Toccata and Fugue in D Minor on a funny looking lute. Y'all will recognize this as it is normally played on the organ.
Part 1
Part 2
From OBG.
A young ventriloquist is touring the clubs and one night he's doing a show in a small Texas town. With his dummy on his knee he starts going through his usual dumb blonde jokes.
Suddenly, a blonde woman in the 4th row stands on her chair and starts shouting. "I've heard enough of your stupid blonde jokes. What makes you think can stereotype women that way. What does the color of a woman's hair have to do with her worth as a human being? It's guys like you who keep women like me from being respected at work and in the community, and from reaching our full potential as a person. It's because you and your kind continue to perpetuate discrimination against not only blondes but women in general....and all in the name of humor"
The embarrassed ventriloquist begins to apologize, and the the blonde yells, "You stay out of this mister! I'm talking to that little shit on your knee".
For this week we have noted intellectual Maxine Waters. I remember Maxine once said that she was marching in a pro-abortion parade because her mother didn't have "the right to choose". That was the best pro-abortion argument I have ever heard. If only Maxine's mother had had the right to choose we might not have to put up with Maxine today. She's also a fellow traveler with Jerry Wright in that she thinks that the CIA invented HIV to infect blacks. Here is her latest.
Yep! Let's nationalize the oil companies because everyone knows that the gummint does a better job running businesses than the private sector. Yannow in places like the old Soviet Union, Zimbabwe, and Cuba.
Is Maxine dumb as a stump or what? She couldn't even think of the word "nationalize", but using "socialize" pretty much got her point across. The dude sitting next to her was prolly thinking, "Why do I have to sit next to this dumb bitch?"
Maxine, you rat bastard commie twit, here's your award.
Tell Congress that you want them to drill now. Sign the petition! Thanks to Kerrcarto for the link.
Yet somehow it's the Republicans' fault that we're not drilling in ANWR or off the coast.
Thanks OBG.
You think we have it bad? Look at what the EUnuchs pay for gas.
As American drivers groan over prices nearing $4 a gallon, the French are paying $8.67 for a gallon of super, compared to $7.10 in January, 2007. A gallon of diesel in French gas stations averages $8.54, up from $5.35 just a year ago. And in the U.K. diesel costs $11.50 per gallon, compared to around $3.90 in the U.S. Across the European Union, the average cost of a gallon of gas runs to about $8.70 — more than twice what Americans are shelling out to fill up. And Europe's dizzying fuel costs would be even worse if it weren't for the considerable appreciation of the euro and the British pound against the dollar over the past year, which has partially offset the price escalation in dollar-traded oil.
Dear EUnuchs: Be careful what you wish for. You want the euro to replace the dollar as an international currency. It could make your gas even more expensive.
Tom Friedman has an op-ed that the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation printed where he advocates putting a floor on US gas prices at $4.00 per gallon. He would do this by having the gummint increase gas taxes if the price of gas dropped below $4.00 per gallon. I have two words for Mr. Friedman: Fuck! You! (Prosper. You're wrong. I don't agree with Friedman. I seldom do. He's a rat bastard commie liberal. I'm not.)
He does point out that the free market is working.
I was visiting my local Toyota dealer in Bethesda, Md., last week to trade in one hybrid car for another. There is now a two-month wait to buy a Prius, which gets close to 50 miles per gallon. The dealer told me I was lucky. My hybrid was going up in value every day, so I didn’t have to worry about waiting a while for my new car. But if it were not a hybrid, he said, he would deduct each day $200 from the trade-in price for every $1-a-barrel increase in the OPEC price of crude oil. When I saw the rows and rows of unsold S.U.V.’s parked in his lot, I understood why.
But then he writes this:
We need to make a structural shift in our energy economy. Ultimately, we need to move our entire fleet to plug-in electric cars. The only way to get from here to there is to start now with a price signal that will force the change.
Wrongo! To get to plug in electrics we're gonna need a whole big bunch of coal fired and nuclear power plants. Yannow, those plants that the ecotards do not want us to build. And it might just turn out that hydrogen would be a better way to go. Either way, we're gonna need more power plants.
And don't even get me started on ethanol. Making ethanol out of corn is just downright stupid! Brazil makes it out of sugar and that's what we should be doing as well. This would allow us to remove the price supports on domestic sugar. Once again this is an example of how gummint screws things up.
I stole this from Doug Ross. He's got lots more neat stuff there.
OMFG! I'm having flashbacks to the 70's!
Look at what's happening. Gas prices have gone up and (shock!) people are actually doing sumpin' about it. Just like in the 70's people are getting rid of their gas guzzlers. Back then it was big cars, now it's SUVs.
On a side note, back in 1975, my girlfriend wanted to get rid of her 1973 Monte Carlo for some little dinky piece of crap. It was a Mercury Capri. I bought the Monte Carlo from her. 18 MPG on the highway. 14 MPG in the city. I had a good job. I didn't care. It was royal blue. It had 28,00 miles on it. I drove it from St. Louis to California and back once and to Kingston New York and back twice. Drove it to and from Lake of the Ozarks many times, sometimes towing a boat. Only problem I had was with the transmission, but that was common with the '73 Monte Carlos. I loved that car! I sold it to the daughter of a friend of mine in 1982 when it had 130,000 miles on it. A year later she sold it to one of her friends who didn't check the oil and, as a result, blew the engine.
So back then there was a lot of hand wringing and whining for the gummint to "do something!". Let's see. What did they do?
Increase mandated CAFE standards. Guess what? People got rid of their gas guzzlers and bought smaller cars. The market place forced Detroit to make fuel efficient cars. They actually exceeded the mandated standards. Let's hear it for the free market! Kia just announced that their new plant in Georgia is gonna change from producing SUVs to producing small cars. Prices have dropped dramatically for new and used SUVs.
Windfall profits tax against the eeeee-vil oil companies. Here comes the law of unintended consequences that seems to occur every time gummint tries to "do domething!". The windfall profits tax actually made the oil companies import more oil rather than produce domestic oil. So the windfall profits tax actually increased our dependence on foreign oil which it will do today. Care to guess which party ran Congress back then?
55 MPH speed limit. Crapola! I hope to crap they don't do that again, but I've already heard some rumblings from Congress about that.
Price controls. Oh yeah. Those really worked back in the 70's as long as you liked spot shortages and gas lines. We've even had one member of congress suggest "socializing" (she meant nationalizing) the oil companies. Oh yeah. That's worked everywhere it's been tried. Let's see how long it will take Hugo Chavez to destory Venezuela.
Jesus H. Christ! Does anyone even know what happened in the 70's? I was there. I remember every thing the buttheads did back then. Yeah they wrung their hands and worried about "the poor". Fuck the poor! That's what mass transit is for.
And now we have two candidates, McRINO and Thunder Rodent Thighs saying we should suspend the gas tax for the summer. Oh yeah! That makes sense. Let's drop the price of sumpin' we don't have enough of. Pandermania.
Y'know, this is why we created the Department of Energy. They've done a real good job haven't they? Another useless gummint bureaucracy just like the Department of Education.
And guess what else the gummint is doing? It's not letting the eee-vil oil companies drill in ANWR or off the coast. Tell me again. What party is running Congress? And don't give me any crap about the Republicans and Bush. They tried but the Dims and RINOs in the Senate filibustered it. Fourteen years ago BJ vetoed drilling in ANWR. What party is he a member of?
And now the Dimocrats have a new solution. They're gonna sue OPEC. I can't make this shit up. But why not? Every time Dimocrats don't get their way they sue. And once again, we will see the law of unintended consequences that seems to bite politicians over and over. My friend Michael pointed this out. Let's say it looks like there might be some sort of financial settlement against OPEC. Guess what the OPEC countries will do? They'll pull all of their money out of the US. Great idea dickwads!
The best thing for the gummint to do is absolutely nothing other than removing the ban on drilling in ANWR or off the coasts. Tell the ecotards to STFU and take a hike. Don't even think of a windfall profits tax. Let the oil companies do what they do best: drill for oil, refine it, and sell gas and other petroleum products.
In the meantime, higher oil prices will spur American ingenuity into developing more fuel efficient cars and new technologies. Gummint will not do it. The private sector will.
Update: I left off people stealing gas.
My kind of car dealer, and it's in my home state of Missouri.
Max Motors, a small Butler, Missouri dealership that has as its logo a grimacing cowboy wielding a pistol, has sold more than 30 cars and trucks in the last three days, far more than its normal volume. And owner Mark Muller credits his decision to start offering buyers their choice of a $250 gas card or a $250 credit at a gun shop."This thing has taken off. Sales have quadrupled," said Muller. The store sells both used and new vehicles including General Motors and Ford products.
