Just thought I'd warn you. I'm thinking about blogging again.

Why Senator Sessions, how dare you introduce facts into the global warming debate!?

And then you follow it up with logic?  Shame on you.

Couldn't help but laugh

When I saw this article about the male synchronized swimming team that was mad because they were not allowed to compete in the Olympics.



I could not help but think of Martin Short and Christopher Guest on Saturday Night live:

I have changed my mind

I may not vote for Mitt Romney, though I think he would do a passable job and sure as heck is better than the alternative.  I may well write in Representative Mike Kelly's name.

I figured out why Romney is unlikable

 Subject: Why Mitt Romney is Unlikable!

 A lot is being said in the media about Mitt Romney not being "likable" or that he doesn't "relate well" to people.  Frankly, we struggled to understand why.  So after much research, we have come up with a Top Ten List to explain this "unlikablility."

     

Top Ten Reasons To Dislike Mitt Romney:

1. Drop-dead, collar-ad handsome with gracious, statesmanlike aura. Looks like every central casting's #1 choice for Commander-in-Chief.
2. Been married to ONE woman his entire life, and has been faithful to her, including through her bouts with breast cancer and MS.

3. No scandals or skeletons in his closet. (How boring is that?)
4. Can't speak in a fake, southern, "black preacher voice" when necessary.
5. Highly intelligent. Graduated cum laud from both Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School ...and by the way, his academic records are NOT sealed.
6. Doesn't smoke or drink alcohol, and has never done drugs, not even in the counter-culture age when he went to college. Too square for today's America ?
 7. Represents an America of "yesterday", where people believed in God, went to Church, didn't screw around, worked hard, and became a SUCCESS!
8. Has a family of five great sons....and none of them have police records or are in drug rehab. But of course, they were raised by a stay-at-home mom, and that "choice" deserves America 's scorn.
9. Oh yes.....he's a MORMON. We need to be very afraid of that very strange religion that teaches its members to be clean-living, patriotic, fiscally conservative, charitable, self-reliant, and honest.
10. And one more point.....pundits say because of his wealth, he can't relate to ordinary Americans. I guess that's because he made that money HIMSELF.....as opposed to marrying it or inheriting it from Dad. Apparently, he didn't understand that actually working at a job and earning your own money made you unrelatable to Americans.

My goodness, it's a strange world, isn't it?

Personal Information:

His full Name is: Willard Mitt Romney
He was Born: March 12, 1947 and is 65 years old.
His Father: George W. Romney, former Governor of the State of Michigan
He was raised in Bloomfield Hills , Michigan
He is Married to Ann Romney since 1969; they five children.

Education: B.A. from Brigham Young University, J.D. and M.B.A. from Harvard University

Religion: Mormon - The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints

Working Background: After high school, he spent 30 months in France as a Mormon missionary. After going to both Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School simultaneously, he passed the Michigan bar exam, but never worked as an attorney. In 1984, he co-founded Bain Capital a private equity investment firm, one of the largest such firms in the United States. In 1994, he ran for Senator of Massachusetts and lost to Ted Kennedy. He was President and CEO of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. In 2002, he was elected Governor of the State of Massachusetts where he eliminated a 1.5 billion deficit.

Some Interesting Facts about Romney:
Bain Capital, starting with one small office supply store in Massachusetts , turned it into Staples; now over 2,000 stores
employing 90,000 people. Bain Capital also worked to perform the same kinds of business miracles again and again, with companies like Domino's, Sealy, Brookstone, Weather Channel, Burger King, Warner Music Group, Dollarama, Home Depot Supply and many others.

He was an unpaid volunteer campaign worker for his dad's gubernatorial campaign 1 year.
He was an unpaid intern in his dad's governor's office for eight years.
He was an unpaid bishop and state president of his church for ten years.
He was an unpaid President of the Salt Lake Olympic Committee for three years.
He took no salary and was the unpaid Governor of Massachusetts for four years.
He gave his entire inheritance from his father to charity.

Mitt Romney is one of the wealthiest self-made men in our country but has given more back to its citizens in terms of money, service and time than most men.

And in 2011 Mitt Romney gave over $4 million to charity, almost 19% of his income.... Just for comparison purposes,
Obama gave 1% and Joe Biden gave $300 or .0013%.

Mitt Romney is Trustworthy:
He will show us his birth certificate
He will show us his high school and college transcripts.
He will show us his social security card.
He will show us his law degree.
He will show us his draft notice.
He will show us his medical records.
He will show us his income tax records.
He will show us he has nothing to hide.
Mitt Romney's background, experience and trustworthiness show him to be a great leader and an excellent citizen for President of the United States.

You may think that Romney may not be the best representative the Republicans could have selected. At least I know what religion he is, and that he won't desecrate the flag, bow down to foreign powers, or practice fiscal irresponsibility.

