreline of Long Island Sound and Sandy hit them just hard enough to wipe out the flooring of the "rez de chaussee" of his humble dwelling. Check the link above to find out how Kafka still lives long after he deceased early in the last century.

Why Jodie Foster's Golden Globes Speech Was So Infuriating


Jodie Foster is a lot smarter and more loyal to HER friends [including Mel Gibson] than the irate self-hating imbeciles like Andrew Sullivan & this author who style themselves arbiters of who should out themselves and how. Jodie was a child doing TV commercials before she was five & grew up starring in Taxi Driver and other unforgettable films over the years. She hardly "chose" her profession and she deserves a measure of privacy, especially from the crones and drones like the author above & Sullivan. Compared to the 'normal' denizens of Hollyweird, Jodie is positively reclusive.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Limbaugh & Levin See Total War on Conservatives

Obama is revealing himself as the asshole we all knew he was in 2008. Limbaugh has a common sense, "Show Me, I'm from Missouri," piece from his radio show calling out far-left clowns like TNY's Packer & Salon's O'Hehir for their marxist rants.

Rush points out that there are two Hispanic Senators [Cruz & Rubio} and one black Senator [Scott] in the GOP and zero in the Democrat ranks. But this doesn't stop the ideologues from calling the South the home of rich kulaks. Commissars like Packer and O'Hehir are paving the way for an Obama dictatorship, as Mark Levin notes in Real Politics.

Obama and his nasty brutish lefty stupids are going to bully their way forward and make a shambles of the Constitution he is sworn to protect. Having been an Adjunct Prof at the U. of Chicago didn't help this POS understand the Constitution one whit.

It looks like dialogue of any kind has been ruled out, as Jackie Calmes' question on Obama's icy aloofness was answered by a failed attempt at levity by the First Prick.

He will take the guns away from law-abiding people so the thugs and gangsta types he has as friends can ride roughshod over the Constitution and the tradition of any sort of political comity in American politics.

The Liar-in-Chief is now reneging on his promises to cut spending and promises to rule by decree if the GOP House doesn't comply with his Imperial Will.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Clinton Caught Lying Through His Teeth [Again]

Professional Fibber ex-POTUS Clinton lied to a gun show audience in Vegas about assault weapons. Check the link above for details.

In another venue, Clinton got a standing ovation from a collection of airheads at the Golden Globe presentations, presumably for his treatment of young interns during his tenure before Impeachment.

Marco Rubio on Immigration

The WSJ has an interview with Rubio. Here's its conclusion:
In terms of legislative strategy, Mr. Rubio says he would want to see "a comprehensive package of bills"—maybe four or five as opposed to one omnibus—move through Congress concurrently. He says other experience with "comprehensive" reform (ObamaCare, the recent debt deal) shows how bad policy easily sneaks into big bills. It would also offer a tempting big target for opponents. Other reformers think that only a comprehensive bill can address the toughest issues. "It's not a line in the sand for me," replies Mr. Rubio. Not missing a chance to tweak the president, he says that Mr. Obama has "not done a thing" on reform and may prefer to keep it alive as an electoral winner for Democrats with Hispanics for years to come. But, then again, "maybe he's interested in his legacy," Mr. Rubio adds, and open to a deal. The president, he says, would need to bring over Big Labor and talk back the most ardent pro-immigration groups from "unrealistic" positions on citizenship for illegals. On the right, nativist voices in last year's primary campaign gave birth to phrases such as "electric fence" (Herman Cain), "self-deportation" (Mitt Romney) and other nuggets that turned Hispanic voters off. Mr. Rubio counters that most conservatives understand that immigrants are entrepreneurial and assimilate easily. "Immigration is actually an important part of affirming a limited-government movement," he says. Is immigration reform a magic bullet for the GOP's troubles with Hispanic voters? "No," Mr. Rubio says, but "the immigration issue is a gateway issue for Hispanics, no doubt about it. No matter what your stance is on a number of other issues, if people somehow come to believe that you don't like them or want them here, it's difficult to get them to listen to anything else." He adds: "I think it's the rhetoric by a handful of voices in the minority, but loud nonetheless, that have allowed the left to create an unfair perception that conservatives and Republicans are anti-Hispanic and anti-immigration, and we do have to overcome that."
The Journal's interviewer, Matt Kaminski,who is on the Editorial Board of the WSJ, concludes:
After two relatively quiet years in the Senate, Mr. Rubio is taking his first significant risk. Often mentioned in talk about a 2016 presidential run, he has decided to make immigration a signature issue.
Good luck, Marco, in going across that briar patch!