Well this oughta piss off the Nebraska Nitwit, "more punks with guns". I love it.
Every buyer so far "except one guy from Canada and one old guy" has elected to take the gun, Muller said. Muller recommends his customers select a Kel-Tec .380 pistol.
A Canadian pussy and a WTD.
Muller said the promotion was inspired by Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who is vying with Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic nominee for the presidential election in November."We did it because of Barack Obama. He said all those people in the Midwest, you've got to have compassion for them because they're clinging to their guns and their Bibles. I found that quite offensive."
Me too. This grouchy old cripple clings to his German Mauser and his S&W 640.
We all go to church on Sunday and we all carry guns," said Muller. "I've got a gun in my pocket right now. I have a rifle in my truck. We've got to shoot the coyotes out here, they're attacking our cows, our chickens. We're not clinging to nothing. We're just damn glad to live in a free country where you can have a gun if you want. This is the way it ought to be."
Amen brother!
Now this global warming bullshit is just getting more and more ridiculous every day. Mike sent me this article from the UK.
Every adult should be forced to use a 'carbon ration card' when they pay for petrol, airline tickets or household energy, MPs say.The influential Environmental Audit Committee says a personal carbon trading scheme is the best and fairest way of cutting Britain's CO2 emissions without penalising the poor.
Under the scheme, everyone would be given an annual carbon allowance to use when buying oil, gas, electricity and flights.
Petrol.
GMAFB! A stupid idea to address a nonexistent problem. WTF is the matter with these idiots?
Anyone who exceeds their entitlement would have to buy top-up credits from individuals who haven't used up their allowance. The amount paid would be driven by market forces and the deal done through a specialist company.
A company prolly owned by Pope Albert I of the Church of AGW.
MPs, led by Tory Tim Yeo, say the scheme could be more effective at cutting greenhouse gas emissions than green taxes.But critics say the idea is costly, bureaucratic, intrusive and unworkable.
How true. Like I said: A stupid idea to address a nonexistent problem.
Now let me get this straight. Dimocrats got their collective thongs in a bunch (Sorry about the mental image of Nancy Pelosi or Thunder Rodent Thights in a thong) about Bush's speech to the Knesset. And Jug Hussein Ears got all pissed off and accused Bush of calling him an appeaser. Well, if the shoe fits. This dude has to be the most thin skinned asshole to ever run for president. Think how he would react if he had half the shit said about him as is said about Chimpy McHaliburton Bushitler.
Anyway, Pelosi and Reid started whining about Chimpy making that speech in another country. "Politics ends at the waters' edge", they whined. "Presidents shouldn't play politics outside of the United States."
Funny. I never heard them say anything about a former president speaking outside of our country and undermining our foreign policy. That would actually be two former presidents: Jimmah Carter and BJ. Politics didn't end at the waters edge for those two treasonous assholes. Jimmah got a Nobel Peace Prize for his anti-American rantings and ravings. I'm sure that Israel is happy about him telling the world that they have 150 nukes.
And I remember Flipper in Europe decrying our foreign policy. Same as Pope Albert I of the Church of AGW. I guess politics ending at the waters' edge doesn't apply to those two booger eatin' moh-rons either.
What about Nancy her ownself traveling overseas and meeting with foreign leaders? I'm sure that she told them what she thought of our current president and his foreign policy. Isn't that playing politics beyond the water's edge?
Oh, that "politics ending at the waters' edge" only applies to Republicans.
Silly me.
Sent to me by OBG.
Sister Mary Ann, who worked for a home health agency, was out making her rounds visiting homebound patients when she ran out of gas. Fortunately, an Exxon station was just a block away. She walked to the station to borrow a gas can and buy some gas.
The attendant told her that the only gas can he owned had been loaned
out, but she could wait until it was returned. Since Sister Mary Ann was on the way to see a patient, she decided not to wait, and walked back to her car.
She looked for something in her car that she could fill with gas, and
spotted the bedpan she was taking to the patient. Always resourceful,
Sister Mary Ann carried the bedpan to the station, filled it with
gasoline, and carried the full bedpan back to her car.
As she was pouring the gas into her tank, two Baptist ladies watched from across the street. One of them turned to the other and said, "If it starts, I'm turning Catholic."
I worked in the yard this morning and then made some potato salad this afternoon. I'm gonna have a St. Louis Memorial Day dinner: pork steaks, potato salad, and baked beans. I really should have Michael and Cindy over, but the last time I had them over for Memorial day was when a wine glass broke in my hand (I was trying to catch it) and cut the hell out of my hand between my ring finger and pinkie. We had to spend a couple of hours at the emergency room and I eventually had to have hand surgery where they lost my pants! They gave me some great drugs for that surgery.
Not gonna happen this year.
Take a moment to reflect on those who died to keep us free and for those who have served and are serving now.
This one is from Walt.
Two Mexican detectives were investigating the murder of Juan Gonzalez.
"How was he killed?" asked one detective.
"With a golf gun," the other replied.
"A golf gun? What is a golf gun?"
"Ï don't know," the detective replied,
"but it sure made a hole in Juan."
This isn't really metal, but Cream at their best. In my opinion, Eric Clapton did his very best stuff with Cream. Nothing he's done since even comes close and that includes Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominoes. And the version of Crossroads they did at their reunion concert is nowhere near as good as this version.
One of the reasons I'm posting this is that I stopped for gas in Rosedale Mississippi last week which is the Rosedale mentioned in this song. Legend has it that Robert Johnson, the blues legend who wrote this song, sold his soul to the devil in Rosedale.
Another visual. This one is from Darrell.
I don't care who you are. This is funny. Thank you CharlieB.
Tom sent me this article and nominated Tom Harkin for the coveted AOTW award.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain's family background as the son and grandson of admirals has given him a worldview shaped by the military, "and he has a hard time thinking beyond that," Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., said Friday."I think he's trapped in that," Harkin said in a conference call with Iowa reporters. "Everything is looked at from his life experiences, from always having been in the military, and I think that can be pretty dangerous."
GMAFB! This is the same asshole who bitches about chickenhawks. Now let me get this straight. We were supposed to elect Flipper for his military service but not McRINO.
I wish the Dimocrats would make up their minds and show a little consistency. Consistency. That's all I ask.
In 1988, they dumped on Dan Quayle for serving in the National Guard. Then in 1992 and 1996, they ran a draft dodger against war heroes Bush 41 and Bob Dole respectively. Military service didn't matter. Then in 2000 they ran Viet Nam vet Pope Albert I of the Church of AGW and his military service (he spent 4 months in 'Nam as an REMF and had a bodyguard to boot) was better than Bush's National Guard Service. Then in 2004 they ran "war hero" Flipper, who refused to release his military records and military service counted again. Now, since neither Jug Hussein Ears or Thunder Rodent Thighs has any military service (though TRT claims she wanted to be a Marine but her eyesight was too bad - BWHAHAHAHAHA), being a war hero is bad again. As I told Drooling Cumspot one time, all I would like to see is just a little consistency from the rat bastard commies liberals.
And Harkin is one to talk. This is the bastard who lied about being a combat pilot.
"Harkin himself claimed to have battled Mig fighters over North Vietnam while a Navy pilot. He was a pilot, but never went to Vietnam."
Wait! There's more. Back to the article.
Harkin said that "it's one thing to have been drafted and served, but another thing when you come from generations of military people and that's just how you're steeped, how you've learned, how you've grown up."
So now he's slimed Colin Powell and Eisenhower.
A McCain spokesman said Harkin's remarks were offensive and showed that Democrats are out of touch with Americans' values."Senator Harkin's comments are an affront to the many thousands of Iowans who have served our country so valiantly for generations," said spokesman Jeff Sadosky. "This sort of attack shows just how out of touch Democratic leadership has become with the values that have made our country so great."
No shit Sherlock.
Here's your award Senator Harkin.
Mike sent me this story.
LOS ANGELES - California state lawmakers are considering an unusual idea to solve the state's huge budget shortfall: Tax pornography.
Makes sense to me since politicians are always finding new ways to fuck up. Look at what they're doing about the energy crisis. we could have started drilling in ANWR 14 years ago if BJ hadn't vetoed it. Schmuky Schumer recently stated that if OPEC would increase oil production by one million barrels a day it would drop the price of oil by 25%. Funny, he said last week that if we had ANWR open for drilling the one million barrels a day we would get for that would only drop the price of gasoline by a penny a gallon. And you wonder why I call him Schmucky?
The idea was proposed by a state assemblyman, and would impose a 25 percent tax on the production and sales of pornographic videos -- the vast majority of which are made in southern California.