I know he has the ability to turn this financial debacle that the current regime has gotten us into. We won't like all the things necessary to recover from this debt, but someone with Romney's background can do it.

But, on the minus side, he never was a "Community Organizer", never took drugs or smoked pot, never got drunk, did not associate with communists or terrorists, nor did he attend a church whose pastor called for God to damn the US .

The $64,000 answer

The question, of course, is how much debt Obama has added to every single taxpayer in America since he took office.  You do the math.  On January 20, 2009 the United States owed $10.6 Trillion.  Today, the United States owes $15.8 Trillion.  Approximately 82 million individual tax returns were filed last year in which people declared some income.  Therefore, if each of those taxpayers were asked to pay an equal share in just the increase in US debt under Obama, he or she would pay $64,000 per taxpayer.  But don't worry, once Obamacare and all those green jobs kick in, I am sure it will go down.

Finally there is empirical evidence showing climate change

One of my biggest gripes about the global warmingistas is that they have never attempted an vetted, provable, reproducible and justifiable study of temperature change over a long period of time. Professor Jan Esper undertook a painstaking review of tree ring data from fossilized trees in the Finish Laplands dating back to 138 BC.  Sure enough, he found measurable climate change over time.  Yup, that right.  The earth has been steadily cooling since the Roman and Medieval times.  

 

They aren't making Frenchmen like the used to

One of the good ones has left this world.  Robert de la Rochefoucauld died on May 8th.  The Count was born into a long lineaged aristocratic family based in the Loire Valley in 1923.  He was the stuff of legends during World War II.  When Hitler invaded France, a young Rochefoucauld joined De Gaulle's Free French Forces and immediately started blowing things (and Germans) up.  When the Gestapo began to get too close, he left for Spain and joined the British Special Operations Executive.  Whilst with the SOE, he parachuted into his homeland time and again.  He blew up rail road tracks, escaped via a stolen limousine, smuggled explosives in hollowed out loaves of bread and once escaped the Nazis by donning a nun's habit and strolling right by them.  My favorite exploit was when, after being actually captured, he faked a seizure, whacked one guard with a table leg to break his neck when he came in range, then stole his gun and shot the other two guards.  Yup, they certainly are not making Frenchmen like they used to.

I was thinking of selling my old digital camera on ebay

And by old I mean 1975.  No really.  It is a Kodak.  A little bulky by today's standards, but you can save money on SD cards because it records to a cassette.  Then all you have to do is run your data through a processor the size of a suitcase so the signal gets converted from 100 lines to 400 so it can be broadcast to a  TV tuner on a standard NTSC video signal and voila, "Film-less Photography."  Who wouldn't want that (except the film manufacturing company that just went bankrupt who decided it would be bad for business plus nobody would ever want to view photos on a screen)?

I knew it!

A UFO crash landed in Roswell New Mexico 65 years ago today.  And it was real.  The CIA said so.

Sigh

For the record, the first day back at work after a vacation really stinks.

At least there is some good news today

A bi-partisan House majority just voted Holder in contempt for refusing to turn over his Fast and Furious records.

Individual Maindate is gone as a mandate, but apparently survives as a tax

I will update when I have read the decision.  Right now there are dueling reports, but based upon one excerpt, it looks like Roberts joined the liberals to basically uphold the act.

Update:  It appears as though Roberts said the mandate was unsupported by Congresses Commerce Clause powers, but they are free to tax the crap out of us for a social(ist) program.

Update 2:  I read the decision.  I hate the decision, but Roberts may be technically correct.  He correctly held that the Federal Government cannot compel anyone into commerce.  They can regulate and tax the heck out of commerce, but they cannot force you to engage in it.  However, under their power to tax you, they can basically say that you are going to be taxed if you make a certain amount and you fail to buy insurance.  I could really go off here on Obama's many quotes about how Obamacare is not a tax, but I will not bother to rehash the obvious.  However, I agree with Roberts that Congress can Constitutionally tax the heck out of me and then spend my hard earned money in ways I think are ridiculous.  I have to be intellectually honest and consistent.  I hate an activist Court.  No one gave them the power to legislate from the bench.  My, and your, recourse is at the ballot box.  So as much as I agree with everyone who says vote your principles, I implore you to vote your principles unless the principled candidate cannot win, and in that case to vote Republican.  Romney with a Republican House and Senate will trash Obamacare.

What will the Supremes do today?