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Retiring Jets Special Teams Coach Rips Jets

Mike Westhoff just retired as Special Teams Coordinator for the Jets. Read what Mike says about the Jets and Tim Tebow. And watch the Herm Edwards/Skip Bayless conversation which agrees with Westhoff.

Obama's Chicago: Six Teens Killed Since Friday

The Chicago Tribune demonstrates the downright silliness of the Preposterous Freak we have in the Oval Office and his sidekick, Joe the Schmoe Biden.
Two gunmen shot a 14-year-old boy several times Friday night as he stood on his porch, leaving him to die in the front hallway of his Humboldt Park home, authorities said.

The shooting came just hours after a 15-year-old boy was fatally shot in a separate attack in the Little Village neighborhood. Including both homicides, at least six teens were shot since Friday afternoon, according to police.
The Fucked-Up Freak in the White House wants to take guns from law-abiding citizens and leave the criminals to the efficient official forces of Law and Order, the Chicago Constabulary.

I lived in Chicago for a decade [1991-2000] and the gang wars were nowhere near the intensity they are today.

Just another failure to rack up against the GWB and especially the Barry [Choom Sucker] Soetero REGIME.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Coursera: The Most Interesting Blogsite in the World

Daphne Koller had the brilliant idea about a year ago to launch a Free Course website, or Massive Open Online Courses. Last January, Koller and her colleague Andrew Ng left Stanford's artificial intelligence lab to create Coursera, a venture-capital based online educational startup near the Stanford campus.

Since then, the company has posted more than 200 free classes taught by professors at 33 top universities such as the University of Penylvania and Caltech. More than 1.5 million students have signed up and about 70,000 new students, the equivalent of four or five Stanfords, sign up EACH WEEK!

Get the full story from MIT Technology Review, p. 63 or try technologyreview.com I read elsewhere that since the mag is almost a month old, there are now 2.25 million online students. Check ou Coursera and see the most awesome collection of Profs imaginable.

It helps that Daphne Koller is a world-renowned expert in statistics, at the tender age of 44! She teaches one of the courses. On statistical theory, no less.

She raised $22 million in NO TIME FLAT for Coursera---and it is changing the way online classes are taught online around the world.

Cute cats, especially I want to sleep on the computer keyboard!

Dumpling loves to sit on the keyboard of my iMac while I am blogging or doing whatever.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Attention Whore Christie Bites Hand that Feeds Him

The enemy of American Values, AKA the New York Times, has it front page above the fold, so you know the Commie traitors are enjoying Christie's spectacular attacks on the GOP, which gifted this attention whore fat lady with the Keynote Address at their National Convention in September, if memory serves.
In November, the Obama Office of Management and Budget sent a letter to the House asking for $60 billion in relief aid. As is its habit, the Obama letter included little guidance on how to allocate the $60 billion among myriad federal agencies. House Appropriations undertook the job of interacting with the Washington bureaucracies on precisely how to allocate all this money.

Republican Committee Chairman Harold Rogers of Kentucky produced a $27 billion supplemental bill of initial commitments, much of it for FEMA when it ran out of money. Republican committee member Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, serving as liaison to his region, amended the Rogers bill to add $33 billion for longer-term reconstruction. That's $60 billion of relief assembled in good faith by Republicans for Gov. Christie and his "knife-in-the-back" political colleagues in the Northeast. The Sandy supplemental the House is scheduled to vote on Tuesday will be smaller; for example, it no longer includes the $9.7 billion flood insurance approved last week.

