Donald Trump-The Sizzle Sells The Steak

I don't know how to take Donald Trump. Tonight on The O'Reilly Factor, yet to be aired (8:00 pm est) he calls Obama "our weak president" and complains that he kisses everybody's ass, in those exact words, which are bleeped out. This is a continuation of an interview the first part of which aired last night, in which Trump gave credence to the Birther Movement, which he claims is made up mainly of everyday patriotic Americans who simply have their doubts as to the legitimacy of Obama's presidency. Trump claims Obama could easily clear it up, if he was born in the US, but he goes on to intimate very strongly that he is having his doubts.

So what is this all about? I don't know that much about Trump. I do remember that in an earlier election cycle, maybe 2004, Trump made some noise about running then as well, but if I remember right, then he was talking about running as a Democrat.

My main concern is that in any series of debates he could suck all the oxygen out of the room. If he did win the nomination, the problem then becomes, will he stick to his guns. Sure, he's making some of the right noises now, including some that most candidates are not making, and in fact are shying away from in some cases. But if he actually won the nomination, would he continue as he has been, or would he just be another one of these guys that can't run to the center fast enough.

In this day and age, there is only one legitimate reason to run to the center, and that would be in order to sell to the broader population the same exact principles with which you secure the nomination. Trump could do that. As a businessman, he knows better than most the old business principle I alluded to in the title of this post-"the sizzle sells the steak".

But does he want to sell the steak, or would he prefer to build a coalition of the center, like so many politicians, GOP and Democrat alike? If the Tea-Party takes him to the dance, will he leave them stranded in the corner while he dances with the RINO moderates, or will he dance and leave with the ones who bring him?

That, and not any particular policy issue, is the most important question Donald Trump needs to answer before I could ever be comfortable supporting him.

The fact that he's been making conciliatory gestures towards his old rival Rosie O'Donnell-why now-doesn't ease my concerns.

Operation Enduring Clusterfuck

The "kinetic operation" in Libya now has an official name-and patch, courtesy of Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler.

That pretty much sums it up.

Barak Obama-You Just Can't Hide The Truth

O

UPDATE-ONE SHOT OF JACK TO ME COURTESY OF SHADOWHAWK.

Rand Paul's Response To Obama's Libya Address

Some murmurings lately have suggested that Paul might be planning to run for President. I hope he doesn't, not because I don't think he'd be a good, maybe even a great president. I would definitely vote for him if he won the nomination. But Kentucky would be deprived of somebody who is shaping up to be one of its all time great Senators. They have been few and far between. 



As for this response to Obama's speech earlier tonight, I agree with him one hundred percent, and I would like to point out that I, for one, have had grave misgivings about our role not just in the Libyan conflict, now a full blown civil war, but with the unrest that has been enveloping the Middle East in general. I agree with those who suggest that Obama has been supportive of the uprisings while keeping relatively in the background. My own view is that he, at the instigation of many in the State Department, as well as influential people in the EU and the UN, to say nothing of non-official influences such as Workers Of The World, Code Pink, the AFL-CIO, and the SEIU, to name a few, are manipulating these events with a goal of reshaping the Middle East.

I suspect they hope to remold it along the line of a European model, a region of quasi-socialist democratic states that might be more peaceful, prosperous, and progressive. If so, its a dangerous game, almost a fool's errand fueled in part by ideology and in some cases a desperate hope for peace couple with an insatiable lust for expanded profit and, in the case of Europe at least, access to a more and desperately needed supply of oil-possibly at the expense of the US, actually.

Yet, American inside-the-beltway politicians of both parties share much of the same goals, and I would like to point out that in the face of ever greater demands for budgetary restraint among mainly freshmen members of Congress, and from ever growing sections of the American population, there is much insistence, and rightly so, of concurrent demands for cuts in defense spending, which is through the roof-to the point where it has become an entitlement in its own right.

What better way to nip those demands in the bud than by throwing yet another splendid little war?

Who Is Chaim Witz And Why Is He So Angry?

