tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64047522024-03-06T00:41:27.396-04:00The Straight HypeWelcome to the Straight Hype, new home of the former
internet hot spot "The Rant". The Straight Hype's egregious spelling and atrocious grammar are kept in check by my associate editor, the lovely Miss Claire, and the site looks so pretty thanks to our in-house computer guru, the esteemed Mr. Paul Leger. Please feel free to email any comments to the editor, Joe Leger (that's me), at joe_leger@hotmail.com. Mr. Leger is a writer living in Atlantic Canada.Joe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.comBlogger247125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-4604690027413505942014-05-24T15:48:00.000-03:002014-05-24T15:52:39.422-03:00The Mirage of Social Justice and other Progressive Fairy Tales<div class="ecxMsoNormal">
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I am certain, however, that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice.”</span></i><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Freidrich A. Hayek <br /><br /><i>"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."</i><br /><br /> F. Scott Fitzgerald</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">When one enters the ground floor of human service work, divorced from its academic revision that blossomed in the mid-1960's, we find a very simple definition, if one looks hard enough, on the <a href="http://www.nationalhumanservices.org/" target="_blank">NOHS flagship page.</a></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><i>"The primary purpose of the human services professional is to assist individual and communities to function as effectively as possible in the major domains of living."</i></span><br />
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This guiding principle was founded on Wolf Wolfensberger's pioneering work with the disabled, which attempted to shift perceptions through Social Role Valorization, a fine tuning of the concept of normalization. Though Wolfensberger's work is but one discipline within a multi-disciplinary field, its core philosophy can still serve as a panacea for the field writ large: to help integrate and adjust those hindered, whether through intellectual or physical impairments, socio/economic hardship, incarceration, addiction or illness. In turn, SRV challenges society to neither shun nor be overly accommodating out of a sense of pity or good intentions that inadvertently encourage further societal stigmas.</span><br />
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Reasonable people can disagree over the merits of normalization vs valorization, or, as I have often argued, whether a completely value neutral society is a desirable aim; but now that human service training has moved out of the community colleges and vocational schools and into the hallowed halls of academia and ivy league universities, human services work has become something entirely different. It has now become another tool in the arsenal of those seeking ``social justice``.</span><br />
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<em><span style="color: black;">"Our mission (is to) strengthen the community by...advocating and implementing a social policy and agenda. We believe in advocating for social justice."</span></em></span><br />
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Assistance has become advocacy, the individual is now the collective, and effectively functioning communities have been replaced by divisive special interest groups, festering in a culture of victimization looking for redress to grievances that can never be satisfied. </span><br />
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But if Wolfensberger's vision can be warped into something unrecognizable from its original intent, have we also, as Hayek asserted, "perverted" the meaning of social justice itself?</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">One of the most widely used textbooks issued to first year students entering Social Work</span><span class="ecxsubtitle"><span style="color: black;">,<a href="http://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/doing-anti-oppressive-practice" target="_blank"> "Doing Anti-Oppressive Practice" </a>gives us a hint. </span></span><em><span style="color: black;"> "Our everyday experience is shaped by multiple oppressions, macro and micro level social relations that perpetuate and promote social ideas values and processes that are oppressively organized around notions of superiority. </span></em><em><span style="color: black;">Multiple oppressions including gender, sexual orientation, and race. Social justice oriented human services works to transform those forces within society that benefit from and perpetuate inequity and oppression."</span></em></span><br />
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<span class="ecxsubtitle"><span style="color: black;">That's quite a mission statement! But who's to blame for all this oppression? Again, the text is more than ready to provide an answer. </span></span><em><span style="color: black;">"Social justice oriented social work, strive to meet client's in the context of an increasingly pro-market, corporatized, society that supports and benefits from war, colonialism, poverty and injustice at the local level and worldwide."</span></em><span class="ecxsubtitle"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></span><br />
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If you look elsewhere you'll begin to notice a pattern with a heavily ideological tilt leftward. As Jonah Goldberg noted,</span><br />
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<em><span style="color: black;">“Social justice” is one of those phrases that no mission statement — at least no mission statement of a certain type — can do without. You simply cannot be in the do-goodery business without proclaiming that you’re fighting for social justice. Here’s the AFL-CIO: “The mission of the AFL-CIO is to improve the lives of working families — to bring economic justice to the work-place and social justice to our nation.” The 2 million–strong Service Employees International Union (SEIU) — which serves as the political shock troops for President Obama (former SEIU president Andrew Stern was the most frequent visitor to the White House during the first six months of the Obama presidency, which no doubt is why his presidency got off to such a great start) — asserts: “We believe we have a special mission to bring economic and social justice to those most exploited in our community — especially to women and workers of color.”</span></em></span><br />
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<span class="ecxsubtitle"><span style="color: black;">Progressives have always had a problem looking in their rear-view mirrors, and this problem creates a petri dish that breeds intellectual dishonesty. The left can only walk back as far as The New Deal, lest they trip into President Woodrow Wilson and Hebert Croly. Wilson and Croly present a problem because they are the architects of the modern progressive movement, a movement that was inspired by European fascism. </span></span><span class="ecxsubtitle"><span style="color: black;">Wilson</span></span><span class="ecxsubtitle"><span style="color: black;">, under the cloak of social justice, zealously adopted and implemented laws that strengthened labor unions and increased the powers of the Federal government. During WW1, </span></span><span class="ecxsubtitle"><span style="color: black;">Wilson</span></span><span class="ecxsubtitle"><span style="color: black;"> imprisoned or deported over 10,000 Americans he deemed subversive, including African Americans, whom </span></span><span class="ecxsubtitle"><span style="color: black;">Wilson</span></span><span class="ecxsubtitle"><span style="color: black;"> described as <i>"shiftless children".</i></span></span><em><span style="color: black;"> </span></em></span><br />
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This convenient blind spot has prevented academics from exploring the roots of social justice, roots founded in the bosom of Roman Catholicism.</span><br />
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<span class="ecxsubtitle"><span style="color: black;">In the mid 19th century, Catholic theologian Luigi Taparelli d’Azeglio, concerned with the growing encroachment of the state on individual liberty, coined the term "social justice". Throughout </span></span><span class="ecxsubtitle"><span style="color: black;">Europe</span></span><span class="ecxsubtitle"><span style="color: black;">, competing notions of economic, philosophical and metaphysical principles were blossoming. As new institutions, both private and public, were being formed around these competing notions, d'Azeglio worried that they would throw society into chaos. There were now sub-societies within society at large. D'Azeglio asserted that in order for these societies to coexist with one another, the individuals within them had a responsibility to respect and cooperate with each other, rather than isolate and compete for dominance. It is a complex theory, but at its core, it implores us not to engage in tribalism, or to become too ideologically dogmatic.</span></span></span><br />
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In modern terms, social justice promoted harmony over identity politics, precisely the opposite of what social justice strives for today.</span><br />
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Social justice received its first makeover at the hands of Wilson, Croly, and John Dewey, who worked in tandem to enact legislation at the behest of international trade unions to, among other things, impose the 8 hour work day. Croly's idealism would be the thread that connected Wilson to President Roosevelt and The New Deal, the second largest expansion of the powers of the Federal Government in history, the first now being the implementation of the Affordable Care Act under the Obama administration.</span><br />
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The New Deal has become the signature piece of legislation that academics point to as the birth of social justice, inspired by the left's growing enthusiasm for European Fascism<span class="ecxsubtitle"><span style="color: black;">. Once signed into law, it made the federal government the largest employer of American citizens, solidified the rights of both public and private sector unions, introduced the concept of a "living wage", subsidized housing, massive federal grants for the agricultural and manufacturing sector, and allocated up to 500 million dollars in federal transfers to state governments for make-work projects. These themes are still recognizable in the mission statements of literally millions of organizations whose mandate is the promotion of "social justice". They were also prominent in the Nazi party platform and that of the Italian National Fascists Party. </span></span></span><br />
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<span class="ecxsubtitle"><span style="color: black;">This fact, like </span></span><span class="ecxsubtitle"><span style="color: black;">Wilson</span></span><span class="ecxsubtitle"><span style="color: black;">’s racial polemics, is glossed over or ignored by modern day progressives, a luxury not afforded to capitalist icons like Henry Ford or Walt Disney whose alleged xenophobia is largely based on wild speculation. It was a necessity in order for these doctrines to be smoothly transported into the feminist, environmental and academic movement in the 1960’s, and into the modern day social welfare movement. In order to rally, there must be those to rally against. Social justice, in its present incarnation, must have a myriad of injustices to rectify. It must also have straw men who perpetrate these injustices, like the <em>“..militaristic, capitalist, anti-human, post-structuralist society” </em>about which University textbooks like "Doing anti-oppressive practice warns us.<i> </i></span></span></span><br />
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The reason Hayek coined the phrase “mirage of social justice” is quite simple: Such a thing can never truly exist<i>. “Only situations that have been created by human will can be called just or unjust. . . . Social justice,”</i> Hayek concludes<i>, “does not belong to the category of effort but that of nonsense, like the term ‘a moral stone.'</i>"</span><br />
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Imagine a province which enacts a 2 dollar increase in the minimum wage after dedicated lobbying efforts on behalf of self-appointed poverty advocates. As a result, a woman who owns a pizza restaurant employing 12 people, must lay off two employees and reduce another 4 to part-time hours in order to remain profitable. Who is to blame for this injustice? The invisible hand of the free market? The pizza parlor owner? The consumer who instead, frequents a chain restaurant that sells a similar product at a lower price? The government for not providing subsidies to help cushion the blow of the increase? Or could it possibly be the poverty advocates, who, operating on emotion rather than intellect, galvanized public opinion to support the new law? Who has been unjust? Who is to blame? Is this a society that lives harmoniously? One that fosters a culture of cooperation</span><br />
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<span class="ecxsubtitle"><span style="color: black;">When we lobby for legislation we are seeking legal recourse, not social justice. We are trying to construct, through government lobbying, a society that fits one group's vision of what constitutes justice and fairness. We move further and further away from </span></span><span style="color: black;">Wolfensberger's vision of harmony that stems from each human being’s personal responsibility to his fellow man, and his community.</span></span><br />
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<i><span style="color: black;">“The only way for social justice to make sense is if you operate from the assumption that the invisible hand of the market should be amputated and replaced with the very visible hand of the state. In other words, each explicit demand for social justice carries with it the implicit but necessary requirement that the state do the fixing. And a society dedicated to the pursuit of perfect social justice must gradually move more and more decisions under the command of the state, until it is the sole moral agent.”</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cordially</span><br />
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Joe</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span>Joe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-71437890007131809452013-09-06T23:30:00.002-03:002013-09-06T23:42:27.888-03:00The Reluctant Imperialist<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In Beau Wilimon's brilliant American adaptation of the British mini-series <em>House of Cards</em>, Democratic majority whip Frank Underwood, played by Kevin Spacey, muses on the notion of "trickle-down diplomacy" as his foreign policy mission statement before being passed up for the position of Secretary of State. Although never really explained, one can assume it implies, like the economic policies of the Reagan Administration it steals from, that whatever benefits those at the top of the pecking order on the world stage, creates a net-positive global ripple effect. It makes for good television, but in the real world, the notion is utter hogwash. Trickle-down economics makes for good domestic policy, having tripled revenues to the treasury and boosting millions of Americans into the middle class, but as foreign policy, it's doubtful that easing sanctions on say, North Korea, would prevent Cuba from throwing blacks, gays, or people who think breakfast for dinner is just dandy into its dreadful work camps and prisons in an effort to persuade the United States into reversing its travel restrictions on the island dictatorship. However, if we take it to mean America's actions on the world stage set the climate for how other nations act, well, Underwood might have been on to something. <br />
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The fictional Underwood loves sound bites like "disorganized labor" when dueling with unruly teacher's unions. The<strike> fictional</strike>...I mean, President Obama is also a fan of sound bites. They're what propelled him to the highest office in the land in 2008. How else on earth could a relatively unknown and unvetted Senator from Illinois best a respected war hero with 30 years of experience reaching across the aisle and a reputation for having a fierce independent streak? During the 2008 campaign, those of us with brain activity were horrified that platitudes as vapid as "Yes We Can" and as convoluted as "We're the Ones We've Been Waiting For" suddenly passed for soaring oratory. It was fast food politics: quick and cheap, leaving you bloated, yet still wanting more. Senator McCain was steak and baby potatoes, while Obama was a Chalupa, and who's got the time to marinate a steak when you can have a cool, pimped out taco in a few minutes (I could really go for a Chalupa right now, but my heart is saying "KFC". My gut is saying Jenny Craig)?<br />
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People will argue that the tingly-legged media was derelict in it's duty, neglecting to properly vet the boy wonder; that even the most perfunctory look under the nearest rock would have revealed Obama's radical past and bizarre anti-colonialist grievances. That may be true, but those of us actually listening had grave misgivings about candidate Obama as far back<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/08/01/us-usa-politics-obama-idUSN0132206420070801" target="_blank"> as the Democratic primaries,</a> when he expressed a willingness to meet with the leaders of brutal Middle Eastern theocracies and Latin American dictators without conditions, while rattling the sabre at long-time or strategic allies. Validation of these fears came as early as his inaugural address, when he expressed his desire to placate countries like Iran by offering "a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect."<br />
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It's this type of global naiveté that has led us down the long road to Syria (there's a whiplash-inducing segway!) As we sit on the eve of war, or selective air strikes, or a stern finger wagging, or sending a Chinook helicopter with the naked corpse of Ted Kennedy suspended by a stretchy rope to moon Bashir Assad, the most powerful nation in the world is now into day 16 of vacillating between any number of options against Syria while displaying the worst poker face at the table. <br />
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I'm at a loss as to why the President feels so compelled to act. The brutal Assad regime has been doing what it does best in Syria on an escalating basis for the past 2 years. Is it because Assad has crossed Obama's "red line", which <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XEg8XFRc-Lc" target="_blank">the President has lied about even mentioning?</a> It's not like it's the first time he's broken a promise: see legislative transparency with the 5 Days of Sunlight act, or closing Guantanamo bay, or ending income taxation of seniors making less than $50,000 per year, or passing the Employee Free Choice Act, or only lifting the payroll tax cap on earnings above $250,000, or allowing workers to claim more in unpaid wages and benefits in bankruptcy court, or allowing seniors to buy their prescription medication at lower prices from other countries, etc., etc. It's not like the guy is averse to lying. It's almost his second language.<br />
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I'm not averse to military intervention. Had the President acted more decisively after the Assad regime massacred rebel factions with sarin gas, I would have supported U.S. action. I looked on with hope during the Arab spring, a spring that has now turned into winter. Egypt was a mistake, but it was a noble mistake.<br />
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Now the President is attempting "trickle down diplomacy", but the only thing trickling is international support for action. It's like Obama is at the Olive Garden and deciding what to do in Syria is the Never Ending Pasta Bowl. There are so many options to choose from, but he can't make up his mind, so he keeps filling up on bread while everyone else at the table gets increasingly annoyed. First he resolved he would act, but he didn't want to act unilaterally, so he waited to take the pulse of the world. Britain said to bloody hell with you; Canada supports action, but won't offer military support; The French said "non", like they say to work and regular bathing. Israel was initially impatient for the President to act, but is now almost tepid, after the Administration's waffling and telegraphing of seemingly every detail of the strike. In Tel Aviv, it's become la rigueur to mock the President's lack of action by quoting the famous line from <em>The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: </em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTcBgs2huRo" target="_blank">"When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk."</a> <br />
