Subaru

I asked the Subaru service guy what the stars in the Subaru logo meant.
"Idiot customer," he thought.
He said, "I dunno."

 www.cartype.com/pages/1684/subaru

Well, pretty cool stuff on the name and Subaru history in that link above.
So, Subaru is the Japanese word for the Pleiades star cluster:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades_%28star_cluster%29 

I can see the resemblance, I guess.

But I thought Pleiades was a video game:

 www.pinballrebel.com/arcade/centuri/pleiades/pleiades.htm

QOTD

"Modified versions of the Impreza WRX and WRX STi have been competing successfully in car rallies and the World Rally Championship for many years."
- That's right, baby! (source) 

sooby... yow, bill

PS - Car & Driver test drive of the 2011 WRX STI sedan... it looks dreamy!

www.caranddriver.com/reviews/car/10q3/2011_subaru_impreza_wrx_sti-first_drive_review

We are chimpanzees

QOTD

"We are chimpanzees with no memory."
- Ken Fisher, source 

Ken Fisher is an investment bigwig.

He wrote a good investment book called "The Only Three Questions that Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't" (Amazon)

He is one of the few, the proud... a long-term optimist on the US economy and investing.

Ken Fisher Sees Great Decade Ahead

QOTD2

"The next 10 years are going to be just as good as the 1990s. The problems in this current environment we think are so different, and so new and so unique. It’s the same stupid old normal we’ve always had."
- Ken Fisher

Sounds good to me.
rally monkey... yow, bill

Actual responsibilities

I took this bad boy from up in the Arch in St Lou:

 "Arch Shadow"

a) Professor Obama
Well, silly me... President Obama has (professorially) figured out the real problem with public education... we need a longer school year (source).

Well, Professor, two things jump out for me:

1. So, if we lengthen the school year, then you'll enroll your kids in the DC schools, Mr. President? Cha. Didn't think so.
2. President Obama and the dem Congress killed the DC voucher program (the "Opportunity Scholarship Program") earlier this year (source). This very directly reduced the education choices and quality for lower income parents in DC.

Typical pol. Say one thing. Do the opposite for yourself.

Look, the bottom line: We don't need Professor Obama scratching his chin and coming up with this tweak and that tweak on public school. That's BS. Give people their dough and let them decide what's important for their children. Just like you did President Obama when you sent your kids to an elite private school.

QOTD

"I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities."
- Sarah Palin, source 

School choice is the real deal... this guy says it really well:

Ron Miller on School Choice

School choice is "the civil rights issue of our time."
Amen to that.

b) ABO

I sure got a bee in my bonnet over the November elections. It's the "Anyone But Obama" (ABO) ticket for me. This leaves me with one big problem though.

Will I vote for big liar Judy Biggert?

Judy Biggert is my Congress-girl and was first elected in 1998. Part of her platform before getting elected was a commitment to term limits... she's sort of part of the Newt crowd from the 90's. Once she got into office (surprise surprise), she figured out that she was too valuable to possibly ever leave her post.

Here's Judy Biggert's Oct 1999 rationale for being a big liar:

Ahem, On Second Thought

Shit. I'm not shredding that nonsensical gobbledy goop. You can do that without me.

But Biggert is a repub, so she's part of ABO.
I haven't made my mind up yet.
Blech.
stay tuned... yow, bill

Best Day

Best Day Ever (thank you, SpongeBob) yesterday... Cub game with my guys, Holly & Ty.

Cub lose.
Boxscore: sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore?gid=300926116

Two game highlights:

1. Albert Pujols hit an incredible moonshot in the first inning.
2. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out how a guy as small and weak as Cub Sam Fuld could still be so slow. He he.

We left in the 7th inning when Ty's teeth chattered, "Do you think they sell hot chocolate here?" So, we finished the game at Yakzie's with some tabasco chicken pizza.

Ty got a Starlin Castro shirt. Holly got a Cub shirt with a (mandatory) V neck.

So great.
Way better than vacation... or pretty much anything else, eh.
peace out... yow, bill

Nerf Warrior

a) Nerf Warrior
If you don't have an 11 yo son, then you may not be aware of the plethora of Nerf weaponry. After a bruising weekend being pelted by Nerf balls, darts and other projectiles, I humbly submit a list of the top 10 Nerf weapons in history.

The Top 10 Nerf Guns of All Time

Another common 11 yo male trait... a propensity to over-value one's possessions. Example: "I'll bet this baseball card is worth, like, a hundred dollars on ebay."

OK. No. That card isn't worth the 40 cent stamp to send it, but that's alright.