The federal government will spend billions repairing Sandy's damage, as it did for the South after Katrina and for the Midwest after its floods and recent drought. And every politician from Cape May to Connecticut will take credit for obtaining those billions in federal aid.

But it's hard to miss the irony of Sandy's $60 billion getting tangled up in the fiscal-cliff vote, whose reason for being is the U.S.'s new annual deficits of $1 trillion, which equals nearly 17 Sandy bills. And fuhgeddabout the entitlements. Where does all this come from?
So much for the blubbering fool who always does what his mammy told him to do. And my guess is that the pizza glutton will have more interactions with his new friend Barry Soetero, AKA Step 'N Fetchit, than he will with Boehner or the GOP.

Dolphin Horde off Dana Point: Squid Horde Also; Connect the Dots?

Common Dolphins were caught on camera by a tourist boat stampeding in the water and an underwater camera even caught them beneath the surface.

Although the news stories on this concentration say the cause was unknown, a similar story of giant squid concentrated off Dana Point was in the news---sounds suspiciously like reporters are lazy across the board.

The tour guide says there are 450,000 dolphins off the California Coast as opposed to two hundred in the entire Mediterranean: a sad fact if true.

Large numbers exist off Florida and around the Bahamas, but I don't know if the warm Gulf Stream brings up as much food as the warm Humboldt Current off California & the entire West Coast including Alaska.

Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Hagel Flakier Than Obama & Kerry on Iran

SecDef Nominee Hagel showed in his Senate votes and afterwards his disapproval that he is against any and all sanctions versus Iran, or so it seems, that the US can or should apply towards that terrorist entity.

I think I misspelled misspell

The Twitter Spelling Test

Created by Oatmeal

Tuesday, January 08, 2013

Hagel Enters the Hailstorm

Jennifer Rubin has a good piece in the WaPo about the Hagel hailstorm of objections. From gays to hardliner supporters of Israel and haters of Iran, the far right and far left are combining to hassle this former Senator:
President Obama wants to get credit for bipartisanship, so he picks a Republican defense secretary who will garner few if any Republican votes. He walks away from a politically loyal African American woman for secretary of state (whose nomination would open up his political liabilities) but goes forward with a white, Republican man (whose nomination puts gobs of Senate Republicans in an untenable spot). The two groups of Democrats (gays and Jews) who turned out in droves for him watch a nomination proceed with someone who had tried to exclude gays from government and accused Jews of dual loyalty.
Rubin is correct in her analysis, while the loons like Andrew Sullivan and the Think Progress crowd are baying at the moon for a quick appointment after a rapid nomination process in the Senate.
...the politics become fascinating. On the Democratic side there is no reason at all other than pressure from the White House to support Hagel. In fact political opponents, especially in 2014 Senate races in swing and red states, will be happy to use any support for Hagel as fodder. Democrats’ other agenda items (e.g., gun control) and their fight to prevent entitlement reform will get sidetracked, at least for some time, to engage in a high-visibility fight none of them want. On the other hand, Hagel’s nomination is energizing pro-Israel conservatives (which are an overwhelming percentage of conservatives). Gary Bauer, a prominent Christian Zionist and influential in a number of pro-Israel groups tells me, “Of course one does not have to be pro-Israel to oppose the nomination. Hagel is a bad choice because his policies would put America more at risk. His softness on the tyrants in Iran is enough to disqualify him. Obama going forward on the nomination is sending exactly the wrong message to the mullahs. Hagel’s views on the appropriate level of defense spending in a dangerous world … [put] him way out of the mainstream. He would go past ‘fat’ in the budget to cutting the muscle we need to maintain the peace.” Then Bauer bluntly addresses the politics: “His nomination is revealing in what it tells us about Obama. I don’t see how anyone can continue to believe that the president cares about Israel. There are a number of very key senators who will have to decide between their pro-Israel stance and backing Obama. What will the New York senators do for example?” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), among the first to sound the alarm on Hagel, put out a blistering statement suggesting that Republican votes will be hard to round up: “I will not support Chuck Hagel’s nomination to the Department of Defense. His record and past statements, particularly with respect to rogue nations like Iran, are extremely concerning to me. . . . As Iran becomes increasingly hostile and gains influence in the region, the worst possible message we could send to our friend Israel and the rest of our allies in the Middle East is Chuck Hagel.”
When I was Resident Scholar and Diplomat at the Middle East Institute, Hagel was the ONLY Senator who ever attended any of our functions. He did so with no fanfare or noticeable self-advertising. A clown like Biden or a turncoat Swift Boater like Kerry would never dream of showing up to educate himself at Arab-Israeli symposia.
It was noteworthy that, while leaking the Hagel nomination over the weekend, the administration lined up no support from Senate Democrats for the Sunday shows. As a result, Republicans including Cornyn, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and freshman Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) to one degree or another bashed Hagel while prominent Democrats like Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) were entirely noncommittal. This morning both Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and potential New Jersey Senate candidate Mayor Cory Booker expressed concerns about Hagel. Offices of Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) would not provide comment despite our repeated attempts to ascertain the views of these critical Democrats. (Imagine the position they’d be in if 30 to 40 Senate Republicans voted no.) It seems they are hoping that Hagel will blow himself up before or during the hearing and they’ll be spared an actual vote when he limps off the stage. (Profiles in courage they are not.)
Here's how Jennifer sums it all up:
Hagel’s record is replete with anti-Israel votes and language antagonistic toward Jews. Denying there are any issues is a sure fire way to see the nomination go under.