What an idiot! They would just move their operations to Las Vegas.
It is unknown, however, how seriously lawmakers will take the idea or how the porn business would deal with the new tax. It is likely, though, that porm-makers would simply pass the cost along to consumers by making pornographic materials more expensive.
Well, that too.
However, many economists believe that pornography is an industry with inelastic demand -- meaning market conditions typically don't affect consumers' desire for the product. In other words, it is believed that most porn consumers would continue to buy regardless of how much it cost.
I'm really trying to think of a joke that goes along with "inelastic demand", like an inelastic condom.
A potential economic downside to the tax proposal is that porn producers could leave California to manufacture and distribute videos in other states that don't impose the tax.
In other words, the porn industry will not allow politicians to screw it.
Many readers have asked why I haven't written anything about the Floater and his malignant tumor. I have tried not to descend to the level of the Kos Kidz and the other raging assholes on the left who are always hoping for Cheney and Bush to die.
The Floater is a slimeball, a sleaze and a dooshbag. All this bullshit about him being a liberal icon is just that. Yeah, he cares for the poor just as long as he doesn't have to associate with them. His support for social welfare programs has created a permanent underclass that has effectively destroyed the black family. Go down to the inner city and see babies having babies and not a man in sight. Look at the terrible waste of humanity. We saw what gummint dependency did when Katrina hit. Thanks liberals. Thanks Floater. I hope you're proud of your "accomplishments".
If nothing else, the Floater was guilty of manslaughter. The only remorse he felt was that it destroyed his chance of being president.
He is the last and the least talented of the three Kennedy brothers, not that there was much there to begin with. Camelot was a myth. Jack was a mediocre president. Let's check him out.
Cuban missile crisis. That would have never happened if he hadn't bungled the Bay of Pigs. He stabbed the Cubans in the back and let them be slaughtered on the beach.
Viet Nam. We saw how that worked out.
The space race. I'll give him props for that, but Von Braun wanted to do it differently. He wanted to do it by steps and create a permanent space platform and from there go to the Moon. Instead, we did a quickie. There was no permanence to the program.
Let's not forget "I am a donut."
Bobbie Kennedy? A liberal empty suit just like the Floater.
So the Floater has cancer? Big deal. Do I hope he suffers? I don't really care. I would like to see him put into an Oldsmobile and pushed off a bridge.
The Floater is one of the reasons I sometimes wish there was a God and there were a heaven and a hell. One of my readers said he was finally gonna be able to face Mary Jo Kopechne. I replied that he's prolly gonna go to a different place.
It reminds me of a story my cousin Steve told me about one of his relatives who died. The deceased's wife made them open the casket to make sure he had shoes on 'cause he was gonna need them where he was going. I think they better make sure of that with the floater.
About the Floater's cancer? Mary Jo could not be reached for comment.
Quick! Someone notify Pope Albert I of the Church of AGW. Jupiter is getting warmer.
For about 300 years Jupiter's banded atmosphere has shown a remarkable feature to telescopic viewers, a large swirling storm system known as The Great Red Spot. In 2006, another red storm system appeared, actually seen to form as smaller whitish oval-shaped storms merged and then developed the curious reddish hue. Now, Jupiter has a third red spot, again produced from a smaller whitish storm. All three are seen in this image made from data recorded on May 9 and 10 with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The spots extend above the surrounding clouds and their red color may be due to deeper material dredged up by the storms and exposed to ultraviolet light, but the exact chemical process is still unknown. For scale, the Great Red Spot has almost twice the diameter of planet Earth, making both new spots less than one Earth-diameter across. The newest red spot is on the far left (west), along the same band of clouds as the Great Red Spot and is drifting toward it. If the motion continues, the new spot will encounter the much larger storm system in August. Jupiter's recent outbreak of red spots is likely related to large scale climate change as the gas giant planet is getting warmer near the equator.
Now I know we can blame those Mars Rovers for the global warming on Mars, but I didn't realize the Jovians had SUVs.
Thanks to Mike for alerting me to this.
From Kerrcarto.
I still think the color is dry heave green.
From the great state of Mexifornia we have a deadbeat congresscritter.
She helps make laws, but one California Congresswoman couldn't make her house payments. County records show that Congresswoman Laura Richardson defaulted on her Sacramento home.Some neighbors were upset, arguing that she abandoned her home and didn't maintain it for several months. "It was pretty disheveled," said neighbor Rafael Burgos.
The Long Beach Democrat bought the three-bedroom home shortly after she was elected to the California State Assembly in November 2006. The following spring, she ran for Congress in a special election and ended up in Washington D.C.
Documents show she took out a $535,000 home loan and did not have a down payment.
Well, why not? As a politician she likes to spend other peoples' money that the gummint doesn't have, so why do you think she'd be any different with her own finances. Just think. She's gonna be one of the politicians who are gonna try to come up with "solutions" for the subprime meltdown. That gives me a warm feeling in the cockles of my heart.
Congresswoman Richardson released a statement, saying, "I have worked with my lender to complete a loan modification and have renegotiated the terms of the agreement, with no special provisions. I fully intend to fulfill all financial obligations of the property."
Yeah, sure, of course I'll respect you in the morning.
However, county records show she no longer owns the home. It was sold at a public auction to Red Rock Mortgage for $388,000.Either way, neighbors say Richardson should have known better and been more responsible.
Been more responsible? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! She's a politician fer chrissakes.
The only thing that surprises me here is that her party is mentioned in the third paragraph. Didn't CBS13 get the memo that if the dooshbag is a Dimocrat the party should be mentioned at the end of the story or not at all?
Thanks to many readers.
Dear Readers:
Jesus H. Christ! Will y'all quit sending me that e-mail about how boycotting Exxon/Mobil will bring gas prices down to $1.60 per gallon. It. Will. Not. Work.
Sincerely,
GOC
The latest version of this admits that the weekly boycott will not work, but this new boycott idea came from a Haliburton executive who sent it to a Coca Cola executive. If we boycott Exxon Mobile it will start a gas war and gas prices will drop to $1.60 a gallon.
Now this is not the dumbest thing I have ever heard, but it ranks way up there. Let's talk basic economics.
The most basic economic principle is the Law of Supply and Demand. Gummints have been trying to circumvent this law since the dawn of civilization. The Soviet Union tried it and we saw how that worked out. Let's insert a little joke here.
It seems that during Gorbachev's reign a women was standing in line to purchase bread. She was bitching to the person in front of her about shortages. Just then a KGB guy walked up to her and said, "In the old days you know what would have happened to you?" He used his thumb and first finger to imitate a gun and said, "Bang!"
When the woman finally got home her husband asked her if they were out of bread. She said, "It's even worse than that. They're out of bullets."
But back to basic economics. Here's how the Law of Supply and Demand works. This is the same law that the rat bastard commies Dimocrats keep trying to circumvent.
The free market always tries to seek equilibrium between supply and demand. It does this by price. If the supply of sumpin' goes up and the demand remains the same, the price goes down. If the supply of sumpin' goes down while the demand remains the same, the price goes up.
It works the same way on the damand side. If the demand for sumpin' goes up (Which is what is happening as the economies of China and India grow) and the supply remains the same (Thank OPEC and the Dimocrats who will not let the oil companies drill in ANWR and off the coast) the price goes up. If the demand for sumpin' goes down while the supply remains the same the price will go down.
Now let's examine boycotting Exxon/Mobile. What we would essentially be doing is cutting the supply of gasoline. Do you think Exxom/Mobile will cut their price? Dream on. The other companies would raise their prices to seek equilibrium between the supply and demand. Either that, or they would run out of gas.
So what you would have is everyone else selling gas at $4.50 a gallon while Exxon/Mobile is selling theirs at $4.00 a gallon. Watcha gonna do? You're gonna go back to Exxon/Mobile.
That Law of Supply and Demand is a real bitch.
As I said. The boycott is a waste of time. There are only two ways to get gas prices down: Increase the supply or decrease the demand.
As we know, the Dimocrats will not allow us to increase the supply. Here is where the eeee-veil oil companies are not allowed to drill.
Picture stolen from here.
The Dimocrats say that drilling now won't solve our energy problem because it will be years before the oil will come on line. Their solution is "alternate energy" or as I like to call it Poof! PFM
I saw Senator Carl Levin spout this bullshit. He wants to take $19 billion from the oil companies and fund "alternate energy" (Poof! PFM) projects. These are projects which even if they are viable will not come online for ten to twenty years. In the meantime, the Dimocrats' solution is to allow the price of gasoline to go up and blame the eeee-vil oil companies. They're for some pie in the sky, (Poof! PFM) projects which may not work while against producing more oil in the interim which will work.
