Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Kim Jong II - Your Lunatic BFF

Hey there. Remember me? I'm Kim Jong II. Ring a bell? No? Back in '06 I was the man. I detonated a low yield nuclear weapon off the coast of North Korea. How crazy is that? Plenty crazy. That's sniffing airplane glue, huddled in the corner of a rat infested basement writing cryptic Greek messages on the wall and screaming about ants and Wilfred Laurier crazy - but oh no. 2 years ago everyone was talking about me and my sweet nuclear stuff, but no one cares about me anymore.

You're all obsessed with Mahmoud and Bashar al-Assad. Freakin' losers. Can you even pronounce "Ahmadinejad?" That's just a mess of vowels and consonants no man should be made to decipher. You know what else? Mahmoud may be short, but I'm waaaay shorter. I am so short I am literally staring at the urinal puck when I take a leak. Most of it dribbles down my leg.

I'm not unreasonable, though. I'm willing to meet you half way. Give me a couple of slots on CNN showing how moon bat crazy and scary I am, and I am willing to go the extra mile for you. I'm already off to a good start. I'm an unstable despot who is constantly drunk on Hennessy brandy. I wear lifts in my shoes (mostly because of the dribble) and I spend endless hours in my private screening room watching Godzilla movies.

I can tell. You're not impressed. My man Gaddafi got sodomized with a knife while they dragged him through the streets. Tough act to follow you say? NAY! I will sodomize myself with a bat covered in rusty nails while giving you bedroom eyes. I will set my taint on fire and poop out a bar of uranium if that's what it takes.

That's dedication. That's the kind of nuttier than squirrel poop crazy that you're not going to get from that little dandy Al-Assad. It's not enough to be scary.

You deserve Skeletor crazy, and I promise - give me a chance, and I will be your lunatic bff.

Lots of Crazy Love

Kim Jong Il

Friday, November 11, 2011

Poppy - Remembering the Haida

Editor's note: The following Remembrance Day blog is a guest article written by my wife and editor, the lovely Mrs Claire.  This moving tribute to her grandfather is in honour of all those who fought and sacrificed for our freedoms.


We have become accustomed to the term 'family unit'. It is a dry phrase, for when I reflect upon my own family, one word trumps this commonplace expression, and that word is 'legacy'. It is a legacy of a family, and a man I knew as 'Poppy'.

My mother's family are very close-knit, and would do anything for one another, and by extension, for anyone that can be considered family. I believe this is because of the values instilled in them by their parents. My grandfather and grandmother, Clyde and Edith Crews, were feisty Newfoundlanders, a rare and special breed of Canadian.

We, their grandchildren, knew my grandfather, quite fittingly given this subject matter, as Poppy. Poppy, as I knew him, was a gentle, soft-spoken man, who loved bear hugs and back scratches. He was a warm, kind, and genuine person, and the delight in his eyes was obvious when he saw family coming. When I was young, if he saw our car coming up his long driveway, he would lock the door, knowing that I would be the first one out of the car. Running excitedly to the door, I would knock, and he'd look through the little window and yell 'Go away, foreigner!' (they had since moved to Nova Scotia; we lived in the neighbouring province of New Brunswick), then, flinging the door wide, give me a giant hug.

As I got older, I started learning about World War II in school. At some point, we were given an assignment: To speak to a veteran about his time during the war. When I got home, my mother suggested I call Poppy. I found out he had served in the Navy. I called him, and he told me a story. At the end, he was quiet for a moment, and then he said 'That was the most scared I was, during the entire war.'

My mother doesn't remember, growing up, hearing stories about his service, because my grandmother didn't want her children to know of the horrors of war. Once grown, my grandfather would speak of it, albeit rarely, at times prompted by televised images of the war, or, quite simply, if he was asked about it.

Through the years, I've heard many stories about his service, from my mother, my aunts, and my uncles. Please forgive the scattered nature of the stories, I don't know them in chronological order:

Newfoundland, the province in which my grandparents were born and raised, did not join the Canadian Confederation until 1949. During the war, my grandfather signed up to fight for his country, a country to which he did not yet belong. His younger brother, my Great-Uncle Mickey, lied about his age and joined as well. Newfoundlanders (or Newfies as we now endearingly call them) were treated as the mud on every one's shoe, but, for the most part, they never complained, and followed orders - or at least they did on my grandfather's ship.

He served on the HMCS Haida, which served multiple functions - everything from convoy escort to full-blown warship - from 1943 through to the end of the war. My grandfather was a gunner. He once recounted to my mother that his and an Allied ship were sailing out on open water when a U-boat surprised them and fired on the ship closest to it, which was not the Haida. They managed to evacuate the Allied ship and sink the U-boat. They were not always so lucky.

Once, they came upon another Allied ship that had been fighting an enemy ship, but was at that point sinking. My grandfather said he could see the men from the ship bobbing in the waters of the Atlantic, and the Haida neared in an attempt to pick them up. They began drawing enemy fire, and had to pull out of the battle. They saved as many men as they could, which was not many. They were forced to retreat, leaving the vast majority of their brothers behind.

The story he recounted to me was what he described as being 'the most scared I was, during the entire war.' While fighting an enemy ship during a storm, firing at one another, huge waves were beating down on them, pounding the ship into the ocean. At some point during the fight, an enormous wave pushed the Haida high up in the air. He recounted that while they were technically still in the water, they were basically at a 90 degree angle to the ocean. They were completely exposed, and there was a 50-50 chance they'd land properly. The ship could have easily tilted the other way and landed upside down. When they landed bottom down, he said it was an ear-splitting booming noise that probably would have been louder had he not been so terrified. They won the battle.

The HMCS Haida sank more enemy surface tonnage during the war than any other Canadian warship. He was proud to have the honour of serving his country, and even as an elderly man, he could describe every detail of his ship. My parents gave him a framed photograph of the ship one year for Christmas, and it hung with a quiet dignity until he and my grandmother passed away and their house was sold. My parents now have the picture.

I can't begin to imagine the horrors he must have encountered during World War II, the stories no one ever heard. He fought with stoicism and pride. He fought for our freedom. He fought with honour.

After the war, he went on to marry my grandmother Edith, moved to the province of Nova Scotia, and had 14 children. My mother, the eighth child, can hardly remember a time he raised his voice (with one exception, funny, but not appropriate here). He contracted tuberculosis around 1956, and spent a year in a sanatorium. The doctors eventually removed a portion of his left lung. He worked at the docks in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to support his family, and support them he did. He raised a beautiful family, and each of his children can and do tell stories that highlight the great man he was.

When he passed away in January of 2008, he was survived by his wife, 14 children, 25 grandchildren, and 30 great-grandchildren, as well as a multitude of nieces and nephews. Those numbers have grown, and, if the world has luck on it's side, we will instill the same virtues of kindness, gentleness, generosity, and all of his wonderful traits, all the things that made him such a wonderful man, into our children as he instilled in his, who in turn instilled into us. This is his legacy.