Was the White House actually surprised by the pushback, or has it thrust Hagel out to be shredded without support from Senate Democrats? It is hard to say. But it is clear that there is no voice of restraint or common sense in the White House that could restrain the president from an inexplicably dumb political misstep. As the rest of the grown-ups depart the stage (Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner), the president will be surrounded by fewer people willing to give him honest advice and more enablers with extreme political views and rotten judgment. In other words, Hagel is a symptom of the unchecked arrogance of the president as he enters his second term.

Monday, January 07, 2013

Myself & Hungry Weasels....

How many hungry weasels could your body feed?

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Pakistan Berates India for Discrimination Against Women?

Burying women alive is okay in Pakistan because Parliamentarians say "That is our Custom and nobody outside has a right to change it."

Ditto Shari'a atrocities like stoning to death for adultery, indicting a rape VICTIM for unlawful fornication, and letting male malefactors off with a slap on the wrist.
But another strand of Pakistani opinion refused to credit India with its development, focusing instead on the risqué nature of Bollywood films and urban Indians' conspicuous Westernization. In an article for the Frontier Post, an English-language newspaper in northwest Pakistan, headlined "No Justice For a Woman in India," columnist Afshain Afzal described the Delhi gang rape as "a routine affair" for India, where working women "especially the internees at the Indian hospitals are quite frequent (sic) that they are sexually abused and those who refuse to cooperate are tortured or their lives made miserable. This is, but, the true face of India..." He suggested "there is a need for Indian young girls and women to observe dress code according to their eastern tradition and culture."

Meanwhile, sections of the Pakistani web community derided India's "pretensions" to laws, rights, and equality. In response to an op-ed in a Pakistani paper by an Indian writer arguing for a change of mindset rather than castration for rapists, a reader raged: "Indians pretend to have laws, rights and equality ... They are high on philosophy and morality. But in practice they are a klepto society." Meanwhile, sections of the Pakistani web community derided India's "pretensions" to laws, rights, and equality. In response to an op-ed in a Pakistani paper by an Indian writer arguing for a change of mindset rather than castration for rapists, a reader raged: "Indians pretend to have laws, rights and equality ... They are high on philosophy and morality. But in practice they are a klepto society."
I've been to both India and Pakistan & can attest that India comes off better in ANY comparison.

