Saturday, October 31, 2009

Baseball Bet ....Payoff

So as we all know the Yankees defeated the Angels in the ALCS. Gary and I had a gentlemans bet on the series which involved reading a book of the others choice.

After much consideration (5 mins) and the thought of being mean spirited (coulter/palin) I narrowed it down to 3.

The Road To Serfdom (Hayek)

Liberty and Tyranny (Levin)

The Forgotten Man (Shlaes)

All three are excellent and important works and none is beyond the limits of the bet (not too long like Atlas Shrugged)

I finally decided on The Road To Serfdom. It's a great book, the version I highlighted has a forward by Milton Friedman and it's even more relevent today than ever.

Good Luck.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Those Were The Days....

The Bush Years.....Those were the days weren't they? I was never a Bush hater but I never thought I would be looking back on his years so fondly.

Sure he did some things that I was upset about. He never saw a republican spending bill he didn't like, and who can forget that TARP monster?(just to name a couple) But when he came into office he had a recession, rising unemployment, 9/11, etc. The picture wasn't as perfect as when his old man took over.

So what did he do? He took action on all fronts. He didn't try to fundamentally change the greatest nation in the hisory of man kind. He didn't try to radically remake The U.S. into a socialist/Marxist state. He didn't try to overhaul the entire system. He made some adjustments.

Two differences between the moves Bush made and the moves Obama is making.

1. Bush was skewered by the media for his moves while Obama is adored for his.

2. Bush's tax cuts worked.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Metsradamus and The Satan Series

"At midnight on Monday, October 26th, the New York Yankees won the 2009 American League pennant, completing a World Series matchup with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Also at midnight on Monday, October 26th, the movie Armageddon was starting on my cable system.

How fitting.

The movie had a happy ending. But this, my friends, is Baseball Armageddon. There is no happy ending. Satan has been unleashed. The minions have arrived on earth. The Mayan calendar has ended little more than three years earlier than expected. The world will never be the same. And the next two weeks are going to be the worst two weeks on earth.

In one respect, this awful season couldn't have ended any other way. The good news is that now, there really is no possible season that could possibly be any worse than this. (At least 1993 saw Toronto in the fall classic to defeat the Phillies.)

But in another respect, we have a final battle where there can be no winners. Only pain and anguish. I'm here, fellow Met fans, to quell that pain and anguish ... because you're unknowingly inflicting it on yourselves." CONT'D

The Secret Is Out

Rhino always thought that I didn't have any parents. He was right and now the secret is out.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Clearing Up The Healthcare Issue

Our politicians are great at selling you something that doesn't even exist.

"The promise of the public plan is a mirage. Its political brilliance is to use free-market rhetoric (more "choice" and "competition") to expand government power. But why would a plan tied to Medicare control health spending, when Medicare hasn't? From 1970 to 2007, Medicare spending per beneficiary rose 9.2 percent annually compared to the 10.4 percent of private insurers -- and the small difference partly reflects cost shifting. Congress periodically improves Medicare benefits, and there's a limit to how much squeezing reimbursement rates can check costs. Doctors and hospitals already complain that low payments limit services or discourage physicians from taking Medicare patients."

Sunday, October 25, 2009

I'll Say It Again..

Obama is a fascist. His administration is working hard towards the goal of a fascist state.

This is not hyperbole, this is not exaggeration. This is FACT.

First the definition:

fas·cism
(fāsh'ĭz'əm)
n.
often Fascism

A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.

O.K. take away that nationalism part but the rest is right in front of you.

Witness the outright war on critics. Not just the well publicized battle and attempt to marginalize Fox News, but anyone that dares to be critical of the administration comes under attack. Whether it be Joe the Plumber who's entire life was opened up to the world because he asked a question or the Chamber of Commerce who doesn't believe in Card Check or letting the EPA control the world.

These people/organizations have been lambasted by the administration. (how long before jake tapper is ruined by the way? hang in there jake!)

They're trying to take over the health care industry (1/6th of the economy currently?) they own the auto industry, they've taken over half of the banking industry, they're trying to push card check so that the unions (therefore the state) will control more industies. etc.

And now the FED is proposing to control the pay of ALL COMPANIES THAT THEY REGULATE! Not just the ones that took TARP money but all of them! What are those companies? BANKS! I know I already mentioned the EPA but does anyone realize that if the Obama gets his way on this the government will decide who will operate and how they run their business in EVERY INDUSTRY THAT USES ENERGY? Is there a business that doesn't use energy?

from hotair.com:

Putting aside defense firms — which exist on government funds — there are thousands and thousands of companies which get local, county, state or federal contracts. Does every executive of each of those companies fall under the same rule?
Should the Governor of Missouri decide how much the owner of the company which provides the janitorial services in the State House in Jefferson City can earn because he takes State money? Or, the executives of airlines on which government employees fly?