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Now the situation has become, as someone once said, "less than optimal". Today the Vatican is reporting a Catholic priest was beheaded by opposition forces in June. This comes on the heels of another viral video showing a rebel fighter dismembering and <a href="http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=349_1368354271" target="_blank">eating the heart of a slain Syrian soldier</a>, raising a very legitimate concern over whether a post invasion Syria will go from brutal dictatorship to a barbaric Al Qaida theocracy (it's also spawned a resurgence of the crooner classic "I left my heart in Ali Ahkmed").<br />
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Now the President takes his case to Congress, where it is unclear whether he can secure the sufficient votes required to act with congressional approval. Should the measure fail to pass, I have no doubt President Obama will be more than happy to, once again, blame an "obstructionist Congress" for his inept leadership. <br />
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Whatever the outcome, American credibility has been the first casualty of war. The arab world smells weakness, while our friend's and allies smell incompetence, indecisiveness and the true color of this administration: yellow.<br />
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To truly understand the President's motivations when it comes to matters of foreign policy, one only has to ask why the first black President always seems to make his weakest speeches on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The answer is that Obama does not view the African-American struggle through the lens of the civil rights movement; Rather, he sees it through the lens of colonialism in far-away Kenya, and supposed Western imperialism in his own back yard. I can only imagine the kabuki theatre of wonky academic moral pretzel-twisting that goes through his mind when he considers the post-WW1 French mandate history of Syria. The reluctant imperialist taking up arms against a country with a quasi-colonialist past - that has to be an all new level of liberal self loathing.<br />
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In <em>House of Cards</em>, the calculating Frank Underwood makes a clever observation about the liberals that swim in the Democratic waters he inhabits. Perhaps it can serve as a useful insight into the President's constant vacillations.<br />
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<em>"I have often found that bleeding hearts have an ironic fear of their own blood."</em><br />
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Cordially<br />
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JoeJoe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-84598582331766119182013-07-05T17:54:00.000-03:002013-07-05T19:49:38.580-03:00Out of the Abyss<em>"A man may drink because he considers himself a failure, yet fail all the more completely because he drinks".</em><br />
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<em><strong>George Orwell</strong></em><br />
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9 years ago today, I checked myself into a detox facility for the last time after years of closet drinking and the rapid decline of my "functioning alcoholic" stage. I was no longer a functioning alcoholic - I was a drunken wreck, and I wasn't fooling anyone anymore.<br />
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When I finished a righteous tear, I didn't wake up in bed with a hangover, I woke up in the ICU of the hospital with an IV bag.<br />
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I find myself asking "why did I get better when so many others didn't". Lots of people tried just as hard as me, went to as many meetings as me, and did all the right things that are supposed to keep you on the straight and narrow. I have (what you medical nerds refer to as) Type II Alcoholism. One the hardest to deal with and a disorder that has a very low recovery rate. I have seen many of my fellow travelers end up in jails, hospitals, and even die from the disease in one form or another. Why did I get better, and why did they fail?<br />
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It's not about "will power" or "self control", but I won't bore you with the details, lest you drag me out into the street and beat me over the head with a bottle of Jaegermeister. I like to think that it's been my conservative values of self-reliance and personal responsibility that have kept me sober all these years; but I know it has nothing to do with my personal political proclivities.<br />
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Maybe God looked down and whispered "Joe, I need to keep you around". Maybe he needed me to annoy liberals and entertain my countless fans with fart jokes, split infinitives, and obscure pop culture references. Maybe it was all a path leading to the lovely Mrs. Claire. I don't know. I just know one day I had finally had enough, and I've never looked back.<br />
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Today I lead a charmed life. I'm married to the most wonderful woman in the word, I have a wonderful job, some uber cool diggs, and a blog that's read around the world - From Montreal to Maine, from London to Los Angeles, and from Australia to Austin.<br />
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I wouldn't go back for all the beer in Boston - and believe me, they make wicked beer in Beantown.<br />
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Cordially<br />
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JoeJoe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-12145784172224548862013-06-24T16:23:00.000-03:002013-06-24T16:24:54.417-03:00TSH HOLLYWOOD - My Exclusive Interview with FrackNation Co-Director Magdalena Segieda<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigMs4OZXWYh-J9dBm4AOjmVzdMRdX05BzZ6h6u4z5xJW6XR7iZvYXlurdOtaWdIPtEaH_Ch2eATyTtBH9KRgprguudzTHYwbjKYdrdKGLWh357j92WiR3wVRBJCgJMtH_-3anK/s1600/magda_headshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigMs4OZXWYh-J9dBm4AOjmVzdMRdX05BzZ6h6u4z5xJW6XR7iZvYXlurdOtaWdIPtEaH_Ch2eATyTtBH9KRgprguudzTHYwbjKYdrdKGLWh357j92WiR3wVRBJCgJMtH_-3anK/s320/magda_headshot.jpg" width="156" /></a><em>The following is my exclusive interview with Magdalena Segieda, who co-directed the documentary <u>FrackNation</u> along with noted filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney. Ms. Segieda was born in 1982 in Szczecin, a city in Poland mentioned in Churchill’s famous speech about the Iron Curtain. She studied in a college geared towards supplying employees for European institutions, graduating with a BA in Political Science and International Relations the year Poland joined EU. (source Ann & Phelim Media)</em><br />
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Thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions about <u>FrackNation</u> for our readers.<br />
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1 - Before we get to the film, I want to ask you about the environmental movement, writ large. In an Episode of Penn and Teller BS, an actress attends a massive green rally and is able to convince dozens of people to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw" target="_blank"><span style="color: #008216;">sign a petition banning dihydrogen monoxide</span></a>, saying it was used by corporations everywhere and was found in just about everything. People gladly signed the petition without question. Dihydrogen Monoxide is H2O - water! What is it about the environmental movement that makes seemingly intelligent people check their brains at the door?<br />
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<strong>Why do their critical thinking skills fail when in comes to environmentalism? </strong><b>Ideology. The will immediately accept any, even most fantastical storyline, if it fits their narrative of "evil corporations spreading death and destruction" and they will refuse to consider any evidence that contradicts that narrative.</b><br />
<b> </b><br />
2 - Environmentalism seems to have an almost fundamentalist fervor to it: Man destroyed paradise through his reckless actions and must atone or the earth will be destroyed. Do you think environmentalism has become a secular religion to many people?<br />
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<b>It might be. <a href="http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/2818/Crichton-Environmentalism-is-a-religion.aspx" target="_blank">Michael Crichton put it best.</a></b><br />
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3 - What event or events stirred such a passion that it set the wheels for <u>FrackNation</u> in motion?<br />
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<b>Ann and Phelim are long-time journalists with passion and experience in telling stories that the mainstream media just won't tell. I was born in Poland, where energy was very expensive and intermittent and that affected my life growing up. So it's a combination of those factors plus outpouring of support from people all over the country (and abroad) once we announced we were planning this project and launched our crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. </b><br />
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4 - In the film and subsequent interviews, you demonstrate that not only is the anti-fracking movement promoting bad public policy, it's promoting bad science. We are also seeing a growing dependence on Saudi oil, unemployment and crappy Matt Damon movies. What do you think is the single most destructive impact the Josh Fox/<u>Gasland</u> crowd have had?<br />
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<b>Personally, what I find most insidious about Josh Fox's films and campaigns is that he created this impression that there is a massive local opposition to fracking among farmers and landowners. When I hit the road to do research for FrackNation and went from door to door, I discovered it was the New York City elites that were against fracking, not the people of the land. </b><br />
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5 - The Alec Baldwin foundation recently kicked Phelim off a panel that is going to debate fracking. He's given no logical reason as to why he was kicked off, with the exception of a flurry of insulting tweets. What do you think they're so afraid of?<br />
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<b>Alec Baldwin will sit on that panel himself, accompanied by Josh Fox and another anti-fracking journalist. I don't think he's looking for balance. But it's Josh Fox who refused to debate Phelim on multiple occasions. What he is afraid of? The truth I guess. He can't defend the misinformation and the misleading claims he made in his movies, so he prefers avoiding difficult questions. </b><br />
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6 - The New York Times wrote a very positive review of <u>FrackNation</u>. Do you think you are finally changing hearts and minds when it comes to fracking?<br />
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<b>Well, we were surprised by that review too. I hope they simply watched FrackNation and thought it was a good movie.</b><br />
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7 - Do you think people like Josh Fox, Alec Baldwin and Matt Damon really care about the environment, or is there something else going on?</div>
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<b>It's hard to say. Josh has made a career out of protesting against natural gas. As for Hollywood actors and celebrities, there is their ego, so perhaps they feel the need to save the world.</b><br />
<b> </b></div>
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8 - There are over 30,000 climate scientists who are challenging the claims of the environmental movement, yet we keep hearing the debate is over, the science is solid, and climate skeptics are right-wing schills for big oil. Even very smart folks like Michael Shermer think global warming skeptics have simply skewed the data in their favour, blinded by their own conservative biases. Again, why are they shutting down dissent?<br />
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<b>Because once "the debate is settled", they can just proceed with policies that are supposed to shape the world according to their vision. Thankfully, there is still freedom of speech in America. </b></div>
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9 - Where can people see <u>FrackNation</u>? Will it be available for streaming rental on ITunes or a similar site at some point?<br />
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<b>People can view the film at public screening organized all around the country by various groups. They can check for a screening near them, here: <a href="http://fracknation.com/screenings/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #008216;">http://fracknation.com/screenings/</span></a>. They can also buy a DVD to watch and keep at home to show to friends and family here: <a href="http://fracknation.com/purchase/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #008216;">http://fracknation.com/purchase/</span></a>. Mark Cuban's AXS TV will show FrackNation again <span tabindex="0">on Tuesday, July 9th at 8 and 11 p.m.</span> Eastern. So there is really no excuse not to see it.</b><br />
<strong></strong><br />
10 - Congratulations on the success of <u>FrackNation</u>. What's next for you, Ann, and Phelim? <br />
<b></b><br />
<b>A very much needed break.</b></div>
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11 - Thanks again for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with us.<br />
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<strong>Thanks a lot for your interest in our work.</strong><br />
<strong></strong> </div>
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Magdalena Segieda can be reached at;</div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Hard Boiled Films</span><br />
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
578 Washington Blvd, #938</div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Marina Del Rey, CA 90292</div>
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Joe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-34370021312797060542013-05-30T17:00:00.000-03:002013-05-30T17:00:10.324-03:00Tim's Take - The Meaning of Hispanic Conservatism in the Age of Trayvon Martin<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Author’s Note: It is
admittedly not in the scope of this post to pass judgment on the guilt or
innocence of George Zimmerman. Rather, this post is an examination of the
societal and ramifications of the Hispanic identity in light of the conclusions
and media assertions made as a result of the Treyvon case, amongst other
topics.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></o:p><br />
<o:p></o:p><span style="font-family: Arial;"><em><u>Part I - The Trayvon Takeaway<o:p></o:p></u></em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I’m as Mexican as Barack Obama is black. Oddly enough, it’s
only white liberals that give me grief with that assertion, which doesn’t stop
it from being any less true. My dad’s family (ie., my Mexican side) is
overwhelmingly Democratic and liberal, which frankly is beyond the scope of
this blog piece. But I will share with you that when I asked my dad’s mother
why she was a Democrat she simply said that when she was a little girl her
mother had told her that Republicans always sent the Mexican boys off to war.
The poor Mexican boys from the South side of San Antonio. It didn’t matter that
it was untrue; this is a maxim my own flesh and blood has carried with them. My
grandmother didn’t articulate anything in particular that betrayed her
allegiance to the Democratic party; no mention of her endorsement of JFK’s
Catholicism and that it comforted her and she identified with it. Nothing about
Clinton. Just some half-truth she had been told sixty years ago. There are
three inherent issues with my grandmother’s confession, the first being that it
was untrue. Secondly, her belief underscores how ineffective Republicans have
been in over half a century at re-writing that narrative and speaking to the
Hispanic community, and it highlights the truth that Hispanics are Democrats
because that is what they have inherited, not what they have chosen. And when
they are attending universities, Hispanics are subjected to the cruel statist
brainwashing of American academia. None of this ink is spilled to slander my
grandmother; I love her dearly. But the state of racial politics in this
country is a narrative that is being controlled by white liberals. Moreover,
the Hispanic liberals that go into the ballot booth and strike a straight
Democrat ballot have been taken for granted by the DNC for too long. And even
more damning, Hispanic Conservatives have little to no voice in this country.
And why a Hispanic could pull the lever for liberal causes is all the more
puzzling in light of the Trayvon Martin case.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Ever since the Duke lacrosse case, I’ve learned to try and
couch my initial assumptions and let justice wind its (sometimes fallible)
course. It’s easier not to jump to conclusions and make wild accusations that
later are proven patently untrue. Here’s what we do know about the Trayvon
case. George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin were in an altercation. Zimmerman -
for reasons right or wrong - ended Martin’s life. Zimmerman is Hispanic.
Trayvon was African-American. That’s really the only concrete evidence we have.
It seems on the surface like a fairly straightforward case. Let Zimmerman have
his day in court and the chips will fall where they will. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">But that isn’t what happened. Instead, the media was quick
to make its assertions about Zimmerman’s guilt starting with the pictures they
ran of the two young men. Zimmerman was shown in an orange polo that looked
like a jumpsuit. Martin was shown as a young smiling boy. Even when the
pictures surface later that showed Zimmerman was a young professional and
Martin had his pants halfway down, the public perception had already been
formed. In the case of minorities, the media had chosen the African-American
over the Hispanic. Even though Hispanics are the more prevalent minority. Even
though there really was no political bent to the story in the beginning. The
message to me as a Hispanic was clear - though I identify as a minority, I am
not special, nor am I protected. The African-American community is more
important than me. They are not as numerous as me, but if I’m going to get
media coverage, I’m going to be mislabeled as “white.” It was marginally
terrifying. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">People tell me all the time I look “something” (I’ve been
called Jewish, Arabic, Greek, Armenian, and Latino.) But even though I look
“something” and I AM in fact “something” the message resonated from the media -
we will not protect you. We won’t even accurately report your race. Is this the
fault of the African-American community? Absolutely not. Nor do I hold any ill
will toward a single African-American for this media bias. The media bias that
the left won’t even acknowledge exists. The media bias that has turned American
media into an echo chamber for the current progressive administration. But I
digress...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">So I am not white. But I am not protected as a political
special interest, either. Not that I “need” political protection through
special interest. But the reality that I’m not going to get a fair racial shake
is startling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>Part II - Hispanic Conservatism Anomalies</u></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“I don’t know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican” -
Harry Reid</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">On the surface, Hispanic conservatism shouldn’t exist. That
Democrats hold Hispanics in their iron grip is a well documented fact. Libs
love to gloat about this: “Minorities voting for GOP is like women voting for
rapists” is one common sentiment. Ignore the callous misogyny and you’ll still
be left with a staggering level of self-righteousness. And yet even though it
shouldn’t exist, some of the brightest stars in the GOP are Hispanics. Susana
Martinez, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio are the first that come to mind. I would
argue that this is because the values that Hispanics hold dear - faith, family,
and independence, are best represented in conservative limited government.