He was my hero.

Cordially

Claire

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Howdy, I Might Be Rick Perry

Howdy!  I'm Rick Perry, and I'm running for somethin' in Norway.  Wait...that ain't quite right.  I'm a dang ol' Texas boy, and I made these Gucci loafers...I mean, snake skin boots with a bear I caught with my own three hands.  Confused?  Me too.

You see, after I went and started forgettin' stuff at the last debate, ma' campaign advisers decided it might temporarily boost my poll numbers if I start forgettin' stuff more often. From now on, I plan to forget a ding-dang pile of stuff to anyone who will listen, like them fellers on the late night radio, David Letternumber, and Jay Pruno.  But I can get up before the crack o' dawn and do the morning shows too, cause that what we do here in Ohio...I mean, BIG OL' TEXAS.  We get up nice and late so we can have an early lunch before the kids go to work or whatever.  You see, I went and forgot again.  Ain't that just so electable. Seriously.

Now, you might think it was a case of the nerves that made me forget that I wanted to abolish the Department of Energy and some other stuff, but heck, I've gone a step further and plum forgot what Energy is.  I think it's that thing they put in toothpaste.  I might get rid of some of them other departments as well, but I can't remember what they are.  When I do remember, they're as good as gone, but for now, I forget stuff and remind people of it because we decided at a brain storming session that it's a solid strategy for the next week as it seems to be artificially inflating my poll numbers...I mean screw letters.  Sorry, I forgot that I was supposed to be forgettin' stuff.  Ain't that the dangest thing?

Anyway, I'm David, and...HEY! WHO THE HELL ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH 'MA POPCORN?"

What?  Is that too over the top guys?....You want me to reign it in?  Yeah, that's just making me sound crazy.

Howdy again.  It's me, and I'm fairly certain I'm Rick Perry.  I know my fellow Canadians don't like how they've started to get all cheap with the sprinkles at Baskin and Robbins, so if I remember, the Department of Ice Cream Toppings is GONE.

Now, I know in these uncertain times, it's hard to know just what to remember, but if you remember anything, forget this: I'm Rick Perry, and I'm going to be forgettin' stuff for a yet to be determined amount if time, and I will continue to fight for your rights until I am Prime Minister.

(This message would have been approved by The Committee to Elect Rick Perry but they forgot as well.)

Cordially

Joe

Thursday, November 03, 2011

Yes we Cain? Herman Cain's last stand - Blogging by Numbers!!!

My brother is getting married. He likes to play it safe. He's planned a 2013-"ish" wedding date, which gives him lots of time to devise an exit strategy in light of the fact that my crafty soon to be blister-in-law called his bluff and said yes. Bad play on his part. He was planning to propose over a sewer grate in New York amongst the lights and bustle of New York city, but pissed the demon off so badly one night that he proposed on the spot to abate her wrath. After that kind of counter strategy, I don't know what he'll have to pull out of the top hat to appease "The One" the next time the knucklehead does something to land him on the couch for a week. How do you top a diamond ring?

I kid, of course. Angie is a darling and I could not be happier for the both of them - plus she makes great lasagna. My brother asked me to be his best man, and I was honoured.

Let the blogging by numbers begin!!

1 - When National Review's Jim Geraghty is dragging your body through the town square in a triumphant auto da fé in Morning Jolt, you are in very deep trouble.  This weekend will be make or break for GOP  presidential hopeful Herman Cain. The last 24 hours have been a virtual "creepy uncle explosion" for his campaign. Cain continues to climb in the polls despite his clumsy reaction to allegations of aggressively propositioning a female attendee at an NRA conference to come up to his room for a little more than a slice of pizza (the restaurant NRA, not the rifle NRA). He even grabbed front runner status, knocking Perry into the single digit realm in a national Quinnipiac poll.

As the story began to gain momentum,  more came forward with similar stories of the married Cain's aggressive womanizing. Most still viewed the accusations with a suspicious eye, as the AP and other news outlets had nothing more to offer than "anonymous sources", but then NRO's Geraghty stated he believed the claims based on stories from a staffer of conservative talk show host Steve Deace.

The Steve Deace allegations have been the most damning and credible, despite Mark Block's allegations that this is nothing more than political carpet bombing from the Perry camp. The Perry camp is blaming Romney for all of this, of course, but the tale grows stranger. The Washington Times is claiming Rahm Emanuel's office leaked the story to the Perry camp via NRA reps from their Chicago office.

Cain has exploded at the press, and as frustrated as he may feel, it was not a flattering moment for his image. If he survives the Sunday talk show circuit this weekend, he may get past this. The "who leaked what" circus of the bizarre may play in his favour, as it forces other candidates to make magnanimous statements about Cain's impeccable character. The Cain camp is calling on his accusers to step up and show their faces.  If these women are telling the truth, and they call his bluff at a press conference, the "Godfather of Pizza" may end up "sleeping with the political fishes."

2 - Let me get on record as saying I like Herman Cain. I don't know if I'll be so fond of him if the stories of his alleged womanizing goes beyond some clumsy drunken flirting at a conference years ago, but for now, he's fine by me.  He has injected life into the debates, and his front runner status has made the leftist establishment very nervous. Cain has made some tactical errors, notably the ad that inexplicably ends with his campaign manager, Mark Block, taking a drag off a cigarette, making you feel like Rick Hanson is right around the corner with a camera crew.  His 999 plan would double dip into seniors' pockets, and may affect property values, but to his credit, he is the only candidate who has a comprehensive tax plan so far, despite it's flaws.

Cain frequently makes the folksy claim that he is the only candidate who is not a politician, that he's a businessman from outside the beltway who understands the concerns of everyday Americans. Please. Cain has been knee deep in politics since he was a senior economic advisor to the Dole campaign in 1996. If he survives this bimbo eruption, makes it to the next debate, and continues with this shtick, it may just provide fodder for a knock-out sound bite from another candidate.

This may all be moot if the allegations that swirl around him are true. Cain chose to deny the charges instead of saying his personal life was none of anyone's business. and that choice could make or break his political future. If Cain is vindicated, it will hurt both the Perry and Romney camps, as they accuse each other Callender-style politicking . If the allegations are true, then Cain is a creep and a liar and American conservatives deserve better.

3 - Quote of the week: "I wonder if teen vampires read fantasy novels about the lives of heavy middle aged secretaries as a form of escape?" - Mike Polk Jr.

4- The collection of unemployed sociologists and college dropouts called Occupy Wall Street is losing steam, mostly because they're wearing out their welcome and they have no coherent message to speak of. Ask a protester what they hope to acheive, and you can make a drinking game if you take a shot every time you hear them use the word "bourgeois." So far, from Atlanta to New York, there have been thousands of arrests including destruction of property in the millions, arson, rape, assault, and there have also been several deaths from drug overdoses.