So, when Ty declared his Nerf Ballzooka a valuable collectible that we should sell on ebay, I scoffed. It appears that Ty may be right on this one. Nerf doesn't make the Ballzooka any more, and we found used Ballzookas that sold for over $40 on ebay this weekend. Hmm.

b) WSJ Tech Awards

Today's WSJ is worth the $2 for its Tech Awards section alone. Go grab one. Here's the link, but much of it is subscription limited:

WSJ 2010 Tech Innovation Awards

One of my faves... there are some great stats on an LED light bulb that is sold for commercial use by Nexxus Lighting (source):

• Bulbs last 50,000 hours... um, that's 17 years at 8 hours a day.
• The bulbs consume 1/5 of the energy of a regular bulb
• The bulbs have some fancy technology that makes the light warmer, ala incandescent bulbs
• The bulbs currently cost about $100, but with the energy savings, pay for themselves in a couple years.

Excellent. Like Ava Gardner over there to the right.

c) Chicken Little Deficit

 In my 48 years, I've already done a couple rounds of the "ack, the sky is falling" deal regarding the federal budget deficit. Here's how simple it is to fix though (WSJ source):

1. Cut spending back to 2008 levels. President Obama's plan to spend a trillion dollars a year more than we have for the next decade is a big part of why his presidency/popularity is in decline.
2. The author proposes a simple "Inflation minus one" rule. Here it is: "That rule would hold that in any year when the ratio of government expenditures to GDP exceeds 18% (the 30-year average of tax revenues), Congress could increase spending only by the last three years' inflation rate, minus one percentage point."

Adopting these two easy, simple steps would balance the budget in a decade. No, President Obama, you don't have to cut veteran's benefits or layoff all firemen/police/teachers to balance the budget.

QOTD

"Spending, not the deficit, is the most important measure of fiscal restraint."
- E Lazear, WSJ article

yup... yow, bill

Watching TV this afternoon

a) It's beautiful outside... let's watch TV

Nabobs unite!
Today is the 7th Annual Worldwide Day of Play (wikipedia source).
You know. It's the day where we solve the problem of overweight kids by playing outside for an hour. It's right up there with "Use crappy light bulbs to stop global warming" Day.

This is some stupid Nickelodeon thing, I think.
Of course, Mrs. Obama will famously join in on the nabobbery.
Well, Ty and I will be firmly anchored on the couch... watching something else.

b) Small victory/favors

Bill Ayer was unanimously denied "emeritus" status at UIC... well, thank you for small favors, eh.
Of course, Bill Ayers is a terrorist from the 60's/70's, Obama pal, and leftie icon.

Controversial UIC professor denied emeritus status

QOTD

"I intend to vote against conferring the honorific title of our university to a man whose body of work includes a book dedicated in part to the man who murdered my father, Robert F. Kennedy."
- Christopher Kennedy, trustee voting against Bill Ayers... Sep 23, 2010 (source)

Well, good for you Christopher... though you might also mention that we shouldn't have a guy who blew people up in our dang school in the first place. I wonder if UIC has any abortion clinic bombers on staff. No? Hmm.

Here's a good IBD editorial on this as well (source).
What a creep and huzzah to small victories!
yow, bill

Derrion Albert Story

Well, this is tough, tough reading, but if you're up to it... I think it's worth it.
Read it till the end:

One year later: Where are the kids from the Derrion Albert beating now?

Great story and journalism by that blogger dude, Achy Obejas.
And gol dang, Fenger is on the south side, only 5 miles from St Eth (google maps). Jeez.

I remember President Obama's bare, cynical response... sending Arnie Duncan to Fenger High with a check for $500K for "counselors and other programs" (source).

People gotta own their stuff, right? Their kid's education. Their behavior. Their neighborhood. It can't be the feds. Or anyone else.
bah... yow, bill

Walmart at midnight

"Big Ending"

a) Fire Jim Hendry
Why is Jim Hendry interviewing Cub managerial candidates?

Cub Talk to Don Wakamatsu

The Cub have the highest payroll in the NL (source)... $150 MILLION BUCKS for that sub-0.500 piece-a-crap team. That's twice what the division-winning Cincy Red spent!

My guy Ricketts better clean house over at Wrigley.
I'm talking 9:00 am Monday morning, Oct 4... the day after the season is over.
I want to see every head roll from top (Hendry) to bottom (the janitor cleaning the troughs at Wrigley).
I better see it!

b) Walmart at Midnight
This is a very compelling story from the CEO of Walmart about the impact the recession has had on people:

Watching Walmart at Midnight

You could take what I know about politics, toss it in a blender, and I don't think you'd get one decent margarita out of it... but perhaps I'm smarter than President Obama. Why isn't he telling stories like this (really compelling) Walmart stuff to tweak the repubs in Congress?