Chaim Witz is an Israeli born immigrant to America who is angry-very, very angry at the American rock musicians who have recently called for a boycott on performing in Israel, as well as calling for boycotts of Israeli products, over Israeli treatment of Palestinians. This angers Chaim deeply, as he is himself very proud of his Israeli heritage. That is just who Chaim is.

Chaim Witz is also this guy-

Nice to know Gene Simmons isn't a PC tool, unlike it seems most major American entertainment figures. Well, not all the time anyway. He is one of these, unfortunately, who mistakenly has it in his head that the recent round of unrest in the Middle East is all about people wanting freedom and democracy. I guess anybody that goes around in get-up like this can't help but engage in some wishful thinking. We'll work with him on that.

Farrakhan Rants And Raves About Obama's Libya Policy

Please bear in mind that if Louis Farrakhan were not an American citizen, but were instead a citizen of a Middle Eastern, Asian, or African Muslim nation, he would probably not be considered a radical at all, but probably relatively moderate. Once you absorb that, you start to see how Obama's policies now are only going to make a bad matter much worse. And its already happened. The Arab League, at one point staunch advocates of the imposition of a No-Fly Zone over Libyan airspace by the Western nations, recanted their support almost as soon as the policy was implemented. There is no pleasing these people.

Farrakhan actually makes some good points, but he ruined them with his not unexpected diatribe against the IDF on behalf of what he calls the "innocent" citizens of Gaza. Taking that off to the side it is true our concerns over Rwanda, Darfur, and similar areas all over the world are on the order of cheap talk, rhetoric of concern with nothing to back them up. Why then Libya? What is the justification? The Lockerbie  bombing. The Berlin nightclub attack? Okay, but why now, after all this time, and after Qaddafi had moved steadily towards a more responsible position? He had even, during Bush's presidency, dismantled his nuclear program. He himself had earlier expressed concerns about terrorists and Islamic radicals. He had moved tentatively towards a position of support and cooperation with the West.

DING DING DING!!! I think we have the answer. Having said that, I do not condone nor forgive Qaddafi's past actions. If I had my way about it he would have been killed three decades ago. But that was then. As for Farrakhan, I think the man is running the so-called Nation of Islam along the lines of a criminal conspiracy, not unlike Cosa Nostra. There is credible circumstantial evidence that he was involved with, and possibly the mastermind of, the assassination of Malcolm X.

But he does speak for a broad section of American Muslims, especially, of course, the African American Muslim community. Obama would do well to take his warnings seriously. Personally, I myself, taking into consideration Farrakhan's past history, sense the vague aura of a death threat in his words.

Bearing in mind that this is a man who likes to speak in riddles and allegory, listen to him carefully. It would be well-advised to wonder if his words might well have a double meaning, maybe even an implied order.

Irony Is A Cruel Mistress Indeed

Yeah, all you people that have been so adamant about the need for Obama and the US to stick up for all those freedom loving, democracy craving Libyans wanting to get out from under the thumb of Qaddafi, I got some great news for you. Turns out one of the Libyan rebel commanders leading these Libyan patriots actually fought against us once-in Afghanistan.

I guess he must have changed, huh? After all, everybody wants freedom, right? Who'd lie about a thing like that?

H/T-Jeff Colter

Muslims In France-A Prayer For Orphans

These are Muslims on a bus in France. The really scary thing about them is, they are teenagers. Notice the zeal etched in the voice and features of the future radical Islam and the idiotic grins of his followers. Europe has got a real problem on its hands, especially France, where these people are now a significant percentage of the population.

My personal view is if they start this crap over here, I'm sorry but it will mean our government has failed us in its constitutionally mandated duties and it will be time for the citizens to take matters into their own hands. If that's considered Brown Shirt, that's too fucking bad. Just read, below the video, the translation of what this jackass is preaching.



Translation-Oh Allah make orphans of their children! Amen!
Oh Allah destroy their women and make orphans of their children! Amen!
Oh Allah make the fame of Islam rule everywhere
Oh Allah grant glory to our oppressed brothers in Palestine! Amen
Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! There is no God but Allah and the Zionist is the enemy of Allah! There is no God but Allah, and the martyr is the beloved of Allah!