Drum circles aside, there are so many things that make this movement simultaniously comic and tragic. First of all, they aren't really occupying Wall Street. They are actually loitering in a residential neighborhood. "Wall Street", as a collection of financial institutions, actually moved to midtown Manhattan over four miles away years ago (Geography is often static, but you can't move away from stupid). Funnier still is that OWS leaders, such as self described "socialist" independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, voted to   protect subsidies for millionaires’ mortgages, and supported an amendment to a bill that "...will allow Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration to back home loans as large as $729,750." He returned to lead the protesters without so much as a peep from anyone, because most of them don't even know the difference between North Korea and South Korea 

The residents of Wall Street, who at first tried to be charitable to the protesters, now want them out after allegations of rape surfaced. In Britain, St. Paul's Cathedral had to close it's doors for the first time since 1940 when"... German bombs rained indiscriminately down on the city during the Blitz and an unexploded incendiary forced evacuation for a few days while the device was removed." This was after the church allowed them some space to protest out of good will. Now the human debris refuse to leave.

It was Stephen Colbert who had the last laugh when he, dressed as Che Guevera, lampooned the protesters in an attempt to "co-occupy" them. When liberal comedians can't take you seriously anymore, you know you're in trouble.

5 - Have a great weekend!!!

Cordially

Joe 

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Down the Rabbit Hole - Fluffy Bunny and the Progressive Media

During the week, the lovely Mrs. Claire and I baby-sat our friend's beautiful little girl overnight. She's at the age where she wants to know what everything is. She gets this curious little look on her face, points at something, and asks "wassat?" This goes on for most of the day, kind of like a Joe Biden foreign policy briefing, only she has a better grasp on retaining knowledge accurately. She also, like Joe Biden, has her favourite story books, and will swat away anything new that has too many words and not enough pictures.

One of these books was a simple enough tale about a fluffy bunny who loved carrots. This velveteen sybarite loved carrots so much he one day found he could no longer enter his rabbit hole. TLC would have been all over it, but fluffy bunny, in a moment of keen introspection, decided to cut back on the carrots, up his cardio, and he was fit as a fiddle in no time. Soon he was able to frolic and play with his friends again. Now, this may all seem innocent enough, but I'll bet my fluffy little tail that when she hits 12, the very same people who told her it was not ok to be bigger or different when she younger will make a whip-lash inducing value change and start lecturing her about how the fashion industry sets unrealistic standards of beauty by filling magazines with emaciated models, and that being heavier is just fine and dandy. By the time she is 16, these busy little fascists will have her dabbling in vegetarianism; Now they're telling her that bigger is not ok again, because McDonalds is evil, and people are too stupid know that eating there every day will make you fat and the government needs to get involved (did you know the same advocacy group who is suing many fast food outlets for using trans fats is the very same organization that forced and bullied them into using trans fats in the first place because they claimed it was healthier?).

Well, believe it or not, despite the fact that the morons at PETA call feeding your kids McDonalds "child abuse", our friend's little munchkin (gasp!!) has McDonald's from time to time, and guess what? She's healthy, active, and is an ideal weight. Do you know why? Because her parents aren't stupid. They know feeding their child fast food every week would make her sick, and they don't need the government to tell them so. Isn't that something? They don't need giant warning signs on the side of every kid's meal telling them that the cheeseburger and fries inside are high in fat and calories. Their functioning brains already know this, so McDonalds is a treat maybe once a month.

Another curious thing happened during the various readings of Fluffy Bunny. Little Karlee, on the third or so reading, began to flip the pages back and forth repeatedly. In a neat little flash of her cognitive development on display, she frantically pointed out that there were only carrots on the first and last page of the book. She might not quite grasp why fluffy bunny came close to appearing on Dr. Phil yet, but she was able to spot that something was wrong. Lots of carrots, no carrots, then just one carrot. Like the magically reappearing carrot, messages about food and body image will change as little Karlee grows up. They will be told by the same people - liberal educators, celebrities and the progressive media - and the message will always be garbled and changing with whatever is in vogue at the time.

Remember the guy from Supersize Me? A documentary filmmaker named Morgan Spurlock made a splash by going on a 30 day, 3 meal a day McDonalds binge. It was just the sort of propaganda tool the progressive food Nazi's needed to force McDonalds to put items on the menu that nobody wanted. McDonalds became more expensive, and even stopped the practice of super-sizing in some regions - an option, by the way, which was only offered to Spurlock 9 times out of his 90 meals. Seems to lend a certain irony to the title of his movie, don't you think? It also turns out that Spurlock's nutritional facts are under fire. In a rebuttal documentary called "Fat Head", Tom Noughton exposes that the numbers provided in Supersize Me don't add up. Spurlock claimed to have eaten over 5000 calories per day, a feat that was impossible based on what Spurlock consumed during the movie. Noughton did the math, and even with three supersized meals a day at Mcdonald's with dessert thrown in, he showed it's impossible to reach the 5000 calorie goal.

What few people know is that the impending lawsuit against McDonalds shown in Supersize Me failed, and Morgan Spurlock is refusing to release his famous "food journal" to prove his 5000 calorie diet claim. In addition, like the hapless and evasive McDonalds executives he harassed in his film, now Spurlock has lawyered up, and is not answering calls or requests for meetings.

But Supersize Me is just one of the many faux-exposes that the progressive establishment does best. It's post-reporting slight of hand that has become so polished and fine tuned by the likes of Jon Stewart that you if you blink, you'll miss how Stewart's decided what's a "media ready" scandal and what's worthy of belief.

When the President awarded a half million dollar loan to a failing company against the advice of council and warnings from the OMB, and even after he had provided them with a post restructuring 75 million dollar bankruptcy protection umbrella, Stewart hissed on The Daily Show that this was just part of the right-wing media's attempt to make a scandal where there was nothing to see. Really? This specific violation of the Energy Act of 2005 carries a 30 year jail term. That's not news?

Apparently not, but you know what is news, according to folks like MSNBC, CNN, and Jon Stewart? The conservative lobby of the GOP is waging a war on science! This old canard was dusted off for re-use after former Governor Jon Huntsman, in an attempt to try reviving his campaign after a dismal performance at the August 11th debate in Ames, Iowa, tweeted "To be clear. I believe in evolution... Call me crazy." Really? So do 76% of Republican voters. Who cares what a bottom of the pack candidate with a 2% approval rating feels about evolution? The federal government doesn't mandate policy on the teaching of evolution. It worked though, with cyber rags like the Huffpo, where callow old liberals go to die, declaring Huntsman a brave dissenter from bourgeois norms. The usually hilarious Mike Polk Jr. even chimed in, huffing "Jon Huntsman has sabotaged his Republican primary run and rendered himself thoroughly unelectable by acknowledging the existence of science."  Don't get me wrong, I believe Polk is probably the funniest comedian of my generation (click here, here, and here), but for someone who has blogged about how people are so easily led by the nose from the media, he was quick to jump on the Huntsman/science bandwagon, a story that has no genesis except for a banal tweet from a virtually unknown candidate. Huntsman also believes life begins at conception, so if you believe that Jon Huntsman is getting a bum rap because "he believes in science", then I am so very pleased to welcome all you liberals to the pro-life movement. Thank you for finally coming around. Ahhhh - but that doesn't fit into your neat little narrative, does it? So, you just leave it out. Just like you chose to ignore that President Obama vocally opposed gay marriage on the campaign trail because it conflicted with his Christian beliefs.