Bill Clinton would-a.

c) Rummy Repubs
You could take what I know about politics, toss it in a blender, and I don't think you'd get one decent margarita out of it... (deja vu?) but perhaps I'm smarter than the rummy Congress repubs. Yesterday they celebrated their rumminess (?) by announcing their "Pledge" or "Contract with America 2" or whatever:

Clinton blasts repub "Hysterical Tirades"

Now, repubs seemingly had the November election on a platter:

• The first black person to ever publicly questions whether Obama can walk on water, let alone criticize his job performance.
• The depressing job and economic stats just continue to roll in.
• Dems seemingly have three strategies: a) shut up about Obama, b) criticize each other or c) call the electorate idiots.
• Everyone and their brother is focusing on what they don't want... no more Obama.

With this su-weet setup, what do the repubs do... shift the media/public focus back to criticizing the repubs just 6 weeks before the election. Dop.
rummies... yow, bill

PS - Yeah team. Ungawa!

Bigger than Facebook

a) Bigger than Facebook
This story is so weird... the Facebook guy is donating $100M to Newark NJ schools:

Friended for $100 Million

The weird part is that NJ already spends $22,000 a pop on the 40,000 students in the Newark system.
Can I do a little math here?
They spend $22K * 40K students = $880M total spent.
And $100M/$880M = about 11%.

So, the Facebook guy is going to fix Newark schools by increasing the already fucking ridiculous amount spent on kids in Newark by 11%?

Well, maybe he has some super-duper, special plan for the dough?
No.
"No plans have yet been finalized on how the gift to Newark will be spent."

You got me. It's a head-scratcher.

I'll tell you what he could do if he wants to really improve the lot of some of these students. Use the $100M to pay 50% of the tuition at any private school for kids in Newark. How about that one, Facebook guy?

b) Good one!
Good QOTD from WSJ honcho.

QOTD

"The Obama administration is the dismaying, logical end-point of decades of public spending, a Gargantua that now threatens to smother everything else in the American economy."
- Daniel Henninger, WSJ honcho, source

In his CNBC "town hall" thingie this week, I saw a clip where President Obama said something about being unable to cut the deficit... paraphrasing, "what are you going to do, cut veteran's benefits?"

Faker.
Liar.
Tourist.

The most transparent, pedestrian ploy of all pols... we're going to cut all your basic services. Danger, Will Robinson! DANGER!!

President Obama... vanilla pol. Yawn.
yow, bill

Oldie, but a goodie

a) Selling cancer
It's Mozy's oldie, but still a goodie.

QOTD

"Bob Woodward would sell cancer if they paid him."
- Mozy... you can fill in the name, but the original was Ed McMahon

Who buys these books? Bob Woodward... roll the crap.
If trying to turn into a soap opera is your thing, then have at it. I'll pass.

Perhaps the only interesting thing to come out of all this... 60 Minutes, Woodward's toadie during the W years, reportedly won't touch this book... Woodward is hitting Diane Sawyer's show on ABC (whatever the hell that is) instead (source).

b) Freak me out
Well, gmail freaked me (me... aka fucking tech dinosaur) out again.
Here's the message I got:

Did you mean to attach files?

You wrote "is attached" in your message, but there are no files attached. Send anyway?

Get it?
When I hit send, gmail scanned my message, saw that I wrote "is attached" in there, but hadn't attached anything.
So, gmail says, "Uh, doofus... you want to attach something here or what?!?!"

Well, gmail was right and I was wrong... I had forgotten to attach my file.
Sigh.
roll the crap... yow, bill

PS - From "The Jerk"

Navin: You know, while you were playing that just now, I had the craziest fantasy that I could rise up and float right down the end of this cornet, right through here, through these valves, right along this tube, and right up against your lips and give you a kiss.

Marie: Why didn't you?

Navin: I didn't want to get spit on me.

Pubic schools

a) The cookie jar
Seems that Jesse Jackson, Jr got caught with his hand in this cookie jar (source):



Well, nice cookie jar, I mean, "social acquaintance" there, Junior.
But I have never understood the blonde Hispanic thing. Why? Why!

b) Pubic schools
A little billboard oops in South Bend, IN (source):



It happens.
I remember we put up a big sign outside St Eth that had the name of the school misspelled.

I don't know if you caught this one, but what's stupider than misspelling "public schools"?
Well, why the hell is a public school spending money on advertising anyway!?!? Are they trying to lure customers away from other public schools?