Good Question.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Net Neutrality

I actually agree with the premise of this one. I have not personally been affected by a blockage of web sites so I can't say for sure that these companies are even doing it. But if they are, I think it's bull shit. Just because I have Comcast as an internet PROVIDER, meaning gateway, they sure as hell better not block me from their competitors. I pay for the access, not the content. If we go down that path, the internet will be like cable TV with all kinds of packages to buy. I believe the internet should be entirely accessed through whatever provider you have. And this crap of limiting bandwith for certain sites like YouTube and such is bull shit too. The fact is, there's plenty of bandwith to go around. Keep the internet FREE.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Where Have I Seen This Before?

Volunteers wanted for simulated 520-day Mars mission

Starting in 2010, an international crew of six will simulate a 520-day round-trip to Mars, including a 30-day stay on the martian surface. In reality, they will live and work in a sealed facility in Moscow, Russia, to investigate the psychological and medical aspects of a long-duration . ESA is looking for European volunteers to take part.

LINK


Oh Yeah......Biodome!

Saturday, October 17, 2009

When I called you stupid....

A Tale of Two Soundbites Which one sounds “divisive” to you?
By Mark Steyn

Here is a tale of two soundbites.

First:“Slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back; I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.”

Second:“The third lesson and tip actually comes from two of my favorite political philosophers, Mao Tse-Tung and Mother Teresa. Not often coupled with each other, but the two people that I turn to most to basically deliver a simple point, which is: You’re going to make choices. . . . But here’s the deal: These are your choices; they are no one else’s. In 1947, when Mao Tse-Tung was being challenged within his own party on his own plan to basically take China over, Chiang Kai-Shek and the nationalist Chinese held the cities, they had the army. . . . They had everything on their side. And people said ‘How can you win . . . ? How can you do this against all of the odds against you?’ And Mao Tse-Tung says, ‘You fight your war and I’ll fight mine . . . ’ You don’t have to accept the definition of how to do things. . . . You fight your war, you let them fight theirs. Everybody has their own path.”

The first quotation was attributed to Rush Limbaugh. He never said it. There is no tape of him saying it. There is no transcript of him saying it. After all, if he had done so at any point in the last 20 years, someone would surely have mentioned it at the time.Yet CNN, MSNBC, ABC, other networks, and newspapers all around the country cheerfully repeated the pro-slavery quotation and attributed it, falsely, to Rush Limbaugh. And planting a flat-out lie in his mouth wound up getting Rush bounced from a consortium hoping to buy the St. Louis Rams. The NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, said the talkshow host was a “divisive” figure, and famously non-divisive figures like the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson expressed the hope that, with Mister Divisive out of the picture, the NFL could now “unify.”

The second quotation — hailing Mao — was uttered back in June to an audience of high-school students by Anita Dunn, the White House communications director. I know she uttered it because I watched the words issuing from her mouth on The Glenn Beck Show on Fox News. But don’t worry. Nobody else played it.So if I understand correctly:Rush Limbaugh is so “divisive” that to get him fired leftie agitators have to invent racist soundbites to put in his mouth.But the White House communications director is so un-divisive that she can be invited along to recommend Chairman Mao as a role model for America’s young.From my unscientific survey, U.S. school students are all but entirely unaware of Mao Tse-Tung, and the few that aren’t know him mainly as a T-shirt graphic or “agrarian reformer.” What else did he do? Here, from Jonathan Fenby’s book Modern China, is the great man in a nutshell:“Mao’s responsibility for the extinction of anywhere from 40 to 70 million lives brands him as a mass killer greater than Hitler or Stalin.”Hey, that’s pretty impressive when they can’t get your big final-score death toll nailed down to closer than 30 million.
Still, as President Obama’s communications director might say, he lived his dream, and so can you, although if your dream involves killing, oh, 50–80 million Chinamen, you may have your work cut out. But let’s stick with the Fenby figure: He killed 40–70 million Chinamen. Whoops, can you say “Chinamen” or is that racist? Oh, and sexist. So hard keeping up with the Sensitivity Police in this pansified political culture, isn’t it? But you can kill 40–70 million Chinamen and that’s fine and dandy: You’ll be cited as an inspiration by the White House to an audience of high-school students. You can be anything you want to be! Look at Mao: He wanted to be a mass murderer, and he lived his dream! You can too!The White House now says that Anita Dunn was “joking.” Anyone tempted to buy that spin should look at the tape: If this is her Friars Club routine, she needs to work on her delivery.
But, for the sake of argument, try a thought experiment:Midway through Bush’s second term, press secretary Tony Snow goes along to Chester A. Arthur High School to give a graduation speech. “I know it looks tough right now. You’re young, you’re full of zip, but the odds seem hopeless. Let me tell you about another young man facing tough choices 80 years ago. It’s last orders at the Munich beer garden — gee, your principal won’t thank me for mentioning that — and all the natural blonds are saying, ‘But Adolf, see reason. The Weimar Republic’s here to stay, and besides the international Jewry control everything.’ And young Adolf Hitler puts down his foaming stein and stands on the table and sings a medley of ‘I Gotta Be Me,’ ‘(Learning to Love Yourself Is) The Greatest Love of All,’ and ‘The Sun’ll Come Out Tomorrow.’” And by the end of that night there wasn’t a Jewish greengrocer’s anywhere in town with glass in its windows. Don’t play by the other side’s rules; make your own kind of music. And always remember: You’ve gotta have a dream, if you don’t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?”