Again, it isn’t that Democrats better represent Hispanics, it’s that
Republicans have done a miserable job of getting their brand out. Hispanics
have merely “inherited” the Democrats. The Republicans haven’t branded
themselves as the alternative in a proper way.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">And yet oddly, Hispanics aren’t up in arms about comments
like the one Harry Reid made. Some crotchety old white guy makes a sweeping
stereotype and dictates HOW Hispanics “should” vote. That is outrageous. It’s
the epitome of “shut up and get in line.” And sadly, Hispanic Democrats are
glad to do just that. I’ve long said that I’m not so much a Hispanic
Conservative as I am a Hispanic Anti-Democrat. I see the hypocrisy of white
liberals and it is more offensive to me than the anti-amnesty rhetoric of the
right. Obviously my political evolution is more complicated than that (and
largely a result of the truly negative experiences I had at a state university
- but we’ll get into that another time). But I look at Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio
and feel far more inspired than I do when I hear another Democrat talk about
how disenfranchised I am because of the color of my skin, and I need Big
Government to help me out. I already learned I’m not politically protected. Trayvon
proved that. So if I’m not to be protected, I’m really just needed as a pawn -
a vote - for the left. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><u><em>Part III - The Coming Hellfire</em><o:p></o:p></u></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I alluded to it in a previous post here on The Straight Hype
- I’m waiting for criticism to be leveled at Marco Rubio so that I can call his
detractors racists. My wife read that line from the previous post back to me
and said “are you serious about that part?” To her and everyone, I whisper back
“yes.” <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I dare you to speak ill of Ted Cruz. I. Dare. You.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Talk about what a wingnut Marco Rubio is. Please.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Because for five years I’ve heard those that disagree with
Barack Obama called “racists.” None of the dissenters’ qualms have been
logically dispelled. It has simply been “you’re a racist.” Those types of
accusations don’t go away after a Hispanic conservative hears them. They
re-enforce the Trayvon takeaway. That a white person would call a Hispanic a
“racist” because he doesn’t like the African-American president takes gall, and
an utter lack of self-awareness. And I’ve carefully stuffed that bitterness down
and have gallons full of venom to drench white liberals in when the opportunity
comes. In one regard, I long for the day when I can let out every dripping
shred of “racist bigot” accusations on a white liberal. That’s not a joke.
That’s not hyperbole. No, I’m not kidding. Consider this your warning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I’m not the kind that’s going to be called a racist for five
or more years and take that lying down. No. I’m aching for a white liberal to
say something about Marco Rubio. Ted Cruz. Susana Martinez. Because when a
conservative Hispanic plays the race card against a white liberal, there is no
defense for the white liberal. Andrew Breitbart alluded to the struggle between
individualism and statism as war. Rhetorical war. Media war. That’s lofty. All
that the left has been able to muster is emotional warfare couched in personal,
unfounded accusations. And I will be returning the favor as soon as the
opportunity presents itself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">So if you’ve taken nothing from this post so far, I leave
you with this. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">If you’re a white liberal, I’m coming for you. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Furiously. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Honestly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Waving the race card, “racist bigot” on the tip of my
tongue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Because I will be calling you a racist with a straight face.
Because I will be saying it loudly. And I will mean it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">And because you will be powerless to defend against it. To
quote Andrew Breitbart......”WAR!” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Tim
Dimas believes in the individual, small government, and sweet tea. The three
most influential books he has ever read are “Atlas Shrugged,” “The Gospel of
St. John,” and “The 48 Laws of Power.” In that order. He is a fan of the beach,
and ostentatious fashion</span></i></div>
Joe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-39108371181008612892013-03-16T19:16:00.001-03:002013-03-16T19:24:55.078-03:00Tim's Take - Why Hosing the Rich Fails, and Always Will<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6R5SoZCb_Yaqe8kI-6Rv7S3eIoUwZZ5OJSDlHjnvhRvyEvqC5kGbi9jcu37YS9L9nP-At3LlISPUZJmUmRynTsVrSlUVKO4YJoZiqGYaQvcHrDDLmuuCuje1OFoyXQoaKNO9i/s1600/Obama-with-Money--53752.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6R5SoZCb_Yaqe8kI-6Rv7S3eIoUwZZ5OJSDlHjnvhRvyEvqC5kGbi9jcu37YS9L9nP-At3LlISPUZJmUmRynTsVrSlUVKO4YJoZiqGYaQvcHrDDLmuuCuje1OFoyXQoaKNO9i/s320/Obama-with-Money--53752.jpg" width="320" /></a><em>Before the great sequestration began, we asked noted economist Tim Dimas to reflect on the consequences of the election results, and the ugly class warfare that launched America into another 4 years of expected economic malaise. Tim took up the challenge and chipped away at the cliches and misguided thinking that led to the mess that is Obama 2.0 - a sort of pre-questration if you will.<br /><br />Please enjoy, this month's installment of, Tim's Take.</em></div>
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<strong><em>Tim's Take</em></strong><br />
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<u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><strong></strong></span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Happy
New Year, America! Your paycheck is smaller.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">And
it’s all George W. Bush’s fault. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">No
really, all I’ve heard about since November 2000 is that Bush is a modern day
Hitler. So Democrats did the most logical thing and allowed one of his tax cuts
on workers expire, resulting in about a $50 smaller paycheck every two weeks
(for the “average” American). Of course, nobody is screaming in the streets
that Obama broke a promise never to raise taxes on anyone earning less than
$250,000.00 a year. Enjoy that extra pinch in your paycheck, America. You
earned it: You voted for it.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This
Bush-averse logic also led Democrats to make his tax cuts on the middle class
permanent. I think that’s a wonderful way to honor “BusHitler.” (Remember THESE
gems? </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=612"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=612</span></span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> ) Nothing highlights how
much you hate the man quite like making his tax cuts permanent. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</v:stroke></v:shapetype></span><strong><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><span style="color: blue;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">Figure </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">1</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;"> - <em>"My predecessor was an ignorant
fool that ruined our economy, which is why you should elect me - AGAIN - and
why I'm making his tax cuts permanent"</em> - President Barack Obama</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></strong></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">But
wait, it gets better. You’re getting an average of $50 less in your paycheck
($100/month) so that you can get free birth control. Remember, you had to vote
for Obama because those pesky Republicans were waging a war on women. Too bad
you’re getting that $10 prescription for free but getting $100 less a month.
Good job!</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Of course most Obama voters were willing to
turn a blind eye to their dwindling paycheck in the hopes of soaking the rich
and sticking them with higher taxes, which was the theme of the fiscal
cliff-deal deal, the 2012 election, the 2008 election... Like many liberal
ideas, there are two-fold problems wrapped in this worldview: first is that the
principle of hosing the rich doesn’t makes sense, second is that the liberal
execution of policy won’t deliver more revenue . I suppose that qualifies as a
double fail.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Here
are some of the errors liberals make in assaulting the rich for their wealth.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">1.)
They earned it. Forbes stated that of their richest 400, 70% were self-made.
Liberals were up in arms b/c they stated that this number was closer to 60%.
Bottom line: well over half earned their way to the top.(<a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/many-forbes-400-really-self-204426982.html"><span style="color: #0042c2;">http://finance.yahoo.com/news/many-forbes-400-really-self-204426982.html</span></a>)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">2.)
What’s wrong with having money? Remember, love of money is the root of all
evil; not money as an object. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">3.)
The rich are already paying their “fair share.” The CBO states that the wealthy
in this country control half of the money in the United States. They pay for
70% of its taxes. This is even before we discuss the fact that only about half
of Americans pay any income taxes at all. (</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/10/cbo-rich-pay-outsized-share-taxes/"><span style="color: #0042c2; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/10/cbo-rich-pay-outsized-share-taxes/</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">) The tax burden on the
rich has fallen in recent years: it could continue to fall another 20% and it
would still be more than their “fair share.”</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Common
objections to this are “Who needs that much money?”, and “What about people
before profits.” As we already discussed in the previous post, there’s nothing
wrong with making profit - that’s all that a corporation lives and breathes
for. As for “Who needs that much money?” there’s really only one response: Why
do you care? </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">For
some reason the left has dubbed itself arbiter of what is fair and what isn’t.
The problem, unfortunately, is that they are the ones setting the rules, and
the fact that the rich are paying a disproportionate amount of the tax burden
to begin with isn’t enough for them. This is because they wouldn’t ever be able
to squeeze enough out of the rich. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Which
brings us to the execution of the policy. Hose-the-rich tactics have never
worked, most especially in recent history. France tried to raise taxes on the
rich under Francoise Hollande, but it was recently dubbed unconstitutional (</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/31/francois-hollande-french-super-tax"><span style="color: #0042c2; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/31/francois-hollande-french-super-tax</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">). The liberal need for
grinding the rich is not bound by the Constitution of a sovereign nation. 400
€1 homes went on the market after France elected Hollande (</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2214595/More-400-1million-euro-homes-Paris-market-millionaires-flee-Hollandes-socialist-tax-hikes.html"><span style="color: #0042c2; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2214595/More-400-1million-euro-homes-Paris-market-millionaires-flee-Hollandes-socialist-tax-hikes.html</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">). The exodus out of France
has been so pronounced that French socialists have called them the “greedy
rich.” (</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/9738178/Frances-Jean-Marc-Ayrault-slams-flight-of-the-greedy-rich.html"><span style="color: #0042c2; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/9738178/Frances-Jean-Marc-Ayrault-slams-flight-of-the-greedy-rich.html</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">). The point is this: the
rich won’t stick around and put up with the taxes. France is a microcosm for
this phenomenon, but it has also happened in the UK (</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9456722/Wealthy-Brits-look-to-flee-abroad-to-escape-high-taxes-crime-and-rain.html"><span style="color: #0042c2; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9456722/Wealthy-Brits-look-to-flee-abroad-to-escape-high-taxes-crime-and-rain.html</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">) and even in the United
States with the state of Maryland</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">(</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/48120446/In_Maryland_Higher_Taxes_Chase_Out_Rich_Study"><span style="color: #0042c2; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">http://www.cnbc.com/id/48120446/In_Maryland_Higher_Taxes_Chase_Out_Rich_Study</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">). I know liberals love to
say “Look! Taxes were so much higher in the 1950s and the wealthy were
happier!” Here’s the reality - people vote with their feet. Of course, this
Michael Moore style of thinking ignores the fact that taxes were higher to pay
off World War II debts, and that because of WWII, there wasn’t anywhere to run.
And if you really believe people are “happy” paying high taxes, I have a bridge
to sell you. No, really...</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">If
liberals here and abroad are hell-bent on taxing the rich, they’re going to
find themselves up against the grim reality that if they don’t want to let the
rich live as functional members of society, the Cayman Islands will gladly take
their emigrated dollars. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I
know what you’re thinking and what your objections are. Let’s briefly debunk
your liberal (and predictable) qualms with not soaking the rich so we can all
go out to Applebee’s and be friends again.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">1.)
“No one needs that much money.” -Thanks for your concern. I’ll make as much as
I like.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">2.)
“Rich people aren’t patriotic.” -Joe Biden said paying taxes is patriotic. And
the rich in the US are paying more taxes than anyone. So if they aren’t
patriotic, you certainly aren’t.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">3.)
“It’s really crappy that the rich would move instead of paying taxes.” -What’s
wrong with trying to protect their assets? It’s not their fault you voted
someone in that hates them for no good reason except their success.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">4.)
“Rich people only care about money.” I’m pretty sure everyone cares about
money.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">People
voted Obama back into office in November of 2012 thinking that they were voting
against Mitt Romney who was too rich or didn’t understand their needs. The
prior four years of economic destruction and tepid recovery didn’t register
when they went in the voting booth. As of this writing, the breaking news is
that GDP contracted for the end of 2012 by .1% The sad reality is that there
will be far fewer rich Americans if the failed economic policies of this
administration are enacted for another four years. Buckle up!</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I
can’t say it any more succinctly than Lady Thatcher did: I’ll do my best to
paraphrase:</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">“Liberals
are far less concerned with making the poor richer, than they are with making
the rich poorer.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><span style="color: blue;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">Figure </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">2</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;"> Lady Thatcher is unimpressed</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></strong><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Aww
hell, I mangled that quote. Watch the original instead: </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv5t6rC6yvg"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv5t6rC6yvg</span></span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Socialists haven’t had an original argument
in over 30 years!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The
US president has put more effort and energy into punishing the successful and
the well-off than he has into lifting up the working class. Playing Robin Hood
is not a policy, it’s robbery. And it’s not a way to raise the middle-class.