QOTD

"I think he needs to get rid of those teleprompters, and connect."
- Walter Mondale, on President Obama's sagging popularity (source)

Hey, don't blame me.
connect this... yow, bill

Political tautology

a) Happier Autumn
Happy autumn.
The Castle lawn is already cluttered by fallen leaves.
So ends President Obama's Summer of Recovery.

QOTD

"This summer is sure to be a Summer of Economic Recovery."
- Obama nabob, Jun 17, 2010, source

Dop.

b) Political tautology
President Obama was on CNBC yesterday. I passed, but I did catch some highlights and commentary. Two things struck me:

1. People seem personally disappointed in President Obama not doing this or that. How people feel personally dependent on some pol never ceases to amaze me. It sounds whiny and, I don't know, immature.
   
2. And President Obama continues to ride his tidy political tautology... everything bad is W's fault... until something good happens economically. Now, that's all well and good, but if that's where you are after 20 months in office... that's a problemo.
   

QOTD2

"In every speech, every interview that I have made, I've constantly said what sets America apart, what has made us successful over long term, is we've got the most dynamic free-market economy in the world."
- President Obama yesterday, source

Even the lefties shrug at that one... "Stop saying that giving people tax cuts is giving people money. It's their money!" -C Matthews, MSNBC talking head (source).

Bah, enough!
I vote for super-hot 50-something Julianne Moore.

jiminy... yow,bill

A Porsche AND a Florida condo!

a) Pat Quinn. Boob.
Pat Quinn made me fall off the couch yesterday afternoon with this commercial where he bad-mouths his opponent for owning a Porsche AND a Florida condo.

Pat Quinn is a boob video

Pat Quinn is a boob. He aspires to be a nabob some day.
Speaking of nabobs, that video link is from leftie blog, the HuffPo. And what's the leftie analysis of this ridiculous ad...

QOTD

"With this ad, Quinn clearly hopes to change that [trailing in the polls]"
-HuffPo in-depth analysis of Pat Quinn's Porsche ad

b) Too nerdy?
Book: "When Computers Were Human" by David Alan Grier
Review: 1 bill-star (out of 5)... couldn't finish it

It's rare to run into a book too nerdy for me to enjoy/finish. Alas, "When Computers Were Human" is this albino pigeon.

The premise is to recount stories of human beings doing math, prior to the age of computers. That's a pretty compelling notion to me as a nerd, plus Gram Krieger did math by hand for an insurance company a zillion years ago.

It was too boring though. I do admire the author. Shit, there's about a hundred pages of footnotes and references and index and all. I just couldn't get through it.

One of my fave parts was the description of trying to compute the arrival of Halley's Comet. Or more accurately, trying to compute the perihelion of the comet. Over hundreds of years, guys tried all kinds of calculations and heuristics to approximate when Halley's comet will swing by Earth next.

Speaking of, Halley's next stop by the Earth is supposed to be Jul 28, 2061.
When I'm 99 years old.
Yikes. He he.
no porsche, sooby... yow, bill

PS - "google halley's comet bikini"... no idea why.

This space intentionally left blank.

QOTD

All this pain smothers me
Like a bomb that you can't see
Tell me, tell me what your after
I just want to get there faster

- Punkins, "Siva"

a) The lowest of all professions
Ah, the media... lowest of all professions.
Here's the AP story on a bunch-a guys who were plotting to kill the Pope.

6 arrested in UK in alleged terror threat to pope

So, you read the article... 6 guys, living in London, street cleaners, from Algeria.
That's it.
Um, AP... there's no other information you have for me about why these guys might consider killing the Pope?
Were they enraged by the Pope making the streets dirty?
Did the Pope bad-mouth the Algerian soccer team?

You have to dig to find a story (not by the AP) that notes the obvious, that they are Muslim terrorists.

b) Where people are putting their money
This is a great chart.
It shows money flowing in/out of stock (blue) and bond (red) mutual funds over the last 20 years.
People (and their money) are fleeing the stock market and barreling in to bond funds.


Source: Investors Increasing Bond Allocation

So, if I had to predict the future, I'd say that this portends a decline in the bond market and rise in the stock market. Some time after this happens, we'll see and inflection point in cash inflows.

The S&P is 1125; the all-time high is 1575 from Oct 2007. So, we need a 40% rally to get back to that level. The problem with any Svengali-like predictions is that you never know how long it'll take to happen. Will bond prices falter in a few months or a few years? That's a tougher call.

c) Flipped. And bored.
Movie: Flipped
Review: 1 bill-star (out of 5)... painful
Website: www.imdb.com/title/tt0817177/

Well, "Flipped" is supposed to be "The Wonder Years", redux.
I was supposed to walk out thinking that the movie was formulaic, but OK.
Well, no go. Flipped is a near-total cluster across the board: script, direction, acting... the whole magilla. This should have been an easy heart tug. No, it was heavy and ham-handed. And boring.