Here's what I don't understand. Why aren't the Republicans campaigning on this? Gas prices have passed $4.00 a gallon in many places and with the summer driving season coming on they're only gonna get worse. Screw the Iraq war! What Americans are concerned about now is the price at the pump. Republicans should be shouting from the rooftops about the Dims not letting the oil companies produce more domestic oil.
If I were running for Congress, I would not post videos of Michelle Obama spouting bullshit or Jerry Wrights's anti-American tirades. I would post videos of Dims opposing drilling in ANWR and off the coast.
You can legislate CAFE standards all you want, but it will be the free market that will increase gas mileage. Guess what happened in the 70's when gas prices went up. Americans traded in their gas guzzlers and bought Hondas, Nissans, and Toyotas. To compete, Detroit started making cars that exceeded the gummint mandated CAFE standards. Funny how that works.
The reason SUVs became popular is because many people didn't like driving those little fuel efficient cars when gas prices dropped. They wanted a nice big solid machine. Guess what? People are going back to those little fuel efficient cars. As to SUVs, auto companies are gonna try to figger out how to make them more fuel efficient, not because of gummint mandates, but because of the market place.
What we have with the rising gas price is not gummint solutions but gummint getting in the way of the free market. Open up ANWR. Open up the coast to drilling. Build more refineries. Tell the ecotards to go fuck off! China is drilling 50 miles off the coast of Key West. That is our oil and the Dimocrats won't let us go get it.
Hear that Republicans? This is your chance to prevent Dimocrat gains in the fall. Campaign on high gas prices. What am I saying? The dipshits are too stupid to use it.
We're doomed!
CharlieDelta wanted to see Ryan's car with some weaponry attached. Actually the Z4 is a staff car. Here's the story about the dry heave green color from Ryan.
Ever since her college days, Sherry had wanted to drive a car dressed in "British Racing Green". When we were "designing" our roadster at the dealership, "Urban Green" was the only green available for the Z4. Completely ignoring the fact that at two huge dealerships, one in San Mateo, California and one in Columbia, SC, there was no evidence of dealer interest in stocking an "Urban Green" floor model, we decided the color based on a catalog color chip. Sherry thought the chip color was close to what she remembered as "British Racing Green" and I told myself that as long as I had my "performance driving" toy, the color was of no consequence.
Hence, the dry heave green.
Wrong! Our first view of the car at the Spartanburg BMW Performance Center where we took delivery was somewhat.....strained! In fact, so was our second and third. Had we really selected this color? Well..yeah!It took us about 6 months to decide we weren't going to re-paint the damn thing. Accommodating ourselves to our impulsive decision was influenced in large part by the reactions we routinely got from complete strangers. They stop to comment or ask about the color. Reaction is always strong, either positive; "Great color!" or polite incredulity; "That's....interesting! What color is that?"
As I said the first time I saw their car, "Look, it's dry heave green." By the way, in the poll my neat blue color is leading by a margin of 2 to 1. I'm sure Ryan and Sherry are voting as often as they can.
The 'military" green has prompted so many conversations about the color and the car that we have come to enjoy the attention. Add the fact that, although "Urban green" was a production color, only 3 0 were ordered worldwide, an we have "backed" into a ownership of a very exclusive limited production car.Of course, former Edsel owners could probably say the same thing, but there it is. Its our "Mean Green Machine" and we are sticking with it. Underneath the paint, it's all BMW performance.
OBG sent me some bumper stickers for Jug Hussein Ears.
As you can see, they all came from here.
Got home at 3:30. Alabama was crawling with cops. They must have thought 78 MPH was OK 'cause that's what we were doing. Here are some statistics:
14 states
4370 miles
22 Mississippi River bridges we crossed
2 really dirty cars
Next year I'm thinking about following Lewis and Clark up the Missouri. I'll prolly take my other BMW on that trip.
one of my readers sent me this.
Jug Hussein Ears said:"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we
want and keep our home on 72 degrees at all times."
Holy crap! This dude is channeling Jimmah carter. This reminds me of his malaise speech where he blamed everything on us. Here's an excerpt:
I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy.... I do not refer to the outward strength of America, a nation that is at peace tonight everywhere in the world, with unmatched economic power and military might. ...The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.
...
I'm asking you for your good and for your nation's security to take no unnecessary trips, to use carpools or public transportation whenever you can, to park your car one extra day per week, to obey the speed limit, and to set your thermostats to save fuel.
Now this is worthy of a rant, but my reader said what I would have said in far fewer words:
My answer to this empty suit:Mr. Barack Hussein Obama: "When you start paying for my gas, my food, my heat, then you can tell me what to do ... Until then you can go fuck yourself!"
Signed: Pissed Off Citizen.
Pissed Off Citizen - That is what Jug Hussein Ears wants to do. He wants to take all of your money and use it to pay for your gas, food, and heat. He's a Marxist. He knows what is best for us.
Holy crap! Jug Hussein Ears has an Indian name
Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, was "adopted" by Hartford and Mary Black Eagle and given a name which means "one who helps all people of this land.""I was just adopted into the tribe, so I'm still working on my pronunciation," Obama told a crowd after stumbling over some of the native names.
"I like my new name, Barack Black Eagle," he said. "That is a good name."
Which brings to mind a joke about a politician given a name by an Indian tribe. The name was Walking Eagle. The politician was really proud. What she (the joke was about Thunder Rodent Thighs) didn't realize was that a walking eagle was a bird that was so full of shit that it couldn't fly.
They prolly really named him Barack Black Walking Eagle and are laughing their asses off.
Sorry. Forgot to post it last night. This one is from David and is about a Brit.
Tired of constantly being broke and stuck in an unhappy marriage, a young husband decided to solve both problems by taking out a large insurance policy on his wife with himself as the beneficiary, and then arranging to have her killed. A 'friend of a friend' put him in touch with a nefarious, dark-side, underworld figure who went by the name of 'Artie.' Artie then explained to the husband that his going price for snuffing out a spouse was 5,000 pounds. The husband said he was willing to pay that amount, but that he wouldn't have any cash on hand until he could collect his wife's insurance money. Artie insisted on being paid at least something up front, so the man opened his wallet, displaying the single pound coin that rested inside. Artie sighed, rolled his eyes, and reluctantly agreed to accept the pound as down payment for the dirty deed.
A few days later, Artie followed the man's wife to the local Tesco store. There, he surprised her in the produce department and proceeded to strangle her with his gloved hands. As the poor unsuspecting woman drew her last breath and slumped to the floor the manager of the produce department stumbled unexpectedly onto the murder scene. Unwilling to leave any living witnesses behind, Artie had no choice but to strangle the produce manager as well. However, unknown to Artie, the entire proceedings were captured by the hidden security cameras and observed by the store's security guard, who immediately called the police.
Artie was caught and arrested before he could even leave the store. Under intense questioning at the police station, Artie revealed the whole sordid plan, including his unusual financial arrangements with the hapless husband who was also quickly arrested.
The next day in the newspaper, the headline declared...
'ARTIE CHOKES TWO FOR A POUND AT TESCO!'
Gulfport Mississippi.
The end of the road.
Rather anticlimactic. This is almost to the end of the road. We didn't want to splash through the water as it was salt water. Michele (whom I met at a blodge meet on Jekyll Island) pointed out that we wouldn't be able to see the mouth of the Mississippi from the road. We would have to take a boat for that. Ryan climbed up on the levee and got a few river pictures. And yeah, the tops were up. It was hot!
Here's another memory of the trip: the bugs on the front of Ryan's car.
Mine is almost as bad. The baby is gonna go to the carwash when I get home.
Sherry found some more interesting roads to drive on. I don't know who decides the speed limits through curves in Louisiana, but he's full of shit. We were able to take all of them 30 MPH faster than the posted speeds and that was without even trying.
I did have one close call when a road split. A truck and I almost got intimate. This was one of those last minute course changes decreed by our naviguesser. Ryan whipped over at the last minute, and I tried to follow him. Unfortunately, a truck was heading for the same place that I was heading for. Glad I have good brakes. I imagine the trucker had some choice words about my ancestry and was telling me to do stuff that is anatomically impossible.
Now that you've seen all the car pictures here's an opinion poll.
Daniel enhanced my statue picture.
Update: Of course the Floater was not available since he is in the hospital. Good of Unix-Jedi to suggest it.
Natchez Mississippi
I was in Natchez today. It was closed.
I was in Memphis this morning, but it wasn't Monday. I wonder how many readers know that joke?