It’s a way to subsidize votes.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><strong><em>Rapid
Roundup</em></strong></span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Liberals
are all like “Romney lost, you need to get over it.” When I stop seeing
HuffPost articles berating the guy, I’ll drop it. Three months later, he
remains the left’s whipping boy.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Please
don’t tell anyone, but Marco Rubio’s meteoric rise in the GOP is encouraging to
me for two critical reasons. The first is that he’s brilliant and young,
symbolizing a possible conservative renaissance. The second is that if Rubio is
the GOP nominee in 2016 (yes, I know it’s early) I can say that liberals that
don’t like him are racist. And if those liberals are white, they will have no
defense. And I’ll be able to bless liberals with the ability to live the
utter hell of being called a racist for no good reason at all. People think I’m
joking about this, but look sharp! If you are a white liberal and Rubio is the
nominee, I’m coming for you. And I won’t be joking. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Tim
Dimas loves to hike, play soccer, and drink bubble tea (how harijuku!). He’s
also addicted to Words with Friends, even though he loses about 73% of the
time.</span></i><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span>Joe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-61901162045131664932013-02-07T00:44:00.001-04:002013-02-07T00:44:36.511-04:00BREAKING - Leaked DOJ "White Paper" Shows Lax Policy on Drones<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS0eZgLEWlZ8VFsMD4P7M9KdDwO2jVz7lIILBDw1L72f8kkMdZbTQOpLPb5Ov2fhK5-t15QR07AOLNp-nLbVvUW5-SCtIFVRjRLRR2ZsxN6XL6dinXI4PMlBK0SUHhS61FHOtw/s1600/obama_drones_on.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS0eZgLEWlZ8VFsMD4P7M9KdDwO2jVz7lIILBDw1L72f8kkMdZbTQOpLPb5Ov2fhK5-t15QR07AOLNp-nLbVvUW5-SCtIFVRjRLRR2ZsxN6XL6dinXI4PMlBK0SUHhS61FHOtw/s320/obama_drones_on.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
A leaked "White Paper" document uncovered by NBC has the White House distancing itself from the Department of Justice. The internal memo, according the Wall Street Journal, summarizes the legal justification for using drones to kill al Qaeda operatives, including American citizens.<br />
<br />
The memo states:<br />
<br />
<em>"The government does not need evidence that a specific attack is imminent, only that the targeted suspect is involved in ongoing plotting against the United States."</em><br />
<em></em><br />
As K. McKinnely pointed out in response to the administration's hypocritical stance against waterboarding: <em>"There is such irony in Obama's outrage over 'torture.' Why torture when you can just kill with drones?"</em><br />
<em></em><br />
Follow <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/" target="_blank">Foxnews</a> or my <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/joe.leger.75" target="_blank">Facebook page</a> as the story unfolds.<br />
<br />
Cordially<br />
<br />
JoeJoe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-47651118080334810692013-02-02T01:23:00.001-04:002013-02-02T21:24:45.725-04:00Slip-Sliding Away<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7lzubkxXxw44b5f6cpEp8h7JX1245BLB9_Gr6CfYlWfHWVJ2mMKFWCJrW1nHKeErKRhAOMKrIqyoVh7o8uJxq9gtDyNJlm5wBHHFga88PvF0ocKBLmmfxTNUHKOAMXsZOCAbg/s1600/251bee4948b8b535e543eda2ee3c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7lzubkxXxw44b5f6cpEp8h7JX1245BLB9_Gr6CfYlWfHWVJ2mMKFWCJrW1nHKeErKRhAOMKrIqyoVh7o8uJxq9gtDyNJlm5wBHHFga88PvF0ocKBLmmfxTNUHKOAMXsZOCAbg/s320/251bee4948b8b535e543eda2ee3c.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The lovely Mrs. Claire and I are hanging upside down in our car. This is not a comfortable position - trust me. After I'm sure we’ve stopped moving, I ask her if she’s ok, which is really the only thing that matters to me. She assures me that she is, and asks the same of me. After a few seconds of silence, I state what was probably obvious to her: “</span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; line-height: 115%;">Honey, I am so glad you're ok. I think we're probably going to need a new car, though.”</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> She laughs, and we continue to hang there for a moment, deciding what to do. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; line-height: 115%;">Being strapped in by a seat belt in a flipped car kind of feels like being in the junior space camp program, or getting a wedgie from Barney Frank, with the exception that I've never been to space camp. Orange was always the safe word with Barney.</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> I released my seat belt first, and partially hit the roof of the car before I had a chance to brace myself. I say partially, because I was driving, so I was wedged - what should be under, but was then over – the steering wheel. It was an awkward position, considering that my chin was approximately at dashboard level and the roof was about an inch below my head, not to mention that the windshield was completely smashed, and there were shards of glass everywhere. It was tetanus shot city - like an Occupy rally. Claire then unbuckled her belt, and we quickly discovered that the amount of space one would usually have in the front portion of a car had drastically decreased, </span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; line-height: 115%;">and it looked like we had been playing a really messed up game of Twister. </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">After nimbly spider-walking exorcist-style into the backseat, she reconfirmed that she was unhurt, and was able to get a better vantage of the situation.</span> The whole world was upside down, as the defeated British army sang at Yorktown.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We were driving on the highway, hydroplaned, fish-tailed, spun completely out of control, then rolled over a couple of times into the ditch. The automated Onstar voice would not shut up, and Bob Dylan kept telling us how "the times were a-changin'." No s#$t, Bob.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There was a piece of glass sticking out of my leg, and a good sized circle of blood pooling around it. Being a trained health care professional, Claire was extremely concerned, and cautioned me against yanking the glass out. I thought it just didn't look right and pulled it out anyway, like I do in parks at night - only it's not glass I'm pulling out, and it's other people who get scarred, but that's another story.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It's weird when you're thrust into a situation over which you have no control, like having to watch Obama get inaugurated for a second term. You just have to wait for the car to stop flipping over and hope today is not the day your number is up. Nothing felt like it was going in slow motion, as so many accident survivors recount.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The people who stopped their cars to stay with us while we waited for emergency personnel to arrive were all very kind. All the EMT/fire/police people were fantastic. Thank you, everyone in Bathurst. You were all very gracious and kind. On a side note, everyone seemed to have really cool decorative Kleenex on hand, which Claire used to put pressure on my leg wound while we were waiting (we were unable to get out of the car).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We were on our way to the hospital for an appointment anyway, so it worked out.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">All that mattered to me was that Claire was fine. That piece of glass sticking out of my leg? It took only one stitch and a small band-aid to patch it up. The band-aid they used was about the size of what they put on after you get a flu shot.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Later that night, I went to WalMart to get some new clothes, clothes that didn't have <em>my own</em> blood on them. I found myself just wandering the aisles aimlessly, knowing that the weather and road conditions were terrible, causing 26 accidents that day, most very similar to our own. Some of the people in those accidents were severely injured; some of them died.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I think some of the people in the store started getting a little freaked out at the sight of a seemingly confused man in ripped jeans with two large, perfectly circular shaped blood stains that looked eerily like an old MasterCard symbol just meandering about.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The accident played over and over in my head: what if, what if, what if? I thanked God. I thanked Mom and Dad for looking out for us. I thanked God for protecting Claire. I thanked Dr. B for insisting he see me, and for prescribing the sweet-ass drugs he assured me I would need once the stiffness and aches set in, and they sure as hell did.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It was a miracle we survived - really. We went flying. The fact that we were both able to walk away - well, they made me take a stretcher, but no big deal - again, nothing short of a miracle.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Survivors of accidents often recount stories of their lives flashing before their eyes. I can tell you that by simply looking at Claire as our car embarked on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, it's true for me.<br /><br />Cordially<br /><br />Joe</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>Addendum - The car shown above is not our vehicle, but it's eerily similar to the way our car looked after the accident.</em></span>Joe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-47742791023442249482013-01-07T11:49:00.000-04:002013-01-07T12:53:53.835-04:00TSH Hollywood - My Exclusive Interview with Saving Lincoln Director Salvador Litvak<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.jewishjournal.com/images/featured/cov-saving-lincoln-111612_584.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.jewishjournal.com/images/featured/cov-saving-lincoln-111612_584.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/avatars/349330/SALsquare-profile.medium.jpg?1355808681" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/avatars/349330/SALsquare-profile.medium.jpg?1355808681" /></a><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The following is our exclusive interview with "Saving Lincoln" director Salvador Litvak. He is a graduate of Harvard College, NYU Law School, and the School of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA. He directed the Passover comedy and cult hit "When Do We Eat?" starring Jack Klugman, which he wrote with his wife, Nina Davidovich Litvak.</span></em></div>
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although The Straight Hype fully endorses Mr. Litvak and Saving Lincoln, his participation in this interview is in no way an endorsement of the views and opinions expressed on this blog.</span></em><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>1 - Before we get into the movie, can you tell us a bit about yourself?</strong></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was born in Chile and grew up in NY. I was a lawyer for two years before I went to film school. My writing partner is also my wife, Nina. I blog at </span><a href="http://accidentaltalmudist.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">AccidentalTalmudist.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and I believe a good conversation is one in which both parties learn something neither knew before.</span><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>2 - Over the last few decades, we've seen the story of President Lincoln portrayed at different times in</strong> <strong>his life, told through the eyes of many different people. Robert Redford's <em>The Conspirator</em> was told though the eyes of Mary Surratt's defense attorney, Frederick Aiken; <em>The Day Lincoln Was Shot </em>was recounted through the eyes of John Wilkes Booth; Stephen Spielberg's latest blockbuster <em>Lincoln</em> draws from historical accounts of those who served under him in his cabinet; even <em>Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter</em> peered through the eyes of Joshua Speed and William Johnson. What drew you to Ward Hill Lamon?</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ward Hill Lamon was President Lincoln's best friend and self-appointed bodyguard. He's the ideal narrator because he was so close to Lincoln - a daily companion. Historians pay him less respect because he was an emotional fellow, often lacking objectivity about Lincoln's actions, but no one questions his loyalty. He would at times grow furious with Lincoln for being so careless with his personal safety, but he remained a faithful friend and protector. He also shared Lincoln's sense of humor, and entertained him with songs and banjo-playing. And he was a Southerner protecting the President while so many of his brethren were doing just the opposite.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>3 - Oftentimes, when going into a Lincoln film, if you're not a Lincoln buff, you feel a bit lost. For example, the opening sequence of <em>The Conspirator </em>almost pre-supposed the audience did their homework. Will <em>Saving Lincoln</em> be accessible to audience members who may not have a broader knowledge of Lincoln, his life, and his legacy?</strong> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Absolutely. Our movie is primarily about Lincoln the man - what he experienced at the center of America's bloodiest conflict. The pressure on him was unrelenting. Congressmen, generals, newspaper editors...even his own party were all arrayed him against him. They called him feeble, unsophisticated, ineffective, etc. They all underestimated him, but they made his life very difficult throughout his administration. And he lost many people to untimely death - family and friends, as well as the soldiers he cared so deeply about.</span><br />
<span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></strong></span><br />
<span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4 - This movie has attracted some big names. What drew mega-stars such as Penelope Ann Miller and Creed Bratton to this project?</span></strong></span><br />
<span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="ecxApple-style-span">T</span></span><span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="ecxApple-style-span">he subject and the script at first. Then they were intrigued by our CineCollage style. No one made a movie before using this process, and they were curious how we would pull it off. We did extensive tests, and showed them the results. They liked it. And they were fantastic to work with - total pros and team players.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ecxApple-style-span"></span><br /></span> </span><br />
<span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5 - Marshal Lamon's legacy seems to be be a mixed one. The blurbs about <em>Saving Lincoln</em> are very pro-Lamon. Was there a concerted effort on your part to preserve Lamon's honor and place in history, or does the movie explore some of the less than flattering pictures some have painted about him?</span></strong></span><br />
<span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="ecxApple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></span></span><br />
<span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="ecxApple-style-span">Lamon was a bit goofy, but that's what Lincoln loved about him. He was also courageous as hell, and he was there for Lincoln during the President's darkest hours. Mary suffered terribly from grief, stress and migraines, and she was not able to comfort </span><span class="ecxApple-style-span">Lincoln</span><span class="ecxApple-style-span"> in the same way that a buddy could. Lincoln could unwind with Lamon. When you imagine the pressure cooker Lincoln occupied 24/7 for four years, you realize how important that role was. And of course, Lamon saved Lincoln's physically by keeping the assassins and kidnappers at bay.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></strong></span><br />
<span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6 - President Lincoln had a fervent desire that the re-unification of the United States be a conciliatory process. Robert E. Lee and other prominent figures of the Confederacy, while mourning the death of the President, accurately predicted that this hope was smashed the day he was shot by Booth. Do you think the harshness endured during reconstruction could have been averted had Lincoln survived the shooting, and how do you think it would have changed the south and how it is perceived today?</span></strong></span><br />
<span class="ecxApple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span class="ecxApple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That is a complex and loaded question. I'm not a historian, but I know that there were many currents involved in that storm. Lincoln certainly wanted to reunite his people - he never considered the South to be another country. Southerners remained Americans in his eyes and he wanted to leave the bloodshed behind for good. Others felt differently, and would have imposed their views whether he was President or not. I do believe, however, that the South lost its best friend in Washington CIty that day.</span></span><br />
<span class="ecxApple-style-span"></span><br />
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7 - This movie is very special in that it was shot on a single stage using green screen technology. Tell us a bit about this method of film-making.</span></strong></div>
<strong></strong><br />
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span class="ecxApple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The actors performed in a studio, in front of a giant emerald screen we called the Green Mile. The furniture and props were real, but everything else was composited digitally in post-production, out of actual Civil War era photographs that we downloaded from the Library of Congress. On set, we had rough live comps so we could match camera angles with the pioneering work of photographers like Brady and Gardner, but the fine work was done in post. I sometimes have to pinch myself to believe we pulled this off. For an indie film to rely on visual effects for every single shot of the film is... ambitious. Truthfully it's insane, but now that we pulled it off, we can call it ambitious. It was possible thanks to a tight team of dedicated artists, working both smart and hard over the past year. The look is unique - we decided early on that we weren't trying to fool anyone. The backgrounds remain in black and white, the foregrounds in color, though highly desaturated. It's a stylized look, but an accessible one which invites the viewer to complete the loop.</span></span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8 - So what can our readers expect going into <em>Saving Lincoln</em>?</span></strong></div>
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<span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you might even sing - the characters do. It's not a musical, but people sang more in those days before TV and radio. Especially Lamon. Most of all, though, you will experience Abraham Lincoln leading the nation to victory in the Civil War at great personal cost. And you will also see how Elizabeth Keckly - another close companion of the Lincolns and a </span><span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">former slave who purchased her own freedom - helped bring freedom to all of her people.</span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thank you for taking the time to talk to our readers. We look forward to seeing <em>Saving Lincoln </em>and wish you much success.</span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thank you so much - your support for an independent film like ours is truly appreciated. I invite all your readers to visit Saving Lincoln on a Kickstarter, where they can view our trailer, see how the movie was made, hear a song recorded for the film by the legendary Dave Alvin, and become part of the Saving Lincoln story: </span><a href="http://kck.st/RV4QOh" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://kck.st/RV4QOh<strong></strong></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Our readers can follow Saving Lincoln by Salvador Litvak at:</strong></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.savinglincoln.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Official Website</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Joe</span> </div>