Leaving the theater, I laughed to myself because I think that "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" was a junior high movie that had more heart than Flipped.
yow, bill

I guess I'm still Islamophobic

QOTD

"You may have noticed that Molly Norris's comic is not in the paper this week.
That's because there is no more Molly."
- Seattle Weekly editor, source

This is an absolutely amazing story:

On the Advice of the FBI, Cartoonist Molly Norris Disappears From View

Here's Molly:


Here's the cartoon where she calls for "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day":


Well, I've googled my fingers to the nub, but you know what I can't find:

• Where's President Obama? I guess he would condemn Molly and her intolerance for expressing herself.
  
• Where's General Petraeus? I expected that he would trumpet how Molly's cartoons have placed American soldiers' lives in greater danger.
  
• Where's Islam? And for the gol dang life of me, I can't find a single fucking editorial or blurb or news item or quote or anything... from a Muslim leader or media source denouncing this terrorism and outrageous behavior.
  

You see. This is the problem. The problem is not the extremists. The problem is that we have leadership and a government that appeases these people and this kind of behavior. And this problem would go away chop chop, if Muslims leaders spoke out and rejected it. But neither of these things will happen, so a fucking cartoonist has to go into hiding here in the United States of America to avoid being summarily executed by some Muslim guys. It's surreal.

Well, shame on me.
Sorry, President Obama.
I guess I'm still Islamophobic (in the parlance of the times)... typical white guy. If a bunch of guys like me and girls like Molly got together, then we'd have a real racist problem on our hands, eh.

Hard to believe we allow stuff like this to happen.
Good luck to Molly Norris.
yow, bill

PS - BTW, great headline today: "Lady Gaga and Liberace: Separated at Birth?"
PPS - I wonder how Gaga and Liberace would fare in an Muslim country? Oh. There I go again!

Benatar Book

Book: "Between a Heart and a Rock Place" by Pat Benatar
Review: 2 bill-stars (out of 5)... ah, nope.

I like Pat Benatar. I don't think I have any of her CD's. But you hear a Pat Benatar oldie on the radio, hey you probably listen for a while and sing along and reminisce... I think she is pretty talented and has a strong female voice.

That photo at the top is pretty recent... and jiminy, she's 57. Hi-yo!

But... the book is a bust.
In part, it's not her fault.
She has lived a pretty normal, boring life. No rehab. No jail time. No sleeping around. No bankruptcy. No nothing, pretty much. She's been married to her musical collaborator forever, and they have two seemingly perfect kids.

In part, it is her fault.
She really doesn't give up any "inside" anecdotes. There's no dirt. It's just a vanilla, blow-by-blow of her life. I almost gave up when she described how excited she was to meet Frank Sinatra by chance once in NYNY. Good Lord. Oh, and all her "the record company tried to screw us" stories... jeez, cmon sweetheart.

Adding to the blandness, the order of the book is a straight line: first person narrative and chronological. Yawn. The corny title should have been enough of a warning, I guess.

Benatar's book reminded me a little of this blog, actually.
A yawnfest. He he.
I'm stuck, like Pat Benatar, in my happy little existence... as tedious as it may be to the reader.
heartbreaker, dream-maker, love-taker... yow, bill

Exceptional

Ah, good old Highlights magazine... the Goofus/Gallant metaphor is strong.

QOTD - Goofus

"I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism."
- President Obama, source

QOTD - Gallant

"But what we must always remember is that this exceptional country of ours – it didn’t happen by accident. This extraordinary country we have didn’t just happen ‘because.’ It happened because the people who were here before us did what they had to do to ensure that their children inherited a better life. This country’s exceptional and extraordinary because the men and women who stood where we stand now confronted the great challenges of their time, and in so doing, ensured that the next generation was better off.
...

If we stay on the road that Washington has us on right now, we will lose our exceptionalism. We will lose the things that make us special and unique."
- M Rubio, source

Now, who the heck is Marco Rubio?
Rubio Schmubio... I don't know.
But I say "Amen!" to that brother.

Pro-Obama or ag'in him... it's a simple question of values.
When you tell me that the US is not exceptional, then count me out, President Obama.
yow, bill

PS - BTW, for you godless heathens (or readers under 40... cough), here's some Highlights magazine Goofus and Gallant goodness.

Positive Pranking

a) Rational about race
What a wonderful contrast.