Dear Mississippi:
If you're gonna call a road The Great River Road, why don't you let it get close to a Great River? The Mississippi River comes to mind. The only place we have been able to see the Mississippi River from The Great River Road was in Vicksburg.
Thanks
GOC
My sister let me sleep in this morning. Did I tell you that my sister is part border collie? We didn't get on the road until after 8:00. We had an interesting drive. We saw a car off the road that was upside down. There were no skid marks or any signs of an accident, just an upside down car. I'm surprised Ryan didn't stop to take a picture of it.
It rained a little bit in the morning, but by noon it was finished and the weather became very pleasant. Blue skies and temperatures in the low 70's. It was definitely a topdown day.
We took some back roads, two of them on top of levees. One was a one lane road. On the other, a pickup truck passed us. How humiliating.
Here we are on the one lane levee road.
We stopped at the battlefield park at Vicksburg. My great great grandfather, Charles Dreiling, was in the Union Army and was in the battle. He contracted dysentery there and never got rid of it. He died three years later back in Illinois.
He was one of my mother's ancestors. That side of the family is 100% Kraut. There were the Dreilings, the Webers, the Grueners, the Eiseles, the Neudecks and the Breitschuhs. My father's side of the family was nothing but Brits.
Here we are at our first sighting of the Mississippi on The Great River Road in Vicksburg.
I brought my camera, but have not taken a single photo. Ryan is a much better photographer than I am. I will have to get a picture of Ryan and Sherry standing by their car before the trip is over.
We stopped early at Natchez 'cause going to Baton Rouge would get us in fairly late. We looked for some restaurants in Natchez, but apparently they close the town on Sundays. We finally wound up at Big Mama's Tamales.
Tomorrow we're gonna take Highway 23 down until it ends and call that the mouth of the Mississippi.
Humble Pie. The guy on the right playing lead guitar is Peter Frampton. The singer, Steve Mariott is dead.
West Memphis Arkansas
My sister outdid herself today. She is the naviguesser and is trying to find roads near the river or roads that are fun to drive on. But first here are some catchup pictures.
The Z3 and the Z4 parked on a boat ramp in St. Paul. Do you recognize this place LisaKay?
Here is the winery, Eagles Landing that we stopped at in Iowa.
A nice shot through the windshield of the Z4.
Sherry and I at Nauvoo Illinois.
This morning we headed up north to drive up the Great River Road just north of Alton Illinois. We were gonna stop at the state park where the Missouri and the Mississippi came together, but it was closed due to high water.
I remember back in the 60's when they were building this stretch of the Great River Road. I was in Sea Scouts and our base was across the river three miles south of Portage Des Sioux where they have the Our Lady of the River statue. Driving up the road we passed the painting of the piasa bird. You really have to stop to see it which we didn't.
Friday we were planning on taking the Golden Eagle Ferry across the river, but we were running late. It's just as well. Since the river is up, the ferry is not running.
We took the Great River Road up to Grafton and then turned around and drove down to downtown St. Louis to get pictures of the cars and the Gateway Arch. Here we are at Grafton.
The Cardinals were in town and it was an afternoon game. Downtown was packed. Here I am driving down Chestnut Street toward the riverfront. You can see the Arch and on the right is the Old Courthouse where the Dredd Scott case was filed. For those of you who are American history challenged, Google it.
We were stopped at a stoplight and this black dude walked by calling BMWs crap and that he wouldn't own one. I yelled back at him that he wouldn't own one because he couldn't afford one.
We made it down to the riverfront and Ryan got this picture of the cars at the bottom of the steps leading up to the Arch.
I have seen the river part of the way up those steps. As it is, it's almost to the top of the levee.
There is a 23 foot tall bronze statue of Lewis and Clark and their dog on the levee. This is what you can see now. Lewis is waving his hat above water. Clark is on one knee holding his rifle below the surface.
I won't mention my going the wrong way on a oneway street as we were coming up through Laclede's Landing to get to Memorial Drive. I haven't lived in St. Louis since 1985.
We headed down I-55 and got back on a two lane afte we cleared all of suburbia. We crossed over into Illinois at Chester and headed down along the river on the Illinois side. I'm prolly related to a bunch of people down in that part of Illinois. My great-grandfather, Cyrus Freeman, had 19 children. No telling how many cousins I have around there. Sherry and I have met one of them through Sherry's genealogical research. She lives in cape Girardeau.
Here's a picture Sherry took of me as we were tooling along at 70 MPH.
Today was a perfect top down day.
We crossed back into Misssouri just below Cairo Illinois. Sherry found some fun roads to drive on. One of the curves we took was marked for 45 MPH. We took it at 75 and the wheels didn't even squeal. BMW Z's are fun to drive!
We were gonna take a ferry, but it was closed so she routed us back to New Madrid on some interesting roads. There was some dude in a pickup, who pulled over to let us pass him, who prolly went home to his wife and said, "Ethel, you should have seen these idiots in little sports cars back on the country lane. They must have been lost big time."
It's looking like we'll take take two more days to get down to the mouth of the river, providing the road that takes us there still exists after Katrina.
We'll see.
Wanna play some paintball?
Thanks to Martin.
St. Louis.
A lot like yesterday. Some more good driving. Stopped at Nauvoo Illinois on our way to St. Louis. My sister calls it the Mormon Williamsburg.
Ate dinner with Steve's mom, his sister Nancy, and his brother Jim.
I'm beat. I get to sleep late tomorrow.
I'm giving this to Diane Feinstein who tried to slip amnesty for illegals into an Iraq funding bill.
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday added to an Iraq spending bill a controversial provision to help pave the way for undocumented agriculture workers to win legal status, a move that may reopen the divisive immigration debate on the Senate floor.The so-called Ag-Jobs amendment, sponsored by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Larry Craig (R-Idaho), would create a process that allows undocumented workers to continue to work on farms. Without the amendment, Feinstein warned that the U.S. would lose $5-9 billion to foreign competition, tens of thousands of farms would shut down and 80,000 workers would be transferred to Mexico. The bill would sunset in five years.
Kiss my crippled ass! If it's that bad, pass a guest worker program, but don't add sumpin' like this to totally unrelated legislation.
Larry Craig, you asshole, you should have resigned!
DiFi, here's your award.
Davenport Iowa:
Short post tonight.
Best day yet. We found a nice road by the River in St. Paul. Even have a picture of the cars by the River but I'll have to post it later since it's now 11:30 and Ryan won't get it uploaded and sent to me until tomorrow.
After leaving St. Paul, we took the Great River Road on the east side of the Mississippi. There is actually a Great River Road on both sides so we alternated. We prolly crossed the River five times today.
We hit one real nice stretch with some curves made for roadster driving and there was no traffic. Did we ever have fun! After that stretch, I picked up the walkee talkee and sent a big ol' "Yaa-hoo!"
We also stumbled across a winery in an Iowa river town. Tasted some and bought some to take to my cousin's house tonight.
We got to Davenport a little after six. We had a dinner date at my cousin Steve's house at 7:00. He is the Steve who comments on this blog. I haven't seen him in ages. Had a great time.
Time for bed. More tomorrow when we'll be in St. Louis to see Steve's mom and some of his siblings.
Yep. It's just about over for Thunder Rodent Thighs, but since she's still in the race, we can still ridicule her. Got this from Hal.
Minneapolis
Today we finally saw the Mississippi River. As many people have told me, Itaska Park is very pretty. We were a little early as nothing is blooming yet. In fact, we even saw some snow at the side of the road. More evidence of global warming.
And speaking of global warming, what is this crap about polar bears going on the endangered species list?
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Interior Department has decided to protect the polar bear as a threatened species because of the decline in Arctic sea ice from global warming, officials said Wednesday.
GMAFB! Good Christ! I go on vacation and I have to put up with this crap? You know that this means Alaska is off limits for future drilling right? If y'all love $4 gas, you're gonna live $5 gas. And we can't blame this on the Dimocrats. This is the Interior Department of a Republican administration.
Dear RNC. This is one of the reasons people are voting for Dimocrats. If you give them the choice between a real Dimocrat and someone acting like a Dimocrat, they'll vote for the real Dimocrat. Ya hear that McRINO?
GFY!
GOC
So I was able to hoof it up to the headwaters of the Mississippi where it comes out of Lake Itaska. Here's a picture.
From left to right: Ryan, Sherry, and the crip. On the far left is the Mississippi leaving Lake Itaska.
Further downstream, where it actually looked like a river, Ryan took this picture.
The green car is their Z4 and the blue one is my Z3.
We followed the Great River Road most of the way to Minneapolis. The problem is, it doesn't spend very much time by the River. We're hoping to get more scenic driving further south. I know there's a long stretch just north of Alton Illinois.