Like those who write books about Fluffy Bunny's carrot consumption, they feel no need to adjust the narrative to fit with the changing facts, because no one ever points out the train of logic's central fallacy. The media are also masters at the game of making people believe that they actually don't believe what the sensationalist media is telling them.

Little Karlee was quick to pick up on the subtle absence of carrots by flipping a few pages. She sensed something was off, looked at what little evidence was before her, and came to a conclusion based on the facts. How many people who believe the "War on Science" tubthumping ever took a moment to click their computer mouse a few times to check Governer Huntsman's record to see if Mr. "Call me Crazy" was at least consistent on issues relating to this belief (not that they're even relevant)? This is an election about the economy, and not one Republicans are ready to hand over to a guy who can barely muster enough excitement to grab more than 2% of the vote. Latte liberals have a lot more resources than little Karlee, but that only touches on the grander point.

Celebrities, comedians, and just about all of my liberal friends who think they are so much more clever than the rest of us love to beat the science issue to death, yet not one of them could tell me at what percentage Huntsman was polling before the Ames debate, or before his famous tweet even became an issue. That's because folks like Jon Stewart taught a generation of college students that it's better to be clever and ill-informed with a smug sense of superiority than to know where all those carrots went.

Cordially

Joe

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Commander in Thief - Jon Stewart Plays Point for Obama on Solyndra

In October of 2004, liberal comedian Jon Stewart appeared on CNN's Crossfire and effectively killed one of the best shows on television.  Crossfire, argued Stewart, represented the very worst of the cable news world and amounted to little more than "partisan hackery."  When asked by hosts Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala why Stewart allowed high profile left wing guests to escape his acidic tongue on The Daily Show, Stewart hid behind his usual disingenuous firewall, claiming he was just a comedian, and it wasn't his job to conduct hard hitting interviews. This, of course, is complete nonsense.  Stewart leaves his wit at the door when conservatives make the mistake of appearing on his show.  A recent example: National Review contributor Jonah Goldberg appeared on Stewart's show to promote his book "Liberal Fascism", only to be berated by Stewart for 20 minutes over book's cover. Ha ha - funny stuff.  Anderson Cooper and Matt Lauer, members of the media Stewart's show is supposed to lampoon, get treated like rock stars.

What the tone deaf Stewart seems to have missed back then is that Crossfire represented the very best of the media.  Every night, for 30 to 60 minutes, a liberal and a conservative duked it out on different topics without moderators and limited editing.  It was straight from the horse's mouth - no media filter.  Viewers got real debate, not soundbites, but Stewart's ego had done it's damage, and the show was cancelled in 2005.

I bring this up because last week Stewart went to bat for the leftist establishment once again, defending the Obama administration over the Solyndra affair, calling it a "Custom Tailored" scandal invented by the media.  Stewart then proceeded to lecture us about the free market, claiming that companies fail all the time and there was nothing newsworthy about it.

True enough, but most "failed companies" don't make 20 visits to the White House, receive half a billion dollars in federal loans, then file for bankruptcy slightly over a year later amid charges of fraud and embezzlement.  Most companies that fail are also not forced to testify before a Congressional committee with its board of directors claiming they will "plead the 5th."  But what is Solyndra, and why is the scandal that surrounds it so serious?

In securing a loan for the failing energy company, President Obama committed fraud under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of 30 years.  I am not joking.

Solyndra was a green company that made unreliable solar cell panels.  The company went begging for a half a billion dollar loan from the Bush Administration in 2007.  Their application was rejected, based on the fact that their expenditures more than doubled their revenue, and with Chinese companies selling the same panels for a fraction of the price, Solyndra appeared to have no chance of survival, nor did they have a business plan to prove otherwise.

President Bush also rejected their application based on information that the company intended to go public.  If the administration had approved the loan, it would essentially have been "vouching" for Solyndra, misleading future private investors into believing the company was sound because the government had deemed it sound enough to invest in.  That would have violated the Energy Policy Act, and would have constituted fraud.  No deal, said the Bush Administration.  Approving the loan would have been tantamount to doing what Martha Stewart went to jail for, only on a massive scale.

But what politician would be crooked, corrupt, and frankly, arrogant enough to not only loan these guys money, but try to protect them financially afterwards?  President Obama, that's who.

6 days after taking the oath of office, President Obama "renewed" their application.  Solyndra officials proceeded to visit the White House 20 times, until the loan was secured.  Despite the report that Solyndra could not compete with the cheaper Chinese solar panels, and that it did not have any coherent future strategy, President Obama personally vouched for the them in May of 2010, publicly praising their clean energy "green" company.  This prompted the private sector to invest a billion dollars when the company went public.  Solyndra's executives thanked the president by donating big bucks to his 2012 re-election bid.  Sound sleazy?  It's more than that.  It's a crime.  The President knew about the damning report of the coming collapse, but on May 26th, 2010, he told the American people that Solyndra was:

"...expect[ing] to hire a thousand workers to manufacture solar panels and sell them across America and around the world.”

Plants and thousands of workers selling panels around the world?  Only 9 months later, Solyndra had already shut the doors of its first plant and fired close to 1200 workers.  Solyndra needed to protect themselves, and quick.  The administration was getting nervous.  In a quote worthy of Watergate, the OMB stated that "...questions will be asked” if unjustifiable restructuring proceeded - and proceed it did.  The law states the investors are the first to get dibs on liquidated assets of a company that goes belly up.  President Obama created a provision for Solyndra's executives, that they would be protected for the first $75 million in the case of bankruptcy.

 On September 11th, 2011, their offices were raided by the FBI.

But where is the investigation?  Lots of people are asking that very question, but it seems that Holder's justice department is asking for little more than a bankruptcy inquiry on Friday, and Solyndra's board of executives, who just a day ago were planning on pleading the fifth, are now considering not showing up at all.  For anyone else living in America, this is called contempt of Congress; For President Obama's friends, it's no big deal.

So here it is: a scandal that would shake Washington to it's core under any Republican administration; A criminal act involving the nation's commander in chief; A scandal that would bring down any other President.

This should be the only thing being covered on the 24 hour news networks.  We should be sick of hearing about it by now.  This is not a complicated matter.  The facts are clear and linear, and they are not in dispute, but Jon Stewart, a sanctimonious comedian with delusions of profundity, has declared it just another run of the mill bankruptcy, and the nation nods and shrugs while they wait for the Colbert Report.

Only in Obama's America could a joker save the king.