• On one hand... we have President Obama and his administration gaming race/racism for their own political gain,
  
• On the other... here's an interesting and rational look at race in this worthy blurb below:

The Black-White Happiness Gap

QOTD

“The decline in prejudice [since the 60's-70's] has been astounding,”
- Kerwin Charles, a University of Chicago economist who has studied discrimination

To Kerwin and my leftie brothers, I say, "Duh". To the Obama administration I say, "double duh"... um, the President's a black guy. Eh. We, Americans, voted him in. Cha. Get it?

b) Positive Pranking
I like this notion of "positive pranking"... I'm not quite sure who would walk up to a piece of candy hanging from a tree and eat it, but whatever.

TP = Tootsie Pop

c) November Half Marathons
I've been very good about training for my punkin 10K on Halloween. If I keep it up, maybe I'll hit a tasty half marathon in November as my reward. He he.

www.halfmarathons.net/race_calendar_november.html

What's that saying... half the marathon, twice the fun... or something.

d) Bad DC News
Bad news on the education front from Washington DC... no, not more billions and billions being doled out by Obama and Arnie... no, the mayor who hired Michelle Rhee to run DC schools lost his primary. It looks like the union-addled nabob who won will likely get rid of her.

What Will Happen to D.C. Schools If Michelle Rhee Leaves?

There's a big difference between nabobs like Obama and Arnie and non-nabob (huh?) M Rhee... and please allow me to bold this up a bit for emphasis...

Ms. Rhee actually sends her kids
to public school in Washington DC

Of course, President Obama's kids probably haven't driven by a public school in Chicago, let alone, Washington DC. Arnie was a little more clever... he commutes to work from Virginia, so his kids go to posh, lily white schools in suburban Arlington, VA. Such is the life of a nabob.

I read a stat the other day that 40% of Congress sends their own kids to private schools. I believe it. I'll let you find the link.
I'm hungry.
spaghetti... yow, bill

PS - I don't actually know that Arlington, VA is "lily white". I know it's posh, but not "lily white". Hold on a sec, OK? OK. Looks about 70% white... that's pretty "lily white", I guess.

www.arlingtonva.us/departments/cphd/planning/data_maps/Census/people/CensusPeoplePeople.aspx

I (still) heart Bjorn

a) Bjorn
I had read something about this Bjorn-reversing-himself-on-global-warming stuff.
Here's his op-ed. I still heart Bjorn Lomborg.

U-Turn On Global Warming? Hardly.

In his op-ed, Bjorn claims he was never against the notion of global warming, per se, just against the bogus solutions provided by the likes of Al Gore, the Kyoto treaty, and President Obama's cap and trade tax. Blah blah blah.

I don't think Bjorn-baby was quite as cut and dry as that, but whatever. I still heart Bjorn, and he's right. Even if you think global warming is as true as the grass is green, then the solution is not throttling the world's economies. That's a no-brainer. Hey, I don't even agree with Bjorn's solution of "massive increases in R&D funding for green energy technologies and geo-engineering", but anything is preferable to the leftie "if it breathes, tax it" approach.

Well, OK... so, Bjorn's position may have shifted a bit.
But the three global warming experts below stand firm (cough) in their beliefs!


b) I don't like this
I don't like the no-oodle.
No as in... no calories, no fat, no carbs, no soy, no gluten...
and (most importantly) no guilt...

www.nooodle.com

No taste.
For this little camper, please add back the calories, fat, and carbs... I am guilt-free, nabobs!
mmm spaghetti tonight... yow, bill

The GREATEST football highlight of all time!

Enjoy:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pE5XLlkyR0

QOTD

"That's.
Not right."
- TN football announcer

And shit, this isn't even the first cheerleader to be gobbled by a mascot... in basketball, the Raptor mascot did it earlier this year:

www.wired.com/playbook/2010/09/cheerleader-eating-mascot/

And T-Rac, the Titan mascot, is a raccoon because that's the official animal of the state of Tennessee (link). LOL.

You can't make this shit up.
he he... yow, bill

Tinkled

a) Tinkle
This story made me tinkle... a guy who picked all Illini players at his fantasy draft:

The Worst Football Draft of All-time

LOL!

I saw that "The League" show about fantasy football for the first time the other day. It's pretty much a bust, but they had a running joke... the have a huge trophy for winning the league with the Hindu God Shiva on top. Good one. Why can't I be that clever? Why can't I google up a good picture of it?

b) Cactus
So excellent...

QOTD

Sitting here wishing on a cement floor
Just wishing that I had something you wore
Bloody your hands on a cactus tree
Wipe it on your dress and send it to me
- Pixies, "Cactus", youtube

And a fucking AWESOME David Bowie version: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ-vbse8qI0

b) Tinkle 2
Most insipid commercial of all-time... a global warming polar bear hugging an electric car owner.