I lost one of my credit cards. Crap! I know where it was, but I'm not going back. I called and cancelled it.
Thunder Rodent Thighs scored big in West Virginia. Those are the folks with the Bibles and guns that Jug Hussein Ears looks down on. Soldier on TRT, but unless you can figger a way to steal the nomination, you're toast. After all, Jug Hussein Ears just got the endorsement of the Breck Boy.
Tomorrow, we'll stop in Iowa and have dinner with my cousin Steve and his wife.
My next trip will be to Camp Blown-Eye. This is your chance to meet Blown-Eyed Blodgers in their natural element. i.e. boozing and acting like idiots. I'll be there drinking Shiner and playing guitar. No word on whether the elderly half of the Elderly Brothers will be there.
Stop by and tip a few.
Dayton Ohio.
We hit the road at 8:00 AM. I got us through the Atlanta traffic over to I-75. Then I let Ryan take the lead. He noticed that there was sumpin' hanging down underneath my car. We pulled over. At least he did. I turned on my right turn signal to get over. That only made the asshole on my right speed up and cut me off so I couldn't get to the exit lane. This is typical behavior in Atlanta. I think that is why people don't signal.
It turned out to be sumpin' that needed to be addressed. Fortunately, there was a BMW dealer Global Imports nearby. They took care of of. It was the splash panel under the engine. It's a temporary fix but they said it should be OK for the trip. They didn't charge me for it. Hence the plug.
By 10:00 we were on our way again. The plan is to drive all the way up I-75, bypassing Detroit, to the Mackinac Bridge. The last time my sister and I were up there, they were building it. We saw it from the ferry. That was over 50 years ago.
Made it to Dayton today. Gotta make the time on the interstates 'cause we'll be taking our time following the river going south.
Gotta get some pictures of the two cars to put up tomorrow or the next day.
From Richard.
A white whale and a herring were inseparable. For years, they roamed the oceans together. Then, one day, the herring showed up alone. The other fish were curious. One asked, "Where is the whale?" "How would I know?" replied the herring.
"Am I my blubber's kipper?"
Tomorrow morning, I'm taking off for Lake Itaska in Minnesota. From there, I'll be following the Mississippi River all the way down to Nawlins. I'm taking my Z3. My sister and her husband are coming along. They'l be in their Z4. I'll have my PC and my camera along so I'll be posting as we go and I may even post some pictures.
I wrote this on Mother's Day in 2002. I link to it every year.
Here's the original from Brownsville Station.
Did you know that we have 57 states? Why do I know that? Because Jug Hussein Ears told me so.
So now we know why he doesn't wear a flag pin on his lapel. It looks like this.
Stole it from the LA Times of all places.
Now just imagine if McRINO had said this.
Maybe we should call it glo-bull warming. Mike sent me this from the NOAA website.
The average temperature in April 2008 was 51.0 F. This was -1.0 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average, the 29th coolest April in 114 years. The temperature trend for the period of record (1895 to present) is 0.1 degrees Fahrenheit per decade.
Quick! Call Pope Albert I of the Church Of AGW! Wait a minute! This is "climate change". That's the new mantra. Anyway, we're supposed to have a cooling trend for the next ten years.
And look! We just had a volcano erupting and shooting ash into the stratosphere.
SANTIAGO, Chile - The long-dormant Chaiten volcano blasted ash some 20 miles into the Andean sky on Tuesday, forcing the last of thousands to evacuate and fouling a huge stretch of the South American continent.A thick column of ash climbed into the stratosphere and blew eastward for hundreds of miles (kilometers) over Patagonia to the Atlantic Ocean, closing schools and a regional airport. Citizens of both countries were advised to wear masks to avoid breathing the dangerous fallout.
Y'know that could cause global cooling. Time to build some coal fired power plants and piss off Jon Acuff who wrote the following letter to the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation. You have to wade through some letters about the incompetence of the Atlanta city gummint (go figger) before you get to his but I'll post it in its entirety.
Would you buy a 20-year-old car that was being sold to you as new? What about a 20-year-old computer? Why then would Cobb EMC want to be part of Power4Georgians, a coalition to build coal-fired power plants in Georgia? It's bad enough that Georgia already has the two most polluting coal-fired power plants in the country. Now, Cobb EMC and Power4Georgians want to add another, using the same outdated, polluting technology that was used 20 years ago.The best part of the deal? The primary use of this "new" dirty power will be for sale to other states, since Georgia has no shortage of power, only water, which these plants use enormous amounts of. Doesn't this speak directly to the allegations of mismanagement and poor decision-making by Cobb EMC?
Jon, you ignorant asshole! We're gonna need all the coal fired and nuclear plants that we can build. The electricity has got to come from somewhere to power all of those electrical cars that you libs want. Ditto if we move into hydrogen. It takes electricity to make hydrogen. For your information, coal fired plants have become much cleaner than the 20 year old plants that you are talking about. The gummint has set stringent emission levels for all new plants that are built.
Jon, you are stuck on stupid.
As is the Nebraska Nitwit.
I heard this on the radio the other day and figgered it would make a great Saturday Bach. It's the Prelude from the Lute Suite #4
A visual one.
Sent to me by some angels.
Bou found this. Actually someone sent it to me awhile back and I forgot about it. It goes along with the Misheard Lyrics post from yesterday.
I was thinking of giving it to BJ for losing it in West Virginia but I decided against it. Instead, I'm giving it to Chuck "the Schmuck" Shumer for his stupid statement about ANWR that I wrote about earlier this week. Following Chuckie's reasoning, we shouldn't do anything about global warming since Pope Albert I of the Church of AGW said we have only ten years until it's too late. Wait. Bad example. We're gonna have global cooling for the next ten years. So I guess we have twenty years before we hit the point of no return. Fuck it! I'll prolly be dead by then.
Anyway for being part of the problem with high energy prices rather than being part of the solution and for being a putz on top of that, I'm giving Chuckie the AOTW Award.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Got this from Ron.
NSFW!
Update: Doug Ross has a great picture from the bunker.
Dick sent me the following picture that he got from here. She is having a captioning contest.
Honest! My smile will not break this camera!
Holy crap! The Atlanta Urinal and Constipation published an editorial I actually agree with. Was that a pig I saw flying by my window?
U.S. Sen. James Webb, a Virginia Democrat and Vietnam combat veteran, is championing legislation to improve college tuition benefits for those who volunteer to serve their country in the U.S. military. Under his proposal, today's veterans would get roughly the same benefits offered those who served during World War II."For all who have been saying that this is the newest 'Greatest Generation,' " Webb argues, "this is the easiest way for us to prove that."
Webb's approach has won support from members of both parties, with 57 senators and 292 congressmen —- including 89 House Republicans —- as co-sponsors.
I agree totally with this. Our military is 100% volunteer and we do not do enough for them. This is the least we can do.
However, the bill is opposed by Republican leadership in Congress, by GOP presidential nominee John McCain and by President Bush on grounds that it is too generous and could hurt re-enlistments.
And you guys are wondering why you are losing elections? This is just one of those reasons.
However, as Webb and others point out, up to 75 percent of soldiers and Marines already return to civilian life after their first enlistment. Those who "re-up" are probably committed to a military career, where they could get tuition assistance from the military while on active duty.
True. My nephew reenlisted. He plans to make the Army his career.
Shame on you Republicans who do not support this bill! It may be a Dimocrat ploy to make you look bad (This editorial was written by Jay Bookman who is a liberal and has been against the war from the start.) and if you don't support it, it will make you look bad and deservedly so.
Our men and women in uniform —- less than 1 percent of the American population —- bear a vastly disproportionate share of the burden of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Giving them the chance to earn a college degree is not too great a reward for that service.
Hear! Hear!
From my friend Pres.
Lorraine Kelly is not that hot, but she does have some nice boobage. And she talks just like Eric's wife, the lovely Fiona. And if I remember correctly, Prosper lives in Lorraine France.
Chuck "the Schmuck" Shumer opened his mouth the other day and this is the bullshit that came out: "Even if we started drilling in ANWR we wouldn't get any oil from there until ten years from now."
That is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard Chuckie say. On a side note, don't you think someone ruined a perfect penis when they put ears on him?
Chuckie's statement is like saying, "Even if you put money in an IRA or 401K you wouldn't be able to access it until you retire."
The Dims have been using this "ten years" argument for not drilling in ANWR for 14 years now. Just think, if BJ hadn't vetoed ANWR 14 years ago, we would have been getting oil from it now for 4 years.
Thanks BJ. Thanks Dimocrats.
Got it from Braden.
