Saturday, January 26, 2008

Good News Out Of Florida - Crist Spurns Romney

The Swamp:

It's official: Florida Gov. Crist goes for John McCain
: "In a surprise announcement with major implications for the Republican primary, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist threw his weight behind Sen. John McCain for president at the Pinnelas County Lincoln Day Dinner here calling him 'a true American hero.'

'I think the world of him,' Crist said."

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

The Club of Queer Trades, by Gilbert K. Chesterton;

The Club of Queer Trades, by Gilbert K. Chesterton; The Eccentric Seclusion of the Old Lady Page 15:

"How we ate that dinner I have no idea. In the common way I am a person particularly prone to enjoy the long luxuriance of the club dinner. But on this occasion it seemed a hopeless and endless string of courses. Hors-d'oeuvre sardines seemed as big as herrings, soup seemed a sort of ocean, larks were ducks, ducks were ostriches until that dinner was over. The cheese course was maddening. I had often heard of the moon being made of green cheese. That night I thought the green cheese was made of the moon. And all the time Basil Grant went on laughing and eating and drinking, and never threw one glance at us to tell us why he was there, the king of these capering idiots."

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

From Wikipedia

* Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
o This statement was used as a motto on the title page of An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania. (1759) which was attributed to Franklin in the edition of 1812, but in a letter of September 27, 1760 to David Hume, he states that he published this book and denies that he wrote it, other than a few remarks that were credited to the Pennsylvania Assembly, in which he served. The phrase itself was first used in a letter from that Assembly dated November 11, 1755 to the Governor of Pennsylvania. An article on the origins of this statement here includes a scan that indicates the original typography of the 1759 document, which uses an archaic form of "s": "Thoſe who would give up Essential Liberty to purchaſe a little Temporary Safety, deſerve neither Liberty nor Safety." Researchers now believe that a fellow diplomat by the name of Richard Jackson is the primary author of the book. With the information thus far available the issue of authorship of the statement is not yet definitely resolved, but the evidence indicates it was very likely Franklin, who in the Poor Richard's Almanack of 1738 is known to have written a similar proverb: "Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power."
o Many paraphrased variants derived from this saying have arisen and have usually been incorrectly attributed to Franklin:

Saturday, January 19, 2008

C.I.A. Sees Qaeda Link in the Death of Bhutto

From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency has concluded that the assassins of Benazir Bhutto, the former Pakistani prime minister, were directed by Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistani militant leader in hiding, and that some of them had ties to Al Qaeda.


The C.I.A.’s judgment is the first formal assessment by the American government about who was responsible for Ms. Bhutto’s Dec. 27 assassination, which took place during a political rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

“There are powerful reasons to believe that terror networks around Baitullah Mehsud were responsible,” said one American intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

****************************

Some friends and supporters of Ms. Bhutto questioned the C.I.A. conclusions, especially since the former leader was buried before a full forensic investigation had been conducted. The British government has since sent a team from Scotland Yard to participate in the investigation into the assassination.

“The C.I.A. appears too eager to bail out its liaison services in Pakistan, who are being blamed by most Pakistanis,” said Husain Haqqani, a former adviser to Ms. Bhutto and a professor at Boston University.

“Given the division inside Pakistan on this issue, it might be better to have an international investigation under the aegis of the U.N.,” Mr. Haqqani said.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Scare Tactics From McAfee

My McAfee anti-virus program has worked flawlessly in the background for as many years as I have had it. Never a problem and the one time I got a virus I was alerted right away and that problem was resolved within five minutes. All of a sudden, in the last month or so, I am getting warnings from the program that my computer is not protected. Not true, not true at all, my computer is fine and as far as I can tell the only problem I have is McAfee trying to scare me into thinking I need to buy more protection. The program won't even let me turn off the warning. These are really sleazy sales tactics, in my opinion, and if they don't stop I'm going to dump them and find some other Anti-Virus protection.

More pandering from Mitt Romney

REFILE-Romney, McCain clash over jobs in depressed Michigan | U.S. | Reuters

"It's personal because I love this state, it's personal because I recognize that as Michigan goes, so goes the nation," Romney said.

I certainly hope that's not true because Michigan is the poster child for dysfunctional industry. The auto makers are getting their lunch eaten by foreign competition and all they can do is talk about battery operated cars, batteries that don't exist yet and may not for another ten years. In the meantime the country, even with an impending recession, is doing much better than Michigan.

The man with the Flowbee haircut*

wants to give you a free bottle of Focus Factor. LOL!!
Coincidence I suppose but that's how drug dealers work. You get it free the first time.
*Love the bangs.

Friday, January 11, 2008

FT.com / Columnists / Lunch with the FT - Lunch with the FT: Christopher Hitchens

FT.com / Columnists / Lunch with the FT - Lunch with the FT: Christopher Hitchens:

"“Not at all,” he replies enthusiastically. “With her it’s too many of the virtues. She’s a perfect example of how the 1960s have mutated into – I hate the term political correctness but I suppose it’s unavoidable. In other words they have changed from people who said they wanted complete freedom of speech on campus, into people who now want to police the campus. She represents that mutation to mere perfection.”

Hitchens is in the familiar, articulate form I recognise from his television appearances, and is being quite unreasonable. I have no intention of stopping him. So he goes on: “And then going from sexual freedom to saying that any unwanted advance is a case for the dean or the rape crisis centre – all of this re-infantilising – ‘put that fag out, don’t drink, or wait for a drink until you’re 21’ – all this is an absolute negation of it but with the same complete sense of rectitude. I find it utterly nauseating.”"

Monday, January 07, 2008

Facebook | Z. Byron Wolf's Notes

Facebook | Z. Byron Wolf's Notes:

"'I am not going to let some arrogant knucklehead executive in a glass office 10 stories above a mall in New York City decide the outcome of this election,' [Congressman Duncan] Hunter said. 'That is for the voters of New Hampshire to decide.'"

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Romney Speaks

Smarmy As Usual!!

FOXNews.com - Huckabee Declared Winner of Iowa Republican Presidential Caucuses:

"'This is obviously a bit like a baseball game,' he said. 'First inning in, well it’s a 50-inning ballgame. I’m gonna keep on battling all the way and anticipate I get the nomination when it’s all said and done, but you know congratulations for the first round to Mike, and we’ll go on to New Hampshire.'"