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Joe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-46170541753433279682013-01-04T20:45:00.000-04:002013-01-06T14:39:30.535-04:00Tim's Take - Pizza and Twinkies and Guns...Oh My!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em><strong>Editor's Note:</strong></em></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>It's 2013 and look what Obama hath wrought! I asked TSH's own financial expert, noted economist Tim Dimas, to comment on some of the trends we observed sprouting up from the Hoople Heads on the left as 2012 came to a close. A fitting way to ring in the New Year!</em></span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tim's Take</span></strong><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Clearly Joe hasn’t discovered the photos or videos I posted online under a pseudonym involving a pair of jumper cables, a saddle, and a gallon of motor oil, since he’s asked me to return for another round of economic and fiscal commentary. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u><span lang="EN-US"><strong>Poor Papa John’s<o:p></o:p></strong></span></u></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last month, “Papa” John Schnatter said that because of the taxes involved with Obamacare, he would be forced to cut back hours and raise prices for consumers. Cue the media calls of “foul” and liberal resolutions to boycott the pizza place. These liberal boycotts intrigue me. First it was Chick-fil-A, when their founder simply said he supported “Biblical” marriage - the media and left were in such a frenzy you would have thought that the president had covered up a terrorist attack on a U.S. consulate, blaming it on a stupid YouTube video, and forcing his Secretary of State and CIA Director to fall on their swords for him while lying to his sycophant media handlers for two weeks. Curiously, the Starbucks CEO came out in support of Barack Obama, but judging by the lines in my local Starbucks, that hasn’t stopped caffeine-addicted hounds like me from dropping $5 for a frothy espresso drink. No matter; it’s not out of “tolerance” that I refrain from invoking a fatwa against liberal companies, its pure addiction. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The boycott against Papa Johns is puzzling, because if we pretend that all those hippie fools with “co-exist” bumper stickers actually DID boycott and it hurt Papa John’s bottom line, people would get laid off and even more hours would be slashed. But that would require medium term logical thinking on the part of said liberals. Clearly, I’m expecting too much. But here’s the defense of Papa John’s, friends. If you’re a liberal, it’s complex, so bite your lip and keep reading (for the articles, of course!):</span><br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s his company. He can do whatever the hell he wants.</span></i><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That’s it. Period. </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>“Oh, but all food employees should have access to…”</em> (yawn)</span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>“But he’s making so much money off of...”</em> (yawn)</span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s his. He owns it. He can pay them all minimum wage (I’ll save my anti-minimum wage rant for another day). His employees are there voluntarily. If they don’t like making $20 16” pizzas (I mean, seriously, Mr. Schnatter), they can go work at Domino’s. Or Pizza Hut. I don’t care. They aren’t beholden to the joint. The only defense necessary for Papa John is that it is his company to conduct however he wants. That’s a very difficult concept for some people. I suppose if you want to go through with the boycott, you’re certainly welcome to do so, as long as you are cognizant enough to understand that what you’re boycotting is the right of a CEO to conduct his company however he wants. I know, I know, you don’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">like</i> how he’s conducting his business. So I presume you approve of the politics of all the companies you buy from? Do all the places you give your money to meet your pathetic liberal litmus test? After all, liberals hate Wal Mart, but Sam Walton was one of the largest contributors to Obama’s Super PAC (</span><a href="http://washingtonexaminer.com/wal-mart-heir-funding-obama-big-time/article/2511391#.UKmQRY7A8Rk"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://washingtonexaminer.com/wal-mart-heir-funding-obama-big-time/article/2511391#.UKmQRY7A8Rk</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">). Figure out on which side your bread is buttered before you start boycotting. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u><span lang="EN-US"><strong>Who the f*** is Rick Ungar?<o:p></o:p></strong></span></u></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Remember the guy that came up with the X-Men cartoons in the early 1990's? Of course you do! It’s Rick Ungar (</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Ungar"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Ungar</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">)! He also created “Biker Mice from Mars”, which sounds like a Bucky O’Hare rip-off if you ask me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rick got tired of creating animated kid's series' and took odd jobs until he was hired as the token liberal at Forbes. I hadn’t realized Forbes was a right-wing rag, but whatever. Forbes is where he has combined his vast business acumen with drawing Mystique’s underboob to comment on pizza and football (duh!). His article (</span><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/11/17/peyton-manning-papa-johns-pizza-and-the-nfl-will-the-nfl-drop-papa-johns-as-an-official-sponsor-over-obamacare/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/11/17/peyton-manning-papa-johns-pizza-and-the-nfl-will-the-nfl-drop-papa-johns-as-an-official-sponsor-over-obamacare/</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">) is probably getting more play than he ever did in high school off the field, or than T.O. is getting on the field this season.</span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I read Rick’s piece (that felt funny) I scratched my head. His main issue with Papa John’s is that by the company denying their employees medical insurance, they will go to the emergency room, where hospitals will pass the cost onto medical insurers, and thus him. That’s an odd stance for a liberal to take. “Yeah, healthcare for everyone, including illegal immigrants. But if I have to pay one cent for a Papa John’s employee…” It’s bizarre, especially coming from a lefty. Rick is funny, but I don’t think he means to be. “Token” would be better off just going back to sketching Rogue or Gambit. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u><span lang="EN-US"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Twinkies and the Unbearable Lightness of Hostess<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></u></i><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The untimely demise of Hostess has brought unions in the US to the forefront of the political discussion – again. Hostess is saying that the unions essentially strangled them and forced them into bankruptcy. Good people from the rust-belt (who are biased in favor of unions whether they want to admit it or not) say that’s nonsense and that Hostess was paying top dollar to their executives a week before the bankruptcy. Not to sound like a broken record, but can someone show me where it is written that a business has to answer to anyone but it's owners? Here’s a concept: if the workers are unhappy, they can leave. “But all the manufacturing jobs have moved!” So move to another city. “But they’ve all moved overseas [because of Mitt Romney] to China.” So get a new skill set. “But…” There’s ALWAYS an excuse with liberals. Just ONCE I’d like to meet a liberal that can take it on the chin and not always be stringing up some line of garbage to justify their bizarre views on things. If I were Hostess, I would have declared bankruptcy just to bust up the union. You know how Alexander the Great cried the day he realized he had conquered the whole world? I cried the day my dad told me that union busting was illegal; until that day my career plan was to undermine and sabotage unions. If you’re SEIU and you hire purple-shirted thugs to beat people, that’s legal. If you’re hired by a corporation to intimidate union people, that’s criminal<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Full disclosure: after the Hostess bankruptcy I bought two boxes of Twinkies – in good faith – with the intent of selling them on eBay at a later date. The two boxes lasted 10 days).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u><span lang="EN-US"><strong>Random Rants<o:p></o:p></strong></span></u></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>A</strong>. A company has no obligation to anyone but it's owners. That obligation is to make money. That’s not an opinion, that’s a fiscal fact. This is a MANTRA in business school. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Q: “Why does a company exist?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A: “To create value for its shareholders.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Liberals, conservatives, and moderates alike recite it. You don’t have to like it, but it simply is. Arguing against it is like being angry that gravity exists.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>B</strong>. “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Please stop calling Obamacare “Free Healthcare”. It’s not free. Someone somewhere is paying for it, even if it’s not you. If you understood that it wasn’t free, you might ask questions like “who is paying for it? How are they paying for it?” But then again, if you understood basic economics, you probably wouldn’t be excited by something as invasive and pathetically partisan as Obamacare. I will always be amused by liberals that try to tell me about this dumpsterfire of government overreach. Of course, these liberals don’t know what I do for every waking work-hour (I’m currently a consultant on the Obamacare contract). But yes, please forward me that HuffPo or Mother Jones article. You read an article during your smoke break. Please, enlighten me.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>C</strong>. In light of the tragic Connecticut school shooting, gun-hating fools couldn’t politicize the issue fast enough. Innocent children lay in body bags, and already Jabbas like Michael Moore, RINOs like David Frum, and dipstick Democrats like Chuck Schumer were chomping at the bit to take away guns. The sadly ironic thing here is that when people threaten to take away guns, do you know what the general public does? They arm themselves as quickly as possible, stockpiling guns and ammunition at an alarming rate. I’m starting to think that gun manufacturers and Democrats are in business together. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is simply the playing out of supply and demand as a result of scarcity (the basic building block of economics). Odds are, though, that if you understood supply and demand, you wouldn’t be a gun-hating Democrat in the first place. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But understanding the relationship between stockpiling weapons and Democrats that call for gun control requires self-reflection. Allow me to illustrate: </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>D</strong>. Here in Maryland, Democrats are proud individuals. I don’t just mean that they are self-absorbed; they are genuinely pleased with being Democrats. One of the ways they do this is by caking their cars with bumper stickers that say “DEM” with a Maryland flag under it, accompanied with a plethora of stickers for as many Democratic candidates as they can fit on their car. As a rule, Democrats are insulated: they are wholly ignorant to a world outside of their own. Democrats in blue states are ignorant to the idea that there are conservatives that live amongst them. But they are also ignorant to how silly their pride is – they live in a state that favors their opinions 70% - 30%. In lay terms, 7 out of 10 of their fellow citizens believe exactly the same things they do. But to them, that is cause for celebration. They’re proud of that homogeneity, and when someone dares to speak up, they shout them down in a chorus. I don’t believe that Democrats are evil people – I just believe they lack any power of self-reflection. Progressives are dangerous not only because they are statists, but because they genuinely believe in their hearts that they are the only ones capable of leading the nation into a state of progress. They believe that the world would truly be a better place if tomorrow all conservatives and Republicans and libertarians were dead. Republicans have enough cognizance and suspicion of government to know that you need checks and balances. Make no mistake about it, ladies and gentlemen, them Dem's hate you. But they need each other, and I think that is partially why they are so energized and pat themselves on the back when they insulate themselves into their islands. This is why, when they are in the overwhelming majority, they cake their cars in bumper stickers proclaiming that fact. I spent most of my undergraduate years arguing against professors and entire classes that believed exactly the opposite of what I did. I cannot imagine a world where a liberal would get up in front of 50 conservatives and attempt to plead their case logically. It doesn’t happen.</span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How is this related to economics? In the financial world, there are always opportunities because of inequities in the markets. I don’t own a Ford vehicle, but I buy Ford stock because I believe in their business model and think they are undervalued. I see an opportunity and I take it (Full disclosure: This is an illustrative example, not stock advice. This article is not and never will give stock advice. Invest at your own risk). Democrats are unwilling to be that objective. A Democrat can’t see the situation for what it is. You can’t argue whether GM’s stock price is going to rise or fall, because all a Democrat sees is that Obama propped up the stock, therefore it <em>has</em> to be good, and all you wind up getting is “If you don’t like GM stock you hate America.” They really aren’t capable of further thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which brings us back to the Papa John’s boycott. I don’t care for their pizza, and I think their product is overpriced. I can admit that, still patronize their company, and have a conversation with someone about the pros and cons of said company. Democrats don’t have that ability. They see a policy that challenges their worldview and they cry foul. Remember the Maryland Democrat example: they need each other; they can’t be objective. A Democrat can’t say “Eh, I don’t like their union stance, but I love my Twinkies so I’ll keep buying.” I can proudly say “Apple is a super liberal company but I just cannot live without my iPhone.” These issues and approaches to business, boycotts, and finance are inherently wrapped up in their worldview. The savvy conservative will seek to exploit these weaknesses for social and economic gain.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Footnote: I liquidated my position in Ford (F) in early December. I have no plans to short or long the stock in the next 72 hours. <o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tim Dimas loves capitalism, Winston Churchill, egg nog, and when you call him “Big Poppa.” He thinks that the most romantic song is “That Summer” by Garth Brooks, closely followed by Enrique Iglesias’ “Do you Know? [The Ping Pong Song].” He doesn’t believe in “Happy Holidays”, but would love to wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Belated Hanukkah, and Happy New Year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ll get to the economic theory of sexuality next time. I promise. Maybe.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i>Joe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-43352929415362730392012-12-27T20:52:00.003-04:002012-12-27T20:54:30.152-04:00Breaking - AP Reports Gulf War Leader Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf Dead at 78<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXzrNtw0wtvEf-2W0nEP2Y6qWZ2b6lPjgjbcRiGbdT-JTLuS-KF9xfiQyuYS-HD04aPqG6yzx_XdYlbmf3BNdws69g5wdmGHO_EiSmrFfi6Es2d0gcUwq9mgEfxeUlZES2bfdh/s1600/obitschwarzkopf_20121227_193047.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXzrNtw0wtvEf-2W0nEP2Y6qWZ2b6lPjgjbcRiGbdT-JTLuS-KF9xfiQyuYS-HD04aPqG6yzx_XdYlbmf3BNdws69g5wdmGHO_EiSmrFfi6Es2d0gcUwq9mgEfxeUlZES2bfdh/s320/obitschwarzkopf_20121227_193047.jpg" width="320" /></a>Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, who led coalitionforces in the Persian Gulf War, dies</div>
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Published December 27, 2012<span class="value-title" title="2012-12-27T19:23:49.000-0500"></span></div>
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<span class="org fn">Associated Press</span></div>
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<span class="dateline">WASHINGTON – </span>A U.S. official says retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who commanded the U.S.-led international coalition that drove Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait in 1991, has died. <br />
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He was 78.<br />
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The official tells The Associated Press that Schwarzkopf died Thursday in Tampa, Fla. The official wasn't authorized to release the information publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.<br />
A much-decorated combat soldier in Vietnam, Schwarzkopf was known popularly as "Stormin' Norman" for a notoriously explosive temper.<br />
<br />
He lived in retirement in Tampa, where he had served in his last military assignment as commander-in-chief of U.S. Central Command. That is the headquarters responsible for U.S. military and security concerns in nearly 20 countries from the eastern Mediterranean and Africa to Pakistan.</div>
</div>
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<br />
Cordially<br />
<br />
JoeJoe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-77495620661891452062012-12-01T00:02:00.000-04:002012-12-01T00:04:23.257-04:00Rice-a-Roni - Unfolding<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So what was so disturbing about Susan Rice's first meeting with the GOP members of the Senate Committee? The story arc right now is that she knew what happened in Benghazi but ran with the bogus talking points anyway. Still, what would cause those involved to walk out of the meeting "more shocked than before?" Is that all there is? We knew this - like I know I should get that lump on my neck checked.<br />
<br />
So what gives (that's what all the cool kids are saying these days)?<br />
<br />
Turns out little miss 1% has hundreds of thousands - possibly millions - of dollars tied up in oil, including the Keystone pipeline and over a dozen different Canadian (proven) and possibly other (Iranian) foreign (not yet proven) oil investments.<br />
<br />
Major conflict of interest (the title of my upcoming underfunded spy novella).<br />
<br />
When Tommy Thompson became HHS secretary in 2004 under President Bush, he had to sell all his stocks and holdings in a down market because the department is so sprawling, everything could have represented a potential conflict of interest. He was even grilled about a fist fight he had in high school during the confirmation process (those dems, sneaky rascals!).<br />
<br />