Obviously Dimocrats don't see the point. ANWR is an Arctic desert fer chrissakes. The indigenous people want drilling there. The people in Alaska want drilling there. The people opposed are buttheads like Kennedy and Chuckie who have never been there and have no intention of going there.
The freaking ecotards are gonna be the destruction of this country.
Assholes!
That's no secret. We are.
Individuals with conservative ideologies are happier than liberal-leaners, and new research pinpoints the reason: Conservatives rationalize social and economic inequalities.Regardless of marital status, income or church attendance, right-wing individuals reported greater life satisfaction and well-being than left-wingers, the new study found.
Conservatives also scored highest on measures of rationalization, which gauge a person's tendency to justify, or explain away, inequalities.
The rationalization measure included statements such as: "It is not really that big a problem if some people have more of a chance in life than others," and "This country would be better off if we worried less about how equal people are."
That's right. There is a reason that some of us are SRF©s and some of us are losers. It comes down to hard work and not relying on the gummint to help us out.
Of course, it's obvious to the most casual observer, and to anyone who reads the comments of this blog, that we are all much more happier than the Nebraska Nitwit and any of the liberal trolls who blunder through here.
And we also have better looking women. That's another reason we're happier. Time to repost this.
Come on back Jug Hussein Ears, you pussy! It's just a flesh wound!
From Pete.
So, do any of you want to meet me, CharlieDelta, and Kerrcarto? All three of us will be in Kerrville Texas June 27-29. Yep! It's the 3rd annual Blownstar Meetup with the Blown-Eyed Blodgers. At least one half of the Elderly Brothers (me) will be there. We're still trying to get Jimbo the elderly half of the Elderly Brothers to commit. You'll get to hear me sing Pretty Fucked up and Gay Cowboys.
More info here.
But it appears to be over for Thunder Rodent Thighs.
On a side note. I took a day off. I'm OK. Just didn't feel like posting.
She's now loaned her campaign more money. I like to see a Clinton spending some of her money rather than other people's money.
She barely won in Indiana and got her ass handed to her in North Carolina. I like the fact that she's staying in. Make Jug Hussein Ears spend more money. She might even go to court to try and get the Florida and Michigan delegates seated. That's what Dims do when they can't win. They sue.
As long as she stays in, the campaign is fun to watch. Matthews and Oberasshole are pulling their boners for Jug Hussein Ears and Thunder Rodent Thighs is delaying their orgasms. I imagine Thunder Rodent Thighs has prolly prevented a lot of orgasms in her life. Ask BJ about that. Why do you think he cheats on her?
So now it's on to West Virginia. I'll prolly be in Minnesota on Tuesday. More on that later.
So now according to a Swiss ethics panel the killing of flora morally wrong.
You just knew it was coming: At the request of the Swiss government, an ethics panel has weighed in on the "dignity" of plants and opined that the arbitrary killing of flora is morally wrong. This is no hoax. The concept of what could be called "plant rights" is being seriously debated.A few years ago the Swiss added to their national constitution a provision requiring "account to be taken of the dignity of creation when handling animals, plants and other organisms." No one knew exactly what it meant, so they asked the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology to figure it out. The resulting report, "The Dignity of Living Beings with Regard to Plants," is enough to short circuit the brain.
Well, just like there were war protest songs in the 60's, we now have plant protest songs. Here's one of them, courtesy of Ron who also sent me the link to the article.
I opened up Sunday's Atlanta Urinal and Constipation and came upon this tidbit.
Q & A / ROSALYNN CARTER, former first lady: 'It's morally wrong not to treat' mental illnesses
I agree. I just wish that she would get her anti-Semitic butthead of a husband help for his mental illness.
Former first lady Rosalynn Carter's interest in improving mental health care began when her husband ran for governor of Georgia in the 1960s.
Prolly 'cause she wanted him to get some help before he screwed up Georgia. My friends who lived here back then said he was a rotten governor.
Soon, one of her main objectives may be realized. The U.S. House in March passed a broad bill that requires insurance "parity" —- comparable coverage —- for mental and physical illnesses.
Good. Now maybe she can get Jimmah some help for his mental illness.
But there are still hurdles. A bill passed earlier by the Senate that requires parity is not as far-reaching.
Maybe not.
Carter, who is writing her second book on mental health, spoke with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution a few days after the House vote.
Working title: Living With Mental Illness, My Life With Jimmah.
My sister asked me to post a picture of what the area by the wax myrtles looked like. It's a shame I don't have a before picture so y'all could see what I accomplished last week.
I'm getting pine straw installed on the entire Great Berm of Dunwoody later this week.
Sent to me by many readers and is a repeat for the occasion.
Most people don't know that back in 1912, Hellmann's mayonnaise was
manufactured in England. In fact, the Titanic was carrying 12,000 jars of
the condiment scheduled for delivery in Vera Cruz, Mexico, which was to be
the next port of call for the great ship after its stop in New York.
This would have been the largest single shipment of mayonnaise ever
delivered to Mexico. But as we know, the great ship did not make it to New
York. The ship hit an iceberg and sank, and the cargo was forever lost.
The people of Mexico, who were crazy about mayonnaise, and were eagerly
awaiting its delivery, were disconsolate at the loss. Their anguish was so
great, that they declared a National Day of Mourning, which they still
observe to this day.
The National Day of Mourning occurs each year on May 5th and is known, of
course, as
Sinko de Mayo.
And a bonus from Richard.
To deal with an incorrigible punster, just don't incorrige him.
So I had dinner with Michael and Cindy and another couple last night. He is a soon to be retired history professor at Emory University and she is a retired medical librarian. Of course, they are both liberal.
Cindy cautioned me to be on my best behavior. So what did she do? She had me come early and made me watch Jerry Wright's speech at the National Press Club that she and Michael had recorded.
Did I mention that we'd be drinking a lot of wine? For the record, I took a 2000 Pontet Canet Bordeaux. It's drinkable now, but will only get better. I have four more bottles of it that I won't touch for another two years.
I have met this couple before. He is an expert on Roman history and has written books and has been on a couple of those history programs where they cut to experts during the programs. I get along with him because I love Roman history. I had also read his latest book since the last time I had seen him.
Sometime during the dinner, we were talking about the Roman Empire and making comparisons to the United states today. He brought up the fact that the creation of Iraq, was a blunder by the Brits after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. Michael has maintained all along that after the invasion we should have broken up Iraq into three separate countries: Kurdland, Sunniland, and Shi'iteland. That's what the Brits should have done after WWI. He agreed.
Then we started veering into politics. He's an Obama supporter. I was quiet. In fact, I was on my best behavior. Michael and Cindy were very impressed. Fortunately, we didn't stay on politics too long. For the record they both agreed that Jerry Wright is an asshole.
See. You can take me out in public.
In honor of the movie Iron Man, here's Iron Man.
Dimocrats. Fucking up energy policy since 1980.
Thanks to Matthew.
Fron DBolsman.
Back in the old west, there was a need to connect the east and the west with a telegraph line. The manager of the project advertised for workers to complete the job. Three groups responded. A team of Irishmen, a group of Italians, and a final team composed of blondes.
Since none of the groups would work with anyone from the other two groups, the project supervisor decided to assign each group to a different part of the line, and then see which team set the most poles.
The first task was to set the poles. The supervisor sent each group out to a different location. Before they left, he advised all three groups that the one to bury the most poles today, would receive a bonus.
At the end of the day, the foreman of the Italians reported back to the supervisor. The supervisor inquired of him how many poles had been set by his team. He answered 48. The supervisor was delighted. He advised the Italian to stay awhile until he heard how the Irishmen and the blondes had done...
Next to report was the foreman of the Irishmen group. When asked, he reported that they had set 53 poles that day. Again the supervisor was thrilled. He dismissed the Italian foreman and asked the Irishman to remain until the blondes checked in.
A little while later the blonde forewoman reported to the supervisor.
"How many poles did your group set?" He asked.
"Two." replied the blonde forewoman.
"What! Just, two!" exclaimed the supervisor. "The Italians set 48 poles, and the Irishmen set 53. How could you blondes have only set two poles?"
"It may be true the Italians and Irishmen buried more poles than us," replied the blonde. "But you should see how much of the poles those bozos left sticking out of the ground!"
Keith Olberman. Why? Besides being an insufferable asshole, he dissed my favorite newsbabe, Kiran Chetry, and recently made her one of his worst people in the world or whatever he calls that crap that he does. He got mad at her after she interviewed Al Franken.
On another note, don't y'all think Al Franken would be funnier as a senator than he ever was as a comedian?
And another thing, why did Fox let Kiran get away? First Heather Nauert (Wait a minute. She's back?) and then Kiran.