Cordially

Joe

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Remembering 9/11

On this day, over a decade ago, there was not a computer, television screen, or radio station that was not broadcasting the images of two commercial airlines crashing into the Word Trade Center. Before that day, 9/11 was only known as the number you dialed in an emergency.

That night, as Mark Styne noted in National Review, many Americans went to bed wondering if they would wake up the next morning. At the time, I was a dealer support liaison for a major telecom company. That night, filled with neither fear of rage, just an empty, surreal desolation, I wrote the following column.

Sipping strong coffee in the breakfast nook of his downtown apartment on 14th and Union, National Review's rookie Editor Rich Lowry hears the low roar of a plane. It is a quarter of nine, and though he has learned to tune out the noisy bustle of the city that is New York, the sound seems out of place. It's too loud, louder than what he ever heard living in Manhattan.

"That's the sound people talk about when they report seeing plane crashes."

Lowry quickly tucks the thought away; New York is by nature a noisy animal. His thoughts return to work and the business of editing one of the largest and most respected magazines in the United States. Lowry is wrapping his brain around a possible follow up to his article advocating the decriminalization of marijuana, when the phone rings. The disembodied voice dispenses with conventional pleasantries:

"Turn on the TV."

What blazes across the screen is one of the most surreal and horrifying images the 30-year-old editor had ever witnessed. A live video feed from 5th avenue, just a quarter block from his apartment gives him a front row seat to the destruction that is unfolding. The North Tower of 2the World Trade Center is engulfed in a cloud of gray smoke. Just moments earlier, American Airlines Flight 11, hijacked by a group of unknown terrorists, pilot the doomed commercial airliner into the upper floors of the behemoth structure. In another 20 minutes, United Airlines Flight 175 will collide with the South Tower - within an hour, both structures, straining under the pressure caused by the massive structural damage will be flattened into a pile of twisted steel and shattered concrete.

The South Tower is the first to collapse. As it crumbles towards earth, it rains down a path of deadly debris destroying surrounding New York landmarks. The Marriott, the Commodities Exchange Building, the Dean Witter Building, and the US Customs house, all are destroyed within seconds. Over 300 police, firefighters, and rescue crews working to evacuate the doomed towers would be crushed beneath the falling rubble.

Back at his apartment, Lowry scans the chaos on Union Street below. He describes an almost carnival like atmosphere as hoards of people hurry out to 5th Avenue to get a better view of the unfolding disaster. Ghoulish spectators rush to snap photographs of themselves, grinning like imbeciles against the backdrop of the falling towers. Lowry describes the scene:

"The street was clogged, because cars, including a bunch of cabs, were pulled off along the side of the street, their drivers standing next to their cars, with the doors open, sometimes with their radios turned up high. One moron had pulled his pick-up truck over and sat up near the cab so a friend could snap an Instamatic picture of him with the worst terrorist attack ever on the American homeland burning in the background."

As the South Tower of the Trade Center Collapses, the FAA makes a dramatic decision to close all air traffic across the nation, an unprecedented step never before taken. Hundreds of flights are rerouted to Toronto and Halifax, leaving local emergency workers scrambling to find makeshift accommodations for the stranded travellers. 40 minutes later, Flight 77, a Boeing 757 en route from Washington's Dulles International

Airport to Los Angeles, carrying 58 passengers and six crew members aboard, slams into the Pentagon. The Pentagon was on Alpha security alert at the time. While the administration commences the evacuation of all federal office buildings in Washington, United Airlines' officials report that that United Flight 93, en route from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco is missing. The smoldering wreckage of the plane would be found in a field southeast of Pittsburgh.

Back in New York, Rich Lowry sits in his office scanning the latest cover art for National Review's October 1st issue. In bold imposing letters set against a black background read the words "AT WAR". 24 hours has passed since his Nation was attacked by faceless cowards. CNN is reporting that the death toll will exceed 10,000 souls, more than the Revolutionary War, Pearl Harbor, and the war of 1812 combined. There are no words to describe the deep sense of loss and anger we at the Rant feel at this time. Platitudes about defending the shinning City on the Hill feel hollow as one watches footage of rescue crews sifting through the shattered remains of our cherished symbols of freedom.

Our day of infamy was a perfect September day in New York.

Joseph Leger

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

We're on a brief vacation. See you in a week!!

I'll do my best to post from the road, but we'll be back in a week!! Enjoy the site!

Friday, August 19, 2011

LURID COURT TV!! - Blogging By Numbers!!!

Confession time: That was a misleadingly sexy title. There's nothing lurid about this blog piece, nor is there anything riveting enough in it to make the cut for a popular cable TV network. There will be a few things pertaining to courts, though. Important stuff. Feel cheated? Used? I guess this makes me the cyber equivalent of a guy with a black van and candy. Wait...That was a rather creepy analogy - doesn't even really work when you think of it. I guess I'm more like one of those guys whose online dating profile picture was taken 20 years ago and you've flown halfway across the country to meet me only to discover I'm wearing jogging pants and a Looney Tunes tank top and you want to cry because you've blown most of your savings and all of your AirMiles to get here.


Anyway....It's Blogging By Numbers Time!!!!

1 - The official Facebook fan club has been moved. We like "likes", so come on over and and join the party.

2 - It's been a bad week for the Obama administration in the courts. The administration, who has often used an activist judiciary to vacate electoral decisions and nullify laws which have inconvenienced them, have been dealt some significant setbacks. Last Friday, the 11th Circuit declared Obamacare’s individual mandate unconstitutional. This is a victory for the 26 states currently fighting the mandate, and also fast tracks this fight to the Supreme Court, much to the chagrin of the President, who had hoped to keep this tied up in legal limbo until next year. The court did not mince words in their decision, stating;.

"It is over inclusive in when it regulates: it conflates those who presently consume health care with those who will not consume health care for many years into the future. The government’s position amounts to an argument that the mere fact of an individual’s existence substantially affects interstate commerce, and therefore Congress may regulate them at every point of their life. This theory affords no limiting principles in which to confine Congress’s enumerated power."

Essentially, the 11th Circuit ruled that Obamacare is unconstitutional.

On Monday, a federal district court in Wyoming struck down regulations the Interior Department have been using to delay the issuance of drilling leases. This is a victory for American energy independence and a slap in the face to the President, as the decision was handed down from a partisan judge picked by Obama under ethically shaky circumstances.

The Imperial Judiciary the President had banked on are not playing along. Let's hope the Constitution continues to win the day.

3 - I hear they're thinking of bringing Sex and the City back to TV after all these years. I thought they already had a show like that. It was called the Golden Girls.

4 -I'll try to do this in the best taste possible considering the levity of - and the seriousness attached to - this situation, so buckle up junior.

My brother wants to go to New York. You know, do all the touristy things - Stay near 5th Ave, see Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, catch a show, go to Barney's and buy expensive pants...I don't know, whatever you do when you go to New York. My brother is king of the deal, but sometimes, the emperor finds himself without his robe. A few days ago, bursting with the energy of that bald guy from the Six Flags commercials, he called me to boast of the mother of all deals.