Anyway, these investments should have immediately disqualified her from her current position, and <em>should</em> nix any chance for her to take on the position as Secretary of State.<br />
<br />
Watch for this story to unfold, and when dems cry foul, remember Tommy Thompson.<br />
<br />
Cordially<br />
<br />
JoeJoe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-54145396314529134462012-11-23T15:12:00.001-04:002012-11-23T15:13:57.758-04:00From the Archives - Remembering the Haida<div class="widget Blog" id="Blog1">
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<em>Editor's note: The following 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.</em><br />
<br />
<br />
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'.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.'<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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:<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
He was my hero.<br />
<br />
Cordially
<br />
<br />
Claire </div>
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Joe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-29222585829870652432012-11-17T18:09:00.000-04:002012-11-17T18:09:01.560-04:00Smells like Freedom...and Pizza<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2yafDDAiC7rDnBy4-igddVa8zvJIxbxZqd-Id3PKW7mGKk5MZfabTScako7GkaXYvUdhSmtM7adnhISwNK0uXllP8uzcFM4B77-I9TNMm0Lcmq4TLQKmn6epMMknEt_9BRLtD/s1600/20090601131959_atlanta%25202009%2520050%2520papa%2520johns.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2yafDDAiC7rDnBy4-igddVa8zvJIxbxZqd-Id3PKW7mGKk5MZfabTScako7GkaXYvUdhSmtM7adnhISwNK0uXllP8uzcFM4B77-I9TNMm0Lcmq4TLQKmn6epMMknEt_9BRLtD/s320/20090601131959_atlanta%25202009%2520050%2520papa%2520johns.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span class="userContent">Thanks to all the citizens of Moncton, Riverview, and Dieppe New Brunswick, who answered the call and supported our local Papa John's franchise.<br /> <br /> Joe Leger <br /> <br /> Editor, The Straight Hype</span>Joe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-65487927207086668222012-08-16T21:29:00.000-03:002012-08-18T20:15:17.397-03:00Tim's Take - Why Mitt? - Tim Makes the Case for Romney<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ZoyW0rNKW0pb-h6JAlXiSvNbmDNH60GePubTEnKvstEvvRr7gmOtl0PedTpij3b9JxL8L8nsxrO4W9ssNwNpqEYA4JVWN6Z7TGbqhzOWq0XPf6XEdg9i5Uc2kvgpGpYrYM9L/s1600/what-does-mitt-romney-stand-for.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ZoyW0rNKW0pb-h6JAlXiSvNbmDNH60GePubTEnKvstEvvRr7gmOtl0PedTpij3b9JxL8L8nsxrO4W9ssNwNpqEYA4JVWN6Z7TGbqhzOWq0XPf6XEdg9i5Uc2kvgpGpYrYM9L/s320/what-does-mitt-romney-stand-for.jpg" width="282" /></a><em>This is the first in what will hopefully be many articles by noted economist, Tim Dimas. Before the Ryan pick, Tim weighed in on the question "Why Mitt"? So strap yourselves in, buckaroos, and enjoy the very first "Tim's Take".</em></div>
<br />
First of all, a giant tip of the hat to Joe for letting me be a guest. And for the TSH readers, please go easy on me: it’s my first time and I have to be home before 11 p.m. Midnight if you buy me dinner.<br />
<br />
We’re a little more than 90 days away from the U.S. General Election. And while there are plenty of good people that will be voting for Gary Johnson, scores of millions will choose between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. Most have already made up their minds: they’re perfectly content with the rampant government expansion of Federal power, or they want to curtail it. Let’s examine the economics of “Why Mitt?”<br />
<br />
<strong>Why not Barry?</strong><br />
<br />
Obama went to Harvard Law School and then became a community organizer. Not my career path, but whatever. From community organizer to public office to the White House (That’s kind of disturbing to write out in that order. Ugh). Obama is certainly well suited to be a professor. But considering what little regard I have for academia, professors, and their ilk, that’s not really saying much. He’s also really good at…organizing communities? Whatever it entails, it’s not contributing to any corporation’s bottom line.<br />
<br />
<strong>Fact:</strong> The sole reason a company exists is to earn money. Period. Not open to discussion. It is an immutable absolute. Since Obama has never worked for a corporation, or headed one, he has never contributed to its bottom line. Obama doesn’t understand how business works. Period. So why would Democrats think he could fix the largest economy in a time of worldwide global meltdown? I have no idea.<br />
<br />
Just for giggles let’s look at the unemployment rate during Obama’s tenure:<br />
<br />
<strong>Courtesy of Bureau of Labor Statistics:</strong><br />
<br />
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<br />
I know what you’re thinking: “OhmyGAWD, that’s so not fair. He inherited the problems of his predecessor.” Okay. But Obama also had the “benefits” of two stimulus packages. Remember Paul Krugman saying we had to spend and spend and spend our way out of this recession? Look how much good it did. It did…no good at all. Well, that’s swell! Alright, so we’ll cut Barry some slack for the unemployment rate when he first took over. Why don’t we give him…three years? The January 2012 unemployment rate is 8.3%. The highest it ever was under Bush was 6.3%. So we caved and did two stimulus plans (bad idea), two rounds of quantitative easing (ie., bastardizing our currency – also a bad idea) and the best it did was to give us a rate – at best – 2% higher than it was at its worst under Bush. The highest unemployment reached in the last 8 years was 10%, or 1.7% below Obama’s best. In absolute terms, Obama’s best unemployment rate is .3% closer to our recent worst than to Bush’s worst. And you call that progress. We’ll come back to the “he inherited that – don’t blame him” myth later.<br />
<br />
No business experience, spiraling unemployment, and an inability to take it on the chin and accept blame (Damn you George W. Bush!). What we are in is not a recovery. It’s a period of stagnation – a fiscal purgatory. There is no indicator to make us believe we will get any hope or change (see what I did there?) economically if we stay the course. At least Obama did give us a consolation prize: the biggest tax hike (Obamacare) and debt that this country has ever known. None of this leads to why Mitt is the right person for the job. <br />
<br />
<strong>So why Mitt?</strong><br />
<br />
He has an MBA. I don’t worship degrees like liberals, or where they are from (I really hate academic types, if you couldn’t tell), but clearly Mitt has received intensive and formalized training on how to do business and how business works. He’s had to master the theory and finer points of things like Business Law, Accounting, Economics, Marketing, Operations Management, and the like. Moreover, Mitt has corporate experience as evidenced by his time at Bain Capital. Mitt took a sinking ship by way of the Salt Lake City Olympics and saved them. <br />
<br />
While there are elements of Mitt that make me sad (Romneycare), no one can deny his business acumen or what he has accomplished as a businessman. He made his fortune before entering politics, not because of it. Why is Barack Obama rich? He never contributed to a company’s bottom line….so…? Romney put in the time at work, juggled a family, found his corporate success and cashed out. Then he ran for office. From an economics point of view, this is in direct contrast to the pretender in chief. Romney doesn’t have much flare. But he has been successful at business and done well for himself and others. I don’t know why that is a liability. Our economy is stagnant and in desperate need of someone who knows how business operates, not someone that has never worked for profit a day in his life. And certainly not the clowns that voted for Obama and somehow think that reading an article on HuffPo is a substitute for knowing the pros and cons of IRR vs. MIRR. <br />
<br />
<strong>What the Progressives will argue</strong><br />
<br />
Progressives are going to attack the economic for reasons for Mitt as follows. <br />
<br />
1. He’s super rich<br />
2. Trickle-down economics doesn’t work<br />
3. The Dow has done better since Obama came into office<br />
<br />
Let’s make quick order of the criticism before we adjourn.<br />
<br />
<strong>1. He’s super rich</strong><br />
<br />
a. And liberals hate wealthy people. I get it.<br />
b. Mitt was born wealthy. He also got himself an education and grew that wealth substantially. <br />
c. You people love JFK – he was working class?<br />
d. You are aware JFK’s dad bought the election, yes?<br />
e. You’re also aware the JFK used the Laffer Curve to grow the tax rolls, right? (Wait – your HuffPo article didn’t explain the Laffer Curve to you?)<br />
<br />
<strong>2. Trickle-down economics doesn’t work</strong><br />
<br />
a. Which is exactly why the 1980s were so prosperous economically. <br />
b. Accusations as ridiculous as this don’t deserve an honest rebuke.<br />
<br />
<strong>3. The Dow has done better since Obama came into office</strong><br />
<br />
a. Better since what? Nuclear Armageddon? Yes. That’s true, but….<br />
b. According to progressives, only the “1%” invest in the stock market (this is a fallacy, but just roll with it), and since they hate the 1%, I don’t know why they’re benchmarking them as the epitome of progress.<br />
c. We can’t blame Obama for the state of the economy his predecessor gave him. And that means no credit either. So this one doesn’t hold water. To get credit for this, he’d have to take blame for unemployment. Which requires responsibility. Which no progressive has. Additionally…<br />
d. The Dow is a marketplace, not a confidence index. Cross-reference the VIX and you’ll get a very different story…Oh wait. Elizabeth Warren didn’t explain that to you? Come on libs, KEEP UP!<br />
<br />
God Bless America. And in the words of Davy Crockett, <em>“you may all go to hell and I will go to Texas.”</em><br />
<br />
<em>Tim Dimas is finishing his MBA in Finance and obsessively checks the Drudge Report, WSJ, and CNBC. He enjoys Starbucks iced beverages. He has applied his knowledge of economics to develop an astounding theory on the intersection of financial/economic principles and sexuality...But that will have to wait until next time.</em> Joe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-69252246314323845832012-06-15T18:41:00.001-03:002012-06-15T19:06:42.016-03:00Cultural Boomerang - Welcome to the Liberal Authenticity Trip<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp9j6pmb1v7TdVbyfUlyK4qWamgRMbH2iJ4Eu9vd0K7duCJdI-Qx1T3kHOs_YWgT6zIm21FwqZpOUJWeRwKofcnreczoijeeTsZyx3gHuuBBPWaI4sk4V8RG7ErDEVdf4yi8q1/s1600/a+iawa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp9j6pmb1v7TdVbyfUlyK4qWamgRMbH2iJ4Eu9vd0K7duCJdI-Qx1T3kHOs_YWgT6zIm21FwqZpOUJWeRwKofcnreczoijeeTsZyx3gHuuBBPWaI4sk4V8RG7ErDEVdf4yi8q1/s1600/a+iawa.jpg" /></a><em>"This is Abraham Lincoln's axe. Last week the handle fell off and I had to replace it, but this is still Lincoln's axe. Oh, and the blade broke off yesterday so I had to put a new one on, but essentially, this is </em><em>still Abraham Lincoln's axe."</em></div>
<br />
<em> Harry Anderson, Night Court</em><br />
<br />
Ok, the above quote might lead you to believe that this is going to be a review of Jonah Goldberg's amazing new book "The Tyranny of Cliches", since he's been using Anderson's old axe joke as an apt analogy on his book tour. We'll have a review up soon enough, so if you want to change the channel, this is going to be a Meg episode - no one is going to blame you (if you get that reference, you can either be proud or ashamed of yourself. I'm your blogger, not your priest).<br />
<br />
I usually don't preface my blog posts with disclaimers. I usually just plunge the knife in deep and gag you before you can say "Et tu, Brute?", but, in this case, a beloved friend and a dear relative have dabbled in this stuff, and they are neither silly, destroyers of cultures, nor moral monsters. This piece is about a collective anthropological phenomenon, and not an indictment of the people about whom I care deeply. If anything, I have to thank my friend and my relative for sparking my aging memory regarding something I had not thought of since I was in university and my wife was still taking a lunchbox to school. <br />
<br />
Ever hear of ayahuasca? I'm not going to bore you with the pharmacology. Suffice it to say that it's a plant-based hallucinogenic-ingested tea with purgative properties used (not exclusively) by the indigenous peoples of of the Peruvian Amazon. It's all the rage these days, with the New Age crowd and drug tourists willing to pay out hundreds and even thousands of dollars to puke their guts out and experience hallucinations they believe will give them insight and guidance from the spirit world. Others just want to trip out.<br />
<br />
It's use was first recorded by Spanish missionaries in the 17th century. It's commonly believed that it's a ritualistic sacrament presided over by a Shaman that dates back thousands of years - and this is where the problems start. New Agers and the holistic gang like to harp on about its ancient origins, but this is a source of much contention amongst the Indiana Jones crowd. Apart from it's mention by the Spanish, there is only speculation on just how old the use of this stuff is. Bowls and clay figures dashed with red paint have been discovered by archaeologists in regions of the Amazon. They posit that the bowls could have been used during the ritual, and the red paint on the figurines could represent the user's existential state of being. Bowls and figurines are not uncommon finds in dig sites anywhere in the world, so to buy into the theory, you have to be looking for proof to fit your thesis rather than letting the artifacts <em>suggest</em> a thesis.<br />
<br />
I first heard of ayahuasca in 1993, when researching how European missionaries integrated existing customs used by indigenous peoples around the world into the rituals found in a traditional Catholic mass (you'll often see statues of the Virgin Mary in some of the ayahuasca hot spots). When my professors found out that I didn't think this was always necessarily a bad thing if not done by the tip of a sword, they looked at me the way my baby nephew does when I make a sillly face that he first finds amusing, but then it slowly begins to horrify him. Anyway, after a bit of verbal fencing, I eventually dropped it and went and got drunk instead - and stayed that way until about 8 years ago. But that's another story.<br />
<br />
Let's rewind to the 1960's, when a generation of young people decided to tear down what was once considered good and decent, and proceeded to spend the better part of a decade trying to fill the spiritual void they created with something else. Something more exotic; something more "authentic". Hippies flocked to Peru after hearing about a hallucinogenic happy meal that transported the local Peruvian Amazonians to new levels of spirituality, healing, love, and wisdom. It sparked what's now commonly referred to as "drug tourism". I'm not saying that people then or now endure the dangers of the Amazon just to get high, but because you are altering your conciousness by ingesting drugs, you are, by nature, a drug tourist, regardless of your motives. Some of the first westerners in the '60's to experiment with ayahuasca were actually met with bewilderment by the locals. Even as late as 2006, as documented in a National Geographic article, a lady who went Shaman shopping in Peru was told<br />
<br />
<em>"You're going to pay someone to give this to you? You crazy white people!'”</em><br />
<br />
Indeed they do - pay that is. Google ayahuasca and you'll find a Chinese food menu of hot spots throughout North America where you can pay up to $2000 for the experience with a genuine bonafide Shaman - or are you really? <br />
<br />
These people are not taking part in a Shamanistic ritual, because there are no Shamans in Peru. They're buying a commodity that has no semblance to what it once was.<br />
<br />
Shamans are found exclusively in parts of Russia and Northern Asia. Now, anthropologists are generous with the term, and though there is a bit of intellectual tension within the community about this, it is generally tolerated that in certain tribal settings outside of this area, the term Shaman can be used to describe a spiritual leader, but there are caveats. The spiritual leader must perform a specific set of functions and the term must not be completely alien to the people using it. The word shaman was never used by the Peruvian Amazonians before the 1960's. It was imported to them by Westerners who didn't know any better. They already had terms for their spiritual leaders. C<span style="font-family: Thread-00001b7c-Id-00000000;"><span style="font-family: Thread-00001b7c-Id-00000000;">uranderos</span> is one them, but that doesn't really roll off the tongue - neither does </span><span style="font-family: Thread-00001b7c-Id-00000000;"><span style="font-family: Thread-00001b7c-Id-00000000;">ayahuasqueros</span>. The correct term is "quasi-shamanist", but the hippies who started arriving in droves in the 1960's wanted to see a real, in the flesh Shaman. Hey, folks from Peru gotta eat too, and if you got the coin, you can call them Shapoopie! if you want. Now, there <em>was</em> a vague Spanish word "Chaman" that fit the bill. No surprise that the word morphed into shaman to meet the demands of the tourists. It's good business.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Thread-00001b7c-Id-00000000;">In fact, it started becoming such good business that the Board of Tourism in Peru - in conjunction with their major newspapers - decided a few years back that it would be great for the economy if they filled said papers with nothing but stories of ayahuasca miracles, UFO sightings, and other supernatural phenomena. You know, to grab that international travel niche market. I'm not making this up. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Thread-00001b7c-Id-00000000;">It's a mess, and I don't think those who are partaking in this ritual truly appreciate the gravity of what they are doing, and have done, to a culture.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Thread-00001b7c-Id-00000000;">Let me explain it like this, and remember, I am NOT making a point about religion.</span><br />
<br />
Suppose there was no such thing as the Vatican with dioceses and arch-dioceses throughout the world. Pretend you'd never heard of it. Imagine there was a little spot in Rome with a few small gathering places called "churches" that practiced something called the "Catholic mass". There's something known as Gregorian chanting, and at one point during the ritual, there is something called "communion". Word starts to spread that during this "communion" thing, a guy called a "priest" magically transforms a piece of bread into a deity. Trippy! When you eat this magic bread, you are ingesting a God. So, now, imagine you're a New Ager and this mystical experience with incense and smoke and chanting really calls to you. You want to receive Communion and be one with a greater power (this is not much different from what happened with ayahuasca so stay with me). <br />
<br />
So you go to this mysterious Rome place, with cash, and ask the locals where you go to do the Communion thing. Naturally, they are baffled. You can't just take Communion, they tell you. You first have to go through a process that for many starts at birth, called "baptism" - but you are insistent, and you have money. This little Rome place is very poor, so they take you to a priest. The priest lets you sit in on the mass (warily, mind you) and lets you take Communion. There are people flinging a weird smoke maker that smells like a bonfire, and wait a minute...there's WINE. Wine that is transformed into the life essence of the Deity when he was amongst the living. You go back the next day with even more cash so you can drink the wine. Well, that's not something the tribe usually allows, but again, they're poor, and they're pretty sure you're probably going to go away soon anyway. So you take Communion again, and you drink the wine. A little too much of the wine. The chanting, the frankincense - you feel elevated.You have become one with a deity! Then you leave, and life goes on for this poor little tribe who call themselves Catholics. <br />