Nissan Leaf Polar Bear video

Dear reader. In those times when you may consider your humble williamt blogger dumb as a stump (often, I presume) and stubborn as a horny mule (horny?), well my only defense... there's a bunch-a people out there a whole lot dumber and more stubborn (still pushing the debunked Al Gore polar bear BS) than me.
tinkle... yow, bill

PS - Two tinkle-worthy links that I stumbled upon while, um, tinkling:

1. Tony Eason, Kurt Kittner, JEFF GEORGE! (tinkle)... 10 Greatest QB's in Illini History
2. Some cool graded football cards at Illini Football Greats: Rookie Cards
   

Gewgaws

"Poolside"

a) Greece
Long, excellent piece by Michael "Moneyball" Lewis on why Greece is in financial crisis:

Beware of Greeks Bearing Bonds

I found this via CWS.
Some amazing quotes/stats here:

• "Add it all up [Greek debt] and you got about $1.2 trillion, or more than a quarter-million dollars for every working Greek."
• "The national railroad has annual revenues of 100 million euros against an annual wage bill of 400 million, plus 300 million euros in other expenses."
• "The Greek public-school system is the site of breathtaking inefficiency: one of the lowest-ranked systems in Europe, it nonetheless employs four times as many teachers per pupil as the highest-ranked, Finland’s. Greeks who send their children to public schools simply assume that they will need to hire private tutors to make sure they actually learn something."
• "In just the past decade the wage bill of the Greek public sector has doubled, in real terms—and that number doesn’t take into account the bribes collected by public officials."
• "The average government job pays almost three times the average private-sector job."

These are all paths that the US is currently on... we're just a ways behind Greece. Our fed jobs average 50% more than the private sector. We have a greater and greater share of our GDP consumed by fed spending and debt. We have President Obama whose prescription for recovery is more government, more debt.

And maybe that's almost kind of a gauge... 50% more pay for our feds, compared to Greece's 3x pay... so we're 1/6th of the way there.

QOTD

"The tsunami of cheap credit that rolled across the planet between 2002 and 2007 has just now created a new opportunity for travel: financial-disaster tourism. The credit wasn’t just money, it was temptation. It offered entire societies the chance to reveal aspects of their characters they could not normally afford to indulge."
- Michael Lewis, source

b) Us
This op-ed is just OK... lots of poll data and blah blah, but it's co-authored by fave pol Paul Ryan:

The Size of Government and the Choice This Fall

There is a nice QOTD in there.

QOTD2

"Millions of Americans instinctively look to our leaders for a defense of our culture of free enterprise. Instead, we get more and more publicly funded gewgaws and shiny government novelties to distract us."
- source

Gewgaws. He he.
So, that's where my guy got jeejahs.

c) I heart Mike Singletary
Week 1 beating: Seattle 31 - Niner 6.
Niner coach Mike Singletary is sort of bizarro-Lovie... he actually gets upset when his team sucks.

QOTD3

"Tell Pete Carroll thank you very much for kicking our tails. It was good medicine, and we're going to take it."
- Mike Singletary, source

excellent... yow, bill

Meat on a stick

Bizarro commercial from Jimmy Dean sausage where he's dressed up as a sun:

Jimmy D's Anthem video

The Jimmy Dean sunshine superhero throws corndogs at the villains.
But it's not really a corndog... it's "Pancakes & Sausage on a stick"

www.jimmydean.com/products/original-pancakes-sausage-on-a-stick.aspx

Bizzaro.
But to their credit... it's the only commercial I remember, of the zillion shown, in the previews at the theater before "Salt".
meat on a stick... yow, bill

PS - BTW, Best trailer... "The Company Men" (imdb), a movie about guys losing their jobs.

Please, contrast

a) Please, contrast
Please, contrast these two, um, perspectives at 9/11 memorials yesterday...

QOTD1

"Nine years ago in the skies above this field, and in Washington and in New York City, we saw the worst of our enemy and the best of our nation.

We saw that there is evil in the world but good at the heart of our country. America was attacked, but the deepest belief of our democracy was vindicated."
- Former First Lady Laura Bush, in PA, source

Thank you, Mrs. Bush. Well said.
And...

QOTD2

"We champion the rights of every American, including the right to worship as one chooses, as service members and civilians from many faiths do just steps from here, at the very spot where the terrorists struck this building."
- President Obama, at the Pentagon, source

That's a zero, President Obama.
Americans have championed "the right to worship as one chooses" before the 9/11 attack, during it, and after it. Before you. And after you.
Zero.