Since he is calling for the women to be killed but the children, not to be killed but to be made orphans, I guess that makes this little punk one of those moderate Muslims I'm always hearing so much about.

H/T-Rob Taylor

Virgin Records

This is from Media Matters, so of course its critical of Beck's joke. His point is of course not that its funny that Egyptian women were subjected to "virginity tests" by the Egyptian police. He was sarcastically pointing out that the Egyptians may be many things, but one thing they are most certainly not is "just like us" and desirous of nothing more than freedom and democracy. We collectively are in the process of turning the entire Middle East into, potentially, just another giant sized hotbed of Islamic fundamentalist states. If this goes on to its logical conclusion, a bloodbath of unprecedented proportions might be the upside. But way too many people just don't get it, on the right and the left. The left of course is beyond redemption, but the attitude of many on the right on this issue is just baffling. Beck at least gets it.

Guess Who Is Probably Running For President?

At least, according to Human Events, who claims that she will be. Well, technically, Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann is starting an exploratory committee that will evidently test the waters in New Hampshire and South Carolina. That is not a distinction without a difference, but it is the road must travelled to a run for the presidency. If all goes well, she will likely declare her candidacy in June, or maybe even sooner, according to this report which actually originated from CNN.

Yep, she would be one of my top picks. But you can almost count on media comparisons to Dennis Kucinich, who will almost inevitably be named as her Democratic counterpart in the coming primaries if Kucinich runs. My guess is though that those comparisons will be quickly forgotten once Bachmann starts out pulling ten or twenty percent of the vote, if not more.

Capitalism May Have Destroyed Life On Mars, Says Hugo Chavez

Well, that along with imperialism, according to Weasel Zippers. Its the kind of thing that almost writes its own punchline, and really, no further comment is necessary, but I will say this much. He is in a way almost, just slightly, on to something. Just maybe. Of course I'm not talking about the capitalism part, but let's face it, if there were life on Mars at any given time-and here I'm talking about sentient life, with consciousness and intelligence-they would have been living in a world that was far more precariously situated than is our own earth. Their ecosystem would have been weak, by nature of the relative smallness of the planet and its distance from the sun. Add to this the evident lack of any of the great, massive, and natural geological boundaries that separate our own continents, and diverse peoples, and you have a trifecta of disaster waiting to unfold, a situation where a rising and increasingly competitive group of peoples engaged in constant warfare and destruction might never have made it past their own bronze age. The wholesale slaughter not only of people, but of livestock, forests, and water supplies with the aim of destroying an enemy population, the constant situation of reprisals and counter-reprisals in a world that would have had meager resources to begin with, and little in the way of natural protection, might well have been devastating, and after so long, irreversible. It is something to think about.

Therefore, as foolish as many of Chavez's statements are, maybe in this case he has somewhat of a point, albeit one polluted with his ideologically poisoned attitudes. I know it might be hard to accept, but for just one example, try to picture the ancient Egyptians and the Babylonian Empires going at each other, or maybe the Punic Wars, the last one of which ended with Rome utterly destroying Carthage. Or even the Indian Wars in the US, or the Crusades, and the Islamic incursions into Europe that preceded and instigated them. Or you could even factor in a more recent time, such as WW II, and the Nazi blitzkriegs, particularly the war on the Russian Front.

Now picture any of that taking place, not on Earth, but on a small planet half our size, and twice the distance from the sun and you start to get the idea.

Just Tonight

Cats And Catnip

Hail Bast

Who Do The Japanese Turn To In Their Hour Of Need

How do the Japanese handle disasters like the recent earthquake and tsunami, with the nuclear disaster forming a trifecta of tragedy. You might think they would turn to religion, and they do. A very small minority of Japanese are Christians, but they do have their spiritual sides. When it comes to celebrations and joyous occasions, their spiritual outlook is defined by their ancient Shinto heritage. However, when it comes to the kinds of tragedies they have recently faced, they tend to turn to Buddhism.