<br />
But you tell your New Age friends, and they want to experience "communion" too, so they start to swarm to poor little Rome with cash, also demanding they be allowed to take "communion." Tourists are travelling to the middle of nowhere at great risk and expense asking to see a "communionist." The locals are at a loss. The priests need to preserve the sanctity of the mass, so they splash water on your forehead, and then you must sit with the priest in a dark box and "confess" - a sort of soul cleansing. This is getting better by the minute for the new age, spiritual traveler. The priests can't handle the crowds, so they start ordaining people to dispense the communion and wine. There was never a person called a communionist in the 2000 year history of this tribe, but there is now. Frankincense is expensive, but the tourists want it, so the locals throw something together that sort of smells like it. The communion wafers are very rare and expensive, but there are hundreds of people coming through every week, so they make do with whatever they can find. So many years have passed at this point that now Rome is entirely focused on the influx of people that have and are inundating their little village.<span style="font-family: Thread-00001b7c-Id-00000000;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Thread-00001b7c-Id-00000000;"><br />The Gregorian chanters are all dying off, and there is no one to teach the intricate viva voce method to pass on the tradition, so they just get folks to dawn robes and start chanting gobbledy gook (this very same thing happened to the chanting heard during ayahuasca rituals. The language died, and the chant was reduced to little more than a performance enhancer).<br /><br />Fast forward a couple of decades. There are no more priestsv- They got so busy with the tourists that no one was available to teach the important theological ideals vital to these Catholics, so now, there are only "communionists" - a term coined 20 years ago by outsiders who now insist it goes back thousands of years. Mass no longer truly exists, it is now only a ghost of what it was. There are no more homilies, no more Our Fathers. Confession is now called "the cleansing"; rosary beads are worn around the neck with their meaning and sacred prayers long forgotten; communion wafers are just pita bread; the wine has been "fortified" to, again, enhance the experience (yes, I know the dozen theological caveats this raises, but as I said, I'm not trying to make a point about religion).<br /><br />Worst of all, these "communionists" have taken the show on the road - for profit.<br /><br />This is what has happened to the tribal peoples of the Peruvian Amazon. New Agers, hippies, and stoners who meant no harm flocked to the Amazon seeking spiritual fulfillment, and, slowly, over the course of 50 years, launched a wrecking ball that turned a sacred ritual into a circus side show. This is what is so damned dangerous about the "a bit of this and a bit of that" quest for spriritual fufilment.<br /><br />It's an extension of neo-paganism of sorts. New Agers have made a soup out of all things mystical in their quest for enlightenment, and have sullied very old and ancient traditions in the process. Take Kabala: People say they practice Kabala. Did you know a Rabbi has to have studied the Talmud for at least 40 years before being allowed to delve into Kabala because it is so abstract and complicated? Yet Madonna claims it's some kind of religion she follows after taking a weekend course. There is no Book of Kabala. Just like people have no idea of the difference between rebirth and reincarnation. New Agers have unintentionally done more damage to the customs and traditions of indigenous peoples around the world than the supposed horrors of McDonald's built in third world countries that they are always screaming about. Does anyone else see the irony in the fact that the Dali Lama globetrots in a private jet, giving countless media interviews and being treated like a rock star?<br /><br />I know. You can say "What about the Church?", "What about the Big Corporations"', "What about the one percent?" Those are things about which we can have a morally seriously argument another day. Today I'm asking: what about you?<br /><br />Hey, if you want to trip out with the pseudo-quasi-shamanistic dude who's performing in a town near you, knock yourself out. If you want to hang with a mysterious French doctor who has an army of lawyers surround him when the press gets too nosy, have at 'er. But, luckily, there are still places deep withing the Amazon where the ayahuasca ritual is still performed by a genuine ayahuasquero. Please have the decency to leave them off your "to do" list when you travel.<br /><br />Cordially<br /><br />Joe</span>Joe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-52401562246917404102012-04-15T23:50:00.000-03:002012-04-15T23:50:45.709-03:00The Keynesian Fabulist - Blogging By Numbers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglerAjMFtgVUIGvue4Ti_s_oE680ZPzv6lhr_3RwKbr_VmTHjpP6vnMzlBceTb7hVBhE6KA38iivZ1boK17RYF64y6ehHxWx7BBydJvZ5nfDEgCv0f3QXGZgVUAnHsFhuxwqXj/s1600/a+magician.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglerAjMFtgVUIGvue4Ti_s_oE680ZPzv6lhr_3RwKbr_VmTHjpP6vnMzlBceTb7hVBhE6KA38iivZ1boK17RYF64y6ehHxWx7BBydJvZ5nfDEgCv0f3QXGZgVUAnHsFhuxwqXj/s320/a+magician.png" width="277" /></a></div>Let me start by giving a hat tip to Aaron Wong, the <span class="bio">President of USC College Republicans, who gave TSH a very kind shout out on Twitter. I'm just some smart-ass Canadian with a laptop that overheats to the point of being a fire hazard and a dream that, someday, they will reboot the American Ninja franchise. Aaron is the sort of fellow who works in the trenches, rallying young college Republicans and enduring the olfactory offenses of whatever branch of the "Occupy" movement that is presumably still invading his campus. I have it lucky in my little neck of the woods. Moncton's Occupy movement consists of two tents and a cardboard sign. It's really just a hobo hotel that's been there for as long as I can remember, but they think writing OCCUPY on a ripped up Saltines box gives them street cred. Anyway, good on ya' Aaron! The conservative movement is a global one, and I think it's pretty cool beans that Canadians, Americans, East Indians, Italians, Australians and countless others who feel passionately about limited government, free enterprise, and the essential dignity of all human life stop by my little lemonade stand to hang out and spread the word.</span><br />
<br />
Shall we blog by numbers?<br />
<br />
1 -In early 2009, the President declared that he would have the deficit cut in half by the end of his third year in office or he would be a one term President. Here we are, three years later, and he's presided over the four largest deficits in American History. Maybe he has a wicked Groupon he hasn't told us about that's going to slash the deficit overnight and make it rain gumdrops and snow cotton candy.<br />
<br />
In early February, the President finally released his Keynesian Greco-Roman orgy budget that makes Jimmy Carter look like Calvin Coolidge. It's a spending bonanza that boggles the mind. It's like when Mayor West found out that 'the bird is equal to or greater than the word', and screamed "CHECK IT AGAIN!" The only phrase that can accurately describe this tax and spend bonanza is fiscal insanity.<br />
<br />
Veronique De Rugy broke down some of the numbers, and they confirm the economic immaturity of this administration.<br />
<br />
By the end of fiscal year 2013, the federal government will have spent just under $4 trillion. Projected over the next 10 years, cumulative spending will have reached an astounding $47 trillion dollars. Gross debt, both public and private, will increase to $26 trillion. <br />
<br />
The annual interest alone on this beast of a budget will be $1 trillion annually. Spending will increase in virtually every government department. How does the President plan to pay for all this? TAXES! How else? There will be a death-tax hike of $143 billion, and a host of other tax increases equaling $340 billion, compliments of the American taxpayers - but even the massive tax grabs the President is proposing don't come close to covering the massive debt he plans to incur.<br />
<br />
When all the numbers are crunched, by 2022, Americans are looking at a <strong>$7,900,000,000,000</strong> increase in debt. This is not sustainable; this is not realistic; this is not sane. Time for a change in management.<br />
<br />
2 - An irritating comment I hear a lot when liberals in the media (are there any other kind?) engage in discussions about the stimulus is that "...there is only one side to this discussion." That side, of course, being that the stimulus was a necessary inevitability. Doug Holtz has countered the comment with a question I rather like. He posits, "You simply can’t throw $800 billion at the economy and have <em>nothing</em> to show for it. The real question is of course, was its impact worth it?" So, aside from Superbowl half-time commercials, did the American public get any bang for their buck? The answer is no.<br />
<br />
When looking at how the CBO examines where stimulus dollars went, it boils down to this. The CBO openly acknowledges that each dollar of stimulus expenditure is generating less than a dollar of output. The President is not even breaking even. <br />
<br />
<em>"Economists are comparing it to eating ice cream today, while committing to broccoli later. But that’s not what we’re seeing."</em> Instead, President Obama, who has presided over four years of $1-trillion-plus deficits, he has proposed an average ten-year deficit of $668 billion. Holtz muses that the president wouldn’t .."even pass Keynesian economics. Instead of holding out for broccoli, we get a ten-year ice cream party."<br />
<br />
Debt is at a historical high, surpassing the GDP. Holtz's forecast is gloomy -<em> "The implications of this scenario are plainly evident from the recent experience in Europe — but the economic fallout from a debt crisis in the world’s largest economy is difficult to fathom."</em><br />
<br />
3 - It's curious that when conservatives point out their concerns about the impact of executive over-reach and the devastating effects of Joseph Ellis-style anti-orginalist SCOTUS-think, we're accused of being zealous, ridiculous wing-nuts by liberals who, prior to 2008, constantly screamed about living under a war-mongering police state run by a fascist dictator who should be tried for war crimes. Yeah...We're the one's who overstate things.<br />
<br />
4 - <span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}">Haven't seen The Hunger Games yet, but I shudder at the thought of how many grown women twenty years from now are going to be addressed as "Katniss" (hat tip to J-Bow).</span><br />
<br />
5 - I know it's become "de rigeur" to peer through the other side of the looking glass and complain about those who complain about Facebook. Fair enough. Sure, it's not the end of the world, but I still don't want that damnable "timeline." I use a product. I like the way that product is set up. Now I am waiting for that cursed day when I have to start swilling Facebook's version of "New Coke." <br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">I hate the thought of that inevitable morning when I wake up to some random elongated picture of myself that says "Hey look! I'm the Blueray letterbox version of The Godfather." My friend Amanda jumped ahead of the curve and posted a picture of herself lounging on a hammock. Clever girl. I need a hammock.</span><br />
<br />
6 - The Stoics are rolling in their graves. Those sneaky Greeks just received a $170 billion (OPA!) bail-out. Greece has a sad record of running its country into the ground, and a fickle record of adhering to policies to which it has agreed. Their public debt makes for 120% of their GDP. Greece arrived at their Waterloo as a result of out of control spending gone wild. In fact, a recent audit showed that they "...consistently and deliberately misreported the country's official economic statistics."<span style="color: #b45f06;"> </span><span style="color: black;">Greece had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to even consider cutting so much as a toenail.</span> The jury is still out as to whether or not this recent bailout in conjunction with the proposed austerity measures will do any good. Greece is illustrative of the ship of fools President Obama is steering over a waterfall, and his recent public tantrums and finger pointing are reminiscent of a man who refuses to leave his beachfront home despite the warning of a category 5 hurricane evacuation - only he's<span style="color: black;"> insisting</span> the rest of neighborhood stay with him. <br />
<br />
7 - It looks like the Supreme Court will uphold the 11th circuit's ruling that the individual mandate of Obamacare is unconstitutional. Media reports seem to indicate that the Solicitor General was poorly prepared for oral arguments. Not surprising. The 11th circuit's decision fast tracked this case to the nation's highest court, to the chagrin of the justice department. If the decision comes down as <span style="color: black;">exp</span><span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="color: black;">ected,</span> it means the end of Obamacare, a major victory for all citizens who have seen their costs doubled and services reduced under the current law.<br />
<br />
This is a major blow to the Obama administration. The court is reiterating the 11th circuit's decision, which stated that the law had no limiting principle and that "...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. <span style="color: black;">This theory affords no limiting principles in which to confine Congress’s enumerated power."</span></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span>...but hold the celebration until the decision comes down. If anyone remembers Judge Bolton's ruling on SB1070, she began her decision by asserting the burden on the DOJ in a fac</span><span class="text_exposed_show">ial case was insurmountable, but ruled in favor of the administration anyway.<br />
<br />
Hope this bad law is struck down. Cross your fingers.</span><br />
<br />
8 - Have a great week. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtLETGn0css" target="_blank">Let's roll the credits to a little Turner Cody</a>.<br />
<br />
Cordially<br />
<br />
JoeJoe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-34978620156796259622012-03-02T20:59:00.002-04:002012-03-02T21:30:21.081-04:00Sad, Not Suspicious. No Conspiracy, Just Tragedy.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVlnB5tgNtU5oAPEvufIbE_UUyRoGxYDpd0sXp9PWO_lAuQooswnpdt6s872WQBCCprH4GLBUXcMa5259x38WUVmc-ea78ZIsv6DZTCetVMG_2reXd8_u_21ybyT1fv35YJSCG/s1600/a+new+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVlnB5tgNtU5oAPEvufIbE_UUyRoGxYDpd0sXp9PWO_lAuQooswnpdt6s872WQBCCprH4GLBUXcMa5259x38WUVmc-ea78ZIsv6DZTCetVMG_2reXd8_u_21ybyT1fv35YJSCG/s400/a+new+blog.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span lang=""><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">A typical sampling of blog and <span class="squiggly" splc="splc" state="new" title="To see spelling suggestions, click this word" word="Facebook">Facebook</span> posts I've been reading today start something like this:</span><br />
<i><span style="font-size: small;"></span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: small;">"I never saw or heard the man speak, but a couple of weeks ago this guy said he was going to release tapes that would take down the administration and then he dies. Something very wrong is going on here. This is too strange."</span></i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Conspiracies about dart guns, poisoned red wine, and suspiciously early cause of death reports are running wild across the web. But the reality is that while his death is shocking, it was not entirely surprising.<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Let me first dispose of the notion that the tapes of President Obama <span class="squiggly" splc="splc" state="new" title="To see spelling suggestions, click this word" word="Breitbart">Breitbart</span> referenced during his <span class="squiggly" splc="splc" state="new" title="To see spelling suggestions, click this word" word="CPAC">CPAC</span> speech were some kind of explosive bombshell. The tapes are not a revelation. <span class="squiggly" splc="splc" state="new" title="To see spelling suggestions, click this word" word="Breitbart">Breitbart</span> was speaking publicly about them during the <a href="http://thisbluemarble.com/showthread.php?t=22089" target="_blank">Acorn expose as early as 2009.</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">As for the claim that the LA Times reported his cause of death before it was released - well, they didn't. Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center pronounced that <span class="squiggly" splc="splc" state="new" title="To see spelling suggestions, click this word" word="Breitbart">Breitbart</span> had <i>probably</i> <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/01/us-usa-politics-breitbart-idUSTRE8201AV20120301" target="_blank">died of natural causes at <span class="squiggly" splc="splc" state="new" title="To see spelling suggestions, click this word" word="12:19am">12:19am</span></a>. The LA T</span><span style="font-size: small;">imes reported <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/03/andrew-brietbart-writer-provocateur-dead.html" target="_blank">what UCLA Medical had announced at <span class="squiggly" splc="splc" state="new" title="To see spelling suggestions, click this word" word="7:42am">7:33am</span>.</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Remember the <i>"probably"</i> part. It is not at all unusual for ER doctors to speculate on the cause of death immediately following sudden, unexpected trauma. ER doctors all over the world do it every single day. Anyone who has anxiously waited for news of a loved in an emergency waiting room knows this. "He probably died of a heart attack", "It looks like it may have been a stroke", "It could have been an allergic reaction." Far too many of us have heard those words. It's not unusual or strange. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Anyone who knew Andrew <span class="squiggly" splc="splc" state="new" title="To see spelling suggestions, click this word" word="Breitbart">Breitbart</span> knows he did not take the best care of his health. He had heart problems, and hadn't been examined by a doctor in over a year. He rarely slept, traveled constantly, and had a wife and 4 energetic kids he took everywhere, including on National Review cruises. Everyone was begging him to slow down. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="squiggly" splc="splc" state="new" title="To see spelling suggestions, click this word" word="Ariana">Arianna</span> Huffington, of the Huffington Post, of which <span class="squiggly" splc="splc" state="new" title="To see spelling suggestions, click this word" word="Breitbart">Breitbart</span> helped to develop, had implored him over the years <a href="http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/02/the-breakfast-meeting-tributes-from-both-sides-for-andrew-breitbart-and-lego-goes-pink/" target="_blank">to slow down</a>:</span></span><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: inherit;">"Andrew, you’ve got to sleep, got to stop."</span></span></i><br />