I think they will throw the whole thing out, lock, stock and barrel.  Roberts is the key figure for more reasons than one.  However, if he votes with the majority, he will decide who writes the opinion.  If they want to, each Justice could theoretically write their own concurring or dissenting opinion.  They try hard, however, to join in one majority opinion because then it becomes clear what the law of the land is.  No real precedent is set if the majority of the Justices vote the same way, but give different rational for their decision.  And I think Roberts knows that this will be at least one of the decisions that define his court.  He has a tough job trying to get very disparate views in line on this one.  I think his instinct would be to throw out only the individual mandate and let the legislature wrestle with what is left over because his core belief is to not legislate from the bench.  However, if he does that, I believe a number of Justices would fracture off from him.  We would be left with a mess of concurring in part, dissenting in part, and agreeing and disagreeing in part because of the the legal bases for each aspect of the ruling.  So in order to maintain his coalition on the right of the Court, I think he will grudgingly agree to strike the whole law.  For the record, I think that is the correct decision because Congress failed to include a severability clause whereby the rest of the law would remain if part were struck and also because there would be an unfunded mess if they just chucked the individual mandate.  Now let's sit back and see what the only 9 people whose opinion counts decide what to do.

Sadly, Robbie Douglas died

The older brother on My Three Sons.  Believe it or not the show ran for 12 years from 1960 until 1972.  First Sam Drucker and now Robbie Douglas.  

Yeah, that's not a "huge" bear

If you read the headline in today's Boston Herald, you would be lead to believe that a good sized Black Bear was captured in Brookline, Mass, a wealthy suburb just west of Boston:

‘Huge’ bear tranquilized, survives fall from Brookline tree

Below is a picture of said bear:

They estimated that the black bear weighed about 200 pounds.  Um, I hate to break a few things to the good liberals of Brookline who always think they are right, but the Second Amendment gives me the right to carry a gun, Obamacare is about to be thrown out, Obama is going to be as spectacular a failure as Jimmy Carter and THAT is not a huge bear.  If fact, it is down right scrawny (and that may explain why the dimensionally challenged ursine went to Brookline--he figured his disabilities would be recognized, celebrated and otherwise lead to advantages he could not achieve on his own).  Up in Maine, they know huge black bears.  Below is a nice little 600 plus pounder.  Did I mention that the hunter got him with a bow?  We don't bother using firearms unless it is a big bear.

Fireworks are legal in Maine for the first time in 60 years

Of course, this Fourth will not be the first time I have shot fireworks off in Maine.  In fact, Borepatch and I had long running tradition of trying to light up the sky on the evening of our Country's independence.  No worries, though, we long ago decided that the best idea was imbibe heavily all day because that way, it would hurt less if you managed to blow up an incendiary device in your hand.  Of course, through the years, it never dawned on me to see what would happen if you lit up a whole fireworks store.  Well, now I know.

Gut shot

Perhaps the best measure of yourself is your friends. I am one of those guys that brings everyone else's measurements down because they associate with me, whereas I am lifted up by just about eveyone else who I can call a friend. Borepatch has been one of my best friends since first grade. Both of us had brothers one grade ahead of us. We grew up in a town, not a city, so the volume of kids at each age was not so great that we only played with those in our own grade. Therefore, Borepatch and I as often as not hung with our older brothers as part of our crowd. And through the years, I became pretty good friends with Borepatch's brother. Extremely bright guy and somewhat disturbingly, he was unfailingly nice to me, even if I was one of the annoying little kids. He would definitely be one of those people that bring up my overall life score because I have called him a friend. So it was quite a blow when Borepatch told me his brother had been diagnosed with cancer. I tried to figure the right words to describe my feelings. There aren't any. "Gut shot" was as close as I could come. I told Borepatch to pass on my good wishes, and I believe the prognosis is good. However, for a guy who sits in a corner office in a big downtown Boston high rise, I feel pretty inadequate and powerless. Godspeed on your recovery, Dave.

What did Obama know and when did he know it?

OK, I admit it.  I stole the photo from Drudge.  But it is pretty funny.  After Barack "you should never hide behind executive privilege" Obama asserted executive privilege against the House in its subpoena of Holder for Fast n Furious documents in the Justice Department, one has to wonder: why is Obama asserting a privilege over documents he has supposedly never even seen?

The vast right wing conspiracy strikes again

First they made up a bunch of absolute lies about Bill Clinton fooling around with Monica Lewinski.  No truth there.  Nope.  Just a ploy by said conspiracy to smear Hillary's husband.  Well the VRW Conspiracy rides again.  As Breitbart points out, they have obviously for years been sneaking into Elizabeth Warren's bedroom and whispering "you are a Cherokee, you are a Cherokee."  Over and over again until the sub-somnolent suggestions took hold and made her claim minority status as (and all of the benefits of) a woman of color in higher academia.  Yup those VRW guys are pretty devious when they start conspiring.  Below is a statement bizarrely issued by the Warren for Senate campaign to address the issue dogging her every day:

The people of Massachusetts are concerned about their jobs, the future for their kids, and the security of their retirement. Scott Brown would rather talk about anything else. The out-of-state group in question is being promoted and supported by a right wing extremist who is on the record supporting and contributing money to Scott Brown. It is past time we moved on to the important issues facing middle class families in Massachusetts – even if Scott Brown won’t.