Granted, I don't get up early enough to watch the CNN morning show, so I don't get to see Kiran. I do get to see her when I'm diving in Bonaire. I'm usually up at 6:30 then.
I think Kiran is so hot because she looks a lot like one of my old girlfrends. Patty has blue eyes and her hair is a little lighter, and she's in her late 50's now but when I met her, she looked a lot like Kiran does now. Yummy! I really wish we could have made our relationship work. We're still good friends. She's the only ex-girlfriend I can say that about.
But back to Keith Oberasshole. For badmouthing Kiran Chetry, I'm making him this week's AOTW.
Y'know, I think Thunder Rodent Thighs is right. We do need a windfall profits tax, though not on the oil companies. We need it on the Clintons. They made over $109 million over the last seven years and in Thunder Rodent Thighs own words "They're not inventing anything new.... You set a baseline and, above that baseline, you begin to tax their profits."
Let's see, BJ gets paid some obscene amount of money every time he makes a speech. He's not "inventing anything new". It's prolly pretty much the same speech over and over again. Let's set his baseline at $25K. The rest goes to gummint. Hows that Thunder Rodent Thighs? How d'ya like them apples?
They both wrote books. There was some creativity involved since they were mostly works of fiction, but there's not much new there. They're not "inventing anything new", just the same old Clinton lies, so let's set the baseline at $100K. The rest of the "obscene profits" should go to the gummint.
I'm kinda liking this windfall profits thing.
And while I'm on this, Thunder Rodent Thighs has been campaigning for over a year. It's become a full time job. Her Senate salary is a windfall profit. She certainly isn't doing her job as a senator. Her baseline is zero. Cough it up Thunder Rodent Thighs. Give your salary back to the gummint. You too Jug Hussein Ears. And you too McRINO. You three were elected to serve in the Senate, not to run for president. I really think that since running for president is a full time job, anyone doing it should resign from the House or Senate before running, or at least give their salary back to the gummint since they sure ain't earning it.
It's a windfall profit. Give it back.
Thunder Rodent Thighs wants the gummint to determine what is a fair profit for those eeevil oil companies. This is Socialism 101.
Hillary Clinton was on Fox News's The O'Reilly Factor last night and said what she would do about high gas prices:
In the short term, I do want a gas tax holiday but to pay for it by putting a windfall profits tax on the oil companies.... The oil companies have made out like bandits, and there is no basis for them to have these huge profits. They're not inventing anything new.... You set a baseline and, above that baseline, you begin to tax their profits.
I remember the last time this was tried. It didn't work then and it won't work now. You do realize that oil companies don't really pay taxes dontcha? The taxes all get passed on to us. So, by increasing taxes on oil companies, Thunder Rodent Thighs will actually be raising the price of gas at the pump. But let's go ahead and punish those eeeevil oil companies.
The columnist then goes on to post what happened the last time we tried a windfall profits tax.
During the 1980s the federal government experimented with a new tax intended to limit the "windfall profits" of domestic oil companies. In reaction to the rise of energy prices during the late 1970s and the removal of price controls on the energy industry, President Jimmy Carter signed the Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act into effect on April 2, 1980.... The windfall profits tax was forecasted to raise more than $320 billion between 1980 and 1989. However, according to the Congressional Research Service, the government collected only $80 billion in gross tax revenue ($146 billion in 2004 dollars). The net amount was actually less than this—roughly $40 billion—because the tax was deductible...CRS also found the windfall profits tax had the effect of decreasing domestic production by 3 percent to 6 percent, thereby increasing American dependence on foreign oil sources by 8 percent to 16 percent.... The 1980 windfall profits tax was also found to be highly burdensome for the industry to comply with and for the Internal Revenue Service to administer, especially in years when no revenue was raised. It seems unlikely that a new tax could be designed in a less burdensome fashion. Tax Foundation economists estimate that U.S. companies currently spend nearly $150 billion annually to comply with the federal income tax alone.
But remember, in the mind of rat bastard commies like Thunder Rodent Thighs, the reason socialism and communism has never been successful almost everywhere it's been tried (USSR, Cuba, North Korea, Zimbabwe, and coming up next, Venezuela. Sweden is the lone exception and as the Muslim population grows it will soon be a failure as well)is that the right people have not been in charge. Socialists like to punish success and reward failure in the name of "fairness".
By the way, what do you think the eeevil oil companies do with those eeeevil, obscene profits? Research and development. They'd also like to do more drilling like off the coast at in ANWR, but Thunder Rodent Thighs and the rest of the dipsticks in the Dimocrat Party won't let them.
Thanks to OBG for the 'toon.
Just think, if Bill Clinton hadn't vetoed drilling in ANWR 14 years ago, we would prolly have it producing a million barrels a day today. If the ecotards hadn't stopped us building nuclear power plants we would have a few more of them online today. If we had additional refineries we would not have to import diesel fuel. We are responsible for most of our energy problems.
We get the gummint we deserve.
Dear Sherry,
You should see the Great Berm of Dunwoody. It is in the best shape it's been since I've moved in. You remember all that underbrush and crap by the wax myrtles? All gone. Unfortunately, there was an humongous stand of poison ivy. You know me. All I have to do is look at it and I get infected. I wore a long sleeve shirt and gloves and I took a shower using lava. Here's hoping I'm OK.
Now I just have to have someone put pine straw all over. Prolly take between 40 to 50 bales. I'll see if my lawn guy wants to do it. What with the drought and watering restrictions, he's not gonna make as much cutting grass this year.
I'll bet this drought is really gonna piss off the HOA Nazi. Everyone's yard is gonna be brown and there's nuthin' she can do about it. Let her send her little "courtesy reminders" to the DeKalb Count Water Department. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Your favorite brother,
Denny
As y'all know, the donkey is the symbol of the Dimocrat Party. Neil sent me an updated version of the symbol.
This will prolly send the Nebraska Nitwit over the edge.
(CBS) A second American aircraft carrier steamed into the Persian Gulf on Tuesday as the Pentagon ordered military commanders to develop new options for attacking Iran. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that the planning is being driven by what one officer called the "increasingly hostile role" Iran is playing in Iraq - smuggling weapons into Iraq for use against American troops."What the Iranians are doing is killing American servicemen and -women inside Iraq," said Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
Which actually is an act of war.
U.S. officials are also concerned by Iranian harassment of U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf as well as Iran's still growing nuclear program. New pictures of Iran's uranium enrichment plant show the country's defense minister in the background, as if deliberately mocking a recent finding by U.S. intelligence that Iran had ceased work on a nuclear weapon.
That harassment of shipping could be stopped real soon if we started sinking those pissant little speedboats rather than firing warning shots at them.
No attacks are imminent and the last thing the Pentagon wants is another war, but Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen has warned Iran not to assume the U.S. military can't strike.
OK TDO, you can come out from under the bed now. There will be no bombing of Iran. Dammit! This is just saber rattling.
I've worked for people like this.
Thanks to DebbieK.
Get ready for Pope Albert I of the Church of AGW to move the goalposts again. He's been saying for years that we have ten years to get our house in order before we reach some mythical tipping point and then it will be too late. He started this bullshit over ten years ago, which means we should be there now, but, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say we're only four years away. Whoops! Maybe not. (Thanks to my sister and other readers for this link.)
Global warming will be "put on hold" over the next decade because of natural climate variations, scientists claim.
Huh? WTF? I thought man controlled the climate? What's with this "natural climate variations" bullshit?
A study of sea temperature changes predicts a lull as traditional climate cycles cancel out the heating effect of greenhouse gases from pollution.
A lull? A freaking lull? Ya mean Mother nature is overruling man? How can that be? I thought we were only four years away from a tipping point. Does that mean Pope Albert I has been lying to us? Is he now gonna add ten years to his mythical tipping point? Is he gonna go back and change his PowerPoint presentation documentary?
The findings suggest the official models used to predict short-term global warming patterns are too crude.
Too crude? But I thought the science was in and the debate was over.
But scientists say rising carbon dioxide levels caused by man will send temperatures up again after the natural trends peak and will continue to rise in following decades.
Are these the same scientists who designed the "models used to predict short-term global warming patterns"? Just sayin'.
Temperatures in the North Atlantic are influenced by a giant 'conveyor belt' of warm water from the south called the meridional overturning circulation.This weakens and grows stronger every 80 years or so. When the circulation is strong, temperatures are warmer.
A new model of this pattern suggests it will weaken over the next ten years leading to cooler temperatures.
This is sumpin' we rational people call climate.
There is no man-made global warming. Pope Albert I is a snake oil salesman and you people who have bought into his bullshit are idiots.