His flight from Canada to New York? Peanuts!! His ride from the airport to the city? As cheap as a duplex in Cleveland. His accommodations? Inexpensive and near the action. This deal did not take him much time at all to find. For some odd reason, everything was really cheap this one weekend. This one weekend in September. The weekend of September 11th - The 10th anniversary of September 11th.

Yep, things are pretty cheap when there's a good chance your flight is going to be one way, your limo is going to get hit with an RPG, and the coat check at your restaurant has a special ticket for suicide vests. My brother only realized this as we were speaking, which made the tirade of one liners I unleashed while I was talking to him on the phone all the more delicious.

OF COURSE - I do not think anything will happen to my bro. It's probably one of the safest times ever to go to New York, considering the heightened security, and he'll get to pay his respects to those whose names we remember and pray for every year...still though.

5 - Last weekend a few people told me I should blog about a certain subject which seemed like a good idea at the time - but I don't remember what it was. Bet it would have been awesome though.

6 - Have a great weekend!

Cordially

Joe

Thursday, August 04, 2011

Debt Disgrace - The White House and The Media Spit On Americans

According to Vice President Biden, and former speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi, if you are a Republican and believe America should  approach  it's fiscal future with prudence, targeted tax cuts and gradual reductions in spending, you are a terrorist. You read that correctly - a terrorist. The media, who less than a year ago made farcical pledges to cut words like "cross hairs" and "targeting" from their lexicon claiming such commonplace political expressions could incite mass murder, quickly forgot their pledge and let their freak flag fly, calling the GOP everything from segregationists to suicide bombers. Ironically the most vicious verbal assaults from the media and Democrats came on the day Gabbie Giffords returned to work - you'll remember her shooting was what prompted the media, led by the very important hair of John King, to take their vow of verbal chastity in the first place.

So outrageous and egregious has been the conduct of the left, that the usually even tempered voice of reason, Jonah Goldberg, penned a blistering rebuttal in NRO's the corner at the shameless partisan game the media has been playing.

- but the winter of the left's discontent had been brewing long before the uninspiring debt compromise had reached it's crescendo.

A few months ago my ear  in Washington, a former PR man and French Euro-liberal was at the ready, setting the mise-en-scène of a dire landscape to come. Even before most had begun to grasp such concepts as austerity measures and debt ceilings, my dear friend was fervidly insisting that if the debt ceiling and taxes were not raised, people would be lining up at bank machines with handguns to shoot themselves like  Bender at the Suicide booth in the first episode of Futurama. As most people do their banking at home, if a suicidal frenzy swept the nation over the collapse of America's banking system, I suspect people would be more inclined to depart this mortal coil with a good Chardonnay and a bottle of Ambian. As a spin doctor and European used to singing the praises of socialism, I know my friend is a master of conjuring specters of free market bogeymen even when the mechanisms that drive his beloved institutions have been collapsing like drunken narcoleptics for the last quarter century - but he's certainly on message. The late Michael Crichton, referred to this practice as conjuring up a "State of Fear", and subsequently wrote a novel of the same name that I consider one of the most important books of the last quarter century.

We all know the liberal shell game, but what about the recently passed debt deal? Like any movie reviewer worth his salt would ask; "Is it any good?"

The answer for the most part is - no.

The deal's one saving grace is that it's a step in the right direction. but let's dispense with the notion that there are any real cuts in spending - there are simply decreases in increases. Spending is still rising across the board, but Republicans have forced the Democrats to pull in the reigns. Rep Boehner and Ryan looked at what the CBO thought was an appropriate amount to keep program A or B solvent, and refused to allow the President to spend anymore beyond that point. (this is what Vice President Biden calls terrorism and it is why he is a moron.)

- But this is the the bill's most fatal and unforgivable sin. The drastic reduction in military spending. America's constitutional Republic is based on whatever comes out of forced compromise from two sides who refuse to budge. It's to be expected that each side has to hold their nose and concede this or that to get a lollipop in return, but this concession was a dreadful folly on the part of House Republicans.

There are drastic cuts to the defense budget and a 10 year freeze on defense spending. The 15 to 20 % graduated reduction is based on the assumption that the US will not be drawn into any protracted conflicts over the next decade. These cuts will come out of "personnel, procurement, and training." That's a dangerous chance to take.

As for the non-defense stuff, you can parse the details here and there, but most experts still say a year from now we'll have already borrowed what we managed to cut. We may continue to be standing still at that time, but at least with a little help from the Tea Party folks, we've managed to keep the President and his allies from pushing the country over the economic cliff and into the jaws of a hungry China. So before we start slinging eggs at our fellow conservative friends and colleagues, remember that in Obama's Washington - this is actually a small sign of progress.

Addendum;

Yes, there is a lighter and funnier "Blogging by Numbers" coming soon for those of you who come here for the armpit noises and fart jokes.

Cordially

Joe

Monday, June 13, 2011

Crotch of Fury

Let me get my Weiner, I mean, get the Weiner stuff out of my literary TVO. My quill is 40% hard hitting commentary, 15% disgust over the cultural vortex we live in, about 25% Family Guy references, and the rest is pretty much that windy sound they play when you see tumbleweed fly by in those old westerns. The fact that people who wear Che T-Shirts and stick a Darwin decal on their Prius annoy me, but at the same time, I can watch back-to-back episodes of Family Guy all evening either makes me a closet quasi-libertarian or it gives me street cred with my liberal readers who come for a laugh then get pissed off at me because they lack the language skills to call me out. Anyway, where was I? Oh the ignoble end of the mighty Weiner.

Just about every major news outlet has sucked the air out of the punchlines with bylines like "Pelosi to Ask House to Probe Weiner" and the New York Post's zinger "Weiner Roast." As we go to print, disgraced congressman Anthony Weiner is in rehab, slowly coming to the "turgid" realization that you can't take pictures of your junior member of congress, send them out to every gal who tweets you, and still expect to keep your job. Yeah, yeah, I know all the claptrap about how your personal life is your own business, but if you're doing it on the company's dime, and "doin' it" means sending nasty Facebook messages and snapshots to 17 year old girls, well, there shouldn't be any ethical discussions about the status of your employment.

Spare me the usual "they all do it." They don't. He torpedoed his new, pregnant bride (who is an up-and-comer at the State Department) with his cavalcade of depravity, and he is now under investigation because of the age of some of these girls. Now this is becoming a possible criminal matter, not to mention the terse letter he's going to get from his HR department - and that's the least of his worries. His wife's boss is Hillary Clinton. She can turn people to glass just by staring at them.

It's become the "riguour" to say that your weekly pants-off dance-off with your harem of barely legal mistresses should have zero impact on your job. Maybe I'm wet behind the ears, maybe I'm hopelessly naive, but maybe it's time we start expecting a little more from the men and woman who pick our pockets to make our country move, or in the case of this administration, come to a grinding halt. Everyone screws up, and I don't expect politicians to be paragons of virtue, but if you want to be a serial creep with teenage girls you lose the privilege of representing my interests in the hallowed halls of Congress.