Anyone think he’d still have a job?Well, so what? All those dead Chinese are no-name peasants a long way away. What’s the big deal? If you say, “Chairman Mao? Wasn’t he the wacko who offed 70 million Chinks?”, you’ll be hounded from public life for saying the word “Chinks.” But, if you commend the murderer of those 70 million as a role model in almost any school room in the country from kindergarten to the Ivy League, it’s so entirely routine that only a crazy like Glenn Beck would be boorish enough to point it out.Which is odd, don’t you think? Because it suggests that our present age of politically correct hypersensitivity is not just morally unserious but profoundly decadent.

Twenty years ago this fall, the Iron Curtain was coming down in Europe. Across the Warsaw Pact, the jailers of the Communist prison states lost their nerve, and the cell walls crumbled. Matt Welch, the editor of Reason, wonders why the anniversary is going all but unobserved: Why aren’t we making more of the biggest mass liberation in history?Well, because to celebrate it would involve recognizing it as a victory over Communism. And, after the Left’s long march through the institutions of the West, most are not willing to do that. There’s the bad totalitarianism (Nazism) and the good totalitarianism (Communism), whose apologists and, indeed, fetishists can still be found everywhere, even unto the White House.Rush Limbaugh’s remarks are “divisive”; Anita Dunn’s are entirely normal. But don’t worry, the new Fairness Doctrine will take care of the problem.

Mark Steyn, a National Review columnist, is author of America Alone. © 2009 Mark Steyn

Friday, October 16, 2009

Baseball Bet

Yankee's vs Angels just started.. I'm in NY ....Gary's in LA

Want to make a wager?

I'm thinking the Bronx Bombers win and Gary has to read the book of my choice and give me a book report (just a comment really) and if the Angels win I'll read the book of Gary's choice and give a report.

(reasonable # of pages of course)

You in Gary?

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

I've Seen This Before...

This new negotiating technique of the Obama adminstration. Hillary went to Moscow to convince the Russians to join us in imposing sanctions on the Iranians. She didn't convince them but she agreed to give them what they want. I can't recall where I saw it but it goes something like this...

1 for you

1 for me

2 for you

1,2 for me...

Monday, October 12, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Why Not Make It Simpler?

If the bills written in congress are so difficult to read that the elected members aren't capable of understanding them then why not make them simpler? I realize this will never happen of course and I realize that they are written this way intentionally in order to hide things. I also realize that the people who do understand them and write them are doing so at the behest of the "authors" who's names will be on the bill.

Unfortunately this is the way of Washington and it will not change any time soon, but I think it should.

Like those examples, the legislation is peppered with cross references to other laws or statutes that are never explained, defying understanding by anyone without a law degree or years of legislative experience. Most lawmakers have never read the bills; that's what staff members are for.

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Monday, October 05, 2009

Asked and Answered

I wondered here at The Aurora .....The President has gotten it's nose in everything from the arrest of that Harvard professor, to the Governors race in NY to most recently the beating deaths in Chicago. But for some reason he and his people had nothing to say about multiple arrests in multiple cities of terrorists who were plotting attacks. There was 1 guy who thought he actually succeeded and would detonate a bomb outside a federal building by dialing a phone number.....HE DIALED THE NUMBER!

Clearly these were serious men with serious intentions and thanks to the FBI, Homeland Security, and the NYPD and other local law enforcement they were stopped. So why didn't the president commment on it?????? And why hasn't it been front page news in every newspaper and barely mentioned at all on MSNBC?


Homeland Security: Provisions of the law that spared New York another 9/11 are set to expire Dec. 31. So why do Democrats want to gut this law and remove the immunity telecom companies have for helping protect America? IBD

When Right Is Wrong

While The Aurora agrees with General McCrystal's assessment of Afganistan, and that President Obama's pussy-footing on the matter is costing lives. McCrystal is out of order, and should be fired. Right or wrong, like him or not, Obama is the Commander in Chief. Period.

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Much Like Global Warming, The Debate About Evolution Is OVER

Oops, maybe NOT

Ill save you the effort of reading the article. EVERYTHING, evolution proponents have been saying since Darwin has been WRONG.

Friday, October 02, 2009

What a Joke

About a million bucks and who knows how much Co2 spewed out in travel, Chicago comes in dead last. All I can say is at least Obama can get back to things that matter.