Read the link and see why...

Sen. Hagel is Beavis's Dumber Partner

Chuck-Up Hagel likes Iran and hates Jews. Kinda sums up his Weltanschauung in a sentence or two. Here's Jennifer Rubin about his chances:
It was noteworthy that, while leaking the Hagel nomination over the weekend, the administration lined up no support from Senate Democrats for the Sunday shows.

As a result, Republicans including Cornyn, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and freshman Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) to one degree or another bashed Hagel while prominent Democrats like Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) were entirely noncommittal.

This morning both Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and potential New Jersey Senate candidate Mayor Cory Booker expressed concerns about Hagel. Offices of Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) would not provide comment despite our repeated attempts to ascertain the views of these critical Democrats. (Imagine the position they’d be in if 30 to 40 Senate Republicans voted no.) It seems they are hoping that Hagel will blow himself up before or during the hearing and they’ll be spared an actual vote when he limps off the stage. (Profiles in courage they are not.)

Late Sunday night David Axelrod finally began a defense of Hagel on Twitter, blithely declaring there was no reason for concern. But Hagel’s record is replete with anti-Israel votes and language antagonistic toward Jews. Denying there are any issues is a sure fire way to see the nomination go under.

Was the White House actually surprised by the pushback, or has it thrust Hagel out to be shredded without support from Senate Democrats? It is hard to say. But it is clear that there is no voice of restraint or common sense in the White House that could restrain the president from an inexplicably dumb political misstep. As the rest of the grown-ups depart the stage (Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner), the president will be surrounded by fewer people willing to give him honest advice and more enablers with extreme political views and rotten judgment. In other words, Hagel is a symptom of the unchecked arrogance of the president as he enters his second term.
Arrogant and narcissistic and megalomaniacal don't begin to describe the autism of the First Freak beginning his Second Term.

Richardson/Schmidt Trip Ill-Advised Grandstanding

The State Dept. is attempting to gather support to PUNISH North Korea for firing an ICBM while the unauthorized trip is being made to Pyongyang by two private citizens---Richardson is an old friend we've known forever, but he is prone to grandiosity, as the shrinks say. Schmidt is presumably dumber than dirt, but alert to dollar signs. Neither give a shit about the slave state that the Stalinist dictatorship keeps afloat because of useful idiots like themselves.

Chilean Indians Kill Wealthy Landowners

The Araucanian tribes were the last to be subdued in the 19th c. by Chile, I recall reading somewhere. At least our Native Americans do not practice domestic terrorism like the Mapuche.

Baboon/Dildo Fight

How many baboons could you take in a fight? (armed only with a giant dildo)

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Boehner on Tax Hikes

The WSJ has the interview with Steve Moore, whom I saw on TV yesterday telling some Arabic far-left loon on CNN that she was an ignoramus. What do you expect from CNN?
The real showdown will be on the debt ceiling and the spending sequester in March. I ask Mr. Boehner if he will take the debt-ceiling talks to the brink—risking a government shutdown and debt downgrade from the credit agencies—given that it didn't work in 2011 and President Obama has said he won't bargain on the matter.

The debt bill is "one point of leverage," Mr. Boehner says, but he also hedges, noting that it is "not the ultimate leverage." He says that Republicans won't back down from the so-called Boehner rule: that every dollar of raising the debt ceiling will require one dollar of spending cuts over the next 10 years. Rather than forcing a deal, the insistence may result in a series of monthly debt-ceiling increases.

The Republicans' stronger card, Mr. Boehner believes, will be the automatic spending sequester trigger that trims all discretionary programs—defense and domestic. It now appears that the president made a severe political miscalculation when he came up with the sequester idea in 2011.

As Mr. Boehner tells the story: Mr. Obama was sure Republicans would call for ending the sequester—the other "cliff"—because it included deep defense cuts. But Republicans never raised the issue. "It wasn't until literally last week that the White House brought up replacing the sequester," Mr. Boehner says. "They said, 'We can't have the sequester.' They were always counting on us to bring this to the table."