Yet, in their everyday, day to day lives, the Japanese are a very secular oriented people. It might be hard to understand for some people, and some might even consider them hypocritical, only crying out to their God, or Gods, when they have some great, overwhelming need, but otherwise ignoring them.

But are they really? Is it not a sign of maturity that they live their lives in a strict code of honor and adherence to ethical standards without applying a dogma or relinquishing control, and this responsibility, to some benign, or malignant spirit?

What I find interesting about the turn to Buddhism during a tragedy is their need for understanding. Is their hardship caused by some kind of universal karma that has brought this on themselves, perhaps?

The Japanese are not that different from all of us, are they? We tend to thank God, however we conceive him or her, for our good times, and pray to God for relief from the bad times, we ask for forgiveness and sustenance, etc., but otherwise, we too go about our daily mundane lives without giving it that much thought, for the most part. That's because our secular society is such that we too have learned to not lean so heavily on the superstitious need to find a divine cause behind every event. We tend to ignore the divine and the spiritual.

The only thing unique about the Japanese is they go from one religion to another, whichever one suits the occasion, with feeling the need to form a syncretic union of the two. Whereas we tend to stick to one path.

But then again, the Japanese are, at heart, pagans, I believe, so its more natural for them to look to different Gods in regards to different matters. Most Americans look to just one as the answer to everything. Sometimes they don't know what the right question is, but they're still pretty sure about the answer regardless.

Winning

Let's all hope Charlie had a winning Ostara.

Where Is My Nuclear Powered Car?

Can you believe this was actually a prototype for a car envisioned by Ford in 1958?

No, its not the Batmobile, exactly, but it is-a nuclear powered car, called back then, the Nucleon.

It was supposed to have a nuclear reactor in the back, and worked like a nuclear submarine, through a steam engine. That was way back in the day and was quietly shelved with as little fanfare as when it was first proposed. You would guess that would have probably been the end of it, right? I mean, it would be far too impractical, requiring such a heavy layer of shielding it would be way too heavy.

But that was then and this is, well not now, but for a brief time, it was actually considered, again, as a viable means of powering, not a steam engine, but an electric one.

And then Japan happened.

Back to the drawing board folks. We can do this.

The Magic Of Cheese

I don't know what it is, but there's something magical about cheese. Since today was Ostara, I got some Colby, along with some ham and some summer sausage, to enhance my celebration of this mystical first day of spring.

The more I see this clip from The Sopranos, the more I wished I'd went ahead and maybe got some Provolone to dabble on the floor, or to stick in my socks. Funny though, cheese is one of those things that puts me in a better mood, but I guess there are some people that will always be raving lunatics regardless.

Wonder Woman

Here she is-

Her name is Adrienne Palicki, and she has agreed, for I'm sure a tidy sum, to waste her considerable acting talents on David E. Kelly's new revamped television version of DC Comics Amazon superheroin, Wonder Woman.

Not that I blame her. It is a job, and like us all, we need to pay the bills however we can. But it is a waste nonetheless.

Here she is in her past role as Tyra Banks, on the critically acclaimed NBC series Friday Night Lights.

 

Democrats Will Never Change

Obama's Justice Department is going to be investigating cases of school bullying, and will hold school districts accountable for such incidents. But only if the kid being bullied falls under the guidelines of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which, lo and behold, seems to have included gays.

DOJ’s website states: 

The Civil Rights Division and the entire Justice Department are committed to ending bullying and harassment in schools, and the video highlights the Department’s authority to enforce federal laws that protect students from discrimination and harassment at school because of their race, national origin, disability, religion, and sex, including harassment based on nonconformity with gender stereotypes.

The statement later says:

The enforcement of the Equal Protection Clause, Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 in school districts is a top priority of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Additional information is available at the Civil Rights Division’s Educational Opportunities Section website at www.justice.gov/crt/edo/

So there you have it. If you're a white male heterosexual, and not mentally of physically handicapped in any way, you're shit out of luck.

That's because most of you redneck honky fucks daddies don't vote Democrat. Let that be a lesson to you. And if you compalin about the unfairness of this law, that just proves that you too are a sexist, racist, homophobic piece of trash.