We could debate nuance and at what point does behaviour A or B cross the line. You could make some sophomoric debating point about Jefferson and think you've ended the argument - but at the end of the day, Anthony Weiner didn't just cross the line, he moved it 5 miles south and ran it over with a tractor.

Sorry Tony. There's no way to wiggle or spin your way out of this one. Sit tight, though; CNN will probably give you Spitzer's time slot when his ratings start to tank.

Cordially

Joe

From the Archives - The Best of TSH by Request - Drag Me To Hell

The poster advertisement at the bus terminal shows a picture of a guy who looks as though he accidentally walked in on his roommate's hot girlfriend taking a shower, and has sprawled out on a plush comfortable couch, hands laced behind his head, just reliving the moment. The caption reads "Get Ready For Comfort". Poster guy has a laptop, an I-Pod, a stack of books, and what appears to be a rather large man-purse ready at his side. Must be nice.


Presently, I'm not feeling so much like poster dude. I feel like I'm sitting on Robert Byrd's skeleton, and there's about 6 inches of space seperating my neck from the broken cup holder precariously holding my scorching cup of coffee, which I am fairly certain will soon be gracing my twig and berries with 2nd degree burns.

"Get Ready For Comfort". I think "Get Ready For The Chiropractor" would be a slightly more honest assessment of what to expect after buying a ticket to ride the iron maiden on wheels.

I find myself in the present situation because I forgot an appointment 3 hours out of town that I had scheduled for today. Necessity and expedience has made quicker and more convenient forms of transportation inaccessible at present. These types of things happen to me quite frequently. Though the lovely Miss Claire continues to buy me beautiful leather bound day planners from Barnes and Noble every year, I persist in keeping track of all important engagements on miscellaneous scraps of paper that I randomly stuff in my wallet. You would think that a guy on is his way up the conservative-libertoid blogosphere ladder would have his s%$t together. You would be wrong.

We just passed a car with a New York license plate adorned with "Obama/Biden '08" and "War is not the Answer" bumper stickers. I quickly wrote "Obama is a wiener" on a scrap of paper to flash at them as we drove by, but thought better of it in honor of my credo that good manners are the glue that hold society together. The lady two rows in front of me appears to hold manners and decorum in much lower esteem than I do, as she seems quite fine with the fact that her 12 year old is wearing a crisp white t-shirt with the word F#$CK emblazoned in large black letters on the front. What's odd is that he appears to otherwise be a well mannered and immaculately groomed young man. He even held the door open for me to the coffee shop during our last stop. Not a trace of angst to be found for a kid making such a bold statement with his t-shirt. Maybe he's playing, as James Bowman might say, "a little pomo joke on us all".

I'll spare you the details of what I will only refer to as "the incident" that just happened in the tin box that is posing as a bathroom at the back of the bus. Push the bubble on a Trouble game board and watch the dice jump violently about inside the confined area. That would sum up the PG part of what just happened to me in the charming little rolling wash closet.

I just had to change buses. I wasn't aware that this particular form of travel had stop overs. My hopes were briefly buoyed when I noticed this appeared to be a shiny new vehicle; Maybe it would be filled with those big comfy seats with all kinds of room for laptops and I-Pods and leg stretching. Nope. It is indeed brand new, but the only modification appears to be an illustration on the near eye level cup holder warning that if the person if front of you suddenly decides to rapidly recline his seat, the coffee in your cup holder may cause a painful crotch incident.

In perspective, there are far worse things in this world than having to take a brief but uncomfortable bus ride - like making the mistake of reading a Maureen Dowd column with the false hope that the mean little shrew will put down her bile-filled pen and start being witty again...or listening to Vice President Biden trying to explain complex government policy by using arbitrary percentages to determine how successful they might be...or maybe even choosing to read an up and coming conservative blogger only to suffer through a long, rambling diatribe about his transportation prejudices.

Seriously though, I can't feel my ass anymore.

Cordially

Joe

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Back in Business - Blogging by Numbers!!!

First off, I get it. The vlog was not the most popular item I've posted. It looks like I'm speaking from a dark cave in the mountainous regions of Pakistan, and because I was suffering from a nasty respiratory tract infection the day I posted it, I sounded like a Canadian version of the Taco Bell Chihuahua with throat cancer. Some kind readers have suggested that if I tweaked it a little here and there, it might be something they could get on board with, but the overall consensus is that it was bad. Not Vanilla Sky bad, but not the sort of quality my fans have come expect from the Hype. You've all said pretty clearly that you come here for the writing, and that's extremely humbling and flattering.

Many of you have been waiting for the "year in review" article I write each January. Unfortunately, it's not happening this year because I'm a lazy bastard I think it's a little late in the game at this point - unless of course, I take a cue from Charlie Sheen and declare it so late that I'm winning. It's now no secret that my mother was battling cancer for the last 14 months. She passed away April 19th, and my father, who never left her side, passed away unexpectedly a few weeks earlier, on March 28th. As you can imagine, my priorities were adjusted accordingly. The blog has been on a break, and it might be a slow year for the Hype, but TSH is not going anywhere, so please be patient and I'll be back up to speed at some point.

The Hype has never really been a "blog", in the traditional sense. Blogging is simply a means to an end - a format I use. I have always considered TSH to be a website. I don't like to cram scatter-shot opinions every day, the way Justice Sotomayor crams Pabst Blue Ribbon and dog-eared back issues of "The Public Interest" on Friday nights. There's lots of daily red meat on my facebook page, so feel free to "like me" if you want in on some of that sweet libertoid-conservative moonshine.

Let the Blogging by Numbers begin!!

1 - This morning I was scrolling through Google News to check out the disastrous OMB stats, when I noticed we are still being forced to suffer through the ranting of NPR's answer to Rooster Cogburn, Prima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnic. For my Canadian readers, NPR is America's answer to CBC radio, if CBC was twice as liberal and a third less boring. Most locals know Dupnic has a long a career of hogging the spotlight with his myopic left wing views on everything from immigration to the Tea Partiers, but ever since he grabbed the global media spotlight as the self-appointed National Discourse Referee in the aftermath of the Tucson shootings, it seems he has no intentions of shutting up.

For those who may not recall, while Sherriff Dupnic was spending his time making the rounds on the national talk show circuit, his deputies were wasting the crucial first 48 hours of the investigation trying to find evidence to support his hypothesis that right wing talk radio and the conservative movement had somehow triggered Jarad Lee Loughner into committing the shooting spree that left six people dead and 13 injured. The media was quick to take the lead on this narrative, with Paul Krugman and Keith Olbermann blaming Sarah Palin and other conservatives for the massacre, even before the name of the shooter had been released. As we go to print, Krugman is still refusing to let go of his pet theory, proving once again that intelligence is not a prerequisite for winning the Nobel Prize in economics (can't remember who first made that joke, but please accept a hat tip).