Mr. Boehner says he has significant Republican support, including GOP defense hawks, on his side for letting the sequester do its work. "I got that in my back pocket," the speaker says. He is counting on the president's liberal base putting pressure on him when cherished domestic programs face the sequester's sharp knife. Republican willingness to support the sequester, Mr. Boehner says, is "as much leverage as we're going to get."
I am looking forward to the Dems starting to whine ceaselessly about entitlements....
That leverage, he reasons, is what will force Democrats to the table on entitlements. "Think of it this way. We already have an agreement [capping] discretionary spending for 10 years. And we're already in our second year of it. This whole discussion on the budget over the next several months is going to be about these entitlements."

Given the bruising of the past several weeks, Mr. Boehner is surprisingly optimistic about getting a deal done on corporate and personal income-tax reform. "The president understands the need for tax reform," he says. "The president admitted . . . in the first meeting that we needed to do tax reform, and he was for a tax reform process that would lower rates."

Mr. Boehner sees Republicans with two goals: lowering tax rates and closing loopholes, as happened in 1986, and equalizing tax rates between small businesses and large corporations. His optimism that Democrats will agree to that framework seems Pollyannish since they are now advocating closing loopholes to raise revenues—without lowering rates.

The driving passion for Mr. Boehner in these fiscal debates is his conviction that trillion-dollar deficits are sapping the country of its energy and prosperity. When I ask him when the impact of this debt will start to be felt, he says: "It's already here today. It's killing our economy. It's causing investors to sit on their cash. They're afraid to invest. It's a wet blanket on top of our economy."

He sees debt as almost a moral failing, noting that when he grew up in a "little middle-class, blue-collar neighborhood" outside of Cincinnati, "nobody had debt. It was unheard of. I just don't do debt."

Mr. Boehner says that the only way to build long-term economic growth is to reduce the nation's debt through entitlement and tax reform. But can such a deal be achieved with a president who doesn't even think that Washington has a spending problem? "He believes in the power of government," Mr. Boehner answers. "I believe in the power of the American people. It is really that simple." And really that difficult.
Lotsa luck, John. The American Sheeple just reelected a Shepherd who spends like a drunken sailor and is praised for it by a criminally corrupt media....

Death by Reading Lamp

Dumpling does have his murderous eyes when he kneads me or demands tribute [food].

HOW MANY BIEBERS CAN YOU TAKE...IN A FIGHT..??

How many Justin Biebers could you take in a fight?

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I CAN TAKE 23... HOW ABOUT YOU?

Sunday, January 06, 2013

Schoonmaker Quarry---One of the First Limestone Reefs in World Defined as Such

Wauwatosa, WI is the site of this National Historical Landmark, Schoonmaker Quarry.