<span lang=""><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em> </em><span style="font-size: small;">Michael Walsh, <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/292392/goodbye-andrew-michael-walsh" target="_blank">one of <span class="squiggly" splc="splc" state="new" title="To see spelling suggestions, click this word" word="Brietbart's">Brietbart's</span> closest friends, claimed:</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<em> <span style="font-size: small;">"....he did suffer from heart trouble, and told me he had spent some time at UCLA Medical Center in the past year for treatment. As a heart patient myself, I often urged him to slow down and take care of his family — even Achilles had to spend time in his tent. It was advice he could not heed."</span></em></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-size: small;">We don't know the official cause of death as of yet.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="">A heart attack at 43, if a heart attack is what this turns out to be, is not a strange occurrence. Males 45 and under account for 20% of all heart attacks in the United States. Given <span class="squiggly" splc="splc" state="new" title="To see spelling suggestions, click this word" word="Breitbart's">Breitbart's</span> non-stop pace and documented heart issues, I don't see this as such a shocker.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">So let's take a breath.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">I despise the Obama administration. I hate everything it stands for. I want to see this corrupt President and every Democrat run out of Washington in November. I want to see the mainstream media stammering and staggering about trying to spin the massive GOP tidal wave that is coming. I want to watch in delight as liberals seethe with rage. I want to stick it to the Occupy crowd. I want to do all the things that Andrew relished in life.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">What I do not want to do is sully Andrew's legacy by skipping down the road to Loch Ness talking about black mini-vans and poison blow darts.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Andrew <span class="squiggly" splc="splc" state="new" title="To see spelling suggestions, click this word" word="Breitbart's">Breitbart's</span> death was sad, sudden, and tragic. Instead of watching and reading the work of conspiracy theorists, why not make better use of our time watching the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mTxpFIw-3g" target="_blank">hundreds of brilliant and impassioned speeches and interviews</a> Andrew left behind?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Cordially </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Joe</span></span> </span>Joe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-46161426924207979742012-03-01T10:59:00.003-04:002012-03-01T13:24:05.698-04:00Andrew Breitbart February 1, 1969 – March 1, 2012<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghoiKwRnM2o0X7tcssa6n3rCwooMM4NDTU8x0ReZgf6I3WnT-FmN0zS9ChMNL9BFjyOVFxnm2AcOBqfWwUnMxnzXSInoLJYrOEGRhmMYSvIj0P_w4u73CzUYd8mwXl4PiDzoF5/s1600/andrew.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghoiKwRnM2o0X7tcssa6n3rCwooMM4NDTU8x0ReZgf6I3WnT-FmN0zS9ChMNL9BFjyOVFxnm2AcOBqfWwUnMxnzXSInoLJYrOEGRhmMYSvIj0P_w4u73CzUYd8mwXl4PiDzoF5/s1600/andrew.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Widely read conservative Internet publisher Andrew Breitbart has died, his attorney confirms.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The site Big Government, which he founded, reported that Breitbart, 43, died "unexpectedly from natural causes" in Los Angeles shortly after midnight on Thursday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior," the article on the site said. "Andrew lived boldly, so that we more timid souls would dare to live freely and fully, and fight for the fragile liberty he showed us how to love."</span></div>Joe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-31535323497125257302012-02-15T13:04:00.002-04:002012-02-15T13:11:46.553-04:00You're Older Than You've Ever Been - 39 and Counting....<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip2ebSBSyIyvT2u5RavkBk66ZEnLKjquJfyRrK6CXC_5OJsRcTVcb9SNhOj_TC-SMj0egUBClR8-SKiNkO2VHtUx7bANPecwMneZSseivUNRK3foU-zZM9wIPKt8sb3B2ITto7/s1600-h/old+dude.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446456252724529554" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip2ebSBSyIyvT2u5RavkBk66ZEnLKjquJfyRrK6CXC_5OJsRcTVcb9SNhOj_TC-SMj0egUBClR8-SKiNkO2VHtUx7bANPecwMneZSseivUNRK3foU-zZM9wIPKt8sb3B2ITto7/s400/old+dude.jpg" style="float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 301px;" /></a>I'm feeling old lately. Not the kind of old Bill Cosby used to schlep about in his stand-up routine, lamenting the inevitable forgetfulness that comes with age, like the panic you feel when you've forgotten who you're calling before the intended party has answered the phone. It's more an ever-growing sense that there is a chasm that's widening between myself and the past. It first hit me while listening to the Stones'<em> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIX0ZDqDljA" target="_blank">You Can't Always Get What You Want</a></em> in the car. I was pondering how the song is a reflection on the end of the 1960's freewheeling drug culture in London, a culture that by 1969 had long outlived its welcome. It's the 1969 part that nags at me. Using my astonishing mathematical prowess, I realized the song is over 40 years old. I remember when I was a kid, my mom used to sing the Andrews Sisters' "<em><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3ntMHk_QiM" target="_blank">Rum and Coca Cola</a></em>" when she was in the kitchen. Back then, that song was <em>barely </em>40 years old.<br />
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<div></div>There's something unsettling about that to me. When I think of songs that are 4 decades old, I like to imagine the list would be strictly relegated to the likes of Glenn Miller, Perry Como, or <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5JGO7xP0vg" target="_blank">Johnny Mercer</a>, but definitely not Rolling Stones' guitar licks.<br />
<div></div><div>Recently, some hip-hop artist sampled Warren Zevon's <em><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRHIeblmIws" target="_blank">Werewolves of London</a></em>, and I was dismayed to discover that hordes of people not even a decade younger than I am mistakenly sing <em>"<strong>Where are the Wild Things?"</strong></em> when the chorus rolls around. I even had some kid argue with me over it. I dropped it, realizing that debating the finite points of music with a strung out stoner was an intellectually reductive process. He probably would have steadfastly insisted that the Statue of Liberty is actually holding an ice cream cone, and that William F Buckley Jr is a guitarist who is still very much alive.</div><br />
I know 39 isn't old, but it seems life is intent on convincing me each day that there's a Scoot-About with my name on it waiting for me just around the corner. As most of my avid readers know, my wife is 14 years younger than I am - she was trick or treating when I first met her (just kidding). Often times I'll show her <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrDsvVKY_d4" target="_blank">some movie from the early 80's</a> that I enjoyed as a child, during which she'll methodically point out half a dozen sub-plots that were never adequately explored or were completely abandoned by the end of the movie. I try to explain that what's pivotal to the movie is that by the end the hero has killed all the drug dealers and Communists and mobsters before shooting the dirty chief of police. Apparently how the hero deduced that the chief of police was double crossing him all along is not sufficiently explained by simply declaring "I knew it was you all along" before throwing him out of a window and walking away to the beat of a Duran Duran song that fades as the credits roll. Hey, works for me, buzz kill.<br />
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I think it all came crashing down on me while we were watching an episode of Family Guy, during which a cartoon Rob Schneider does an imitation of his "Copy Guy" character from Saturday Night Live, prompting a perplexed young lady - oblivious to the cultural reference - to declare "<em>Umm, I was</em> <em>born in 1987.</em>" While Claire understood that Family Guy often uses obscure or dated cultural references, she also had no idea who Copy Guy was. I enthusiastically Youtubed it to show her just how incredibly rib splitting this recurring character was, only to realize the skit was rather dull and annoying.<br />
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The lovely Mrs Claire loves that I'm older than her. It tickles her for some reason, and I am certainly a lucky man to have an intelligent and beautiful young wife. I don't know why the looming thought of 40 troubles me so much. The zero reminds of the O in LOST that comes looming out of the screen at you in the beginning of every episode. I know I should round off this column with a nice tie-in to some reference I made at the beginning - but hey, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdqoNKCCt7A" target="_blank">I knew it was you all along.</a><br />
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Cordially<br />
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JoeJoe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-14249788922420774222012-02-08T21:53:00.000-04:002012-02-08T21:53:11.794-04:00About Last Night - TSH TV<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxj41_NtLSBVga_v9lFITM1a8q14HEX8kKM7IbrfSl2QtvdGn92Gii4syVxRWvF2vQknMbMjTOJhCw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>Joe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-32815933955135475432012-01-10T21:19:00.001-04:002012-01-10T21:31:05.777-04:00Pick Your Poison - Blogging by Numbers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv7KWEUL9GLAdbRYPwfYuP9yLqHS3sF_l-COg845NtVk6vLiOAmTOVP2YqRtmyblaS__NopCNGB5oPHJV5328bOeiO3bgJkBdCEWjhnklDN7BNYT2sjVk_NGJ63HLYV8IwGZxX/s1600/a+GOP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv7KWEUL9GLAdbRYPwfYuP9yLqHS3sF_l-COg845NtVk6vLiOAmTOVP2YqRtmyblaS__NopCNGB5oPHJV5328bOeiO3bgJkBdCEWjhnklDN7BNYT2sjVk_NGJ63HLYV8IwGZxX/s400/a+GOP.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Excuses, excuses, but once again, I must apologize for the lack of content lately. This place has been emptier than a Jon Huntsman rally at a Red Lobster restaurant. If anyone is wondering what the meaning of the Chinese expression he used during the<strong> </strong>Saint Anslesm College debate was, it roughly translates as "I won less than 1% of the Ames straw poll, but the media is succeeding in making me relevent." Actually, he couldn't even muster less than half a percentage point. He's actually taken out an ad that ends with a befuddled old Wilford Brimley-ish guy who grumbles "Why haven't we heard of this guy?" Solid statagy Jon - but we'll get back to that.</div><br />
Truth is, I have recently embarked on a whiplash inducing career change, and am currently practicing as an addictions and human services couselor. I am also working on securing the necessary certifications that will allow me to open a private practice as a grief and loss counselor. I am also incredibly lazy, and my fingers hurt from trying to play a C chord on the sweet acoustic guitar my wife bought me for Christmas. Let the blogging by numbers begin!<br />
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1 - It seems that as conservatives, every GOP primary since 1992 has been about trying to make the best of a bad situation. Doth we protest too much? Perhaps, but if the 2010 mid-term election taught us anything, it's that we can demand more and get it, even against an orchastrated campaign by the leftist establishment to derail us at every turn using their yes-men in the media. The usual suspects are already starting to line up behind Mitt Romney, who, as Jonah Goldberg said, "looks like the picture that comes with the frame." <br />
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Romney is running a textbook campaign: Don't bet the house on one State, build your base, raise buckets of money, stay on message, and disect your opponents with surgical skill. He is becoming more at ease during the debates, and breezed through the St. Anslesm debate because the rest of the pack, oddly enough, passed up the golden oppportunity to unload their guns on him when he was the most vulnerable. <br />
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Romney is weak on social issues, and "Romneycare" was the model for Obamacare, whose individual mandate was recently declared unconstitutional by the 11th circuit.<br />
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Many in the conservative press, most notably the former Governor's cheerleaders at the otherwise sensible National Review, have been quick to wag their fingers at those of us who think Romney is far too slick. I would counter that he goes beyond slick to downright greasy at times, refusing to take definitive stands on any issue, and evades difficult questions by falling back on his new soundbite about how this election is a fight for the "Soul of America." <br />
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Governor Romney may not be the "Massachusetts liberal", as his detractors have painted him, but he is certainly not the all-American conservative we deserve.<br />
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2 - If you ever refuse a friend request on Facebook, never make the mistake of sending a message giving a reason as to why you are doing so. Trust me on this. It prompts people to act like jilted 14 year old girls who cyber stalk classmates who don't like Justin Bieber. Über creepy. <br />
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3 - A couple of months ago, former Republican Utah Governor and Obama admistration lacky Jon Huntsman tried to boost his staggering 0.4% poll numbers before the GOP primaries by spitting on the very same social conservatives he's now trying to court by <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/JonHuntsman/status/104250677051654144"><span style="color: #36461a;">tweeting <i>"To be clear. I believe in evolution... Call me crazy."</i></span></a> Of course, this triggered a frenzy of media attention, as liberals dusted off the old canard that the conservative lobby of the GOP is waging a war on science! This is utter nonsense, and Huntsman and the liberal media know it. It was Christian conservative Dr. Francis Collins who discovered the new cancer treatment which maps out the human genome and selectively targets damaged DNA. <br />
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Huntsman is a tree-hugging RINO, who has lobbied to give valid ID's to illegal immigrants, and supports granting China non-reciprocal trade favours that would further promote the decay of the American economy while propping up a communist dictatorship.<br />
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The media is continuing to clamour on about the supposed Huntsman surge. I guess in the MSM, polling almost 25 points behind the front runner in one single state is surging.<br />
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4 - Ron Paul, trying to deflect attention from his racist past, made the disingenuous argument that African Americans receive the death penalty at a disproportionately higher rate than whites. The Justice Department's own stats show that in federal cases "The Attorney General approved seeking the death penalty for 38 percent of White defendants, 25 percent of Black defendants, and 20 percent of Hispanic defendants.” Ron Paul has referred to African Americans as animals, and once encouraged radical libertarians to arm themselves for an upcoming race war. I'm sure Dr. Paul is awaiting the KKK's endorsement...or does he already have it?<br />
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5 - No one in this race is a "Washington outsider." No one. That just grinds my gears.<br />
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6 - The editorial board of The Straight Hype is officially supporting Newt Gingrich for the GOP nomination, with a hopes of an eventual Gringrich/Santorum ticket, based on Gingrich's 30+ years of service, his knowledge of not only the national stage, but also his intricate understanding of the problems facing individual states, right down to matters of obscure New Hampshire infrastructure and veteran's healthcare. Much has been made about the former Speaker's "baggage." He has addressed his personal failings, and, more importantly, his political fumbles, and the wisdom obtained from those miscalculations. Newt Gingrich would demolish President Obama in a debate and would extinguish the media created myth of superficial "electability." God Speed Speaker Gingrich.<br />
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7 - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4LlyhrLEuI" target="_blank">Have a great week! Enjoy!! </a><br />
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Cordially<br />
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JoeJoe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-40638684819923167522011-11-15T20:30:00.000-04:002011-11-15T20:30:57.031-04:00Kim Jong II - Your Lunatic BFF<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJy4rwi20a6ID4U69OpJnFI1eVRZW7Y6pr4mxxgT24m15EorAtlt3HIKn1CsnWk_oAg76RcWzg4i0zow4H6JP7uXwBPEaBhGpVEQV1m_kIvB8F-9d3fATH3VS0K9RqWxShj5yf/s1600/kim-jong-il-relaxing1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" nda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJy4rwi20a6ID4U69OpJnFI1eVRZW7Y6pr4mxxgT24m15EorAtlt3HIKn1CsnWk_oAg76RcWzg4i0zow4H6JP7uXwBPEaBhGpVEQV1m_kIvB8F-9d3fATH3VS0K9RqWxShj5yf/s320/kim-jong-il-relaxing1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>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. <br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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You deserve Skeletor crazy, and I promise - give me a chance, and I will be your lunatic bff.<br />
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Lots of Crazy Love<br />
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Kim Jong IlJoe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-45900545557022881342011-11-11T01:11:00.000-04:002011-11-11T01:11:53.089-04:00Poppy - Remembering the Haida<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwbTsRF4tqOVrfnAMxXP7GAz9IreCrM7xrdZjnyFAqYnzTj3piT4UIDoLfQtM-HuNwbrGZuyn0KVNksVWBeejzbJ14gw4146SsGrp_0-on-a8LKe6OTAWFoMlH3qMZMFgPDQFv/s1600/Haida.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwbTsRF4tqOVrfnAMxXP7GAz9IreCrM7xrdZjnyFAqYnzTj3piT4UIDoLfQtM-HuNwbrGZuyn0KVNksVWBeejzbJ14gw4146SsGrp_0-on-a8LKe6OTAWFoMlH3qMZMFgPDQFv/s1600/Haida.jpg" /></a></div><em>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.</em><br />
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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'.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.'<br />
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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.<br />
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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:<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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He was my hero.<br />
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Cordially <br />
<br />
ClaireJoe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6404752.post-30146389608676559062011-11-10T19:48:00.005-04:002012-01-11T13:34:41.748-04:00Howdy, I Might Be Rick Perry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtfYgYr5D7D0YSRW8qqW6QMiYQ3p1UI7ntYzDQy4UOhwTKaS6Gc08k7HmfR4ZZt1jSmch8xO0sDeLruRDVrz2vNmu7B6oQFq19a-CjYCUZKzMY-lLDvnJWQX3SKiLygYxfAbaK/s1600/a+rick+perry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" nda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtfYgYr5D7D0YSRW8qqW6QMiYQ3p1UI7ntYzDQy4UOhwTKaS6Gc08k7HmfR4ZZt1jSmch8xO0sDeLruRDVrz2vNmu7B6oQFq19a-CjYCUZKzMY-lLDvnJWQX3SKiLygYxfAbaK/s320/a+rick+perry.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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?<br />
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Anyway, I'm David, and...HEY! WHO THE HELL ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH 'MA POPCORN?"<br />
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<em>What? Is that too over the top guys?....You want me to reign it in? Yeah, that's just making me sound crazy.</em><br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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<em>(This message would have been approved by The Committee to Elect Rick Perry but they forgot as well.)</em><br />
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Cordially<br />
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JoeJoe Legerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11221705875636935596noreply@blogger.com0