Would it be nice to have more civility in public discourse? Of course, but claiming that increased awareness and passionate engagement in the political process incites mass murder is the cheapest and lowest form of treating the supposed illness some disingenuously claim they want to cure.

2 - YES WE CAN!! By 'we' I mean President Obama, and by 'can' I mean can drive the economy into the tank faster than you can say 'Sister Suzie Sittin' on a Stimulus'. According to the Office of Management and Budget, the housing market has tanked for the 57th consecutive month. 7 million Americans have joined the ranks of the jobless, with unemployment touching double digits, and the deficit sitting at 16.5 trillion dollars. The President campaigned on a plethora of feel good platitudes and olive leaf diplomacy, and handing him the Presidency brings to mind the famous P.J. O'Rourke quip about how handing over power and money to a politician is like handing car keys and whisky to a teenage boy. Obama is driving drunk with your money, and has wedged himself further into the "car in the ditch" metaphor he was so fond of using on the campaign trail.

3 - There's nothing I deplore more than junk science and left-wing media hysteria (except for people who say 'fuss-strated' instead of 'frustrated'). Combine the two and people usually start dying as a result of activism by affluent Western liberals who think third world poverty is better than American capitalism...just as long as they're not the ones living in squalor.

Over thirty years ago the restriction on the use of DDT - based on the faulty claim that it posed a risk to wildlife - contributed to the deaths of an estimated 20 million people from malaria. Five years after the ban on DDT was placed in Sri Lanka, cases of Malaria jumped from an astounding 17 in 1964 to an estimated 2,500,000 by 1969. When environmentalist Charles Worster was presented with the disastrous effects the restrictions were having on human life, he responded;

"So what? People are the causes of all the problems; we have too many of them. We need to get rid of some of them, and this is as good a way as any."

While Japan was dealing with the aftermath of a wide scale disaster and recovery efforts were ongoing, the hemp soaked, Leary incarnates took to the streets with "No Nukes" signs. As Jonah and I pointed out at the time, no one was hurt or died in the infamous Three Mile Island accident that was often dragged out as a comparison. What type of power source has provided the most fatalities in the last decade? Eco-friendly Wind Farming! The global media focused so much attention on a nuclear Holocaust that never transpired, man power was diverted from rescue efforts where they were really needed. God rest their souls.

4 - There is no Joe - there is only Zuul.

5 - Osama Bin Laden sleeps with the fishes, and it was only a matter of time before sanctimonious liberal terrorist apologists would begin wagging their fingers at the victims of 9/11 for cheering the end of a man who caused so much death and destruction, and the disruption of American life to this day (if you've hopped on a plane recently, you probably got the full cavity shake down without the happy ending). There are reasonable arguments detailing why we should show restraint - many of my staunchly conservative readers have made very strong cases for just that. James Bowman pointed out, drawing from the lessons of the sinking of the Santiago by Captain Philip during the Spanish American war, that there is a solid case to be made for restraint, but none of those reasonable arguments are coming from the global left.

The most annoying of these arguments is the "how would Americans feel if Osama Bin Laden killed President Obama, and Arabs took to the street cheering with placards showing the President's body?" Please. First, Osama Bin Laden was not the President of any country. He was the leader of a terrorist organization living like a coward in the comfort of a villa in a Pakistani suburb. Secondly, radical Arabs make a weekly habit of showing the latest head they've lopped off on the Internet. Lastly, as the twin towers were crumbling to the ground, much of the Arab world erupted in a week long Islamic mardi gras. Restraint, harkening back to Bowman's point, is in keeping with the best traditions of the Western Honor culture. As for the complaints of liberals, they're nothing more than the usual boiler plate loathing of America they can't help from voicing.

6 - DON'T STIFLE MY CREATIVITY!!!

7 - My editor/wife/dominatrix would like to remind everyone that the 3rd annual Oslo Freedom Forum is underway, and the only game in town as far insightful commentary comes from the invaluable Jay Nordlinger over at NRO. It's must-read stuff, so head on over after you've forwarded the link to this blog piece to everyone you know and some you don't.

8 - Life is too short to read the Huffpo.

Cordially

Joe

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Evangeline Leger - (Mom) - May 28th, 1932 - April 19th 2011

Evangeline “Nine” Leger


Bathurst – Mrs. Evangeline "Nine" Leger, 77, wife of the late Joseph Leger, of Bridge St. Bathurst, passed away on Tuesday (April 19, 2011) at the Chaleur Regional Hospital, Bathurst, following a lengthy illness.

Born in Bathurst, she was the daughter of the late Henri and Ida (Vienneau) Guignard.

She was a Head Nurse at the Nursery Department at the Chaleur Regional Hospital, Bathurst and was a member of the New Brunswick Retired Nurse’s Association.

She was pre-deceased by her husband, Joseph on March 28, 2011.

She is survived by: Two sons, Joseph Leger Jr. (Claire) of Moncton and Paul Leger (Angie Scribner) of Rothesay. One sister, Sr. Imelda Guignard, n.d.s.c., Dieppe. Four brothers, Gérard Guignard (late Anna) and Raoul Guignard (late Melva), all of Bathurst and Jean-Claude Guignard (Francine) of Richibucto Village, NB, Yvon Guignard (Joan) of Dunlop. Several nieces and nephews.

She was pre-deceased by brothers, Laurent, Patrice and a sister, Sr. Stella.

The body will rest after 2 p.m. Monday at Elhatton's Funeral Home (www.elhatton.com), Bathurst. Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Tuesday (April 26, 2011) at 11 a.m. from the Sacred Heart Cathedral, St. Andrew St., Bathurst. Visiting are Monday from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 and Tuesday from 9 a.m. until time of Funeral. Donations in memory of Evangeline may be made to the Canadian Cancer Society or a favorite charity.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Joseph A Leger, April 17th, 1934 - March 28th, 2011

Bathurst - Joseph Leger, 76, of Bridge St. Bathurst, passed away on Monday (March 28, 2011) at the Chaleur Regional Hospital, Bathurst, after a brief illness.

Born in Bathurst, he was the son of the late Raymond and Evelyn (Hodgins) Leger.

He was a former employee of Consolidated Bathurst Paper Mill.

Besides his wife, Evangeline (Guignard) Leger, he is survived by: Two sons, Joseph Leger Jr. (Claire) of Moncton and Paul Leger (Angie Scribner) of Rothesay. One brother, Kenneth "Butch" Leger (Irene) of Nackawic. Two sisters, Joyce Thibodeau (Jerry) of Bathurst and Jeannie Dobson (Ernie) of Florida. Several nieces and nephews.

The body will rest after 2 p.m. Thursday at Elhatton's Funeral Home (www.elhatton.com), Bathurst. Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Friday (April 1, 2011) at 2 p.m. from the Sacred Heart Cathedral, St. Andrew St., Bathurst. Visiting hours are Thursday from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 and Friday from noon until time of Funeral.