Wauwatosa is my hometown if I have one---having lived there for a little over a decade. When I was a student at Marquette High School, my route to and from school was right past Schoonmaker Quarry on the left side of State St. heading east. I can still visualize the area because I practiced on Marquette High's Sophomore Team as an Offensive Lineman [some contend that I'm still offensive!] at Hawthorn Glen, atop the same Reef Formation, if I'm right, because the entire ridge ran for a good mile-plus, with Hawley Road rising to span it just east of Hawthorn Glen all the way west to the "Village" at the junction of State and Harwood.
What remains of the quarry is now located on private property, north of State street, between 64th and 66th in the village of Wauwatosa and is a National Historic site known as Schoonmaker Reef. It is not accessible to the public at this time. The fossil reef was discovered in 1844 by Increase Lapham and Fisk H. Day., but not recognized as significant until 1862 by James Hall. It is a 425 Million year-old fossil reef that grew during the Silurian Period. It is significant not only because of its age, but because it was the first of its kind to be discovered in North America and among the first to be described in the world.
It turns out that the Silurian Period from around 443-416 MMYA generated these limestone reefs in an ancient ocean. When I was a kid, I studied the Cambrian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Silurian and of course the Triassic, Jurassic & Cretaceous in The Book of Knowledge my parents gifted to the kids when I was about 5-6 years old. Then came that ginormous asteroid that was recently discovered beneath Yucatan which wiped out the dinosaurs, but somehow allowed tiny ancestors to primates [that's us!] to survive and eventually proliferate.
You may have heard Milwaukee referred to as the Cream City. Milwaukee got this name because of the light-yellow or cream colored bricks made from red clay with large deposits of lime (and sulphur) from the Menomonee River Valley. Although light colored when first constructed, cream colored bricks are very porous and tend to absorb dirt making them dark over time. Well constructed cream city brick is known to be very durable.
I always thought Cream City referred to a dairy product [!?!], but the limestone & clay mix gave the bricks a characteristic hue the color of buttermilk---but nobody was going to call Milwaukee the Buttermilk City...! Here's another hint at what made Milwaukee famous:
Eastern Wisconsin, particularly Waukesha, is well known for its Silurian mineral spring water. Silurian water is pure and relatively free from organic matter. Because of the porous nature of the Silurian rock formations, as water runs through the rock, it is well filtered and becomes very clean. It is said to have medicinal properties for persons suffering with diseases such as diabetes, bladder and urinary problems, indigestion, chronic diarrhea, dropsey, Bright’s disease, torpid liver, and “female weakness”. Mary Todd Lincoln visited Waukesha after the death of her son Tad in 1872.
Of course, besides its curative powers, the water in the Greater Milwaukee area had the best water in the Middle West for beer, or so I was told while working with old brewery hands at the Schlitz Bottle House for two summers way back in the day when Schlitz was the best selling brew in the USA. [Actually, they said that Northern Wisconsin also had wonderful water for beer flowing southward from Lake Superior, but nobody was going to build huge breweries up in the piney woods. But small beers like Leinenkugel and Rhinelander Export make great local beers from Lake Superior, as does Heilemann's Old Style and Hamm's along the St. Croix Valley.]

Here is more than you may want to know about the Silurian and its reefs in a magnificent 15-year old presentation online by the Milwaukee Public Museum, a place where my late Aunt Rosemary used to take me when I was a young child back before the dawn of time.

Saturday, January 05, 2013

Johnny Manziel And His Fast-Growing Legend



Johnny Manziel hypnotized me yesterday as I switched back and forth as best I could from T A&M on offense, when I would watch in wonderment at Johnny Football's incredible speed & agility on the ground and swift passing arm & then transfer to another channel, where HIMYM was playing non-stop whenever OU got the ball!

Yes, OU doesn't have a championship-level defense and yes, Landry Jones had a good game himself. But Jones is a senior and Manziel made him look slow and old. In fact, Johnny Football has a couple of extra gears & has size-15 feet & enormous hands for a guy so "short" by NFL standards.... Remember Flutie & Tarkenton, both shorter than Johnny Manziel?

Barring injury, this kid will make it to the pros as fast as he wants to...

Wish I had this kid's future...!!

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Lou Holtz on College Football & Notre Dame

Lou Holtz is a strong dish which one likes or dislikes---I happen to like the peppery 75-year old ESPN sportscaster/analyst who coached six college teams to a bowl game---an NCAA record no other coach can match. Here's Lou as channeled by WSJ writer/editorialist Stephen Moore:
The first time I met Lou Holtz was three years ago at a Republican policy retreat—he's a friend of House Speaker John Boehner. At the time, Notre Dame was a mediocre football team following a string of disappointing seasons. Yet here was a former coach of the team—when it had last been a national power, from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s—predicting a return to the glory days from a newly hired coach.

Brian Kelly "will have Notre Dame back in the national championship game," Mr. Holtz said. "The man is a winner."

I laughed back then when he said it. After Mr. Holtz resigned in 1996, having spent a decade in the demanding job, he was followed by Bob Davie (1997-2001), Tyrone Willingham (2002-04) and Charlie Weis (2005-09), who all arrived amid high hopes and left with no titles and few bowl victories. Why would Brian Kelly be any different?