That speech at a 9/11 Memorial is a zero; here's my proof:

There has been no backlash against Muslims in this country since 9/11.

I posted the FBI hate crime stats here at williamt: Kindle Close. The number of hate crimes against Muslims is minuscule.

Muslims come and go as they please. They worship where they like. And they live in America just like you and me.

Now, I do know of continuing Muslim against Americans: the Muslim army guy who killed 13 people (source) and various bombing attempts, shoe and underwear and Lord knows what. All this added on to the 9/11 attacks... and no backlash.

I caught a news blurb on the radio coming home last night. The focus was on President Obama's tolerance speech. They interviewed some Muslim kid about how tough things were for his family after 9/11. He said that his mother wears a hijab, and how people looked at them differently after the attacks. Are you kidding me? 3,000 people killed, and you don't like the way people are looking at you. Well, that's a bummer, dude.

Mrs. Bush is right. 9/11 has vindicated the American spirit.
President Obama is Jimmy Carter reborn... the malaise president.

b) Salt
Movie: "Salt"
Review: 3 bill-stars (out of 5)... just OK

How can an action movie starring Angelina Jolie be so boring?!?!
This is just barely 3 stars. Barely.
Angelina is OK, and they have a good cast, but the bland script and life-sucking direction kill the movie off.
salt this... yow, bill

9 years ago

9 year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks... nice "Tribute of Lights" shot from NYNY:

I wonder if political correctness will allow for replays of the towers falling on TV today. We shall see.

Spot on headline in this WSJ article:

A More Divided 9/11 Anniversary

I don't believe that President Obama is even going to NYNY today.
OK.

It's not hard to imagine a less divided, more unified anniversary.
Let's pretend one up, shall we...

The crappy media starts torquing up this Ground Zero mosque story. In response, President Obama sends Rahmie or some other lackey over to talk to the 15 minutes of fame imam and explains that President Obama is inviting him to be part of the observance of the 9/11 attacks with him in NYNY.

Of course, this invitation is contingent upon this Ground Zero mosque being moved. Move the mosque and you win: 1) we'll both be heroes in the crappy media 2) we'll a nice photo-op on Sep 11, and 3) most importantly, we'll see you moved up in line a couple spaces at the federal teet for "consulting" and this Muslim project and that. Refuse, and your days at the teet are over... we'll find another imam to invest in. It won't be hard.

Done.

Now, I know I ain't no genius. And I know you ain't either. (He he) So, why can we figure this stuff out, but President Obama cannot. Two things, I reckon: incompetence and values - President Obama's values are not those of 70% of Americans.

Our "divided" anniversary is a symptom of failed leadership.
peace... yow, bill

PS - Good, smarmy QOTD from today's WSJ:

QOTD

"President Obama continued his Economic Contradiction Tour yesterday..."
- WSJ op-ed today

Religious freedom x 2

a) First football game, all 11 minutes
First football game of the year last night... Saint 14, Viking 9.
Yawn.

I think the WSJ has really fucked me up for watching football. I was all fidgety because I now realize that there's only 11 minutes of actual football played in any 3+ hours of viewing.
My old post: Eleven Minutes of Action.

So click, click, click... in between cavernous breaks. I still caught a substantial amount of tedious shrapnel... like the announcers trying to figure out where referees are supposed to line up, or what the definition of a caught ball is. Pa-tooey! And click.

Best part of the game... easy. It was watching 40-something Brett Favre instantly release 100 mph fastballs right at his buster receivers. Excellent!


b) Religious freedom, both ways
A couple weeks ago, some Muslim nabobs decide that they want to build a mosque near Ground Zero... and President Obama speaks out.

QOTD

"Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.

This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable."
- President Obama, on a mosque being built near Ground Zero, source

Now, some nabobs in Florida plan on protesting the 9/11 attacks by burning Korans, and President Obama should speak out.

QOTD2

"Christians have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. That includes the right to protest the 9/11 attacks in Florida, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.

This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable."
- President Obama, on a FL church planning on burning Korans

For what it's worth, the pictures are fun.
Here's the Koran-burner:


And here's some knucklehead in Pakistan that's burning the American flag to protest the mere notion of burning the Koran:


I'll give these two wildly-facial-haired fanatics this... at least they're consistent.

Hey, the American people are consistent too. We know what religious freedom is, President Nabob. We also know right and wrong. Polls say 70% of Americans don't want the Ground Zero mosque... and I'll bet at least that would be against burning Korans.

This is more than President Obama can say.
You want to talk religious freedom, then talk about both sides.
You want to talk inappropriate behavior, then talk about both sides.
religious freedom both ways... yow, bill

PS - And jiminy... huzzah to Pakistan! He he.