Well, now Mr. Holtz is the one laughing. The Fighting Irish face another storied college team, Alabama's Crimson Tide, on Tuesday in a dream matchup for the NCAA, television executives and, not least, college football fans. The game could be the most avidly anticipated since . . . the last time these two teams met in the Sugar Bowl for the national championship, on New Year's Eve, 1973—a game won by Notre Dame.
After a very interesting digression on how Mr. Holtz got to where he is today, for which I recommend the link above, Lou expatiates on the popularity of college football today:
How did college football become so popular and such a "big industry," as he describes it? "It's the whole environment. The pageantry, the bands, the tailgating. It's become the family thing to do. And then ESPN has had a tremendous impact with all the games and highlights," he adds. "Plus, people identify with a school. And even if they didn't go there, they will adopt that school."

Mr. Holtz also cites the wide open, pass-happy, hurry-up style of play that has replaced the dull days of three yards and a cloud of dust. And with the NCAA's limitation on scholarships, the Notre Dames, USCs and Ohio States can no longer hoard all the talent, which helps other schools compete: "It's great for the game. It means on any given Saturday anyone can win."

So schools are now making a fortune off the athletes. Why not pay them? "No, no, never," says Mr. Holtz with a frown. "I'm adamant about that. First and foremost, you're there to get an education. You get a scholarship and that's what the agreement should be. The schools do more for the players than they do for the schools, and I always felt the athletes needed me more than I needed them."
And the terrible situation at Penn State, where the NCAA is fining the school $60 million plus four years of ineligibility?
Recruiting scandals have always been a problem in college football, but an unprecedented blemish in recent years was the sex-abuse scandal at Penn State and the collapse of coach Joe Paterno's reputation. Mr. Holtz was appalled by the revelations about the abuse of children by former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

But he also says: "I thought that was unfair, what happened to Penn State," speaking about the four-year ban from postseason bowls and $60 million fine. "The guy who committed the offense is in jail for life. I didn't think it was an NCAA violation, I thought it was a criminal case. But don't penalize the kids."

It is "the kids" in the college game that retain much of Mr. Holtz's attention and concern. He says the satisfaction of coaching was that the "lessons you learn in football are the same you need later for success in business and life."
But wait, there's more. On the pros, concussions and spinal injuries, Coach Holtz has a lot of common sense:
He used to warn his top players not to get too carried away about NFL stardom and riches, reminding them that the average tenure in professional football is about four seasons. "That means you're 26 and your life is only one-third over. What are you going to do with your life then?"

Mr. Holtz is troubled by the increase in concussions and spinal injuries in what seems to be an ever more violent sport. Without mentioning ESPN by name, he complains that dangerous and dirty hits are glorified on TV replays.

How to reduce the violent hits? "Take the face guards off the helmets," he says. "That way players can't lunge headfirst and use the helmet as a battering ram." He also suggests using softer helmets. "Players would go back to the fundamentals of tackling—no more concussions."
Finally, the discipline that teaches players lessons, often harsh, that life requires:
Mr. Holtz wants to be remembered as a disciplinarian and character-builder. Before perhaps the biggest game of his career—when he took his 10-0 Irish into Los Angeles for a final game against USC during their 1988 championship run—he stunned the college football world by suspending two star players for showing up late to a team meeting. "I wanted the kids to know that actions have consequences," he says. The Irish won anyway.

He also refused to put players' names on jerseys because "you're playing for ND, you're not playing for yourself. To win, it is always about putting the team first." One change he did want to bring to Notre Dame was adding the letters "ND" to the players' gold helmets. No, school officials told him, "the helmets represent the golden dome" of Notre Dame's landmark Main Building, dating to 1882. He stewed and then said: "Well, could we paint 'ND' on the golden dome?"
Love him or leave him, Lou is one helluva coach and ESPN attraction...